Category: Herbs & Supplements
Oregano Snake Oil
Oregano oil is being marketed with a variety of health claims, including as a treatment for various infections, inflammatory disorders, and skin conditions. This TikTok video by an “Ayervedic specialist” is typical of the claims made for this product. The claims suffer all the usual problems of the supplement industry, which we can go through them in some detail. But here is...
Should You Take Vitamin K With Your Vitamin D?
Vitamin K is increasingly marketed with Vitamin D. But is this combination evidence-based?
Self-Treating with Serious Drugs on the Rise
One of the greatest innovations benefiting public health was regulation. In the pre-FDA “patent medicine” days, there were countless products on the market that ranged from useless to directly harmful. This was a time when you could sell radioactive tonics, cocaine-laced elixirs, and products containing poisons, like turpentine. The sellers of these products made many unsupported claims and preyed disproportionately on the...
Vitamin A, Infections and Measles
I have always had a bias towards the Appeal to Nature Fallacy: An Appeal to Nature Fallacy happens when someone argues that something is good, better, or more authentic simply because it’s natural, while brushing aside anything man-made as inferior or harmful. Or last my version of it. I have always thought of the human body as more or less tuned by...
Pycnogenol – Does maritime pine bark extract live up to the hype?
Prescribed medicines are somewhat resistant to fads. Marketing can certainly drive demand and use, but long-term use tends to be driven by effectiveness. Some medicines used routinely today are decades old (e.g., penicillin for strep throat) because nothing better has been identified. Other drugs may be used for decades, only to largely disappear as newer, more effective treatments are introduced (I’m thinking...
#Oatzempic – The viral oat-based alternative to Ozempic?
Can the Oatzempic diet deliver Ozempic-like weight loss?
Widespread Use of Dietary Supplements Linked to Liver Damage
Millions of Americans are taking herbal remedies that may be toxic to the liver.
Elderberry (What is it good for)
Accumulated evidence does not demonstrate that elderberry has meaningful beneficial effects.
The NCCIH embraces the quackery that is “functional medicine”
The process of "integrating" quackery with medicine continues apace as the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health embraces the quackery that is "functional medicine."
Magnesium oil: Not so magical
Despite the hype, there is no evidence to show magnesium oil is effective for any purpose.