I have had three or four different people contact me about including some of their product information in my Blog. I have said "No" to each one and will continue to say 'No". I think that, as a physician, this would be unethical. Yet in reading a 10/7/10 article by Stuart Elliott in the New York Times apparently other health Web sites don't share my same concerns. In his New York Times article, I was amazed and sad to read that several of the Web sites supposedly devoted to health may contain advertisements which are often disguised as "health information."
So how does the average, non-medical person know that a health "fact" is indeed not a fact but an advertisement? I think the answer is that you should look at all health Web sites with a skeptical eye unless the information comes from the Mayo Clinic, the Cleveland Clinic or similar sources. I looked at some of the health Web sites mentioned in the article and was appalled at all the advertisments. At least these can clearly be seen as ads and are not embedded in an article and supposed to be facts.
Advertising is major business in this country, particularly for drugs. We are inundated with drug ads on TV, in magazines, and on the radio. Other countruies are much smarter about this and only New Zealand and the United States alllow drug ads on television. If the drug companies could spend less money on advertising then they could reduce the greatly inflated prices of some of their drugs. Wouldn't that be wonderful?
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