Author: Erik Fraunberger, M.Sc.
Have you ever been inside a drug or natural health store and wandered into the herbal remedies section mixed in with all the vitamins? I’m not talking about the herbal teas and spices that have a tangible taste or smell. I am referring to the remedies with interesting names in Latin and dosages in the c-scale instead of milliliters. These are not your ordinary remedies: these are homeopathic. Unfortunately, whatever clinical efficacy homeopathic remedies may display is hidden within highly theoretical and, some would say, implausible science. How do we separate fact from fiction? Let me take you through the underlying ideas and science-surrounding homeopathy and see what we can find.
Read MoreAuthor: Charmaine Szalay
The wedding march is a familiar tune that many of us know well, and undoubtedly will get me crying. I have been to four weddings in the past twelve months, and have cried my heart out at each of them. With all the crying, one question has repeatedly crossed my mind – Why do we cry?
Read MoreAuthor: Vienna M Doenni, PhD
They say that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. I am currently experiencing my second cold this year, so I did the only logical thing: I bought a bag of apples. Now that I started to religiously eat my daily doctor-deterrent I am wondering what’s so good about them, and if the fuss about apples is based on facts or fairy tales.
Read MoreAuthor: Romella Durrani
Imagine you are a woman in her 30s and have spent your whole life in Alberta. You have a range of health concerns that are unpredictable, and you are beginning to experience muscle weakness, numbness and tingling in your limbs, loss of coordination and balance, loss of vision, and you feel your memory and cognitive abilities have declined in recent years, beyond what is expected for your age. You go to your doctor and get diagnosed with a disease called Multiple Sclerosis, also known as MS. Your doctor explains to you that MS is a neurological autoimmune disease that causes the immune system to attack the protective insulator (myelin sheath) that is wrapped around your neurons. This protective layer functions like the protective insulator around electrical wires, which allows signals to pass through faster and more efficiently. When this protective insulator is lost or damaged, like in MS, this is termed as demyelination, which causes your nervous system to malfunction.
Read MoreAuthor: Rebecca Jade Williams, Ph.D.
When I think of people who are highly intelligent- for instance, people who demonstrate great verbal skills, or have a knack for mastering musical instruments- describing them as ‘naturally’ gifted seems rather, well, natural. But when we make statements such as ‘naturally’ gifted, we are making the assumption that skills and intelligence are hard-wired, or determined by genetic makeup. How true is this? Is our intelligence really something that we are born with?
Read MoreAuthor: Erik Fraunberger, M.Sc.
“The Natural Way”, “Treat Tennis Elbow Using Alternative Medicine”, “Can Homeopathy Cure Male Infertility?”
These are a few of the thousands of search results you will find when using the terms “natural”, “safe”, and “alternative medicine”. On the surface, these articles sound completely innocuous with little cause for concern. This is most likely true of the remedies that they offer; however their efficacy is still up for debate.
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