A couple of weeks ago I ran a brief and somewhat superficial survey to find out where people would get information on health issues. My conclusion was that advertising is the main source of information for those that read the daily tabloids. Occassionally information comes from a more credible source, such as prestigious journals, as was the following article that was recently brought to my attention.
Meditation Halves Risk of Heart Attack
Relaxation technique may be as powerful as modern drugs
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/1116/1?etoc
The results from this study are intriguing, and quite in-line with what many people have suggested before. The impact here is that now it is being discussed in an acclaimed journal. Is this more reliable than the daily tabloids? There is nothing in this report that would lead me to deny it outright, so I might be inclined to believe the results. I would like to believe the results. My hesitation would be that although this is published in the family of a prestitigious journal, this is not a peer reviewed article, and the fact that it is published may be just a policy statement from the editors. To their credit, they do also publish comments in response to this article.
My observation is that many people will accept published information as being true without questioning the reliability of the source. There is a lot of money to be made in ‘snake oils’. Please read beyond the labels.
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Absolutely.
Critical Thinking courses should be mandatory for all in high schools- and beyond. We’d have significantly fewer problems if people didn’t’ swallow every pill other people try to feed them.
It’s pretty easy to spot and avoid snake oil – if you know some of the things to look for.
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