Placebos Redux

April 24, 2017

Mary Carpenter

“Placebo,” or “Maxalt or Placebo.” The response was the same for two groups—those given Maxalt who were told it was a placebo, and those given the placebo in an envelope labeled Maxalt. Said Kaptchuk: the question now is whether doctors…

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Do Placebos Work?

May 20, 2014

Mary Carpenter

…the work of placebos, says Berdik. And a placebo’s effects can increase with time as confidence in the treatment grows. Placebos work via the same physical pathways as the body’s active healing mechanisms, by stimulating real physiological responses that range…

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Mind Over Matter

March 20, 2023

Mary Carpenter

…working to change this perception, in some cases using MRI and PET scans to document the body’s responses to placebo treatments—concluding, for example, that “placebo needles produce better pain relief than placebo pills but . . . placebo pills are…

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Does Microdosing Work?

June 6, 2022

Mary Carpenter

…the benefits people experience are from the placebo effect,” according to the New York Times. And a third placebo-controlled trial on microdosing LSD at the University of Chicago also found no difference between the LSD and placebo groups. Study participants,…

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Some Pros and (More) Cons of Homeopathy

April 9, 2018

Mary Carpenter

…homeopathic treatment as a powerful placebo—especially compared to antibiotics. (A 2008 study found that 13% of doctors prescribed antibiotics as placebos, because patients believe the drugs will treat their condition, even if what they have is viral and cannot be…

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Microdosing

February 19, 2024

Mary Carpenter

placebo-controlled trials of microdosing—from London and the Netherlands—“suggest that the benefits people experience are from the placebo effect,” according to the New York Times. And a third, placebo-controlled trial on microdosing LSD at the University of Chicago also found no…

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Vaccines Are Coming, Vaccines Are Coming!

December 7, 2020

Mary Carpenter

…dose due to a lab error— a protocol that unexpectedly resulted in greater efficacy. Because the research to date is limited to comparing each vaccine against a placebo, it remains unclear whether one company’s vaccine might work better for different…

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Achy Knees? Stem Cell Therapy May Help

July 10, 2017

Mary Carpenter

…and placebo-controlled clinical study” at Florida’s Mayo Clinic examined the benefits of using bone marrow stem cells. When 25 patients, each with two painfully arthritic knees, had one injected with stem cells and the other with a placebo solution, “dramatic…

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Mind-Altering Drugs Today

August 29, 2022

Mary Carpenter

…eight months, half of those who received psilocybin had stopped drinking compared with about one-fourth of those who received a placebo. “This is a watershed moment… a time for a lot of hope,” said Rachel Yehuda, mental health director at…

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Gut Reactions

January 16, 2023

Mary Carpenter

…23.6% in the placebo group also reported improved symptoms. According to NBC, the study used transplant samples from a so-called “super donor [who had been] breast fed, consumed a nutritious diet, took no regular medications, was a nonsmoker and had…

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CBD Clarified

November 30, 2020

Mary Carpenter

…gel—applied to the skin and designed to penetrate into the bloodstream—on 320 patients with knee osteoarthritis. After 12 weeks, the reports of pain from participants using the CBD products didn’t differ significantly from those who got the placebo—although those receiving…

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A Therapy With Lots of Sting

November 15, 2021

Mary Carpenter

…commonly pain, fatigue, and cognitive problems— rely on self-reporting by sufferers; therefore, so do the relief and other improvements for which sufferers credit alternative therapies. The powerful placebo effect may play a significant role in these benefits, but conventional, rigorous…

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Plant-Based Detox

January 24, 2022

Mary Carpenter

…contributed to her belief in treatments like homeopathy —a belief that C.T. acknowledges may be necessary for whatever role the placebo effect plays in their success, in the absence of rigorous scientific evidence. She pointed to the precedent of acupuncture,…

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'Cured': Strengthen Your Immunity, Heal Your Life

March 21, 2022

Mary Carpenter

…Hadar points out, “every doctor knows the placebo effect is real: The mind can change what’s happening in the body.” Jeffrey Rediger discovered a database compiled in the early 1990s by the California-based Institute of Noetic Sciences—that researches consciousness and…

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(Un)Likely Stories

September 18, 2022

Valerie Monroe

…and worthless,” says Yagoda. “Most beauty copy cites these studies. ‘Peer reviewed studies’ are also meaningless and less common. The only valuable studies are those using placebo versus control, double-blind methods conducted by independent physicians. Studies by paid physician consultants…

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Do You Need That Surgery?

November 14, 2022

Mary Carpenter

…knees, including those in the control group who had no work done (to avoid the placebo effect) —performed as well as the real surgery. And RightCare Alliance’s report on ESS (endoscopic sinus surgery) to alleviate sinus infections pointed to “an…

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When Sniffles Don't Stop

April 27, 2020

Mary Carpenter

…twice daily for two weeks, capsaicin nasal spray produced “dramatic improvement in most cases of nonallergic rhinitis symptoms” compared to a placebo in research at the University of Cincinnati. Treatment with capsaicin— extracted from hot chili peppers and also used…

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Our Aching Joints

February 20, 2023

Mary Carpenter

…received sham (placebo) treatment—and improved strength and stability in the knees. Engaging the brain is a different route to pain reduction—in line with the concept of central sensitization that pain is a “brain response [to perceived danger] like…elevated heart rate,”…

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