User Reviews

This series of episodes on wellness brings a refreshing evidence-based look at a range of health, diet, fitness and other health claims that are being made by many practicioners who wish to separate the "worried well" from their money.

Tim Caulfield brings an open mind and inquisitive personality to the exploration of various health claims, services, and products. He interviews people who are seeking answers. He talks to providers of treatments. And ultimately he brings the state of the science to the discussion. He seeks out additional details from appropriately qualified scientists and doctors who can tell you about why steaming your nether regions is unwise, or why injecting stem cells into your body may be premature. It may be too soon to buy foods based on your DNA sequences too.

If you are looking for a good science-based understanding of many wellness claims, this is the documentary for you. If you sell detox potions and vitamin treatments, you will probably dislike what he finds.

A great series that debunks everything that most of us know is nonsense. it's not only Caufield on his own, he has the experts, with the degrees to back them up, to pass on their knowledge. unlike a lot of documentary's like hungry for change for instance, the people in the series have the knowledge, use peer reviewed studies, and have the degrees to back them up..it's not opinions, it's facts.

For those familiar with Professor Caulfield's books ("A Cure for Everything" and "Is Gwyneth Paltrow Wrong about Everything?") you will know that he is an unapologetic debunker of health myths. This series is an artful expression and extension of the concepts in those books.

In the series, Professor Caulfield traverses the globe in a never ending quest to challenge baseless health beliefs. He does so in a humorous, often self-deprecating way, while always ensuring that science remains the star.

The production value is very high and is somewhat in the style of Anthony Bourdain's "Parts Unknown". It is intimate, informative, and always insightful.

In the end, you might not be able to cheat death, but you will learn how to live a more balanced and healthy life and, for those reasons, the show is well worth the watch.

I love the interesting and comical way the various crazes are not only investigated but tested. The show is a fun way to learn the truth behind some of these therapies; good and bad.

This is very well done. Most (not all) of the people who don't like it are angry that someone doesn't agree with their delusions. I'm sure half of them think claims on Goop are legitimate.

An incredible series navigating the world of science and health. Combatting the confusing narratives and pseudoscience perpetuated by pop culture.

Episode 1 example: What Caulfield did NOT bother to prove: (1) Do humans have chemicals/toxins n their body that should not be there? (2) If a human completes any of the cited 'detox' regimens, did the body burden of 'toxin' decrease? (3) Is the human body healthier after completing any of the cited 'detox' regimens?

What Caulfield DID prove: (1) There are a lot of people who want to make money by selling you stuff that you may not need. (2) Much of the stuff that you buy is not proven to do what you expect it to do. (3) A lot of people like to call themselves 'experts' and tell you their opinion on things without being able prove any of it (such as those people who Caulfield interviews in this show.).

So if you are hoping to get facts on whether eating/drinking fruit & vegetables (or other types of detox programs) decreases the amount of toxins in your body/makes you healthier, you will not find any facts to support or refute that in this show.

Very easy to watch and informative. A good way to learn!

This guy had an opinion and then set out to try and convince people in a very obviously biased way. Truly comical. Anyone with a truly academic perspective would actually use critical thinking and see right through this purely subjective opinion disguised as logic.

I used to have an incredible passion for health & fitness - at passion that I lost just about 10 years ago. I lost that passion when the cultural perception towards health & fitness was heavily shifting towards a "naturalistic" approach; emotionally driven, non-results based and overly commercialized.

At that time, the general consensus of what was the proper way to do things was becoming so anti-intellectual, I thought there was no saving the fitness movement (which has only gotten worse to this day.) What brought rise to this naturalistic approach (I believe) was the rise of "health" documentaries that demonized specific certain foods, alluded to conspiracies, and relied on bad science to promote their views. Case in point: one of Timothy's interviewees said that she started believing in the naturalistic approach after watching health documentaries.

