Eyeball those alarmist news stories with healthy pinch of salt



Ever received that email that’s done the rounds in the past few years about aluminium in deodorant causing breast cancer? Turns out it’s as bogus as Eva Longoria’s sex tape. There is no quality evidence that shows the use of antiperspirant deodorants is associated with or causes breast cancer, says BreastHealth. Emails are one thing, but even when the scary stats come from “official” sources, it pays to approach them with a dose of cynicism.

“It’s remarkably easy to exaggerate numbers or present them in a misleading way,” says Dr Lisa Schwartz, associate professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, US. To get perspective, she reckons, read the fine print (results based on a two-week study of five people are not exactly conclusive). And consider something called “absolute risk”: your overall chance of a certain thing happening to you. Let’s say, hypothetically, research finds that drinking beer doubles your risk of brain cancer. Sounds serious – but if your overall risk of getting the disease is only one in one million, then doubling that risk suddenly doesn’t seem so scary. If trying to decipher all the headlines has your head twirling, read on. We’ve taken a few of the latest reports and separated the facts from the fudged.

The pill causes breast cancer!
The claim Popping contraceptive pills before your first pregnancy increases the risk of breast cancer in women under 50 by 44 per cent.
The reality For adult women under 50, overall, only about 69 women per 100,000 will get breast cancer.
The takeaway If you take the pill, your chance of getting breast cancer between the ages of 20 and 49 is less than a tenth of one per cent. And other studies have found that pill users are less likely than non-pill users to develop colon or ovarian cancer.


Coffee and ciggies protect against disease!
The claim Smoking and drinking coffee may lower your risk for Parkinson’s disease.
The reality This finding came from what’s known as an observational study, meaning researchers were looking for common denominators among Parkinson’s patients as compared with non-Parkinson’s patients. In this case, subjects without the disease were more likely than their sick counterparts to smoke and swig Starbucks. That hardly means that those habits prevent Parkinson’s.
The takeaway In a study like this, it’s impossible to conclude whether the caffeine-and-nicotine habit really kept people healthy or the participants had something else in common that staved off the disease.


The cervical cancer vaccine causes paralysis!
The claim The vaccine Gardasil, which is free for women under 26, has caused nausea, dizziness, hallucinations or paralysis in 496 Australians.
The reality In Australia, 2.2 million women have been administered Gardasil. Its creator, Professor Ian Frazer says, "If 17 girls a week have been reported as having adverse reactions amongst 2.2 million women in Australia immunised to date, that sounds like a pretty small rate to me." And extreme side effects like the ones listed here are found on many prescription drug leaflets: antibiotics (nausea), antidepressants (dizziness) and sleeping tablets (hallucinations).
The takeaway You have a one in 4400 chance of experiencing side effects, but a one in 183 chance of developing cervical cancer. Is it worth risking cancer over the small chance you may experience one of four side effects?


Prozac could harm your unborn baby!
The claim Taking antidepressants when you’re pregnant adds to the risk of birth defects.
The reality That’s partly true – taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has been associated with some abnormalities. But those problems are so rare to begin with that the increase in risk is negligible.
The takeaway Any pregnancy carries about a three per cent risk of birth defects; if you take an antidepressant you add to that risk by less than one per cent.