Research bias that might be bad for your health

If you read enough studies on health you start coming across conflicting results and recommendations. Sometimes the results are directly at odds with each other. How does this happen? One reason is that some studies are funded by industries sources with a vested interest in a particular outcome.

The Public Library of Science online journal PLoS Medicine reviewed 111 studies and found that studies funded entirely by industry were four to eight ties more likely to be favorable to th financial interest of the sponsors than those paid by other groups.

This doesn't mean they are wrong but it does mean that you need to factor in the source of the funding into the evaluation particularly if the results contradict other studies that were not funded by industry special interests.