Sciencebeta has been posting neuroscience, psychology, and general medical research news since 2015. I like to keep current on these topics, and my reporting here helps me do so. If you’re following along at home, that’s great too.
This website carries no advertising1, and has no direct funding from grants, government organizations, pharmaceutical companies, other big businesses, universities, or foundations.
Content on this website is for information only. It is not intended to provide medical or other professional advice.
Research articles on the internet are no substitute for a trained health professional. It may be tempting to extrapolate the correlations and associations mentioned in research to apply it one’s own situation.
While they may be interesting and exciting (I admit that many of them are not), the potential interventions and future clinical therapies mentioned in the articles discussing research are not meant, nor should they be taken as, recommendations for individuals. Rather, they are imaginings of researchers and scientists applied to broad categories of the general public.
For example, an article reporting on the association between mice fed a diet rich in omega-3 fatty acids and advanced-age mice with higher scores on cognitive memory tests may sound like it is saying if you start eating lots of salmon when you get old, you’ll remember more stuff – but it is not.
There are many good reasons for this. First of all, if you are reading this, you are probably a human, not a mouse. Second, correlation does not necessarily mean there is a cause-and-effect relationship. Also, every human is different, with a unique set of genes, epigenetics, pre-existing conditions, needs and approaches to life.
The same applies to the studies in the realm of psychology. If you are feeling in need of help, please consult with a trained counsellor or therapist. For urgent situations, Crisis Text Line dot org provides free, 24/7 mental health support via text message in the US, Canada and the U.K.
D.C. Demetre
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