About 750,000 Americans each year suffer painful compression fractures in the bones of the spine, the most common cause of which is osteoporosis. The weakened bone cracks or fractures , often causing debilitating pain and limited mobility . One of the most common treatements for this to inject hot bone cement into the spine which was thought to stabilize the affected area. A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that this procedure works no better than fake surgery. In the study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, a control group who were tricked into thinking surgery was performed on them was compared with a group that had the actual surgery.  Both groups improved by essentially the same amount. So give me the fake surgery, and with the difference in price I can take a beach vacation, which is guaranteed to make me feel better by an even larger amount.