Wish there was a simple 30 second move that you, and those you treat, could do that would dramatically improve your health and happiness? There is!
But First Some Background
The environment that we choose plays a major role in our overall well-being. As do the choices about what we put in our body. This includes not only choices about the food we ingest, but also the information we choose to take in, that makes up our view of reality.
Are we filling ourselves with art? Uplifting wisdom? Information to help us heal ourselves and others? Love? Or information (misinformation?) meant to scare the living crap out of us, while leaving us disrespecting (and even hating) half of the population?
If one is watching most of the major news networks, regardless of whether they are conservative or liberal, one is largely ingesting the latter.
So just as with food and other choices, it is a good idea to objectively look at whether the news and information sources we choose are healthy and serve us. So, let’s do a simple risk-benefit assessment.
Why Do We Watch the News?
In elementary school, I remember getting gold stars on my forehead if I watched the news and stayed up-to-date on “Current Events.” Back in the days when news was more objective (at least I think it was), this made sense. It was good to know what was going on in the world. It helped us make informed decisions, important for citizens in a democracy. And we got approval for doing so. Simply put, it was the responsible thing to do.
Of course, in the United States, back in the 1950s and 1960s when I was a child, I knew that our news was accurate. Of course we also knew that the news supplied in countries like Russia was pure fabrication and propaganda. But not ours. As a child, I was smugly amazed as to why most Russians couldn’t tell that they were being fed a diet of informational rubbish. They couldn’t tell truth from propaganda.
I hate that generally whenever I find myself judging something, I end up becoming what I judged, and have to deal with it in myself. So now I have to separate truth from propaganda in my own life. My Politics? My politics is that I consider the right wing and left wing to be part of the same bird. Historically, and all around the planet today, most healthy societies are made up with about 40 percent of the population mostly in favor of tradition and stability (we call these conservative), 40 percent supporting change and growth (liberal), and about 20 percent in between. Think of it as the roots and trunk of the tree (conservative) and the growing leaves, flowers and fruits (liberal). A healthy tree must have a balance of both. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln, a house (or tree) divided against itself cannot stand. When the roots and crown of a tree start attacking each other, it bodes poorly for the tree. And unfortunately, I suspect no less poorly for our society and country.
What Has Changed?
With the rise of the internet, the print and TV media found itself on the edge of bankruptcy. It became desperate for advertising dollars and learned that it was very important to please not only their owners, but also the advertisers.
Is Media Reporting Accurate? Let’s Look at Health Care as One Example
What saved the media? The FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) legalized direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising in 1985. It especially took off in 1997 when rules on listing side effects were eased. Pharmaceutical advertising became the third largest source of advertising dollars. But this had unexpected consequences. The mainstream news media has simply been unwilling to report on anything that upsets the pharmaceutical industry.
For example, when two large BMJ meta-analyses of almost a million people showed that NSAIDs (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, e.g. ibuprofen) are associated with a 35-plus percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease, media reporting on these studies was minimal and buried. Despite this translating to about 50,000 excess U.S. deaths yearly (references and calculations available on request from [email protected]).
Meanwhile, studies that show natural remedies to be as or more effective than NSAIDs are either not reported on, or misrepresented as not showing effectiveness. One major paper had half of the front page and two full pages on a story about how bootlegged Mexican herbals that were laced with prescription medications may have caused a few deaths—and called for changes that would essentially eliminate herbals.
There is a good reason why the United States and New Zealand are the only two countries in the world that allow direct-to-consumer advertising of prescription drugs.
Is Mainstream Media Reporting on Prescription and Natural Remedies Really Biased?
Being in the media, I know many publishers and editors from well-known national magazines. What they have told me is that pharmaceutical advertising contracts often included little publicized agreements—stating that the magazine agree to carry nothing positive about natural remedies anywhere in that issue, or within a given number of pages from the pharmaceutical advertisement. The pharmaceutical advertising reps describe this as “looking for a good home for their advertisement.”
So when you see mainstream media reporting on natural remedies, you can now understand why, to put it kindly, they grossly misrepresent what the research shows. I suspect the higher placed editors that allow or kill articles, and assign the articles to the reporters, do so being heavily influenced by their pharmaceutical advertisers. I suspect they have been trained to the point where they no longer need these clauses in the contracts.
