Lifestyle is key to best health

Health law and policy expert Timothy Caulfield has spent almost 20 years analyzing scientific issues related to health policy. At the University of Alberta, he teaches biotechnology in the law faculty and is the editor for the Health Law Journal and Health Law Review. Here are interview excerpts: Q: How are health messages "twisted by researchers, the media and industry" making it hard for the average person to live a healthy lifestyle? A: Researchers are under tremendous pressure to make their work sound both sexy and immediately applicable. And there is a natural tendency to be excited about your research. The research institutions often amplify this enthusiasm. University press releases, for example, will take an animal study and speculate how it applies in humans. Some basic science study done on a mouse is portrayed as a potential cure for cancer. The media take the hype a step further by simplifying the message to make it an easily digestible news story. And once industry is involved, the marketing machines kick in. It really is a cycle of hype. The key is to not get fooled by it. True scientific breakthroughs are tremendously rare.

Times Tribune - 26 September 2012