Steven Novella Quotes

American neurologist, skepticist

Dr. Steven P. Novella (born 29 July 1964) is an American clinical neurologist, assistant professor at Yale University School of Medicine, and skeptic.

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Alternative Names: Steve Novella • Steven Paul Novella • Steven P. Novella

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The thing about herbs is that there is nothing supernatural or implausible about the fact that any particular herb can have a medicinal effect. But the truth of the matter is that herbs are drugs. There's nothing magical about them. The fact that they are "natural" is irrelevant — it's meaningless. They are drugs. They are drugs that have not been purified, identified, … and quantified. … Probably for most plants … there are hundreds of chemicals in there with varying degrees of potency.

There's a host of scams that are evolving all the time.

I think the Internet is the biggest classroom we have.

Placebo effects (plural) are mostly reporting bias, regression to the mean, investment justification, researcher bias, and other sources of self-deception. They are transient, and significant only for subjective symptoms where reporting bias can play a major role. Studies have shown, in fact, that there is no significant "healing" that occurs due to placebo effects — no objective biological improvement.