It is pretty clear that they realize that if they attack natural supplements (that compete with pharmaceuticals), and ignore (or with COVID attack) research on cheap generics they will get more advertising. And as a remarkable coincidence, research showing toxicity of pharmaceuticals seems to be ignored until the patent runs out.
Because I am intimately familiar with the research and also work with people in the media (and every one of them has been a wonderful human being), I can say first-hand that mainstream media health reporting is grossly inaccurate.
I have no reason to believe that their other reporting is any more accurate.
But Not the News I Watch!
My impression? The conservative media exercises the “storytellers’ prerogative” of embellishing the story (i.e. making stuff up) to make it more compelling and entertaining.
The liberal media makes a much more intellectually satisfying argument. They’re less likely to make up an overtly false fact. Instead, they simply leave out critical information, often resulting in a completely false impression. I consider this a more intellectually dishonest way of misleading people. Basically, both sides are reporting fiction.
“If I don’t read the news, I’m uninformed. If I do read the news, I’m misinformed?”
–Mark Twain
So What’s Wrong With Their Reporting Fiction?
Nothing, as long as it is healthy, and you are enjoying it. Personally, being a science fiction and fantasy aficionado, I prefer my fiction to be labeled as fiction. But a historical example of the problems that occur when this does not happen occurred when HG Wells reported his fictional work “The War of the Worlds,” about a Martian invasion of Earth, to be the news—triggering widespread riots and chaos.
Fear and Divisiveness Sell
It used to be when I was a child that if you wanted to sell a product, the advertisement showed a handsome man or a beautiful woman by the car or beer, and people would buy it. But this has changed to the advertising mantra being that “fear and divisiveness sells.” And making stuff up is now par for the course.
This has now been dramatically amplified in our politics and COVID-19.
The Health Costs?
We have been seeing a dramatic increase in anxiety and depression, as well as social divisiveness, as the media has used COVID-19 to scare people to death and increase the social divide. I would note that of course caution and wise decision-making in addressing this virus is essential.
The media “misrepresentation” of the truth on both sides from 2005 to 2017 has increased, while anxiety and depression among young adults increased by 63 percent. Since then, it has sharply increased further with COVID-19, increasing from 25 percent of our youth showing generalized anxiety to 40 percent. Meanwhile, drug overdose deaths increased by 20,000 Americans yearly. And violent crimes increased by 30 percent. I suspect that these represent the tip of the iceberg.
An alternative? A good model can be seen by looking at the bombing of London during World War II. The message put out was not “panic, we are all going to die!” Nor was it “nothing is happening.” Rather, the government and media put up messages on how to stay safe, along with the overriding message of “Keep Calm and Carry on.”
What to Do?
Begin by realizing that the mainstream media is no longer an accurate source of information. I don’t fault them for this. Their economic survival depends on doing so, and their jobs require their pleasing the media’s owner.
When possible, go to primary sources to gather information. It is okay to be comfortable with the realization that if we don’t know something first-hand, we simply don’t know.
Meanwhile, although they are excellent and well-meaning people, folks at the NIH (National Institutes of Health) and FDA, as well as our politicians, are no more immune to the economics than the media is. I find that to accurately guide those I treat and the public, I have to go to the primary research. And even this is no longer enough. I need to tear the data apart to see what it actually shows.
The Best Tai Chi Move Ever!
A good start at improving health for you and those you treat? Begin by simply starting to notice how you feel when watching news reporting. Do you feel better? Empowered? Or do you feel anxious and angry? If the latter, consider the following tai chi move.
Put your palms together in front of your heart. Take a big breath and center. Reach your arms far out to the side. Grab the remote, point it at the TV, and click OFF.
You will feel so much better!
A recognized authority on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia, Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum is medical director of the Fibromyalgia and Fatigue Centers nationally, and does phone consultations with CFS/fibromyalgia patients worldwide. He is the author of the popular iPhone application “Cures A-Z,” and author of the best-selling books From Fatigued to Fantastic! (4th revised edition, Avery/Penguin Group) and Pain Free 1-2-3—A Proven Program for Eliminating Chronic Pain Now (McGraw-Hill). His newest book is Beat Sugar Addiction NOW! (Fairwinds Press; 2010). Dr. Teitelbaum does frequent media appearances, including Good Morning America, CNN, Fox News Channel, the Dr. Oz Show and Oprah & Friends.
