In 2009, I Pledge to Get You the Health Information You Need to Make Informed Choices

Friday, January 2

"All too frequently, what is conveyed about health by many journalists is wrong or misleading."

That's one of the assertions contained in a stirring editorial in the January 1, 2009 New England Journal of Medicine entitled "Communicating Medical News--Pitfalls of Health Care Journalism."

As someone engaged in the daily reporting of health news on my radio show Health Talk, Susan Dentzer's provocative article got my attention. If you follow this blog, you realize that I'm frequently called upon to do "damage control" and refute the often simplistic and erroneous assertions of mainstream journalists--especially when it comes to supplements and complementary medicine.

Dentzer writes: "Should we present black-and-white versions of reality that lend themselves to stark headlines, rather than grayer complexities that are harder to distill into simple truths? I believe that when journalists ignore complexities or fail to provide context, the public health messages they convey are inevitably inadequate or distorted."

I couldn't agree more. Dentzer cites as an example the reporting surrounding the 2006 Women's Health Initiative Randomized Controlled Dietary Modification trial which concluded that a "low fat" diet produced no benefit in terms of reduced risk of disease in women. The press headlines: "Fat Doesn't Matter for Women's Health!" The implication: "Forget the salad and pass me that bucket of KFC!"

At the time, I drilled down and analyzed the data in the study, and concluded that the trial was asking the wrong question. Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent, and the research did not discriminate between good omega 3 fats and poor-quality trans-fats; it paid no attention to the glycemic index of carbs that women consumed on their low-fat diets; and it didn't address the salient problem--low-fat diets perpetuated weight gain, insulin-resistance, and sugar-related degenerative diseases. A valuable "teaching moment" for the American public was lost.

This happens ALL the time. As when headlines pronounced "St. John's Wort Ineffective in Depression" (In the same study, the popular anti-depressant Zoloft fared no better);

Or when the dailies exulted "Forget Ginkgo Biloba for Memory" (When numerous studies substantiate its benefits in Alzheimer's, and NO conventional drug has equaled it for mild cognitive impairment).

Or when, in 1999, millions of women were panicked by the media, went cold-turkey and stopped their hormone replacement therapy, succumbing en masse to hot flashes and insomnia (Re-analysis of the original Women's Health Initiative Study showed that estrogen actually REDUCED the incidence of heart disease in younger, healthier women who began HRT in their 50's--and these hormones weren't even bio-identical!)

Instances in which I have had to dispel the cloud of misinformation promulgated by the mainstream media have abounded in past years, and they will continue in 2009.

I view my responsibilities as a health journalist very seriously. I have a commitment to uncover the truth, however difficult it may be to buck widely held convictions of the medical establishment. My commitment is to you, my patients, listeners, and readers, and I pledge to renew that commitment in 2009 as we tackle the complex medical stories that will make headlines in the New Year.