Image shows a phone with a news article shown on-screen [ingore: media and health anxiety]

         Emma Rouine

Avoiding the anxiety caused by the latest health news can feel impossible in the modern age.

“Don’t Google it, you’ll only come up with a crazy diagnosis for yourself!”

It’s the guidance we give our friends and family. But when it comes down to it, do we follow the same advice? Our initial instinct when feeling under the weather is to do a quick Google search of symptoms. We tell ourselves: “It’ll do no harm to check.” Although, in reality, the information we stumble across online rarely lessens our worries.

In fact, it only heightens them.

The impact of COVID-19 on health anxiety 

Following the COVID-19 outbreak, people relied on the internet as their sole form of communication with the rest of society while confined to the proximity of their homes.

As a result, many started to take reporters’ words at face value. We accepted online articles as gospel. We needed something to make sense of this unprecedented situation, even if it had grave implications.

Living in a bizarre situation that most of us couldn’t have imagined a year earlier, it isn’t surprising that many people began to accept online rumours as the truth.

“Misleading news reports, circulated throughout the pandemic, played a significant role in the escalation of health anxiety.”

Kate Starbird, an expert on crisis informatics at the University of Washington, explained: “In times of high information uncertainty and anxiety, we are particularly vulnerable to disinformation, which can take root within the collective sensemaking process […] this means we can end up both absorbing and spreading it.” 

Misleading news reports circulated throughout the pandemic played a significant role in the escalation of health anxiety.

There was speculation about the negative effects of mask-wearing. Injecting bleach into one’s body and the use of ivermectin — a used drug to treat parasites in animals — were suggested as COVID-19 treatments. Later, people worried about the side effects of COVID-19 vaccinations. 

The post-pandemic rise of health anxiety

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the global prevalence of anxiety has increased by 25 per cent due to the pandemic. In particular, health anxiety, characterised by a fear of being or becoming ill, is now more common.

Psychologist Dr Kevin Gilliland said: “If there was that pre-existing vulnerability [for anxiety] this [pandemic] has been a massive potential stimulus or trigger for that to escalate.”

Experts believe health anxiety may affect 12 per cent of people, making it more prevalent than bipolar disorder (1 per cent), schizophrenia (0.32 per cent), and OCD (1 per cent) combined. Some people may have minor and manageable symptoms, while others are unable to cope with daily life.

Many of us were already concerned about health, made obvious by the number of diet and fitness crazes we’ve witnessed over the past decade. But being in the COVID ‘bubble’ for two years, constantly exposed to news about health risks, has amplified public paranoia about health.

Learning from the panic over Diet Coke

While we are still learning about the long-term effects of COVID-19, other recent health news has caused us to panic.

A recent study conducted by WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) examined the effects of aspartame, a low-calorie artificial sweetener, commonly found in popular fizzy drinks, such as Diet Coke and Pepsi Max.

The IARC declared that aspartame is “possibly carcinogenic to humans.” At the same time, the Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) said there is no need for us to change our daily intake of aspartame. This, confusingly, resulted in two conflicting reports from two reputable sources.

Close-up image of Diet Coke logo.
Image courtesy of Brett Jordan via Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.

Frances Hunt-Wood, Secretary General of the International Sweeteners Association (ISA), said: “IARC is not a food safety body and their review of aspartame is not scientifically comprehensive and is based heavily on widely discredited research.” 

The ISA has said it has “serious concerns” with the IARC view, “which may mislead consumers about the safety of aspartame.”

Recent news about the potential dangers of Ultra-Processed Food (UPF) can also make us paranoid about what we’re consuming. News outlets have reported that UPFs are associated with increases in serious diseases including cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and diabetes — but the majority of food sold in supermarkets today are UPFs.

Although the warnings are frightening, we’re caught in a flux of conflicting advice from experts and the information fed to us by the food industries themselves.

Deceptive health headlines

This leads us to the misleading nature of health and well-being headlines.

Take, for example, The Sun‘s headline when the aspartame study broke: “It’s official – sweetener in Diet Coke and chewing gum IS a cancer risk, say WHO.”

Unknown to readers glancing at this headline, only one committee of WHO had come to this conclusion. The Sun failed to highlight that another WHO committee had rejected the findings entirely.

Another aspect of the headline that proved problematic was the claim that the sweetener is an ultimate “cancer risk.” The false connection between something having a carcinogenic value and, therefore, being a cancer risk was exploited by tabloid papers. Health Information Manager at Cancer Research UK, Alice Davies, explained: “Sometimes there are things that might cause cancer in theory, but in reality, the dose that you’re exposed to is too low to increase your risk.”

“The primary goal for tabloids is to garner views on their website, a goal often achieved through deceptive headlines and misinformation“

JECFA has said that a 70kg adult would reach the limit of aspartame by drinking roughly 14 cans a day, making The Sun’s headline completely misleading. Rather than drawing the reader in with reliable information, it grips the readers’ attention through clickbait and perpetuates their health anxiety.

There is still no clear answer to be drawn from these studies. The IARC’s finding that aspartame could be “possibly carcinogenic” is just that — a mere possibility. 

Protecting yourself from health misinformation

There’s a difference between raising awareness and raising false assumptions.

The primary goal for tabloids is to garner views on their website, a goal often achieved through deceptive headlines and misinformation. We all know about clickbait but, when the information relates to our health, we can temporarily forget when the headline causes our anxiety to spike.

If you often find yourself overwhelmed with health anxiety, be critical and selective when reading health-related articles. Only read from news sites that credit their news sources. Make sure that the statistics they include are the latest figures. Misleading phrasing in articles can result in the magnification or manipulation of a health study’s findings for the reader. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that you do not rely on a news source that prioritises an eye-catching headline over informing its audience.

Reading the small print is important when it comes to health studies. It’s crucial to look at who sponsored the research, as this can influence the data collected to drive research agendas away from questions that are the most relevant for public health, and favour services or products which are made by the company funding the research. 

People often say that to prioritise your health, you should cut toxic people out of your life. Perhaps we should start using this principle for toxic news sites too.

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Featured image courtesy of Brian McGowan via Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.

Emma is a Dublin-based English literature student, with a primary focus on lifestyle and music journalism. When she isn't writing, she can be found at a concert or obsessing over her latest music discovery.

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