Health and hucksterism

 

Hardly a day passes that we aren’t warned about some new hazard to our health.

TV doctors, cable talk show hosts, advice from the internet and advertisements everywhere offer a confusing mix of dubious claims and uncertain research.

Even without all the hucksterism, it’s difficult to track credible health news because of the complexity of the human body, including physical and mental components that work together in ways that researchers are just beginning to understand.

Real science is a deliberate and cautious enterprise. It can take years, even decades, to understand how the body is affected by a substance such as tobacco, or whether the benefits of a particular drug outweigh its possible side effects.

Which raises another issue: Hardly anything in our lives is completely good or completely bad.

That’s why research into such substances as coffee, wine and even marijuana often brings conflicting results.

Drinking a glass of wine each day reduces your chances of heart failure, says one research project, while another contends that drinking wine every day increases your odds of getting cancer.

One study found differences between the consumption of red wine and white wine and the incidence of prostate cancer. Another study found a correlation between the tannins in red wine and tea and increased cancer risk.

So, what’s the point of all this science if the conclusions often disagree with one another?

Well, good, credible research does help inform decisions we make about our health, and the advice that doctors and others in the field of science offer us.

In most studies on alcohol, for example, researchers found moderation is a key. As with most drugs, excessive consumption increases the odds of health problems. In many of the studies, moderation was defined as, at most, one drink a day.

There’s plenty of evidence that establishment science and medicine are improving the lives of those who heed the advice of real scientists.

One indication is that the incidence of cancer among Americans has been falling. While researchers can’t name any one reason, many speculate that better diets, less smoking and improved environmental conditions have helped reduce cancer rates.

That’s not to say one’s genetic tendencies, unwanted viruses or other factors can’t upset our best efforts. It is to say that our chances of getting and maintaining health are improved if we pay attention to real science.

The confusing mix of messages from drug companies, dietary supplement businesses and self-described experts can leave us all wondering what claims are based on science and which are examples of free enterprise at its worst.

In such cases, it’s best to fall back on that old saying: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. But that’s not really enough. The public needs better ways to check the claims made by those in the supplement and alternative medicine businesses.

Those who are part of such businesses argue that their money motive is no different from those in the medical establishment. They claim the American Medical Association, the pharmaceutical industry and federal government are in cahoots to protect their own business and deny real innovators.

The problem with that argument is that science proves them wrong – again and again, on cancer, vaccines, weight loss, dementia, sexual performance and too many other topics to list.

There is evidence that most Americans are growing more discerning and more informed in making health decisions.

While abuse of opioids and other drugs has driven life expectancy figures down for Americans for a few years, many other health indicators provide hope.

One is the decline in the cancer rate. Another is the reduction in the rate of dementia seen in the elderly. While the overall number of people with cognitive problems is growing because of the size of the baby boom generation and longer lives overall, the incidence rate for dementia has fallen, here and around the world, according to a report from Kaiser Health.

Progress is being made. We are, on the whole, healthier.

It’s worth noting such improvement in a world that some days seems filled with fear and false promises.