Credibility: Look Who is Talking.

A few days ago I listened to a prominent personality giving some health related advice. After berating everyone and anyone who believes in the value of vitamins, and putting down doctors who see value in proper nutrition and supplements to our health, he continued giving some medical suggestions to those "in the dark." The conversation went something like this:

Q: But what to do if my doctor prescribed vitamins to me claiming that I need good nutrients for prenatal care?

A: There is no malnourishment in this country. Just use decent diet. I am not against or for vitamins. I look at science research data that most of you are not looking at. I read scientific journals that most people would not read.  I believe in science based medicine. If you see piles of vitamins in the doctor's office, walk out of there.

Next person brought up the issue with another condition. She claimed that she is in the medical field and that she did a thorough research and discovered that research scientists in several countries found some evidence that certain vitamins and nutrients do improve the condition.

To this the MD. responded like this: "I've seen it. I don't believe it." 
That's it. Case closed. Or is it?

I found this story amusing, disturbing, strange and enlightening, all at the same time. As always, I was left with more questions than answers. For example:

1. Should not we trust any scientists and researchers who conduct research abroad, if we choose just to "look" but not to thoroughly review and examine their research?

2. Is the argument "I've seen it. I don't believe it" scientific and thorough enough to pass for a credible medical advise?

3. Why some critics of those who do conduct research, produce, sell and consume vitamins and natural nutrients in the form of herbs are always so harsh (I am tempted to say here "narrow-minded" but I will not say it :-) )? What forces drive them to wage an all out war on nutrition and supplement industry? Who are they representing, what are their motives?

4. Why some doctors suggest taking vitamins, and others frown at the entire idea of vitamins and herbal supplements having any positive impact on our health and wellness?

I am taking NutriFeron®  for five years now. One could say  that after initially hearing about it, I could have experienced a so called placebo effect, and that's why I have not had any kind of flu for five years (I used to get sick every winter and at times even in spring since I was a kid.) Now, I take NutriFeron® without even giving it a second thought. It became a habit, a part of my daily routine. Could be that my continued good health is due to "placebo effect"? Or perhaps it is because of the medical scientist Dr. Kojima who spent many ears discovering the solution to boosting our immunity the natural way. Thanks to Dr. Kojima, there was no panic in our home neither when the bird flu, or swine flu, or any other kind of flu hit the population for the past five years. Specifically because I do understand importance and value of thorough scientific research, I am personally very grateful to Dr. Kojima for his lifetime's work and the extraordinary results of his scientific research.

Curious as I am, I looked at the credentials of the celebrity dispersing medical advise that morning as I described above. I am yet to find one research paper, or a book written by this person. I will abstain here from any more comments about his medical expertise, but to me personally, he is not a credible source of information. Even if spoken from a very prominent mouth, the argument about foreign scientists' research "I've seen it. I don't believe it" does not carry much weight as a credible scientific medical advise.

Listening to that program once again reminded me that we have to be very careful making decisions based on the "surface" information that keeps bombarding us every day from multiple directions. In my view, it is very important to take time to dig deeper, compare and contrast sources and make our own decisions based on trustworthy sources. It also helps to keep our minds open and apply logic and common sense when it comes to choosing the ways we keep ourselves and our families well.

I would like to hear your opinions and ideas regarding the issue of credibility of information.