You know you’ve done it. We’ve all been there.
Remember that time when you or your child came down with some weird symptoms?
You went online and searched WebMD or a similar site.
What came back didn’t offer much help but it sure scared the heck out of you.
You might have even thought that there has to be a better way, something that is clear and won’t ratchet up your anxiety.
Nowadays when you research anything related to health you inevitably run into a lot of technical jargon.
It’s all too easy to get overwhelmed. I do sometimes and I’ve been a scientist for more than 20 years.
Sometimes just trying to do research can have a negative impact on your health.
But we at Science Defined believe that there is another way.
Read on to see you how.
How to turn off the fire hose
As you begin your research journey you will undoubtedly be confronted by information overload. It can feel like you are drinking from a fire hose.
There is just so much now that is within our reach, but how can we know what is most relevant?
We will show you how you can use critical thinking to identify reliable resources which in turn will help you to navigate all that information.
You will learn how to identify unbiased, evidence-based sources allowing you to make the most informed decisions regarding your health.
As you delve further into your research you will undoubtedly encounter the barrier that is complex scientific terminology.
That is the next issue that we will address.
Learning the language
If you’ve ever attempted to read a scientific study you know all about the crazy technical jargon that is used.
It’s much the same across a number of different industries such as engineering, IT, law, and even marketing. They all have their own unique jargon that most insiders use.
The problem is if we on the outside want to try to understand something that is written by them and for them we end up losing a lot in translation.
I could simply offer you a nifty Science Defined pocket translator so you could easily look up the meaning of any term that you encounter in your research but, this will only get you so far.
It turns out that a deeper understanding of the context of various terms within different concepts is integral.
That is certainly the case here as well.
What we will do is to break down the terms and provide relatable examples so you can easily discern their meanings.
You will effectively become fluent in the language of science.
No longer will you need to have 15-20 tabs open on your web browser when you are doing research.
That brings us to those crazy concepts.
Grasping concepts
So you’ve just finished mastering the terminology but making sense of concepts can still be challenging.
If you are to successfully apply what you are learning to your own health in a profound way you need to be able to see how the terminology fits together.
We will show you how to hone in on key takeaways, to spot recurring themes, and to connect concepts across different resources.
There are techniques that can be employed to help enhance comprehension.
The goal is not for you to conduct experiments in the lab but to gain enough understanding to start putting what you are learning into action in your life.
Still, understanding research methodologies is crucial if you are to be able to successfully navigate and analyze scientific studies.
Come on. We’ll show you how.
Making sense of methodologies
One of the more challenging aspects of learning science is undoubtedly gaining an understanding of research methodologies.
Just when you think you’ve got it all down then you hit the methods section of the article you are reading.
You see things like cell culture, western blots, flow cytometry and more.
How do all these things enable one to study and evaluate the concepts that you’ve just learned?
The goal ultimately is for you to draw meaningful conclusions and in order to do that you need to be able to discern whether the experiments conducted are sufficient to answer the questions that the authors asked at the beginning.
How can you know if the data and resulting findings are valid if you don’t understand the methods undertaken to generate them?
We got this too!
We will explain common experimental designs, data collection methods and analysis practices so that you can understand what was done and why.
That leads us to the hurdle that is analyzing scientific articles.
Defeating analysis paralysis
You are now finally fluent in the language of science but it can still be intimidating trying to analyze a scientific article.
In an attempt to “make it make sense” it is all too easy to freeze up and become paralyzed, not knowing how to move forward.
It is essential to be able to draw conclusions from a study if you are to decide whether and how to apply it to your own situation.
We will help you to gain the confidence that is required to draw conclusions from the information that you are now able to understand.
A big part of this is weeding through bias and knowing just how to know what you can trust.
Not only will we help you with evaluating the credibility of sources but, we will share with you resources that will enable you to find more credible sources.
We will also show you how to identify bias and form well-reasoned opinions based on the evidence presented in a given study.
One of the best ways to reinforce these new skills is to engage in discussions or to share your interpretations with others.
Ok so now you have the understanding and the knowledge. How do you apply it?
Turning knowledge into action
It’s one thing to sit in front of a computer studying terminology and concepts, but it is another thing altogether to actually begin applying it to real life situations.
We live in a time and place where we want instant results but it takes time to drive meaningful change.
