Questions tagged [medical-science]
Use this tag for questions about the science of medicine and its practices. Use [medications] for questions about the actual cures that people take, and use [alternative-medicine] for claims about cures and practices which are claimed to be alternative to official medical science
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Does reported alcohol intake, according to population surveys, only account for half of the alcohol sold?
A recent book by the House of Commons Library statistician Georgina Sturge, criticises an over reliance on data collected by self-reporting surveys in areas where there may be an incentive to minimise ...
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Was a study of uterine cancer conducted solely on male subjects?
According to a 1986 article in the Chicago Tribune:
Researchers [at Rockefeller University] are studying the effects of obesity on estrogen activity and the tendency for women to develop breast and ...
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Does reggaeton generate greater brain activity than classical music?
A 2021 Exploring Your Mind article claims:
A group of neurosurgeons conducted a study that demonstrated intense brain activation when participants listened to reggaeton. In fact, it even surpassed ...
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Is the Fukushima disaster causing an increase in infant mortality on the west coast of North America?
Here we've got a claim that infant mortality in select US cities on the west coast has increased by 35% since the nuclear meltdown. This claim is based on two data points:
4 weeks ending March 19, ...
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Is the foreskin of a baby connected to the glans in a similar way to a fingernail on a finger?
Seen on Facebook.
I'm not so interested in the "steel rod" claim. I'm interested in the anatomy claim: that the foreskin of a baby is attached to the glans by a membrane, in a similar way to the that ...
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Is there a scientific consensus that "no level of [ionizing] radiation is safe"?
This video criticizes Scott Pruit's EPA's proposed 10-fold increase of the maximum allowed radiation dose in water. It also claims scientists agree "no level of radiation is safe"; apparently, this ...
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Is the Marie Kondo tuning fork effective for healing?
The KonMari (Marie Kondo) website sells a shaped piece of solid aluminium, making the following claims for it:
Tuning Fork
Regular price $50.00
Marie uses a tuning fork in her everyday ...
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Does ultrasound reduce joint inflammation?
I read a 2011 paper, Low-intensity pulsed ultrasound reduces the inflammatory activity of synovitis. that mention that ultrasound can help reduce inflammation.
However, Save Yourself article states:
...
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Do we lose 7 pounds when we die?
I often hear people claim that it is a fact that humans lose seven pounds when they die. Some people believe that this is 'proof' of the existence of the 'soul'. Is there any truth to this claim? I ...
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Can a cat's purr heal injuries?
I've read it on Wikipedia's article about purring (in French), which I will paraphrase as follows:
Veterinarians think that cats heal fractures etc. more rapidly than dogs. [citation]
A hypothesis ...
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Have the Covid-19 vaccines caused more deaths than Covid-19 itself did?
A popular article by Steve Kirsch on his substack discusses the following:
A worldwide Bayesian causal Impact analysis suggests that COVID-19 gene therapy (mRNA vaccine) causes more COVID-19 cases ...
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Is the eye-movement aspect of EMDR therapy more effective than other available therapies for treating trauma survivors?
A recent BBC article discussed the use of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) therapy for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It makes the claim, "Some are still sceptical ...
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Did over 1000 people in the US die of cannabis overdose in 2021?
According to the National Safety Council, in 2021 in the US, 1159 people died of cannabis overdose, of which 1130 of the deaths were preventable:
Is this true?
I'm skeptical because the drug ...
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Does looking at a monitor screen in a room with very low light source damage your eyes?
Suppose a person wants to play computer games at night without turning on the room lights. The only light source in the room is that monitor screen that the person is looking at -- with normal ...
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Does chewing gum increase attention span?
Below is the abstract of a study titled Effects of chewing gum and time-on-task on alertness and attention
RATIONALE: Chewing gum has been shown to reliably increase subjective
alertness whereas ...
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Can avoiding certain foods reduce inflammation? (Gluten, sugar...)
