The Top 5 Bogus Public Health Scares

Reason ^ | August 9, 2013 | Ronald Bailey

[neverdem]

How activist misinformation wastes time, money, and harms Americans

DavulcuHealth activists, nutrition nannies, medical paternalists, and just plain old quacks regularly conjure up a variety of menaces that are supposedly damaging the health of Americans. Their scares ranging from the decades-long campaign against fluoridation to worries that saccharin causes cancer to the ongoing hysteria over biotech crops to fears of lead in lipstick. The campaigners’ usual “solution” is to demand that regulators ban the offending substance or practice. Here are five especially egregious examples.

5. Americans should consume no more than 1,500 milligrams of sodium per day, in order to reduce everybody's risk of heart disease, strokes, and high blood pressure.

You hear this one all the time. The American Heart Association recommends consuming less than 1,500 milligrams of sodium a day. A June 2013 report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest asserted(PDF) that "Immediately reducing average sodium consumption levels to between 2,200 mg to 1,500 mg per day would save about 700,000 to 1.2 million lives over 10 years." These nutrition nannies have been urging the U.S. government to lower the upper limit of daily recommended sodium intake to just two-thirds of a teaspoon of salt.

A May 2013 study by the Institute of Medicine calls those recommendations into question. Contrary to years of anti-salt dogma, consuming less than 2,300 milligrams of sodium a day may actually harm people suffering from congestive heart failure. There was also "no evidence for benefit and some evidence suggesting risk of adverse health outcomes" if the person with a low-salt diet has diabetes, chronic kidney disease, or pre-existing cardiovascular disease. "The evidence on health outcomes," the report concluded, "is not consistent with efforts that encourage lowering of dietary sodium in the general population to 1,500 milligrams per day."

Ximagination4. Vaccines cause autism.

In 1998 the British researcher Andrew Wakefield claimed in The Lancet that he had identified an association between vaccination against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) and the onset of autism. Thus was launched one of the more destructive health scares of recent years, in which tens of thousands of frightened parents refused to have their children vaccinated. Anti-vaccine cheerleaders such as the actress Jenny McCarthy fanned those fears.

Years of research and numerous studies have thoroughly debunked this scare. For example, the Institute of Medicine issued a 2011 report, "Adverse Effects of Vaccines(PDF)," that found no association between MMR vaccination and autism. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agrees that "there is no relationship between vaccines containing thimerosal and autism rates in children." The Lancet finally retracted the infamous Wakefield study in 2010. Also in 2010, Britain's General Medical Council banned Wakefield from the practice of medicine(PDF) after concluding that his paper had been not just inaccurate but dishonest.

Phartisan3. Cell phone use causes cancer.

The fear here is that radio frequency waves emitted by cellular phones are associated with higher risk of various brain cancers. One anecdotal report even suggested that women who secreted their cell phones in their bras were more likely to get breast cancer.

It is true that in 2011 the hyper-precautionary International Agency for Research on Cancer classified cell phones as a "possible carcinogen." But as a somewhat snarky response(PDF) in the Journal of Carcinogenesispointed out, the agency classifies coffee and pickles as possible carcinogens, too. Meanwhile, the National Cancer Institute flatly states that "to date there is no evidence from studies of cells, animals, or humans that radiofrequency energy can cause cancer." A 2012 comprehensive review of studies in the journal Bioelctromagnetics found "no statistically significant increase in risk for adult brain or other head tumors from wireless phone use."

Sfmthd2. High fructose corn syrup is responsible for the obesity "epidemic."

This particular scare was launched by a 2004 article in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which noted, "The increased use of HFCS in the United States mirrors the rapid increase in obesity." The authors pointed out that American consumption of HFCS had increased by more than 1,000 percent between 1970 and 1990, and they estimated that Americans consumed an average of 132 kilocalories of HFCS per day. Digesting fructose, they suggested, failed to send signals to brain to tell people to stop eating.

Since this scare was unleashed, a lot of research has investigated many different hypotheses about how HCFS might be worse for people than table sugar (sucrose). Most have turned up nothing significant.

A 2012 review article in the journal Advances in Nutrition(PDF) summarized this research: "a broad scientific consensus has emerged that there are no metabolic or endocrine response differences between HFCS and sucrose related to obesity or any other adverse health outcome. This equivalence is not surprising given that both of these sugars contain approximately equal amounts of fructose and glucose, contain the same number of calories, possess the same level of sweetness, and are absorbed identically through the gastrointestinal tract." Another 2012 review article, in the Journal of Obesity, concluded, "In the past decade, a number of research trials have demonstrated no short-term differences between HFCS and sucrose in any metabolic parameter or health related effect measured in human beings including blood glucose, insulin, leptin, ghrelin and appetite."

So if HFCS is not to blame for the fattening up of Americans, what is? How about pigging out? The U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that in 1970 Americans consumed an average of 2,169 calories per day. In 2010, the figure was about 2,614. Sweeteners such as sugar and HFCS provided only 42 of this 445-calorie increase.

mrreporter1. Exposure to trace amounts of synthetic chemicals is a major cause of cancer.

