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Investigations assessing the prevalence of scientific fraud and/or its impact show that the problem is widespread and serious-to the point of making most of “science-based” medicine a genuine joke.

Conflict of interest is another pervasive problem that threatens the integrity and believability of most studies. We’ve been repeatedly faced with study findings that are clearly tainted with industry bias.

The soda industry’s study1, 2 finding that drinking diet soda makes you lose more weight than drinking no soda at all is just one of the most recent examples. It blatantly contradicts a massive body of research demonstrating that artificial sweeteners disrupt your body’s metabolism and lead to greater weight gain than regular sugar.

Earlier this year, I reviewed findings that a flawed research paper may have led to the death of as many as 800,000 Europeans. The discredited paper served as the basis for a guideline3 that helped establish the “standard of care” to use beta-blockers in non-cardiac surgery patients.

The study’s author, Dr. Poldermans, was also the chairman of the committee that drafted the guideline (he has since resigned from his position with the task force4).

Physicians who failed to follow this guideline were at risk of medical reprimands. This case is a sobering example demonstrating the need for maintaining strict scientific integrity, and why the issue of conflicts of interest really needs to be more widely understood and addressed.

Scientific misconduct can have a
very real impact on your health, or someone you love, as doctors routinely use published research to implement or alter treatment protocols.