Exercise Caution About Tabloid Tips -- Health-Related Articles Make Unfounded Claims

Elvis, if you and Bigfoot are alive and well out there, there's something you need to know: Be very careful about health-related articles in supermarket tabloids. There's a tad of good information - and a great deal of material that's preposterous.

That's the general reaction of three Charlotte, N.C., physicians who were given photocopies of the health stories published in the June 6 issues of six weekly tabloids.

Drs. Neil Howell, Joal Fischer and Donald Schumacher looked at The Star, The Sun, The Globe, Weekly World News, National Examiner and National Enquirer; they reviewed articles with headlines that ranged from "Common mineral relieves agony of migraine headaches" to "Bizarre new virus turns humans into pigs!"

Hogwash? It's hard for the doctors to come to such a simple diagnosis.

According to Fisher, "Articles in these tabloids often contain an ounce of truth along with a pound of foolishness."

Says Howell, "Looking at them all together, I would say the headlines are grossly sensationalized for what the articles actually say. There's almost never enough information to make any scientific judgment. There is invariably an attempt to cite somebody as an-expert-with-a-title, but a purported expert is not enough.

Washing in intelligence

"Look at the guy who says this shampoo penetrates your hair and your brain. It's as though his name - `Dr. Rupert Mordella' - should mean something."

Howell is referring to the Weekly World News story "New shampoo raises your IQ," in which a Connecticut chemist "inadvertently stumbled onto a formula, tentatively known as `Cerebrex,' that can raise the average person's IQ as much as 28 points in just seven days."

Schumacher tells why the citing of names and titles of experts from other countries should raise consumers' eyebrows: "Although there are wonderful researchers everywhere, peer review in the United States is very strict; if somebody is a documented researcher here, he has to meet certain standards before his work will even be published. That may or may not be true in other countries."

Sourcing aside, Howell says the logic in the "shampoo/IQ" article doesn't tally: "It cites a satisfied user, a woman of lower-than-average intelligence who worked in a cafeteria; after using this shampoo, she became a voracious reader of `everything from Shakespeare to Einstein.' Well, suppose you did take a worker with an IQ of, say 90, and raised it 28 points. An IQ of 118 is probably not going to put you voraciously reading those two."

To buy this story, Howell says, "you'd have to believe that something that went through your hair, through the skin of your scalp and through your skull bone, not only didn't hurt the brain - but helped the brain tissue."

Fischer cites another problem with the article: "The idea of raising your IQ with a shampoo that penetrates your skull and bathes your brain with special proteins is absurd. In fact, the shampoo is more likely to reach your little gray cells if you drink it!"

Still, you can't dismiss all tabloid health articles out of hand.

"If an article has no recommendations about a `cure' or wonderful treatment, the information in it may be just fine," says Schumacher. One article - "Joy touch wipes away stress," in The Sun - explains how you can use your mind to get rid of stress. Such articles are wonderful."

Got that, Elvis?

Doctors rate claims

Here's how the physicians appraise some of the tabloid articles:

Headline: Some great news for health nuts! "New nose filters protect you from tobacco smoke."

Source: Weekly World News.

Thrust of story: Biochemist/inventor Dr. Benjamin Nebermann of Philadelphia claims nose plugs "filter out up to 96.3 percent of harmful components in secondhand smoke . . . eliminating once and for all the dangers presented by smoke-filled rooms and cigarette-puffing loved ones."

Howell comments: "Interestingly enough, the guy who developed these is described as a `three-pack-a-day smoker.' If the filter was strong enough to be effective, it would so decrease the air flow to your nose that you would drop your mouth open. . . and lose the benefit of the filter.

"By the way, if these nose filters did work, who would sit around like that in a social situation?"

Headline: "Feeling great again:" Bionic limbs give handicapped a sense of touch

Source: The Sun.

Thrust of story: Man who lost left arm says he could feel warmth of wife's hand through prosthetic arm designed by Sabolich Prosthetic Research Center in Oklahoma.

Schumacher comments: "A real nice story. The future may be bright for this."

Headline: "How to protect yourself from the Black Plague"

Source: Weekly World News.

Thrust of story: Four tips about avoiding bubonic plague, which killed millions in the Middle Ages. One tip: "You can't catch (it) if you're not exposed to it."

Fischer comments: "In this article on how to protect you and your loved ones from the Black Plague in big cities, it seems reasonable to follow the advice to avoid `infested areas'; however, being scared of fleas on dogs and cats in a city where plague has not been reported is silly."

Headline: "Licorice may help lick cancer:" Herbal extract could also help HIV-positive patients

Source: The Sun.

Thrust of story: Drug extracted from licorice prevents colon cancer in rats "as well as any drug we've ever seen" says Dr. Victor Vogel of M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center in Houston.

Schumacher comments: Although it sounds farfetched, the article made some good points about how an ingredient of licorice could be used in the treatment for certain cancers."

Headline: "Vaccine cures cocaine addicts"

Source: Weekly World News.

Fischer comments: "This article is wrong: There is no new vaccine ready to go on the market. Unfortunately, this article preys on people's desperation and massively oversimplifies the issue of addiction."

Headline: "Getting a prescription filled? These tips could save your life."

Source: National Enquirer.

Thrust of story: Eight tips from professor at Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science.

Howell comments: "This is something good; good, common-sense advice about getting a prescription filled."

Headline: Cosmetic surgery breakthrough. . . "The Teflon facelift" Perfect skin for life - and you can shine it with car wax!

Source: Weekly World News.

Thrust of story: South American plastic surgeon, now "training other surgeons" in Miami, says recipients "find that polishing their forehead and cheeks results in a healthy, flawless look."

Howell comments: "This one is a doozy. In this country, I think our most successful cosmetic surgeons try to create a natural look. Here they are advertising someone whose skin is pulled so tightly that it shines. Most of our surgeons, I suspect, would consider that a complication."

Headline: "Bizarre new virus turns humans into pigs!" `In just a few days, normal-looking men and women turn into monsters,' says shocked doctor

Source: Weekly World News.

Thrust of story: Dr. Hector Barrancas, "head of a special Public Health Agency task force" in Colombia, says victims of jungle-bred Hog Virus "suffer high fevers, painful swollen joints and severe physical deformities. . . . Those who don't (die) are hideously deformed for life. . . . Sufferers experience a thickening of the skin, elongation of the nose and ears, and a change in hair texture. The complexion darkens and roughens, and horny growths protrude from the skin."

Howell comments: "What the headline says is not what the article says.

"I haven't heard of this, but I heard little about Ebola virus until recently. Still, I'm not going to worry about `Hog Virus' right now. It's unlikely there will be a worldwide scourge within a few years. I don't perceive that humans all over the world are going to their graves looking like pigs. If `94 percent of victims die,' there wouldn't be many of us left alive and looking like pigs, would there?"