Dr. Oz is by all accounts an excellent cardiac surgeon.  And he does offer some sound dietary advice on his popular TV show and recognizes the value of exercise.  But you can’t fill five hours a week of television by telling people to get their butt of the couch and load their plate with whole grains, fruits and vegetables instead of burgers and fries.  So Oz has to fill time with seductive nonsense.  And overweight people are ready to be seduced.  Dr. Oz, or more likely his producers, know this.  They also know that at least 40% of their viewers are overweight and tune in to the show hoping to hear the latest “news” about weight loss.  They hand on Dr. Oz’s every word and are ready to open up their wallets to try any product that seems to impress him.  Unfortunately Oz is easily impressed.  “Raspberry ketone” are a ...

Sometimes researchers remain stubbornly wedded to their ideas even when their own work begins to unravel the fabric they have woven.  I believe such is the case with Dr. Phillipa Darbre of the University of Reading in England.  Back in 2004 Darbre achieved tabloid fame with her allegation that antiperspirants were implicated in breast cancer because they accosted breast tissue with preservatives known as parabens.  These compounds have estrogenic properties and estrogens have indeed been implicated as significant players in breast cancer. 

Darbre showed the presence of parabens in cancerous tissue taken from breast cancer patients and suggested a cause and effect relationship, buttressing her argument by pointing out that most breast cancers occur in the quadrant of the breast closest the armpit where shaving nicks would allow entry of antiperspirants most readily.  The study was small, only some twenty patients, and she had no controls.  She had no idea ...

I like Carey Price.  He’s become the heart of the Montreal Canadiens.  Carey is an excellent goaltender with a lot of gumption.  But something he doesn’t have is a scientific background.  That of course is par for the course for most athletes.  But Carey is now set to become the spokesperson for Oscillococcinum, a homeopathic product that claims to treat the common cold as well as the flu.  Don’t do it Carey!  This is not a valid claim and homeopathy, simply put, is bunk.  Let me provide something to back up my claim.  Something that homeopaths are not familiar with.  It’s called “evidence.”

Let’s start by making some Oscillococcinum.  Take the carcass of a duck and place 35 grams of its liver and 15 grams of its heart in a one liter bottle filled with a solution of pancreatic juice and glucose.  Wait forty days until the liver and heart ...

I was fortunate enough to be invited by the New Zealand Institute of Chemistry to give several talks in celebration of the International Year of Chemistry.  I also got the chance to look around New Zealand, a truly impressive country.  And I encountered something I had never seen before, “Living Water.”  I’m not talking about geysers that blast from the ground or boiling rivers, which I also saw.  This “Living Water” I found in a bottle in a health food store.  I do like to go into these stores to check out the latest hype, and in this case my quest was fruitful.  I was treated to a huge display of bottled water that was advertised as being unique.  My questions to the sales lady did not produce any results other than being told that the water was pure, natural and would remove toxins from my body.  When I asked ...

Numerous people have asked me about an email going around purporting that lemons can cure for cancer.  Let's forget about the outrageous grammar and concentrate on the "science."  Ahhh...well...there isn't any.  The "Institute of Health Sciences," in spite of its seductive and pompous name, is nothing more than a marketing center for flim-flam.  The people who run this operation capitalize on public gullibility and desperation to promote a sickening blend of claptrap.  Lemon is great for making lemonade and would be a fine choice if you were looking to prevent scurvy on sailing vessels that take months to cross the ocean and carry no fruits or vegetables.  Any claim of cancer treatment is absolute nonsense. 

It is even hard to trace from where such bunk arises.  Perhaps it is the vitamin C content.  Indeed lemons contain a few milligrams of vitamin C, which is enough to prevent scurvy, but cancer?  ...