Candy a Decent Cure for What Ails You

by Liz Colville

A group of scientists now believes that even if a person knows they are taking a placebo sugar pill and not an actual drug, they might still feel better. A group of subjects suffering from IBS were literally told that they would be given “placebo pills made of an inert substance, like sugar pills, that have been shown in clinical studies to produce significant improvement in IBS symptoms through mind-body self-healing processes.” This appeared to motivate people in a big way: 59 percent of the sugar pill eaters reported improved symptoms after three weeks, versus the 35 percent who reported improvement after taking nothing at all. Well so, the 35 percent have pretty impressive heads on their shoulders, too. More about them, please.