Caffeine Cures Alzheimer’s! And Other Misleading Headlines.

Not really, but I’d imagine that headline caught your eye and grabbed your attention, which is what it was supposed to do. The study on which that claim is based was widely and often quite misleadingly trumpeted across the Internet yesterday (July 6, 2009). Although some responsible sites included in the headline that the tests were done in mice, many concealed this important fact until you were well into the article and had already been exposed to whatever advertising was on the page. I’d already seen several misleading headlines before I realized the studies were in mice and I’m sure that many people didn’t ever get the full story. The entire webisode was set in motion by the University of South Florida Health’s press release, a slick piece of PR entitled “Caffeine reverses memory impairment in Alzheimer’s mice,” based on research done at that institution. At least they got it right. But many, if not most, headlines of the articles based on that press release simply ignored the facts of mice. They ranged from “Study: Coffee might help against Alzheimer’s,”  to “Caffeine may help prevent Alzheimer’s,” all the way to “The lifestyle to beat Alzheimer’s,” which gets the award for most misleading headline of the lot. So what did the Florida researchers really find? First, their studies were entirely in mice, not humans. They hope to start trials in humans but this is still a lo...
Source: Dr. Z's Medical Report - Category: Physicians With Health Advice Authors: Tags: Healthy Living 500 milligrams Alzheimer's Alzheimer's disease beta amyloid caffeine cure enzymes espresso headlines humans impaired memory insomnia memory loss mice misleading mouse press release researchers side effe Source Type: blogs