But how do we react to personal expectations? This brings us to the “placebo effect”—pills and therapies that are unlikely to improve health, but do so anyway. The “placebo effect” has been registered in one-third of all patients. But how it works is not well understood. All we know is that expectations alter the biochemistry of the brain and thus the whole body. Accordingly Alzheimer’s patients cannot benefit from it: Their condition impairs the area of the brain that deals with expectations.
