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The cure for cancer might be just around the corner, but the cure for quack therapies probably isn\u2019t. We all know someone with health ideas that are too good to be true. Losing weight with the right herbal tea. Boosting the brain with weird berries. Once you begin clinical rotations as an AUA student, or a residency after graduating, some of these folks could become your patients.<\/p>\n
Besides a drain on the wallet, most of these \u201cremedies\u201d are harmless in and of themselves. The problem is when patients swear by them \u200binstead of\u200b real medicine. Some alternative remedies, like homeopathy, can be a life-threatening distraction from real medicine. How do you encourage your patients to trust you over the snake oil?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the key: \u200btrust. \u200bIt can be hard to establish trust when good science is about proving yourself wrong so you can get closer to the truth.<\/a> \u200bHealth craze peddlers don\u2019t have this problem. Bigger marketing budget aside, they have a sense of total confidence and certainty. They suffer \u2013 or benefit \u2013 from the \u200bDunning-Kreuger Effect<\/a>\u200b. It\u2019s what happens when someone with little knowledge or skill also lacks the self-awareness to know how wrong they are.<\/p>\n And while there are plenty of blogs by scientists about \u200bhow they deal with the pseudoscience<\/a>\u200b they find on social media or TV, you\u2019re a doctor. Arguing in person with a vulnerable patient who is convinced some herbal infusion will help them isn\u2019t easy, or even productive. That\u2019s especially true if other mainstream remedies have already failed them.<\/p>\n We wish there was an easy answer, but there isn\u2019t. Still, there are things you can say, and things to avoid saying, to try to walk a patient back from believing in bunk.<\/p>\n