Living in a world of information flooding requires the proper navigation equipment. Imagine you’re riding a surging river over cataracts, eddies, and waterfalls. If you don’t have means and methods of sorting through the excessive propaganda, separating it from the truth, you will get sucked under the swirls and get bashed against the rocks. Starting with these 3 simple rules (plus a bonus rule) will keep you from rushing down the wrong half of the raging river into embarrassment or, much worse, a health problem.
We can start with a recent Facebook post accusing “anti-vaccine influencers” of being motivated by either a desire to sell something or simply being “anti” anything conventional. When first read, these accusations seems plausible, given the examples provided by the presumed medical professional. Health influencers are advertising supplements, therapies, and more, stuff that makes them money, besides hopefully providing health. The accuser also points out that these ‘anti’ influencers share an ideology: natural is always better. Obviously, those of us who offer alternatives and question the narrative are the problem, the whirlpool which the rafter should beware of.
Before we continue doom scrolling or report somebody to Facebook, apply these three rules to this propaganda in order to discern how to respond.
First: “Know what you know.” Of course, how could someone not know what they know? Well, when we face something like this post, we have several to not remember what we know. Emotions intrude. Frustration at the accusation, fear of being fooled, an hundreds more can cloud our logical evaluation. Pause, ask yourself if anything the person says contradicts evidence you have already evaluated and depend on. If the accusations are true, we’ve got a problem, but if they aren’t true and lack backing, we don’t have to be swayed by them. Here, we should recognize that even in their own logic, while they implicate all the influencers, they do so by asserting that most (not ‘all’) follow an ideology. They are playing your emotions to get to your mind.
Second, question them comprehensively before changing your mind or giving them an amen. Ask questions not only about what they are saying, but about them. Who are they? Do they have ulterior motives? In the case above, the accuser’s website is a blank page, and I haven’t been able to find their professional qualifications so far. Because I know that their overgeneralizations are not true, and do not know their qualification, I already have some doubts about their blanket statements. We are a society that is overinfluenced by sound bites, tweets, and one-liners. Don’t get pulled into the river rapids by loud-mouths.
Third, remember the oft-repeated and oft-applicable “Keep calm.” As you refresh your memory on what you know and question everything, keep calm and don’t make any sudden movements. You may want quick reflexes on a white water rafting trip, but making rash decisions based on sound bites about health decisions can get you in trouble fast. At best, it just ends with your head spinning between the hundreds of opinions available for each and every problem.
As you work out discernment, apply these three rules repeatedly, and you should avoid many emotional appeals and stay out of most trouble. In pursuing a healthier, more abundant life, we have to navigate a lot of rough waters. And the bonus rule comes in handy to remember: It’s almost never as simple as sound bites make it sound. We are wonderfully complex whole persons with body and spirit, fascinatingly interconnected systems functioning in a world of still-developing science. That means that neither conventional nor alternative medicine has all the answers or is right all the time.
Keep your rules in front of you and don’t let the sound bite knock you out of the raft.
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Sanctuary Functional Medicine, under the direction of Dr Eric Potter, IFMCP MD, provides functional medicine services to Nashville, Middle Tennessee and beyond. We frequently treat patients from Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Indiana, and more... offering the hope of healthier more abundant lives to those with chronic illness.
Dr. Eric Potter graduated from Vanderbilt Medical School and then went on to specialize in internal medicine (adult) and pediatric care, spending significant time and effort in growing his medical understanding while caring for patients from all walks of life.
