Be Careful What You Rub On Your Skin

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to use certain over-the-counter analgesic (pain relief) products that are marketed for topical use to relieve pain before, during or after certain cosmetic procedures, such as microdermabrasion, laser hair removal, tattooing and piercing. The agency issued warning letters to six companies for marketing these products in violation of federal law."

Click on the link below for the details:

FDA Warns Consumers to Avoid Certain Topical Pain Relief Products

CBD: Question The Claims About It

Highlights

•Cannabidiol (CBD) products have varying amounts of CBD, from none to much more than advertised.
•CBD products may contain other chemicals than CBD, some of which may be harmful.
•Sixteen RCTs for pain used pharmaceutical CBD in oral, buccal/sublingual, and topical forms.
•Fifteen of the 16 RCTs were negative: no greater pain-relieving effect for CBD than for placebo.
•Meta-analyses link CBD to increased rates of serious adverse events and hepatotoxicity.

Click on the link below for the details:

Cannabidiol (CBD) Products for Pain: Ineffective, Expensive, and With Potential Harms

PTSD And Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Quackery

"Today we're going to unravel a specific type of psychotherapy, and it's one that presents the researcher with formidable walls to scale of both support and criticism. Some psychotherapists are firm believers; some are firm detractors. The therapy is called EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is controversial as the day is long, and yet it enjoys broad recommendations in most of the world's major guidelines. It also has plenty of criticism of its effectiveness. And it has a wildly unscientific origin story, which never bodes well for any kind of treatment. So now let's dive in and find out if EMDR is for real or phony.

"EMDR is one of a number of treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a potentially serious and debilitating condition in which certain traumatic memories can trigger anything from nightmares and anxiety to an uncontrollable emotional breakdown to a complete dissociative episode. The idea is to reduce the emotional distress associated with traumatic memories, and when used as an adjunct to other therapies, EMDR does this by attempting to get the brain to reprocess those memories via bilateral stimulation. Whether bilateral stimulation can actually do that is mainly where the controversy around EMDR lies. The stimulation is usually guided eye movements back and forth, but can also be tactile or auditory: tapping or holding a buzzer in each hand, or hearing tones played through headphones alternating between left and right. A typical EMDR session would include the patient recalling and talking about their traumatic memory while the therapist moves a pointer from side to side in front of them, for the patient to follow with their eyes. If you were uninitiated and saw this happening, you might well be inclined to wonder what kind of freaky woo you had just walked into."

Click on the link below for more:

EMDR: Looking Past the Pain

Leaky Gut: More Fantasy Than Real

"In her 2023 book Doppelganger, Canadian author Naomi Klein, often confused with conspiracy theorist Naomi Wolf, uses the concept of the Mirror World to describe the alternate reality in which many people seem to live these days. In the Mirror World, our reality’s reflection gets distorted. Two Apple employees sitting in a restaurant and discussing the Apple Watch’s “Time Travel”, a since-abandoned feature allowing you to scroll through upcoming events and weather forecasts on your smart watch, becomes an overheard conversation about vaccine nanoparticles that let you travel back in time (true story). Everything gets misinterpreted in the Mirror World in the service of paranoia, distrust, and magical thinking.

"There is a kernel of truth to the leaky gut theory, but what you’re likely to see online is its warped, outsized funhouse-mirror twin."

Click on the link below for the details:

You Probably Don’t Have a Leaky Gut

Naprapathy: Chiropractic's Little-Known Runt Of The Litter

"The little-known manual therapy is an offshoot of chiropractic and its scientific justification is practically non-existent.

"Buried in a court document 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. After seeing Mercola (who tended to her with “diet and herbal treatments”), she went to see a naprapath. I had to do a double take. What exactly was a naprapath?

"Naprapathy is a manual therapy, much like chiropractic, osteopathy, and massage therapy. It’s all about using hands to tug at and massage body parts, although it often also extends to dietary and exercise advice and to non-invasive complements like ultrasound therapy. Its scientific evaluation barely exists, and while some component of it might be salvageable, I’m not sure naprapaths themselves are right for the job."

