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35 People Who Decided To Spread Their Medical ‘Knowledge’ And Got Shamed Over It Online
Traveling medicine shows and questionable or even harmful "medical remedies" may seem like a thing of the past, but there's plenty of its 21st-century iterations.
While MLM marketers are not promoting tonics of cocaine or opium, they are trying to convince people that essential oils will cure cancer.
Obvious pyramid-scheme nonsense aside, plenty of people on social media for some reason think of themselves as doctors and spread ignorance to whoever will listen. Just don't let all that BS seep into your brain. Instead, try to laugh at their ignorance; it can be quite funny!
Just scroll through the Twitter account Bad Medical Takes. It shares user-submitted screenshots of some of the most ridiculous misconceptions "online health professionals" have to offer. Here are some of them!
This post may include affiliate links.
General practitioner, medical researcher, and founder of PrimeHealth Clinical Research, Iris Gorfinkel, M.D., told Bored Panda that social media and the Internet are not a one-size-fits-all. "On the one hand, it improves patient education and can improve public health. It brings people together who are in very wide apart places, so it overcomes geographical barriers... It's a tremendous educational tool for patients," Gorfinkel said.
Yes, it promotes awareness and encourages patient engagement, and it can provide quality information. But at the same time, people are searching online for the next big thing. "So what is more likely to be shared?", the doctor asked metaphorically. What is novel, she immediately answered. Or what is unusual.
Gorfinkel also pointed out a study done in 2018, published in Science by three MIT scholars, which found that falsehoods are 70% more likely to be retweeted on Twitter than truth. It also discovered that it took the truth about six times as long as falsehood to reach 1,500 people. This proves that falsehoods are simply alluring.
But even if many of us know not to trust what uncle Bobby is saying about vaccines on his Facebook page (I hope), reading a scientific paper can be really challenging and time-consuming. "I think there are some websites that are fairly trusted," Gorfinkel said. "Medscape, for example, tries to bring information to people in their own language. It's not perfect, but it is available in German, Portuguese, Spanish, and French. Then there's WebMD, MedlinePlus, Drugs.com. There's a whole bunch of these websites that are actually quite good."
For the so-called orphan conditions — diseases that are so rare, there isn't enough resources on them — Gorfinkel suggested Orpha.net.
What. The. Actual. F**k. This person needs to get their brain (assuming they have one) out of the 1700s and into the 2000s.
That’s really insulting to people of the 1700s, comparing him to them.
Load More Replies...why should any virgin willingly have sex, if they can't be aroused? maybe the point his he can not arouse any woman and whishes there was a reason that is nit him being him?
Because you are a virgin until you meet your husband, who is the only one who has the power to turn you on.
Load More Replies...Right. We have a special dial for getting turned "on" or "off" and our husbands only get the access code with the marriage certificate. 🤦♀️
Nah, they'd track him down when he reincarnates as an anglerfish.
Load More Replies...I think the true fact of the matter is that no woman can experience sexual arousal around him...
Those go hand in hand. Hand in hand through their... Parklife.
Load More Replies...Or any more "wacko" variants of Abrahamic religion, really.
Load More Replies...I think he is confused between woman and the brand new woman toy he for shipped, to be turned on and boot up once ready for use.
Well, nobody told 14y old female me that, back when I discovered what an organism feels like.
The Victorians actually believed that a woman never got aroused until her wedding night, and that when that happened it proved she married the right person! Unbelievable but true
That's interesting. Do you happen to know what happened if the woman didn't get aroused?
Load More Replies...Ok stop covering the names of the idiots. Please tell me someone educated this fool
So...you're saying a woman's body will just 'know' she got married and it flips a switch that allows her to enjoy sex for her husband's sake? That answer "doesn't make any sense whatsoever."
The old joke goes something like: If brains were dynamite he couldn't blow his nose.
Wow you shouldn't speak. At least till you learn diapers go on you butt and not your head.
I think this is part of the explanation his wife gave his as to why it's okay to be in the bed with her trainer.
I'd pay a million for said book to be highly dense and also have me smack the halves together.
Load More Replies...JHC. There's not a typo in the whole damn thing. This is an actual "intellectual" person thinking this.
Sometimes I wish there was a minimum intelligence requirement for breathing...
Go back through the time warp, you aren't wanted in this day and age.
