The Dose: Happy New Year!
Cognitive Dissonance, when healthcare organizations undermine public health, wellness world misinformation, and more...
Welcome to The Dose! We’re delivering bi-weekly health and science updates right to your inbox, and we’re including some humor, art, and fun along the way.
Hello and thanks for your patience - we know we missed our last volume of The Dose, but let’s be real, the end of the year is always chaos, and we are human! Andrea was also in East Africa for a few weeks, and we are big proponents of separating work and life! But, buckle up for a big year ahead!
We are kicking off 2024 with a bang, and have a lot to cover in the world of science and health information, including misinformation and misconceptions to debunk and address. If you haven’t, make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel - it takes less than a minute, is completely free, and helps us expand our reach!
If you missed it: The American Academy of Pediatrics published a policy statement right before the holidays that includes harmful misinformation about GMOs, genetic engineering, and foods. We were so shocked by the amount of false claims, misinterpreted data, and exaggerations that were included in this paper.
The reality is: GMOs and foods containing GE ingredients are safe, nutritious, and do not pose risks to human health or the environment. More broadly, conventional produce and food items are safe for consumption, and organic products do not offer nutrition or health benefits. The statement by AAP undermines decades of robust scientific evidence and consensus from global expert agencies in food and agriculture.
More than that, this will harm families - as data demonstrate negative messaging about pesticides that exploit unfounded fears lead people to consume fewer fruits and vegetables. This disproportionately impacts individuals with lower income - and considering most American’s don’t consume the daily recommendations of fiber and produce, a health organization like AAP should be encouraging everyone to consume more produce, not scare them from it.
We discuss this paper, the glaring missteps, and the harms it will cause with Dr. Nicole Keller, a pediatrician and member of AAP, and Dr. Kevin Folta, a molecular biologist specializing in horticulture. Watch the full discussion here.
This type of misinformation is prevalent within the wellness world - a multi-TRILLION dollar industry that sells unregulated products and services under the guise of health, but in reality, propagates messaging that lures people in who are already conspiracy-minded and convinces them to reject science-based medicine.
We have discussed a LOT of topics in this space - but as ‘celebrity influencers’ and their dangerous ‘health hacks’ continue to gain traction, we must keep revisiting!
We invited Dr. David Robert Grimes’ on the pod to discuss some of the recently popularized fads in the wellness space: full body MRI scans, IV vitamin infusions, chronic Lyme misinformation, urine therapy and more. The reality is, these practices, supplements, treatments, and tests have no evidence to support them and can pose harms to people. Watch the episode here.
Some good news in the science-based medicine world though! A new oral medication for treating post-partum depression (PPD) was approved in the summer of 2023. Zuranolone is the FIRST treatment for PPD that can be taken at home - and the clinical trial data are impressive. PPD is often misunderstood or the severity is diminished. In reality, PPD is extremely serious and impacts 1 in 7 women within a year of giving birth. PPD is far more than ‘the baby blues’ and it can cause harm to both mother, baby, and the family.
We chatted about misconceptions related to PPD, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options with Dr. Craig Chepke, a clinical psychiatrist specializing in severe mental illnesses such as PPD, depression, schizophrenia, and more. It was an illuminating conversation that everyone should tune into!
Jess and Andrea are fully embracing their “snarky season” while staying true to critical appraisal of scientific evidence. This is illustrated with the new weekly “Cognitive Dissonance” social post: where usually once a week, we post a common example of cognitive dissonance as both an educational tool and also to reach people who may have fallen prey to wellness misinformation. These are not intended to shame or guilt anyone who these may apply to, but rather, challenge your inherent biases, personal opinions, and beliefs that may have been shaped by misleading content.
Here are some of our favorites:
There is a common red herring fallacy that crops up when discussing the lack of regulation of the wellness industry and affiliated products in comparison to the regulation and review of data for FDA-approved medications. This relates to opioids, particularly, Oxycontin. The opioid epidemic is often used as a dog whistle for why the FDA shouldn’t be trusted: the logic being that they approved this medication that is leading to addiction and deaths across the country.
This is a VERY complex and nuanced topic. The opioid epidemic is a very real thing, but it has many more components than what many people realize. Moreover, while in retrospect, there could have been things the FDA could have done to head off some of the abuses of prescriptions after the approval of Oxycontin, FDA has less regulatory oversight post-approval. This, and other contributors, were factors in the growing spread of opioid misuse. But this era really kicked off before then.
For a trip down history lane - from poppies and ancient civilizations, to laudanum, heroin and morphine, to where we are now, we chat with Dr. Ryan Marino, an ER physician, medical toxicologist, and addiction specialist). You definitely do not want to miss this episode.
We can’t believe we are still saying this, but there is ZERO evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are linked to cancer - turbo or otherwise.
This is more fear-mongering promoted by anti-vaccine activists, and this is particularly concerning as we are in a surge of respiratory illnesses, including COVID-19, flu, and RSV - all of which we can prevent severe illness and death due to with vaccinations.
As a reminder: if you haven’t gotten your vaccines for each of these are you are eligible - please consider doing so!
We hope you all had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving, Hanukah, Christmas, and New Year’s! We will leave you with this: actual footage of Andrea when she was in Uganda and Tanzania for 3 weeks in November and December (kidding, sort of!)
That’s it for this week, but rest assured, we will be back on our biweekly schedule moving forward. Make sure to subscribe and share with your friends and family who want to have access to credible science-based information.