Dr. Ellen Langer

So control itself is important to your health.

Interesting.

When you're in control, you're looking for ways to be better.

To improve, yeah.

Right.

So we use the stress.

So you're stressed all the time.

I call you... How's it going?

Then all of a sudden you realize, you know, when you're talking to Ellen Langer, then you're maximally stressed.

So then it's easy, right?

Don't talk to me as a way of improving.

All right.

So three things happen when you do this attention to variability, which is a fancy way of saying being mindful, noticing change.

The first is that you see, hey, it's not that you're maximally awful all the time.

Second, by asking why you're being mindful, that's good for your health.

And third, that you're more likely to find a solution if you're looking for one.

Now, we've done this with Parkinson's, stroke, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, chronic pain, a host of real disorders.

And in each case, we get very positive results.

And so now we're looking at how this might actually explain the placebo.

And the way is that you take a pill, now you're expecting yourself to get better.