While researching the risks of false health information, I came upon a story of how Rick Simpson cured his skin cancer with cannabis oil (click here to read the article). Wow, our answer to cancer might be solved! But wait, let’s think about this for a moment. Where is the evidence to support this finding?
A cure for cancer has been sought after since the beginning of our understanding of cancer, and of course it would be wonderful if it was as simple as taking cannabis oil to reach a cure, but reading somewhere that a person successfully treated their cancer with cannabis is not evidence based. One article showed that there were 4.26 million interactions on social medias such as, facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Pinterest, connected to a news story stating that cannabis is a cure for cancer (Shi et al., 2019). That is a lot of action for a story with no supporting evidence. What does the evidence state for cannabis? So far, there is evidence to support that cannabis provides some relief from pain, nausea and loss of appetite when using cannabis oil as an adjunct treatment for cancer treatment side effects (Canadian Cancer, 2022) but thus far, no evidence shows that cannabinoids can cure cancer on their own (Centers for Disease, 2020).
In the example of false information provided above, it seems the increase sales of the ‘Rick Simpson cannabis oil blend’ is a driver for the creation of the article. Focusing on individuals with a cancer diagnosis who are scared and looking for an easier path to a cure are certainly at risk for falling for this. Trends for cancer patients seeking alternative treatments has risen from 25% in the 70’s to almost 50% in the 2000’s (Shi et al., 2019). There is also health literacy to consider. There is a general low health literacy in America with only 12% of Americans in 2003 considered proficient in health literacy (U.S Department, 2003). That means that health information users have trouble understanding the information provided or do not realize that they should be looking for evidence supported data when reviewing health issues.
The harm in following false health information is that the user of the information is at risk of not seeking the correct information, not receiving the needed care, or forming a mistrust in health information (Chou et al., 2020). There is also risk that this misinformation could be further spread by the individuals using the information.
The internet is clearly an area needing some quick health promotion attention to help ensure that those seeking information are finding the correct answers to the questions they seek. By having trusted medical sites enhance health promotion information, misinformation will hopefully be less seen.
References
Canadian Cancer Society. (2022). Cannabis and cannabinoids for medical purposes. https://cancer.ca/en/treatments/complementary-therapies/medical-cannabis-and-cannabinoids
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, October 19). Cancer. https://www.cdc.gov/marijuana/health-effects/cancer.html
Chou, W. Y., Gaysynsky, A., & Cappella, J. N. (2020). Where We Go From Here: Health Misinformation on Social Media. American journal of public health, 110(S3), S273–S275. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305905
Shi S., Brant A R., Sabolch A., & Pollom, E. (2019, January 19). False News of a Cannabis Cancer Cure . Cureus 11(1). doi:10.7759/cureus.3918
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2003). America’s Health Literacy: Why we need accessible health information. https://www.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/wysiwyg/health-literacy/dhhs-2008-issue-brief.pdf
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