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Recently, I came across a post on the popular Ask Reddit page from user Ninac4116 asking, "What are some things that are actually pseudoscience that people don’t realize?" and OMG, I'm actually kind of surprised at how many of these I'd never thought about. I thought they were interesting enough to share, so, here are some of the best comments:
1."Anyone who says you need to "detox" your ________."
2."Lie detectors."
3."The 'taste map' of the tongue."
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4."'The human brain doesn't stop developing until age 25!'"
5."Alkaline water. Your stomach acid neutralizes it instantly."
6."Sending your child to a 'program' in the troubled-teen industry to get 'help' with their mental health only for them to leave with more trauma."
8."'Feed a cold, starve a fever.' Turns out it takes calories to fight off an illness, and it's important to make sure you're eating and drinking enough to keep up."
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10."What I like to think of as 'Barnes & Noble' science. Be very skeptical of getting your science from any book with a charismatic author, especially if they're smiling in the picture. They're often presenting views that aren't representative of the actual scientific consensus, and many are actually quite fringe."
11."Personality tests, e.g., Myers-Briggs."
"Fun fact: they're only allowed to ask/determine your Myers-Briggs personality type during job interviews because it isn't scientific!"
—u/Tailsteak
12."Chiropractors."
13."Pumping and dumping breast milk after drinking alcohol."
"It blew my mind when I found out, from an actual pediatrician, that breast milk does not process/contain alcohol the same way that blood does, and that therefore (with moderate consumption) the breastmilk really only contains as much alcohol as regular orange juice and is safe for babies..."
14."My 16-year-old self screams, 'biorhythms!' and 'mood rings!'"
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15."'Boosting' the immune system. It can't be boosted. You can support it to help fight infection, but you can't send it into hyperdrive; that would cause autoimmune issues."
16."Alpha male shit."
17."Anything outside of physics that uses the word 'quantum.'"
—u/ReversedFrog
"Even my cloud-enabled quantum AI blockchain vape pen?"
—u/Drone30389
18."Conversion therapy. You can't un-gay-ify someone. The methods used are often just 'intentionally traumatize this teenager so that they associate homosexuality/transgender identity with suffering.'"
19."A lot of the hype around vitamins. Many, if not most, are unneeded for the majority of people and don't get absorbed anyway."
—u/Ok_Dog_4059
"Except Vitamin D. If you’re on this site, chances are you don’t go outside enough and are deficient in Vitamin D. Most of the general population is."
—u/rachaek
20."'Getting wet in the rain will make you sick.' One does not 'catch a cold' while outside in the rain."
21."Astrology. Stars don't control your personality."
22."Cleaning products marketing that they are 'natural' and/or 'organic.' Arsenic is natural and organic."
—u/delpheroid
23."Anything Freudian. I find it alarming that his theories are given the time of day at all. It seems like unfalsifiable bunkum to me."
24."Bite forensics, ballistic forensics, and blood spatter analysis. All of it is subjective bullshit. It’s not scientific."
25."The idea that everyone has a unique fingerprint is an assumption. It’s probably true, but science has never confirmed it."
26."Handwriting analysis."
So, what do you think — pseudoscience or real? Feel free to share your own examples down in the comments. Or, if you want to write in but prefer to stay anonymous, you can write in to this anonymous form! Who knows — your answer could be included in a future BuzzFeed article.
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