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
1,261
questions
208
votes
1
answer
24k
views
Is popping your knuckles bad for you?
I pop my knuckles fairly frequently, and I have been told on several occasions that doing so is bad for your joints. Is this true? Have there been any medical studies on this?
- 3,593
165
votes
4
answers
26k
views
Does being cold increase your chances of catching the common cold?
"Everyone knows" - a scary statement - that you get "a cold" from being cold. Now it seems to be a fact that you don't, because you get a cold from a (rhino)virus, not from the temperature.
But is ...
- 4,707
113
votes
6
answers
16k
views
Is alcohol beneficial in small amounts?
It's widely believed that consuming small amounts of alcohol has many health benefits.
As a matter of fact, a lot of alcohol might be good for you, as Wired Magazine reports:
It’s one of those ...
- 8,152
107
votes
6
answers
16k
views
Is smoking weed bad for your health?
Some people believe that smoking marijuana (without any tobacco) is harmful to your health and may cause problems. Examples of things I've heard weed supposedly causes:
All the health problems of ...
- 2,773
106
votes
1
answer
18k
views
Has the cure to cancer been hidden by pharmaceutical companies?
I've heard a theory that given the widespread incidence of cancer, a cancer cure probably already exists but has been hidden by major pharmaceutical companies to maximise revenue from expensive cancer ...
- 1,121
90
votes
4
answers
24k
views
Do COVID-19 vaccines cause two deaths for every three deaths they prevent?
There is this new study that came out, alleging, that COVID-19 vaccines cause two deaths for every three deaths they prevent, which sounds pretty bad. I was wondering how valid this analysis is and ...
- 2,706
88
votes
6
answers
10k
views
Do mobile phones have anything to do with brain cancer?
Is there evidence for a correlation between the use of mobile phones and the occurence of brain cancer? If yes, is there also evidence for causality?
user288
87
votes
1
answer
13k
views
Does continuous drinking of lemon juice have any negative effect on bones?
I came across a blog post from a beauty blog titled Beware: Lemons Can Harm You In Ways You Didn't Know. [Archived Page]
One of the points mentioned was
The continuous use of lemon juice can actually ...
user56730
86
votes
4
answers
14k
views
Does drinking diluted chlorine dioxide protect against COVID-19?
I read a bit about drinking diluted chlorine dioxide (e.g. 12mg/L) as a supposedly protective means against COVID-19. Apparently it is a widespread belief in Latin America, especially on social media, ...
- 737
84
votes
2
answers
11k
views
Do rusty nail wounds cause tetanus?
My Mother and aunties always asked with alarm how I got even a minor scratch when I was young. If an injury was caused by anything rusty, I was to be transported immediately to the doctor for a "...
- 1,419
83
votes
1
answer
17k
views
Are female surgeons less likely to kill you?
A 2017 article in The Times has the following headline:
Female surgeons less likely to kill you, study finds
The article reports:
Patients operated on by a woman are less likely to die within a ...
- 56.2k
82
votes
3
answers
13k
views
Are there vaccine ingredients which may not be disclosed ("hidden", "trade secret", or similar)?
I sometimes encounter people claiming that there are ingredients in vaccines that can be kept secret by the manufacturer. I would be surprised to hear this, because the manufacturers have to conduct ...
- 1,471
81
votes
1
answer
16k
views
Did the U.S. Army treat a President's cold using chlorine gas?
Several texts on the history of chemical warfare mention the story that in May 1924 the U.S. Army Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) treated President Calvin Coolidge for a severe cold with chlorine. For ...
user22213
79
votes
3
answers
10k
views
Does Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS) exist?
A recent article from Daily Mail cited the case of a woman claiming to be allergic to Wi-Fi, and that it could even kill her. This claim sounded ridiculous and absurd to me. Quoting parts of the exact ...
78
votes
3
answers
55k
views
Is it possible to "die instantly"?
Lots of times, when some great tragedy occurs, one often hears journalists and bystanders alike softening the blow of having some person die by saying something like "at least they died instantly" or "...
- 3,783
74
votes
2
answers
16k
views
Were pen cap holes designed to prevent death by suffocation if swallowed?
Someone posted the following trivia on a social media website:
Do you know that pen caps have holes so that if someone swallows a cap, then air could still pass through?
This started a small ...
- 851
74
votes
6
answers
7k
views
Does circumcision lead to a net increase in quality of life?
