|
|
Strangest health news stories of 2011
The year 2011 has been a remarkable one for medical science, with exceptional progress created in an exceedingly wide selection of fields, notably stem cell analysis. except for each nice piece of analysis lined well by the media, there are examples that sensationalise a lot of equivocal studies. We’ve rounded up a number of the foremost attention-grabbing stories where the headlines told one story, however the analysis told quite another.
Just plain wrong
Analysing health news will be fascinating, giving us a higher understanding of what’s smart for us and what exciting developments are happening in medication. However, typically folks writing health news get it wrong. Here are simply a number of samples of the worst uses of health analysis this year:
Chocolate is nearly as good as exercise. It isn't. several newspapers went somewhat giddy over analysis in twenty five mice of a chemical found in cocoa that improved their muscular endurance. This finding may be a million miles off from claiming that eating chocolate is exercise.
Sweets are smart for teenagers. Again, there have been excited headlines a couple of 24-hour long study of children’s diets that found that children who ate sweets (during one day) were less doubtless to be overweight. There are huge issues with jumping to the current conclusion from this flawed study, not least that it ignores all previous knowledge on the results of sweets on kids’ teeth.
Pylons cause asthma. In August, papers linked pylons to babies’ asthma, based mostly on restricted analysis that checked out the health of the youngsters of girls who had been exposed to completely different magnetic fields throughout pregnancy.
Oddballs
Few of the studies that these stories are based mostly on are ‘bad science’, however overeager reporting of findings will flip attention-grabbing, but minor, findings into overblown news. Thankfully, dangerous claims are rare. More often, the claims created within the media are simply plain weird. Here’s a range of the strangest:
Saucepans will cause early menopause. This bizarre claim urged that household objects could also be a health risk. In fact, they based mostly this inference on a restricted study of chemicals known as perfluorocarbons (PFCs) in drinking water. The analysis failed to prove that PFCs will cause the menopause.
Bear bile could facilitate the center. Ursodeoxycholic acid will have an effect on heart rhythm in heart cells extracted from rats – beyond that it’s unclear what this chemical that's created synthetically (but will be extracted from bears’ bile) will for humans.
Quilting keeps you cheerful and healthy. One paper hyped this survey of twenty nine ladies that failed to objectively live any facet of their physical or mental health, or compare quilt-making to the other sort of hobby.
Cancer cures
Cancer cures featured heavily within the news this year, as always. The media seem to be keen about potential cures, notably dietary ones. Earlier this year Behind the Headlines analysed all the claims for ‘superfoods’ (not simply cancer cures), however despite our recommendation to look at such stories with caution, they keep coming back. Added to the list of potential cancer-busting recommendation were:
Tangerines. during this study, genetically built mice were fed a chemical created from tangerines. No tangerines – or humans – were concerned and also the researchers merely found that mice fed the chemical created and secreted less ‘bad fats’ from their livers.
Beans and lentils. though this claim used sturdy science that examined the result of a vegetarian diet on bowel cancer, it failed to directly link beans and lentils with bowel cancer. The study additionally drew its participants from Californian Seventh Day Adventists, who tend to avoid alcohol and smoking, and sometimes limit their meat intake. this is often doubtless to possess contributed to their reduced risk compared to the final population.
Crocuses. Hailed as a ‘smart bomb’ for cancer, these common-or-garden flowers were used to form a chemical that researchers hope may facilitate to chop off the blood provide to tumours. sadly, the media coverage stemmed from a press unleash a couple of study in mice that has however to be revealed. Any human treatment continues to be a protracted method off, though it makes it through rigorous testing and peer-review. read the news with a pinch of salt, not a pinch of saffron (made from crocus stamens).
Pills
It’s a typical saying that there’s a pill for each sick. And if you browse the papers frequently it should appear therefore. However, news stories concerning surprise medicine and magic pills are those that ought to be viewed with the foremost scepticism (more therefore if they’re on the front page of the paper). This year we’ve been told that there are new pills to:
assist you lose weight. there's no pill however. There is, however, a chemical known as SRT1720 that, once testing in yeast and worms, was found to assist mice fed an artificially high fat diet live longer. The analysis has only a few implications for us humans – any potential treatment are going to be a few years away.
Halt ageing. Alas there’s no 'fountain of youth' discovery here. actually the papers were reporting on some genuinely attention-grabbing analysis on atiny low study of a drug to be used in progeria, a awfully rare premature ageing condition.
Cure worry of heights. Not a replacement magic pill now, simply plain previous cortisol, a steroid hormone used to treat several conditions. sadly, the analysis the news was based mostly on checked out its use to enhance virtual reality exposure to heights (already a good treatment) in an exceedingly tiny range of individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis of acrophobia - the worry of heights. this is often not abundant facilitate to the larger range of individuals who merely get sweaty palms close to balconies, drops, edges and ledges.
This year, Behind the Headlines has fact-checked and explained quite five hundred health news stories like these. Tomorrow we'll gift the foremost attention-grabbing and accurately reported health stories of the year. In 2012, we have a tendency to hope that health news remains attention-grabbing, insightful and exciting, while not a number of the issues Behind the Headlines has unearthed within the past twelve months.
