Health

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

Placebo Effect

Does the colour of a pill really influence what kind of placebo effect you’ll experience?

Mike Hall -
It's said that pill colour influences what placebo effect people experience, but the primary source for this claim is flimsy at best
Placebo Effect

Religion is simply a powerful placebo – offering priests a sense of ritual, but little else

Colin Brewer -
Theatrical but ultimately ineffective, religion may be the ultimate placebo effect - as 17th Century priest Jean Meslier realised 300 years ago
Health

Nobody undergoes egg donation for the money – it is about altruism, not exploitation

Emma McClure -
Egg donors will see a raise in compensation from next month, but campaign groups are wrong when they say this incentivises people to donate
Health

Beware of commercial microbiome tests: how at-home testing can mislead consumers

Cesar Baima -
Despite the marketing claims, research has found no evidence to suggest at-home microbiome tests offer reliable health insights
Conspiracy Theories

Med Beds: the futuristic health devices promising to cure you with undefined energy

Alice Howarth -
Beloved by conspiracy theorists, Med Beds are claimed to be able to cure all manner of ailments using unspecified energetic forces... and empty promises
Placebo Effect

Overly simplistic headlines muddy the water around placebo effects and mislead the public

Mike Hall -
Recent headlines claim we 'finally know' how placebos work, thanks to a trial that is little more than Pavlovian conditioning. No wonder the public is confused
Climate Change

We shouldn’t fear a “zombie fungus”, like The Last of Us… but a threat from fungi is real

Georgy Kurakin -
While a zombie-style fungal threat is incredibly unlikely, rising global temperatures mean we're increasingly at risk from a life-threatening fungal pathogen
Alternative Medicine

An awareness of your body is useful, but the Alexander Technique probably isn’t

Alice Howarth -
Any benefits attributed to Alexander Technique are more than likely to be the results of exercise - the expensive programme itself is mostly an exercise in marketing
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