Tag: multiple sclerosis

The McDougall Diet

Dr. McDougall is a maverick who disagrees with most experts. He recommends a high starch, low fat diet with no dairy or animal foods and other prohibitions. Its severe restrictions make it nutritionally questionable and it has never been properly tested in a controlled study.

/ October 20, 2020

Taopatch Offers Everything… Except Science

Taopatch promises all kinds of vague benefits, but the mechanism of action is implausible and what they call scientific proof is no such thing.

/ September 1, 2020

The First Multiple Sclerosis Patient

Twenty years before Charcot described the nerve-destroying disease multiple sclerosis, an illegitimate British noble spent much of his adult life describing the disease and its effects.

/ August 28, 2020

Crowdfunding unproven stem cell treatments: overstated efficacy, unstated risks

Crowdfunding campaigns for unproven stem cell treatments exaggerate the benefits and underemphasize the risks, all the while raising considerable funds and generating social media buzz.

/ May 10, 2018

Medical Marijuana: Where is the evidence?

Marijuana is widely touted as an effective medicine for an array of conditions. But what does the evidence actually tell us?

/ January 11, 2018

Update on CCSVI and Multiple Sclerosis

In 2009 CCSVI was proposed by Italian vascular surgeon, Dr. Paolo Zamboni – that multiple sclerosis (MS) is caused by chronic blockage of the veins that drain the brain. Since that time we have seen the evolution of a medical pseudoscience. It has been a fascinating case study in how science sorts out what works and what doesn’t, and how patients, believers,...

/ October 26, 2016

The rise and inevitable fall of Vitamin D

It’s been difficult to avoid the buzz about vitamin D over the past few years. While it has a  long history of use in the medical treatment of osteoporosis, a large number of observational studies have linked low vitamin D levels to a range of illnesses. The hypothesis that there is widespread deficiency in the population has led to interest in measuring...

/ June 23, 2016

Brian Clement claims Hippocrates treatments “reverse” multiple sclerosis

American charlatan Brian Clement made another trip to Canada recently and was caught on audiotape claiming multiple sclerosis could be “reversed” at the Hippocrates Health Institute (HHI), where he serves as Director. This is yet another in a series of his misrepresentations about the effectiveness of the quack treatments offered at HHI. Indeed, Clement calls to mind the old joke about inveterate...

/ November 26, 2015

The End for CCSVI

A new study published in The Lancet provides the most definitive evidence to date that chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI), a hypothetical syndrome of narrowed veins draining the brain that some believe is the true cause of multiple sclerosis (MS), is not associated with MS. In a science-based world, this study would be yet one more nail in the coffin of this...

/ October 9, 2013