Pseudoscience

Can colleges mandate Ozempic? Another anti-vaccine myth

Anti-vaccine activist Dr. Vinay Prasad tries to compare college COVID-19 vaccine booster mandates to mandating Ozempic in obese students.

Vaccine safety and effectiveness are settled science

by Michael Simpson
2023-03-16
Andrew Wakefield, Anti-vaccines, Climate change, Del Bigtree, Evolution, Robert F Kennedy Jr, Vaccines

Anti-vaccine activists always want a “debate” about vaccine safety and effectiveness, but it is already settled science based on evidence.

Vitamin D supplements may reduce the risk of dementia

A new peer-reviewed observational study shows that vitamin D supplementation may reduce the risk of dementia. But there are many limitations.

Does higher-dose vitamin D reduce risk of type 2 diabetes?

New peer reviewed research shows that higher doses of vitamin D may reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in pre-diabetes patients.

Omega-3 supplements have little effect on cardiovascular health (updated)

There are a lot of claims that omega-3 supplements help cardiovascular help, but recent powerful systematic reviews show that they don’t.

Science-based medicine, not allopathic, Western, or conventional

by Michael Simpson
2023-02-07
Alternative medicine, Evidence based medicine, Homeopathy, Traditional Chinese Medicine

Let’s call it science-based medicine, not allopathic, Western, or conventional medicine. Those are pejorative terms with no meaning.

Treating cancer with alternative medicine — it’s dangerous

As I have mentioned before, I occasionally answer questions on Quora regarding alternative medicine treatments for cancer. Of course, there are few, if any, alternative “medicines” that have been shown to treat cancer effectively in large, randomized, double-blind clinical trials. If they actually worked, we’d just call it medicine.

Most of the answers are supported by scientific evidence — alternative medicine treatments for cancer have been shown to not work or have not been shown to work. Either way, it would be unethical or even immoral for anyone to recommend these unscientific treatments.

Of course, a lot of people want to push the claim that cannabis cures cancer. It doesn’t (see Note 1).

A paper was published a few years ago that examined the survivability of individuals with curable cancers that refused conventional cancer treatments (usually surgery plus adjuvant therapies like chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or immunotherapy) and chose alternative medicine. We will get to that article, but spoiler alert — alternative medicine doesn’t work for cancer and may be dangerous.

Dietary supplements are not better than statins for heart disease

As I wrote previously, statins are important in preventing cardiovascular disease and mortality, but people continue to push dietary supplements as a better alternative to statins. Well, a new study blows that claim out of the water — statins are better for your cardiovascular health than dietary supplements.

I keep writing about supplements, and rarely do I find powerful, robust, and repeated evidence that supplements have any positive effect on one’s health. Occasionally, some research might show a small clinical benefit, but mostly, taking supplements means you have very expensive urine since most of it is removed by your kidneys.

As most of you who read this blog know that I love reviewing these articles, so you have the bullet points for the results. Of course, the article is linked, so you can get into the weeds if you want. Here we go.

Echinacea — the science and myths in treating the common cold

I recently wrote about pseudoscientific treatments for colds and flu, but I wanted to focus on one of the more popular treatments — echinacea. The history and science of echinacea treating these wintertime diseases are almost laughable. But you know how pseudoscience and supplements go together, and here we are.

I’m going to review the history of the herbal supplement along with the science of its safety and effectiveness. The history is quite amusing. And science is definitely lacking.

Mucoid plaques and colon detoxification junk science (UPDATED)

The internet is filled with all kinds of nonsense, but one of the more annoying is the issue of mucoid plaques and how they can ruin your life. Colon detoxification or, sometimes, colon cleansing to remove mucoid plaques is one of those strange alternative medicine ideas that hang around without one single bit of evidence supporting it.

Of course, it is time to take a look at this and debunk this junk science. Spoiler alert — it doesn’t do anything except take money from your pocket, like most pseudoscientific scams on the internet.