/oss/taxonomy/term/1110/all en /oss/article/medical-critical-thinking/trampoline-detox-bad-idea <p>What if I told you that every morning you needed to bounce up and down on a trampoline simply to activate your brain? That, somehow, your brain had evolved to be sluggish and unresponsive until you had vigorously jumped up and down on a device that dates back to the 1930s? You probably wouldn’t believe me and for good reasons.</p> Fri, 08 Sep 2023 13:22:35 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9632 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/you-dont-need-binder-your-detox-kit-and-you-dont-need-detox-kit <p>“You don’t even know what a binder is when you’re doing a parasite cleanse. I came from Western medicine and I didn’t know what a binder was! We didn’t use those!” So says Kim Rogers, who proclaims herself a “worm queen,” to <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mrsrogershood/video/7170453152649465131">her nearly half a million followers on TikTok</a>.</p> Fri, 13 Jan 2023 11:00:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9358 at /oss /oss/article/general-science/babies-botulism-and-honey <div>The young mother was surprised by the doctor’s question. “What does your little girl eat for breakfast?” “Only hot oatmeal with milk,” she answered. “Does she put any sugar on it?” the doctor queried. Now the lady became indignant. “We eat only whole, natural foods. No meat, no processed food, no sugar. Sugar is poison. We use only natural honey on the oatmeal.” And with those words, she confirmed the doctor’s suspicion. The little girl’s baby brother who had been brought to the hospital suffering from some mysterious ailment had botulism poisoning!</div> <div> </div> Wed, 25 May 2022 10:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9118 at /oss /oss/article/right-chemistry-kambo-cleanse <p><div class="media-youtube-video media-element file-default media-youtube-1"> <iframe class="media-youtube-player" id="media-youtube-33bvhsoodli" width="640" height="390" title="Dr. Joe Schwarcz on the "Kambo Cleanse"" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/33BVHSOOdlI?wmode=opaque&controls=&enablejsapi=1&modestbranding=1&playerapiid=media-youtube-33bvhsoodli&origin=https%3A//www.mcgill.ca&rel=0" name="Dr. Joe Schwarcz on the "Kambo Cleanse"" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>Video of Dr. Joe Schwarcz on the "Kambo Cleanse"</iframe> </div> </p> Fri, 27 Sep 2019 17:03:25 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7945 at /oss /oss/article/did-you-know-health/youre-probably-storing-leftovers-wrong-especially-if-you-eat-rice <p>If, like me, you aim to cook dinners that provide both your next day’s lunch as well as a freezer portion to be thawed at some future date, you may want to stop. At least with rice.</p> Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:17:05 +0000 Ada McVean B.Sc. 7827 at /oss /oss/article/quackery/dr-sebi-what-do-we-make-him <p>A self-proclaimed healer who tried to get Michael Jackson off painkillers is back in the news. His chosen name was “Dr. Sebi”, but his real name was Alfredo Bowman and he was not a doctor. The man who was working on his documentary,<a href="https://www.apnews.com/36e73cee44084fffadadf67f1df7a545"> Nipsey Hussle</a>, was murdered recently, and his death as well as Sebi’s have been taken by some as proof that shadowy forces are conspiring to suppress the truth about Sebi’s remedies.</p> <p>Should we take Sebi’s body of work seriously?</p> <p><b>Who was Dr. Sebi?</b></p> Wed, 10 Apr 2019 15:48:36 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 7711 at /oss /oss/article/health/sweating-pig <p>A graduate student at the University of California was having a little dispute with his girlfriend. It seems she had started massage school and came home with some newly acquired information from a classmate. She was told that she should stop eating pork because pigs have no sweat glands and thus don’t sweat out toxins. Presumably then pork is unsafe to eat because of the toxins it harbours. There is some truth here. Pigs really don’t sweat. Not much anyway. As far as the rest goes, pure bunk. Sweating does not remove toxins, its purpose is to cool the body through evaporation. Perspiration</p> Tue, 18 Sep 2018 16:07:15 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7361 at /oss /oss/article/you-asked/can-you-heat-food-metal-container-microwave-oven <p><span>Apparently this question was prompted by a remark a guest made on the Dr. Oz Show. While speaking of “toxins” released from plastic he said something about stainless steel being preferable. This caused quite a commotion in chat rooms with some people commenting that only someone with the IQ of plankton would suggest the use of metal in a microwave. I'm not sure how the IQ of Oz's guests compares with that of greenery, but using metal in the micro is far from the silliest thing ever heard on that show.</span></p> Thu, 12 Apr 2018 16:20:31 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7011 at /oss /oss/article/health-news-toxicity/oil-your-problems-away <p>Oh my! Yet another sure-fire detox! This time it's "oil pulling." I'm not pulling your leg with this one. The claim is that you swish oil, usually sunflower, sesame or coconut, around your mouth for 15-20 minutes without swallowing. Why would you want to do that given that it is likely to be a rather unpleasant experience? Because it improves oral health and to boot, the oil sucks toxins out of your body via the salivary glands.! And of course this then cures every condition you have ever heard of.</p> Thu, 06 Mar 2014 14:29:22 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2111 at /oss /oss/article/cancer-controversial-science-environment-health-news-toxicity/hippocrates-health-institute-dispenses-unhealthy-advice <p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/?p=6909"><img alt="ALL" height="150" src="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/files/2014/10/ALL-150x150.jpg" width="150" /></a>Do parents have a right to make a decision about how a minor’s cancer is to be treated? Or not treated? This is not just a hypothetical question, it is a very current one. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is a bone marrow cancer that untreated leads to death but with appropriate chemotherapy has an over 90% cure rate. The parents of an eleven year old Canadian girl have decided to end the recommended treatment before it was completed in favour of a “natural” therapy, stating that this was more in line with their native traditions. They elected to have their child treated at the Hippocrates Health Institute in Florida which features alternative therapies based on the theories of Ann Wigmore, a Lithuanian émigré to the U.S. who had become convinced of the healing power of grasses after reading the Biblical story of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king who went through a seven year period of insanity from which he apparently cured himself by eating grass.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">Wigmore reflected on this story, considered how dogs and cats sometimes eat grass when they feel ill, and came up with a theory about the magical properties of wheatgrass juice. Food rots in the intestine due to improper digestion, she maintained, and forms “toxins” that then enter the circulation. The living enzymes in raw wheatgrass prevent these toxins from forming and ward off disease. So she claimed. By 1988 Wigmore, who had no recognized scientific education, was even suggesting that her “energy enzyme soup” was capable of curing AIDS and cancer. Ann is no longer with us but her “live enzyme therapy” is still a mainstay at the Hippocrates Health Institute.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">The term “live enzyme” is meaningless since enzymes are not living entities. They are not composed of cellular units, they cannot reproduce, they cannot carry on metabolism and they cannot grow. Ergo, they are not alive. Enzymes are specialized protein molecules that are essential because they catalyze the numerous reactions that go on in our bodies all the time that are necessary to sustain life. But our bodies make all the enzymes that are needed and enzymes present in food are not the same as the enzymes our cells need and in any case are broken down during digestion. Claims that cancer can be cured by live enzyme therapy are bogus and dangerous. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia requires treatment that has been worked out by decades of research, not concoctions based on folklore and wishful thinking. Should authorities step in and override the parents’ wishes? If this young girl is to have a chance at survival, yes.</p> <p><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/2014/10/26/the-hippocrates-health-institute-dispenses-unhealthy-advice">Read more</a></p> Mon, 27 Oct 2014 02:09:45 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2209 at /oss /oss/article/news-technology/let-nonsense-slide <p>So you want to buy a "green" pot or pan to avoid those nasty chemicals associated with "synthetic" non-stick coatings? They're available. A line of non-stick pots and pans is being advertised as having a "natural ceramic" coating that is free of PFOA and PTFE, releases no "toxins," and is safe for birds. Natural ceramic? Really? I'm not aware of any trees bearing ceramic fruits or animals running around with ceramic fur or birds laying ceramic eggs.</p> Wed, 26 Jun 2013 22:51:41 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1970 at /oss /oss/article/food-health-quackery/dr-ozs-two-day-holiday-detox-should-be-flushed <p>One would think that producers of the Dr. Oz show would pay at least a little attention to the widely publicized study that appeared in the British Medical Journal examining the health recommendations made on medical talk shows. The researchers looked at eighty recommendations made on the Oz Show and found that evidence supported 46%, contradicted 15%, and no evidence was found for 39%. Not exactly a stellar performance. Yet on the heels of the stinging paper, what does the Dr. Oz Show come up with? A segment that has no supportive evidence whatsoever.</p> Thu, 08 Jan 2015 00:52:08 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2228 at /oss /oss/article/environment-news/solving-solution-problems <p>Solvents! What do you think of? Nail polish remover? Dry cleaning fluid? Yes, those are solvents. But there’s a lot more to the story. Chemistry would not be possible without the use solvents. Most chemical reactions are carried out in solvents and any time you hear of some substance being extracted from a plant or herb, you’re looking at a solvent in action. The simplest and safest solvent is water. When you brew coffee or tea you are using water as a solvent. But the majority of substances chemists deal with are not soluble in water and require the use of an organic solvent.</p> Fri, 05 Jul 2013 15:54:10 +0000 Alexandra Pires-Ménard, OSS Intern 1977 at /oss /oss/article/health-history-toxicity/snake-bitten <p>Not many people have heard of boomslang. That’s not surprising because these venomous tree snakes are a super shy and non-aggressive species native to Sub-Saharan Africa. These snakes exhibit sexual dimorphism therefore it is easy to distinguish between genders. One of the most obvious morphological differences between genders is that females are brown in color while males are usually bright colors such as green, yellow or pinkish red. Boomslang snakes have strikingly large eyes and juvenile boomslangs are known for their beautiful iridescent green eyes.</p> Mon, 12 Jan 2015 01:09:36 +0000 Alexandra Pires-Ménard, OSS Intern 2229 at /oss /oss/article/controversial-science-health-news-toxicity/eucalyptus-leaves-more-delicacy-koalas <p>Even the eccentric Sheldon Cooper, from the hit TV show The Big Bang Theory can’t resist the sight of cute koalas munching on eucalyptus leaves. Those familiar with Sheldon Cooper’s character would find this rather strange; after all, it is quite unlike him to be fascinated by superficial matters. Avid fans would dig deeper to discover that these seemingly cute and cuddly creatures may actually bear a unique scientific and medicinal connection.</p> Wed, 16 Oct 2013 02:40:21 +0000 Alexandra Pires-Ménard, OSS Intern 2022 at /oss