Tell me you've never had a girlfriend for more than a month without actually telling me that.
What Planet does that guy come from,or is he on day release from the Funny Farm.
I wanted to make a comment on this, but my brains just exploded. I am dead.
But the bible says god created Eve to be a partner, a "helpmeet" to Adam. There was no thought of reproduction because they were functionally immortal until they were kicked out of the Garden.
Im a virgin and Im very horny nearly every day (obviously not that one time a month, but you get my point).
You make it sound like anyone wants to be within 100,000 meters of him.
Load More Replies...I'm shooting Pepsi out of my nose rn from choking on my damn soda over here!
reading these posts.....migraine time! There are people like this in the world? Where? Remind me not to drive through these areas...
the explanation to this virgin, does not make any sense whatso ever!
At least it was a polite way to inform you of their stupid. Makes it easier to avoid them.
If you are still concerned about the validity of a certain piece, you will probably have to inspect it yourself.
What is to stop any doctor or professor from writing an opinion piece? Nothing, but this is where peer reviews come into play. "That's where other doctors and professors who have nothing to gain from what's published, look at the paper and say, 'Yes, this is actually true.' So look for things that are peer-reviewed, look for at least an editorial board. Again, that's a safeguard to prevent any one person's opinion from becoming a fact because peer reviews and editorial boards keep doctors in line in terms of making sure that what is said is accurate," Gorfinkel explained.
The sources that Gorfinkel mentioned earlier, like WebMD, publish some research studies that require huge funding. So looking at the funding source matters too — is there a conflict of interest?
It is such a pity because it is a technically very accomplished tattoo.
Of course, when a particular paper was written is important as well because, as Gorfinkel highlighted, what may have been relevant, say for COVID-19, even in 2020 is, for the most part, not relevant at all in 2021.
Generally, when you notice medical information online, it's probably best to approach it with caution. "If there is a promise of a miracle cure, that should ring alarm bells big time," Gorfinkel said. "A lot of complex problems, including depression, anxiety, hair loss, acne; a lot of these problems are actually complicated, and they don't have one single solution. This is especially true when things promise very quick answers, and often at a price."
It's always a good idea to run these ideas by either your family doctor or a pharmacist before investing in them.
Doctor Gorfinkel also added a very important piece of information: the United States and Canada do not monitor natural products. "Whether or not it's made in trusted countries, understand that they generally will fall under a separate category that does not have to fulfill the requirements of standard drugs."
This can become a problem because there's really nothing to stop natura-ceuticals and that includes the entire vitamin industry and the mineral industry. "There is no one to police what's in that stuff. And for the most part, there's no one there to pull it off the shelves," Gorfinkel explained.
"Moreover, these products tend to be some of the highest profit margin products available in stores. Often, they're placed right next to the normal pharmacy so that people can 'self-medicate.' But much of that has no evidence base whatsoever."
Because no one's watching, the potential for having these products adulterated with potentially toxic elements is very high. This is true for the probiotics industry as well as the prebiotics industry.
"I don't think people realize what's happening," Gorfinkel said. "There was a study done in the United States where they went into Walmart, and pulled off natura-ceuticals just off the shelf, and found that there was no correlation between what was on the label and what was actually in the bottle."
When experts checked probiotics in Toronto (this was the Department of Family Practice at the St. Michael's Hospital), they just took 12 random things off the shelf, gave them to the microbiology lab, and found the same: no correlation between what was promised to be in the bottle and what was actually in the bottle.
"So if there are promises that sound too good to be true, bottom line, they probably are," Gorfinkel said. And this sadly applies to more than just online medical takes.
Was this tweeted in 1860 or something? Cause, boy, have I got news for you, Andrea.
Do incels post everywhere, or is there just an alarming number of them?
wait until you find out that you can die from badly infected and untreated teeth
WT absolute F? I feel sorry for her daughters having such a hateful, uninformed mother. And poor Taylor Swift, not that I think she would have seen this, but it reminds me of Ellen trying to shame her about her rumoured relationships, and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
It's an unpopular opinion because most people have a post dark ages level of education.
The fact that women don't go into shock during natural childbirth pretty much blows his theory out of the water.
Personally I would take a woman with a big brain over big boobs any day. Nothing sexier than a real conversation
A certain amount of diabetes is caused by poor diet or develops as a result of other chronic conditions, but "sorting out their issues" is not possible for people with Type I diabetes. Their pancreas just quit working out of the blue as a child, not as a result of too many donuts.
