For years, we have been told that most adults should take a baby aspirin every day to help prevent heart attacks and strokes. Now we are told not to do that because it doesn’t work. What is going on? Why can’t science make up its mind? The recommendations are not… read more "Does a Baby Aspirin a Day Keep the Doctor Away?"
Coconut Oil: Health Food or Health Hazard?
Coconut oil: is it good for you or bad for you? Some sources say it’s a super nutrient that miraculously reverses Alzheimer’s dementia and has a multitude of other health benefits. Others advise avoiding it because it increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes. How can you make sense… read more "Coconut Oil: Health Food or Health Hazard?"
How Naturopaths Treat Heart Disease
Naturopaths claim to excel at preventing and treating cardiovascular disease. Their claims don’t stand up to scrutiny. They co-opt from mainstream medicine, add non-evidence-based treatments, and fail to use effective drugs. The American Association of Naturopathic Physicians website explains what naturopathy is and has a webpage with FAQs. Number 15… read more "How Naturopaths Treat Heart Disease"
Cholesterol-shmesterol
Lewis Jones’ article “Cholesterol-shmesterol” is so full of distortions I hardly know where to start. He confuses the dietary cholesterol-heart connection with the blood cholesterol-heart connection, fails to differentiate between primary prevention (in healthy people) and secondary prevention (in those who already have heart disease), and he refers to “good”… read more "Cholesterol-shmesterol"
Announcing: Video Lecture Course on Science-Based Medicine
A couple of years ago, the James Randi Educational Foundation commissioned me to develop a series of 10 video lectures on Science-Based Medicine. After a lot of work and many vicissitudes, it is now available. The lecture titles are: Science-Based Medicine vs. Evidence-Based Medicine What Is CAM? Chiropractic Acupuncture Homeopathy Naturopathy and… read more "Announcing: Video Lecture Course on Science-Based Medicine"
What the Health: A Movie with an Agenda
The documentary “What the Health” espouses the fairy tale that all major diseases (heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and many others) can be prevented and cured by eliminating meat and dairy from the diet. It is a blatant polemic for veganism, biased and misleading, and is not a reliable source of… read more "What the Health: A Movie with an Agenda"
Statin Denialism
When Richard Dawkins was asked to justify his belief in the scientific method, he answered, “It works, bitches!”1 When the scientific evidence is compelling, one would have to be willfully perverse to reject it. But some people do; they reject findings that don’t fit with their ideology. We call them… read more "Statin Denialism"
If You Think Doctors Don’t Do Prevention, Think Again
Prevention has long been a priority of conventional medicine. One of the common criticisms we hear from alternative and integrative medicine proponents is that doctors don’t do anything to prevent illnesses and have no interest in prevention. They claim that doctors are only trained to hand out pills to treat… read more "If You Think Doctors Don’t Do Prevention, Think Again"
Statin Side Effects
A recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine by Andrew L. Mammen, MD, PhD, reviewed statin-associated myopathies. Reading his article prompted me to revisit the subject of statin side effects. It can no longer be disputed that statins statistically benefit patients who have cardiovascular disease or who are at high risk… read more "Statin Side Effects"
K2: The Vitamin, Not the Mountain
Science is complicated. Simple concepts that appear at first to be obviously true or untrue usually turn out to be more nuanced than we thought. Newtonian physics was taken as “the truth” until we learned in the 20th century that it didn’t apply on cosmological or subatomic scales. Medicine and human… read more "K2: The Vitamin, Not the Mountain"