Why you shouldn't believe impressive medical discoveries

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A study has been published in the American Journal of Medicine that may answer this question. From 1979 to 1983, 101 medical discoveries were announced in scientific journals. All of them were supposed to help cope with various diseases, but only five entered the market within 10 years, and only one is still widely used.

New data

New assumptions that refute all previous experience are often wrong.

For example, the renowned Italian specialist in the field of vascular surgery Paolo Zamboni proposed an innovative way to treat multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease that affects the central nervous system. The scientist managed to improve the condition of his wife and another 73% of patients suffering from multiple sclerosis by "unblocking" their jugular and unpaired veins (we are talking about endovascular procedures for varicose veins). Therefore, Zamboni suggested that multiple sclerosis is not an autoimmune disease, but a vascular one.

Journalists immediately picked up the romantic story and gave hope to many patients (today vascular diseases are better treated than autoimmune diseases). Unfortunately, this "breakthrough" in the treatment of multiple sclerosis has been greatly exaggerated. Other researchers have been unable to reproduce the results.

While news of miracles and breakthroughs appears in the media every now and then, in the scientific community, the attitude towards new data is somewhat different.

Naomi Oreskes Professor of the History of Science at Harvard University

There is a huge difference between how the media and scientists view new data. The media hunt for news, sometimes neglecting objectivity, and the scientific community looks at new data primarily as false.

Premature conclusions

Research findings are often published before they are thoroughly verified. Most of these investigations, in fact, have not been completed. As the saying goes, "the truth is somewhere nearby."

Scientific discoveries are rarely the result of miracles or sudden insights. Usually, breakthroughs in science arise after repeated rechecking and discussion in order to find random errors in experiments. In the meantime, scientists are just working on an idea, the public snatches out "promising developments." For example, hundreds of breakthroughs in cancer treatment are published in the media every year.

For the sake of fairness, it must be said that in the scientific community there are those who are too emotional about the results obtained and take them out of the laboratory ahead of time.

How to deal with this? Divide everything by at least 15. According to the staff of the Canadian McMaster University, only 3,000 of the 50,000 articles published in scientific journals in 2004 can be considered sufficiently developed. This is only 6%.

Contradictions

Often, articles of the same publication contradict each other. In the case of competing publications, this becomes an obligatory aspect of the struggle for the reader.

How many times have you read that red wine prolongs life? And how much about the fact that alcohol is harmful? The same can be said about the benefits and harms of each product in relation to different diseases.

Of the 49 widely cited studies in the field of medicine, 14 (more than a third) either contradicted previously published data or were not fully confirmed.

It is very difficult to take into account all the factors in the study. And often there is not even such a goal. Scientists are not some kind of celestials, but ordinary people who work for ordinary money. They also need to be in time to submit documents for funding, graduate students, defend their candidates. And the verification of the data is carried out after the publication of the article in a scientific journal, when they are trying to repeat the experiment in another laboratory. The rebuttal can only be published months and years later.

Belief in miracles

An adult is able to take responsibility for the choice made, therefore, critical perception is the right and duty of each of us.

Information is spreading at a tremendous speed today. If desired, you can even get access to private data. But bigger doesn't mean better.

Do not forget that scientific journals have rather controversial goals when they publish materials. In turn, popular publications in a highly competitive environment, of course, can exaggerate the value of some data in their own interests. Breaking this vicious circle is difficult without harsh censorship, which has many flaws.

But there is a way out! This is a responsible approach both on the part of the author of the article and on the part of the reader.

You should not rely on new data in the field of medicine. If you want to have verified information, you will most likely have to wait years until you have a sufficient experimental base.

If you are impatient, be researchers, experiment:

• Read an inspiring article - give it a try.
• Analyze your own feelings.
• Did not help? Look for something else.

But remember that you chose to participate in these experiments of your own free will.

What you should definitely not do is peck at messages about miracle cures that will improve your life without the slightest effort on your part. Despite the development of science, it still belongs to the category of magic.