Why is there raw chicken on a plate with scrambled eggs? Who eats raw chicken?!?
I'm going to empathize with the original poster, not the crazy coconut oil person. For a long time my mom and doctors thought I had ADHD but none of the medications worked for me. It wasn't until college that I was diagnosed with Aspergers. When I was a child it was believed that Aspergers and Austism were male exclusive disorders. It was even a struggle to get a diagnosis of ADHD back then. A lot of girls were hurt in this assumption.
Well, he's not wrong technically. He just forget to mention it's estimated the spanish flu killed around 5% of the global population at the time (1918). And for the black plague, the estimated number of death is around 25 millions in Europe, or between 30 and 50% ! of the population at the time (14th century)
Men and women get breast reduction all the time. They can't because they're trans? You suck
Gee, they haven't been researching covid for years before this particular strain went global. But I'll bet this same person will eat candy without reading (or caring) what's in it.
*hands over yees* Make the stupid stop make the stupid stop make the stupid stop
These are the names of the foot shapes, not the nationalities of the people who have them.
It's an art piece with someone saying they like it... what is wrong with that
I try to see it like a zoo... a zoo and I'm a visiting alien. The slight separation encourages a sense of amusement rather than despair
Load More Replies...There is just too much stupid in this post to read it without feeling physical pain. These people then go and have kids. This right here is one of the main reasons why every person/couple who wants kids should get a licence that they are in fact mentally and economically and intellectually capable of raising a child.
i'd like to say these are all fringe nutjobs, but if you work around medical situations .... yeah, you hear people say this and say, "but it was on my mother's cousin's firend's co-worker's feed!".... *sigh*
@Leo, could corona virus be a conspiracy to kill stupid people?
Load More Replies...Though the internet is a great invention one of the major downsides is it gives a platform for any nutter to spout whatever drivel they feel like. Worse still is for every handful of intelligent people who see stuff like that and dismiss it (as it deserves to be) there are a few nutters in waiting who read and think "yeah, that makes sense to me, I'll believe it without question".
And now for your daily dose of disappointment: there have been people this badly informed for a VERY long time. The internet has just given them a voice, and a means to reach out and misinform other, similarly gullible people. You're welcome!
I dont but I know some ex friends who would fit perfectly in this list.
Load More Replies...Dumb ways to live, so many dumb ways to live, dumb ways to li-i-ive so many dumb was to live. Pretend your opinions are facts, a douche is how you act, engage in flat earth pacts, keep tweeting and don't redact. Dumb ways to live, so many dumb ways to live, dub ways to li-i-ive so many dumb ways to live.
It's amazing how easily you can spot maga people 95% of the time without ever having discussed politics with them
This is a very troublesome read for the educated human. It's hard for us to accept this many people are this stupid.
So many of these have the text cut off to the point where they are unreadable... Also I'm hoping most are jokes and sarcasm. I don't think I've ever felt the urge to facepalm so many times in one day, before.
I love the one they ended on....if true, this post makes me want to eat a dozen eggs a day haha
This is so defeating. The number of really genuinely dumb people in the world is not a small percentage. It doesn't help that one of the major religions actively discourages critical thinking. I just... can't.
I have a headache now. How can i cure it? Should I lift weights, become a vegan, go through childbirth...?
As much as I am tempted to be upset, these people need help. If they go on believing incorrectly it could hurt them or others. They think they're helping, but they don't realize they have been misinformed or that something is only partially true. Please talk to a doctor or nurse before making changes people!
I am baffled at how many people don't get the fact that most of these are jokes.
Does anyone else have a vicious headache and severe depression after reading these? Yikes.
Maybe I misunderstood but when I read the title "And Got Shamed Over It Online" I was expecting some shaming.
Some of these are obviously jokes, and at least one really doesn't belong on this list. The rest are literally so f*****g stupid they need to be sterilized and isolated for the good of society.
People like this are why I support mandatory IQ tests in order to both have children and vote.
Dear panda people : I'm sorry I mouthed off so badly at this stupidity, the more I read I really didn't think people could be this stupid and the dumber they are the more other dumb people believe them. This is the way a pandemic starts. Deliver us from these evil producing stupid people.
