/oss/taxonomy/term/418/all en /oss/article/medical-health-and-nutrition-you-asked/vitamin-d-puzzle <p>Walk into any pharmacy or health food store and you will see shelves filled with vitamin D supplements. Then stroll over to a bookstore and you will find all sort of books touting the wonders of the vitamin. Next, search PubMed for articles about vitamin D. There will be thousands, with different conclusions about what constitutes adequate blood levels and how these are to be achieved. Where will that leave you? Confused, I suspect. </p> Wed, 24 Jan 2024 19:27:07 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9815 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/scam-or-not <p>Is this product a scam? I often get emails that start off with that query. The reference is usually to some dietary supplement the questioner encountered on the Internet that promises to miraculously solve some health problem. This week the question was about EMMA, “the first and only Doctor Endorsed Formula that targets bacterial overgrowth, parasites and pathogens while strengthening the microbiome.”</p> Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:09:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9633 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition/sour-grapes <p>Fruits and vegetables are deemed to be “healthy". A vast number of studies have indeed demonstrated lower rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer in populations consuming more fruits and vegetables. Is this because these plant products contain chemicals that inhibit body processes that cause disease, or is it because people who eat more fruits and vegetables eat less meat which causes disease? Most likely both factors are at play. Meat is high in saturated fats that are implicated in heart disease and when cooked at high temperatures, meat forms a number of carcinogens.</p> Thu, 10 Aug 2023 16:46:09 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9596 at /oss /oss/article/medical-health-and-nutrition/take-biotin-most-better-save-your-money <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-take-biotin-for-most-better-to-save-your-money">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> Fri, 24 Feb 2023 11:00:00 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9415 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-and-nutrition-pseudoscience/oh-my-there-cyanide-b12-supplements-really <p>There are many things in life to worry about but cyanide in vitamin B12 supplements is not one of them. Why do I bring this up? Because of a video that has been circulating about “the toxic ingredient in your child’s vitamins.” In the video, a man drones on about how he finds it “hard to believe that we are allowed to make vitamins out of hydrogen cyanide in this country, but we are.” That man turns out to be Gary Brecka, who labels himself a “human biologist,”  whatever that may mean, on the basis of having a BS in Human Biology from National College of Chiropractic. Not exactly Harvard.</p> Fri, 19 Aug 2022 10:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9203 at /oss /oss/article/medical/myths-about-vitamins-are-hard-dislodge <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-myths-about-vitamins-are-hard-to-dislodge">Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> <hr /> <p>Many people see vitamins as an inexpensive and risk-free way to prevent disease. But just as the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire, vitamins are neither inexpensive nor risk free, and they do not actually prevent disease. In fact, they may make things worse.</p> Thu, 30 Jun 2022 18:57:36 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9152 at /oss /oss/article/nutrition-you-asked/it-true-you-cannot-eat-polar-bear-liver <p>You could eat it. If you are lucky, you would live to regret it. That's because the liver could be lethal! You could overdose on retinol!</p> Wed, 06 Oct 2021 20:51:30 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8892 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/does-vitamin-d-protect-against-covid-seems-not <hr /> <p>This article was originally published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-does-vitamin-d-protect-against-covid-seems-not">the Montreal Gazette</a></p> <hr /> <p>One of the major arguments used by people who want to downplay the seriousness of this pandemic or the importance of vaccines is to raise the issue of Vitamin D.</p> Fri, 25 Jun 2021 23:38:18 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8771 at /oss /oss/article/health-nutrition/health-supplements-good-bad-and-ugly <p>It is always a challenge to find a catchy headline for an article. For this one, a connection to the classic 1966 “spaghetti western” that propelled Clint Eastwood to fame seems fitting. The film is about three gunslingers who battle each other as they look for a stash of gold. “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly,” is a great title that I hereby propose to swipe because I think it also captures the essence of the “health supplement” industry. Some supplements are potentially useful, some are useless, and some are outright ugly.</p> Fri, 07 May 2021 21:34:03 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8723 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19/let-sunshine-covid-19 <p>Mention Vitamin D and thoughts usually turn to bone strength. That is understandable since the relationship between this vitamin and the incorporation of calcium and phosphorus into bone is well established. In the early twentieth century, Sir Edward Mellanby in Great Britain was concerned about the incidence of rickets, a disease characterized by bow legs due to impaired bone formation.</p> Fri, 08 May 2020 16:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8237 at /oss /oss/article/health-nutrition/fishing-evidence-omega-3s-and-dry-eyes <p>Are omega-3s the new vitamin C? In the past few years, these fats, primarily found in fish and flaxseeds, have acquired a reputation as veritable superheroes. Have arthritis? Try omega-3s! Don’t want cancer? Try omega-3s! Your car won’t start in the winter? Have you tried omega-3s?</p> <p>Some websites will even direct people with dry eyes to start taking omega-3 supplements in order to help with symptoms. And while the evidence for that looked surprisingly good for a while, a recent trial casts doubt as to their usefulness in getting your eyes to stop burning.</p> Wed, 12 Feb 2020 20:06:39 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8106 at /oss /oss/article/health-pseudoscience/do-you-know-whats-inside-your-herbal-medicine <p>Can we find 15,000 taxonomists willing to work around the clock? I write this because there are a lot of species out there that need to be properly identified, but apparently a taxonomist (a person who names and identifies living things)<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1691236/"> can only critically identify about 0.01% of all species on this planet</a>. So we would need tens of thousands of them to know exactly what’s what when it comes to living things.</p> Thu, 05 Dec 2019 17:55:52 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8039 at /oss /oss/article/health/it-hasnt-been-good-year-vitamin-d <p> </p> <hr /> <p><em>​</em><em>This article was first published in</em><span> </span><a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/christopher-labos-it-hasnt-been-a-good-year-for-vitamin-d?fbclid=IwAR0YZCqOdpLjViz7BIVWLEOQ3pBEXpbDCQupHpKCaRQkp2IF0resvmBUMvM">The Montreal Gazette<span>.</span></a></p> Fri, 15 Nov 2019 17:00:31 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 7997 at /oss /oss/article/health-nutrition-videos/right-chemistry-science-selenium <p><div class="media-youtube-video media-element file-default media-youtube-1"> <iframe class="media-youtube-player" id="media-youtube-hf1z436aapg" width="640" height="390" title="Dr. Joe Schwarcz on the science of selenium" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/Hf1z436AApg?wmode=opaque&controls=&enablejsapi=1&modestbranding=1&playerapiid=media-youtube-hf1z436aapg&origin=https%3A//www.mcgill.ca&rel=0" name="Dr. Joe Schwarcz on the science of selenium" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>Video of Dr. Joe Schwarcz on the science of selenium</iframe> </div> </p> Mon, 22 Jul 2019 18:26:06 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7837 at /oss /oss/article/quackery/doctors-and-seductive-videos <p>Invariably the answer is no. In general, there may be a few seeds of truth in the video that are washed away by a tsunami of hype. There are promises of miracles, but of course, you can’t expect miracles for free so there is always a book to buy, a newsletter to subscribe to, or some supplement or gizmo to purchase.</p> Tue, 08 Jan 2019 16:18:55 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7520 at /oss