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Though we spent about nine months of the year focused almost exclusively on COVID, we did find time to debunk pseudoscientific nonsense. Here are the top 10 junk science and bogus health claims we debunked in 2020.

It's no secret that NSAIDs come with a host of side effects. But how often? And how bad are they? A presentation at the 2020 PAINWeek Conference gives us some numbers. If taken at face value they are horrifying.

The answer is yes if you believe a paper recently published in the British Medical Journal. The article gives data mining for results a bad name. It is more like data dredging – scooping out mud and trash. Not to worry, no patients were harmed in this study, although the popular media couldn't help but report on this new reason to fear surgery and surgeons.

The FBI is investigating whether the Nashville bomber was motivated by 5G paranoia. Unfortunately, the media has been helping feed these conspiracy theories. Are we heading into a new era of anti-technology terrorism?

“… what if a DNA test could provide you with a personalized blueprint to how food affects YOUR body? … How can you eat the best food for your body? It’s all about eating for your genes.” Can all this be true?

One of the several questions I hear is, "Where is the excess mortality from COVID-19?" Those numbers may be starting to come into view, but let us consider another death from COVID-19, the loss of small businesses.

There's a war going on between the Department of Justice and Walmart over (what else) opioids. The DOJ -- which claims that the retail giant "fuel[ed] the opioid crisis by encouraging its pharmacists to fill prescriptions" – overlooks that they were actually legally written by health care practitioners. ACSH advisor Dr. Jeffrey Singer takes a look at this important case.

Andrew Wakefield, the godfather of the modern anti-vaccine movement, is spreading disinformation about the COVID vaccine, falsely claiming that the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna are a form of genetic engineering. Like all good liars, he mixes a tiny bit of truth into a sea of lies.

It has long been known that different people react differently to opioid drugs, and by a wide margin. This means that the same dose may be too high for one person and too low for another. The difference can be due to genetic differences in metabolism. Can science be used to determine not only the dose but also the best opioid for an individual?

In the United States, we live in an affluent culture whose standard of living is high compared to other nations. Yet, we fail to be grateful for the advances in food science and biotechnology we benefit from, which frees us from the day-to-day task of our food production. One of the major phobias consumers struggle with is related to pesticides.

What happens when you freeze, and then thaw, milk? Visible evidence suggests that it turns into spit-up. But is that what's going on? And why would anyone care? Read on, but only if you have nothing better to do.

Human factors in North Pole efficiency, the cost-effectiveness of Christmas, would we see evolution differently if Darwin played Go, our friends the T-cell, and why it is difficult to separate economics from the form of government we choose.

The rainbow that hung over Scotland’s Kingdom of Fife for a half-hour yesterday stunned me.

Medicine is conservative. We need good, thoughtful reasons to change our approaches to care – a philosophy that we believe has served our patients well. But COVID-19 put that idea on the back burner, especially in the early days of 2020. That was when we had no idea what was wrong and what to do -- and when we threw everything into the effort. How quickly was medicine able to grasp a different approach?

One of the concerns frequently raised by our readers -- and by the public, in general -- is the accuracy and reliability of hospitalizations caused by COVID-19. A new study provides some much-needed clarity (with a bit of misdirection on the side).

With the press flooded with futuristic phantasms of using CRISPR-Cas 9 to genetically engineer "designer" children -- by creating human-induced hereditable mutations -- it's easy to lose sight of ethical, legal, and moral issues arising from currently existing technology. Will we be tempted to "improve" our genetic destiny, and who decides which improvements to make? And who gets them? Are we mature enough as a society to eschew decisions leading to claims of eugenic determinism? And what about the social justice concerns?

Is brown sugar healthier than white sugar? Is honey good for you? How about bean sprouts and lemon water? Strange menu, no?

As two vaccines begin to roll out, the angst previously directed at when this will happen is being quickly transferred to questions of how, and to whom. A new opinion piece suggests some nudges that might make the process of delivering more than a half-billion jabs possible.

Millions of consumers believe that organics are more nutritious than conventionally grown foods. But this defies basic plant physiology.

While there are many ways of spreading COVID-19, the best medical analysis currently is that the virus is transmitted via airborne events from aerosols. (That's a fancy term for breathing.) Perhaps, to stay safe, we might strategically avoid moments that produce the most aerosols.

Drs. Jeffrey Singer and Josh Bloom just published an op-ed in the Philidelphia Inquirer about the pointless and inhumane treatment that pain patients must endure in the name of fighting the "opioid epidemic." Except it's nothing of the sort. We are having a "street drug epidemic." This is why people are dying, not from prescription analgesics.

Recently we've experienced a trifecta regarding the issue of mortality associated with fine particles (PM2.5, i.e., particles with median diameters less than 2.5 millionths of a meter). Let's take a more in-depth look behind the headlines.

The FDA announced Emergency Use approval for the first at-home test for COVID-19. How does it work, and how accurate might it be?

Even in the time of COVID-19, antibiotic resistance remains a problem. Is it a particle or a wave? - turns out it may be neither. Zombies get all the press, but are vampires the real problem? Theory or practice? Finally, more on the science of gift-giving.

Sixth nerve palsy simply means paralysis of the sixth cranial nerve. What causes it, and can it be fixed? My dad is about to find out.