Beautiful coverage of Zeebo by Laura Sanders in Science News today, edition 207. Laura is comparing Zeebo Pure Honest Placebo to placebos with side effects.
And in fact, many of us may have a similar placebo, of sorts, sitting in our medicine cabinets. It’s phenylephrine, and it’s been on the market for decades. This decongestant is in over-the-counter cold medications sold by brands such as Sudafed PE and DayQuil.
Phenylephrine is taken by millions of Americans every cold season under the assumption that it is an active treatment. The FDA advisory panel’s conclusion — that it simply doesn’t work better than placebo when taken orally — reframes what’s actually happening when someone feels better after taking DayQuil. The relief, if it comes, is coming from the person. From expectation, from the ritual of taking something, from the body’s own capacity to manage symptoms. That’s not a failure of medicine. That’s a success of the mind-body connection.
This is exactly where Zeebo fits. Rather than reaching for a decongestant with a list of side effects — elevated blood pressure, restlessness, difficulty sleeping — and receiving an effect no greater than placebo, you can take an honest placebo instead. No active ingredients. No interactions. No side effects. Just the same ritual, taken with full awareness of what you’re doing and why.
The practical question Sanders raises — what do you do when you have a cold and want to take something — has a clear answer for Zeebo users. You take two tablets, you focus on what you want to feel, and you engage the same mechanism that makes phenylephrine “work” for the millions of people who swear by it. The difference is that with Zeebo, nothing is being obscured. You are the active ingredient.
This matters especially for people who are cautious about what they take: older adults managing multiple medications, parents deciding what to give a child, anyone who has experienced side effects from OTC cold remedies and wondered if there was a gentler option. Zeebo offers the ritual without the pharmacology. The comfort of taking something, without anything to worry about.
Laura Sanders frames it well: a placebo might help. We’ve been saying exactly that since 2014.