*This article first appeared on The Huffington Post, Health Living Section. Used with permission, 2015.
Having performed research for a number of years on the healing effects of both Western medicine and complementary therapies such as Tai Chi and meditation, I’m intrigued by the question of which factors actually contribute to improvements in health.
Do Western and complementary therapeutic modalities share any common healing factors? In our society we generally assume that Western therapies heal and complementary therapies, like meditation or acupuncture, do not. If some improvement comes after a complementary therapy, I’ve heard people say, “It’s just the placebo effect.” But what exactly is the placebo effect? And what is its relationship to all forms of healing, not only complementary therapies but Western medicine as well?