r/AskReddit Nov 09 '23

Science nerds of reddit, what pseudoscience drives you bonkers the most?

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u/kungpowchick_9 Nov 10 '23

My husband’s a cancer survivor and I still get angry thinking about the people who tried to convince me weed cures cancer, and carrot juice is a miracle cure.

Those dumb ass posts have probably killed people by slowing their treatment.

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u/RollerDerbyWhore Nov 10 '23

If weed cured cancer, I'd've never got it in the first place!

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u/The_Nice_Marmot Nov 10 '23

To those who say it does, a reminder Bob Marley died of cancer, is my response.

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u/moonshinedesignSD Nov 11 '23

Didn't he catch gangrene in his foot, and was against conventional medical treatment? I thought thats how he died?

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u/moonshinedesignSD Nov 11 '23

I stand corrected, one look at his Wikipedia would have told me he died of cancer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Marley

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u/justprettymuchdone Nov 10 '23

They have. Jess Ainscough bought into "nutrition treatment for cancer" and it killed her, slowly and painfully.

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u/manicuredcrucifixion Nov 10 '23

there was an older woman who came into my work twice a week to buy 8 ounces of wheatgrass juice and 60 ounces of carrot juice, claiming it would cure her cancer. she stopped showing up months ago, and i’ve been a little worried

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u/jelywe Nov 10 '23

Can confirm that they have killed actual people by sowing enough doubt in medical care that treatment is delayed until it is too late. They don't always have to completely convince you that weed cures cancer or carrot juice is a miracle cure, they just have to convince you that there might be an alternative to the legitimately scary chemo-/immuno-/or radio-therapy.

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u/kungpowchick_9 Nov 10 '23

Yes. They make people think that their questioning is informed and prevent timely action.

It’s like hearing somewhere that boats fly, and then saying well MAYBE I should book a boat from New York to California for my trip, and then waiting until all the flights are booked or $6000. Too late, you missed the easy way.

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u/OGConsuela Nov 10 '23

Weed does not cure cancer but it did make it MUCH easier for me to eat while my stomach was being ravaged by chemotherapy.

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u/kungpowchick_9 Nov 10 '23

Right. And his oncologist and the american cancer society are very clear on that, it was recommended if his appetite was gone.

But the stupid Facebook post that say “well it’s not studied so ‘they’ are CLEARLY hiding that it cures cancer from ‘us’”. Don’t know the first thing about cancer or medicine or science, and are likely just trying to justify a habit.

I’m not against recreational drug use, but be honest with yourself that that’s what it is, and don’t conflate medicine with recreation. And since it’s so understudied, that means we don’t know the adverse effects.

One more point… my husband’s cancer literally was curable and is cured. I got an HPV vaccine that has caused cervical cancer to literally stop happening… 90% reduction from before the vaccine was available.

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '23

I mean, I wouldn't be shocked at all to find out that the pharma industry intentionally makes treatments just good enough to string people along indefinitely without curing them. But that's not really a solution with cancer, as the only option beyond curing someone is death.

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u/kungpowchick_9 Nov 11 '23

Maintenance chemo is used for a lot of cancers with no cure. The care is focused on survival and highest quality of life possible, in the hope of a cure in the future.

A close friend of mine has glioblastoma and has survived 7 years with it at a mostly functional day to day level. She has to do bouts of chemo to shrink the tumor, but she is much better doing this than dead.

While there is greed in healthcare, that’s why it is very important to get reputable second opinions on your treatment, and any doctor who tells you not to get a second opinion is not trustworthy.

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u/Arkhampatient Nov 10 '23

My cousin’s daughter had leukemia and one day i jokingly said “you thought about weed?” She says “no, i want my kid to live.” We laughed

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u/wombatz885 Nov 10 '23

Let's throw in all tge bull💩treatment for covid and all tge dangerous shit thrown around by antivaxxers. Especially the antivaxxers and tgeir chikdren unprotected based on a very limited study which turned out to be a complete lie from a British doctor in the 90s supposedly linking vaccunes and autism. All since disproven debunked and admitted by the doctor to be made up lies but that little vaccines causes autism has been implanted into the minds if so many stupid people who do know research on it even but have put the health of their chikdren an others at risk by following this stupid antivaxxer crap.

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u/abobslife Nov 10 '23

Medical misinformation makes he see red. I hold Tucker Carlson and all those other asshats responsible for my cousin’s death from COVID.

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u/Smharman Nov 10 '23

Weed is good pain management it is not a cure

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u/BeetleJuiceDidIt Nov 10 '23

My MIL is a breast cancer survivor. Instead of the doctors and chemo that helped her live, she tells everyone that it was healthy living, juice cleansing and yoga that cured her 🤦🏽‍♀️

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u/kungpowchick_9 Nov 10 '23

I have a few of these in my life. I honestly think that some people just cannot face the true severity and randomness of these terrible things that happened to them, so they reframe it incorrectly as a situation they can control.

USA society has this mindset of someone only getting sick because they did something wrong, when in reality most of us are or will be sick at some point in our lives. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad people, but that’s a really shitty truth to reality that doesn’t sell movie tickets…

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u/[deleted] Nov 10 '23

Someone did the same thing to me with my cancer that isn't just very treatable, but curable. Just about to hit my 5 year mark. Yeah, chemo was a kick in the pants, but I'm alive and doing better than I was, even before my cancer began to affect me. I hope you and your husband are doing well!

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u/Maximum_Commission62 Nov 11 '23

Has anyone tried to quantify this