Power from a placebo?An increasing number of pro ballplayers and their fans have begun wearing jewelry embedded with titanium for its supposed energy-boosting properties. Phiten, the Japanese company that makes the jewelry, claims that it enhances the body's "energy-management system, increasing the capacity of every cell." Although there is no scientific evidence supporting this claim, some experts say the jewelry may have a placebo effect placebo effect n. A beneficial effect in a patient following a particular treatment that arises from the patient's expectations concerning the treatment rather than from the treatment itself. : If someone strongly believes a particular "cure" works, it often does. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Jeffrey Wildfogel, a psychologist at Stanford University Stanford University, at Stanford, Calif.; coeducational; chartered 1885, opened 1891 as Leland Stanford Junior Univ. (still the legal name). The original campus was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. David Starr Jordan was its first president. , the resulting boost in confidence can "improve performance and focus, regardless of whether there are any real physical effects Physical effects is the term given to a sub-category of special effects in which mechanical or physical effects are recorded. Physical effects are usually planned in preproduction and created in production. from the necklace." Perhaps the colorful jewelry, which costs from $15 to $25, is the high-tech version of a lucky rabbit's foot. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion