BOOK EXCERPT | 63
wait until you hear this: Bruce Moseley, an orthopedic surgeon, was skeptical about the benefits of “arthroscopic surgery.” So he tested it. He conducted a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial, the gold standard in scientific research. In the study, some of his patients would receive the full and complete knee surgery. Others would get a sham surgery, meaning they’d go through all the motions of real surgery (getting wheeled into the operating room, seeing the doctors in white coats, being put under anesthesia, et cetera) but only receive a few shallow cuts to their knees and be sent home with a healing protocol and painkillers. One-third of the patients who received the real surgery experienced pain relief. But what stunned researchers was that one-third of patients who underwent the sham surgery had the same results. At one point during the study, those having the sham surgery enjoyed better results than those who got the real deal! Here’s another example. In 1962, the Kyushu Journal of Medical Science included a stunning report about an experiment focused on 13 boys who were hypersensitive to the leaves of Japanese lacquer trees, which has poison-ivy-like effects. With their eyes closed, the 13 boys were told that they were being touched on one arm with the poiDECEMBER 2019
sonous Japanese lacquer leaves. Unsurprisingly, all 13 boys had a dramatic skin reaction on their arms, including redness, itching, swelling, and blisters. The catch? Their arms were actually touched by the leaves of a harmless, nonpoisonous plant. Then the researchers reversed the procedure. With their eyes still
closed, the 13 boys were told that they were being touched on their other arm by the leaves of a harmless plant. But in reality, those arms were now being touched by the poison-ivy-like leaves of the lacquer tree. This time, 11 of the 13 boys showed no allergic skin reac-