Important Note
We are living through a flood of misinformation:
There are more and more influencers, self-proclaimed “experts”, and people from alternative medicine and esotericism — but unfortunately also more and more individuals with medical training, including doctors — who spread myths, misinformation, falsehoods and quackery about medicine, health, nutrition, weight loss, treatments and diagnstic tests.
Methods, treatments or products are often presented as “scientifically proven”, even though they are ineffective or all independent studies fail to demonstrate the claimed effects.
In some training courses, even professionals are misled — including, unfortunately, in formats recognised by medical chambers or other institutions and used to obtain the continuing education credits required each year for doctors and healthcare professionals.
Too often, what matters is not what is true, but what can be marketed well.
The more spectacular and unbelievable a claim sounds, the more convincing it can seem — an effect that is easy to explain psychologically.
Simple “solutions”, radical approaches and false claims are deliberately made attractive through manipulation, emotional messaging, and by fuelling insecurity and mistrust of scientifically validated diagnostics and effective, established treatments.
The same people then often sell or recommend questionable or ineffective programmes, products and medicines for treating illnesses and health complaints or for weight loss — and receive commissions and gifts from manufacturers in return.
The consequences can be serious: people lose a lot of money and are led into ineffective or even harmful measures, while important investigations are missed or delayed. Necessary treatments are rejected or postponed — sometimes with dramatic consequences for health.
I help you recognise falsehoods, myths, manipulation and quackery, make better decisions, and see through profiteering — especially where people try to make money from health complaints, illness and the fear for one’s own health.
I also scrutinise myself and my own work consistently, continue my education, and adapt my approach whenever new evidence requires it.
Manuel Jean-Paul Lepage