I was recently surprised to learn that many Americans have been circumcised even though their parents had no religious motivation to go through with it. This in strong contrast with my home country ...
- 18.6k
74
votes
1
answer
13k
views
Did astronauts or cosmonauts have sex in space?
The Guardian:
US and Russian astronauts have had sex in space for separate research programmes on how human beings might survive years in orbit, according to a book published yesterday.
Pierre Kohler,...
- 3,963
73
votes
1
answer
12k
views
Are the claims made by Indian Ministers / personalities regarding ancient Indian inventions true?
In the past couple of years, several Indian Ministers / personalities have made claims regarding existence of modern inventions in Ancient India.
Prime Minister Modi claimed that genetic science ...
- 1,451
69
votes
3
answers
8k
views
Is food still safe to eat within 5 seconds after being dropped on the floor (5 second rule)?
Today in the cafeteria my friend dropped a chicken wing on the floor and immediately picked it up and ate it. Afterward he claimed that the chicken wing was still safe to eat if it was consumed within ...
- 731
69
votes
1
answer
20k
views
Is food cooked in a microwave oven harmful for the health?
A colleague of mine just made a comment about cooking food in a microwave oven. According to him it is considered to be harmful to one's health. Is it true?
- 1,109
67
votes
5
answers
6k
views
Is the placebo effect a purely psychological effect?
The placebo effect plays a crucial role in clinical trials and in our understanding of medicine, but I have always had some difficulty in understanding how exactly it works.
Is it a purely ...
- 43.6k
67
votes
2
answers
16k
views
Do we need to brush our teeth?
While everyone is telling us that we should brush our teeth twice a day, the human species has evolved for several million years without any teeth brushing. Apes don't brush their teeth, and they don'...
- 32k
65
votes
1
answer
15k
views
If smoking causes lung cancer, why has a decline in smoking not led to a decline in lung cancer?
According to the CDC, smoking prevalence among US adults (18+) has decreased quite a bit over the years:
1974: 37.1% of the population
1980: 33.2
1990: 25.5
2000: 23.3
2010: 19.3
According to cancer....
- 751
65
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Is acupuncture an effective treatment?
What evidence is there for or against acupuncture being an effective treatment?
- 10.2k
65
votes
2
answers
10k
views
Do the majority of doctors in the USA support hydroxychloroquine use for covid-19?
The Claim
Scott Adams recently made the claim that the majority of doctors in the USA support the use of hydroxychloroquine. Normally a cartoonist's podcast would not be a notable source for a claim, ...
- 56.2k
64
votes
2
answers
13k
views
Is deoxygenated blood blue?
I have encountered many people in my life that believe that your blood is blue until it hits the air and only then it turns red. The blue color of our veins is also explained the same way, as the ...
- 743
63
votes
2
answers
22k
views
Is the COVID-19 vaccine 50 times more likely to kill young people than COVID-19 itself?
Michael Yeadon, a former vice president at Pfizer and lately known as, e.g., making unsubstantiated claims about COVID vaccinations, has made the claim in question in a video interview (archived ...
- 733
61
votes
4
answers
6k
views
Is there any explanation for a near-death experience?
One idea I used to hear a lot about was that when people are near-death and saved by medical science that they sometimes see "a light at the end of a tunnel" in a vision.
Today I read about an ...
- 11.3k
60
votes
1
answer
10k
views
Are most cases of polio derived from the polio vaccine?
According to this National Public Radio article:
For the first time, the number of children paralyzed by mutant strains of the polio vaccine are greater than the number of children paralyzed by polio ...
- 3,031
58
votes
3
answers
8k
views
Does burning your food increase your risk of getting cancer?
About a year ago I heard that burning your food can lead to an increased risk of getting cancer. The explanation was that the burned portion of the food was carcinogenic. The Carbon that would be ...
- 683
58
votes
1
answer
8k
views
Do teenagers fall asleep and rise up later than kids or adults for biological reasons?
In a TED talk "Why school should start later for teens", Wendy Toxel made an assertion that teenagers naturally fall asleep and rise up a couple of hours later than children OR adults (related to ...
- 31.2k
57
votes
1
answer
11k
views
Do hot peppers kill cancer?
While browsing Health.SE, I came across an answer that makes the following claim:
A 2007 study by Nottingham University2 found that spicy foods can help kill cancer cells. Capsaicin, which is what ...