Lots of articles and books claim from moderate (help reduce inflammation) to miraculous (cure or completely eliminate symptoms of autoimmune disorders) claims about doing strict diets that avoid ...
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Does Havana Syndrome exist?
The US House of Representatives recently passed a bill to help diplomats and officials that have been impacted by 'Havana Syndrome'. This legislation has already passed the Senate, and since signed ...
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Do THC or other cannabis compounds cure/slow cancer?
I see this popping up on my Facebook feed quite a lot (to be fair, it's usually the same 3 people): Claims that evidence has shown that marijuana/cannabis/THC/other cannabinoids can have a positive ...
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Can an experiment done on casual cannabis users provide evidence for the risk of psychosis in long term users?
There is an episode of BBC Horizon with the title Cannabis: Miracle Medicine or Dangerous Drug?, presented by Dr Javid Abdelmoneim.
During the documentary Abdelmoneim meets Dr Amir Englund, a ...
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Did Jeffrey Epstein take his own life?
IN 2019, Barbara Sampson, the New York City's Chief Medical Examiner, ruled that Jeffrey Epstein's death was a suicide by hanging.
New York City’s medical examiner ruled Jeffrey Epstein’s death a ...
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Do scar gel products work to reduce or soften the appearance of scars?
Products like Mederma Scar Gel claim that they are "clinically proven to improve the softness, texture and overall appearance of scars." Mederma in particular promises to improve both old ...
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Does acetaminophen use during pregnancy lead to children developing autism?
There are apparently a bunch of law groups recruiting for potential class action lawsuits happening right now targeting medicines that contain acetaminophen, most notable Tylenol. The lawsuits allege ...
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Is there a scientific explanation for these two cases of healing after intercessory prayer?
I recently found two remarkable case reports of healings after intercessory prayer:
Case report of instantaneous resolution of juvenile macular degeneration blindness after proximal intercessory ...
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Are fat people who intentionally lose weight at a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease?
The Health at Any Size movement, which promotes "body positivity" and de-emphasizes body weight and obesity (among other things), claims that intentionally losing weight increases risk of ...
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Is this study on the dangers of vaccines peer reviewed?
When discussing vaccines with a friend, they brought up a study:
Analysis of health outcomes in vaccinated and unvaccinated children: Developmental delays, asthma, ear infections and gastrointestinal ...
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Does the bulletproof diet work?
This diet is meant to be an updated version of the paleo diet, and it promises to give you killer abs with no exercise, eating 4,000+ KCal per day and sleeping 5 hours per night. It is also supposedly ...
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Does cooking eggs at high temperatures oxidise more fats than low temperatures?
Over the years, eggs have been vilified, then given a reprieve with regard to cholesterol, but when reading Srinivasan & Rose (2014), there is mention of lipid oxidation which can supposedly cause ...
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Does working at a standing desk consume more calories than sitting?
src
I've heard conflicting claims:
Site that claims it maks a crap load of difference
Site that claims it doesn't make a shred of difference
What does science say?
You may find this question ...
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Does marijuana impair driving?
Is the use of cannabis/marijuana/THC associated with risks when driving a motor vehicle, similar to impairment from the use of alcohol?
The conclusions of public studies seem inconsistent. For example,...
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Do spying devices implanted through human ear canals exist?
An article from a professor of psychology describes a type of so-called “ radio-wave, auditory, assaultive. transmitting (RAAT) implants,” which is essentially a covert listening device, and it can be ...
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Are puberty blockers fully reversible?
Multiple sources claim that puberty blockers function like a pause button. To name a few:
Using puberty blockers is like hitting a pause button
St. Louis Children's Hospital
“The really wonderful ...
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Is gonorrhea "on the brink of becoming untreatable"?
In this article of the Financial Times about a "sexual health crisis" in the US, the following claim is made:
The study showed doxycycline was less effective for preventing gonorrhoea, ...
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Are 1 in 12 men color blind?
The Colour Blind Awareness website claims that:
Colour (color) blindness (colour vision deficiency, or CVD) affects approximately 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women in the world.
