Bennett's Articles

In this episode I rant about how I think open journals and open data are important for science to progress.

In this episode, another request, I analyzed the health effects of magnesium. It may be useful for depression, anxiety, insulin sensitivity, glycemic control, and even testosterone.

This episode is heavy on the science. I got a question about whether or not arginine precursors may contribute to muscular recovery through interactions with macrophages and I had no idea so this whole episode you get to learn right along side me.

DO NOT START SMOKING, DO NOT START DIPPING. TOBACCO IS CANCEROUS.

But nicotine may be a useful treatment for Parkinson's disease, may help with cognition, and could be useful for depression.

I love the sport of football. I played for 10 years and coached for 7. It is a sport that helped make me who I am today. However, there is increasing evidence, especially for linemen, linking it to higher rates of heart disease.

Creatine is a popular supplement among athletes, bodybuilders, powerlifters, and weightlifters. It has pretty significant evidence suggesting that it will improve muscular strength and sprint performance and limited evidence that it will improve your intelligence.

The reproducibility crisis is the biggest threat facing medicine right now in my opinion. A huge number of studies are failing to replicate and that is a terrifying thing, because decisions are being based on studies that may be inaccurate. There is one study that estimates as much as 50% of preclinical research may fail to replicate at a cost of $26 billion per year.

This episode is a bit longer than most, but the last several minutes are optional bonus content. I wanted to finally discuss my favorite polyphenol with you guys, resveratrol. It is commonly found in red wine, and for a long time many of the health benefits of red wine were attributed to it. However, many of those were based on mouse studies, and in this episode we see how many of those effects persist when we instead focus on human studies.

This is an episode about a study that I have seen circulating again that certain outlets claim suggests that tequila can help with weight loss. This is not supported by the study and moreover, represents a dangerous precedent in science reporting. The worse science reporting is the less people will trust science as a whole and more likely they will be convinced by pseudoscience.

The nocebo effect is the opposite of the placebo effect we covered in episode 36, it is when bad things happen when you take a sugar pill because you expect bad things to happen. This is actually surprisingly common and you can even see severe side effects like respiratory depression arising as a result of the nocebo effect.

Overall, in considering both the nocebo and the placebo effect the most important thing to keep in mind is that your psychology has power. It is important to remember that your mindset and your beliefs are going to have measurable impacts on your physiology and your health.