Issue 1 2010: January
SUGAR PILLS, THEY MAY HELP OR HURT (PLACEBO VS NOCEBO EFFECT)
We are all familiar with the placebo effect, wherein "sugar pills" sometimes result in at least temporary relief of symptoms. Placebo is Latin for "I will please", and scientists are coming to understand the placebo response as a cascade of neural reactions that not only provide psychological relief but also play a physiological role in blocking stress hormones that damage the body. But the placebo has a flip side, and is known as the nocebo ("I will harm") response, when patients experience negative side effects from drugs merely because they expect to.
In a new paper in the journal PAIN, researchers found that clinical trial participants reported a wide variety of nocebo complaints, including burning sensations, vomiting and respiratory symptoms, even though they were part of the control group, taking a sugar pill. Other studies have reported that when doctors tell patients a procedure will be painful, those patients report more pain than patients not similarly warned. Exactly why placebo and nocebo responses arise is still a puzzle. Scientists hope to figure out how to harness the real health benefits of the placebo, while somehow undermining the same expectation process that can lead to nocebo problems. Your mind can help heal your body, but it can hurt it too. ..... Time, the journal Pain
HEADS OR TAILS
A recent Stanford study found that coin flips favor whichever side of the coin was facing up when the flip is initiated, landing on that side as much as 60% of the time. "The way we flip coins creates a bias, and that makes it stay more time in the position it starts in," says researcher Susan Holmes. ..... The Week
YOU THINK OUR ECONOMY IS BAD
Iceland's economy is now so bad, it can't even support a McDonald's. The owner of the country's three McDonald's restaurants recently said he was closing them all because the collapse of Iceland's currency, the krona, had driven up the cost of importing beef and cheese. Jon Ogmundsson said that to stay in business, he would have to charge about $7 for a Big Mac, a price customers "are not willing to pay." Iceland nearly went bankrupt in 2008, and the krona lost 50 percent of its value against the euro. ..... The Week
COLLEGE TUITION
Despite the economic downturn, college keeps getting more expensive. Tuition and fees for the current school year at a private, four-year college averages $26,273, a 4.4 percent increase from a year earlier. In-state tuition and fees at public, four-year schools rose 6.5%, to $7,020. ..... Time
CPR AND YOUR PET
Most pet owners would give their pet mouth-to-snout resuscitation in the event of a medical emergency. 63% of dog owners and 53% of cat owners say they would likely perform CPR on their injured pet if its life were in danger. ..... Associated Press
CAVEMAN (WOMAN) ART
Archaeologists have studied "caveman" art for decades. But a new study suggests that at least some of it was made by cave-women, and even cave-kids. Researchers measured a series of finger-drawn lines, or flutings, made in the Rouffignac Cave in southwest France some 13,000 years ago. They then calculated the relative lengths of the ring, middle and index fingers responsible for each drawing. Men generally have longer ring than index fingers: in women the ratio is equal or reversed. Based on the "digit ratio," researchers concluded that most of the artists in the cave were female. Some of the flutings were small enough that they were probably made by young children. The study is among the first to identify individual cave artists, "and, as such, they really come to life," researcher Leslie Van Gelder tells Discovery News. ..... The Week
EDGAR ALLEN POE
A mysterious fan who left roses and cognac on the writer's grave site in Baltimore on Poe's birthday every year failed to show up last week, breaking a 60-year tradition. ..... The Week
NATIONAL SECURITY
By a margin of 63% to 25%, American voters say the government's anti-terror policies lean too far toward protecting civil liberties rather than national security. ..... Quinnipiac University poll
JIM'S STETHASCOOP
"To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness."
..... Bertrand Russell, quoted in The Denver Post
MILT'S MORSEL OF THE MONTH
"Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells."
..... Jean Paul Getty, American Business Executive
