Don’t believe a study until you know who paid for it

Have you ever heard someone joke about “Are eggs good or bad for us this week?” That joke came about because years ago, someone released a study saying eggs were going to kill us all, then almost immediately someone else released a study saying eggs were beneficial.

Part of the problem here was how the news reports oversimplified it to “eggs are good for you” or “eggs are bad for you.” It all depends on whether you have cholesterol problems, how you cook your eggs, how many eggs you plan on eating.

But even if you get past the press soundbytes to the real study, you have to ask who paid for the study? Is it even really a study?

“Junk food is just fine in moderation”… says an “advertorial from Coca-Cola”. This ad is designed to look like a real study or something, and the note about where it came from (and who it’s benefiting) was in about a size 6 font at the bottom.

Now, personally, I think almost anything is okay in moderation. But that’s a philosophy, not science.

It’s ridiculous how vigilant you have to be about not only distinguishing ads from real information, but also about tracing studies back to their roots to find out who funded them. Very often, there are no studies available on a particular topic that don’t come from someone with an agenda. Which makes it that much harder for us to get the benefit of real science. And keep in mind that even when you have the best research available, and it’s funded by a neutral party, future research may turn up different information. It’s all very frustrating.

I’m not sure if there is a guaranteed reliable way to get quality health information, but I like to check the Mayo Clinic website for health info. It’s extremely conservative, in the sense of only reporting stuff that has been verified in clinical trials. That doesn’t mean the weird symptom you’re experiencing isn’t something hundreds of people have reported in forums around the web, so I do also check out stuff that people are independently reporting. I.E., women with PCOS are somewhat on their own because research into this disorder (which is probably actually several different disorders with similar symptoms) is still in its infancy. When you see several hundred women in one forum relating a similar experience that contradicts the available research, I think it’s safe to assume the available research has some gaps. But on the other hand, it’s entirely possible for several hundred women to have what they think is a symptom of PCOS, only to find out later the other symptom belongs to some other issue, and it was just a coincidence so many of them had both problems.

So my approach is to get the conservative angle from Mayo Clinic and balance that against the anecdotes people are sharing, and use my common sense. Have you found any really good sources of health information?

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Posted in Health and Beauty on October 7, 2008