Those "health" documentaries of the past are nothing like what Timothy Caulfield has done with this series. He is very level-headed in his presentation and espouses the evidence-based approach to health & wellness. Surprisingly, the evidence-based approach has become the underdog; the random person on the street is more likely to believe the healthier approach is the natural approach. How has popular perception of science fallen so far? I sincerely thank Timothy for making this series and promoting, into pop-culture, what should be the dominant paradigm. And to top it off, he packages all of this info into a very entertaining series.

To the other reviewers who are calling this series one-sided: how would you suggest Timothy give each side equal credit, when one side is grounded in evidence-based science and the other is grounded in anecdotal experiences and marketing gimmicks? If Timothy's goal was to find the best approach with the greatest amount of evidence supporting it, he has done exactly that.

Loved this series! I am sad I can't seem to find it anywhere to re-watch. I would buy this series if I could-as a counselor with an eating disorder specialty, I would love to have this resource in my collection.

I have a lot questions about some of the practices this show addresses and thought I would find the answers in this show. I was disappointed.

Professor Caulfield does exactly the same thing that people who promote activities like ionized foot bath detoxing do. He makes a proclamation but never does any testing or explains why it doesn't work. For example, he states that the color and material in foot bath detoxing is the result of the iron in the foot bath and not detoxing. He might be right but he never actually does any tests of the water to find out if the foot bath water with someone's feet in it is the same as foot bath water without someone's feet in it. I have heard other claims about ionized foot baths. For example, the detox substances come out in your urine several days after the foot bath, or that someone who swims in chlorinated pools has foot bath water that smells like chlorine. He does not have a knowledgeable proponent of these practices on to present why it works and then use science and testing to prove it doesn't work. He just makes a declaration.

He brings on "experts" but what makes these people experts? He never tells us. I find his approach very similar to the people that promote these practices. There are lots of pronouncements and testimonials from "experts" but no real science or testing to back anything up.

He also says people that promote these practices are motivated by money because they sell books, movies and products. Gee, isn't that exactly what he is doing in this movie and in his books? What would make this show credible is if he had a knowledgeable proponent of these practices talk on film and then showed the science and test that proved what the proponent was claiming is false. If this show did this I would give it 10 stars.

Basically, if you don't like "new age" treatments and are looking for confirmation of your beliefs you will like this movie. If you are looking for unbiased science you will be disappointed.

I have done some of the practices that this show addresses and gotten healthy. Would I have gotten better whether I did these things or not? Was "time" what healed me and not the practice? Maybe. I don't know. This show doesn't answer these questions in an unbiased way and the show engages in the same pseudo-science it attacks.

By the way, he is a professor of law not science or medicine, so he has no educational training in the topics he is addressing. Properly prescribed prescription medicine kills over 100,000 people a year. Prescription medicine, radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery have a large number of terrible outcomes including death. So if you are sick going the conventional path sometimes has terrible consequences.

Entertaining enough to watch. However, like many documentaries, he clearly has an opinion on these matters and only interviews people and doctors who support his opinion. Rarely did you see him interview someone with an opposing view, unless it was regular people in favor of the topics that he made out to look ridiculous. Regardless of your personal opinion on things that affect well - being, you do not have the ultimate answer. Presenting just one side leaves people mis-informed.

Caulfield is a charming fellow, but it's obvious that he is extremely biased against anything that is not standard industry approved, and without any validation for feeling so. In his defense, there is a great deal of bad information available about nearly everything. However, he offers little to no scientific basis for his conclusions or determinations. Everything that is on trial under his review is guilty until proven innocent, and with hardly any facts or validity offered to backup his harsh judgements.

It is also FACT that there is a lot of bad science and falsified studies available on both sides of every issue he covers. He even sights studies that have been debunked when the reality is, some of the studies he sites may in fact end up being debunked themselves. Only time will tell. The cast of experts certainly have credentials, however they too all seem heavily biased, and conveniently there are typically several in favor of the remedies he aims to shoot down, and usually only one single expert aligned with him doing the shooting.

