Health

News, commentary, critique, reviews, research from medicine, pseudomedicine and health.

Placebo Effect

The Beecher story, the origin of the placebo effect myth, likely didn’t happen

Mike Hall -
The most-cited example of the powerful placebo is Henry Beecher using saline instead of morphine... except, it likely never happened
Placebo Effect

An overdose on placebo pills can cause adverse reactions… but not because of the nocebo effect

Mike Hall -
A man who overdosed on experimental pills felt sure he was dying, until he found out he was in the placebo arm... but it was not a nocebo effect.
Health

People with Alzheimer’s deserve care and dignity – not false hope of miracle cures

Lena Bohman -
Millions of dollars wasted on retracted studies promising Alzheimer's cures could instead have been spent improving the lives of people with dementia
Dentistry

The anti-fluoridation movement is born of public health mistrust and misinformation

Elissar Gerges -
With the rise to power of Robert F Kennedy Jr, the anti-flouridation movement has a champion who could push back dental health by decades
Media

How genuine is cultural commentators’ ‘concern’ for OnlyFans model Lily Phillips?

Abigail Kennedy -
Lily Phillips slept with 100 men in a day - the performative concern for her from some quarters speaks volumes about a media that has commodified virality
Placebo Effect

Placebo surgery: why performing fake operations doesn’t actually help anyone

Mike Hall -
Placebo surgeries do not work – if a surgery performs no better than placebo, it means that operation doesn't work, not that placebos are powerful
Nutrition

Madmonq, or how not even video gamers are safe from the nutritional supplement industry

Alice Howarth -
As Esports becomes big business, wellness industry companies like Madmonq want in on the act, claiming to provide optimal nutrition for the pro video gamer
Placebo Effect

Does pill packet branding change the placebo response, or is this just another placebo myth?

Mike Hall -
How expensive a pill packet looks is said to influence the size of its placebo effect but, once again, the evidence is sorely lacking
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