90% of Americans believe at least one conspiracy theory

DaveXA said

This definitely makes sense. I have a family member who is into health news and is always trying to find some new heath thing. She's the kind of person who will buy "vitamins" for whatever and it's maddening because those profiting off of the health nut craze can advertise just about anything and they're often vague about the numbers and efficacy and ultimately, a lot of the stuff she orders is as useless as a sugar pill.

She consumes news the same way. It's beyond irritating when she spouts some wild theory she reads online. She knows not to believe everything she reads, but still believes too much of it.

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There’s another layer of complication here - the (very well documented) placebo effect
If you THINK a (chemically) useless vitamin is effective it will be (within a narrow ish range)
As well, ‘alternative’ health practices - yoga, tai chi, meditation, et al - are effective. The problem is that the practitioner seldom know what the effective limit is (yoga can help with hypertension but maybe not particular heart disease) and most medical professionals have spent their entire careers studying medicine (springing into action when things go bad) and not health/wholeness

Also, while the article is important, I’m not sure it’s as helpful as it could be - yes people concerned with health are susceptible to snake oil salesmen, just as people concerned with religion or politics or finance or any other human endeavor are
This seems as much a media literacy concern as anything