Dangerous Optimism: Risk, Bias and Smoking
This post originally appeared on Scientific American Trails of acrid grey mist hang in the air. I use the front …
Category Archives: Medicine
The Neurobiology of Placebo
Here’s an informative and well done skeptical comic from those geniuses over at PhD comics: We can glean a number …
How Should We Argue For Vaccination?
I have excerpted my latest essay for the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) below. In it I take a look …
An open letter to parents concerned about vaccines
I was on Facebook earlier this week and came across a posting from a cousin of mine. She had just …
Why do witches ride broomsticks?
We see it every year at Halloween, the common image of a witch riding a broomstick across the night sky. …
Where do drugs get those weird names?
Trifiburozu…what? Until 1961 there was no standard for assigning drugs generic names, which are different from brand names like Tamiflu …
Informational Resources on Vaccine Safety
The voice of the anti-vaccination movement is growing louder by the day; therefore we have to do our part in …
Research Blip: 73% of individuals prescribed antidepressants have no psychiatric diagnosis
The News During the last 20 years the use of antidepressants has grown significantly making them one of the most …
Arsenic in Your Apple Juice: Why Science Says You’re Safe
Pseudoscience In The Land of Oz Dr. Oz has made some outlandish claims once again. This time, he has gone …
New Report Finds Little Evidence for Any Adverse Effects from Vaccines
The News Vaccines are largely safe, and do not cause autism or diabetes, the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) said …
Research Blip: Doctors and nurses more likely to use “alternative medicine” than the general population
The News U.S. health care workers, especially doctors and nurses, use complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) far more than do …
The Antioxidant Craze: Do They Work?
“Antioxidants don’t work, but no one wants to hear it.” Simply put, we have no evidence that antioxidants are beneficial …
The Myths of Herbal Medicine
Let me preface this article by saying that I have been waiting for someone to do this for years. I …
The Multi-Vitamin Fallacy
As a culture of unhealthy people, we are very concerned about our diet. Not just for the calories, but also …
Another Systematic Review Shows Acupuncture is No More Effective Than Placebo
We have talked before about the many fallacies and short-comings of acupuncture. I have claimed that it doesn’t work beyond …
More Reasons to get Vaccinated
As if wiping out disease wasn’t enough, here is another reason to get vaccinated and another reason to regard everything …
Detox Foot Pad Bogus
In 2008, Wired magazine called “detox foot adhesives” “the most appalling medical scam since magnetic immortality devices.” Now we have …
I Saw a Bright White Light…
I read an article recently about death-bed experiences, written by “grief counselor” David Kessler for Oprah.com (don’t ask me why). …
What’s Love Got to do With It?
Now for some new and interesting information about how human love works. This is something that even the most science …
On Explaining The Safety of Vaccination
Vaccination is one of those rare scientific discoveries that changes the landscape of an entire field of knowledge. It has …
