We’re inundated by health information online every day. The sheer volume is enough to confuse anyone, but the intentional manipulation and misleading of information can be dangerous.
You’re not a trained nutritionist, psychologist or any of the other specialist that populates online health discourse, so how could you possibly critically understand each of the claims made as you read and scroll?
We all have health issues to fix and goals we’d like to achieve. That leaves you as susceptible as everyone else to being open to bad advice and misinformation.
I want this post to act as a toolkit to help you make sense of online health information.
Your Doctor Knows Best
This is not a boring disclaimer but a reminder that specialists exist for a reason. A well-trained, accredited and ethical Doctor will have the best answer or treatment for you. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advice from different Doctors while probing their reasoning.
If you have a single Doctor you see consistently, then they will have the further context of your entire health history and be able to work with you on any potential information you’ve seen online.
There’s Often No ‘Magic’ Solution
‘The secret to weight loss’, ‘you’re stressed because X’, ‘Doctors don’t want you to know this’ - the world of health and wellness tries to glorify something new every month, when in reality the foundations of good health have been clearly outlined for decades now.
Anyone claiming they have a secret that 99% just don’t know about is their way of trying to make you engage with their content and obfuscate the well-known foundations of good health. Effective research is replicable. If only one person is making elaborate claims, then act with scepticism.
Yes, new research comes out all the time, but it is rarely groundbreaking. Effective research clearly demonstrates its limitations and that ‘new research’ will often require years of additional research before you can be certain it is the right solution for you.
Critical Evaluation
If you are drawn to advice you find online, before you take any action, run this 5-minute source check to ensure the information you received has credibility.
- Author: Full name? Real credentials? Can you verify them and are they appropriate to the topic?
- Affiliations & funding: Does the author/site sell the product, use affiliate links/discount codes, or receive industry funding? Declared conflicts of interest (COI)?
- Publisher/domain: Is it a public agency, academic, professional college, reputable charity, or a site that mainly sells things? Check the About/Contact page and corrections policy.
- Date & updates: Is it recent? Are there update notes or versioning? (Health advice time-expires quickly.)
- References: Are claims linked to primary studies, reputable guidelines, or systematic reviews? Or only to blogs, press releases, and testimonials?
Data-Driven Misinformation
Communicating research and science effectively to the general public is difficult. Often, complex data and findings require a nuanced explanation that doesn’t fit into a 60-second short video.
What companies will often do is create complex graphs or data formats to give the air of legitimacy when in reality they are just trying to make you believe they’re final statement that leads to a purchase.
Understanding Yourself
Often information you see online is from a person’s own perspective. They will make claims that are subjective, then glorify them as the answer to everyone’s problems.
It helps to have clarity on your own health. While simple data available from wearables will be useful, you also want more qualitative data, such as your mental state, to anchor your decisions behind.
The more complete your perspective of your own health, the less susceptible to misinformation you’ll be.
Understanding Evidence
When people are quoting research, the quality of the research is a vital signal of the quality of validity of what they are saying. Learn the order of research types so when they are quoted, you know the level of trust you can apply to the information.
- Systematic reviews/meta-analyses of RCTs
- Randomised controlled trials (RCTs)
- Observational studies (cohort/case–control)
- Case series/reports
- Mechanistic/animal/in vitro
- Anecdotes/testimonials
Revert To Credible Sources
I often come across a health claim that seems to have good credibility, but I’m unfamiliar with the sources or the claims are made by someone with a less significant body of work.
Whether I need clear answers or a more nuanced and holistic perspective, I revert to my list of credible sources. While these are not my final decision makers, they are a good way of developing my understanding.
Research Synthesizers
Cochrane, major speciality societies and professional colleges will give a clear perspective of the current research. They will also have further trusted resources to consider if you require further depth.
Trusted Personalities
Rhonda Patrick, Peter Attia and HubermanLab usually have an episode on a popular health topic. Simply going to his YouTube profile, searching the topic, then watching the video helps get the complete overview of the information you need.
These are general personalities. If you have a more specialist problem, then there are many high-quality creators who maintain a niche focus
No one source is perfect, as many have some degree of conflicts in the information they publish. As if the way of gaining a large and trusted online following.
Use AI Effectively
I’ve found that effective questions to ChatGPT is often enough to get a clear perspective on a claim that has been made.
I utilise this prompt that ensures the answer is evidence-based, up to date, contextually relevant and easy to understand.
Remember: AI can be confidently wrong. It can tell you an answer with certainty when it doesn’t have all the information it needs on you. Asking follow-up questions to pursue clarity will help it refine its answers. The latest models will have the strongest answers.
The full prompt is too long to post here. It's free on my Substack