A Spoonful of Sugar

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.”