A placebo is something like water that shouldn’t necessarily create a healing effect but does, presumably because of the beliefs of the patient. The term is used derogatorily by modern physicians and scientists when they suggest that the positive effects a person is having from a healing regimen is “nothing more than the placebo effect.” And well they should because if you’re going to charge people hundreds or thousands of dollars for pharmaceutical drugs or treatments that can have significant negative side effects you better prove that choice is worth it! That’s what we wish the FDA was doing a better job regulating. Did you know that almost one third of new drugs approved wind up years later with warnings about negative, sometimes life-threatening, side effects? And, according to FDA statistics, there have been more than 14,000 drug recalls in the past 10 years? (Thankfully, most of those are for products that don’t cause a serious health risk.)
But back to the placebo effect. In pharmaceutical drug testing it is extremely important to prove that drugs are more effective than placebos. But what about herbal products that are essentially foods used for health benefits? The FDA actually can’t test every substance on the planet—they don’t have the time or staffing! So, unless evidence comes to light that an herb is causing harm to people, they don’t jump in. The FTC, however, doesn’t want people to make health claims for those products unless it can be proven by the use of modern double-blind testing in experiments that are almost always based on allopathic drug protocols. One size fits all (or at least most).
But that’s not the healing model behind the approach used by many herbalists and certainly not the approach that is appropriate for homeopathic or flower essence products. The herbs used in Traditional Chinese Medicine or Ayurveda, for example, are not meant to be one size fits all because it is recognized that people have different constitutions. Different herbs are used for different people for the same problem. The same is true in homeopathy and flower essence work where the person’s emotional state or mental patterns are used to choose appropriately. When mind/body/spirit interactions are included, the allopathic drug-testing model does not work because mind/body/spirit interactions are specifically what pharmaceutical testing is intended to rule out!
Am I saying that Flower Essences are a Placebo?
No. A placebo works because the person taking them believes it is working or will work. And yet flower essences work with pets and very small children who don’t know what the flower essences are for, if they even know they are being given flower essences at all. So no, I do not believe flower essences can be written off as a placebo!
That said, it should be noted that many flower essence practitioners say that flower essences actually work better for children and pets than they do with adults because children and pets don’t have belief systems getting in the way of them working! That’s because the placebo effect can be positive or negative. (Negative effects are sometimes called the nocebo effect.)
Placebo and Nocebo Effects in Practice
While the word placebo is usually used in a negative context, it’s actually the most remarkable phenomenon. According to a study cited by Web MD, when people were given a placebo pill and were told it was a stimulant, they showed symptoms of having used a stimulant: a faster pulse rate, increased blood pressure, and improved reaction speeds. When people were told the pill would help them sleep, they experienced the opposite effects. This effect (perhaps in other studies—Web Med is not clear about this) might be amplified or decreased depending on what the practitioner giving the placebo says or how they say it and how much the patient believes what is being said. There can also be increased negative effects if a patient fears there will be side effects. Patients on placebos have reported nausea, fatigue, headaches, and rashes—especially if they were warned of such possible side effects in advance. Sometimes people on placebos drop out of drug trials because their side effects are so serious. There even have been reports of deaths!
That is why I tell people to stop using flower essence products if they have serious unwanted side effects. People almost never report any side effects at all. When they do, it is always either because of an inner conflict related to not wanting to feel the feelings underneath ones they may have been using as a defense mechanism or because of fears around taking a particular flower essence at all. Flower essence are such a dilute product that there is so little plant material left that it can barely be detected. There is no physical reason for these side effects. But the mind is POWERFUL. Don’t scare yourself to death! Take a break, work on your feelings with a therapist or choose a different approach.
Could the Placebo Effect Be a Factor in Why Flower Essences Work?
This is a complicated topic with a complicated answer.
On the one hand, yes, of course! It can be a factor with every substance (drug, food, drink) you use for beneficial purposes. In fact, research shows that, typically, up to half of a pharmaceutical drug’s effectiveness comes from patients thinking it will work and that this placebo effect has been growing in recent years in the United States because of direct-to-consumer drug advertising on television and social media (something not allowed in other countries). Flower essences are not drugs but, certainly, they have been getting a lot more attention in recent years and most people have positive things to say. (What have I been doing on this blog for almost 18 years?)
On the other hand, one of the companies I use to source my ingredients, Flower Essence Services, blind-tests their flower essences by offering research essences for people to try without saying what the flower essences might be used for. They collect case studies and if they see a pattern of similar responses from enough people only then do they put the products out on the market. I have participated in these studies because I sometimes feel drawn to one (or I like its name) and I want to know how it will affect me. A few of the ones I have chosen have been remarkably helpful to me, others not so much (although there were some subtle effects). The fact that some worked well and others didn’t when I didn’t know what any of them were for impressed on me that they were not necessarily a placebo. And sometimes, a flower essence I do know something about shocks me with the strength of its effect when I didn’t expect it! That’s not a placebo.
But, let’s be clear, we ARE talking about a substance that we believe facilitates a mind/body/spirit interaction. And when a placebo works, testing shows that neurochemicals are produced by a person’s body to create those effects. I do not think flower essences are placebos but they certainly could work with the same mechanism, especially when a person has positive expectations about them. That doesn’t mean the effects aren’t real—it means that in terms of bringing your own healing powers to the fore (what they are supposed to do), being a substance that is not a placebo that works with the placebo effect (your own healing powers) could be very effective.
And that’s really fascinating, don’t you think?
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Flower essences are used to assist with mind-body-spirit interactions and individual results may vary. They are extremely dilute which makes them quite safe. But because so little physical substance can be detected in a flower essence solution, these products are presumed to work on an energetic or vibrational level—something that cannot be adequately tested by western scientific methods. Claims made by me, therefore, are based on personal experiences and the evidence of the combined multiple decades of case notes by Dr. Edward Bach as well as Healing Herbs and Flower Essence Services (the companies who make the ingredients I use in my products). This is not, however, accepted medical evidence or substantiated scientific evidence from a modern allopathic point of view. I am not a medical doctor or licensed healthcare practitioner.
Statements made have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. The information provided on my blog, websites or by this company are not a substitute for a face-to-face consultation with a health care provider, and should not be construed as individual medical or mental health advice. Consulting with a health care provider is a must for anyone taking medications or working with a medical or mental health condition, and highly recommended before using any herbal product. Please consult your doctor or health care provider for any possible contraindications and/or interactions with current medications. I trust you to seek the medical guidance you need to use any of my herbal products healthily at your own risk.