1% Thursday: Are You Biased?

Treatments, treatments, treatments.  So many.  So different.  There are so-called painkillers, there’s the ol’ ice pack on the head.  Acupuncture.  Physio.  Vitamins.  Oh, the list goes on and on and on.

Let me state the obvious – there are different kinds of treatments.  But sometimes we get a little biased in a way that’s not helpful at all.

For example, you can take supplements for migraine.  Like magnesium.  Or vitamin E.  Or Omega 3 fish oil.  Is that different from taking drugs?

Of course.  Supplements are tested and regulated in different ways (depending on your country).  They tend to be more complex treatments (whereas drugs can be more targeted – that’s an oversimplification, but sufficient for this article).

But they’re also alike in a lot of ways.  You can take too many of either.  Either can be dangerous in combination with certain things.

Recognizing the similarities and differences of different treatments is important.  But there’s a danger.  What if, instead of just recognizing differences, we’re actually starting to see some treatments as "second class citizens"?

We might think, to use the example above, that supplements are not as "powerful" as drugs.  Or they’re "milder".  That may sometimes be the case, but it’s a dangerous assumption.

Or we might treat the drugs as second class citizens.  We might think they’re only for people looking for a "quick fix".  They’re not "natural" and so they’re not as "good for you".

Again, in many cases that may be true, but not always.  In reality, some supplements can have more side effects than some drugs.  In reality, some supplements may do a lot more to help your health than the drugs.

We can over-generalize and think in a biased way about our treatments, and miss some that are really useful.

Many alternative treatments don’t have the data behind them that some drugs do – but that’s not always a sign that they’re not as effective.  Often there’s less money to put into study, less regulation to make the studies useful.  And the study of alternative treatments can be complex – in some cases, more complex than drug studies.

(Believe it or not, just because a drug company can’t put millions into studying the benefit of eating apples, doesn’t mean the apple isn’t good for you!)

But that doesn’t mean alternative treatments aren’t effective – in some cases moreso than medications.

And, in fact, there are good studies for many alternative treatments.  Yes, some have data behind them that rivals the data behind the meds.  But if we assume that they’re all just word-of-mouth treatments that are unprovable, we might miss out.

And sometimes being so suspicious of drugs can cause us to miss the truth too.  Believe me, I don’t want you taking drugs you don’t need to take.  On the other hand, don’t assume that there’s never a use for them, and that they will always harm your body in the end, and that you should stick to something more (so-called) natural.  The reality is, sometimes the drugs are more natural (they treat your body in a gentler, more holistic way) than some of the supplements you’ve been told to take.

My purpose is not to convince you to take something different – but at least to open your mind to the data.  Don’t be so biased against a general type of treatment that you’re not even willing to look at the facts.

Question, investigate, get a second opinion… but don’t be too quick to write off all drugs, or all supplements, or all alternative treatment, or all diet solutions, or all physio solutions… just because you think that kind of treatment is second class.

You might find that something you’ve been ignoring because of an unfounded bias is something that will make far more than a 1% difference.

What is 1% Thursday?

Every Thursday at Headache and Migraine News (weather permitting) we’ll talk about one measurable, practical thing we can do to make our lives just 1% better.  Usually it will be something very easy, sometimes it will be a challenge.  Let us know if you try it, or share an idea of your own – and maybe a year from now we’ll see that things have really changed for the better!