So, you want to have some confidence in your decision making ability when starting to make changes to your health and lifestyle.
To be clear, there is no guarantee. Everyone is unique and not every situation will work for everyone.
Still we will provide practical examples of how you can put all of this to work so that you can effectively bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and lifestyle choices.
But what about the inevitable situation where you come across two or more studies that offer conflicting results?
Let’s delve into that next.
The dreaded case of conflicting studies
Just when you think you have it all down and are ready to start digging in to start applying what you have learned you come across conflicting studies.
You’ve now hit a wall because you don’t know who to trust.
It is now that I want to drop a tip that can either be one of the biggest pitfalls or the absolute key to unlocking the full knowledge of a scientific study.
Say what? Yes, you heard correctly.
At the end of the day it’s all about nuances and most scientific writing is filled with them.
You can learn to understand the language and even read articles but you will only come away with a cursory understanding if you don’t know how to assess the nuances therein.
This is where if done correctly it can become truly transformative.
I’ve seen people read study after study thinking that they have grasped what is being conveyed only to later realize that they never really got it because they completely missed the nuances.
Well, we will show you how to pick out all of them so that you can make the most informed judgements possible.
At the end of the day, your success is our success and it doesn’t help either of us if we only take you part of the way.
That brings us to ensuring that you are building new habits that will cultivate success in your life.
Motivating amongst the busyness
Ultimately two of the biggest issues you will face, aside from all the stuff we’ve previously discussed are motivation and time constraints.
Your success depends upon staying motivated and finding a way to build lifestyle changes into your already busy life.
The answer is in developing new habits that will keep you both productive as well as motivated.
This takes some time but it is absolutely critical.
In terms of finding time, the answer comes down to what is most important.
One of the most precious resources we have is time.
Not only is it limited but, we can’t always guarantee how much of it we ultimately will have.
Until recently, I never realized how much time I was wasting on things that really didn’t matter.
My suggestion is to do an assessment of the different activities in your life and determine which are worth your time. Keep in mind that when you say “yes” to one thing you are in effect saying “no” to something else.
At the end of the day all we can do is to control what is in our grasp to the best of our ability.
In this case, that starts and ends with our health.
So, let’s get started now!
Taking action!
One of the most important aspects of Science Defined is building a community so that we can learn from and help each other. Fostering open discussion is an integral aspect of that.
Each blog will end with an inspiring prompt to get you started. Submit a comment below to join the conversation.
Today’s prompt(s):
- Did you previously realize what a big impact science could have on your health?
- Are you ready to take action in your own life?
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First…!
I have already been making huge changes in my life in order to recover from decades of multiple chronic illnesses. Ive had to look at my health from a completely different perspective and the results have been utterly miraculous. I need this understanding and Im so grateful to be here!
Thanks for your comment, Jenni. Sounds like you’re well on your way to taking back control of your health. I truly hope that Science Defined is helpful to you in this. Please let me know if you have any questions along the way.
Best,
md
Science opens conversations with my healthcare team. It allows collaboration but lets me still decide what’s best for me and my family.
I’m finding my trust in medical professionals very difficult these days . I have horses do they also (vets) have a different language . I’m more of a natural medicine person and understanding that language is very scientific . We’ll I always wanted to learn a second language , lol so here we go
The last few years have shown me that I certainly can NOT “trust the science” unless I know the funding source and the researcher.
Even then, there can be biased research. ‘
How Emotions Are Made’ by Lisa Feldman Barrett ‘The Hacking of The American Mind’ by Robert Lustig were great eye openers about the corruption of “science”.
I have read more NIH research papers in the last 4 years… well, I had actually never really read one before Covid. I learned to look for the funding source so appreciate your teachings on what to look for. I do get a bit crossed eyes looking up terms I’m not familiar with.
When I started Real Estate, I had to learn a new language. The same when I learned Hypnosis and Psychology. Now I am learning the language of Science.
To address your question of taking action in my own life… I really want to buy or access a dark field microscope to look for filaments in my blood. Like Ana Maria Mihalcea, MD, PhD from Humanity United Now does. I am planning on asking her as well but I haven’t managed to follow up with that yet.
Do you have a recommendation? I have been searching around but I’m not sure of what I am looking at or for?