Category: Health & Medicine

The Return of the World’s Filthiest Habit

Conspiracy Theories / Health & Medicine / Pop Culture / Pseudoscience & QuackeryLeave a comment

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Why are celebs glamorising smoking again? That question was part of the headline in a recent story on BBC.com about how some unthinking and selfish celebrities are once again promoting the dirtiest, smelliest, unhealthiest, intelligence-lowering, and ugliest habit in history: smoking. The article notes that “even in low quantities, smoking increases the risk of serious diseases like lung cancer, which has a 90% five-year mortality rate.” Despite everyone — including smokers — knowing this, the article adds, …singers, actors and influencers seem to be bringing smoking … click below for more ↓

Jail the Unvaccinated

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Conspiracy Theories / Critical Thinking / Health & Medicine / Politics / Pseudoscience & Quackery / Social Order & Disorder / Uncategorized8 Comments

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In a recent opinion piece in Macleans Magazine, Scott Gilmore wrote what I expect many vaccinated Canadians felt about those who still refuse to get vaccinated and help end this pandemic: We need to begin treating the vaccine holdouts as the fools they are. It is not fair that reasonable and responsible Canadians should pay the price for their deadly selfishness. No more soothing tones and patience. Time for the stick. The stick in question that Gilmore suggests is withholding services and access to the … click below for more ↓

We’re Doomed. Doomed, I tell you.

Aging / Conspiracy Theories / Cults / Health & Medicine / Personal Reminiscences / Pseudoscience & Quackery / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

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While walking our dog recently, we encountered another couple “our age” (somewhere between 65 and 90) also walking their dog. While the two pets sniffed and frolicked, we chatted with them (at a safe distance, of course). And, as might be expected during a lengthy pandemic, one of the first questions we asked them was, “Have you had your shot yet?” Shockingly, they both answered, “No! And we’re not going to get one.” My first thought when I heard this, “We’re doomed.” These are people … click below for more ↓

We Need New Names for Stupid

Conspiracy Theories / Health & Medicine / Pandemic issues and events / Pseudoscience & Quackery / Social Order & Disorder2 Comments

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I was reading a story in CollingwoodToday about another anti-mask/anti-lockdown protest recently — this one in Barrie, Sat. April 24 — and thought to myself that our language does not have the appropriate words to describe the combination of selfishness, stupidity, and ignorance that fuels this sort of event. Sure, we have lots of individual words to describe these people, but it seems the pandemic has brought out a unique combination of attributes that deserve their own vocabulary.  This was the seventh such rally in … click below for more ↓

Finding a Breakfast Cereal With No Added Sugar

Eating / Food & Drink / Health & Medicine4 Comments

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Why is it so difficult to find a breakfast cereal without added sugar? Even your basic, unadorned bran flakes have added sugar in them! And not just a small amount. While I’m sure there are commercial brands of cereal without sugar or some alternative sweetener, I’m struggling to find many (if any) on local grocery store shelves. I’m not against sugar per se. It belongs in desserts and candy. I like some ice cream or frozen yogurt for dessert at times. And I sometimes enjoy … click below for more ↓

The Cancer Diaries, Part 10

Cancer / Daily life / Family history / Health & Medicine / Musings / Personal Reminiscences3 Comments

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My father died of esophageal cancer several years ago. It was a horrible, lingering death, and I watched him shrivel and die, in constant pain towards the end. On one of my last visits to his bedside, he asked me whether I thought it was better to die with the full knowledge of what was happening to you, or to be unaware. It was a startling, unexpected question. My father and I had had few, if any, philosophical discussions in our lives together. Without giving … click below for more ↓

The Cancer Diaries, part 5

Daily life / Health & Medicine / Musings / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

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The resilience of the human body is truly amazing. Here I am, three weeks after major surgery, and much of my daily life is back to normal. I can drive, walk the dog, unpack the dishwasher, cook meals, pour the wine, feed the cats, walk upright… a far cry from my crabbed old-man style of a week or two ago. Not that I am fully recovered. I have several weeks or even months ahead of me for that. My incisions are still tender, in particular … click below for more ↓

Hegseth, hand washing and social media

Conspiracy Theories / Critical Thinking / Health & Medicine / Manners & Civility / Memes; Internet & Social / Political fads / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

