Of Phones and Phoniness

Hey everyone, it's Karen here. We often talk about how to spot misleading health information, and a couple real-world examples recently crossed my radar that I wanted to share with you!

Exhibit #1

Headlines like the one below were running rampant in mid-September, causing many iPhone 12 owners to panic. And it certainly does sound alarming at first glance. Personally, I took noice of this news because my daughter uses an iPhone 12 and I wanted to do my due diligence. Here are some interesting key points as you read through the article:

• The French government issued the order after the iPhone 12 recently failed one of two types of tests for electromagnetic waves capable of being absorbed by the body.
• France’s digital minister said the iPhone 12’s radiation levels are still much lower than levels that scientific studies consider could harm users, and the agency itself acknowledges that its tests don’t reflect typical phone use.
• Radiation limits are set well below the level at which harm will occur, and therefore a small increase above the threshold “is unlikely to be of any health consequence."

This is a textbook example of how headlines are used to generate interest and incite fear, when the facts of the story do not appear to warrant that level of hype. 

Exhibit #2: 

When I first saw this headline, I thought "Geez, you don't usually see stuff about weight loss decreasing mortality. I better take a look." As I read on, I discovered the following:

• The study wasn’t able to distinguish if people involved lost weight intentionally or unintentionally.
• No questions were asked about changes in activity level and diet quality between the baseline study visit and subsequent study visits.
• Weight loss may be a risk factor for mortality because it can signal underlying issues such as cancer or dementia (which takes us back to the first bullet and the need to consider that maybe much of the weight loss was unintentional). 

Again, the first impression you get from this headline is that weight loss will decrease your life span - scary for sure! But whenever you see something that runs contrary to what you have generally understood to be true, skepticism is warranted. This is a great reminder of that.