/oss/taxonomy/term/4465/all en /oss/article/covid-19-health-pseudoscience/upside-down-doctor <p>Dr. Joe Mercola, an osteopathic physician who has made an impressive fortune selling supplements through his online store, has a new book out about the COVID-19 pandemic, a book which he co-authored with Ronnie Cummins, an organic food crusader. This book, as well as Mercola’s decades of peddling health misinformation on the Internet, exemplifies the dangerous blind spot of the wellness movement.</p> Fri, 04 Jun 2021 20:40:54 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 8757 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/dexamethasone-triumph-chemistry-and-biotechnology <p>Whenever the “leader of the free world” has a health issue, the media explodes with a mix of facts and conjecture. President Trump’s bout with COVID-19 has focused attention on the treatments he has received which include dexamethasone, a steroid that has a wide spectrum of uses including reduction of inflammation in the bronchi, the airways that lead from the trachea into the lungs. Dexamethasone is a “corticosteroid,” one of a number of medications that chemically resembles the hormones produced in the outer layer, or “cortex,” of the adrenal glands.</p> Fri, 09 Oct 2020 18:34:34 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8444 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-health/essential-knowledge-about-essential-oils-and-covid-19 <p>If only it were that simple. If all one would have to do to prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus from infecting the respiratory tract is to inhale some vapour from eucalyptus essential oil, our worries would be over.</p> Wed, 15 Apr 2020 09:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8216 at /oss