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Comment by marincounty | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if I will be alive if they ever figure out how the Placebo Effect works? With discoveries like this--maybe? I always used the Placebo Effect as the existence of a God. I will probally be proved wrong by science, if God decides to give me a few years? (Yes, I have faith. I am probably delusional? It helps me get through the day. I don't want to offend atheists? So, please don't hammer me.)

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There's no particular reason to believe that the placebo effect is nonphysical other than the fact that we don't know exactly how it works. Lots of things fall into that category.

You can ascribe God to dark matter and placebo effects, but you just have a God of the Gaps.

The placebo effect is not that mysterious, and doesn't need religion to make sense. Opioids and neurotransmitters such as dopamine play a large part. The neurological and psychosomatic mechanisms have not been all figured out, but the solutions are not found in superstition.

If you really cared about the placebo effect, you would be reading papers on it and its mechanism. The placebo effect is not that mysterious: many instances can be traced to specifics like confirmation bias, genetics (particularly COMT variants), regression to the mean, etc.

I think I see what you mean and was looking for question like this, which is:

Does it mean that brain can control your immune system?

I don't think so. It looks like immune system protects your brain though. Also I am not medical scientist and it would be nice to hear others opinions.

There have been studies on whether being happy makes you healthier, and yes there is a correlation between it:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/magazine/happiness-stress-h...

Whether that's due to this, or just the fact that the brain controls the release of stress hormones into the bloodstream is a different question.

I think what you also find is that people who keep healthy lifestyle are happier. I think the correlation and causation is flipped on this one.

I'm not offended, just confused about what you are trying to say.

I actually think it's interesting to consider how this could relate to the placebo effect. Linkage between brain and immune system.

I wonder what it would say about the under development placebo effect blocker if placebos were evidence of god.

How come having faith makes one 'probably delusional? How is having faith offending atheists?

I find your comment offending.

I am not a believer, but until science comes up with a better explanation of where the universe came from, I am not going to bash anyone else's religion. (The creationist part is pretty suspect to me though).

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