Placebo affect = Faith?

I have wondered about the "placebo affect". It is so important that it must be factored in during new drug testing (double-blind placebo-controlled trials).

Placebo effects are sometimes dramatic, yet scientists are not sure why. For example, doctors in one study successfully eliminated warts by painting them with a brightly colored, inert dye and promising patients the warts would be gone when the color wore off. Events like this leave scientists scratching their heads.

It is possible that most placebo affects are merely subjective and due to patients being conned into ignoring their symptoms. However, it is harder to shrug off events like the wart elimination, which was objective evidence. In other trials, objective evidence like the dilation of airways in asthmatics and increased blood flow in the hearts of angina patients has been associated with the placebo affect. There is only one constant researchers are sure of when studying the placebo affect -- faith. The patients have unquestioning faith in what the doctor tells them.

The phrase "Faith healing" has become a target of ridicule in the last few decades -- mostly because of the exploitation of people by religious charlatans. But "faith healing" sounds a lot like the "placebo affect". More doctors are starting to employ the power of the placebo affect with certain patients. (Just goes to show that Native American -- and other shamen healers -- might have some things to teach modern medicine).

So, if there is such a thing as a "man/woman of God", and a person had as much faith in them as they do in doctors, I wonder what miraculous healings just might occur? As skeptical as I am, I'll probably never find out first hand.

BTW -- It appears that the word placebo (“I will please” in Latin) entered the English language by way of a peculiar mistranslation of the 116th Psalm that read, “I will please the Lord” rather than “I will walk before the Lord”.