Placebo, latin for "I will please" (Sorry, I did a seminar on Therapeautic Modalities in Athletic Training and we deal with placebo). Its pretty much one of 2 things.... 1. wanting something to work so bad, you talk yourself into feeling it working, or having something done over and over (whether it works or not) and you can no longer do without it, its a frame of mind.

so when someone is comparing a placebo to a supplement basically what they are refering to is your basically wish the benefits on you by thinking it will work.

Or when someone is referring to a actual plaebo pill its just sugar water in the pill so say 2 test groups one givin placebo (nothing) and the other givin the actual supplement than you can compare 2 unbiased results together.

Sorry if none of that makes sense its late

No, you have a valid point. A placebo group is something such as a sugar pill. More often than nnot, the placebo group doesnt know they are the placebo group

ahh... i understand now ...

i see how that would work...

thanks for the clarification guys