Snake Oil? Cool infographic on health supplements
One of my favourite blogs is Information Is Beautiful, and here is a lovely example of how a large dataset can be turned into something visual and easily interpreted: The Scientific Evidence for Popular Health Supplements.
What does it represent?
– size of bubbles represents Google search popularity
– height of bubbles represents strength of scientific evidence for its efficacy in the specific health use
By making use of the Cochrane.org systematic reviews of double-blind clinical studies, IIB have made sure that we are looking only at reliable, scientifically sound data. You can even see the data here.
I am looking forward to seeing David McCandless’ TED Talk in the upcoming TED Global 2010 at Oxford. Of course, I’ll be watching on the web. Check out more of their infographics here.
Posted on July 13, 2010, in Uncategorized and tagged clinical trials, data, Evidence, Health and Social Issues, infographics, science, supplements, TED. Bookmark the permalink. 2 Comments.
i-Biology 
Love this graphic – really presents information in a way that students can easily access. Thanks for introducing me to the Information is Beautiful website – there is a whole lot there that can be used in science lessons.
Thanks Gemma – Infographics is one trend that is really useful, and is a great discussion starter. I’d never seen your site before, but it’s cool – I will be visiting from now on!