The FM/a test is advertised as a definitive test to diagnose fibromyalgia. It isn’t definitive. It is expensive. It has not been shown to change patient outcomes. I was surprised to learn that there is a blood test to diagnose fibromyalgia, the FM/a test. Is it accurate? Is it useful? Fibromyalgia is still a disputed
I could have chosen a prescription eye drop for my dry eyes. I decided not to. Here’s why. Dry eyes can have many causes: disease, medications, environmental irritants, or just age. Tear production tends to decrease as we get older. My husband (age 80) and I (age 75) were both diagnosed with dry eyes by
If your Covid-19 test was negative, can you breathe a sigh of relief? What if it’s a false negative? If it was positive, is that reliable evidence of infection or might it be a false positive result? How trustworthy are these tests? As with so much in science, the answer is complicated; it’s not a
Is that ringing not in your ears? Can it be cured? Recently I have written about several really stupid marketing videos for dietary supplements e.g. here. They suck you in by promising to reveal a secret, but you have to watch the entire video to learn the secret. One says “5 minutes” but lasts half an
[This article is also available in English. Thanks to Pensar for the Spanish translation.] ¿La hipnosis es real? ¿La gente realmente entra en trance o es solo una cuestión de imaginación y juego de roles? Algunas personas lo juran. Un sitio web proclama que el poder de tu mente es ilimitado: “El estado mental altamente concentrado, pero
[This article is also available in English. Thanks to Pensar for the Spanish translation.] Los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades nombraron a la fluoración del agua comunitaria como uno de los diez mayores logros de la salud pública del siglo XX. En una declaración reciente, la Asociación Dental Americana (ADA) enfatizó
[Este artículo está disponible en español. La traducción al español apareció por primera vez en la revista Pensar.] The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention named community water fluoridation one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century. In a recent statement, the American Dental Association (ADA) stressed that it is “committed to fluoridation of public water
New study in The New England Journal of Medicine finds impressive evidence that weekly semaglutide injections produce clinically significant weight loss as well as many other benefits, approaching the improvements seen with weight loss surgery. Not a definitive answer to obesity, but a very encouraging step in the right direction. Science works. Science works. The rapid development
Can obese people lose weight without diet or exercise, by just taking this pill? Yeah, sure! Pull the other one! I’ve been getting emails with “Confirmation numbers” in the Subject Line, numbers like 711, 526, 95311. One even says “Your order is pending”. The numbers don’t confirm anything; they are just click-bait to get you
Phrenology assigned meanings to bumps on the skull. Access Consciousness claims to have located 32 points on the head that store thoughts, emotions, and memories. Is this a new version of phrenology? A March 16, 2021 article on the Canadian Broadcasting Company website (CBC Investigates) reported “How a client-therapist relationship left one Nova Scotian feeling more
