Category: Alternative Medicine
Should I take vitamin C to ward off colds, lower blood pressure or reduce cancer risk?
Vitamin C is one of the most iconic nutrients in popular health culture, often credited with preventing colds, boosting immunity and even fighting serious diseases.
But while it’s essential for our bodies to function, its benefits are often misunderstood or overstated. Before you stock up on supplements, here’s what to consider.
Continue reading
Chlorine Dioxide, Raw Camel Milk: The FDA No Longer Warns Against These and Other Ineffective Autism Treatments
The FDA has taken down a webpage warning about therapies and products making “false claims” of treating autism. It’s part of a series of actions the agency has taken under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to discredit long-established science.
Continue reading
How a Croatian Lab Spawned a Buzzy Peptide Now Popular With MAHA
BPC-157 is a kind of chemical called a peptide, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration treats it and some other peptides as unapproved drugs — going so far in 2023 as to explicitly prohibit compounding pharmacies from supplying BPC-157 to patients. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has more recently signaled a desire to loosen restrictions on experimental medical treatments, including unapproved peptides like BPC-157.
Continue reading
The growing fad of ‘microdosing’ mushrooms is leading to an uptick in poison control center calls and emergency room visits
Microdosing involves the ingestion of small quantities of psychoactive mushrooms, less than a regular dose and not in sufficient quantities to induce a “trip” or psychedelic experience, but to boost mood, creativity, concentration or productivity.
Continue reading
A Las Vegas Festival Promised Ways to Cheat Death. Two Attendees Left Fighting for Their Lives.
The investigation comes as peptides grow in popularity, thanks in part to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s promotion of the amino acid chains as a way to fight aging and chronic disease. Since becoming Health and Human Services secretary, Kennedy has vowed to end the Food and Drug Administration’s “war on peptides” and other alternative health therapies.
Continue reading
Nutrition advice is rife with misinformation − a medical education specialist explains how to tell valid health information from pseudoscience Aimee
Continue reading
Buyer beware: Off-brand Ozempic, Zepbound and other weight loss products carry undisclosed risks for consumers
The dietary supplement market has sought to cash in on the GLP-1 demand with pills, teas, extracts and all manner of other products that claim to produce similar effects as the brand names at a much lower price.
Continue reading
Elle Macpherson’s breast cancer: when the media reports on celebrity cancer, are we really getting the whole story?
Media coverage of Macpherson’s situation has largely missed a key piece of information: her breast cancer is not invasive.
Continue reading
Castor oil is all the rage among health influencers – what you need to know about this alternative remedy
Castor oil, which was once used by fascists in Italy as punishment because of its quick-acting laxative effect, is now a weight-loss trend on TikTok. Not drinking it, but rubbing it on your belly.
Influencers are also pouring it in their belly buttons and wrapping towels soaked in it around their midriff. They claim it can melt belly fat and help with bloating.
Continue reading
A natural deception: 3 marketing myths the supplement industry wants you to swallow
The business of supplements is booming, and with all the hype around them, it’s easy to forget what they actually are: substances that can powerfully affect the body and your health, yet aren’t regulated like drugs are.
Continue reading
Dietary supplements and protein powders fall under a ‘wild west’ of unregulated products that necessitate caveats and caution
Under a 1994 law, dietary supplements are classified as food, not as drugs. This means dietary supplements are not required to prove efficacy, unlike drugs. Regulators also don’t take action on a product until it is shown to cause harm.
Continue reading
Health misinformation is rampant on social media – here’s what it does, why it spreads and what people can do about it
Studies show that health misinformation spread on social media results in fewer people getting vaccinated and can also increase the risk of other health dangers such as disordered eating and unsafe sex practices and sexually transmitted infections. Health misinformation has even bled over into animal health, with a 2023 study finding that 53% of dog owners surveyed in a nationally representative sample report being skeptical of pet vaccines.
Continue reading
Thinking of trying a detox? Here’s what you need to know first
Detoxes are prevalent on social media and spruiked (Australian slang: to promote) by brands offering detox products, celebrities and influencers. So if you’re thinking of trying a detox, here’s what you need to know.
Continue reading
Hot flushes, night sweats, brain fog? Here’s what we know about phytoestrogens for menopausal symptoms
It is estimated more than one-third of women seek complementary or alternative medicines to manage menopausal symptoms. But do they work? Or are they a waste of time and considerable amounts of money?
Continue reading
Rejecting science has a long history – the pandemic showed what happens when you ignore this
Anti-vaccination groups, as well as other anti-science movements, are not new phenomena, nor are the nature of their objections. Most anti-science arguments have been around for centuries.
Continue reading