What to believe and what not about health information on your phone: expert

Professional health debunker Tim Caulfield explains how to sort through misleading health information on TikTok.

Some studies show up to one in five Americans get their news from TikTok, while more people get health information from there. Professional health debunker Tim Caulfield joined CTV Your Morning Edmonton’s Nicole Lampa on how to sort through misleading info.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Nicole Lampa: You analyzed some of these videos. What did you find?

Tim Caulfield: We often get to talk about specific products that are bunk and unproven therapies. I think it’s really important to wrap your arms around the sheer volume of nonsense that is out there, right? It’s incredible. One study from Australia found 60 per cent of the fitness videos have some degree of misinformation or harmful content in them. A study that we did found that 70 per cent of cancer books on that first page of a book-search were filled with misinformation. A more recent study that I did found that 80 per cent of the TikTok content on autism and cancer, there was no evidence to support the claims. No good scientific evidence to support what they’re talking about. In fact it’s gotten so bad, and I think this is really important to recognize, misinformation online is almost the norm. Especially if you’re hearing it from an influencer, especially if you’re hearing it from someone who’s trying to sell products. We need to be really, really skeptical.

Nicole: What kinds of cancer and autism remedies came up?

Tim: In our own research, we found things like carrot diets and extreme use of certain supplements. A really popular one is apricots. This one has been around for a long time, apricot seeds, and somehow that has a magical cure. That can be really problematic and can lead to cyanide poisoning. Again, no evidence to support that idea. There never has been. What’s really interesting also is other research has found that these claims are often supported using conspiracy theories. In the cancer space for example, the idea that the biomedical industry is withholding a cure because they want to make money off of the treatments that already exist. That’s complete nonsense, but it’s a very powerful conspiracy theory. That’s one of the things you want to watch for. A red flag is a conspiracy theory being used to push the product.

Nicole: Another trend popping up online is stem cell supplements. Stem cells are scientific, but what about these supplements?

Tim: This was actually a study that our team did. It was published very recently. We looked at almost 200 supplements online that are being marketed. I call this “science-ploitation.” You take a really exciting area of science like microbiome precision medicine or stem cells and you use that language to sell unproven treatments and we just found it was a sea of nonsense. There are no stem cell supplements, but these are really popular. They also use what I call “wiggle words,” like “enhance,” “a boost,” “gives you energy,” and they do that to avoid regulatory oversight. Watch for “science-ploitation” because it’s another red flag for bunk.

Nicole: How can people sort through all of this and find good information?

Tim: It’s getting more and more difficult. A.I. is not going to make it any easier. You want to make sure that the product isn’t being supported by only testimonials, an anecdote, even if that testimonial is from an alleged expert. Make sure there’s good scientific evidence to support the claim. As I said before, watch for conspiracy theories, like the idea that this is some secret knowledge that no one else has. Always think about what the body of evidence says on the topic, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.