5 ms·

My bullshit detectors are leaping off the charts. There are so many completely uncontrolled experiments described there, and the article just jumps to the conc

• vorotato 11y ago
  People get their kick from caffeine the moment they start their drink even though it obviously takes much longer for caffeine to actually work. There's a little something there, but I don't know how MUCH of something.
  • Jtsummers 11y ago
    You'd have to see how persistent it is. There have probably been studies, but give people decaf when they expect caffeine and compare against a control who expects and receives caffeine (ok, perhaps not in coffee, but a pill for measured and consistent dosage). Then you'll know how much of something it is.
  • 2muchcoffeeman 11y ago
    I experimented with decaf beans once. Normally I need my normal coffee, or I get a headache. I knowingly substituted decaf and went a few days with no headache. Good decaf is hard to come by though.
  • HillaryBriss 11y ago
    I'm definitely not trying to be argumentative. But it's interesting to look at what seems like an opposing viewpoint on this. Here's a psychologist who said that the body reacts by developing an _increased tolerance_ to drugs like caffeine and heroin, based on the time of day and situation in which those drugs are taken: http://blog.sethroberts.net/2014/02/04/philip-seymour-hoffmans-death-from-heroin-why/ http://blog.sethroberts.net/2014/02/04/philip-seymour-hoffma... Again, I don't doubt what you're saying about the effects of caffeine on you. Not at all. I bring this up because it's an interesting counterpoint and I don't know how to resolve it. I don't know how to think about this. The original article focuses on specific immune suppressing drugs. Maybe the body behaves differently in the face of drugs like caffeine or heroin? Maybe the body reacts in one direction sometimes and the other at other times for some reason (?)
• lukev 11y ago
  I agree it's not rigorous, but it's not necessarily bullshit. We know the placebo effect is quite strong (stronger than we can fully account for, in fact.) Postulating that it is possible to engage the placebo effect voluntarily is an interesting claim, but given that the placebo effect does exist it is not, on the face of it, impossible. I'm definitely interested in more rigorous research in this area.
  • daveguy 11y ago
    I do think there is a lot of BS going on here (unsubstantiated medical claims). However, being able to engage a "full strength" placebo effect when the patient knows that it is just a placebo effect would be quite helpful. The experiment design to prove whether or not that is happening would have to be quite clever (multiple categories of placebo-unknown vs placebo-known vs meds). A few anecdotes about people being saved by magic juice definitely doesn't prove it. We know things like big bright pills are better at inducing placebo and placebo is stronger when the patient believes it will work. If we could consistently trigger a full and strong placebo effect without any medicine then it would be a useful and helpful first line of treatment for non-critical issues. Interesting indeed.
  • jobu 11y ago
    Has anyone reproduced (or tried to reproduce) the rat studies by Robert Ader or Manfred Schedlowski?
    • saulrh 11y ago
      This is the only reasonable question to ask regarding the veracity of the result. Tripling/halving the post-injection/implantation/course lifespan of a sample of thirty-ish rats is nowhere near bullshit, so the next question is whether we've replicated that result.