Magnetic Bracelets and What Your Blood Is Not
The pitch depends on iron in blood responding to a magnet. Blood is not attracted to magnets, and you can confirm that with a…
Imtiaz Momin
Contributing writer, Bad Detox
Imtiaz writes about evidence and how to read a paper that is being waved at you.
Contact Imtiaz through our contact page — mark your message for their attention and it will be passed on.
15 articles
Vibration Plates and the Promise of Passive Exercise
Standing on a shaking platform does produce muscle activity. Whether that adds up to exercise depends on questions the marketing…
Home Oxygen Readings and What a Number on Your Finger Misses
A pulse oximeter gives a confident-looking percentage in seconds. Several ordinary things change that number, and the most…
Wearable Stress Scores and What Heart Rate Variability Can Carry
Your watch reports a stress number to the decimal point. It is a proprietary composite built on a signal that shifts with…
Regression to the Mean Makes Almost Anything Look Like It Worked
People try a remedy when they feel worst, and things that are unusually bad tend to get less bad. That statistical fact has…
What a Study of Twelve People Can and Cannot Show
Small studies are the backbone of supplement marketing and the weakest form of trial evidence. They are not worthless, and they are…
Relative Risk and Absolute Risk Are Different Numbers
A fifty per cent increase sounds alarming and can describe a change almost nobody would act on. The two ways of reporting the same…
Why Nutrition Research Is So Difficult to Get Right
Nutrition headlines reverse themselves so often that people have stopped listening. The reason is not incompetence but a set of…
Glucose Monitors Sold to People Who Do Not Have Diabetes
A sensor built to prevent dangerous blood sugar in diabetes is now sold as a window into metabolism. Normal blood sugar in a…
Hydrogen Water and the Gas That Leaves the Bottle
This one has a real research literature, which is unusual for the category, and a delivery problem that undermines most products…
A Meta-Analysis Is Only as Good as What Went Into It
Pooling studies sits at the top of the evidence pyramid, which is why the word carries so much weight in an argument. Combining…
The Healthy User Effect and Who Buys Supplements
People who take vitamins also exercise more, smoke less and see doctors sooner, and studies keep finding out about the vitamins.…
Predatory Journals and the Citation That Looks Legitimate
A reference list is meant to be reassuring, which is why the appearance of publication has become purchasable. Some journals will…
Running an Experiment on Yourself, and Where It Stops Working
Testing something on yourself is a real method with real rules, and it beats guessing. It also cannot separate you from the…
No Evidence of Effect Is Not Evidence of No Effect
The two statements sound almost identical and mean opposite things. Both sides of a wellness argument routinely use whichever one…