Click on the link below for more:

Naprapathy Stretches Credulity

America's Frontline Doctors: The Vanguard Of Anti-Vaccine Quackery

"Simone Melissa Gold, M.D., J.D., who founded America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS), is one of the world’s most arrogant promoters of COVID-19 misinformation. Gold graduated from the City College of New York at age 19 and received her medical degree from the Chicago Medical School in 1989. After obtaining a medical license in California, she attended Stanford Law School, graduating in 1993. She was admitted to the New York bar in 1997 and shortly afterward completed a residency in emergency medicine at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University [1]. She became board-certified in emergency medicine, but her Linkedin page states that she chose not to renew her certification “due to the medical cancel culture that is threatening physicians and the doctor patient relationship.” [2]

"AFLDS is said to be a project of the Free Speech Foundation, which was registered in Arizona as a nonprofit corporation in 2020. Documents filed with the Arizona Secretary of State list Gold as the foundation’s board chairman and chief executive officer. Mother Jones magazine has vividly described Gold’s right-wing radicalization and ascent to MAGA stardom [3]."

Click on the link below for more:

A Skeptical Look at Simone Gold and America’s Frontline Doctors

Doctors: Beware Of The Gateway Drug To Quackery

There is Medicine, which is based on science. Then there is a "Grey" area with labels such as "Functional", "Integrated", "Complementary", and "Holistic" that can have some benefits but no more than basic health factors such as nutrition, lifestyle/behavior, exercise, social factors, and mental hygiene. Click on the link below for a 15-minute video by a physician presenting the risks of science-based physicians complimenting such with elements of the "Grey" areas and eventually going off the rails into full quackery/alternatives to medicine. Let the public be aware of what to look for in the utilization of healthcare.

Why some doctors become quacks

Social Media, Conspiracy Theories, And Quackery

"Tesla Biohealing, which has no connection to the car company, is part of a growth industry marketing unproven cures and treatments to conspiracy theorists and others who have grown distrustful of science and medicine. Experts who study such claims say they’re on the increase, thanks to the internet, social media and skepticism about traditional health care.

"'There have always been hucksters selling medical cures, but I do feel like it’s accelerating,' said Timothy Caulfield, a health policy and law professor at the University of Alberta who studies medical ethics and fraud. 'There are some forces driving that: obviously the internet and social media, and distrust of traditional medicine, traditional science. Conspiracy theories are creating and feeding this distrust.'

"Blending the high-tech jargon of Western science with the spiritual terminology of traditional and Eastern medicine, these modern salesmen claim their treatments can reverse aging, restore mental acuity or fight COVID-19 better than a vaccine. They promise better health, but what they’re really selling is the idea of insider information, the promise of a secret known only to the wealthy and the powerful.

"So-called medbeds are one of the flashiest, most expensive, and least credible. 'Medbeds are coming,' exclaims a woman in one TikTok video. Similar videos have been seen millions of times on the platform.

"According to believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory, medbeds were developed by the military (in some versions, using alien technology) and are already in use by the world’s richest and most powerful families. Many accounts claim former President Donald Trump, if he wins another term in the White House, will unveil the devices and make them free for all Americans."

Click on the link below for more:

Miracle cures: Online conspiracy theories are creating a new age of unproven medical treatments

Red Lights, Cold Lasers, And Other Light For Medical Treatment

" - - - Photobiomodulation is a technique by which light is used to stimulate living things into healing themselves. It has taken the form of handheld lasers, helmets full of LED lights, futuristic tanning beds, and even strange nose clips that shine a light inside the nostril to reach the brain.

"Reviewing the literature on each application of photobiomodulation—from smoking cessation to spinal cord injury, from wound healing to age-related degenerative conditions—would be laborious. Instead, I want to take a bird’s-eye view of the hype around photobiomodulation and point out the sobering context in which it exists: exciting findings in cells and animal models rarely lead to applications in humans, and it is all too easy for overeager scientists to fantasize about how an intervention might work before it has even been shown to work."

