Dear Readers,
INSALUBRIS is a blog to address a big issue: whatever is harmful to health or unhealthy (insalubris, in Latin). You will agree that it is an immeasurable topic. However, we believe that it is necessary to carefully review some practices, uses and habits which are not good for health. Especially those that many people are unaware of, and about which others do not seem to want to know.
For example, it is incomprehensible that in the 21st century epidemics that had been almost eliminated have reappeared due to the failure to vaccinate some people because of some strange and very pernicious ideas against vaccines, that is, against the prevention of infectious diseases.
Additionally, today there is an enormous number of products and practices which, according to the advertising that accompanies them, are good for our health. But it is not easy to demonstrate that something is good for health or that it improves or cures a disease, since scientific studies conducted with very rigorous methods are required. On many occasions, too many, when someone wants to sell a product at all costs, the necessary studies are not done, and products that are said to have properties that are good for health go out into the marketplace even though no real benefit has been demonstrated at all.
There are also “pseudomedicines” (false Medicine), in other words, practices which have not been scientifically proved to improve a disease, but towards which, unfortunately, in recent years, many people have been dragged, being perhaps not very well informed and also being easy to convince. Some of these practices are clearly harmful to health, and others, although not directly harmful, deceive sick people by keeping them away from scientific medicine, losing opportunities for improvement or cure, sometimes irremediably.
There are many situations which can be harmful to health. Some of them are well known by many people, others not so much. So this blog will deal with situations which may be harmful to health, and of which some people may be unaware.
The approach to all these issues will be scientific. So we will not simply give an opinion and nothing more, but will rely on published scientific research which has demonstrated what we affirm. In addition, it will be explained as clearly as possible, so that it can be understood by everyone.
This blog, in English and Spanish, will consist of several sections which will be created little by little. It is open to the participation of anyone who wants to write in English or Spanish about what is harmful to health or unhealthy (insalubris). The articles, 800 words of text as a maximum if possible, will include bibliographic references which support their content, and will be published in the blog with the names of their authors.
Many thanks to the readers of, and contributors to, this blog.
Dr. Ana Moreno Cerro
PhD in Medicine and Surgery and specialist in Clinical Immunology.