Fact-Checking Policy
What we check against
Every factual health claim on remedieshealthfitness.com is checked against sources that outrank us: peer-reviewed research, and the published guidance of recognised public health bodies such as the World Health Organization and national health agencies. Not against other health sites, not against a press release’s summary of a study, and never against “everybody knows”. If a claim cannot be traced to that class of source, it is either removed or explicitly labelled for what it is: a hypothesis, a tradition, or an open question.
The check before publication
Fact-checking here is a stage of publication, not an occasional audit. Before an article goes live:
- The writer checks their own copy against the sources, claim by claim: every number traced to the table it came from, every quoted finding read in the paper itself rather than in the abstract alone, every named guideline opened and read.
- A second editor reads the sources, not just the sentences. Their job is to catch the gap between what the study shows and what the article says: the mouse study wearing a human headline, the association dressed as causation, the relative risk with the base rate missing.
- High-stakes claims get a harder gate. Anything involving doses, drug or supplement interactions, pregnancy, children, serious disease, or advice a reader could act on physically requires the checking editor to verify the claim in the primary source directly. On these claims we do not accept secondary reporting as verification at all.
On fast-moving public health news, the rule is the one that keeps desks honest everywhere: we publish less rather than check less. Being an hour behind with a verified number beats being first with a wrong one.
How specific claim types are handled
Study findings
We verify the design, the sample, the effect size and the limitations from the paper itself, and the article carries them. A finding is attributed to its study, not to “science”.
Remedies and traditional claims
Remedy articles state the evidence level explicitly: what trials exist, what they found, and where the honest answer is “no good evidence” or “evidence of harm”, the article says exactly that. Popularity, tradition and testimonials are not evidence, and we check safety signals, interactions and contraindications with the same rigour as efficacy claims, because “harmless” is also a factual claim.
Numbers from authorities
Case counts, recall scopes and guideline thresholds are taken from the issuing body’s own publication, with its date, and attributed to it. When authoritative sources disagree, we say so and say why, rather than averaging or picking the dramatic one.
Expert quotes
Credentials are verified, and quoted claims of fact get checked like any other claim. A qualified person saying something does not make it true, and an expert opinion is labelled as opinion.
What does not survive the check
- Claims sourced only to a press release, a supplement seller, an influencer or another aggregator.
- Causal language sitting on observational evidence.
- “Boosts immunity”, “detoxes”, “balances hormones” and similar phrases, unless we are examining the claim itself critically.
- Preprints and conference abstracts presented as settled findings, rather than labelled as preliminary.
- Any cure claim for a serious disease that is not supported by the standard of evidence a regulator would require. There is no traffic number that buys an exception to this one.
After publication
Verification does not end at the publish button. Readers who dispute a claim can reach the desk directly at support@remedieshealthfitness.com with CORRECTION in the subject, and credible challenges are re-checked against sources as a priority. When the evidence moves, when a study is retracted, or when we simply got something wrong, the article changes visibly under our Corrections Policy, with a dated note. A fact-checking policy that only operates before publication is half a policy; health evidence does not stop moving on our publish date, and neither do the checks.
