What do the terms randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled mean, and why are those things important for a clinical study?
A clinical study is only as valuable as the safeguards that are designed into it to ensure fairness and honesty. The “gold standard” of clinical design is randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled. Randomized means that subjects were assigned to two groups based on “luck of the draw,” which assured a good distribution of people. Placebo-controlled means that one group got GoChi™ and one group got a placebo, meaning a drink that looks, smells, and tastes like GoChi, but without any LBP – the active ingredient in GoChi. Double-blind means that neither the participants nor the scientists knew which group was drinking GoChi and which group was drinking the placebo. This eliminates any bias on the part of the scientists and also rules out any psychologically-caused effects on the part of the participants.
