Spotting False Claims: Tips for Identifying Prostate Cancer Misinformation
Spotting False Claims: Tips for Identifying Prostate Cancer Misinformation from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
While there are many helpful online resources to guide patients in a positive direction, false claims and advertisements about prostate cancer can add confusion. Dr. Alicia Morgans provides insight into how to identify misinformation.
Dr. Alicia Morgans is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.
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Transcript:
Dr. Alicia Morgans:
Some clues that may demonstrate that something is going to be riddled maybe with false claims or false promises would be if there are advertisements for medications that can cure prostate cancer on the computer.
Those medications are probably not real. And if they are, then they should be things that your doctor probably knows about. And so, I would certainly talk to your doctor about any supplements, any special nutrition or shakes or different things that make those claims. Because unfortunately, at this point, we in the medical community do not know of any herbs or spices that could cure prostate cancer. Certainly, there are things that people can take that may be useful and as long as they don’t interfere with the medicines that we’re using, or interact with them in a dangerous way, most doctors are completely okay with people taking them.
But anything that’s charging a lot of money and making really incredible claims is probably, unfortunately, just preying on people who are clearly vulnerable. And you need to be very careful that you’re not giving money away to things that are not real.