On today’s episode of ask the experts we pit the gynecologic advice of Gwyneth Paltrow, a consciously uncoupled actress and self-professed lifestyle expert who dabbles in vaginal health, against that of yours truly, a board certified OB/GYN who has completed a 5 year OB/GYN residency and a fellowship in infectious diseases and is an expert […]
Category Archives: snake oil
A letter to Dr. Oz for his In Box
Dear Dr. Oz, I know the #OzsInBox question on twitter didn’t exactly go the way you or your social media team expected. You told Sen. McCaskill when she asked you about the so-called miracles and medically baseless products that you promote on your show that you view yourself as a cheerleader, but consider #OzsInBox a […]
Emu oil, schmaltz is the new cure for everything!
Emu oil is making the rounds (again) as a cure for just about everything. Those who sell it bolster their claims with technical sounding but medically imprecise terms such as “anti-inflammatory properties” and “natural healing” (what is unnatural healing?). Even the New York Times has been in on the emu oil action with an article […]
9 Diagnostic Signs of Snake Oil
Don’t just blame Jenny McCarthy for the measles outbreak, blame Dr. Bob too
Measles is on its way to an all time high. In 2000 Measles was eliminated (meaning some travelers from areas with low vaccine penetration might arrive in the US with the disease, but no case came from US), but has been slowly creeping back. Since 2008 this has been more than a trickle. Let’s put the […]
Jenny McCarthy is still anti-vaccine despite what you may have learned today on Reddit
Yesterday the “news” was Jenny McCarthy had abandoned her medical degree from the University of Google, embraced science, and stated some version of vaccines are helpful and that her son never really had autism. My twitter steam was broiling with people retweeting an article from Radar Online making this claim (the link is now dead), […]
Is thermography a valid tool for breast cancer screening or snake oil?
Thermography uses heat sensitive infrared cameras to image the body and measure heat emission. Solid tumors, even when they are tiny, have an increased blood flow and inflammation compared with non cancerous tissue. Theoretically this could lead to a thermal gradient between a cancer and the surrounding non cancerous tissues. Some animal studies indicate that […]
The only thing that a cleanse actually cleans is your wallet
From time to time I get asked about cleanses. What is typically meant by a “cleanse” is only drinking a juice concoction for several days. Some cleanses add things like cider vinegar, cayenne pepper, or other supposedly “healthy” substances. The most common reasons to “cleanse” that I hear from people who drink these things include: […]
Tubal ligation does not cause early menopause: beware the hormone “experts”
Hormones are peddled by many practitioners as well as by the Goddess of estrogen herself, Suzanne Somers, as the fountain of youth. However, if hormones were actually proven to be that wonderful/amazing/effective/risk-free via evidence based medicine, well, uh, everyone would be dishing them out like candy. While there definitely are specific instances where hormone replacement […]
