Most doctor-made YouTube health videos lack strong proof, study finds

Many health videos on YouTube, even those made by doctors, may not be giving viewers reliable medical information, a new study suggests.

Researchers reviewed 309 popular YouTube videos about cancer and diabetes and found that fewer than 1 in 5 were supported by high-quality scientific evidence.

About two-thirds had low, very low or no evidence at all to back up their health claims.

Even more concerning: Videos with weaker evidence often attracted more viewers than those backed by strong science.

The study, published recently in JAMA Network Open, looked only at videos created by health professionals that had at least 10,000 views.

This reveals a substantial credibility-evidence gap in medical content videos, where physician authority frequently legitimizes claims lacking robust empirical support.

Videos with the weakest evidence were 35% more likely to get higher view counts than videos with strong scientific evidence, the study found.

Physician-spread misinformation is a long-standing problem, dating back well before the internet era.

 This study authors say that some doctors still rely on personal experience and beliefs instead of hard data, even though evidence-based medicine (EBM) is considered the gold standard.

And EBM seemingly devalues the individual clinician's judgment!

EunKyo Kang et al, The Quality of Evidence of and Engagement With Video Medical Claims, JAMA Network Open (2026). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.52106

Another kind of student debt is entrenching inequality: 'Time inheritance'

Inequality in education is shaped not only by financial resources but also by "time inheritance." Students from privileged backgrounds benefit from "banked time," allowing them to take risks and pursue opportunities, while those from less advantaged families operate on "borrowed time," facing pressure to earn quickly and support relatives. This temporal disparity limits educational and career choices, reinforcing social inequality.

Another kind of student debt is entrenching inequality

Understanding unconsciousness during general anaesthesia

Brain marker signals when anaesthesia takes hold

De-synchronized electrical activity marks the loss of awareness.

Scientists have identified a distinctive brain-wave pattern that marks the slide into unconsciousness during general anaesthesia with the drug propofol. Data taken from people about to have surgery show that, as anaesthesia takes hold, a specific type of activity in brain areas such as the parietal cortex and deeper structures slips out of synchronicity. If verified in studies that gather deep-brain data, and use other anaesthetics, this shift could serve as a biomarker of loss of consciousness that doctors could use to avoid sedating patients too deeply — or not deeply enough.

Neurophysiological connectomic signatures of consciousness during p...