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Fox News host Pete Hegseth has said on air that he has not washed his hands for 10 years because “germs are not a real thing”. That’s the headline you read on dozens of media sites and shared throughout social media (this one from BBC News). Instant reactions (mine included) were “ewwww…” followed by negative comments on Fox News in general. But when you stop to think about it, could it be true? Can someone actually go a decade without washing his hands? No. Surely … click below for more ↓

Local media is letting us down

Collingwood / Critical Thinking / Financial follies / Health & Medicine / Marketing / New Age Codswallop / Pseudoscience & QuackeryLeave a comment

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Rule number one in The Elements of Journalism is: “journalism’s first obligation is to the truth.” Number three is “Its essence is a discipline of verification.” Keep those two in mind as you read this. I recognize that local reporting is not always the same calibre as the investigative journalism we expect from national media, but in my view (and experience as a former reporter and editor), blindly accepting claims about health, wellness or science without questioning, let alone confirming them through a credible source, … click below for more ↓

What is science? It’s not this stuff.

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Critical Thinking / Diet Fads / Health & Medicine / New Age Codswallop / Pseudoscience & QuackeryOne Comment

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Recently in a Facebook post, two of us were squabbling in typical Facebook-fashion over “alternative medicine” and related treatments (many of which came into the discussion as links to pseudoscience and/or charlatan’s websites). As is my wont, I continued to debunk these with links to actual medical sites and discussions on the topic from health services, universities and real doctors. The other person posted a link to a piece that had Dr. Nuzum – a naturopath*, not a medical doctor, who promotes himself and his products … click below for more ↓

It’s Official: Homeopathy is Bunk

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Critical Thinking / Health & Medicine / New Age Codswallop / Pseudoscience & Quackery / Science & Technology4 Comments

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“Homeopathy not effective for treating any condition, Australian report finds,” reads a headline in The Guardian this week. Well, that’s hardly news. But it repeats saying anyway. It’s a story about the latest in a series of studies that again and again debunk homeopathy as a treatment and conclude it is useless. Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) “…thoroughly reviewed 225 research papers on homeopathy to come up with its position statement,” the paper reported. And on Gizmodo they said: An analysis of over … click below for more ↓

Smoking = Stupidity

Critical Thinking / Health & Medicine / Science & Technology2 Comments

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I don’t know how to sugar coat this in some politically-correct, sensitive, caring way that doesn’t overtly offend anyone, but if you haven’t already figured this out by now, here it is: smoking is stupid. Really stupid. Even worse, smoking makes you even more stupid while you do it: Researchers tested the IQs of more than 20,000 healthy men between the ages of 18 and 21 who were either serving in the Israeli military or who had recently completed their service. Twenty-eight percent of the … click below for more ↓

The Pinnacle of Homeopathic Stupidity

Critical Thinking / Health & Medicine / New Age Codswallop / Pseudoscience & Quackery2 Comments

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“Have Homeopaths Reached Peak Stupid?” asks the headline on Quackometer.net. It’s hard to imagine anyone getting dumber than a belief in homeopathy (aka The One Quackery to Rule Them All), but apparently there are higher levels within their madness that homeopaths continue to scale. This, however, looks like their Everest of stupidity. The story in question is about the plan by homeopaths to “heal the oceans” last week. Admirable goal, but it’s the implementation that will make you laugh so hard you’ll snort your morning tea right … click below for more ↓

Debunking Homeopathy. Again.

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Critical Thinking / Health & Medicine / Pseudoscience & QuackeryOne Comment

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Homeopathy. It’s absolute bunk. But you already know that. All those forms of ‘magic medicine‘* are bunk, of course, but homeopathy has a special place reserved for it in the kingdom of codswallop. Codswallop is dangerous to the mind, and often to your wallet, but homeopathy compounds that by being dangerous to your health, too, even fatal, as Penelope Dingle discovered. Yes, homeopathy can kill you, if you take it’s fake cures instead of actual medicine or treatment.** But, you ask, if a placebo works … click below for more ↓

The Ebola Panic

Balderdash & Hoaxes / Conspiracy Theories / Critical Thinking / Health & Medicine / Social Order & DisorderLeave a comment

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Ebola has gripped the imagination of North American media and been spun into a terrifying spectre looming like a horseman of the apocalypse over us. So widespread has it become that Jenny McCarthy, one of the top wingnuts of quackery and pseudomedicine, and poster girl for the pro-measles-pro-mumps parents, felt compelled to pipe up with her own “cure,” should it spread to the USA: Lemon juice. Yep. Wonder how the scientists missed that one. A quick trip to the grocery store and you’re immune. Safe easy … click below for more ↓

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