Rachel Carson's passionate 1962 book Silent Spring warned that we "are living in a sea of carcinogens." More recently, a 2010 report issued by the President's Cancer Panel(PDF) declared, "The true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated."

But is that so? As the American Cancer Society's Cancer Facts & Figures 2013(PDF) notes, "Exposure to carcinogenic agents in occupational, community, and other settings is thought to account for a relatively small percentage of cancer deaths—about 4% from occupational exposures and 2% from environmental pollutants (man-made and naturally occurring)." The same group rejected the President's Cancer Panel's conclusion as well, arguing that it "does not represent scientific consensus."

In fact, at the same time human ingenuity has been generating all these useful synthetic compounds, both cancer incidence and death rates have been falling. While Cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States, a 2013 report by the National Cancer Institute confirms that overall cancer death rates continue to decline, and that over the past decade the incidence of cancer continues to fall for men and holds steady for women.

Once a bogus health alarm has been launched, more careful researchers must waste years and tens of millions of dollars battling the misinformation. In the meantime, worried Americans actually harm their health by refusing to get their kids vaccinated, or squander their money on such items as “chemical-free” products. Scaremongering, unfortunately, can be both lucrative and a source of gratifying media attention, so it's not likely to go away anytime soon.

[neverdem]

Another 2012 review article, in the Journal of Obesity, concluded, "In the past decade, a number of research trials have demonstrated no short-term differences between HFCS and sucrose in any metabolic parameter or health related effect measured in human beings including blood glucose, insulin, leptin, ghrelin and appetite."

That's not long term.

Fructose is primarily delivered to and metabolized in the liver for energy and for two and three carbon precursor production without dependence on insulin.

Total sugar content was calculated as well as percent fructose in the beverages that use HFCS(55) as the sole source of fructose. Results showed that the total sugar content of the beverages ranged from 85 to 128% of what was listed on the food label. The mean fructose content in the HFCS used was 59% (range 47-65%) and several major brands appear to be produced with HFCS that is 65% fructose.

Consuming fructose-sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans. Visceral adiposity means belly fat.

HFCS started being used as a sweetener in soft drinks in the early 1970s in the U.S. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease started being diagnosed about a decade later.

[dirtboy]

I do know that consuming high-fructose corn sweetener cleans me out like Tid-Y-Bowl.

[null and void]

No it doesn’t. There’s study after study that says it metabolizes just like sugar.

[Defiant]

Number one of all time is the DDT ban. Hundreds of millions of dead people from that one.

[dirtboy]

Sorry. I know what it does to me. It gives me gas something fierce. Sorry that ain’t good enough evidence for you.

[LongWayHome]

I like, and agree with the article. I don’t buy into HFCS scaremongering.

[jdege]

#1 health fraud - saturated fat causes heart disease.

[mountn man]

White Castles do it for me.

[goodwithagun]

But, but, but the corn lobby! And their government subsidized studies! And their government subsidized farming! Who are you going to believe? Them or your lying eyes?

[goodwithagun]

The hospital in which I had my first child provided me with a nutritional consult before I was discharged. She walked me through the finer points of “nutrition,” during which she encouraged massive amounts of grain and low-fat “health food” options. She particularly went over low-fat dairy when I told her formula was not an option, gushed over the fact that I planned to nurse, and the lectured me like I was a child on the different types of fats. Her head almost exploded when she finished warning me about sat fats and I asked her why it was then a component of breast milk. I thought smoke was going to come out of her ears.

[dirtboy]

You LIE!!!

Quit being a jerk. I know my own body. I know what that stuff does to me. Mainly, gives me gas like the Marcellus Shale.

[PA Engineer]

Number one of all time is the DDT ban. Hundreds of millions of dead people from that one.

My nearby idiot city named a bridge after rachel carson. This is where the EPA sharpened it's control tentacles.

[null and void]

Go back and read the post again, please?

Pay particular attention to paragraphs 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

[musicman]

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[dirtboy]

Seriously. Give it up. I know what that stuff does to me. If you cannot deal with that fact, stuff it.

[driftless2]

"head almost exploded"

I talked to a nutritionist a year ago, and of course she asked me about my diet. Did I eat any eggs was one thing she asked me. I told her, yes, I occasionally eat eggs. She asked how many. I told her four or five at a time. Talk about heads exploding. The fact that I only have eggs about once a month or longer was not enough to calm her down. I was in danger of imminent collapse from a heart attack. However, as you can read, I'm still alive. And eggs this weekend sounds mighty inviting.

[goodwithagun]

Black Agnes and I get flamed all the time when we discuss what certain foods do to our children. The “scientists” show up and point out studies to prove us wrong. To paraphrase another FReeper (if I remember who I will give him/her all due credit), if it wasn’t for science being wrong there would be no science.

[relictele]

As usual, the gay community didn’t police itself when AIDS became a killer and instead ‘heterosexual AIDS’ was the cause célèbre especially with a high profile case like Magic Johnson.

Except the epidemic predicted never happened, condoms or no condoms. Rather than admire heterosexuals’ good fortune, the militant gays attacked anyone who pointed out the myth.

[lightman]

Hey, nutritionist, life is fatal—may as well enjoy it while you can!