Click on the link below for more:

The Hype Around Photobiomodulation

Another "Wellness" Alternative To Medicine (That Might Be Deadly)

"Today we're going to have a look at an alternative wellness therapy, plagiarized from an indigenous Amazonian ritual practice, and today sold profitably to gullible westerners intent on blending the ever-popular ancient wisdom with the modern wellness fad. It's called kambô. Kambô is a paste made from the secretions of poison tree frogs, and when a very small dose is spread into a break in the skin, it causes severe vomiting, diarrhea, and other adverse (and potentially dangerous) reactions. Consequently, it has quickly become a favorite method of virtue signaling — a way to shout "Look at how enlightened I am, participating in an indigenous Amazonian ritual" among a very select demographic in the United States and other comfortable western nations. But regardless of the social implications, kambô is still pharmacologically active; and that means that it may indeed provide the benefits its devotees believe it does… and it also might mean that it's deadly."

Click on the link below for the details:

Kambo: Let It Go

Sacred Frequencies: The Worst Of Quackery?

I was watching one of my favorite YouTube channels and came across this advertisement. It's so bad, it could pass as a parody. I reported it to YouTube.

In my efforts to find out more about it, I found a similar one, here, almost as bad. 

"Sacred Frequencies", my arse. That said, much music is calming and therapeutic, just not in the category of working miracles!!

- - - - - - -

Some reading this may have heard the term "Solfeggio Frequencies." The term was new to me. It was found in researching "Sacred Frequencies" and appears to be similar to such (maybe the same thing?). In any event, below are some links describing it as quackery:

https://skeptoid.com/episodes/4474

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Solfeggio_frequencies

https://glasgowguardian.co.uk/2023/03/29/solfeggio-frequencies-and-making-a-quick-buck/

https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/no-evidence-support-claim-solfeggio-frequencies-remove-toxins-from-body/

Medicare Is Under Attack By The Greedy

"Medicare, the largest health care payer in the nation, is also the single biggest source of revenue for pharmaceutical companies. Since Medicare’s creation, federal law has restricted the program’s coverage to items and services that are “reasonable and necessary.” Legislation introduced earlier this year, however, takes aim at Medicare’s foundational discretion to decide whether to cover a new product. These efforts are misguided—Medicare cannot and should not automatically cover every drug or device approved or cleared by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Medicare’s ability to decline, limit, or condition coverage of medical products that lack robust evidence is crucial to safeguarding taxpayer dollars and protecting public health."

Click on the link below for more:

Protecting Medicare’s Discretion to Say No to Unproven Therapies

Stem Cell Therapy: It's Still Unproven

Click on the link below for the full article:

(https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/blr.2023.29315.pf)

For several years, I have been posting on the unapproved treatment of stem cells for other than blood problems (link). Unfortunately, it appears that the problem is getting worse.

The Truth About Supplements

"Though many supplements are certainly beneficial to your health, evidence varies widely, and it’s important to know which can benefit your health and which may be harmful."

Click on the links below for the details:

5 Things You Need to Know About Dietary Supplements

What's really in that sports supplement?

Bottom line: do NOT take supplements without your primary care provider's supervision and after appropriate blood tests for vitamin and mineral deficiencies:

Vitamin Deficiencies And Nutrition Levels From Blood Testing

Oh, if the product is marketed as a "supplement", you can count on it NOT being tested medicine. Please look for the FDA disclaimer, such as:

On the positive side, Omega 3 Fatty Acids promote health and most people do not get enough.

Balance Of Nature: Not So Much

"Balance of Nature has agreed to pay $1.1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by consumer protection officials in California alleging the company falsely advertised that its supplements could prevent, treat or cure diseases including diabetes, fibromyalgia, arthritis, heart disease, and even cancer.

“The company went so far as to recommend that customers take 12 capsules each of its Fruits and Veggies supplements if they had been ‘diagnosed with life-threatening illness,’ the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday in a press release announcing the settlement. 'Balance of Nature also used customer testimonials to make false claims.'"

Click on the link below for more information about this supplement (not medicine) that is all over TV news shows:

Lawsuit alleged company falsely advertised that its Fruits and Veggies supplements could prevent, treat or cure serious diseases.

