A panacea, a cure-all, a salvation for those with any mysterious sickness - this is a goal that has been strived for by humans for countless centuries. Western medicine can be effective, but what if I told you the closest thing to a cure-all in the world is faith?
Don't get me wrong, it's not like some higher power is intervening and curing people. But the belief itself can trigger something in people's brains. The brain has a secret store of drugs (including such specific chemicals as opioids, which serve as painkillers), which can be unlocked by people genuinely thinking they are being cured. It normally acts to supplement an actual medicinal cure, but it can be a formidable force on its own. This is why faith healing, in some cases, works.
One prime example of this is a Christian faith healer at Loliondo in Tanzania who has throngs of people devoted to him, all waiting to receive a single cup of a drink he makes from the roots of a specific tree. The drink (or, rather, the powerful brain manipulation caused by the drink) is purpotedly capable of curing cancer, AIDS and HIV, glaucoma, infertility, etc. I'm not sure how or indeed if it does this, especially infertility, but it has certainly gained a reputation. The throngs of people are thousands strong and form a caravan which stretches back for 7 miles across countryside.
Placebo healing is weaker but more versatile than traditional medicine, and it can do some things that the foremost scientific discoveries have still been unable to. That being said, the principle behind it has been discovered and (except for the patients) the medical world should not treat it as a miracle.
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