A "good" VO2max for your age, like 60th-80th percentile, gives you all the "longevity" benefits the metric will provide. There is no lifespan advantage to being Olympic-level fit.
https://subscriber.ultrarunning.com/archive/issue/feb-mar-2026
New feature in the Feb/Mar issue of @UltraRunningMag 🏃♂️🏃♀️🏔️
The daily use of AI, in everything from smartphones to stoplights, can be traced back to a simple game of checkers—played by Aurhur Samuel in 1959.
➡️https://gwern.net/doc/reinforcement-learning/model-free/1959-samuel.pdf
https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/extraordinary-claims-the-homeopathy-paper-that-duped-a-mainstream-journal/
Bad science, lies, and possible fraud: The homeopathy paper that duped a mainstream journal. New column today in @SkeptInquirer #health #pseudoscience
Read it ⬇️⬇️: h/t @theliverdoc
FIVE PERCENT of Americans regularly consult psychic services, with ONE-THIRD (30%) using them occasionally. Though high, it's actually lower than many other high-income developed countries.
#quotes via @nbtiller.bsky.social
🧵7/7 And yet, the authors insist they have "no conflicts of interest to declare."
The lesson: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, not bad science and major undisclosed conflicts of interest.
END.
Red Flag: She also co-founded Avrox—the company that funded the study. 🧵6/7
Red Flag: I also found a 2016 patent application for a “nanoencapsulated oxygen” beverage (Publication number 20180193260), in which Professor Eleanor Stride, one of the study authors, is listed as a co-inventor. 🧵5/7
Avrox features the article on its website, alongside pull quotes from the study authors. 🧵4/7
Red Flag: The study was funded by Avrox Technologies, a prominent vendor of oxygenated beverages. 🧵3/7
First, @Jeukendrup and I showed that the amount of extra O2 supplied by the beverage was negligible (around 15 mL) compared to the volume inhaled by the respiratory system (around 150,000 mL): translating to an extra 0.09 watts of power. 🧵2/7
A quick lesson in research conflicts of interest:
This 2024 paper in the Journal of Dietary Supplements showed that an oxygen "nanobubble beverage" improved power output in a 16-km cycling TT by ~4%, and in repeated Wingates by ~7%. 🧵1/7
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/political-polarization-score
Political polarization. Negative numbers (blue) reflect less polarization and more friendly political interactions. Positive numbers (red) reflect more division and hostile interactions.
Myanmar=3.72, US=1.79, Britain=-0.24, Norway=-2.1.
Don't criticize Attia to promote your own brand. That's fake and disingenuous: criticize him for being a dirtbag. And remember, he's far from the only wellness influencer contributing to the industry's ethical rot.
More acupuncture nonsense.
L.I.4 (Hegu, the joining valley) is said to "treat" an astonishing array of conditions, including mumps and "pain in the arm." This is medically impossible—out of step with everything we've learned about anatomy and physiology since Hippocrates.
People guess which group they're in, and the index quantifies how often they guess correctly: ranges from −1 to +1, and zero is "perfect blinding."
0.6 in the acupuncture group means a strong tendency toward correct identification (among those who ventured a guess).
Takeaway: Both groups improved, but acupuncture outperformed “sham” by ~1 fewer migraine days/month. Subjective outcomes, likely unblinding, and unadjusted statistics indicate that the findings are unlikely to be clinically meaningful. 🧵6/6
3. No correction for multiple testing (they used uncorrected t-tests), thereby increasing the risk of false positive findings. 🧵5/6
2. Primary effect was small: a median between-group difference of −1 migraine day/month. Confidence interval reaches “0,” meaning low certainty in result.🧵4/6
1. Study reports Bang Blinding Index ≈0.60 in the acupuncture arm, along with higher satisfaction. This signals likely unblinding and expectancy bias on subjective outcomes. (Table hidden in supplementart files). 🧵3/6
Methods
120 people randomly assigned to 4 weeks of acupuncture or sham. Outcomes: how many migraine days before versus after treatment. 🧵2/6
New study in JAMA shows acupuncture is SUPERIOR to sham for headaches. Three reasons it’s probably wrong: 🧵1/6
Chiropractic may be the biggest evidence-to-marketing mismatch I’ve seen in wellness. Numbers in the UK are growing every year, but the serious risks aren't justified by the imaginary benefits.
#chiropractic #pseudoscience
June 2026.
Another death related to whole-body cryotherapy, this time in Paris. *Preventable death, since the benefits are highly contested, with small and inconsistent effects, and the risks simply aren't justified. #wellness #pseudoscience
www.theguardian.com/world/2025/a...
Mouth taping: 2 recent reviews (19 studies): weak/limited evidence of benefit, unsupported influencer claims, and potential risks (esp. nasal obstruction or sleep apnea).
If you snore or mouth-breathe, get assessed—don’t DIY a fix. #wellness #pseudoscience
"Blanket denialism is obvious. Like a sports team using the same formation match after match or relying too heavily on a star player, it's predictable and easy to counter. Strategic denialism is different. And much more dangerous."
This month's column:
skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/ma...
Hear Monday's interview with Phil Clark on ABC's Nightlife (@RadioNational) as we wade through the Wild West of wellness bullsh*t.
🔗https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/nightlife/nightlife/106001452 #wellness #misinformation
Why does sport have an obsession with pickle juice? Does it really prevent cramp? Probably not. But the issue goes much deeper.
This month's column: Cramping Cure or Congruence Bias? skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/pi... @SkeptInquirer
