Getting the right information and making the best choices for your wellness can be incredibly overwhelming due to the sea of information. In addition, we each have our own beliefs, values, and live with social norms, and these also impact our perspective on wellness and our decision-making around it. In this episode, I’m going to give you practical guidelines for navigating sources of information and show you the difference between scientific and anecdotal evidence. By virtue of the scientific method, we can make observations, formulate a hypothesis, and test our hypothesis to gain much more accurate information, thereby helping to solve problems and even save lives! I will give you several examples of how the scientific method has served humanity, explain the problem with some of the current sources of information on the coronavirus, and make a case for why we must be careful with how and where we obtain our information from.
Key Points From This Episode:
• A shoutout and special thank you to the listener who wrote an excellent review of the podcast.
• There are complicated wellness-related questions that most of us seek answers to.
• The factors that impact our decision-making: beliefs, values, social norms, and more.
• The importance of the scientific method, its roots, and how it can be applied.
• An example of how the scientific method helps us to acquire knowledge and solve problems.
• How technology has changed the way that information is shared, critiqued, and tested.
• An explanation of the peer-review process and how it ensures the quality of knowledge.
• Hear why the pandemic has resulted in information being released without rigorous review.
• How Ignaz Semmelweis used the scientific method to introduce hand washing and save lives.
Key Messages:
1. The scientific method has led to modern advances.
2. Scientific evidence is very different from anecdotal evidence.
3. Knowledge is a continuum that we continue to build upon.
Quotables:
“Building knowledge is a process and our knowledge can and will change over time.” — Kristina Hunter [0:17:23]
“Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make because they lead little by little to the truth.” — Jules Verne [0:17:47]
“Handwashing with soap and water has been considered a measure of personal hygiene for centuries and has been generally embedded in religious and cultural habits. Nevertheless, the link between handwashing and the spread of disease was established only two centuries ago.”— World Health Organization [0:24:52]
Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:
The Doctor Who Championed Handwashing: Ignaz Semmelweis
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