Some of these are very obviously jokes or people trolling. Don't feel good labeling people stupid if you can't recognize dark humor.
You lost me with the repeat vaccine posts. I'm so over people fighting about that . Pick a new joke
Where is Dr. Fauci in this? Now that those emails were released, he has a few eggs on his face lol
You know, these people are stupid. We can all agree on that, right? Interestingly, though, Bored Panda has taken a stand against shaming people, yet, that's what this post is about. And the site is more than willing to shame people for being dumb.
It's one thing to be stupid. It's quite another to confidently parade your stupidity all over the internet and insist that you're right and other people are wrong.
Load More Replies...I try to see it like a zoo... a zoo and I'm a visiting alien. The slight separation encourages a sense of amusement rather than despair
Load More Replies...There is just too much stupid in this post to read it without feeling physical pain. These people then go and have kids. This right here is one of the main reasons why every person/couple who wants kids should get a licence that they are in fact mentally and economically and intellectually capable of raising a child.
i'd like to say these are all fringe nutjobs, but if you work around medical situations .... yeah, you hear people say this and say, "but it was on my mother's cousin's firend's co-worker's feed!".... *sigh*
@Leo, could corona virus be a conspiracy to kill stupid people?
Load More Replies...Though the internet is a great invention one of the major downsides is it gives a platform for any nutter to spout whatever drivel they feel like. Worse still is for every handful of intelligent people who see stuff like that and dismiss it (as it deserves to be) there are a few nutters in waiting who read and think "yeah, that makes sense to me, I'll believe it without question".
And now for your daily dose of disappointment: there have been people this badly informed for a VERY long time. The internet has just given them a voice, and a means to reach out and misinform other, similarly gullible people. You're welcome!
I dont but I know some ex friends who would fit perfectly in this list.
Load More Replies...Dumb ways to live, so many dumb ways to live, dumb ways to li-i-ive so many dumb was to live. Pretend your opinions are facts, a douche is how you act, engage in flat earth pacts, keep tweeting and don't redact. Dumb ways to live, so many dumb ways to live, dub ways to li-i-ive so many dumb ways to live.
It's amazing how easily you can spot maga people 95% of the time without ever having discussed politics with them
This is a very troublesome read for the educated human. It's hard for us to accept this many people are this stupid.
So many of these have the text cut off to the point where they are unreadable... Also I'm hoping most are jokes and sarcasm. I don't think I've ever felt the urge to facepalm so many times in one day, before.
I love the one they ended on....if true, this post makes me want to eat a dozen eggs a day haha
This is so defeating. The number of really genuinely dumb people in the world is not a small percentage. It doesn't help that one of the major religions actively discourages critical thinking. I just... can't.
I have a headache now. How can i cure it? Should I lift weights, become a vegan, go through childbirth...?
As much as I am tempted to be upset, these people need help. If they go on believing incorrectly it could hurt them or others. They think they're helping, but they don't realize they have been misinformed or that something is only partially true. Please talk to a doctor or nurse before making changes people!
I am baffled at how many people don't get the fact that most of these are jokes.
Does anyone else have a vicious headache and severe depression after reading these? Yikes.
Maybe I misunderstood but when I read the title "And Got Shamed Over It Online" I was expecting some shaming.
Some of these are obviously jokes, and at least one really doesn't belong on this list. The rest are literally so f*****g stupid they need to be sterilized and isolated for the good of society.
People like this are why I support mandatory IQ tests in order to both have children and vote.
Dear panda people : I'm sorry I mouthed off so badly at this stupidity, the more I read I really didn't think people could be this stupid and the dumber they are the more other dumb people believe them. This is the way a pandemic starts. Deliver us from these evil producing stupid people.
Some of these are very obviously jokes or people trolling. Don't feel good labeling people stupid if you can't recognize dark humor.
You lost me with the repeat vaccine posts. I'm so over people fighting about that . Pick a new joke
Where is Dr. Fauci in this? Now that those emails were released, he has a few eggs on his face lol
You know, these people are stupid. We can all agree on that, right? Interestingly, though, Bored Panda has taken a stand against shaming people, yet, that's what this post is about. And the site is more than willing to shame people for being dumb.
It's one thing to be stupid. It's quite another to confidently parade your stupidity all over the internet and insist that you're right and other people are wrong.
Load More Replies...