Not medical advice. Sylva indexes traditional, fringe, and emerging remedies — including ideas mainstream medicine has rejected. Talk to a clinician before changing any treatment.

Open questions

Questions modern medicine hasn't finished answering.

Each discussion lays out the case for, the case against, and what to watch — without pretending the matter is settled when it isn't.

FringeCancer

Is cancer caused by parasites?

A century-old fringe claim, revived by ivermectin and fenbendazole anecdotes — and a handful of papers nobody can quite ignore.

Hulda Clark (1990s); revisited via Joe Tippens (2016)
ContestedCancer

Is cancer a metabolic disease, not a genetic one?

Thomas Seyfried argues that mitochondrial damage — not DNA mutation — drives cancer. If he's right, ketogenic diets and glucose restriction become front-line therapy.

Otto Warburg (1924); Thomas Seyfried (2012)
ContestedCancer

Does sugar feed cancer?

Oncologists routinely tell patients 'sugar doesn't matter.' PET scans — which find tumors by their glucose appetite — say otherwise.

Warburg effect (1924); modern integrative oncology
Emerging consensusCancer

Did Linus Pauling discover a vitamin C cure that medicine ignored?

Two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling claimed IV vitamin C extended terminal cancer survival. The Mayo Clinic crushed the idea — using oral pills.

Linus Pauling & Ewan Cameron, 1976
Emerging consensusCognitive decline

Is Alzheimer's an infection?

After decades of failed amyloid drugs, a growing chorus argues that herpes simplex, P. gingivalis, and chronic infection — not plaques — drive dementia.

Ruth Itzhaki (1991); Cortexyme P. gingivalis trial (2019)
FringeCognitive decline

Does fluoride harden the pineal gland?

The pineal accumulates more fluoride than bone. Whether that matters for sleep, intuition, or melatonin — that's where it gets interesting.

Jennifer Luke, University of Surrey, 1997
Emerging consensusCancer

Is sun avoidance killing more people than skin cancer?

Swedish data shows women who avoid the sun die at the same rate as smokers. Vitamin D, nitric oxide, melatonin — the sun does more than tan.

Pelle Lindqvist, Karolinska Institute, 2016
FringeInflammation

Germ theory or terrain theory — was Pasteur wrong?

Antoine Béchamp argued microbes don't cause disease — terrain does. The microbiome revolution is making the argument feel less crazy than it sounds.

Antoine Béchamp vs. Louis Pasteur, 1860s
Emerging consensusAnxiety

Can a single dose of psilocybin cure end-of-life dread?

Hospice patients given one mushroom trip describe lasting peace at rates antidepressants can't match. The FDA has called it a breakthrough therapy.

Roland Griffiths, Johns Hopkins, 2006