I was hoping this doc would offer some unbiased review and scientific weighing of these topics with facts, validations, and experimentation instead of hurling persuasive arguments as thought based ammunition for sharing his view in a case closed manor.

I challenge you Mr. Caulfied, don't just SAY things are obviously false, prove it with the scientific method you so gallantly defend and then maybe I will subscribe to your opinions.

I found him entertaining but do question if some of the financing for this series came from Big Pharma or the American Medical Association or anyone who is interested in stopping this movement for their own financial benefit.

Wanting to better looking, stronger, better isn't Society it's biology, it's the whole basis of life from bugs to humans. he talks as if it's not true that pharmaceutical companies won't research drugs if they don't think they can make it money off of it all he talks about is natural things well no duh Sherlock. with that being said there's only one thing people are going to test for and that's ways to make money

I only watched one episode due to Caulfield not proving anything that is CRITICAL to the essence of this episode. Such as if we even have chemicals in our bodies that we should not have or if any of the detoxes actually worked, even in the slightest after they were completed CORRECTLY (not how he halfa**ed it). He just did the detoxes and said "This just feels like i'm detoxing my dignity if anything..." or something like that. All u get out of it is some general knowledge that most detox labeled items are shams.

I find he's great for the show extremely Charming and interesting although I did find myself still confused because all seems very one-sided. He interviews a lot of different people which leads you to know answered questions only opinions on both sides I also do find it is very science-driven especially the segment about organic food, vaccines and supplements. I was really disappointed!

I think there's enough people popping pills and eating fast food in this world. Why attack people who are eating unprocessed food and exercising. It's sad this "professor" from the middle of nowhere in Canada spends his time and energy trying to discredit holistic methods of living. I think he looks like he needs a detox.

They must have received a big paycheque form the pharmaceutical industries. There are more deaths from pharmaceautical drugs regularly prescribed to people by doctors that don't have the time to actually understand what they are prescribing. They get their information from the drug salesman that make money selling these drugs. There is a great deal of peer reviewed science that has been done on all of these topics highlighted here and the information contained in these episodes is antiquated to say the least. Shame shame shame.

Was intrigued by the premise. However, he fails to make any substantial dents in the theories he attempts to debunk.

Granted I have only watched the detox episode, where there was a whole lot of 'Well..... science doesn't know everything but don't do any detoxes because there is no proof.'

I too wonder how many pharmaceutical companies were somehow involved in this?

Interestingly, he did not reach out to any scientific experts like Dr. Wahl who cured herself and others of MS using a protocol that include juices and smoothies. This show was biased from the start, and lacked any relevant research to support its claims.

"Caveat de emptor" Yes, these are topics that are in dire need of illumination from an unbiased source. This task is epic as virtually every source of data is biased, even with noble intentions. Wherever we are on the bunker- de-bunker spectrum, we tend to believe what fits our individual grasp of "reality"...affecting gifted researchers to kindergartners.

What I would like to see addressed (which may have as I have not watched all episodes) is the incalculable damage to the public trust, wealth and health by the tsunami of blatantly bad information that has been disseminated at a seemingly exponential volume, ie The Food Pyramid, any political campaign, "most folks don't bother with flood insurance around here", etc etc. This has resulted in a corresponding level of skepticism/cynicism regarding mainstream wisdom, which in turn results in our throwing the baby out with the bath water or just throwing our hands in the air and tuning EVERYTHING out. As to Dr Caufields serial "campfire wizzer" schtick, a little more young with the yang would be cool.

S1:Ep1 "I am afraid I am going to have an afro at the end of this, I am going to look more like a cauliflower." This type of sentiment should not be tolerated. For someone that has a platform these types of comments should never be used. There is a whole race of individuals that are born with beautiful afro textured hair. To make fun of a whole race of people without a second thought, is a perfect example of some of the ignorance that still prevails in our society. I have rated this as a 1 for the overall message the series was trying to portray.