Placebo, Exercise and Funerals

Well this is good news.  The mere belief that you're getting a workout affects physiology as much as an actual workout does.

Sharon Begley reports in the Wall St Journal about Ellen Langer's findings. Why Thinking You Got a Workout May Make Your Body Healthier
"If you can put the mind in a healthy place, you can have dramatic physiological consequences," says Prof. Langer, whose study will appear in the February issue of Psychological Science.

It's an Aerobic Placebo .

Who knew that the word placebo - I shall please - comes from the rite of Vespers for the Office of the Dead or that it's now obsolete meaning referred to someone who came to the funeral claiming a connection with the deceased to get a share of any food or drink handed out at the funeral?  In France, placebo singers were archetypical simulators.

Wikipedia goes on to explore placebo in Chaucer , a Yes man character and its meaning a sycophant.

Today we know that many who get a placebo - a substance containing no drug and completely useless - often get better, a phenomenon known as the placebo effect. 

The FDA published an article on The Healing Power of Placebos

"Expectation is a powerful thing," says Robert DeLap, M.D., head of one of the Food and Drug Administration's Offices of Drug Evaluation. "The more you believe you're going to benefit from a treatment, the more likely it is that you will experience a benefit."