It’s one thing to believe in something entirely harmless.
But health myths often aren’t harmless: they can trick you out of your money, or even worse, cause you and others physical harm.
Here are some health myths we need to stop believing in. It’s time.
Vaccines cause autism
Let’s just get this one out of the way. In 2010, the Lancet retracted a 12-year-old paper by Andrew Wakefield that claimed a link between the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine and autism.
Scientists had long been questioning the study, saying his sample size was too small and they couldn’t replicate the findings. It also came out that Wakefield carefully selected the children on whom he reported, and some of his research was funded by lawyers who were acting for parents suing vaccine manufacturers.
He’s since lost his medical licence.
Unfortunately, the damage was done. Measles has made a huge comeback, with current outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, the Philippines, Greece and many, many other countries.
In early December, the World Health Organization said more than 140,000 people worldwide died from measles in 2018, something the organization’s director general called an “outrage.”
And despite lots of research, scientists have been unable to find any link between vaccines and autism. Study after study, including one this year that involved nearly every child born in Denmark over an 11-year period, has shown that there is no link between the two.
This belief hasn’t gone away though, and it’s time it did.
Vaping is risk-free
As of Dec. 4, 2019, 2,291 Americans have been hospitalized due to some kind of illness that may be related to their vaping habit, the Centers for Disease Control reported. Forty-eight people have died.
Thirteen cases of vaping-related illness have been reported in Canada as of Dec. 3.
It’s still unclear exactly what is causing the problem. Recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration suggested it’s a chemical called vitamin E acetate that could be found in certain liquids, especially ones containing THC, one of the active ingredients in cannabis.
Public health officials have since told people not to vape if they’re not already smokers and have been expressing alarm at the activity’s popularity among teenagers.
There’s one important thing to note here: vaping is definitely safer than smoking. Around 45,000 deaths are linked to smoking every year in Canada, according to a study by the Conference Board of Canada. So far, no deaths in Canada have been linked to vaping.
Just because something is safer than smoking doesn’t make it good, though. Since smoking is one of the riskiest things you can do to your health, pretty much everything is safer than smoking.
Rest will help your back pain
It won’t. This goes for neck pain, too — several studies have now found that regular, gentle exercise is the best way to get back on your feet when you have lower back pain or neck pain.
Bed rest is about the worst thing you can do, Doug Gross, a professor of physical therapy at the University of Alberta who co-authored a major study published in the Lancet.
Regular exercise can also help to prevent back pain in the first place, he said.
Unfortunately, his research showed that even clinicians often suggest someone stay home and rest until they’re pain-free.
Prescription painkillers are also not a great idea: some studies have shown that opioids aren’t any better than ordinary Tylenol or Advil when it comes to treating back pain and can come with added side effects and a risk of addiction.
Cannabis can cure everything
Cannabis is legal now, and that means the drug and its derivatives, like cannabidiol (CBD), are in all kinds of products that claim to help you relax, dull anxiety symptoms, relieve pain and more.
The problem is, from a scientific point of view, we just don’t know if these things are true.
Because cannabis was illegal for so long, there wasn’t much medical research on its properties. We haven’t done the studies, experts say, so we don’t know all that much about what cannabis does and doesn’t do.
Earlier this year, a literature review came to more or less that conclusion about using cannabis or CBD to help treat anxiety and depression: doctors definitely don’t know enough to be recommending it as a general treatment, and there is even some evidence that it might be harmful for these conditions.
Don’t worry, though — researchers are definitely on the case. Two major research centres have been set up at McMaster University and McGill University in the last little while, and lots of people across the country are looking into the medical potential of cannabis.
Some Ontario doctors have started offering a free shot that can protect babies from respiratory syncytial virus while Quebec will begin its immunization program next month.
The new shot called Nirsevimab gives babies antibodies that provide passive immunity to RSV, a major cause of serious lower respiratory tract infections for infants and seniors, which can cause bronchiolitis or pneumonia.
