/oss/taxonomy/term/615/all en /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-critical-thinking-technology/brain-zapping-may-probably-appear-be-doing-something <p>Shocking the brain with electricity may bring to mind electroconvulsive therapy or James Whale’s seminal black-and-white adaptation of <i>Frankenstein</i>. But given that our brain cells use electricity to allow us to think, speak, and move, might there not be some way to tweak our brain’s electricity to solve our many health problems?</p> Fri, 21 Jul 2023 15:01:41 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 9572 at /oss /oss/article/medical-general-science/testosterone-study-results-are-reassuring-come-caveats <hr /> <p><em>This article was originally posted in the</em> <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/labos-testosterone-study-results-are-reassuring-but-come-with-caveats"><em>Montreal Gazette.</em></a></p> <hr /> <p>For the past decade, whenever someone asked about testosterone therapy, we had to be cautious. We worried that testosterone could increase the risk of heart attack and the medical community was awaiting the results of the TRAVERSE trial. Those results are finally in.</p> Fri, 30 Jun 2023 16:00:52 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 9557 at /oss /oss/article/did-you-know-general-science/power-suggestion-can-play-role-aromatherapy <hr /> <p><em>Shira Cohen is studying Nutrition at the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition at ���ϲ����� University, specializing in Global Nutrition. </em></p> Wed, 29 May 2019 16:42:28 +0000 Shira Cohen, Student Contributor 7784 at /oss /oss/article/health-videos/cracked-science-27-tapping-emotional-freedom-technique <p><div class="media-youtube-video media-element file-default media-youtube-1"> <iframe class="media-youtube-player" id="media-youtube-hrdtf-04k5m" width="640" height="390" title="Tapping Into Emotional Freedom Technique (CS27)" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/HRdTF_04K5M?wmode=opaque&controls=&enablejsapi=1&modestbranding=1&playerapiid=media-youtube-hrdtf-04k5m&origin=https%3A//www.mcgill.ca&rel=0" name="Tapping Into Emotional Freedom Technique (CS27)" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>Video of Tapping Into Emotional Freedom Technique (CS27)</iframe> </div> </p> Fri, 15 Feb 2019 17:21:00 +0000 Jonathan Jarry, MSc 7591 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/health-news-quackery/cancer-charlatans <p>What makes people defend the indefensible? A prime example of this conundrum is the case of Antonella Carpenter, a 71 year old “alternative practitioner” who was convicted of conducting a fraudulent scheme to cure cancer in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is likely looking at spending the rest of her life in prison. She is not a physician but has some training in physics and claims that she can cure cancer by injecting a tumour with a saline solution of food colouring and walnut hull extract followed by heating the area with a laser.</p> Mon, 18 Apr 2016 19:29:52 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2334 at /oss /oss/article/controversial-science-health-news/colourful-conman <p>Let me tell you about Dinshah P. Ghadiali and his Spectro-Chrome.  Dinshah, as he like to be called, was born in India in 1873 and at least by his own account was a remarkable man.  He began school at the ripe age of two and a half and by eleven he was an assistant to a professor of mathematics at a college in Bombay.  This prodigy began to study medicine at the age of fourteen, but then we hear no more about his progress in this area.  Probably because he saw no need to pursue these futile studies once he had independently discovered the key to health.  Colour therapy.</p> Thu, 05 Jun 2014 00:23:25 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2152 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/controversial-science-health-history-news-quirky-science/strange-treatments <p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/files/2014/12/illness.png"><img alt="illness" height="150" src="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/files/2014/12/illness-150x150.png" width="150" /></a> Today we have a pretty good grasp of what causes illness. We know about infections, carcinogens, pollution, genetics, anatomical abnormalities and the consequences of a poor diet. We also have effective pharmaceutical and surgical treatments, albeit not always as effective as we would like. But at least they are based upon science. But that has only been the case since we’ve had a good grasp on how the body functions, which is basically the last hundred or so years. Before that desperate people resorted to some pretty wacky treatments, at least wacky in retrospect. At the time I suppose they seemed rational. The ancient Greeks introduced the idea of “like cures like,” later adopted by homeopaths. A poisonous snake was unaffected by its own poison, so Greek physicians believed snakebite should be treated by applying the flesh of a snake, or a concoction made by boiling a snake, to the wound.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">This same principle was used in the fourteenth century when Europe was struck by the Black Death. This plague which killed about a million and a half people in Britain alone was believed to be spread by bad smells. That of course was not the case. The plague is a bacterial infection that is spread by fleas which live on rodents such as rats. Rodents are more likely to inhabit filthy areas which smell so there may actually be an association between the plague and smells but the smell does not cause the disease. Nevertheless, the belief was that the disease was caused by deadly vapors, and in the spirit of like cures like, the foul vapors could be warded off by other evil smells. Some physicians even recommended keeping goats inside homes to produce a therapeutic stink. Even more bizarre was the suggestion of using human flatus which was supposed to be stored in a jar and inhaled when the plague struck. How people were supposed to make the collection isn’t clear.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">The flatus treatment sounds just about as crazy as a doctor’s recommendation in 1728 for curing coughs with snail syrup. Take garden snails, early in the morning while the dew is upon them, he said, take off their shells; slit them; and with half a pound of sugar, put them in a bag and hang them in a cellar and the syrup will melt and drop through, ready to be swallowed when a cough appears. That recommendation is about as hard to swallow as the snail juice. Modern science hasn’t wiped out all outlandish therapies. In Hong Kong snake soup remains the remedy for a cold with venomous snakes like the king cobra being the most highly prized ingredient. Sometimes a living snake is skinned and the gall bladder removed to be used as a cure-all. The treatment does have a dangerous side effect. Escape of snakes from shops is a problem.</p> <p><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/2014/12/06/strange-treatments">Read more</a></p> Sat, 06 Dec 2014 21:45:10 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2218 at /oss /oss/article/quackery-you-asked/what-craniosacral-therapy <p>"You should have your head examined!" We've all heard that expression at some time after expressing some thought that was perceived as being ridiculous. Of course this is not meant to be taken literally. Nobody believes that stupidity can be diagnosed by physically examining the head. But there are people who believe that various medical conditions can be diagnosed in this way; in fact, not only diagnosed but treated. We're talking about something called Craniosacral therapy.</p> Sun, 18 Nov 2012 23:26:20 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1801 at /oss /oss/article/quackery-you-asked/what-are-bioidentical-hormones <p>Who would you think knows more about menopausal symptoms and their treatment: an actress of very questionable scientific pedigree, or a Professor of medicine who has carried out and published a plethora of studies on the subject? I would think that University of New South Wales professor Dr. Barry Wren’s opinion would be more respected than that of Suzanne Somers, whose main claim to fame is that she once played a ditzy blond on the television show “Three’s Company.” But that’s my opinion.</p> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 00:49:34 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1813 at /oss /oss/article/quackery/craniosacral-therapy <p>"You should have your head examined!" We've all heard that expression at some time after expressing some thought that was perceived as being ridiculous. Of course this is not meant to be taken literally. Nobody believes that mental increptitude can be diagnosed by physically examining the head. But there are people who believe that various medical conditions can be diagnosed in this way; in fact, not only diagnosed but treated.</p> Tue, 11 Sep 2012 15:45:05 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1722 at /oss