Chiropractors
'Chiropractors claim to hold the cure for an extraordinary range of health problems. Through the hands-on
manipulation of the spine and surrounding bones, muscles and soft tissue, practitioners promise patients a way to treat back, shoulder and neck pain. Some go further,
touting it as a treatment for everything from asthma and allergies to infant colic. But while chiropractic treatment boasts an army of ardent supporters, a string of
high-profile cases have highlighted the potentially serious - and even life-threatening - risks. … The treatment recently made headlines after a coroner returned a
verdict in the death of Joanna Kowalczyk, 29, who suffered a fatal tear of her blood vessels after having her neck 'adjusted' by a chiropractor.'
Supplements
The Return of Snake Oil: 'The Trump administration is poised to supercharge America's appetite for supplements.
… Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the longtime conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist who's awaiting Senate confirmation to run the Department of Health and Human Services,
has said he takes a "fistful" of vitamins each day. Kennedy has in recent years championed dietary supplements and decried their "suppression" by the FDA-an
agency he would oversee as health secretary. Now he's poised to bring America's ever-growing supplement enthusiasm to the White House and supercharge the
patent-medicine revival.'
Evidence Week in Parliament
From Sense About Science: 'This year's Evidence Week in Parliament brought together more MPs, Peers, researchers and voters than ever before to discuss how evidence is
used and scrutinised at Westminster. Evidence Week empowers parliamentarians to ask the right questions of policy evidence - what works,
what doesn't and what vital information is missing. It is important that legislators recognise how much the public value evidence, and
what better way to do this than to have members of the public open Evidence Week? …. (January 2025's) Evidence Week ... welcomed more researchers than
ever before into Parliament to deliver quick-fire policy briefings on a variety of topics including AI, health, climate change and pollution.
Over two days, researchers from top UK institutions shared their latest findings with the offices of over 80 MPs and 14 Peers, creating
over 300 new conversations and connections - engaging 45% more parliamentarians than the previous year! Hundreds of supporters submit
questions for Committee Chairs, and hundreds more people watched our Reverse Committee hearing broadcast from Parliament, where committee
chairs respond to members of the public on topics ranging from paternity leave and restorative justice to child poverty and transport spending.
View the meeting.'
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
'Robert F. Kennedy Jr. failed to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars he made from his anti-vax crusade,
Donald Trump’s transition team has admitted to the Daily Beast. Trump’s pick for health secretary previously said his career as the founder,
chairman, and general counsel of the nonprofit Children’s Health Defense was “unpaid” and “the opposite of a profit motive.” In personal
financial disclosure forms required for all presidential candidates, Kennedy initially reported that he had earned $731,470.53 in 2022 and
2023. (In the summer of 2023, he reported making $515,960 the previous year from CHD; in the summer of 2024, he reported making $215,510.53.)
But documents obtained by the Daily Beast show that Kennedy—after being nominated by Trump for his Cabinet—then quietly amended those forms
to disclose that he had actually earned far more from his anti-vaccine nonprofit: a total of $1.2 million.'
Mehmet Oz
'A physician who peddles pseudoscience and profits off health disinformation. Perfect Trump pick to oversee Medicare and Medicaid.
Mehmet Oz is the OG wellness grifter and probably the most notorious. He's made millions misleading the public and selling vulnerable
people false promises. In fact, The Federal Trade Commission estimates that Mehmet Oz scammed YOU - the public - out of over $50 million
by hawking fraudulent products on his TV show, The Dr. Oz Show alone. … And now, he has been nominated to head up The Centers for Medicare and
Medicaid Services (CMS), one of the most critical human services agencies under the purview of HHS. CMS oversees healthcare programs that support over
160 MILLION Americans through Medicare, Medicaid, the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and the Health Insurance Marketplace. It is
critical this agency is ensuring nearly half our country has access to evidence-based care'
Mainstream Media
'Mainstream media's credibility has
been diminishing for years. But the trend has attracted renewed attention from news leaders and analysts
since the 2024 presidential election, when many outlets again misjudged the electoral chances of President-elect Donald Trump.'
Human Longevity
'For years, "blue zones,"
regions around the world where people allegedly live significantly longer than average, have been celebrated as places where people have unlocked
the secret to living a healthy life. However, a recent study cast doubt on the validity of blue zones, suggesting that longevity in these regions
may have less to do with health habits and more to do with poor record-keeping or fraud.1 While this study-a preprint that hasn't been peer-reviewed-was
posted back in March, it's been gaining attention on social media after study author Saul Justin Newman, a research fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Aging, won the Ig Nobel Award in Demography, a satirical science award, for this research in September.'
Preview paper 'Supercentenarian and remarkable age records exhibit patterns indicative of clerical errors and pension fraud'
here.
Black plastic utensils
Contrary to a recent research paper, your
black plastic kitchen utensils may not be dangerous after all: 'Editors of the environmental chemistry journal Chemosphere have posted an eye-catching
correction to a study reporting that toxic flame retardants from electronics wind up in some household products made of black plastic, including kitchen
utensils. The study sparked a flurry of media reports a few weeks ago that urgently implored people to ditch their kitchen spatulas and spoons. Wirecutter
even offered a buying guide for what to replace them with. The correction, posted Sunday, will likely take some heat off the beleaguered utensils. The
authors made a math error that put the estimated risk from kitchen utensils off by an order of magnitude.'
Influencers selling fake cures for polycystic ovary syndrome
'Up to 70% of women with PCOS worldwide have not been diagnosed, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and even when diagnosed, women struggle
to find treatments that work.' According to gynaecologist and women's health educator Dr Jen Gunter, 'Whenever there's a gap in medicine,
predators take advantage'. 'The main false or misleading claims shared by these influencers include: PCOS can be cured with dietary supplements;
PCOS can be cured with a diet, such as the low-carbohydrate high-fat keto diet; birth control pills cause PCOS or worsen symptoms; mainstream medication may
suppress PCOS, but doesn't address its "root cause"' There is no evidence that highly restricted calorie diets have any positive effect, and the keto diet
may make symptoms worse. Birth control pills do not cause PCOS and in fact help many women, though they don't work for everyone. There is no known root cause
for PCOS and there is no cure.'
Steven Bartlett
'Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett is amplifying harmful health misinformation
on his number-one ranked podcast, a BBC investigation has found. Recent claims from guests - including that cancer can be treated by following a keto diet,
rather than proven treatments - were allowed by the Dragons' Den star with little or no challenge. Experts have told us failing to question these disproven
claims is dangerous because it creates a distrust of conventional medicine. In an analysis of 15 health-related podcast episodes, BBC World Service found each
contained an average of 14 harmful health claims that went against extensive scientific evidence.’