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Headline vs. Study: Using cancer as clickbait
Using cancer as clickbait is ubiquitous and worrisome. It’s one thing to highlight studies that represent genuine progress, and quite another to write hopeful headlines about studies that are clearly...
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A step-by-step guide to creating health care clickbait
Effective clickbait doesn’t just happen. It’s carefully crafted. Take this wildly misleading article from CNN: Not exercising worse for your health than smoking, diabetes and heart disease, study...
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Early birds have lower breast cancer risk? What you need to know
Wake me when it’s over. There was a lot of misleading information in news stories this week about a study of sleep traits and risk of breast cancer. It was a complex study to decipher, but instead we...
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‘Historic breakthrough Alzheimer patients around the globe have been awaiting’
Over the years, I have loved it when health care journalists send us tips. One recently wrote, “Have you all seen this BS? Some uneducated/informed friends are posting this on Facebook.” The BS she was...
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CNN overstates evidence linking neck pulse measurements to increased dementia...
The story focuses on research presented a conference that found increased intensity of “forward compression waves” (FCWs) in the carotid artery was associated with an increased risk of dementia later...
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How some journalists got hooked by fish oil and vitamin D spin
Results of a much-anticipated trial on fish oil and vitamin D generated conflicting headlines last weekend. Some stories declared good news about the popular supplements: Reuters wrote that fish oil...
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Claims about pulsed radiofrequency for back pain and sciatica are premature
Our Review Summary Getty Images The main problems with this news release promoting an abstract from a radiology meeting are that it fails to mention the research is unpublished, and there are...
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Is vitamin C a remedy for smoking during pregnancy? Too soon to tell based on...
Our Review Summary The news release highlights a randomized, controlled studyof 251 women who smoked during pregnancy with this research question: will vitamin C supplementation improve the pulmonary...
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Headline vs. study: Predicting, preventing and other clickbait
Predicting and preventing. These are powerful words that hold strong appeal for most of us, especially when it comes to our health. But the reality is this: There are very few diseases that can be...
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Fact-checking – by itself – is inherently flawed on health care topics
Fact-checking has become one of the buzziest buzzwords in journalism. There are more than 100 fact-checking projects around the world. It’s been trotted out to counter alleged “fake” news. And to...
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The President and the pandemic: two months of dithering, deceit and distortion
On January 22, 2020, President Donald Trump told the American public: “We have it totally under control.” No, we didn’t. We don’t. And no one can say how or when we will. I have compiled a roundup of...
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Same old, same old, with NY Times Well column – bisphosphonates for pneumonia...
While the overarching theme may be the same – the puzzling editorial decision-making in the New York Times Well blog/column – the specific topics change – and so, provide more examples for instruction....
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For breakfast, give me 2 observational studies and an anti-irritant
This is the way many of my days begin. I check for messages – across all media – and I see this on Twitter from Adam Cifu, MD, one of our former editorial contributors: I think this article was...
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