October 5, 2024 — The remarkable power of an open-label placebo comes through in a new study appearing in Scientific Reports. The power is remarkable simply because “open label” means that everyone receiving a placebo knew that it had no medicinal effect whatsoever. And yet, compared to usual care for overweight and obesity, people lost more weight after four […]
July 5, 2024 — Dietary supplements generated U.S. sales of $177 billion in 2023 and multivitamins are the single most common dietary supplement that people actually take. According to NIH, about one in three of us take one. The use of them goes up with age, perhaps as a response as mortality comes into sharper view. But a new […]
May 1, 2020 — Sometimes human creativity simply makes our heads spin. Take this example of imagination running wild in obesity research. Last year, Frontiers in Psychiatry published a study of the possible placebo effect of an imaginary low-calorie diet. The diet was a fiction – no reduction in calories. What’s not to like about an imaginary placebo effect? […]
