Placebo Effects

Sponsors: Eight Sleep, AeroPress & Levels

Placebo, Nocebo vs. Belief Effect, Prefrontal Cortex

Dopamine, Placebo & Parkinson’s Disease; Placebo Controls

Hormone Release & Placebo Effect, Paired Associations

Conditioning Effect & Insulin; Pavlovian Response

Sponsor: AG1

Context & Expectations; Placebo Effect & Brain

Cancer, Mind-Body Practices; Placebo Effects & Limits

Asthma, Specificity & Placebo Effects

Sponsor: InsideTracker

Nicotine & Dose-Dependent Placebo Effects

Placebo Effects vs. Belief Effects, Food & Mindset

Exercise & Belief Effects

Placebo Effect, Brain & Stress Response

Individual Variation, Genetics & Placebo Effect

Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Reviews, YouTube Feedback, Sponsors, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter

- Placebo effects, nocebo effects, and belief effects are discussed in the Huberman Lab Podcast, showing how the brain influences outcomes independently of physical properties.
- These effects can impact biological functions like heart rate, blood pressure, and neuromodulator release.
- Researchers suggest utilizing these effects as unique treatments for diseases.
- The podcast aims to provide free science-related information to the public and is separate from the speaker's roles at Stanford.
- Sponsors mentioned include Eight Sleep, AeroPress, and Levels, offering products related to sleep, coffee making, and health monitoring.
- Placebo effects involve inert substances improving symptoms, while belief effects change outcomes based on expectations.
- The prefrontal cortex plays a key role in placebo, nocebo, and belief effects by activating or suppressing neural circuits.
- The podcast discusses specific examples of placebo effects, including how they can impact dopamine release in Parkinson's patients and hormone levels through conditioning.

- The Huberman Lab Podcast discusses placebo effects, nocebo effects, and belief effects, which are all related to the brain's ability to influence outcomes independently of physical properties.
- These effects can impact biological functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, and the release of neuromodulators like dopamine and adrenaline.
- Placebo, nocebo, and belief effects are not just psychological but can actually change the body's physiology.
- Some researchers believe that these effects should be utilized as unique treatments for various diseases.
- Listeners will gain an understanding of the biological basis of these effects and how they can be used to improve mental health, physical health, and performance.

- The podcast is separate from the speaker's roles at Stanford and aims to provide free science-related information to the public.
- The first sponsor mentioned is Eight Sleep, which offers smart mattress covers with cooling, heating, and sleep tracking features.
- Another sponsor is AeroPress, a coffee maker that the speaker highly recommends for making the best-tasting coffee.
- Levels is also mentioned as a program that uses a continuous glucose monitor to provide real-time feedback on how different foods and activities affect health.
- Listeners can visit eightsleep.com/huberman, aeropress.com/huberman, and levels.link/huberman for discounts and more information on the products mentioned.

- InsideTracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from blood and DNA to help individuals understand their bodies and reach health goals.
- Regular blood work is important for understanding factors that impact immediate and long-term health.
- InsideTracker provides specific directives related to nutrition, behavioral modification, and supplements based on individual test results.
- InsideTracker offers a personalized platform to view levels of metabolic factors, lipids, hormones, etc., and provides actionable steps to optimize these levels.
- By visiting InsideTracker.com/huberman, individuals can get 20% off any of InsideTracker's plans.

- A study titled "Nicotine-Related Beliefs Induce Dose-Dependent Responses in the Human Brain" explored how beliefs about nicotine intake affected cognitive performance.
- Participants were told they were vaping different concentrations of nicotine, but all received the same amount. Those who believed they had higher concentrations performed better on cognitive tasks.
- Brain imaging showed increased activity in the brain region associated with nicotine response and cognitive function based on participants' beliefs about nicotine concentration.
- The study demonstrated that placebo effects are real and scale with the level of expectation one has regarding the effects of a substance.
- The findings suggest that expectations about the dose of a substance can influence physiological responses and cognitive performance, highlighting the impact of belief systems on outcomes.

- The speaker discusses the distinction between placebo effects and belief effects, highlighting that belief effects involve acquiring specific information about expectations.
- Belief effects, which include prior knowledge and more detailed information, can lead to nuanced and surprising outcomes in drug or behavioral treatments.
- Dr. Aliyah Crum, a colleague at Stanford, is mentioned for her research on mindsets and belief effects, with a notable study titled "Mind Over Milkshakes" that showed how mindset influenced the ghrelin response to a milkshake.
- In the study, participants who believed they consumed a high-calorie indulgent shake experienced steeper reductions in ghrelin levels compared to those who believed they consumed a lower-calorie sensible shake.
- The study demonstrates how specific knowledge and beliefs about food can influence hormonal responses, showing the interaction between primitive brain wiring and more sophisticated cognitive processes in shaping physiological outcomes.

- Dr. Crum conducted a study on belief effects and mindsets impacting outcomes in exercise physiology.
- The study involved hotel service workers who were divided into two groups: one group was told their daily activities were exercise, while the other group was not given this information.
- The group that believed their daily activities were exercise experienced improvements in health metrics like blood pressure and body weight.
- This study suggests that mindset and beliefs can influence the effects of exercise on health metrics.
- Dr. Crum's advisor initially suggested that some effects of exercise could be attributed to mindsets or beliefs, which was supported by the study's findings.

