Posted by IsoM on March 28, 2002, at 19:45:54
In reply to Re: Seratonin, Prozac and Cancer - isoM, posted by colin wallace on March 28, 2002, at 11:40:41
It's not necessarily the scientists involved that make these leaps of extrapolation. News services have science reporters scouring the scientific community for any new post or supposed breakthrough, especially in health & medicine. It can often enough be the reporters have do the extrapolation. To be a science reporter, you need to have a science background of some sort, but it may not be in the area they're reporting about. They often enthusiastically put one & one together to get four themselves.
Case in point was the shark cartilage & cancer & arthritis. It wasn't the scientists involved in the research that led to the conclusions fostered by health food faddists that shark cartilage cures or improves the two condtitions. It was the reporters. As the researchers involved said, the molecules are too large to be absorbed through the digestive tract, & how sharks managed cancer MAY give hints on how to manage it. Thing is, it's now be shown that sharks do get cancer.
Just an example of how a new discovery can get blown out of all proportions or truth. Any new discovery is often just one more link in a chain of information leading to any true "breakthroughs".
poster:IsoM
thread:100528
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020327/msgs/100811.html