Is it real or is it fake

It is miraculous to consider how much access and exposure we have to information through our computers, phones, televisions, radios and newspapers. Unfortunately, we need to be on guard because too much of this buzz can be false information.

Marketing (sales) can be good and important as it moves commerce, and I'm not saying industry doesn't sponsor credible scientific research. However, marketing can be harmful when selling a weight-loss program that gives false hope, when peddling virility pills that are ineffective or when pushing an outrageously expensive drug that should be used only after first-line medicines are tried. Advertisements can and should be based on truth, but my cynical side sees the words "truth in advertising" as an oxymoron, like "seriously funny," "awfully good" or "found missing." Indeed, marketing motives can be as different from evidence-based science as corn syrup is to leafy green vegetables.

Before sharing or relying on information found online ask yourself the following things:

1. What is the purpose of this website/and or advertising and who owns it?

2. Who wrote the information, is supplying the information and reviewed it?

3. When was the information written and updated?

4. Does this website or ad offer quick and easy solutions and/or miracle cures for your health problems?

It has been our desire and goal at Healing Words Foundation to find and help spread health information that is not influenced by marketing or sales. What is known today as Prairie Doc® media started in the 1980s with newspaper articles, expanding in the 1990s with a local talk AM-radio show, in 2003 with a television show. We feel blessed to have such wonderful talents and gifts allowing us to bring our unbiased and credible public health information to the people.

The mission statement of the Healing Words Foundation and all Prairie Doc® programming is enhancing health and diminishing suffering by communicating useful information, based on honest science, provided in a respectful and compassionate manner.

This is a call for all of us to be careful and critical. We don't have to be influenced by false or misleading news but rather need to choose our sources of information carefully. Let this be a time of truth.

The late Dr. Rick Holm and his partner Joanie Holm founded Prairie Doc Programming and continue to follow its mission through the Healing Words Foundation. Follow The Prairie Doc® at http://www.prairiedoc.org and on Facebook and Instagram featuring On Call with the Prairie Doc®, a medical Q&A show providing health information based on science, built on trust, streaming live on Facebook most Thursdays at 7 p.m. central.