Is News Bad For Your Health?

[LazyGun]

News if bad for you, m'kay?

At least, thats what this article is suggesting. Makes for interesting reading, I think.

From the article
"ews is toxic to your body. It constantly triggers the limbic system. Panicky stories spur the release of cascades of glucocorticoid (cortisol). This deregulates your immune system and inhibits the release of growth hormones. In other words, your body finds itself in a state of chronic stress."

and
"News increases cognitive errors. News feeds the mother of all cognitive errors: confirmation bias. In the words of Warren Buffett: "What the human being is best at doing is interpreting all new information so that their prior conclusions remain intact."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/12/news-is-bad-rolf-dobelli

Quite interesting, given recent discussions over the focus and agenda of some media outlets and indeed on the MMR/Wakefield controversy....

[mushroom25]

it seems to have affected your keyboard skills, lazygun....

[anotheoldgit]

Good enough reason to make one shy away from reading the Guardian, if ever one needs an excuse.

[LazyGun]

No, that's entirely the fault of typing without my reading glasses, and lazy reviewing prior to posting. Cannot lay those faults at News's door :)

If only we had an edit facility... :)

Apologies for the spelling errors - hopefully it will not detract from the meaning...

[tiggerblue10]

I get very emotional whenever there is a news item about children and babies.

[LazyGun]

Very droll, AoG. Did you bother to read the article?

[anotheoldgit]

LazyGun

/// Very droll, AoG. Did you bother to read the article? ///

No your headline put me off, besides one gets so fed up with reading what's bad for you one day and then another day what's good for you.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2308407/For-better-marks-read-newspapers-stop-texting-How-news-help-grades.html

[LazyGun]

Why am I not surprised, AoG - dismissal of the point without even bothering to look at the evidence. How very AoG...

[jim360]

I'm going to bet that the Guardian won't be the to stop giving news to help save us all...

I think it's as much about the reader as anything. There are some people who are able to take on news dispassionately. And others who get seriously affected by it. I'm probably rather a lot more in the second group that I would like.

[excelsior-1]

the media constantly digging up dirt and/or destroying reputations does make me sick - if this counts

[LazyGun]

You are not the only one, Jim. Every human alive is guilty of confirmation bias, i think - the trick is to recognise that and to seek additional sources.

And although i do not agree with all of the points raised within the article- there are certainly some real truths in it, not least the ephemeral nature of news, and how misleading it can be.

[chaptazbru]

Yes, I think the news can be bad for you. I frequently get stressed out and worked up over some news - it doesn't often make us smile !

[Sqad]

Isn't this just a well recognised "Fight and Flight " reaction?
Just a body response to stress?

I thought that "stress" may be good for you.........;-)

[LazyGun]

I guess it depends on what is being "stressed", Sqad :)

I just think it an interesting an article, and a reminder that we all discard stuff that does not support our already formed worldviews......

Oh, and that, with the exception of those directly concerned, or coverage of catastrophic events, that News is ephemeral and not to let it effect you too much....

[Connemmara]

I get sick of sicknesses - we have had so much here in northern ireland - ie friends cancer, leukeumia, tumours, omg deaths, unbelievable suicides - and I have told myself no - I will go to the church/chapel but no more seeing dead bodies - in my day young and old I may have seen at LEAST more than 100 bodies but no more for me.

[LazyGun]

@Conne - "in my day young and old I may have seen at LEAST more than 100 bodies but no more for me"

That sounds pretty horrendous. I have been very lucky in that respect.

[237SJ]

I haven`t read the article but I was only saying to a friend the other day that modern media causes us to be overloaded with the worries of the world and human`s aren`t designed to worry about everything beyond their own community/tribe etc. The end result is either stress and anxiety or compassion overload - neither of which is very constructive.

[FredPuli43]

Is it not the case that the Daily Mail keeps saying that such and such a thing is believed to cause illness and then follows that, a while later, by saying exactly the opposite? Maybe medical research keeps reversing its own results and conclusions , in short order, but that seems unlikely. Anyway,the practice is likely to have all of us worrying and feeling ill, always assuming that we are not aware of the constant reverses and believe what the Daily Mail claims in such matters.

As for general news,it never worries me. We can't do anything to stop what has already happened, can we? And,if confronted with proof that something is always dangerous then I'll avoid it, as would anybody.

[Old_Geezer]

Any stressful stuff can have an adverse affect but I believe some is beneficial. Besides what's the alternative, to be ignorant of everything ? Information is well worth the cost.

[jno]

FredPuli, you may have this in mind

http://www.anorak.co.uk/288298/scare-stories/the-daily-mails-list-of-things-that-give-you-cancer-from-a-to-z.html/

[emmie]

good news isn't, if you won the lottery, unless of course if you dropped dead from a heart attack.