Page 21 - Seniorstoday September-2023 Issue

Medical folk wisdom a strong indicator they have anti-science
The idea of garlic as a blanket cure has
its foundation in medical folk wisdom,
which is an umbrella term for unproven,
widespread beliefs about anything to do
with health and disease.
Folk wisdom often has a certain level
of seductive intuitiveness and generally
originates from cultural beliefs as well
as long-held traditions. Folk wisdom
can involve herbal remedies, dietary
recommendations and advice about
following specific behaviours. It is often
passed down by word of mouth through
generations and may be one of the reasons
myths about the causes and cures of
diseases persist, despite the progress of
medical science.
The unshakeable belief many people hold
that eating before you go for a swim is
dangerous, for example, has no scientific
basis. Even though the logic seems
compelling, the idea that eating before
swimming causes drowning has been
debunked by researchers.
A 17th-century newspaper advising
readers to drink garlic and milk
Folk wisdom is complicated because on
the one hand it broadly falls under the
category of misinformation, but on the
other it doesn’t quite fit with the usual
class of misinformation (such as fake news
or misleading advertising). If someone
endorses folk wisdom, it is not necessarily
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #51 | SEPTEMBER 2023
beliefs.
People who believe in “starving a fever”,
for example, can also be pro-vaccines.
Likewise, it would not be unusual for
a person who follows official health
recommendations to also use folk wisdom
as an additional safeguard against, for
example, the coronavirus.
Don’t underestimate it
However, the idea that folk wisdom is
predominantly benign might be why
experts tend to pay less attention to it. For
example, believing that drinking warm milk
before bed helps you go to sleep is not going
to harm you (even if it’s not true). However,
other beliefs can be dangerous such as the
idea that eating particular foods can bolster
your immunity, which can lead people
to think they don’t need to be vaccinated
against the flu or Covid.
Folk wisdom, like other types of
misinformation not backed by science, often
proliferate on social media, which means it
can pose a threat to public health.
For example, in 2020, when the UK
went into lockdown, the Burns Centre at
Birmingham Children’s Hospital saw a 30-
fold increase in the number of scald injuries
from steam inhalation. This was caused
by a folk wisdom on social media that
Continued on Page 28
21