Dying of Misprint and Unsolicited Diet Information

One hot summer day, as a young teenager and alone in my small sail boat, I was showing off for the girls in front of a public ferry dock on the Saint John River. As the squalls hit, I held tight to the main sheet in order to have the boat lay over as far as possible. Suddenly, an extra strong gust of wind slammed the sails and the boat capsized and filled with water. For some reason I could not get the boat back up as the sails, now loaded with water, were stuck in the track. The water was cold and the tide was running out. I soon drifted out of sight of the dock and, as I clung to the side of the vessel, I began to shudder and tremble. I remember thinking 'if I let go I will soon be warm'. Fortunately for me, my older brother had observed the upset from the far shore and eventually came to my rescue in an outboard motor boat.

Two things shocked me that afternoon: First my brother stripped naked before jumping  into the water to help and second, when I finally reached the shore my mother poured a glass of brandy and put me to bed.

Man's Best Friend - Dr. Google!

It seemed Doctor Mom had a remedy for almost everything. In the spring we had to take a spoon full of cod liver oil each morning to restore our constitutions after a long winter.  For tummy aches it was Castor oil...mixed in orange juice. (It took me years to learn to enjoy a drink of orange juice again!) Then there was a warm bath mixed with oat meal, or even a hot poultice or mustard plaster on the chest to break up a chest cold. Mercurochrome was better than Iodine because it did not sting.. but it sure left a yellow stain!

Today, especially when it comes to food and health, we are inundated with conflicting information that results in confusion for the average person. A lot of people get their health information from a news release or Dr. Google. But the information sometimes seems contradictory or moving in cycles. 'Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables and exercise  regularly'. "Fish is good for your heart'. 'Fish is contaminated with mercury'. How about the health benefits of red wine, medical marijuana, coffee, vitamins and supplements? Some reports say good for you and other reports say, well..perhaps not so good! The result:  public confusion.  

DRE Anyone?

As consumers we want the latest information and the journalists  want to be the first to break the news. The "good news" might be based on information available at the time or based on a single study. Nevertheless, there may be enough information to make it 'newsworthy'! On the other hand, science is deliberate and slow moving and uses different methods of research. For example some studies are observational and the results merely suggestive. Other research is experimental, as when the researchers use two groups - a control group and an experimental group. The results are then compared. Other studies go on for years or information gathered in one study may effect the results learned in another. In 2007 I agreed to participate in an on-going Clinical Research Study to determine dosage application for Radiation Therapy  for prostate cancer. As it turned out the experimental treatment I received ultimately became the standard  of care in that hospital.

So how does the average person make any sense of it? Remember, abstracts don't always provide enough for an accurate study. So be sure to visit only reputable sources on the Internet. In fact Wikipedia has a great article on identifying reliable medical resources (Wikipedia). The Harvard School of Public Health (Deciphering Media Stories on Diet) has a number of suggestions on how to make some sense of the numerous articles on diet and nutrition.

What is wonderful about all the information available today is that it encourages the average person to take charge of his or her own health. So often in the past we left the management of our own bodies to the experts. Today, that approach is changing and most doctors like the change. However, it is possible to go too far and, as a result, we see the beginning of a new eating disorder called Orthorexia, where eating pure and healthy becomes an obsession!

I wonder what Doctor Mom would say about all this?

Perhaps the advice once given by Mark Twain still has value: "Be careful about reading health books. You may die of misprint." 

And that's Dick's View of the World this Week