/oss/taxonomy/term/11/all en /oss/article/critical-thinking-general-science/claims-about-ozone-therapy-dont-pass-smell-test <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-claims-about-ozone-therapy-dont-pass-the-smell-test">The Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> Fri, 23 Aug 2024 16:50:20 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10046 at /oss /oss/article/medical-pseudoscience/homeopathy-scientifically-implausible <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-homeopathy-is-scientifically-implausible">Montreal Gazette</a>.</em></p> Fri, 12 Jan 2024 18:23:31 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9801 at /oss /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking/rooting-out-curcumin-problems <p>Divide some laboratory rabbits into three groups. Feed one group normal rabbit chow, the second group a high cholesterol diet, and the third group a high cholesterol diet supplemented with 0.2% curcumin. After eight weeks take blood samples, sacrifice the bunnies, and examine their aortas for atherosclerotic deposits. That’s a typical animal experiment to test the potential of curcumin, the compound responsible for the yellow colour of turmeric, as being possibly beneficial in reducing the risk of heart disease.</p> Wed, 11 Oct 2023 10:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9687 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health/medical-error-not-third-leading-cause-death <p>In the first episode of the television show <i>The Resident</i>, a nurse tells the young protagonist that medical error is the third leading cause of death in the United States after cancer and heart disease. “They don’t want us talking about that,” she adds.</p> Fri, 27 Aug 2021 16:54:50 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8822 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health/beware-trojan-horse-integrative-medicine <p>The story of the Trojan horse is well known: the Greeks allegedly delivered to the city of Troy a massive wooden horse, which the Trojans mistook for a gift and pulled inside their city. At night, this hollow horse released a band of Greek men who had been hiding inside of it, and they opened the city gates so that their army could strike the final blow in the Trojan War.</p> Thu, 29 Oct 2020 18:47:15 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8464 at /oss /oss/article/health-pseudoscience/should-we-take-reiki-seriously <p>The topic of Reiki can be approached with a fist or with a light touch. Its interventions, which are based on an energy not measured by scientific instruments, offer an unmissable punching bag to the skeptic who wants to pummel absurdity. A study on<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1547-5069.2004.04012.x"> the effect of carbonated drinks on chakras</a>, you say? A Reiki master<a href="http://www.reiki-canada.com/"> using stuffed animals</a> to practice distance healing, really?</p> Wed, 12 Feb 2020 22:56:07 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8108 at /oss /oss/article/thomas-mulcair-tells-journalists-homeopathy-works-him <p>I attended a pro-homeopathy media event on November 19<sup>th</sup> supported by Thomas Mulcair, the former leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada and also the former president of the Office des professions du Québec, which is tasked with ensuring that professions in our province are exercised with competence and integrity.</p> Wed, 20 Nov 2019 16:13:32 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8002 at /oss /oss/article/health-videos-quackery/cracked-science-31-functional-medicine <p><div class="media-youtube-video media-element file-default media-youtube-1"> <iframe class="media-youtube-player" id="media-youtube-3edw-upv3zu" width="640" height="390" title="Functional Medicine (CS31)" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/3EDW_upV3ZU?wmode=opaque&controls=&enablejsapi=1&modestbranding=1&playerapiid=media-youtube-3edw-upv3zu&origin=https%3A//www.mcgill.ca&rel=0" name="Functional Medicine (CS31)" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>Video of Functional Medicine (CS31)</iframe> </div> </p> Mon, 29 Apr 2019 14:42:43 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 7733 at /oss /oss/article/health/refusing-medicine-and-dying-early-when-complementary-medicine-actually-becomes-alternative-medicine <p><span>Olivia has breast cancer but refuses medical care, opting instead for natural herbs. This is alternative medicine.</span></p> <p><span>Olivia has breast cancer and follows the recommendations of her oncologists, but also consumes natural herbs. This is complementary medicine.</span></p> <p><span>While the refusal of medical treatment to pursue an alternative can be clearly understood as dangerous, we may ask, “What’s the harm?”, if medicine is not replaced but simply complemented.</span></p> Wed, 25 Jul 2018 16:00:21 +0000 Jonathan Jarry, MSc 7185 at /oss /oss/article/quackery/cracked-science-01uc-irvine-and-integrative-medicine <p><div class="media-youtube-video media-element file-default media-youtube-2"> <iframe class="media-youtube-player" id="media-youtube-pormuylhtxu" width="640" height="390" title="UC Irvine and Integrative Medicine (CS03)" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/PoRmUYlHTXU?wmode=opaque&controls=&enablejsapi=1&modestbranding=1&playerapiid=media-youtube-pormuylhtxu&origin=https%3A//www.mcgill.ca&rel=0" name="UC Irvine and Integrative Medicine (CS03)" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>Video of UC Irvine and Integrative Medicine (CS03)</iframe> </div> </p> Wed, 09 May 2018 21:54:24 +0000 Jonathan Jarry, MSc 7060 at /oss /oss/article/general-science-quackery/homeopathy-aware-or-beware <p><span>April 10-16 is “World Homeopathy Awareness Week” with the stated aim of “celebrating homeopaths and those who have been healed with homeopathy.” While I don’t think anyone has ever been healed with homeopathy, and I’m not inclined to celebrate homeopaths, I do think that pursuing awareness about homeopathy is a worthy endeavour. That’s because I do not think most people are aware of what homeopathy actually is. I say that based on having carried out a number of ad hoc surveys in my public lectures and classes encompassing the general public, health care professionals, scientists of all sorts and students. The usual view is that homeopathy is an umbrella term for unconventional treatments such as acupuncture, reiki, reflexology and herbology. It is nothing of the sort.</span></p> <p>Homeopathy is a system of alternative “medicine” introduced in 1796 by German physician Samuel Hahnemann based on his doctrine of “like cures like.” Hahnemann claimed that an extremely dilute version of a substance that in larger doses causes the symptoms of a disease in healthy people would cure similar symptoms in sick people. This has no basis in science.