This claim ...
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Did herbalist Maria Treben really systematically confuse inulin with insulin?
The widely read Austrian herbalist Maria Treben is frequently said to have fundamentally confused a number of biochemical concepts, theories, or at least names of substances.
As seen with the always ...
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Does alcohol-free "essential oil" mouthwash kill bacteria in your mouth?
Case in point:
No other alcohol-free mouthwash has been proven more effective at
killing bad breath germs. Contains signature 4 Essential Oils found in
LISTERINE® Antiseptic for bad breath ...
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Is osteopathic medicine evidence based?
There seems to be a lot of conflation of osteopathic medicine with other alternative medicines, even questions about whether or not it is an alternative medicine or mainstream. In the U.S. ...
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Do surgeons refuse to operate "to keep their own statistics clean"?
I was curious about this thrice-upvoted comment, which says: Surgeons are also known for refusing to operate in order to maintain their ratios. So I Googled it and it seems surgeons can refuse to ...
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Do weather changes affect arthritis?
My father always claims he knows when a storm is coming by the pain in his knee. It turns out he might not be as crazy as I thought. Many people with arthritis report varying pain levels as a result ...
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Is bad posture bad for anything other than your back?
As a musician, I've had a fair amount of tuition on posture. One in particular, who was teaching Alexander Technique said that bad posture could cause seemingly unrelated complaints, as slouching ...
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Do Japanese people have a lower body temperature than caucasians?
I heard from a Japanese person that Japanese people have a lower body temperature than caucasians. Is this the case?
Examples from the internet of people discussing claims that Japanese people, or ...
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Can Ayurvedic treatment reduce symptoms and needed anti-inflammatory medication in ulcerative colitis patients by more than 75%
I found a study on Research Gate titled
Effects of Ayurvedic treatment on forty-three patients of ulcerative
colitis
This paper was originally published in An international quarterly journal of ...
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Does Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO) speed the healing of wounds?
My wife is currently suffering from a small ulcer which is refusing to heal and a friend of hers suggested a topical application of DMSO to improve healing time. Please not that I am explicityl not ...
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Was Columbia University fined for animal cruelty due to experiments run by Mehmet Oz?
This SourceWatch article is being publicized in connection to Mehmet Oz:
In 2004, complaints about Dr. Mehmet Oz’s dog experiments were cited in a report from an internal investigation into ...
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Can a clinically dead person be revived several hours later if the body was cooled?
The blog, Seyisanchez, claims that:
According to the latest available statistics, nearly twice as many
patients are resuscitated [at Stony Brook University Hospital in New York] every year ...
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Can orgasm help prevent breast cancer?
There are several claims that sexual orgasm is good for preventing breast cancer.
Example of claim for Women: Happy News Time Blog:
Able to reach orgasm is not just make a woman feel satisfied, but ...
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Do the warm oils penetrate the skin the same way as a normal oil would after manual warming?
By warm oils I mean "pepper seed oil", and "sesame oil".
These oils are said to have inherent warmth due to which they increase blood circulation.
The secret of essential oils' effectiveness lies ...
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Is the serotonin theory of depression false?
A couple of weeks ago, this article was published on Nature
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0
I am just a layman when it comes to this subject and it is therefore difficult for me to ...
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Is sugar in fruit juice less likely to cause weight gain than refined sugar?
Refined sugar is regularly described as the root of all evil, while sugar in fruit juice slips under the net.
I just noticed my 330ml juice has 33g of sugar in it.
There are currently ...
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Was inbreeding responsible for haemophilia in royalty?
Was inbreeding responsible for haemophilia in royal families in Europe?
Example claims:
Rationalwiki:
"One general result of this inbreeding in the European royal families
was the ...
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Does physical exercise control diabetes?
I've heard from many people that physical exercise controls or prevents diabetes. Is there any studies that confirm or deny this?
Does physical exercise control diabetes?
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