don’t let scientists scare you to death!

There was a great deal of panic caused this week by a study that suggested certain everyday painkillers such as ibuprofen could increase the risk of a heart attack by up to 50 per cent, even if you took the medication for just a few days.

But don’t throw out the pills just yet.

While a 50 per cent increased risk sounds a lot, if your risk of having a heart attack over the next ten years is 1 per cent, taking ibuprofen would raise it to 1.5 per cent, which doesn’t sound nearly as scary.

really the researchers were using this statistical trick to make the results of their study sound far more dramatic than they really are.

The study also didn’t show that taking painkillers causes heart attacks. Indeed it could be the condition the patient is taking painkillers for — for instance, rheumatoid arthritis — that actually increases the risk of the heart attack.

There is a worrying trend in science of chasing headlines: and many of the scare stories actually originate from Press releases sent out ahead of the research, as a study published a few years ago in the British Medical Journal revealed.

It found that more than a third of Press releases, for example, made claims about what the research meant for humans, when in fact the study was carried out on animals.

Particularly worrying was that many exaggerated claims appeared to have been written or approved by the scientists themselves.

It’s important to remember that scientists have funding and grants to worry about and a front page splash about your research is as important for securing future revenue as is getting it into a respected academic journal.

Add to this the fact that every research facility or university has a Press department and it’s their job to generate these headlines.

But is this ethical? especially when it might mean people stop taking a medication they desperately need?