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Need for trial vs placebo

Posted by agorrill on 05 Jul 2017 at 11:14 GMT

While I am thrilled that magnesium, a relatively benign intervention, was found effective, I would like to see further blinded and placebo-controlled studies. While, on one level, I agree with the authors that, whether it works by physiological mechanism or placebo, it works, there are several reasons why having a blinded, placebo-controlled trial would be helpful. First, it would address the question of whether predisposition to nutraceuticals increased a placebo effect, a possibility raised by their low recruitment numbers, and secondly, knowing that there is actually an effect beyond placebo would distinguish magnesium as a truly effective intervention, rather than simply a random substitution for a sugar pill.

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