Ontario’s ministry of health says the shot is already available at some doctor’s offices in Ontario with the province’s remaining supply set to arrive by the end of the month.
Quebec will begin administering the shots on Nov. 4 to babies born in hospitals and delivery centers.
Parents in Quebec with babies under six months or those who are older but more vulnerable to infection can also book immunization appointments online.
The injection will be available in Nunavut and Yukon this fall and winter, though administration start dates have not yet been announced.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
-With files from Nicole Ireland
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Polio cases are rising ahead of a new vaccination campaign in Pakistan, where violence targeting health workers and the police protecting them has hampered years of efforts toward making the country polio-free.
Since January, health officials have confirmed 39 new polio cases in Pakistan, compared to only six last year, said Anwarul Haq of the National Emergency Operation Center for Polio Eradication.
The new nationwide drive starts Oct. 28 with the aim to vaccinate at least 32 million children. “The whole purpose of these campaigns is to achieve the target of making Pakistan a polio-free state,” he said.
Pakistan regularly launches campaigns against polio despite attacks on the workers and police assigned to the inoculation drives. Militants falsely claim the vaccination campaigns are a Western conspiracy to sterilize children.
Most of the new polio cases were reported in the southwestern Balochistan and southern Sindh province, following by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and eastern Punjab province.
The locations are worrying authorities since previous cases were from the restive northwest bordering Afghanistan, where the Taliban government in September suddenly stopped a door-to-door vaccination campaign.
Afghanistan and Pakistan are the two countries in which the spread of the potentially fatal, paralyzing disease has never been stopped. Authorities in Pakistan have said that the Taliban’s decision will have major repercussions beyond the Afghan border, as people from both sides frequently travel to each other’s country.
The World Health Organization has confirmed 18 polio cases in Afghanistan this year, all but two in the south of the country. That’s up from six cases in 2023. Afghanistan used a house-to-house vaccination strategy this June for the first time in five years, a tactic that helped to reach the majority of children targeted, according to WHO.
Health officials in Pakistan say they want the both sides to conduct anti-polio drives simultaneously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people with private health insurance would be able to pick up over-the-counter methods like condoms, the “morning after” pill and birth control pills for free under a new rule the White House proposed on Monday.
Right now, health insurers must cover the cost of prescribed contraception, including prescription birth control or even condoms that doctors have issued a prescription for. But the new rule would expand that coverage, allowing millions of people on private health insurance to pick up free condoms, birth control pills, or “morning after” pills from local storefronts without a prescription.
The proposal comes days before Election Day, as Vice President Kamala Harris affixes her presidential campaign to a promise of expanding women’s health care access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to undo nationwide abortion rights two years ago. Harris has sought to craft a distinct contrast from her Republican challenger, Donald Trump, who appointed some of the judges who issued that ruling.
“The proposed rule we announce today would expand access to birth control at no additional cost for millions of consumers,” Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Bottom line: women should have control over their personal health care decisions. And issuers and providers have an obligation to comply with the law.”
The emergency contraceptives that people on private insurance would be able to access without costs include levonorgestrel, a pill that needs to be taken immediately after sex to prevent pregnancy and is more commonly known by the brand name “Plan B.”
Without a doctor’s prescription, women may pay as much as $50 for a pack of the pills. And women who delay buying the medication in order to get a doctor’s prescription could jeopardize the pill’s effectiveness, since it is most likely to prevent a pregnancy within 72 hours after sex.
If implemented, the new rule would also require insurers to fully bear the cost of the once-a-day Opill, a new over-the-counter birth control pill that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved last year. A one-month supply of the pills costs $20.
Federal mandates for private health insurance to cover contraceptive care were first introduced with the Affordable Care Act, which required plans to pick up the cost of FDA-approved birth control that had been prescribed by a doctor as a preventative service.
The proposed rule would not impact those on Medicaid, the insurance program for the poorest Americans. States are largely left to design their own rules around Medicaid coverage for contraception, and few cover over-the-counter methods like Plan B or condoms.
