Placebo Effect

The placebo effect is an observable improvement in health or behavior no treated by a medication or administered treatment. Placebo is a substance that produces and effect similar to the active substance or to an antibiotic. Most common placebos may be , fake surgery and fake therapies .

The idea of the placebo effect originated with the scientist H.K Beecher. Beecher found out that about 35 percent of 1085, patients who took a pill containing no active ingredients experienced an improvement in their condition. 
In ten out of fifteen studies made by Beecher , 67 percent of the patients seemed to improve as a normal course of there illness and not attributable to placebo. In another study, a third of the patient’s symptoms improved with a placebo for treating there colds.  Another of Beecher’s studies was that when he took drug treatment to their patients and change it with placebo , instead of worsen there symptoms it improved them , because the actual drugs caused side effects that the placebo didn’t.

There are a lot of factors that can affect many treatments and the evaluation of those treatments. That make it very difficult to be sure just what it is about an involvement that produces improvement or superficial improvement. An example of these factors is that Beecher only showed the percentage of the patients that improve their conditions not of the percentage that didn’t improved with placebo effect.

Finally I think that the placebos are fake substances that make our minds thinks were improving but we are not , it might be good in some cases , and bad in others. It can be bad , because not always imaginary treatment can treat like a real treatment does , that’s because not all injuries or viruses are easily treated , and more if treated only mentally . “Vitamins and herbs are real. Placebos are only imaginary.”

Are All Memories Alike? Gender/Cultural Differences

Sex Differences In Memory: Women Better Than Men At Remembering Everyday Events

There have always been a difference between men and women , beginning  with the physical part ending with the mental part . Scientists from Sweden proved that the differences between men and women or sex differences have todo a lot with episodic memory , and have proven that women are better in episodic memory . First women are better in episodic memory tasks like remembering word , pictures about things . Like if a couple would get lost , the men would remember how to escape and the women where she left the keys or were is there cellphone . Men are better at remembering symbolic non-linguistic things.


Women can remember facial features better , like in a test were various faces were given to females , they had to recall the faces . The results show that in between the female,male, or just faces options the women pointed more in the female faces . This shows that women can identify better female faces than rather males.  Women can do better the task of recognizing familiar odors , than man . A variable that affects this sex differences can be education .


The results say that female are better at episodic memory , at specific events . The probability of genetically based memories between male and female are not known still .

The culture of memory

Kids when are little , might have 2 to 4 years when they don't really remember about the events that happened . This situation is called childhood amnesia . Researchers had discovered various ways that kids remember events since childhood  between different cultures all over the world . 

The difference between cultures , like with american children and asian children .People who grew up in societies that focus more on personal history, like the US, will have earlier childhood memories than those people who grew up in an environment whose value interdependence is placed above those of personal history, like Asia.

An important model called the social-interaction model meant that our autobiographical memories don't develop just away , but we develop them when we are children and recall them with adults over again , enabling us to remember with more detail.

There an abundant of experiments explaining this cultural differences affecting memory . Some are studying Chinese-American immigrants to see how their early childhood memories compare with those of native Chinese and native Americans.  Here is the scientist Leitchman explaining its findings  "Right now we're really refining it and working out the wide variety of mechanisms that cause it."


Sites:

http://www.apa.org/monitor/sep05/culture.aspx

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/02/080220104244.htm

Alzheimer’s Disease

I learned that Alzheimer’s is a brain disease that affects memory, thinking , and behavior. I learned that the symptoms develop slowly over time and usually get worse too , becoming brutal enough to interfere with daily tasks. I learned that Alzheimer's disease is the most common form of dementia. I also learned that Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging . Finally I learned that Alzheimer's has no current cure, but treatments for symptoms are available and research continues.

The greatest risk factor is increasing in age, and the majority of people with Alzheimer’s disease are from 60 and older. Alzheimer’s is not necessarily of old aged , like 5 percent of the people with the disease have early onset Alzheimer , that appears when you are in your 40s or 50s . Alzheimer is a progressive disease, where its symptoms get worse over years . In its early stages, memory loss is calmed but in the last stages of Alzheimer's, people lose the ability to carry on a conversation and respond to their environment. Alzheimer is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States . Alzheimer cant be cured , but can be slowly temporarily treated to slow the worsening of the symptoms and to improve the quality of life with those with Alzheimer .

Concluding I think that this disease , is a problem because it can appear to people like from nowhere . I say it’s a problem because its harsh and painful to some people , to have not only memory loss more than that . I am proud that scientists are keeping it up with the research in treating the disease .