Tag: anti-aging

This Scary Mask Is Not for Halloween: It’s for Anti-Aging Skin Care

Evidence is lacking for CurrentBody's "anti-aging" LED mask.

/ March 1, 2022

SeroVital: Dubious Anti-Aging Claims

SeroVital is marketed as an anti-aging remedy that works by raising human growth hormone (HGH) levels naturally with amino acids. The research consists of one preliminary study that measured HGH levels. There is no clinical evidence that it is effective for anything.

/ November 26, 2019

Hydrogen Water Is Not “the New Nutrient;” Health Claims Are Hype, Not Science.

A new fad, drinking hydrogen water, claims to provide all kinds of health benefits. The scientific evidence isn't there.

/ October 8, 2019

“Young blood” infusions: same old snake oil

There's no reliable evidence that an infusion of blood plasma from a young donor will benefit an older person, and there are risks, but Ambrosia Health is selling "young blood" infusions for thousands of dollars anyway. The FDA has taken notice.

/ June 20, 2019

Aloe Vera

Many claims are made for the health benefits of aloe vera, used both topically and orally. The scientific evidence is lacking.

/ July 10, 2018

Trump’s new CDC Director is very pro-vaccine, but was she also at one time a quack?

On Friday, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Tom Price announced the appointment of Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald to head the CDC. Reassuringly, her record as Georgia Public Health Commissioner was pro-vaccine and relatively non-ideological. Not so reassuringly, a news report yesterday found that before entering public service she was peddling anti-aging quackery at her private practice. Where will her balance fall now...

/ July 10, 2017

Vital Stem: Affordable Stem Cell Treatments for Everyone? Anti-Aging Breakthrough?

Vital Stem is a dietary supplement mixture that supposedly reverses the changes of normal aging by increasing the body's production of stem cells. We can't know if it works, because it hasn't been tested.

/ April 18, 2017

Donald Trump and Peter Thiel vs. the FDA: Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Donald Trump's three most likely picks for FDA Commissioner all favor loosening drug approval standards. Two are cronies of Peter Thiel, of which one believes that the FDA shouldn't require evidence of efficacy, only safety, and the other believes that a "Yelp for drugs" would do a better job than the FDA. The third candidate is a bona fide, honest-to-goodness pharma shill....

/ January 16, 2017

Skeptic’s Guide to Debunking Claims about Telomeres in the Scientific and Pseudoscientific Literature

The New Year starts with telomeres as the trendiest of trendy biomarkers. As seen in Time, telomeres are the means to monitor our well-being so we can protect ourselves from all sorts from threats, including early death. A skeptic needs to do considerable homework in order to muster the evidence needed to counter the latest exaggerated, premature, and outright pseudoscientific claims about...

/ January 11, 2015

Product B: Here We Go Again

New health products are constantly appearing on the market in such numbers that I can’t hope to keep up. Product B was new to me. I was introduced to it by a doctor who said a family member was “quite enthusiastic” about its potential to “lengthen telomeres and thereby address a myriad of health issues.” Of course, I immediately asked “What exactly...

/ November 25, 2014