Can Sanjay Gupta Be Trusted?

"Gupta is known for his many TV appearances on health-related issues. During the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, he has been a frequent contributor to numerous CNN shows covering the crisis, as well as hosting a weekly town hall with Anderson Cooper.[3] Gupta was the host of the CNN show Sanjay Gupta MD for which he has won multiple Emmy Awards. Gupta also hosted the 6-part miniseries Chasing Life. He is a frequent contributor to other CNN programs such as American Morning, Larry King Live, CNN Tonight, and Anderson Cooper 360°. His reports from Charity Hospital, New Orleans, Louisiana, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina led to his winning a 2006 Emmy Award for Outstanding Feature Story in a Regularly Scheduled Newscast. He is also a special correspondent for CBS News." (Wikipedia)

What most folks who have been exposed to him in the media do not know about him is that his advice is not always consistent with the consensus of medical experts on some subjects. Click on the link below for a science-based look at him:

Where Does Sanjay Gupta Register On The Quackometer?

"Big Pharma": The Bad And The GOOD

"Valid criticism of the pharmaceutical industry often snowballs into demonization, leading conspiracy theorists to promote an alternative that is simply hypocritical."

Click on the link below for a balanced presentation of the drug industry, with its warts, but also its tremendous good works:

What the "Big Pharma" Accusation Gets Right (And Wrong) About The Drug Industry

History, Authority, Expert, And Growing Up

History: the study of past events.

Authority: the power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior.

Expert: a person who has a comprehensive and authoritative knowledge of or skill in a particular area.

- - - - - - -

Human history began in ignorance, violence, and within small nomadic groups. As time progressed, humans became more organized and settled but ignorance and authoritarian control persisted. Democratic ideas evolved out of Greece but humanity at large was still ignorant of reality and under authoritarian control. Organized religion sprouted from persistent human ignorance of reality in attempts to explain the unexplainable, as well as to reinforce authoritarian control and to provide some comfort. Eventually, only a few hundred years ago, modern science and the Industrial Revolution sprouted. These phenomena exponentially expanded human knowledge, progress, and well-being. Democracy became a reality and knowledge expanded to the point where it caused the founding of institutions dedicated to creating expertise in specialized areas. 

The above growth in freedom, knowledge, and understanding of reality can be viewed as being analogous to a child growing up. However, there is a major immaturity from our ignorant and superstitious past holding humanity back and it is religion. Ironically, the most prominent religion has the following teaching but can't accept it as a reality:

• "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." ~ I Corinthians

ISN'T IT MORE THAN TIME FOR HUMANITY TO GROW UP?

 

The World Health Organization: Beware Of Quackery

"In trying to ensure everyone has access to healthcare, the WHO promotes homeopathy, traditional Chinese medicine, and rhythmical embrocations"

Click on the link below for the details:

The World Health Organization Has a Pseudoscience Problem

Why Are People Antiscience?

"From vaccination refusal to climate change denial, antiscience views are threatening humanity. When different individuals are provided with the same piece of scientific evidence, why do some accept whereas others dismiss it? Building on various emerging data and models that have explored the psychology of being antiscience, we specify four core bases of key principles driving antiscience attitudes. These principles are grounded in decades of research on attitudes, persuasion, social influence, social identity, and information processing. They apply across diverse domains of antiscience phenomena. Specifically, antiscience attitudes are more likely to emerge when a scientific message comes from sources perceived as lacking credibility; when the recipients embrace the social membership or identity of groups with antiscience attitudes; when the scientific message itself contradicts what recipients consider true, favorable, valuable, or moral; or when there is a mismatch between the delivery of the scientific message and the epistemic style of the recipient. Politics triggers or amplifies many principles across all four bases, making it a particularly potent force in antiscience attitudes. Guided by the key principles, we describe evidence-based counteractive strategies for increasing public acceptance of science."

Click on the link below for a scholarly, in-depth look at the danger and harm of anti-science, as well as its causation and recommended remedies:

Why are people antiscience, and what can we do about it?