Chapters 1,2 & 3
True or False: When the water turns brown in foot baths, it is because of toxins from your body
False: The water turns brown from a chemical reaction and would still turn brown without your feet in the water.
What is the difference between the placebo and nocebo effect?
Placebo: feeling better because you're expecting to
Nocebo: feeling bad because you're expecting to
Neither includes true interventions, just the belief that one is being utilized.
True or False: When companies state that they have clinical trials to prove the effectiveness of their product, they have published research articles to back it up.
False.
True or False: Positive characteristics cluster
False.
Though the book states that is the way people often see it. For example, good handwriting gets a higher grade than bad and attractive people are always good people.
What is "relative risk increase"?
Increasing or exaggerating the statistical risk
What is "Brain Gym"?
Brain training with body movement/exercise
What is the term used for the process of developing homeopathic remedies?
Proving
What happens if free radicals are in the wrong place in the body?
They can damage the desirable components of cells
Which industry was the most profitable in the U.S. until 2003, and now stands in third place.
Pharmaceutical
True or false: You cannot find your hypothesis in your results
True
What is it about Brain Gym that leads to author to claim it as pseudoscience? List an Example.
A large majority of the methods taught within the Brain Gym program are not accurate with science.
For example, it is stated that the program claims processed foods do not have water, but this does not align with the ingredients in soup.
(Any other examples from chapter two also count)
What is cinchona bark?
When taken at a high dose, it is claimed to mimic the symptoms of malaria. When taken in a small dose, it was claimed to treat malaria.
"CocoaVia" and "Natural Flavanol Antioxidant Milk Chocolate" are examples of companies doing what?
Falsely advertising something that is not healthy, as something that has large health benefits
Which country tried to argue that HIV is not the cause of AIDS?
South Africa
Which vaccine discussed is said by many to cause Autism, and does quality science exist to defend this claim?
MMR - No
Why do many ingredients listed in skin creams not actually make an impact?
Many of the chemicals listed require such large concentration to be effective that they create serious side effects.
Why are placebos no longer used as often in scientific medical trials and what is the better alternative?
It is considered unethical. If someone is truly sick, they should not be left untreated. It is also considered a method that "cooks the books" because it is easier to get positive trial data.
Instead, trials should be comparing their drug to the closest existing drug rather than to nothing.
What are two reasons chapter 6 states it is unfair to state that "turmeric is highly protective against many forms of cancer, especially prostate".
-Insufficient research
-Rat cells have been used in speculative lab studies
-Humans have not been tested to determine this speculation
-Turmeric is not well absorbed
At the end of chapter 8, the author states that two things pose the most danger to the material covered within the book; though he believes he may be mistaken.
Cultural and Intellectual
Why does chapter 12 state that the media will always print "stupid stories" over accurate science?
These are the types of stories they prefer; they obtain more traction and more of a reaction
What is one point emphasized to be made "absolutely clear" in chapter one because it is reoccurring throughout the world of bad science?
There is nothing wrong with eating healthy and abstaining from risk factors of ill health
Please describe the 1950s theory involving blood vessels discussed in chapter 5.
There was a thought that blood vessels could grow back in the heart, and even be thicker, if you tied off a less important artery in the front of the chest wall.
This was inaccurate.
What are the two effects listed in chapter 7 as implications in long-term diet studies.
1. Participants will not change their diets as much as the researchers would like
2. The control group will likely change their diet at some point
List two of the ways listed in chapter 9 that you can create a positive result from altering statistical analysis.
1. Ignore the protocol - assume correlation proves causation
2. Play with the baseline - if the treatment group is doing better than the placebo (by chance) at the beginning, leave it.
3. Ignore dropouts - don't include them in the final analysis
4. Clean up the data - delete outliers
5. If the difference between the placebo and drug become significant, stop the trial and write up the results as a win.
6. Torture the data - identify subgroups that behaved differently
7. Run figures through a wide selection of other statistical tests at random, even if not appropriate
What does chapter 12 state is the biggest problem of all in science in the media? Why is this done?
Dumbing it down - people are not interested when it is not simplified and made more interesting