Disinformation is a big problem in our world today, but it doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a deliberate attempt to deceive a person or people for personal or political gain, and there are lots of big organizations working to address and correct the problem. Believe it or not, we may have a role, as health-care providers, in making the slope a little less slippery when it comes to supporting untruths.

It’s easier than you might think to be a purveyor of misinformation, which is distinct from disinformation because it is not necessarily a deliberate act meant to deceive. As massage therapists, we are often in the position of sharing what we might consider “common knowledge.” The problem is that common knowledge is just that—common. It’s something that enough people believe (spoiler alert: belief and knowledge are not the same) to have given it traction and unearned credence as factual. We don’t check it because it “makes sense” to us and because we don’t usually experience pushback when we share it.

Example #1: Drink Water Post-Session

“Please help yourself to some water after the session,” we say to our clients. “I sure will,” they reply, armed with common knowledge. “I need to flush those toxins out.”

Here’s the misinformation fork in the road. Do you: (A) Smile, agree, and send them on their way, or (B) kindly, but clearly, share with them that their body is quite skilled at detoxification if they have a working liver, then go on to explain that water is important to overall health and hydration, but you did not just spend the last hour squishing poison out of their muscles that now needs to be rinsed from their body in some mechanical, waterslide-esque sort of way?

Example #2: Muscles as Knots

“Oh man, I have some really big knots back there, don’t I?” (If you say you haven’t heard this one, you’re just lying.)

As massage therapists, we know that muscles are not actually capable of being “knotted” in the traditional sense. The fibers may not be gliding the way they should, or it may be that one or more muscles are not sliding over, around, or with each other as intended. You know this person does not have knots in their muscles. They have areas that could be encouraged to work more harmoniously (and yes, hydration could be helpful here), but when you let them go on thinking they have knots, you’re missing a chance to give them good and accurate information about their body—and you are allowing misinformation to continue.

Conspiritualism

The massage profession overlaps and falls within the “wellness industry” in many ways. As a result, we often find ourselves engaging in what Australian author Sarah Wilson calls “conspiritualism,” which is really just misinformation. Decades ago, a movement grew out of the well-intended desire to expose the less-than-benevolent motives and business practices of the food, pharmaceutical, health-care, and oil industries. More recently, this desire has become confused by disinformation, the potential for financial gain in an industry where it can be hard to make a living simply providing “services,” and by our inability to fully understand the vast uncertainty and complexity of the problems facing our world.

Our deep desire to ease the suffering of our clients, and yes, our own pain and confusion at a world so out of balance, makes it hard for us to notice when we’re not being strictly honest and evidence-based or when we are creeping out of our scope as bodyworkers. We begin to feel that it’s “common knowledge,” for example, that gluten is bad . . . for everyone. We feel certain that shark cartilage and curcumin will end the pain that accompanies serious connective tissue diseases. We see the glossy, high-production-value magazine at the grocery store called Things Doctors Don’t Want You to Know and we take up the mantle against . . . doctors.

Facts exist and we must learn where to find them, why they’re important, and how to stick to them when we are communicating with our clients. They don’t always ask us questions about the things they think. Sometimes they just say them. When we hear statements from our clients and know they are incorrect or possibly harmful, it is our responsibility to share what we know. It is also our responsibility to not offer information about things we have not researched ourselves from reputable sources. As health-care providers, we have a duty to educate and empower the people we serve with facts about their bodies and their health—real information that can support their well-being. Sometimes there simply are not good answers and we hate that, but that doesn’t give us permission to suggest things that aren’t true or that were only tested by Uncle Bill.

We must do what other reliable, responsible health-care providers do. We must engage with critical thinking and discipline. We have to think critically about when and how to share what we know, and we must have the discipline to resist the temptation to guess or to agree out of our fear of confrontation. We can educate our clients without ever saying “You’re wrong,” and we will build trust and strong relationships by being honest and clear. 

8 Ways to Spot Misinformation

1. Source suspicion. Vague, untraceable sources, such as “a doctor friend of a friend” or “scientists say” without further details, should ring alarm bells.

2. Bad language. Most trustworthy sources are regular communicators, so poor spelling, grammar, or punctuation are grounds for suspicion.

3. Emotional contagion. If something makes you angry or overjoyed, be on your guard. Miscreants know messages that trigger strong emotions get shared the most.

4. News gold or fool’s gold? Genuine scoops are rare. If information is reported by only one source, beware—especially if it suggests that something is being hidden from you.

5. False accounting. Use of fake social media accounts, such as @BBCNewsTonight, is a classic trick. Look out for misleading images and bogus web addresses too.

6. Oversharing. If someone urges you to share their sensational news, they might just want a share of the resulting advertising revenue.

7. Follow the money. Think about who stands to gain from you believing extraordinary claims.

8. Fact-check check. Go past the headlines and read a story to the end. If it sounds dubious, search fact-checking websites to see whether it has already been debunked.

takeaway: Practitioners have to think critically about when and how to share what we know and must resist the temptation to guess.

Source: Nic Fleming, “Coronavirus Misinformation, and How Scientists Can Help to Fight It,” June 17, 2020, nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01834-3.

Cal Cates is an educator, writer, and speaker on topics ranging from massage therapy in the hospital setting to end-of-life care and massage therapy policy and regulation. A founding director of the Society for Oncology Massage from 2007–2014 and current executive director and founder of Healwell, Cates works within and beyond the massage therapy community to elevate the level of practice and integration of massage overall and in health care specifically. Cates also is the co-creator of the podcasts Massage Therapy Without Borders and Interdisciplinary.