Shannon Brownlee
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 The problem is the "placebo effect," the ability of placebos to make people feel better, a mysterious but common occurrence in medicine. In the case of depressed children and teenagers, the placebo effect is particularly strong: As many as half of kids in clinical trials get better on placebos. The other confounding factor here is the fact that not everybody responds in the same way to an SSRI. Studies in healthy volunteers, people who have no signs or symptoms of depression, have found that some people feel terrific, even better than well, on an antidepressant. Many feel little or nothing. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 That is interesting given the fact that clinical trials prove the power of placebo. You will find that in virtually every clinical trial that has ever been done with placebos, the placebo has been more universally effective than any other therapy known to modern science. Giving a patient something, even something that is inert, and telling them it will help them causes positive changes in about one-third of all medical conditions, including depression, blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes and more. The placebo effect works on just about everything. |
Henry Hobhouse
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 If this is so, should not a placebo work? The answer is that a placebo may well work, in some cases; and the placebo may not be a placebo in the traditional sense, but another kiond of antidote to low self-esteem: almost anything that renews or builds a sense of self-worth.
The central problem of self-esteem and a suggestion of why this has become such an issue in Western society is ventilated later. But there is another point which is repeated here, without any apology. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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| You will find that in virtually every clinical trial that has ever been done with placebos, the placebo has been more universally effective than any other therapy known to modern science. Giving a patient something, even something that is inert, and telling them it will help them causes positive changes in about one-third of all medical conditions, including depression, blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, diabetes and more. The placebo effect works on just about everything.
Yet, conventional doctors dismiss this. They do not understand it and, in fact, misuse it. |
Michael Pollan
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 And then there is the placebo effect, which has always bedeviled nutrition research. About a third of Americans are what researchers call responders—people who will respond to a treatment or intervention regardless of whether they've actually received it. When testing a drug you can correct for this by using a placebo in your trial, but how do you correct for the placebo effect in the case of a dietary trial? You can't: Low-fat foods seldom taste like the real thing, and no person is ever going to confuse a meat entree for a vegetarian substitute. |
Kelly Harford, M.C., C.N.C.
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 In these controlled studies, some subjects always react to MSG, but large numbers of subjects also react to a placebo. These studies conclude that since the subjects react to both MSG and placebos, it "proves" that it is not the MSG that people are reacting to...For years, I could not figure out why large numbers of subjects in MSG industry-sponsored studies were reacting to placebos which, by definition, should be made up of inert, non-reactive material. Finally, in 1993, we found the answer. The placebos contained aspartame!... Aspartame is far from inert and non-reactive. .. |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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 Pomegranate Juice May Promote Cardiovascular Health
In another study, published in the American Journal of the College of Cardiologists, forty-five patients with ischemic heart disease drank 8 ounces of pomegranate juice (or placebo) for three months. Compared to the placebo drinkers, the patients who consumed pomegranate juice had significantly less oxygen deficiency to the heart during exercise, suggesting increased blood flow to the heart. Pomegranate juice has also shown a greater ability to inhibit the oxidation of LDL ("bad" cholesterol) than other beverages. |
Jack Challem
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 She asked thirty people to take 2 tablespoons of vinegar or cranberry juice (as a placebo) before lunch and dinner each day for four weeks. People taking the vinegar lost an average of two pounds, and some lost four to five pounds, while those in the placebo group maintained the same weight. Because the study was conducted in November and December, when people commonly eat more than usual, the weight-loss benefits of vinegar may be even greater.
To put this research into practice, make your own vinaigrette dressing for salads. We have some recipes in chapter 8. |
Mike Adams
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 Yet, conventional medicine dismisses the placebo effect as pseudo-scientific quackery— even as their own studies prove its consistent efficacy across literally tens of thousands of studies. No drug, surgery, or conventional medical treatment has ever been tested as extensively as the placebo effect, and this mind-body phenomenon proves itself again and again. In fact, the placebo effect may be one of the most powerful healing tools in our arsenal, and yet modern doctors foolishly toss it out as useless. |
| In fact, across the board, the placebo effect works better than prescription drugs, especially when you consider that most drugs work on far fewer than 30 percent of patients.
