Cancer

Was country music star Toby Keith "fighting for his life" and hospitalized as of January 25, 2023? No, that's not true: While Keith has been diagnosed with cancer, the image attached to this post does not show him hospitalized. He has also been filmed performing and doing interviews on verified social media accounts recently. The claim about Keith's health appeared…

Will a fast of water, coffee and tea followed by a diet of only vegetable juice and a ribeye steak cure cancer in 90 days? No, that's not true: Experts told Lead Stories that there is no scientific evidence that this specific regimen will cure cancer. A 2017 study shows that there may be evidence that intermittent fasting coupled with…

Is chicken "poison" and not fit for human consumption? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that chicken meat is poisonous. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) all write on their websites that chicken is fine to eat and in no way poisonous to the human…

Can illness caused by milk be identified simply by looking at one's iris without medical equipment? No, that's not true: Iridology -- a theory that a person's iris can tell about their medical conditions -- has long been proven unfounded, and there is no scientific consensus that pasteurized milk may be harmful. The claim appeared in a video published on…

Will adding three drops of food-grade hydrogen peroxide to one cup of water help with AIDS and herpes? No, that's not true: There is no scientific evidence supporting the benefits of hydrogen peroxide for AIDS or herpes infection; one expert told Lead Stories such claims are "complete and dangerous nonsense." Despite its name, food-grade hydrogen peroxide should never be ingested…

Is a Parmesan cheese flavor additive toxic? No, that's not true: Two food science experts told Lead Stories it can be dangerous in large amounts because it contains butyric acid, but the amount of the acid allowed in Parmesan is no cause for alarm. Butyric acid naturally occurs in the body and aids in digestion. The claim, which appeared on…

Did "adverse vaccine reaction" become the leading cause of U.S. deaths in 2021 and 2022? No, that's not true: Adverse vaccine reactions are not a categorical cause of death tracked by health officials. Also, the vaccination status and records of deceased individuals are not tracked. In both 2021 and 2022, experts told Lead Stories that the leading cause of death…

Will FIFA (the Federation Internationale de Football Association) keep Pele's feet in its museum? No, that's not true: A FIFA spokesperson who replied to a Lead Stories query by email on January 5, 2023, said, "We completely refute this claim." The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) published on January 3, 2023. The tweet's text, under adjacent photos of…

This article lays out the evidence Alan Gray (CEO of alternative news site NewsBlaze) is quite likely the key person behind the anonymously published website named Real Science hosted on the domain name goodsciencing.com. It was recently in the news because it was the source for some spectacular (but wrong) statistics about athletes suffering cardiac arrests (here's our fact…

Does an article listing 1,616 "athlete collapses and deaths" between January 2021 and December 2022 prove a connection between these mishaps and the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: While the article documents scores of "athletes" who have died or collapsed for various reasons (some of them clearly non-cardiac in nature, like cancer, suicide, drug overdose or accidents), their vaccine…