Questions tagged [medical-science]
Use this tag for questions about the science of medicine and its practices. Use [medications] for questions about the actual cures that people take, and use [alternative-medicine] for claims about cures and practices which are claimed to be alternative to official medical science
322 questions
88
votes
7
answers
10k
views
Do mobile phones have anything to do with brain cancer?
Is there evidence for a correlation between the use of mobile phones and the occurence of brain cancer? If yes, is there also evidence for causality?
166
votes
4
answers
27k
views
Does being cold increase your chances of catching the common cold?
"Everyone knows" - a scary statement - that you get "a cold" from being cold. Now it seems to be a fact that you don't, because you get a cold from a (rhino)virus, not from the temperature.
But is ...
113
votes
6
answers
16k
views
Is alcohol beneficial in small amounts?
It's widely believed that consuming small amounts of alcohol has many health benefits.
As a matter of fact, a lot of alcohol might be good for you, as Wired Magazine reports:
It’s one of those ...
69
votes
4
answers
6k
views
Is acupuncture an effective treatment?
What evidence is there for or against acupuncture being an effective treatment?
20
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Does the presence of a cellphone affect sperm count or heart rate?
A doctor from my girlfriend's family was talking to her over the weekend. She explained to me that he was talking about how there is proof that cellphones decrease sperm count when being stored in a ...
17
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Is routine screening for breast cancer for asymptomatic women worthwhile?
Relatively recently, the United States Preventive Services Task Force made a small change in what its recommendations for routine mammograms, suggesting that they should not be performed on asymptotic ...
69
votes
1
answer
20k
views
Is food cooked in a microwave oven harmful for the health?
A colleague of mine just made a comment about cooking food in a microwave oven. According to him it is considered to be harmful to one's health. Is it true?
58
votes
3
answers
9k
views
Does burning your food increase your risk of getting cancer?
About a year ago I heard that burning your food can lead to an increased risk of getting cancer. The explanation was that the burned portion of the food was carcinogenic. The Carbon that would be ...
21
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Does screening for prostate cancer save lives?
The Prostate-Specific Antigen (PSA) Test is used by doctors in many regions of the world to test for prostate cancer and other prostate disorders.
Some people recommend its use for screening - i.e. ...
6
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Has SARS-CoV-2 been purified in a lab? If not, does this imply that the PCR test for it is not specific?
Dr. Sam Bailey gives a number of references in her YouTube video on PCR tests stating the virus has never been purified as in actually separated from the infected cells.
I'm curious if this is ...
108
votes
6
answers
17k
views
Is smoking weed bad for your health?
Some people believe that smoking marijuana (without any tobacco) is harmful to your health and may cause problems. Examples of things I've heard weed supposedly causes:
All the health problems of ...
67
votes
5
answers
6k
views
Is the placebo effect a purely psychological effect?
The placebo effect plays a crucial role in clinical trials and in our understanding of medicine, but I have always had some difficulty in understanding how exactly it works.
Is it a purely ...
52
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Is it harmful to your eyes to read in dim light?
Is there any scientific backing to the claim that reading in dim light damages your eyes?
Related to:
Does watching television damage the eyes?
51
votes
3
answers
46k
views
Does regularly drinking from a plastic container cause cancer?
I drink water from my plastic cup regularly and a friend commented that it could cause cancer.
He also added that I should not heat food in plastic containers or wrappings in the microwave as that ...
46
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Is it possible to "boost your immune system"?
I often hear claims that some activities, nutrients, ... "boost" your immune system. My understanding of the immune system is that it is a finely tuned machine with enormous destructive power. If ...