imple operant conditioning seems to work
 

About two months ago, my lovely wife insisted that I subject myself to her own experiment. The idea was to link a stimulus (peppermint) to the actions of the meds (sinemet and requip) in hopes of triggering dopamine release. The method was to simply put a peppermint candy (Altoids curiously strong etc) in each pill bottle and take a sniff each time I take a med.

Darned if I don't think it has had an effect independent of the other things I am experimenting with. I think that it has cut down my early morning wait for "kick-in" from an hour to less than 30 minutes! If I skip or avoid the peppermint it takes substantially longer than if I chew a couple of Altoids with the meds.

In retrospect, I suppose it shouldn't be surprising. But it is. :D

There is some property of peppermint also that might be at work here.

I recall a study where bored, tired computer programmers were to just sniff peppermint, and they found increased energy and productivity resulted.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...031901624.html

I suppose this is not too far from the aromatic effects of catnip on cats. Only the peppermint for humans is less euphoric. Both plants are members of the "mint" family though. ;)

WoW! Brilliant wife! Really fascinating. A long time ago I posted an experiment with mice that showed that just smelling coffee affected enzymes involved in antioxidant production. Smelling coffee is good for you!

I wonder if your result is related to that in some way. Or maybe it's a trigger like that found in the placebo effect.

Any ideas about why this works?

I thinks smells are much more important than we ever imagined. Heck, dogs can smell cancer. I wonder what our comparably tiny noses can accomplish!

Pavlovian placebo?
 

Could this be a clue to the placebo effect? We are conditioned to respond to men in lab coats holding out purple pills?

It may be placebo related.

And/or maybe it's an external cue.

I learned a cue from my dog. When she got into bed to go to sleep, she'd let out a deep exhale, like a sigh, which seemed like a signal that meant sleep time. I copied her, and it actually helps me to relax. It's a signal, an external cue, that produces a response in my nervous system.

Maybe the peppermint is a signal that produces a motor response. I've said many times that I wish we could harness the placebo effect somehow. Maybe you have found one way, an easy and pleasant one, too.

Peppermint is a good stimulus because of strength and ready availability, but perhaps it would be worth a look at the research behind aromatherapy. And if the perfumors would look in their vaults with PD in mind anything could happen.

I too am a believer in do-it-yourself placebos. I think all of us self-administer them without being aware of it, and sometimes we use them very deliberately, to good effect.

Kathleen