/oss/taxonomy/term/1105/all en /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition-pseudoscience/doc-detox-tries-rewrite-all-medicine <p>If you are desperate enough, there is someone out there willing to rewrite all of medicine and relieve you of your savings. A former nurse with multiple sclerosis lost over $10,000 in this way, according to a CBC Marketplace investigation. To whom did she give this money, you may wonder? To Darrell Wolfe, who calls himself Doc of Detox.</p> Fri, 09 Aug 2024 02:14:41 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 10021 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-pseudoscience-history/will-graphology-become-extinct <p>Can a pseudoscience ever truly disappear? Over the course of human history, we have made many attempts at explaining the world around us, and while some of these guesses were eventually confirmed through rigorous scientific experimentation, many of our hypotheses were shown to be wrong, yet some survived. They became belief systems with a patina of scientific credibility applied on top. It still surprises me that astrology, a clear pseudoscience which has been firmly supplanted by both astronomy and human psychology, remains popular today.</p> Fri, 19 Jul 2024 12:02:15 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 10004 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking/rasputin-phrenology-and-dark-allegations-madness-access-consciousness <p>How does a person come to believe that we can use telepathy on horses and that schizophrenia is secretly a superpower?</p> Fri, 12 Jul 2024 05:26:41 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9999 at /oss /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/twisting-facts-about-cancer <p>Let’s start with some facts. Antiperspirants, cell phones, root canals or wired bras do not cause cancer. Sugar or dairy products do not “feed” the disease. You cannot cure cancer with an alkaline diet, crystals, juices, shark cartilage, apricot pits, magnets, mistletoe, soursop, chlorella, black walnuts, coconut oil, cesium chloride, reiki, psychic surgery, baking soda, antineoplastons, bioresonance machines, orgone accumulators, Rife frequency generators or coffee enemas.</p> Wed, 08 May 2024 19:16:23 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9940 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-pseudoscience/naprapathy-stretches-credulity <p>Buried in <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/5443677/49/ragsdale-v-central-dupage-hospital/">a court document</a> mentioning Joe Mercola was the first reference to naprapathy I had ever seen. Joe Mercola has made a fortune selling dietary supplements and publishing health misinformation over the past few decades. The court case did not involve Mercola but rather a woman he had treated. In her lawsuit against a life insurance company, the plaintiff is described as having been bitten by a tick and contracting Lyme disease.</p> Fri, 02 Feb 2024 12:41:47 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9821 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/critical-thinking-pseudoscience/magnesium-supplements-sleep-may-not-work-dream <p>Everywhere I turn these days, an influencer is trying to sell me magnesium supplements. Apparently, all of us who find it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep all night are missing the boat. The answer is a simple mineral available as a dietary supplement: the all-mighty magnesium.</p> Fri, 22 Sep 2023 13:09:25 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9649 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-pseudoscience/whats-trending-world-pseudoscience <p>Our office’s mission is to separate sense from nonsense, which may well be a Sisyphean task. There is a lot of pseudoscience—meaning ideas and interventions that look scientific but that are not—especially around health. Having a mental map of what is trending right now can help us better understand the landscape so that we can intervene more effectively. I have been interested in health-related pseudoscience for over a decade now. Here is what I see being popular at the moment and who is pushing (and often profiting from) these narratives.</p> Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9645 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-pseudoscience/world-health-organization-has-pseudoscience-problem <p>The World Health Organization has a definition of the soul.</p> <p>It is not technically theirs, but it appears in the glossary of one of their many official documents. The soul, according to the WHO, is derived from the astral organization, which is another term they have had to define. The astral organization, you see, is distinct from the etheric organization. That same document, coming out of the world’s foremost authority on global health, mentions such esoteric concepts as rhythmical embrocation, a type of energy healing that involves rhythmic strokes on the body.</p> Fri, 28 Apr 2023 14:00:51 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9496 at /oss /oss/article/pseudoscience-environment/dowsing-dowse-it-work <p>Desperate times call for desperate measures, I suppose. Although we live in a world driven by technology, we are always one cataclysm away from retreating to magical notions. Climate change is <a href="https://www.usgs.gov/science/science-explorer/climate/droughts-and-climate-change">making droughts worse</a>, which will increase the value of water moving forward. An ancient pseudoscience is poised to make a resurgence in these desperate times.</p> Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:28:14 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9439 at /oss /oss/article/pseudoscience/pseudosciences-constant-appeal-shadow-beautiful-science <p>Fifty years ago, polymath Jacob Bronowski, creator of the TV series <i>The Ascent of Man</i>, and author of the book by the same title wrote:</p> Fri, 10 Mar 2023 20:35:30 +0000 Enrico Uva B.Sc. Dip. Ed. 9431 at /oss /oss/article/pseudoscience/dr-ozs-sad-trip-down-rabbit-hole <p>It seems that Dr. Mehmet Oz’s transformation from respected surgeon to deplorable pseudoscience advocate is complete. He recently slandered Dr. Fauci as a “petty tyrant” and then called him “cowardly” for not taking the bait to get into a “doctor-to-doctor debate” with the surgeon-turned TV snake oil salesman-turned politician. Oz may once have been a very competent physician, but he is way, way out of his depth when it comes to immunology, virology and epidemiology. He is just not in Dr. Fauci’s league.  </p> Fri, 18 Feb 2022 22:01:11 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9030 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-pseudoscience/djokovic-endorsed-who-why <p>I started losing respect for Novak Djokovic when I read about how he had concluded that he should adopt a gluten-free diet, long before the fiasco in Australia. Dr. Igor Cetojovic, a fellow Serb, asked Novak to hold a slice of bread against his stomach with his left hand and stretch out his right arm, which the doctor then attempted to push down. Since he was now able to push it down more easily than in the absence of the bread, he diagnosed gluten sensitivity. Ever since then Djokovic has followed a gluten-free diet and has also eliminated dairy.</p> Thu, 27 Jan 2022 20:23:07 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9007 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/shedding-light-illusionary-connections <p>We may have left 2021 behind, but unfortunately, the misinformation that characterized the past year continues unabated. Betty White, comedienne extraordinaire, passed away on December 31, just eighteen days shy of her one-hundredth birthday. It didn’t take long for zealous members of the anti-vax community to link her death with the booster shot she received three days earlier.  </p> Fri, 07 Jan 2022 21:37:05 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8972 at /oss /oss/article/health-and-nutrition-you-asked/there-any-point-drinking-oxygenated-water <p>Oxygen is critical for life and that also makes is susceptible to chicanery. If oxygen is so essential that the brain is permanently injured after just four minutes of deprivation, then surely more must be better! That’s the argument used by sellers of “oxygenated water” who often target athletes with claims that their product can improve athletic performance. Well, all water is actually oxygenated water because oxygen from the air dissolves in water, although not to a great extent since its solubility is only about 25 mL per liter.</p> Thu, 23 Dec 2021 23:55:21 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8963 at /oss