- 861
57
votes
1
answer
9k
views
Is squeezing pimples bad for you?
I've always been told, or notice others being told, or hear it in popular media, that squeezing pimples or blackheads is somehow "bad" for you. Certainly, when there is a chance that the skin breaks, ...
- 1,033
56
votes
3
answers
9k
views
Do we need 8 hours of consecutive sleep a day?
It is said that an adult human needs around 7-9 hours of sleep per day.
Do human beings need around 8 hours of consecutive sleep a day? Is it prejudicial to the body and brain that you don't? Or is ...
- 763
55
votes
1
answer
11k
views
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 ...
- 8,414
54
votes
1
answer
15k
views
Do studies show that viruses are contagious?
An acquaintance of mine has been very adamant that viruses can't be caught and continues to link me things like this Ickonic video, where Jaymie Icke interviews Dr. Andrew Kaufman M.D. who claims:
I ...
- 633
53
votes
1
answer
21k
views
Can standing in front of a microwave oven give you cancer?
I was heating up some lunch in the microwave oven at work a few weeks ago, and peered into the window to see if my soup was bubbling yet. At that point a coworker walked into the lunch room and ...
- 1,741
52
votes
8
answers
23k
views
Can trained humans run faster than all other animals on a marathon distance?
During the athletics world championship, a commentator mentioned casually during the marathon discipline that humans are faster over long distances than all animals.
I'm unsure if this can be said ...
- 1,933
52
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Is it harmful to your eyes to read in dim light?
Is there any scientific backing to the claim that reading in dim light damages your eyes?
Related to:
Does watching television damage the eyes?
- 18.6k
51
votes
2
answers
12k
views
Is there reliable evidence that depleted uranium from the 1999 NATO bombing is causing cancer in Serbia?
This year is the 20th anniversary of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia/Serbia. At the moment, Serbian media outlets are focused on claims that depleted uranium in NATO bombs used during the bombardment ...
- 597
51
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Do people need to drink 8 glasses of water a day?
Since I was a kid, I can't remember how many times I've heard that a healthy person needs to drink at least 8 glasses of water a day.
There are definitely plenty of reasons to remain well-hydrated. ...
- 24.5k
50
votes
3
answers
29k
views
Russian scientist injects himself with 3.5 million-year-old bacteria, says he is now stronger and hasn't gotten ill in 2 years
I have found several articles regarding a Russian scientist, Anatoli Brouchkov:
Anatoli Brouchkov is a soft-spoken guy with silver hair, and when he lets out a reserved chuckle, his eyes light up ...
- 1,005
50
votes
3
answers
9k
views
Is the O-type blood used as a universal donor?
In biology classes at school I was taught that O can be a donor to all blood types (given matching Rh group and other details), and AB can receive transfusion from any type. Quick googling seems to ...
- 2,499
50
votes
3
answers
41k
views
Does regularly drinking from a plastic container cause cancer?
I drink water from my plastic cup regularly and a friend commented that it could cause cancer.
He also added that I should not heat food in plastic containers or wrappings in the microwave as that ...
- 831
50
votes
2
answers
15k
views
Does the "sugar high" exist at all?
I've heard numerous times that eating1 a high quantity of sugar will give you a "sugar high" or "sugar buzz"
The high one gets after consuming large amounts of sugar. Also called a "sugar rush." ...
- 78.6k
49
votes
2
answers
13k
views
Is Reiki scientifically valid/proven?
Reiki is a form of alternative medicine which has its origins in Japan. Palm healing and auras are central aspects of Reiki.
The practice of Reiki is getting more common, however, I was not able to ...
- 591
48
votes
1
answer
8k
views
During pregnancy, do babies send stem cells to their mothers to repair organ damage?
This picture is floating around the facebooks with no attribution to an original source (not even a source of the image):
The image says:
During pregnancy, if a mother suffers organ damage, the ...
- 795
48
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Is breakfast the most important meal of the day?
This question is not about nutrition. I am not asking whether the kinds of foods that people typically have during breakfast (esp. cereals) are healthier than other foods.
The claim is often made ...
- 1,004
47
votes
3
answers
25k
views
Does the AMA limit the number of doctors to increase current doctors' salaries?
A suggested reason why doctors get paid so much more in the US as opposed to other developed countries is that the American Medical Association (AMA) artificially limits the physician supply in order ...
- 1,037