Cardiac surgeon and television personality Dr. Oz was on The Today Show this week talking about cold remedies, and as usual he was a mix of evidence and shamanism. It's easy for the pro-science community to know when he's talking about magic potions and when he has a modicum of science.
It's easy to be fooled. When Science 2.0 began, I quickly learned cancer was going to be cured, antioxidants and red wine would make us live forever, and NASA was about to find life on other planets. Then six months later we had university and government writing those same press releases all over again and journalists dutifully repeated them.
We get the same thing with cold remedies, thanks to hucksters like the osteopath Joe Mercola and claims stick because they have a hint of science truthiness. Find a New York Times bestselling diet book and it will have a genesis in something that sounds like science. But it won't be settled. The gluten-free diet craze kicked off not because so many celiac patients were coming into existence, but because of books like Grain Brain and Wheat Belly, which learned just enough science to be completely wrong. Nonetheless, a $5 billion industry was created and actual celiac patients have a lot more choices.
