Western doctors in clinical practice have historically viewed the placebo effect as a problem. The belief has been that if patients respond favorably to a placebo - a sugar pill or other form of treatment that has no direct physiological effect - they are being tricked into better health. However, Chinese medicine and other traditional healing systems seem to understand that a multitude of subtle factors such as context, relationship, and belief influence the healing process, and that sometimes it is the hand that administers the medicine as much as the chemistry of the medicine itself that is the cure. Today, with new developments in brain scan technology and carefully crafted randomized trials, “West is beginning to meet East” as medical doctors and researchers have begun to reevaluate the power of the placebo in the clinical setting.
Kathryn Rensenbrink has practiced primary care internal medicine in Ellsworth at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital since 1996. She grew up in Topsham, Maine and earned her BA from Brown University and MD from University of California San Francisco before completing her residency at Maine Medical Center in Portland. She cares for a wide range of adult patients with a particular interest in geriatrics and osteoporosis.
Lorie Dechar has practiced traditional Chinese medicine since 1985. She is the author of Five Spirits: Alchemical Acupuncture for Psychological and Spiritual Healing and is on the faculty of the Tri-State College of Acupuncture in NYC. Lorie has a private practice in East Blue Hill. She received her BA from Bennington College and her Master’s of Acupuncture from the Traditional Acupuncture Institute in Maryland.
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