The placebo pill is one of the sneakiest secrets in the drug industry

The drug industry secret lurking behind every single pill

They are like magic words to medical professionals everywhere: “placebo-controlled.”

To them, they mean you can trust the results…that their wonder drug has been compared to a “sugar pill” and proved how good it is.

There’s a lot people don’t know about drug trials. And this is the most important thing: you definitely canNOT trust placebo-controlled results.

And that’s because you can’t trust the placebo.

Easter Bunny, unicorns, and the Tooth Fairy

The placebo pill is one of the sneakiest secrets in the drug industry.

They want you to believe it’s only a “sugar pill.” But that’s just the generic way they refer to placebos. In fact, few — if any — actually contain sugar.

So what DO they contain?

The answer to that one reveals the myth of “gold standard” drug research.

Think of how placebo results are used in advertising…

A few years ago, there was a TV drug ad with this voiceover: “The most common side effects — including headache, drowsiness, fatigue and dry mouth — occurred about as often as they did with a sugar pill.”

A sugar pill? How does a “sugar pill” cause headache, drowsiness, fatigue, and dry mouth?

Now think of all the times we’ve seen drug companies hide harmful data, manipulate numbers, or pay prestigious doctors to lend their names to research they didn’t do.

Think of all that, and then consider this little-known fact:

Those very same drug companies design the “recipes” for placebos used in their own clinical trials. And they aren’t required to include the contents of the placebo in their study results.

In some cases it’s believed they even use lower doses of the drug being studied. How else would a sugar pill or cornstarch cause the level of side effects of a chemical concoction?

Placebo researcher Dr. Beatrice Golomb reports that placebo contents are never revealed in nine out of 10 drug studies that appear in major journals.

That leaves a lot of room for drug companies to tweak placebo ingredients to get the results they want without anyone ever knowing.

Sources:
“What’s in Placebos: Who Knows? Analysis of Randomized, Controlled Trials” Annals of Internal Medicine, Vol. 153, No. 8, 10/19/10, annals.org

“When is a Placebo Not Really a Placebo? Maybe More Often Than You Think” Katherine Hobson, Wall St. Journal Health Blog, 10/18/10, blogs.wsj.com

“No Standard for the Placebo?” ScienceDaily, 10/18/10, sciencedaily.com