From The Health and Wellness Lie | Chapter 1: Perverse incentives and harmful consequences.

A few joyous blurbs.

Thrilled to announce that THE HEALTH AND WELLNESS LIE launches this Thursday, 16th July, in Europe, and is available for preorder in the US and Canada. 🇬🇧🇪🇺https://linktr.ee/TheHealthandWellnessLie, 🇺🇸🇨🇦https://www.amazon.com/Health-Wellness-Lie-Exposing-well-being/dp/1399424246 #Health #wellness ⬇️⬇️

Can pickle juice really cure muscle cramps? The "neural reflex" hypothesis is doing a LOT of heavy lifting. skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/pi... #worldcup #picklejuice

I have a feature article in this month's @UltraRunningMag: The science of ultra-running-related hallucinations. Scroll for the main takeaways. ➡️https://subscriber.ultrarunning.com/archive/article/tricks-of-the-mind-the-science-of-ultrarunning-hallucinations#24 [Sorry, subscribers only]

AG1 is arguably the most prominent of all powdered greens. They make bold claims such as “feel strong, vital, and nourished.” But what does the evidence say about the benefits of this popular supplement? Read the column in @SkeptInquirer for the lowdown. skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/ri... #AG1

Lock up your wellness grifters. The Health and Wellness Lie is available for preorder. #wellness #misinformation

Should You Take Nutrition Advice From a Chatbot? [Spoiler: USE CAUTION! 🚧] www.nytimes.com/2026/05/26/w... by @alicecallahan.bsky.social @nbtiller.bsky.social: "Chatbots are convenient and fast, but sometimes they give 'incredibly bad advice.'"

Thank you @IrishSESA for your warm hospitality. I had a ball meeting everyone and exploring how bad science affects public health and trust in medicine. #wellness #misinformation #badscience #TheHealthAndWellnessLie

Catch me on this week's episode of the @Scienceofsport podcast, talking about chatbot #health #misinformation: ➡️https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkHH62nGpO0 ➡️https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/can-you-trust-ai-for-health-and-training-advice/id1461719225?i=1000766464444

Kudos AHA.

What are we doing here, folks?!🤦‍♂️ #cocodona250

Celebrating the 100th birthday of Sir David Attenborough: a British institution whose love of science and the natural world has inspired generations to leave the planet better than they found it.

Exercise is medicine. But as with all medicines, there's a MINIMUM dose required for benefits & an OPTIMUM range. There's also likely a TOXIC dose. For #exercise, the therapeutic ratio is high, but not infinite. ➡️https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34542868 ➡️https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32769665

Studies with food-industry involvement published in leading nutrition journals were ~six times more likely to report favorable findings than studies without industry involvement: 55.6% vs 9.7%. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... #nutrition #research

My latest for @mcgilloss.bsky.social is a weighty tome: the hallmarks of pseudoscience. I'm very proud of it. Lots to chew on. W/ help from the amazing @nbtiller.bsky.social @mrmmarsh.bsky.social @caulfieldtim.bsky.social & Dr. Alice Howarth of @skepticswithak.org. www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/...

My latest column in @SkeptInquirer explores the recent US executive order to expand research into psychedelics, and ibogaine in particular. How did it come about? And what are the risks? skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/th...

Tonight, 19:00 Eastern. skepticalinquirer.org/video/the-he...

A new study in BMJ Open found that popular AI chatbots frequently produced problematic responses to health & medical questions, including fabricated citations & answers delivered with confidence & certainty even when they were incorrect. @nbtiller.bsky.social www.medpagetoday.com/practicemana...

www.medpagetoday.com/practicemana... #chatbots #health

It's one of ChatGPT's most insidious tells: "It's not X; it's Y" has become shorthand for lazy AI slop. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... #AIWriting #ChatGPT

Our NEW study in @BMJ_Open is an audit of 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 spread by popular AI chatbots. Learn more🧵1/7 Thx to amazing team: @CaulfieldTim @srmarcon at @UAlbertaLaw & @Jeukendrup @marco_zenone 🔗https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/4/e112695 #health #misinformation #AI

99% of #acupuncture studies from China report benefits of the therapy. "This isn’t routine bias; it’s the systematic sterilization of negative outcomes." Is it time we stop publishing acupuncture studies from China? New column in @SkeptInquirer.

"After trekkers reported nausea, dizziness or body aches, they were advised to descend and agree to costly emergency helicopter evacuations. Authorities said operators then used forged medical and flight documents to claim costs from international travel insurers."

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

Semaglatide -> weight loss with "preserved" lean mass: •106 participants (70% women). •Body weight declined 10-15% at one year. •Fat mass ⬇ 19% with a 3 kg loss of lean mass (DXA). 🔗https://dom-pubs.pericles-prod.literatumonline.com/doi/10.1111/dom.70141 #weightloss #GLP1

With the rapid expansion of AI and large language models now incorporated into every sector, it seems sensible to ask some basic questions. In Skeptical Inquirer this month, I do just that. 🔗https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/can-you-trust-ai-to-give-health-advice/ #science #AI

IS RHABDO a RED ALERT or a BADGE OF HONOR? My article in Ultra-Running Magazine (July 2025) explores the all-too-common phenomenon of rhabdomyolysis. Causes and solutions. "Don't normalize the abnormal." #running #health subscriber.ultrarunning.com/archive/issu... @ultrarunningmag.bsky.social

If you value your kidneys, NSAIDs are a bad idea during exercise. Find out why in my short piece for @mysportscience — @Jeukendrup 🔗https://www.mysportscience.com/post/nsaids-in-sport ⬇️⬇️

Research “output.” A term that reduces a painstaking, often gruelling, years-long endeavour to a commodity, undermining the profound intellectual effort behind each publication.

From #detox diets and the benefits of organic vs. non-organic foods to respiratory muscle #training, hear from TLI Research Associate and accomplished ultra-marathon runner @nbtiller.bsky.social as he explores #health trends and exercise physiology on The Strength Running Podcast: ihr.fm/4jDY4Jd 🫁

Thousands of products, from supplements to saunas, claim to "boost #immunity." But does the claim have a scientific basis? Actually, no. It's not possible to BOOST THE IMMUNE SYSTEM. Don't be snagged by marketing hooks. Learn the science and ignore the grifters. #health 🧵1/7