- Expectations, beliefs, and mindsets can impact physiology, such as hormone release and pain levels during treatment.
- The prefrontal cortex plays a critical role in setting expectations and predictions based on context.
- While the prefrontal cortex cannot directly control muscle growth, it can influence basic bodily functions like stress response through pathways to the hypothalamus.
- A study in rats identified specific pathways from the prefrontal cortex to the hypothalamus that regulate stress responses.
- Understanding the neural circuitries from the prefrontal cortex to deeper brain regions like the hypothalamus and brainstem helps explain how thoughts and beliefs can influence physiological responses.

- The placebo effect has a clear biological substrate involving anatomical pathways, hormonal pathways, and neurotransmitters.
- Studies have shown that the placebo effect can vary significantly between individuals, with approximately 30% showing a robust effect and 70% showing a less robust effect.
- Certain genes, such as the COMT gene, have been identified to correlate with the magnitude of the placebo effect in individuals.
- The COMT gene encodes for an enzyme involved in regulating dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine, which are neurotransmitters with various functions in the brain and body.
- The placebo effect is not just a result of thoughts tricking us, but rather a real biological effect influenced by genes and biological pathways in the brain and body.

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- Check out the sponsors mentioned in the episode to support the podcast.
- Supplements are discussed on previous episodes for improving sleep, hormone support, and focus.
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- Placebo effects involve inert substances or treatments that improve symptoms or performance, while nocebo effects worsen symptoms or performance.
- Belief effects occur when specific knowledge changes expectations about outcomes related to stress, food consumption, drug intake, or behavioral protocols.
- Placebo, nocebo, and belief effects all work by changing expectations, which involves the prefrontal cortex in the brain.
- The prefrontal cortex controls other brain structures by activating or suppressing neural circuits, and it is involved in making predictions and evaluating contexts.
- The prefrontal cortex communicates with brain areas controlling physiological functions, and placebo, nocebo, and belief effects influence these functions based on learned information and expectations.

- The transcript discusses specific examples of placebo effects from research literature, focusing on how placebos can impact dopamine release in the brain, particularly in Parkinson's patients.
- Parkinson's patients are often given drugs like L-DOPA to increase dopamine levels in the brain, but studies have shown that even placebo drugs can lead to increased dopamine release in the brain, improving symptoms.
- The placebo effect is based on the expectation of what a drug will do, and the strength of this expectation can vary among individuals.
- Placebo controls are used in clinical trials to differentiate between the biological effects of a drug and the placebo effect based on expectations.
- The specificity of placebo effects raises questions about the impact of beliefs and knowledge on the outcomes of drug or supplement treatments.

- A study was conducted where subjects were informed about growth hormone and cortisol, and their levels were measured before and after receiving an injection of sumatriptan, which increased growth hormone and decreased cortisol levels.
- On a separate day, subjects were injected with saline, which led to an increase in growth hormone and a decrease in cortisol, despite saline having no specific biological effect.
- The study revealed that the act of receiving an injection, rather than the substance injected, led to the changes in hormone levels, showing a strong placebo effect.
- The brain and body formed an association between receiving an injection and changes in hormone levels, leading to consistent results even with different substances being injected.
- The study highlights how the brain's predictions and simplifications can influence physiological responses, demonstrating the power of beliefs and expectations on hormone release.

- The transcript describes an extreme example of a conditioned insulin response through classical conditioning.
- It explains how certain stimuli, like the smell of food or a bell ringing, can lead to an increase in insulin levels due to past associations with food consumption.
- The conditioning effect can be highly modifiable, with experiments showing that stimuli unrelated to food can still evoke insulin responses.
- The placebo effect is highlighted as being strongly modifiable according to context, with the prefrontal cortex playing a key role in anticipation.
- The example of classical conditioning a la Pavlov with dogs salivating in response to a bell ringing before food consumption is mentioned as a comparison to the human experience.

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- Placebo effects are influenced by factors such as the expectation of treatment quality and the packaging of the placebo.
- The color of a pill can impact the placebo effect, with blue being associated with sleep, red with stimulation, and yellow with antidepressant effects.
- More invasive placebo interventions, such as capsules or injections, tend to have a greater placebo effect.
- The complexity and invasiveness of a treatment or machine can influence the magnitude of the placebo effect.
- Placebo effects are real and involve the activation of neural circuits in the prefrontal cortex, leading to biological changes in the body based on expectations.

- The placebo effect can help reduce negative symptoms of cancer treatment such as pain and nausea, but it cannot reduce the size or eliminate tumors.
- Expectation effects of placebos are driven by the prefrontal cortex but are limited in their ability to directly impact tumors or biological systems.
- Practices like meditation, social support, and stress reduction can improve cancer treatment outcomes through real effects, not just placebos.
- Real effects in cancer treatment include drugs, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy that are known to reduce tumor size.
- Placebo effects are based on knowledge and belief about a treatment's effectiveness, but they do not directly affect tumor size or elimination.

- Dr. Ted Kaptchuk's lab at Harvard Medical School has conducted significant research on placebo effects.
- The lab has explored placebo effects as a specific treatment method, not just in contrast to drug effects.
- A study on asthma patients showed that placebo treatment reduced discomfort in breathing but did not change breathing patterns.
- Placebo effects can be powerful but are specific and do not eliminate conditions like asthma completely.
- Beliefs and expectations can influence outcomes through the placebo effect, but they are not all-powerful.

How Placebo Effects Work to Change Our Biology & Psychology