Psychological Science: A Key To Understanding And Combating Health Misinformation

"There is widespread concern that misinformation poses dangerous risks to health, well-being, and civic life. Despite a growing body of research on the topic, significant questions remain about (a) psychological factors that render people susceptible to misinformation, (b) the extent to which it affects real-world behavior, (c) how it spreads online and offline, and (d) intervention strategies that counter and correct it effectively. This report reviews the best available psychological science research to reach a consensus on each of these crucial questions, particularly as they pertain to health-related misinformation. In addition, the report offers eight specific recommendations for scientists, policymakers, and health professionals who seek to recognize and respond to misinformation in health care and beyond."

MAIN POINTS:

• RECOMMENDATION 1 Avoid repeating misinformation without including a correction.
• RECOMMENDATION 2 Collaborate with social media companies to understand and reduce the spread of harmful misinformation.
• RECOMMENDATION 3 Use misinformation correction strategies with tools already proven to promote healthy behaviors
• RECOMMENDATION 4 Leverage trusted sources to counter misinformation and provide accurate health information.
• RECOMMENDATION 5 Debunk misinformation often and repeatedly using evidence-based methods.
• RECOMMENDATION 6 Prebunk misinformation to inoculate susceptible audiences by building skills and resilience from an early age.
• RECOMMENDATION 7 Demand data access and transparency from social media companies for scientific research on misinformation
• RECOMMENDATION 8 Fund basic and translational research into the psychology of health misinformation, including effective ways to counter it. 

Click on the link below for the full 44-page American Psychological Association Consensus Statement:

Using Psychological Science to Understand and Fight Health Misinformation

Universal Healthcare: Efforts Continue

"The movement for universal health care is still underway, though it rarely gets recognized in mainstream discourse. The death of Medicare For All (M4A) activist Ady Barkan is an occasion worth using to look at the progress being made to improve our system of promoting the health of all people in the United States as well as efforts to rein in the power of big Pharma that's used to gouge the American people with exorbitant prices. So, that's what we're doing."

Click on the link below for the details:

Pushing for Medicare For All

Artificial Turf: The Truth Regarding Chemicals

"Artificial turf on sports playing fields is no stranger to controversy. Normally, issues around artificial turf have to do with its costs, its durability, whether athletes perform better or worse on it, and whether athletes are more or less likely to be injured on it, all compared to grass fields. But there's another objection to it that you may not have heard of: whether or not artificial turf outgasses harmful chemicals which can impact the health of players and spectators, and also any wildlife that may be in the path of rain runoff. Today we're going to point the skeptical eye at artificial turf, to see whether they are indeed poisonous pitches, or merely fresh, fun fields."

Click on the link below for the details:

Artificial Turf: Poisonous Pitches?

A Major Health Factor Not Mentioned Enough

Health is a general term with multiple definitions and causative factors. Exercise is mentioned in most conversations regarding health but there is little agreement regarding the best options for achieving its maximum benefits (link). Click on the link below for a brief presentation on what simple but regular exercise can do for your health in one major area:

A Morning Jog Can Reduce Risk Of These Cancers: Study

Coffee: A Health Food

"Coffee does more than boost your energy. A few daily cups of coffee may also lower your risk of type 2 diabetes and depression, support weight management, and help you live a longer life. Just keep in mind that experts recommend limiting caffeine if you’re pregnant or nursing."

It has the following benefits:

• 1. Boosts energy levels
• 2. May be linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes
• 3. Could support brain health
• 4. May promote weight management
• 5. Linked to a lower risk of depression
• 6. Could protect against liver conditions
• 7. Supports heart health
• 8. Could increase longevity
• 9. May enhance athletic performance

Click on the link below for the details and supporting research:

9 Unique Benefits of Coffee

Parental Rights And Responsibilities

There is a great deal of discussion, and disagreement, regarding parental rights and responsibilities in the political environment of the USA presently. While most legal sources agree that the parents are the prime sources of proper nurturing and protection of the child, they also agree that outside resources are necessary to aid in achieving the goal of a happy, healthy, and well-educated child. After all, the parent is not the "owner" of the child (and neither is the state). 

With that said, what happens when parents do not meet their responsibilities in child-rearing? There is little societal disagreement regarding not tolerating physical (exception: corporal punishment) or emotional abuse, and/or failure to provide food, clothing, and shelter. However, the areas of health and education can present situations ripe for disagreement, especially if one's ideology is based on claims unsupported by evidence:

• Health: circumcision? vaccinations? birth-control? hormone replacement therapy? gender reassignment surgery? abortion? alternatives to medicine?
• Education: religious indoctrination? secular morality? evolution, and other sciences? history (of racism, inequality,  colonialism, genocide, wars, greed, authoritarianism, individualism, communism, socialism, democracy, republicanism, tribalism, capitalism)?

What to do with all of this?

Soap And Health

"James Hamblin made a splash when announcing he hadn’t showered or used much soap in five years. The physician, Yale public health lecturer, and staff writer at The Atlantic experimented on himself as research for his latest book, 'Clean: The New Science of Skin.'

"Hygiene rituals are as old as recorded civilization. While Muslims and Hindus created elaborate cleaning rituals, European Christians thought bathing increased your chances of falling ill thanks to miasma theory. For centuries, changing your linen shirt supposedly bestowed cleanliness—not soap and water. Many Christians during this era only had one bath in their entire lives: baptism."

Click on the link below for some interesting information that, like much of science, is counter-intuitive:

Clean: The New Science of Skin

Confronting Health Misinformation

"I am urging all Americans to help slow the spread of health misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people’s health, and undermine public health efforts. Limiting the spread of health misinformation is a moral and civic imperative that will require a whole-of-society effort."

