Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Verses from Gimlet.

This is the show that pits facts against phony medicine.

On today's show, the placebo effect.

We like to turn our noses up at the placebo effect, because the idea that someone can feel better

from a pill that has no actual medicine in it, it sounds kind of ridiculous. Like, how is that possible?

But years and years of scientific research has shown that the placebo effect really works.

And it works for all kinds of people.

People like...

Oh, um, my name is Linda.

This is Linda Bonanno.

When we interviewed Linda a few years ago, she told us about this condition she'd had for years,

irritable bowel syndrome.

And she said it was awful.

To me, it was like your intestines twisting real tight, tight like a rubber band.

Sometimes two days straight, I'm sick with it.

Irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS, is really common.

It's where you can get horrible stomach pains,

diarrhea, or constipation, and it can be completely debilitating. With IBS, you never know when

you're going to be sick. You could be okay one minute and then all of a sudden it just starts up.

Linda tried everything, pills, diets. Change this, change that. No, nothing. Absolutely nothing was

helping. But then one day, she saw an ad on the telly for an exciting new IBS study.

And I says, well, you know, maybe I should, you know, call them up. Maybe they can help me out.

...