Once again, the sugar pill has proven an effective medical treatment. Specifically, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida, discovered that people who wore ionized bracelets to treat muscle and joint pain reported the same rates of success in alleviating pain as did those who wore a non-ionized, placebo bracelet.
The study, released this month, calls into question the use of ionized bracelets as a valid medical treatment. It also highlights the benefits of the placebo effect. "When studying the effect of any drug, it's very important to factor in the enormous placebo effect," says Mark Levy, M.D., FAPA, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco. "Good doctors have known for centuries that people are suggestible."
Beyond recognizing its existence, however, researchers remain unsure as to exactly how the placebo effect works, and they are trying to pinpoint its source, be it genetic or environmental. "It remains a bit of an enigma,” says Levy. “No one can really point to a section of the brain and say, `That's the placebo region.”