Below is a link to a recent publication from the US. Surgeon General regarding how to combat health misinformation. 

The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Building a Healthy Information Environment

Processed Food

The term "Processed Food" is used in the media mainly as a negative. While most of the time this is justified, the links below give a clearer picture of the term:

Eating Processed Foods

10 Processed Foods To Avoid

How Do Processed Foods Affect Your Health?

A Science-Based Look At Red Wine

"There is a lot of data flying around between doctors, scientists, and the media about Red Wine. Is it some magical drink that's good for the heart? Or is the place of Red wine overrated? In today's episode, we look at how red wine got its place as one of the few beverages that have cardiologist approval and we will look at the data behind it."

The TRUTH about Red Wine

A Scholarly Look At Veganism

Periodically I come in contact with fellow science-based thinkers proselytizing for Veganism.  I have posted on the subject in the past.  This post will present recent literature from scholarly sources. As you may have deduced from my other posts, I haven't committed myself to veganism for a variety of reasons and, since there is much disagreement by thinking people on the subject, I just support a diet primarily based on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and moderate quantities of minimally processed meats (preferably grass-fed if applicable) produced humanely.

More Than Just A Diet: An Inquiry Into Veganism

Vegetarian, vegan diets and multiple health outcomes: A systematic review with meta-analysis of observational studies

Environmental impact of omnivorous, ovo-lacto-vegetarian, and vegan diet

The long-term health of vegetarians and vegans

Why Vegan Diets Suck

The Impacts of Dietary Change on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Land Use, Water Use, and Health: A Systematic Review

16 Studies on Vegan Diets — Do They Really Work?

Going Vegan isn't the Most Sustainable Option for Humanity

Sorry, But Giving Up on Meat Is Not Going to Save The Planet

A Closer Look At Belly Fat

The following article presents the nuances of belly fat.

The Dangers of Belly Fat

Proper Food Will Always Trump Supplements For Health

We are inundated with advertizements for all sorts of supplements to maintain and improve health.  The truth? "Food is always a better source of nutrients than a pill"

Heads up: when any supplement is advertised, this warning is always included:

• Unlike drugs, supplements are not permitted to be marketed for the purpose of treating, diagnosing, preventing, or curing diseases. That means supplements should not make disease claims, such as “lowers high cholesterol” or “treats heart disease.” Claims like these cannot be legitimately made for dietary supplements.  (link)

Being Positive Isn't Bad, But - - -

"Many people like myself who are living with a chronic disease and a dying family member find that without an emphasis on the bright side of things, the negatives would be too overwhelming. However, I believe it is important to be careful with generalizations about positivity. As in the example above, saying that 'patients whose moods were overall more positive were 58 percent more likely to live at least another five years' is a misrepresentation of the data. Used as medical advice in popular media venues, such generalizations are bound to have social and cultural repercussions."

Positive Psychology and Health

A View On Circumcision

"Reasonable people can disagree whether or not baby boys should be circumcised. However, as a new review in the journal Clinical Microbiology and Infection details, the medical benefits for some men are undeniable. And, perhaps surprisingly, women may indirectly reap the rewards, as well."

Circumcision Prevents Spread of HIV, HPV, and Possibly Herpes

Vitamin D Deficiency And Depression

"While it is found in a few foods like oily fish, most people get vitamin D from a natural effect on the body caused by sunlight. Low levels are associated with bone conditions such as rickets and osteoporosis, but it can also affect muscle tissue and has been found to be associated with normal levels of dopamine, a chemical linked to mood, in the brain."

Vitamin D deficiency associated with heightened depression, study finds

Added Sugar Is Pure Empty Carlories

"There are some important nuances here. As the Sugar Association points out, sugar does not technically cause obesity; rather, eating more calories than you burn does. This is at best a half truth. The truer statement, as Action on Sugar makes plain, is that there is absolutely no need for added sugar in the human diet—added sugar is purely empty calories."

Big Sugar Is the New Big Tobacco

This link addresses sugar and refined carbohydrates, but also looks at a type of fat.

What's wrong with the Western diet.

Why Dieting For Weight Loss Is A "Soft" Science

"Tobias urged dieters not to lose sight of the bigger picture. "Low-carb versus low-fat should not be the focus for people selecting a weight loss diet." The focus, she said, should be on improving the quality of food that people eat instead."

We’ve long blamed carbs for making us fat. What if that's wrong?

Medical Screening And Overdiagnosis

"In the end, science can never really fully answer whether a woman should undergo mammography or whether mass screening programs are worthwhile, be they for breast cancer, prostate cancer, or other diseases. The reason is that, no matter how much science is brought to bear, there will be no escaping that the final decision will boil down to a value judgment informed by the science and that, because, contrary to what Dr. Kopans has suggested in the past, we can’t do a randomized clinical trial of mammography any more because there would not be clinical equipoise, In the US, we are very pro-screening, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that our care is better."

A lengthy article, but worth the read.  This topic does not have black and white answers.

Mammography and overdiagnosis, revisited

Is Diet Another Word For Fad?

"Anytime the Zeitgeist is that any one nutrient is either a miracle cure or a root of all evil, it's probably wrong. People have lost weight using all sorts of variations in foods and nutrients. Rather than follow the fads, it would be more useful to learn to incorporate reasonable amounts of fat and sugars in one's diet — and to first determine the appropriate number of calories one should consume to either lose weight or maintain a healthy weight."

Fat Is Back And Diet Food Is Out!