pseudoscience

Patchy Science on LifeWave’s Mysterious Patches

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 04 Jul 2025 10:00:00 +0000

They came in droves.

$1,950 Worth of Woo: The Biomat, Unwrapped

Sophie Tseng Pellar BSc — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000

Recently, I was forwarded an email about the Biomat—a $1,950 USD “healing mat” that claims to cure everything short of a broken heart. And boy oh boy, is it ever a hotbed of pseudoscience wrapped in a cozy cotton cover and priced like a small vacation. When I dug into the science behind the Biomat’s claims, I found a textbook case of clever marketing dressed up in scientific jargon, with very little evidence to back it up.

Functional Medicine Is a Pipeline to Alt Med

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 13 Jun 2025 10:00:00 +0000

A 56-year-old university professor with psoriatic arthritis goes to see a doctor because his condition is worsening. Psoriatic arthritis is a disease where your immune system rebels against you, creating patches of abnormal skin and aching joints. Does the man leave the doctor’s office with a prescription for a better medication than what he was on? No.

The American Plan to Eliminate Vaccines

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 14:54:40 +0000

We don’t defend the things we take for granted. Vaccines have long been victims of their own success, but only insofar as too many people were hesitant to get them. But what if vaccines were eliminated altogether?

Kier’s Four Tempers: Psychological Fact or Fiction?

Simran Dhir BSc — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 18:52:17 +0000

With the finale of the second season of Apple TV’s most popular show, Severance, being on everyone’s mind, here is a look into some of the (pseudo)science that inspired core concepts explored in this psychological thriller, starting with Kier’s four tempers.

*Cue the Severance theme song*

Magnesium is a Necessary Nutrient but It Does Not Perform Miracles

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 01:10:31 +0000

The year was 1618, the place, Epsom, England. The farmer had just dug a well for his cows but the animals refused to drink the water. On tasting the water, he quickly discovered why. It was bitter! The water was undrinkable, but it would do for washing, he figured. That’s when he discovered that rubbing his body with the bitter water had a therapeutic effect. A skin rash disappeared, and his aching muscles stopped aching. When the water evaporated, it left behind some white crystals.

Doc of Detox Tries to Rewrite All of Medicine

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 02:14:41 +0000

If you are desperate enough, there is someone out there willing to rewrite all of medicine and relieve you of your savings. A former nurse with multiple sclerosis lost over $10,000 in this way, according to a CBC Marketplace investigation. To whom did she give this money, you may wonder? To Darrell Wolfe, who calls himself Doc of Detox.

Will Graphology Become Extinct?

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 12:02:15 +0000

Can a pseudoscience ever truly disappear? Over the course of human history, we have made many attempts at explaining the world around us, and while some of these guesses were eventually confirmed through rigorous scientific experimentation, many of our hypotheses were shown to be wrong, yet some survived. They became belief systems with a patina of scientific credibility applied on top. It still surprises me that astrology, a clear pseudoscience which has been firmly supplanted by both astronomy and human psychology, remains popular today.

Rasputin, Phrenology, and Dark Allegations: The Madness of Access Consciousness

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 05:26:41 +0000

How does a person come to believe that we can use telepathy on horses and that schizophrenia is secretly a superpower?

Twisting Facts About Cancer

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Wed, 08 May 2024 19:16:23 +0000

Let’s start with some facts. Antiperspirants, cell phones, root canals or wired bras do not cause cancer. Sugar or dairy products do not “feed” the disease. You cannot cure cancer with an alkaline diet, crystals, juices, shark cartilage, apricot pits, magnets, mistletoe, soursop, chlorella, black walnuts, coconut oil, cesium chloride, reiki, psychic surgery, baking soda, antineoplastons, bioresonance machines, orgone accumulators, Rife frequency generators or coffee enemas.

Naprapathy Stretches Credulity

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 02 Feb 2024 12:41:47 +0000

Buried in a court document mentioning Joe Mercola was the first reference to naprapathy I had ever seen. Joe Mercola has made a fortune selling dietary supplements and publishing health misinformation over the past few decades. The court case did not involve Mercola but rather a woman he had treated. In her lawsuit against a life insurance company, the plaintiff is described as having been bitten by a tick and contracting Lyme disease.

Homeopathy is scientifically implausible

Joe Schwarcz PhD — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 18:23:31 +0000

This article was first published in the Montreal Gazette.

Magnesium Supplements for Sleep May Not Work Like a Dream

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 13:09:25 +0000

Everywhere I turn these days, an influencer is trying to sell me magnesium supplements. Apparently, all of us who find it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep all night are missing the boat. The answer is a simple mineral available as a dietary supplement: the all-mighty magnesium.

What’s Trending in the World of Pseudoscience

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 10:00:00 +0000

Our office’s mission is to separate sense from nonsense, which may well be a Sisyphean task. There is a lot of pseudoscience—meaning ideas and interventions that look scientific but that are not—especially around health. Having a mental map of what is trending right now can help us better understand the landscape so that we can intervene more effectively. I have been interested in health-related pseudoscience for over a decade now. Here is what I see being popular at the moment and who is pushing (and often profiting from) these narratives.

The World Health Organization Has a Pseudoscience Problem

Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. — Fri, 28 Apr 2023 14:00:51 +0000

The World Health Organization has a definition of the soul.

It is not technically theirs, but it appears in the glossary of one of their many official documents. The soul, according to the WHO, is derived from the astral organization, which is another term they have had to define. The astral organization, you see, is distinct from the etheric organization. That same document, coming out of the world’s foremost authority on global health, mentions such esoteric concepts as rhythmical embrocation, a type of energy healing that involves rhythmic strokes on the body.