Yet, conventional medicine dismisses the placebo effect as pseudo-scientific quackery— even as their own studies prove its consistent efficacy across literally tens of thousands of studies. No drug, surgery, or conventional medical treatment has ever been tested as extensively as the placebo effect, and this mind-body phenomenon proves itself again and again. |
| The mind has the power to initiate healing processes in the body, and that's why the placebo effect works. In fact, across the board, the placebo effect works better than prescription drugs, especially when you consider that most drugs work on far fewer than 30 percent of patients.
Yet, conventional medicine dismisses the placebo effect as pseudo-scientific quackery— even as their own studies prove its consistent efficacy across literally tens of thousands of studies. |
Shannon Brownlee
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| Among their list of services, Sackett and Oxman offer to compare the sponsor's drug to a placebo, rather than to an established therapy, a common method companies use to make their drugs look as effective as possible. (In the case of Vioxx, however, adding a group of patients on placebo to the VIGOR trial would have quickly shown that the drug increased the cardiovascular risk.) The authors suggest treating a side effect of a drug and then claiming the side effect rate was low. They offer to " 'accentuate the positive' ... |
Michael Pollan
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| When testing a drug you can correct for this by using a placebo in your trial, but how do you correct for the placebo effect in the case of a dietary trial? You can't: Low-fat foods seldom taste like the real thing, and no person is ever going to confuse a meat entree for a vegetarian substitute.
Marion Nestle also cautions against taking the diet out of the context of the lifestyle, a particular hazard when comparing the diets of different populations. |
Henry Hobhouse
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| The answer is that a placebo may well work, in some cases; and the placebo may not be a placebo in the traditional sense, but another kiond of antidote to low self-esteem: almost anything that renews or builds a sense of self-worth.
The central problem of self-esteem and a suggestion of why this has become such an issue in Western society is ventilated later. But there is another point which is repeated here, without any apology. |
Michael Pollan
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| When testing a drug you can correct for this by using a placebo in your trial, but how do you correct for the placebo effect in the case of a dietary trial? You can't: Low-fat foods seldom taste like the real thing, and no person is ever going to confuse a meat entree for a vegetarian substitute.
Marion Nestle also cautions against taking the diet out of the context of the lifestyle, a particular hazard when comparing the diets of different populations. |
Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN
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 As in the Australian study, all groups reported a decline in overall symptoms, indicating either a placebo effect or simply an improvement in symptoms during the study.99
In a study carried out at the University of Milan patients were administered 72 mg per day of soy-derived isoflavones or placebo under double-blind conditions. Both groups recorded a 40 percent reduction in the number of hot flashes.100 In a similar study carried out at the University of Pittsburgh, those women taking the placebo actually showed improvement! |
Jonny Bowden, Ph.D., C.N.S.
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| Group one got grapefruit capsules before meals, group two got grapefruit juice, group three got half a grapefruit, and group four got a placebo (nothing). The placebo group lost about l/i of a pound, the grapefruit capsule group lost 1.1 pounds, the grapefruit juice group lost 1.3, and the real grapefruit folks lost 1.5. Overall, only the fresh grapefruit group reached "statistical significance," but among those with metabolic syndrome, all three grapefruit groups lost significantly more weight. Insulin resistance was improved in everyone. |
Dr. Abram Hoffer, MD, FRCP (C) and Dr. Harold D. Foster, PhD
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 However, as a psychiatrist he also 'knew' that he should offer some hope; provide her with a placebo, if nothing else. By this time he had several years experience taking niacin and niacinamide. They were safe. He also felt that the initial flushing would give greater credibility to the placebo and could not do his mother any harm.
At his urging, his mother agreed to take 1 g of niacin, three times daily after meals. Soon after, Dr Hoffer and his family sailed to England. About 1 month later, a letter arrived at Saskatchewan House in London from his mother. |
Kevin Trudeau
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 However, medical science became confused when they observed in their own testing of drugs the placebo effect. The placebo effect, as described by medical science, is when you give a patient nothing, yet they believe they are getting a powerful drug and therefore their illness is cured. There is absolutely no explanation except that the patient's "belief" or "thoughts" actually cured the disease. This placebo effect is not questioned in the medical community; it is factual, documented, and known to be true. |
Henry Hobhouse
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| The answer is that a placebo may well work, in some cases; and the placebo may not be a placebo in the traditional sense, but another kiond of antidote to low self-esteem: almost anything that renews or builds a sense of self-worth.
