1.5.2. The More the Better… Mentality

Summary: The text discusses common misconceptions about modern medicine, particularly the belief that effective treatments must be expensive, complex, and potentially harmful. It uses the placebo effect as an example of how perception influences treatment outcomes. The text also addresses the misconception that higher power in therapeutic devices automatically equates to greater effectiveness, specifically in the context of coMra therapy.

So life is a gentle natural process of evolution. This is a fundamental principle of life. And now look from a different angle, think about, let's say, modern medicine. What comes to your mind when you think about something very effective kind of medicine of today? And this is a very common misconception that effective medicine inevitably must be very expensive, very complex and inevitably harmful. So one way to look at it, this misconception of how a medical technology should look like is the study of the placebo effect. The placebo effect is some sort of physiological change in the body based on the perception and beliefs of the person. So they would give somebody a white pill and tell the person, this is some kind of medicine. And the person will take the pill and something will happen with him because he believes it's very effective. But what's very interesting is that they found out that red pill has more placebo effect than the white pill. And then they did a study. There was one placebo that was more expensive than a cheaper placebo, both made of sugar, obviously. And the more expensive one was more effective on people. They believe if it is more expensive, it must work better. If the drug -- placebo drug comes in injection, it is even more effective. And finally, if it is a sham surgical procedure, it will be even more effective. So these different perceptions of placebo is a very good illustration of this misperception that the medicine must be hurtful, must be expensive, and it must be very difficult to understand. So when I look at this picture, this is what may come to mind as a modern and highly effective medicine. So when it comes to a therapeutic device, often you will find online they say that our laser has 10 watts or 5 watts or the intensity of the device is even higher or it's a super pulse. So it's almost automatically assumed that the more the power the device packs, it automatically means there is more benefit to it. In other words, If the therapy doesn't make me vomit, it doesn't make me dizzy, sweaty or something, how can it be effective? So this is one of the most common misconceptions about people who are kind of using coMra therapy for the first time. They put a laser on themselves and they feel nothing. They say, well, I feel nothing. I don't see like burning, you know, laser burning a hole in my skin or something like this.