The health advice that keeps you from getting sick might actually harm you once you’re already ill. This counterintuitive medical reality has a new name: “Cuomo’s paradox”, coined by Professor Raphael Cuomo at UC San Diego School of Medicine after analysing findings across numerous studies.
The paradox describes how behaviour long considered unhealthy – carrying extra weight, drinking moderate amounts of alcohol, having elevated cholesterol – sometimes correlates with better survival in people who already have cancer or heart disease. It’s a phenomenon that challenges the one-size-fits-all approach to medical advice.
