What is medical misinformation?
It can take many forms, from the extremely harmful: “vaccines cause autism” to the silly: saying cardio kills your gains (losing your muscles). That’s some straight-up bro science!
Have you ever read a blog and been distracted by the advertisements? From claims of boiled bananas detoxing your gut (your gut doesn’t need detox) to urging you to chug a bottle of olive oil to see what happens next (just click the article instead of drinking the oil please!) their purpose is always the same.
It’s to make you feel an intense emotion (usually anxiety, fear or happiness) or state of mind (hope) and act on it. And what is claimed isn’t backed by science.
For content on the web, we call this clickbait. The main purpose is to bait you into clicking it. There’s sometimes a secondary purpose, which we will get to later.
When you click the advertisement, you are usually brought to another website. And depending on how the websites have set things up, the site owner or company in the advertisement gets money. And you get nothing but bad advice (and laughed out of the group chat) for sharing such nonsense.
Relax, it’s not your fault. Learn how to spot common clickbait advertisements by learning the format they usually take.
What it looks like
Well, we don’t want to be a bad influence and show you a photo! And unless you live under a rock (with rent what it is, I might join you), you’ve definitely seen clickbait before, but didn’t have a name for it.
Clickbait, along with other forms of medical misinformation, likes to make mountains out of molehills. By focusing on something natural to the human body, like gas (the gas in your tummy, not your home pipes) and claiming it’s a sign of a serious internal problem, like liver disease, you are made to needlessly worry.
And the solution to your worry is to buy a supplement or other product. If this is you, please don’t worry yourself sick and go down a research rabbit hole. Remember, advice on the web is never a substitute for a visit to your Primary Care Doctor!
What good medical information looks like
By good, we mean reliable (you are able to trust it) and easy to understand by non-medical people. Many people use WebMD, but that’s a for-profit corporate-run website
To keep things as neutral and honest as possible, we recommend a non-profit source when looking to handle your health concerns. One example is medlinePlus.gov. The .gov at the end of the website name means it’s an official website of the United States government.
Because medlinePlus gets their information from other U.S. government agencies – like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)- you can likely trust (or at least trace the origins of) the information you’re getting.
Remember, if you see or hear words like “cure”, “miracle”, or phrases like “secret remedy” or “guaranteed results” it’s likely medical misinformation. Like a desperate conman, you are being sold something that likely doesn’t even exist! So keep your hands away from the computer mouse and your wallets in your pockets when dealing with any and all forms of medical misinformation.
The dangers of medical misinformation
So far we’ve discussed how medical misinformation wastes time and can harm your relationships. But what about the harm it does to your computer?
Clicking that sketchy advertisement might put a virus on your computer or web browser. Yes, that’s right! You can’t trust these websites with your own health OR your computer’s either.
These clickbait-y medical misinformation websites can steal your time, data and install harmful software on your computer, monitoring your activities and stealing your time and data in the process.
And what about the time wasted in the waiting rooms of Doctor’s offices? These articles frighten patients, and they go their healthcare provider, needlessly taking up medical resources (provider time/lab tests) taking providers away from sick patients.
It also undermines trust in medical providers, leaving the patient wondering if the provider missed signs of a medical problem at a previous visit.
Remember, patients aren’t to blame. Due to a lack of medical and digital literacy[2], they are manipulated by con artists into high emotional states, because websites capitalize on fear and lack of patient knowledge
Act on science not emotion
Medical information should be based on sound science. And decisions about your health should made with science and a discussion with your healthcare provider.
So next time you feel afraid about your health based on an ad trying to make you feel intense emotions- high or low- ask yourself if you’re being manipulated (you likely are), and what they’re trying to get from you (your attention and $$$).
Resources
- MedlinePlus.gov
- nih.gov: see “theoretical perspectives”