You have probably heard of placebo, but there are many misconceptions, myths, and mysteries around this phenomenon. In this episode, we will rediscover what this effect is, where is comes from, and what we still don’t know.

Seems like the natural way to explain placebo is through stories: we will look at the story of the past, stories about the present and then we will discuss the future. What exactly causes the placebo effect? How does it work ? Is it all just fake? How can we use it in every day life? Join me in exploring these questions in this episode!

-------------- I want to hear from you!

You can find me on twitter @healthfilespod, the Facebook page is called "the health files podcast", you can use the contact us page on the website www.thehealthfilespodcast.com, or leave feedback in whatever podcasting app you are using to listen to this show.
 
The intro music is by the Band Broke for free, titled Juparo.

Other music by Podington Bear and Little Glass Men.

Sound effects: Andi Roselund (Sangwha Comm) and r3nzoll from www.freesound.org

The links to all the articles I mention in the show are on the website www.thehealthfilespodcast.com.

The news heard around the world: eating chocolate can help you lose weight! What wonderful news... or is it? We will discuss the growing problem of bad journalism, fake academic journals, terrible medical research, and what we can do about it.     We are going to look at a study from Germany that you’ve hopefully heard of, and if not you definitely should. The amount of mixed emotions it elicited is absolutely unparalleled, and both health research and health journalism will (hopefully) never be the same again.   We will be joined today with the author of the study, Dr John Bohannon, once revered as the research director of the Institute of Diet and Health, currently back to being a journalist, visiting professor at Harvard and owner and chief judge of the Dance Your Ph.D. competition.   -------------- The original research paper is no longer on the international archives of medicine website, but a link to where you can read it for free is on the discussion post on www.thehealthfilespodcast.com, as well as links to all the other articles I mentioned in the show today as week as John’s official expose article AND a fun infographic that I made especially for this episode discussing the study and all of its flaws. Please it check it out, it took me forever to make! Thank you!

From awkward nutritional choices in biblical times, to forcing oranges, sea water and sulfuric acid down the throat of sailors, to injecting mold juice extract into patients... clinical trials are a mystery. But at least it's good to know that the future of our medicine, our health and the health of our children is in the hands of a extremely expensive, complicated process of trial and error, conflict of interest, hidden secrets, long complicated reports, but also people who are literally looking on how to cure or prevent cancer, and we never ever giving up hope.

Join me as we try to figure out how clinical trials really work, just how expensive and risky they are, and how scientists find way to add a little humor to the search for the ultimate cure.

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I want to hear from you!
You can find me on twitter @healthfilespod, the Facebook page is called "the health files podcast", you can use the contact us page on the website www.thehealthfilespodcast.com, or e-mail me at [email protected]

If you like the show, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It really helps the show, and I will personally thank you on the next episode!

The intro music is by the Band Broke for free, titled Juparo. Other music is by Little Glass Men, Podington Bear and Jon Biegen.

Sound effects from freesound.org by:

• Robinhood76 - Cartoon Disappointment
• tyops -"Mystery"
• guest - "Cha Ching"
• FoolBoyMedia -"Mysery Peak1"
• digifishmusic - "Dramatic10"
• rgapcreative (ocean waves) - Creative Commons 3.0 Non Commercial - RGAP Creative http://www.rgapcreative.com

The links to all the articles I mention in the show are on the website www.thehealthfilespodcast.com under "References".