[originaltext] Western doctors are beginning to understand what traditional

Western doctors are beginning to understand what traditional healers have always known, that the body and the mind are inseparable. Until recently, modern urban physicians healed the body, psychiatrists the mind, and priests the soul. However, the medical world is now paying more attention to holistic medicine, which is an approach based on a belief that people’s state of mind can make them sick or speed the recovery from sickness.
    Several studies show that the effectiveness of a certain drug often depends on the patients expectations of it. For example, in one recent study, psychiatrists at a major hospital tried to see how patients could be made calm. They divided them into two groups: one group was given a drug while the other group received a harmless substance instead of medicine without their knowledge. Surprisingly, more patients in the second group showed the desired effect than those in the first group.
    In study after study, there is a positive reaction in almost one third of the patients taking harmless substances. How is this possible? How can such a substance have an effect on the body? Evidence from a 1997 study at the University of California shows that several patients who receive such substances were able to produce their own natural drug, that is, as they took the substance, their brains released natural chemicals that act like a drug. Scientists theorize that the amount of these chemicals released by a person’s brain quite possibly indicates how much faith the person has in his or her doctor.