It is a minefield of misinformation on social media, especially when it comes to matters of health. It has pitted friends against each other and created an unspoken divide within families. It has seeped so much into our daily lives that researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, recently did a study to find the best way to tackle misinformation.
They found that using the bypassing technique to counter misinformation works better than factually correcting the same. The bypassing technique essentially involves providing positive, true counterclaims instead of negative rebuttals. But there are, of course, limitations to that technique as well—it is better used to keep the peace at family dinners than to change someone’s belief. Also, factually correcting a myth can work wonders if backed by science and explained in layman’s terms.
And, that is what orthopaedic surgeon Dr Manan Vora set out to do when he first started making content online during the second wave of Covid-19. It has earned him more than 400k followers on Instagram.
Also read | From ‘brown bread vs white’ to ‘exercising while on period’: Four health myths busted!
He, however, realised that there was just too much misinformation out there and he could not put out a reel or video countering each one of them. Also, the lifespan of reels was short, even if they went viral. And so, he wrote a book—his first—titled ‘But What Does Science Say: 101 Health Myths Busted’.
Vora, who has won the prestigious Edinburgh Surgery Global Scholar Award from the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, started writing the book in November 2023, poring over 1,400 research papers and turning them into short, crisp chapters with a generous dash of humour and Hindi filmi dialogues—all in 10 months.
His informal style of writing may appeal to a generation that prefers bite-sized information. And, Vora has ensured that there is something for those who want to go into the details—a QR code at the end of the book takes you to his research references.
Vora wears many hats—sports medicine specialist, health and longevity educator, co-founder of NutriByte Wellness and strategic partner and adviser to various health tech startups. But he is not all work and no play. He dedicates 90 minutes to workout and another 90 minutes to some quality time with loved ones.
In an interview with THE WEEK, Vora talks about his book, work-life balance and debunking myths. Excerpts:
Q: Your bio at the beginning of the book does give a fair warning against asking you this question. I cannot help but ask: how do you do it all?
A: I take a lot of pride in how I manage my time. So I think one thing that works for me is that I have incorporated, be it my own health or spending time with loved ones or different ways of enjoying your day-to-day life, as actual daily or weekly tasks; I have made them habits.... So that is something I find time for, even if it means a potential loss of income or an odd opportunity. That is okay with me.
Similarly, I am a father to a five-month-old baby. So this journey of fatherhood is very new to me. I have cut back on my practising hours and on a few other things because, as a parent, I want to be there as much as possible.
Of course, I cannot match up to the level of hard work and commitment that a mother has to put in, but at least I can be there as much as possible rather than miss out on these moments that I may repent later on.
Q: You have quite a following on social media. So why write a book when you already have an audience?
A: When I started making content online in 2021 and 2022, I had significant growth during that time. It was more novel and more unique for a doctor to come on social media and gather information. People also received it much better.
Cut to 2023, and we saw a massive surge in non-health qualified people making health information and finding a way to go into the algorithm of the audiences and grow very, very fast.
Some of them have gone past the followers that I have and I respect their journey as well. But they were kind of intentionally using techniques to garner attention or use a little bit of fear-mongering where it was not required, or just trying to find a way to make a video viral and then kind of sacrifice the kind of information that you should be giving.
So they were easily cutting those corners because they didn't really have a credibility to live up to; they didn't have a qualification or a practice to live up to—today if I say something dodgy, I am worried a patient will judge me and not come to me as their caregiver.... So when I saw that happening, I was like, ‘What can I do as a doctor?’ I cannot sit and remix every video and say that this is wrong, this is right, and defame people. That is not something that goes well with me. So this [writing a book] is an idea that I got.
Penguin reached out to me at a similar time. And we had a discussion about let's take 101 of the most debated health topics—we did our research for that—and let's tell the audience what science says from a doctor's point of view, from someone who is qualified and someone who you should rather be listening to.... So that was the thought process behind it.
We also noticed that it is very easy for a good video to be forgotten in two days. Today, an Instagram reel’s lifespan is about 48 hours, unless it goes significantly viral, it will go on for a week, very few go on for two, or three weeks, and then they still die out. So why not create something that outlives me?
Q: What were the challenges you faced while writing the book? How different is busting myths in print than on social media?
A: It was a huge challenge because I had never written it like a manuscript before. So I was watching YouTube videos on how to write a book, how to write a prepare a manuscript, and how to prepare a first draft. And I was learning along the journey.
I have no shame in admitting that I actually wrote 5 per cent of the book and shared it with five people and took their input. I had them as a focus group giving me their feedback. My end product is actually very different from that first 5 per cent. So the two main challenges were: one was that I was addressing the common man who was not science-heavy or technical-heavy. I didn't want to address medical students or doctors, that was not my aim.... So the first thing was to basically, in a very polite way, dumb it down. That is not to say that doctors are smart and others are dumb, but I had to use simple language. Now, this is something that I have done in my videos as well. So it is not like I was alien to the process of making complex things simple.
The second challenge was to make it interesting for the reader.... There are so many sources online that also write articles for the common man. So that is where the second challenge was. And I took that on with a little bit of feedback and helped to make this a day-to-day incident, a conversational style format... And I think the end product is pretty nice.
Q: You spoke about adopting a conversational style. You also brought in humour and Bollywood dialogues. Was it specifically tailored to a generation that prefers bite-sized information?
I will be very honest when I say I just played to my strength because, at the end of the day, I am a short-form video creator. I am not a long-form video creator. I am not a long-form text creator as well... I said, ‘Look, short-form works for me.’ This is what I have three years of experience in, so why not divide a 55,000-page book into 101 short articles? So that is the strategy I have gone for. At some point in my life, I want to write a book that is not going by this format, because that would be challenging for me.
Coming to the point where you mentioned humour or Bollywood dialogues, very honestly, that I have just played to my personality. If you have seen my recent videos, I have changed my video style to a more serious look.
But if you scroll down to my 2021-2022 videos, I used to have a lot of Bollywood references, I used to try and add a sense of humour and make it infotainment. But of late, I have noticed that people also want serious medical advice. So I have changed my strategy. But this is who I am as a person—I am known for my sense of humour among friends.... It was not an attempt at humour or an attempt at trying to fit into a generation, it just came naturally to me.
Q: There is no escaping misinformation. What do you think is a sure-shot way of fighting it?
A: Well, for the 101 topics, there is my book. So that is sorted for you guys. But on a serious note, we are living in an age where you cannot escape social media.... So these things are going to pop up on your feed.
One thing I want people to do is, and this probably applies to a lot of fields, but let's talk about health specifically, I want everyone to consume information as awareness, not as a decision-making tool. And this includes my videos as well. I want you to critique my video as well. I want people to watch my videos and say, ‘Oh, today, Dr Manan spoke about this, let me read up more about it’, and not ‘Today, Dr Manan spoke about this, I am doing this from today.’
And this is not a doctor versus non-doctor influencer debate, because I have seen non-doctors put out videos that are absolutely accurate and doctors put out videos that are sometimes inaccurate or not as well-researched. In fact, I have in my three years of content creation, put two videos that I created I thought were absolutely great, and when I was constructively criticised, I took those down myself. I put a story saying that maybe I should have read up more about this.
So I want people to view health information from an awareness point of view, not from a decision-making point of view. I want everyone to view any video or any information or any WhatsApp message, and the only question that should come to their mind when they read it is: But what does science say?
Book: But What Does Science Say: 101 Health Myths Busted
Author: Dr Manan Vora
Published by: Ebury Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House
Pages: 309
Price: Rs 299
