Countless people enjoy raw meat and fish and live to tell the tale. Part of the reason is the overall improvement in food quality.

Does aspirin prevent cancer? Weirdly enough, it does. But Dr Christopher Labos explains why you still shouldn't use it for primary prevention.

EPISODE 152 – Why RFK Jr. is wrong to claim that Tylenol causes autism. According to the Wall Street Journal, RFK Jr. and the HHS are planning to release a report claiming acetaminophen (Tylenol/parac...

What is the anti-inflammatory diet?

Leaky Gut Syndrome. Always a favorite of the pseudoscience crowd. But is there any medical validity to the concept. Chris and Sophie look deep into the concept to find out if the diagnosis of Leaky Gu...

The opening of a new private clinic spurs Chris and Sophie to ask whether Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) is real medicine or pseudoscience. How does a magnetic field stimulate the brain and h...

People with bowel issues have long been told to stay away from eating nuts and seeds. Dr. Christopher Labos says new evidence suggests otherwise.

The WHO has declared red meat a carcinogen. So, Dr Christopher Labos asks the question we're all thinking: Is a hot dog really as bad as a cigarette?

YouTube video by CTV News

Chris and Sophie tackle Radon, the odorless, colorless, tasteless and very toxic gas that is present in about 1 in 5 homes. Why do we care? How do you test for it? What should do about it? And why don...

<p>Dr. Chris Labos, cardiologist with a degree in epidemiology and a regular contributor on CJAD 800. You can hear him every Sunday on Weekends with Joanne Vrakas at 7:20 a.m.</p>

YouTube video by CBC News

Routine advice has always been for patients with diverticulosis to avoid these foods. But evidence suggests this might not be justified.

Cardiologist Christopher Labos speaks about red wine and health misconceptions.

About one-third of Canadians have become obese — with more weight gain happening during the pandemic, according to a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Monday. Dr. Chri...

YouTube video by CBC News

The Body of Evidence · Episode

The need for 12 months of dual antiplatelet therapy after coronary stenting has become entrenched in practice despite little supporting evidence, writes cardiologist Chris Labos.

<p>Dr. Chris Labos, cardiologist with a degree in epidemiology and a regular contributor on CJAD 800. You can hear him every Sunday on Weekends with Joanne Vrakas at 7:20 a.m.</p>

Dr. Christopher Labos and guests use the body of evidence to go beyond science and medicine headlines and hype. All to help you develop your critical thinking skills so that when you google your sympt...

<p>Dr. Chris Labos, cardiologist with a degree in epidemiology and a regular contributor on CJAD 800. You can hear him every Sunday on Weekends with Joanne Vrakas at 7:20 a.m.</p>

The Body of Evidence · Episode

Dr. Mark Ware joins Chris to discuss the state of the science for medical cannabis. Why should we be calling it cannabis and not marijuana? What are the challenges of studying something that is still ...

This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette. There is a measles outbreak in Texas. The response by the United States government was to send extra doses of vitamin A even though the Texas public health department didn’t want them. It wasn’t a benign public relations stunt. A small group of children is now in hospital being treated for vitamin A toxicity. The dangers of misrepresenting the science are not abstract. Real children are getting sick and dying. For those of you who haven’t been keeping track, as of April 4, there were 481 measles cases in Texas and 607 cases across the U.S. The majority are in children and teens and 97 per cent are unvaccinated. Nationally, 12 per cent of the measles cases have been hospitalized. Two children have died. They are the first measles deaths in a decade. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s initial response was to downplay the outbreak and claim there was nothing unusual in a measles outbreak. In fact, the U.S. eliminated measles in 2000. While it does see occasional outbreaks in pockets of unvaccinated people, the U.S. has already seen three times more cases in 2025 than it did in all of 2024. Thomas Corry, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Health and Human Services Department, quit two weeks after taking the job, reportedly because of his growing frustration with Kennedy’s inaction. Kennedy tried to pivot his messaging by writing an op-ed on Fox News where he acknowledged the seriousness of the outbreak and shocked most people, including myself, by repudiating most of his life’s work and calling the MMR vaccine “crucial” to avoiding the potentially deadly disease. But he threw a bone to his anti-vaccine base by claiming that vitamin A can drastically reduce measles mortality. There is some evidence for the use of vitamin A in treating measles cases. Vitamin A deficiency delays measles recovery and is associated with more complications. But the studies on the issue have not been universally positive. A 2005 Cochrane review analyzed six trials of vitamin A treatment in approximately 2,000 patients. Overall, there was no mortality benefit. Only when you limit yourself to data from three of the six studies (around 300 patients) do you see fewer deaths. In children under two years of age who received two doses of vitamin A, mortality from measles dropped from 10.7 to 1.9 per cent. The positive studies in this Cochrane review were all done in Africa. The two non-African studies in Japan and England did not show a benefit. A 2021 study in Italy also showed no mortality reduction when children with measles were given vitamin A. In resource-rich countries, where vitamin A deficiency is rare, vitamin supplementation doesn’t seem to do anything. Although people sometimes believe vitamins can heal anything, once your body receives the required amount it needs, extra doses have no effect. If you are mega-dosing on water-soluble vitamins like vitamin B and C, then they will just be excreted in your urine. But fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin A, D, E and K will remain in your system and can build up to toxic levels. Multiple children in Covenant Children’s Hospital in Texas experienced liver toxicity after they reportedly used vitamin A to treat their measles symptoms. The second child’s death may be changing the narrative around measles. Kennedy’s admission on the weekend that “the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine” is shocking for someone who spent a career demonizing the MMR vaccine. It remains to be seen whether he abandons the vitamin A rhetoric in the face of mounting measles cases. Vitamin A may have some role in minimizing the complications of measles in resource-limited areas where deficiency is common. But it probably won’t do much in the U.S. or Canada. It also doesn’t prevent or limit the spread of measles, and in very high doses it can be toxic. We’ve known that for a while; now Kennedy knows it too. @DrLabos