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Fact from Fiction: Reading Between the Lines of Arthritis News and Advertising
In recent years, individuals with illnesses such as rheumatoid arthritis have become more interested in obtaining a better understanding of their illness and to gain a better understanding of the different types of treatments available. Besides those with arthritis, their relatives and caregivers may also be interested in increasing their knowledge of arthritis and potential treatments. In the past, most people received information from physicians or their friends. That is not the case today. For example, each morning during his news program, you can hear Paul Harvey promoting some product which he claims to take and which he claims does him a world of good. In the late evening, you can hear Larry King do the same thing. We are inundated with promotions about products which are supposed to alleviate a variety of health problems. These promotions appear in magazines, in newspapers, on television, and on the internet. In addition, we still receive suggestions from our friends and relatives about products or other treatments which they claim are good for us.
How is a person to know what to believe?
The information contained in the pages that follows is intended to give individuals criteria which will help them evaluate the information to which they are exposed. When viewing ads which appear in printed material for products, the reader has time to evaluate the information. This is also true for information obtained from the internet. However, it is quite difficult to evaluate information presented in an ad seen on TV since the exposure to the ad is for a very short period of time. Thus, the viewer needs to know what to look for in order to absorb the critical information. Some ads seen on TV are presented such that it is difficult for a person to know what is being advertised, let alone allowing the person to critique the information that appears.
Examples of advertisements will be presented which are modeled after ads which have been used to promote real products. However, the products alluded to in our ads are fictitious, as are the listed phone numbers.
Before presenting the main content, we will give a glossary of terms some of which may be new to our readers. Please refer to the glossary when you encounter a term or concept which is new to you.
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