The central problem of self-esteem and a suggestion of why this has become such an issue in Western society is ventilated later. But there is another point which is repeated here, without any apology. |
Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D.
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 Another herb, black cohosh, reduces hot flashes in 35 percent of cases-the same as a placebo. Because no harm is caused, and 35 percent is nothing to sneeze at, lots of women are plenty happy to keep using it. You might think that placebos are useless sugar pills for hot flashes or insomnia, but 35 percent of users get relief from them, which is an example of the power of positive thinking and your mind's control of your body. If you suffer from these symptoms, it may be worth it to see if exercise, paced respiration, black cohosh, or evening primrose oil work for you. |
Charles Barber
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 The ultimate indicator of our newfound faith in scientific psychiatry may be the mysteriously growing placebo effect. When Columbia
University psychiatrist Timothy Walsh analyzed seventy-five trials of antidepressants conducted between 1981 and 2000, he discovered that the response rate to placebo, which are, of course, nothing more than sugar pills, increased about 7 percent per decade.80 Simply because people thought they were taking pills, they thought they were going to get better.
I saw the power inherent in biological psychiatry, albeit in an entirely different way. |
Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., M.D.
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 And in a large study from Scandinavia, patients with coronary artery disease were randomly chosen to receive either a cholesterol-lowering drug or a placebo, a harmless pill containing no medication. The members of the group that took the drug lowered their cholesterol by an average of 35 percent. After five and a half years of follow-up evaluation, they had experienced significantly fewer deaths, fewer new heart attacks, and fewer angioplasties and bypasses than those who took the placebo, and they showed no increase at all in deaths from accidents, suicide, or cancer. |
Peter h. Fraser and Harry Massey
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 The third example can be accounted for as the mind's effect on the biochemistry of the body or by the placebo effect, which involves realizing a deeply held intention or expectation. However, again we are back to asking what the mind is. If it is so powerful that it can change the state of our body and mimic the effects of pharmaceuticals, then why has medicine ignored this natural healing capability for so long, dismissing it derisively as the placebo effect, and why isn't there a Manhattan Project of health care to explore and harness it? |
Lester A. Mitscher and Victoria Toews
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 Some of the women took green tea supplements with breakfast, lunch, and dinner; the others took placebo pills. After two weeks on this regimen, the women taking green tea extract had lost twice as much weight as the placebo group. Results were even more impressive after the full month of the trial; the green tea users had three times the weight loss of the women who were simply dieting.12
The caffeine content of green tea is part of the reason that green tea promotes weight loss. |
Michael T. Murray and Michael R. Lyon
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 In the latest study, twenty-five overweight non-insulin dependent diabetic outpatients were enrolled in a double-blind, placebo-controlled study, and randomized to receive either 5-HTP (750mg per day) or a placebo for two consecutive weeks, during which no dietary restriction was prescribed. Results again indicated that patients receiving 5-HTP significantly decreased their daily energy intake by reducing carbohydrate and fat intake, and reduced their body weight. |
Ron Garner
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 That our minds can heal our bodies is now becoming a proven reality in studies on the placebo effect. There have been television documentaries on how people have been healed completely when they truly believed that a reparative surgery had been performed, or that a certain medication had been administered, even though the surgery wasn't performed and the medication was just a sugar pill.
It inevitably disturbs the pharmaceutical manufacturers that in most of their clinical trials, the placebos, the "fake" drugs, prove to be just as effective as the engineered chemical cocktails. |
Michael T. Murray and Michael R. Lyon
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| In comparison, the placebo group had lost an average of only 0.62 pounds at six weeks and 1.87 pounds at twelve weeks. The lack of weight loss during the second six-week period in the placebo group obviously reflects the fact that the women had difficulty adhering to the diet.
Early satiety was reported by 100 percent of the subjects during the first six-week period. During the second six-week period, even with severe caloric restriction, 90 percent of the women taking 5-HTP reported early satiety. |
Ray D. Strand
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 The British Lancet recently reported a study in which elderly patients received either optimal levels of nutritional supplements or a placebo. Those patients who received the nutritional supplements had significant improvements of their overall immune response and enjoyed fewer and less severe infections compared to those who received the placebo. |
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