As the commitment to our New Year's resolutions wanes and the trips to the gym become more infrequent, new findings appearing in the February issue of Psychological Science may offer us one more chance to reap the benefits of exercise through our daily routine. Harvard University psychologist Ellen Langer and her student Alia Crum found that many of the beneficial results of exercise are due to the placebo effect.

Although several medications are available to help children maintain asthma control, clinical trials directly comparing them have not been conducted. In fact, current recommendations in national and international asthma guidelines are based either on studies of single treatments compared to a placebo in children or on comparison studies in adults.

Although it's too soon to recommend dropping by Starbucks before hitting the gym, a new study suggests that caffeine can help reduce the post-workout soreness that discourages some people from exercising.

Additional research presented at the 19th World Diabetes Congress Meeting supports the efficacy and safety of chromium picolinate in diabetes management

Long-acting octreotide does not improve outcomes for patients with liver cancer compared to a placebo, according to the results of a new double blind study published in the January 2007 issue of Hepatology, the official journal of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD).

Research by the Human Pain Research Group at The University of Manchester suggests that people's responses to placebo or "dummy" pain relief varies according to their way of thinking.

Novel therapies are greatly improving the long-term outlook for patients with multiple myeloma, say researchers at Mayo Clinic Cancer Center, who have led efforts in testing these treatments and moving them quickly into first-line therapies.

Guanfacine, a medication commonly prescribed to alleviate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, is no more effective than a placebo, according to a study led by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.