Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine
Join Dr. Sydnee McElroy and her husband Justin McElroy for a tour of all the dumb, bad, gross, weird and wrong ways we've tried to fix people.
Episodes
Justin and Dr. Sydnee continue to bring news from the forefront of history with the second part of the announcement about autism – a possible treatment. It's leucovorin: also known as vitamin B-9. It can't possibly be that simple, can it? (No). Dr. Sydnee explains where this idea came from and what leucovorin is actually currently used for in medicine.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Border Angels:...
You may have heard the recent announcement From the US government linking acetaminophen use during pregnancy and autism. Well, at the risk of spoiling the episode, it’s nothing. This week, Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about the history of acetaminophen and where the claim even came from.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Border Angels: https://www.borderangels.org/
Another episode in the Sawbones multiverse, Dr. Sydnee and Justin resist Dr. Richard Asher, who is the person who coined Munchausen Syndrome. Dr. Aster was a prominent physician and critical thinker whose medical contributions included noting the dangers of bed rest and naming the "seven sins of medicine." His children also had notable music careers.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Equality Florida...
With all the changes going on in the CDC, Dr. Sydnee and Justin check back in with an update on vaccines and vaccine mandates, as well as dispelling some common vaccine myths that unfortunately come up again and again.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Equality Florida: https://www.eqfl.org/
There are many eponymous disorders and diseases, but Munchausen is an interesting case of a disease named after a character who is based on a real person. Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about Hieronymus Karl Friedrich von Münchhausen and how his fantastic stories became stuck to his name forever.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
World Central Kitchen: https://wck.org/
Before the hysteria of Swifties and Beatlemania, people were getting hype over the handsome pianist Franz Liszt. Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about what exactly about this artist made regular fandom escalate into a mania and what this medical condition actually meant.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
World Central Kitchen: https://wck.org/
Before everyone hits the back-to-school grind, we’ve got a fun episode about Freddy Pharkas. A historical figure of frontier medicine? No, a video game character from 1993. Justin and Dr. Sydnee talk about how a farmer-cist was made, as well as the real and fake medicine Freddy doled out on the frontier.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
World Central Kitchen: https://wck.org/
We're bringing the heat with listeners' weird medical questions! Are the hot parts of the body the only Sweaty parts? Is spicy food spicier some days more than others? Is there any benefits to extra things in glasses lenses? And if your stomach can expand, why not your bladder?
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Immigrant Defenders Law Center: https://www.immdef.org/
A dovetail from last week’s episode, Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about the official pain scale of insect stings, all compiled by Justin O. Schmidt. So who was this Justin, how did his research contribute to science, and did he really get stung by all these insects to make a non-objective scale? (Answer: yes).
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Immigrant Defenders Law Center: https://www.immdef.org/
After an unfortunate and painful encounter with an angry flying insect, Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about wasps: how their stings work, and a journey into the science behind some folk remedies.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Immigrant Defenders Law Center: https://www.immdef.org/
It used to be that if you needed to get to the hospital quickly, you would call the herse – because it had the space to transport a person who was lying down. Well, all of that changed in Columbus, OH, with the Heartmobile, known as the first ambulance. Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about its development, implementation, and the thrilling end of its ambulatory adventures.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.c...
Dr. Sydnee and Justin said they'd talk about when the US Health Department replaced the vaccine council . . . well, it's happened. But to EVERYONE'S surprise, it's more of a mess than a triumph. Dr. Sydnee talks about all the changes going on, the motive behind them, and why some good intentions can lead to dangerous outcomes.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Transgender Law Center: https://transgen...
Just in time for The Prom season, Justin and Dr. Sydnee bring your weird summer medical questions! Do other citrus fruits affect medication, or is it really just grapefruits? Why do hiccups happen so sporadically? Do carrots actually give you good vision? Can a broken finger fully heal by itself? Plus, an update on vaccines in the United States.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Transgender Law Cente...
It's a Sawbones grab-bag, featuring some pop-sci mythbusting around MSG, a reality check into current events around vaccines, and a fun new questionable product bringing chocolate to the bedroom.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Center for Reproductive Rights: https://reproductiverights.org/
With all the news around fluoride, we bring the classic Sawbones episode about the benefits of fluoride in drinking water, because the science has not changed.
This week, Dr. Sydnee and Justin explore a medical mystery: Why, for a town in Colorado, was having brown teeth a sign of great tooth health?
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Center for Reproductive Rights: https://reproductiverights.org/
There was a time when Popes had secondary careers (or primary ones) on to of their Papal one. This includes Pope John XXI, the only Pope to have also been a physician. Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about this non-traditional Pope and his contribution to medicine in the 12th century.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Center for Reproductive Rights: https://reproductiverights.org/
Sawbones brings you a studio version of the show at the ye olde Harmony House Renaissance Faire. Justin and Dr. Sydnee talk about how medicine evolved in the Renaissance beyond what passed for scientific theories during the middle ages including the four humours, alchemy, and the real cause of syphilis (insulting the sun god).
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
Center for Reproductive Rights: https://...
It's a myth that tetanus is only found on rusty metal. What really matters is that a wound that is a dirty, deep puncture wound could to introduce the bacteria into the body. Dr. Sydnee and Justin talk about the long history of humans and tetanus, what it does to a body, and why maybe it's not a great idea to garden barefoot.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
National Immigration Project: https://nip...
The Medical Freedom or the Health Freedom Movement is not new, but it is currently gaining more traction and attention under RFK, Jr. On its face, it is a political movement that distrusts pharmaceutical companies and government regulations for supplements. But Dr. Sydnee talks about its history and roots in strange conspiracies and biases from the 1950s – and what the movement means for us today.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers...
TikTok has become enthralled with the idea of Thalassotherapy... which is basically going to the ocean to feel better. Dr. Sydnee talks about the history of this "sea cure" and Dr. Richard Russell, the man who popularized it in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers https://taxpayers.bandcamp.com/
National Immigration Project: https://nipnlg.org/about/who-we-are
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