What is dry drowning, and should we worry? Parenting websites have been alarming parents about the possibility that their children might experience dry drowning or delayed drowning, with warnings like these: a child can seem fine after getting out of the water, but start to have trouble breathing an hour—or even 24 hours—later. Your child
The FDA has approved two new drugs to treat sickle cell disease. They don’t do much, and they are prohibitively expensive. Sickle cell disease is a serious condition, an abnormality of hemoglobin that is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern, where both parents have to pass on the defective gene. The red blood cells take
Dr. Seeds’ Chill Pills are said to be “meditation in a bottle.” They allegedly relieve stress and anxiety. Is meditation a cure for anxiety? If so, it requires a lot of time and effort. Wouldn’t it be great if you could get all the benefits of meditation by simply swallowing a pill? What does the
UPGRAID combines a new formulation of turmeric (curcumin) with 3 other ingredients. It is said to be more bioavailable and to offer unique advantages. The advertising is bad, and can’t compensate for a lack of evidence. Does a new formulation of turmeric offer the best bioavailability and efficacy? The evidence is lacking. I got an
A doctor is adamant about avoiding dairy because IGF-1 allows cancer cells to multiply. I think he’s relying on speculation and an over-abundance of caution. Healthy food or carcinogen? Opinions differ. A neighbor told me, “one of my doctors was very adamant about not consuming dairy because the growth factor creates the right environment for
The authors of this book are not doctors or scientists, but they try to convince readers that science-based medicine gets it all wrong, that germs don’t cause disease, and that drugs and vaccines can’t possibly work. No, the book gets it all wrong. The book What Really Makes You Ill?: Why Everything You Thought You Knew
Carolyn Dean believes magnesium deficiency is the cause of a great many diseases and recommends that everyone take magnesium supplements, preferably the one she sells, ReMag. I remain skeptical. This is magnesium. Do you need more of it? I was recently asked about the book The Magnesium Miracle, by Carolyn Dean. The word “miracle” in the
A new book by Edzard Ernst provides a concise course in critical thinking as well as a wealth of good science-based information to counter the widespread misinformation about SCAM. Edzard Ernst was once a practitioner of alternative medicine. As the world’s first professor of complementary medicine (at the University of Exeter, UK) he led a
Science has made remarkable advances in prenatal screening, but false positives and false negative results can occur, and there are ethical concerns.Having a baby used to be like opening a surprise package. You didn’t know anything about the baby until it was born. The obstetrician or midwife would announce “It’s a boy” or “It’s a
Neuriva claims to have proof from clinical studies. That’s misleading. Will your brain work better if you take Neuriva? Probably not.My TV is threatening to collapse under the onslaught of commercials for Neuriva. They say it has been clinically proven to improve five measures of brain performance: accuracy, performance, concentration, memory, and learning. I found
