Who Do I Trust For Health Related Info? (PART TWO)

(PART TWO)

When it comes to my health, and the health of my family, it is important to me that I have reliable, factual information. So based on the principles of Part One I feel the following sources provides this:

• National Institute of Health (NIH)
• MedlinePlus
• My personal primary healthcare provider (thanks Kristin!)
• Professional Medical Organizations (American Heart Association, Red Cross, etc.)

Who/what do I generally mistrust for health information:

• News organization, especially those known to politically weaponize health information or who sensationalize things
• "Mommy Bloggers" and/or the individuals who target "Mommy Bloggers" - You know that person in your neighborhood dubbed the "gossip queen?" She always has lots of "friends" because she needs people to tell her gossip too. Now put the queen and her friends all online and make it a worldwide connection with other queens and her friends and things get very scary. They don't necessarily have to be mothers or even female, but I feel this is the briefest way I can communicate those that make up this group.
• Statements of a single "Dr" that I do not personally know
• Statement on health that use the following buzzwords: "easy, fast, revolutionary, brand new, alternative, the best way..." or any other marketing sounding words.
• Websites that use a mocking tone that believing such and such is crazy
• Most memes 

Some friends I know feel their are people in the government conspiring for power and money. It is possible that some people are, but overall government health agencies actually have a pretty good track record of improving our health. Sure, you could find mistakes health agencies have made, biased people, and probably the occasional corruption, but compared to what they have gotten right I feel it is more likely you will find good health advice from the government than from other sources. Why? Because they sue the scientific method and employ similar requirements as those in my Part One post.

Sure it is possible evil people have infiltrated the government and 1,000s of people are in on some kind of secret to make us all unhealthier. If the conspiracy is so bad that evil people have taken over, then none of us really stand a chance. 

Or maybe it could it be that good-meaning people in health agencies have accidentally been blinded and that is preventing them from seeing the good in "alternative" health practices. To this I answer with "I think not." This is based on that fact that places like the NIH will accept health science studies from all kinds of sources.

(Please note - I intentionally chose to leave the spiritual/religious out of this post. I do believe in the power of the spiritual, including guidance from modern and ancient prophets on physical health, but for brevity reasons chose to emphasize other things.)