The year 2011 has been a remarkable one for medical science, with exceptional progress created in an exceedingly wide selection of fields, notably stem cell analysis. except for each nice piece of analysis lined well by the media, there are examples that sensationalise a lot of equivocal studies. We’ve rounded up a number of the foremost attention-grabbing stories where the headlines told one story, however the analysis told quite another.
Just plain wrong
Analysing health news will be fascinating, giving us a higher understanding of what’s smart for us and what exciting developments are happening in medication. However, typically folks writing health news get it wrong. Here are simply a number of samples of the worst uses of health analysis this year:
Chocolate is nearly as good as exercise. It isn't. several newspapers went somewhat giddy over analysis in twenty five mice of a chemical found in cocoa that improved their muscular endurance. This finding may be a million miles off from claiming that eating chocolate is exercise.
Sweets are smart for teenagers. Again, there have been excited headlines a couple of 24-hour long study of children’s diets that found that children who ate sweets (during one day) were less doubtless to be overweight. There are huge issues with jumping to the current conclusion from this flawed study, not least that it ignores all previous knowledge on the results of sweets on kids’ teeth.
Pylons cause asthma. In August, papers linked pylons to babies’ asthma, based mostly on restricted analysis that checked out the health of the youngsters of girls who had been exposed to completely different magnetic fields throughout pregnancy.
Oddballs
Few of the studies that these stories are based mostly on are ‘bad science’, however overeager reporting of findings will flip attention-grabbing, but minor, findings into overblown news. Thankfully, dangerous claims are rare. More often, the claims created within the media are simply plain weird. Here’s a range of the strangest:
Saucepans will cause early menopause. This bizarre claim urged that household objects could also be a health risk. In fact, they based mostly this inference on a restricted study of chemicals known as perfluorocarbons (PFCs) in drinking water. The analysis failed to prove that PFCs will cause the menopause.
Bear bile could facilitate the center. Ursodeoxycholic acid will have an effect on heart rhythm in heart cells extracted from rats – beyond that it’s unclear what this chemical that's created synthetically (but will be extracted from bears’ bile) will for humans.
Quilting keeps you cheerful and healthy. One paper hyped this survey of twenty nine ladies that failed to objectively live any facet of their physical or mental health, or compare quilt-making to the other sort of hobby.
Cancer cures
Cancer cures featured heavily within the news this year, as always. The media seem to be keen about potential cures, notably dietary ones. Earlier this year Behind the Headlines analysed all the claims for ‘superfoods’ (not simply cancer cures), however despite our recommendation to look at such stories with caution, they keep coming back. Added to the list of potential cancer-busting recommendation were:
Tangerines. during this study, genetically built mice were fed a chemical created from tangerines. No tangerines – or humans – were concerned and also the researchers merely found that mice fed the chemical created and secreted less ‘bad fats’ from their livers.
Beans and lentils. though this claim used sturdy science that examined the result of a vegetarian diet on bowel cancer, it failed to directly link beans and lentils with bowel cancer. The study additionally drew its participants from Californian Seventh Day Adventists, who tend to avoid alcohol and smoking, and sometimes limit their meat intake. this is often doubtless to possess contributed to their reduced risk compared to the final population.
Crocuses. Hailed as a ‘smart bomb’ for cancer, these common-or-garden flowers were used to form a chemical that researchers hope may facilitate to chop off the blood provide to tumours. sadly, the media coverage stemmed from a press unleash a couple of study in mice that has however to be revealed. Any human treatment continues to be a protracted method off, though it makes it through rigorous testing and peer-review. read the news with a pinch of salt, not a pinch of saffron (made from crocus stamens).
Pills
It’s a typical saying that there’s a pill for each sick. And if you browse the papers frequently it should appear therefore. However, news stories concerning surprise medicine and magic pills are those that ought to be viewed with the foremost scepticism (more therefore if they’re on the front page of the paper). This year we’ve been told that there are new pills to:
assist you lose weight. there's no pill however. There is, however, a chemical known as SRT1720 that, once testing in yeast and worms, was found to assist mice fed an artificially high fat diet live longer. The analysis has only a few implications for us humans – any potential treatment are going to be a few years away.
Halt ageing. Alas there’s no 'fountain of youth' discovery here. actually the papers were reporting on some genuinely attention-grabbing analysis on atiny low study of a drug to be used in progeria, a awfully rare premature ageing condition.
Cure worry of heights. Not a replacement magic pill now, simply plain previous cortisol, a steroid hormone used to treat several conditions. sadly, the analysis the news was based mostly on checked out its use to enhance virtual reality exposure to heights (already a good treatment) in an exceedingly tiny range of individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis of acrophobia - the worry of heights. this is often not abundant facilitate to the larger range of individuals who merely get sweaty palms close to balconies, drops, edges and ledges.
This year, Behind the Headlines has fact-checked and explained quite five hundred health news stories like these. Tomorrow we'll gift the foremost attention-grabbing and accurately reported health stories of the year. In 2012, we have a tendency to hope that health news remains attention-grabbing, insightful and exciting, while not a number of the issues Behind the Headlines has unearthed within the past twelve months.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment