/oss/taxonomy/term/1590/all en /oss/article/medical/hype-hope-and-leqembi <p>The word “qembi” roughly translates as beautiful, elegant or healthy and was somewhat ambitiously chosen as the root for “Leqembi,” the Alzheimer’s disease drug that recently made a big media splash thanks to receiving “accelerated approval” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the first regulatory agency in the world to do so.</p> Wed, 11 Jan 2023 11:00:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 9356 at /oss /oss/article/health/crisis-cure-how-antiretroviral-therapy-changed-how-we-look-talk-and-think-about-hiv <p>Someone recently asked me if there was a cure for HIV. My initial answer was no. HIV infection doesn’t go away and people infected with HIV have to take antiviral medications for the rest of their lives. But after thinking about it for a bit, I started to consider what it means to actually “cure” someone, and I realized that the answer is not so clear cut.</p> Wed, 13 May 2020 21:32:14 +0000 Christopher Labos MD, MSc 8245 at /oss /oss/article/covid-19-videos/may-7-2020-covid19-and-more-conversations-mcgill-office-science-and-society <p></p><div class="media-youtube-video media-element file-default media-youtube-1"></div> Sun, 10 May 2020 02:10:47 +0000 OSS 8243 at /oss /oss/article/health/quercetin-take-or-not-take <p>The quercetin compound occurs widely in nature, found in berries, fruits, grains, and vegetables. Onions and kale are particularly rich. Quercetin is a “polyphenol” and belongs to the “flavonoid” family of compounds. “Polyphenol” is a description of molecular structure and refers to the multiplicity OH groups around the periphery of the molecule. It is these “functional groups” that allow polyphenols to neutralize potentially damaging free radicals through the donation of a hydrogen atom.</p> Wed, 25 Mar 2020 12:47:04 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8193 at /oss /oss/article/health-quackery/i-donated-crowdfunding-appeal-did-i-just-finance-cancer-quack <p>Storytelling relies on choices. I can tell you the story of Clara who died after paying tens of thousands of dollars for a pseudoscientific treatment for her cancer, and cast the quack clinic’s director as the villain… or I can instead roll her timeline back and frame the story as a desperate mother of three with an incurable cancer reaching out through the press to raise money for an experimental treatment, and never mention that she dies in the end.</p> Thu, 27 Sep 2018 14:27:25 +0000 Jonathan Jarry M.Sc. 7374 at /oss /oss/article/health/refusing-medicine-and-dying-early-when-complementary-medicine-actually-becomes-alternative-medicine <p><span>Olivia has breast cancer but refuses medical care, opting instead for natural herbs. This is alternative medicine.</span></p> <p><span>Olivia has breast cancer and follows the recommendations of her oncologists, but also consumes natural herbs. This is complementary medicine.</span></p> <p><span>While the refusal of medical treatment to pursue an alternative can be clearly understood as dangerous, we may ask, “What’s the harm?”, if medicine is not replaced but simply complemented.</span></p> Wed, 25 Jul 2018 16:00:21 +0000 Jonathan Jarry, MSc 7185 at /oss /oss/article/quackery/100-success-rate-cure-asthma-sounds-bit-fishy <p>Asthma is a terrible affliction, often triggered by allergies. Sufferers will do almost anything to avoid the suffocating feeling it causes. Even swallowing fish! Yet, that is exactly what almost fifty thousand people did earlier this month, and have done for the last 100 years, during “Mrigasira Karthi”, an annual event that takes place in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad put on by the Bathini Goud family in preparation for allergy season.</p> Thu, 22 Jun 2017 01:10:59 +0000 Cassandra Lee, OSS Intern 2555 at /oss