{"id":546874,"date":"2026-07-13T05:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T05:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546874\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T05:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T05:03:12","slug":"belief-in-unproven-dietary-regimes-vitamins-and-crank-therapies-is-putting-patients-health-in-danger-and-increasing-the-risk-of-getting-cancer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546874\/","title":{"rendered":"Belief in unproven dietary regimes, vitamins, and crank therapies is putting patients\u2019 health in danger and increasing the risk of getting cancer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social media misinformation about the use of dietary supplements such as turmeric, St John\u2019s wort and magnesium is now so common that dispelling online claims has become a routine part of NHS [National Health Service] clinicians work.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two out of five frontline health workers say they encounter patients who raise inaccurate or misleading information about supplements at least once a week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Polling by YouGov for the World\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/cancer\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Cancer<\/a>\u00a0Research Fund found that the figure is even higher (53%) among nurses and midwives, with false information about nutrition and supplements now taking up what doctors describe as \u201cprecious time\u201d in NHS consultations.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The WCRF says it fears that patients\u2019 belief in unproven dietary regimes, vitamins and minerals is putting their health in danger and increasing their risk of getting cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Follow the latest news and policy debates on sustainable agriculture, biomedicine, and other \u2018disruptive\u2019 innovations. Subscribe to our newsletter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dr Philippa Kaye said she saw the consequences of health misinformation every week in her GP surgery.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cMy patients arrive clutching newspaper stories, social media screenshots, printouts from wellness websites or saved videos from TikTok.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"74\" height=\"30\" style=\"width: 110px; height: 30px;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/pdf-email-button-e1773074318499.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat particularly worries me is the widely held belief that if something is sold over the counter, marked as \u2018natural\u2019 or endorsed online, then it must automatically be safe and harmless, while prescribed medicines are somehow toxic,\u201d she added. \u201cAs doctors, we know this simply is not true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some popular supplements can involve hidden risks, according to Kaye. \u201cPeople assume that supplements are safe because you can buy them over the counter without a prescription. But if something works, then there is an active ingredient in it that may also cause problems.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/society\/2026\/jun\/14\/nhs-staff-food-supplement-disinformation-cancer-charity-social-media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">This is an excerpt. Read the original post here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Social media misinformation about the use of dietary supplements such as turmeric, St John\u2019s wort and magnesium is&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[103,61,60],"class_list":["post-546874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}