Question everything: Not every health trend or promise is good for you

Question everything: Not every health trend or promise is good for you (Photo: iStock)

Being health-conscious can only be a good thing. But it should never be taken to extremes. There is a great deal of medical marketing and hype, some of which is questionable in benefit or even harmful.

You are likely to be targeted directly with new health promotion messages or indirectly through your healthcare provider. Most health messages have a solid scientific basis and are designed to prompt beneficial actions and behaviour. Think of reminders about cancer screening or cardiovascular and metabolic checks, among others. There is no hidden agenda here; these interventions can only benefit you.

However, some medical promotions are simply hype, largely geared towards generating profit for their promoters. Medical hype often appears as new-age fads, and you should recognise it as such. A few examples suffice: herbal remedies that claim to cure every disease, magical supplements that you must take daily, whole-body imaging to pre-empt future illness, and panels of blood tests to screen for everything under the sun. Such medical fallacies command immense marketing budgets and form a multi-billion-pound industry. You should see them for what they are.

Your healthcare provider should also desist from promoting questionable medical interventions. It may be a new surgical option that doesn't necessarily apply to you, or a screening test with no proven value. Having you undergo some overly promoted interventions may make business sense to your healthcare provider, but may not be beneficial to your health. You may even get harmed in the process. 

You must remain on your guard at all times. Question everything. Why are you getting sustained messages for some healthcare interventions you have never even heard of? Who is doing the promos? Is it your doctors or some marketing chap just trying to raise their company’s sales? Do you actually need the kind of intervention being promoted? Ask about the balance of benefits and harms. You could even go further and ask for scientific data to back up what’s being promoted. But be careful with whatever data comes your way. It may be very skewed or just anecdotal. 

True, there will always be breakthroughs in healthcare. And it may be what you have always been waiting for. But most preventive or treatment options must undergo the rigours of medical research before being translated into human application. You are more likely to become aware of novel medical interventions whilst formally consulting with your doctor. Medical ads are hardly the norm, even when such ads resonate with your symptoms. Avoid the allure of health proactivity that may be based on hype alone.

Dr Murage is a Consultant Gynaecologist and Fertility Specialist