You can’t believe a darn thing

Ever since the news that Santa is a myth came out in the Journal of My Older Brother’s Big Mouth, I have been a little touchy when things I believe in get run over by scientific evidence to the contrary.

That being the case, the week of Feb. 12 was a bad one for me and millions of other Americans trying to stave off the ravages of older age; new medical studies came out suggesting calcium with vitamin D is not that good at preventing osteoporosis, low-fat diets in women over 50 don’t prevent breast cancer or colon cancer, the popular herbal remedy saw palmetto does not shrink aging prostates (that really hurt), and the herbal remedies glucosamine and chondroitin don’t help most people with arthritis pain.

As I recently asked the Easter Bunny after we pondered the latest news and what makes for a superior carrot, “Now what the heck do I believe?”

What indeed? The four studies were the latest in a slew of studies over the last several years that have left many Americans wondering whether they can believe anything scientists and physicians tell them about how to stay healthy. It seems as though everything they are told gets shot down by some new study a few years after they start doing it.

In addition to the shattering news about calcium and vitamin D, studies in the last five years have shot down estrogen as a wonder drug, showed that a high-fiber diet may not prevent colon cancer, debunked several vitamins as cancer “preventers,” flushed several popular diets as no better than any other diets for losing weight, and raised doubts about reducing dietary fat as a way to prevent heart disease. If the trend continues it is only a matter of time before some study disproves what I have been telling my wife for years, that more tools help a guy live longer (just look at Noah, honey!).

The problem with this scientific see-saw is two-fold. First, when advice physicians have been giving to patients for years turns out to be wrong, especially advice we told them is really, really important (vitamin D and calcium, for example), physicians seem less credible when they advise patients about healthy behaviors.

Second, it leaves many patients thinking it is pointless to do anything the medical community says is healthy because some study suggesting that activity is a waste of time is probably just around the corner. It provides support for those who want to do nothing. We all know that is just an excuse to sit on our cans and eat what we want while we rot at high speed and high cost, and there is never going to be a study that proves sitting around doing nothing is the way to live a long and healthy life, but inconsistency in the science of health supports tendencies to inertia in life.

If all of this contradictory science leaves you confused, take my advice despite how many times it has been proven wrong; when what we all thought gets turned into scientific road kill by the latest and greatest study, don’t worry. In fact, celebrate these events. For in the end, the road to progress and understanding must be littered with the carcasses of what we once thought was true if we are to discover what truth really is.

The scientific processes which produced the disappointing news about calcium and vitamin D are the processes of endless study of what we think is true that proved physicians should wash their hands between patients, produced penicillin and the polio vaccine and showed cigarettes are smoked death. Every myth the scientific process exposes as the wrong answer brings us closer to the right answer.

Sometimes these studies tell us where to quit wasting our time and money. Americans spend almost $2 billion annually on the herbal remedies of saw palmetto for enlarging prostates, and chondroitin and glucosamine for arthritis pain. The new studies suggest that for those patients taking these unproven remedies and not feeling a clear improvement in their symptoms, their money can be better spent elsewhere – eye of newt, for example.

Physicians know that what we believe today often does not survive tomorrow’s study in the New England Journal of Medicine. That is one reason physicians are reluctant to embrace the latest and greatest piece of medical news into their practice (another reason is we tend to be fuddy-duddies).

The public should not be any different from the physicians in this respect. None of us should jump on the bandwagons of the latest diet, the latest medical news, the latest miracle cure. None of us should expect miracle cures for the big problems of heart disease, cancer and aging. None of us should panic when what we were doing because it seemed to be a good idea and our physicians told us to do it today gets junked tomorrow. And none of us should turn our lifestyles on a dime when some study comes out suggesting something we are not doing is not the perfect answer.

Rather, we should stick instead with what we know about staying healthy, and in particular with the fundamentals of good health that have withstood the test of time and repeated study. Those fundamentals remain: eat a diet high in vegetables and fruit, exercise at least five times a week for at least 30 minutes each, maintain a healthy weight, wear your seat belt, don’t smoke, look both ways before crossing and be nice to your mother.

If all of us do all of that, then by comparison nothing else matters too much, and on the long haul to healthier lives the next casualty of good science churning on is just another whump in the road. And if it all just really ticks you off, go for a nice, healthy walk – studies have shown it is good for you, and always will.

Erik Steele, D.O., a physician in Bangor, is chief medical officer of Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems and is on the staff of several hospital emergency rooms in the region.