Will a placebo boost my sports performance?

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The placebo effect has been looked down on, scoffed at, and written off as useless because it is “all in your head.” But lately there has been a shift in that thinking, and we are starting to see the power that the placebo holds in athletic performance. Read the transcript at htt ...  Show more

The placebo effect is a phenomenon in which a person's symptoms or well-being improve after receiving a fake treatment that has no specific or intrinsic effect on their condition. For example, a person may feel less pain after taking a sugar pill that they believe is a painkille ...  Show more

For decades, scientists thought that placebos only worked if patients didn’t know they were taking them. Not anymore: You can give patients placebos, tell them they’re on sugar pills, and they still might feel better. No one is sure how this works, but it raises a question: Shoul ...  Show more

The placebo effect is pretty freaky when you think about it: just believing that a harmless substance is a medicine can really produce measurable benefits. It sounds crazy, but the placebo effect is real, and its implications continue to fascinate scientists. So why does it ap ...