David had always found ice bathing after exercise to be intuitive. After all, people had been putting ice on their injuries for decades, and the RICE principle—rest, ice, compression, and elevation—had been a mainstay in the management of injuries since he’d learned it at school (despite questionable supporting evidence for efficacy). He’d also seen athletes on social media lowering their lean, muscular bodies into tubs of cold water and claiming miraculous benefits. If it was good enough for them, it was good enough for him. Soon he’d be sharing his own #icebath stories on social media.

The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science BOOK: https://www.nbtiller.com

Skeptical Inquirer magazine: https://www.skepticalinquirer.org

Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/why-are-we-still-ice-bathing/

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Most readers won’t be familiar with Clark Stanley. And yet, to those who lived in the Old West, he was a household name. In the aging half of the nineteenth century, Stanley’s theater company was one of several that toured rural towns selling magical health elixirs. For the townsfolk, seeing a Clark Stanley convoy kicking up dust on the horizon would have been an exhilarating sight. After unloading their carts and setting up their makeshift stage, Stanley and his crew treated the crowd to a thrilling show. Acrobats flipped, magicians tricked, and mustachioed musclemen bent bars and rods. Their only job was to whip the audience into a frenzy for the main event: the medicine man. And Clark Stanley was the most famous and revered of them all.

The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science BOOK: https://www.nbtiller.com

Skeptical Inquirer magazine: https://www.skepticalinquirer.org

Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/telling-true-stories-what-can-the-anti-science-community-teach-us-about-sci-comm/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Christmas is a time for giving. For the snake oil salesmen of the world, however, it’s a time for taking. The holiday sees capitalism, the pressures of gift-giving, and dietary excesses coalesce, creating the perfect storm for consumer exploitation. The commercial world swells with baseless claims and pseudoscience. After a year covering political ideologies in professional sports, the health consequences of smartphone addiction, and my skepticism of anti-obesity drugs, I opted for a lighthearted transition into 2024. In this month’s column, your resident pseudoscience Grinch brings you some festive fitness fads to look out for this holiday. And wouldn’t you know it, there are five of them.

The Skeptic's Guide to Sports Science BOOK: https://www.nbtiller.com

Skeptical Inquirer magazine: https://www.skepticalinquirer.org

Original article & references: https://skepticalinquirer.org/exclusive/festive-fitness-fads-to-know-about-this-holiday/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.