‘Invented by a Mommy’ placebo
New Scientist last month amused itself with the tale of enterprising American “mommy” (her description) Jennifer Buettner. Apparantly, though heaven knows why exactly, Buettner was appalled to find when taking her youngest to the local children’s clinic that there is no recognised, standardised placebo available in the world. Now, while most busy parents really wouldn’t have thought to ask about the integrity of the sugar pills in thousands of drugs trials each year, Buettner decided to act! What she came up with was a branded, patented, pharmaceutical grade placebo called Obecalp (yup, placebo spelt backwards), which she is now selling on the internet. But why Jen, why? “Because Obecalp fills the gap when medicine is not needed but my children need something more to make them feel better”. Hmmmm. For the whole amazing story check out Invented By a Mommy
(c) Natural Products, May 2008
