Most of us think of ourselves as savvy, informed individuals who approach the world with discerning eyes.
But the truth is that we’re often remarkably gullible when it comes to pseudoscience and quackery.
That’s the bad news.
The good news is that it is surprisingly easy to tell quackery apart from real science.
This post originally appeared onDr.
Amy Tuteur’s blog.
Quack claims are typically decorated with red flags,ifyou know what to look for.
There is no such thing as secret medical knowledge.
Vast conspiracies, encompassing doctors, scientists, and public health officials exist only in the minds of quacks.
They portray non-believers as “sheeple” who are content to accept authority figures rather than think for themselves.
A real medical professional does not need to flatter you.
you’re able to believe it or not, despite attempts toinfluence you.
The Toxin Flag
I’ve written before thattoxins are the new evil humors.
Toxins serve the same explanatory purpose as evil humors did in the Middle Ages.
They are invisible, but all around us.
They constantly threaten people, often people who unaware of their very existence.
There’s just one problem.
The human body does not produce “toxins.”
A pervasive theme in quackery is the notion of thebrilliant heretic.
The same thing applies to new, imperfectly understood areas of science like epigenetics or the microbiome.
There is real danger in insisting that they have current practical implications.
There is a saying in science that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
Dr. Tuteur is a former clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School.
Photo byTsekhmister(Shutterstock).
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