</p> <p>Dr. Hahnemann, was trained in traditional medicine but quickly became disillusioned with the treatments he had learned.  Bleeding, leeches, suction cups, purges and arsenic powders seemed to do more harm than good. Ignoring his training, he began to prescribe a regimen which at the time was revolutionary: fresh air, personal hygiene, regular baths, exercise and a nourishing diet.  Since this was not a particularly financially lucrative regimen, he supplemented  his income by making use of his fluency in eight languages to translate medical texts.  During one of these translations he encountered an explanation of why quinine supposedly cured malaria.  The substance fortified the stomach!</p> <p>Intrigued, Hahnemann took some quinine to see if it really had an effect on the stomach.  It did not.  But pretty soon he began to feel the effects of a fever!  His pulse quickened, his extremities became cold, his head throbbed.  These symptoms were exactly like the symptoms of malaria.  Then came his dramatic conclusion: the reason quinine cured malaria was because "fever cures fever."  In other words, like cures like.  Homeopathy, from the Greek "homoios" meaning "like," and "pathos" meaning suffering, was born!</p> <p>Hahnemann went further and began to systematically test the effects of a large variety of natural substances on healthy people.  Such "provings" led him to conclude that belladonna, for example, could be used to treat sore throats, because it caused throat constriction in healthy subjects.  But belladonna is a classic poison.  Was homeopathy therefore dangerous?  Not at all.  Hahnemann had another idea.  He theorized that his medications would work by The Law of Infinitesmals.  The smaller the dose, the more effective the substance would be in stimulating the body's "vital force" in warding off the disease.</p> <p>The dilutions were extreme.  "Active preparations" were made by repeated tenfold dilutions of the original extract.  Hahnemann was not bothered by the fact that at these dilutions none of the original substance remained; he claimed that the power of the curative solution did not come from the presence of an active ingredient, but from the fact that the original substance had in some way imprinted itself on the solution. In other words, the water somehow remembered the original material that had been dissolved.  This imprinting had to be carried out very carefully.  A simple dilution of the solution was not enough.  The vial had to be struck against a special leather pillow a fixed number of times to be "dynamized."</p> <p>Conventional medicine did not take kindly to these peculiar rites.  In fact, the American Medical Association was formed in 1846 largely as a reaction to homeopathy with a view towards cleansing the profession of homeopaths.  These efforts were sometimes absurd in the extreme.  One Connecticut doctor lost his membership for consulting a homeopath, who happened to be his wife!</p> <p>Nevertheless homeopathy did not disappear and now is actually enjoying a rebirth.  People disillusioned with scientific medicine are resorting to homeopathy, gleefully pointing out studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals which apparently show that homeopathy works.  But wait a minute. </p> <p>A careful review of these studies reveals unimpressive results.  In some minor conditions homeopathy does seem to be slightly more effective than a placebo.  This has no practical implication but does raise some academic interest.  How can there be any positive results at all if there is no active ingredient?  Publication bias is a likely explanation.</p> <p>This term means that if enough studies are carried out, some will show positive results by chance alone.  Reporting these while maintaining silence on negative findings can create the illusion of effectiveness.  Then of course there is the question of plausibility. We have accumulated enough knowledge about biology, physiology, chemistry and pharmacology to be able to conclude that non-existent molecules cannot cure existing disease. Any talk of water having “memory” makes zero sense, and even if there were such a magical effect, how would it be transferred to a sugar pill, and in what way would this have anything to do with treating disease?</p> <p>The only reasonable conclusion to arrive at about homeopathy is that it functions through the placebo effect. If you believe it can relieve symptoms, it can. But it will not affect the underlying disease. And that is something to be aware of.</p> <p> Wed, 11 Apr 2018 19:25:20 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7010 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-history/alternative-medicine-not-alternative-medicine <p>The best definition seems to be “those practices that are not taught in conventional medical schools.”  And why not?  Because medical schools are sticklers for a little detail called “evidence.”  After all, patients have a right to expect that a course of action recommended by a physician has a reasonable chance of working. In science, evidence means statistically significant results from properly controlled experiments, as evaluated by experts in the field. Lack of evidence of course does not mean that a particular treatment cannot work. Only that it has not been demonstrated to work. And </p> Tue, 27 Feb 2018 19:33:07 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 6935 at /oss /oss/article/did-you-know/medical-benefits-massage <p>A<a href="http://www.anatomyfacts.com/Research/Massage%20Journal%20Club/January07/Moyer.pdf"> 2004 paper</a> reviewed the research on massage therapy available at the time and found some interesting things. After one massage session, massage clients show reduced heart rates, blood pressures, cortisol levels (the main stress hormone) and anxiety, and after several sessions, clients showed remarkable drops in depression levels, on par with the positive effects of psychotherapy.</p> Tue, 26 Sep 2017 19:36:34 +0000 Ada McVean B.Sc. 2646 at /oss /oss/article/homeopathy/homeopathy-delusion-through-dilution <p>Homeopathic products. They are safe enough, no doubt about that. Millions of people around the world swear by them.  No doubt about that either.  Furthermore, their label features the term “DIN-HM,” designating approval by Health Canada.  So why then do I and my colleagues at the ���ϲ����� Office for Science and Society support a class action lawsuit launched against Boiron Laboratories and Shoppers Drug Mart for marketing Oscillococcinum, a homeopathic medication advertised as a remedy for colds and the flu?</p> Fri, 25 May 2012 19:39:18 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1706 at /oss