Methodology

How a post on The Care Online gets written, checked and published, and what to do if we’ve got something wrong.

How posts are made

  1. A topic is chosen from a curated list. Every series keeps its own list. Topics come from the editor, from readers, and from the questions people actually search for.
  2. It’s written to a brief and a set of house rules. Each series has a written brief, and every post follows the same rules: no diagnoses, no “treats”, “cures” or “detox” claims, no invented statistics, no fake credentials, and no clinical citations we can’t stand behind.
  3. It’s checked against the house rules before publishing. Every draft goes through an automated check for banned claims, medicine doses, “studies show” wording, age limits, FAQ quality and broken links, and drafts that fail are fixed or dropped. Many batches, including the children’s, weight and herbal-product series, also had a second, automated line-by-line review; not every post has. No post has been checked or signed off by a licensed doctor, pharmacist, dietitian or other practitioner. We have run site-wide accuracy and safety sweeps of published posts, and a reader report gets that post fixed.
  4. It’s published and corrected in the open. When a reader spots a mistake, we fix the post.

How we talk about traditional practice

A lot of our posts draw on Unani (hakeem) tradition, Ayurveda and ordinary South-Asian household practice. We describe these as what they are: traditions with their own internal logic, such as “cooling” and “warming” temperaments. We don’t present that logic as established fact, and we don’t claim any ingredient prevents, treats or cures a condition. Patch-test first, stop if it stings, and take anything persistent to a qualified professional.

Sensitive topics

Some series go further than skin and hair, so they carry stricter rules:

  • Children’s health (Bachon Ki Sehat): guidance is given by age band, with the warning signs that mean seeing a doctor the same day stated up front.
  • Weight loss and weight gain: realistic rates only (about 0.5 to 1 kg a week for loss), calorie ranges rather than crash plans, no slimming teas or fat burners, and clear warnings about steroid-laced “herbal” gainers.
  • Health conditions: we explain what a condition is, what home care can and can’t do, and when to get tested or see a doctor. We never tell anyone to start, stop or change a medicine.

What we won’t publish

Diagnoses, medicine doses to self-prescribe, miracle cures, “detox” claims, or anything that replaces seeing a qualified professional.

Corrections

Found an error, a claim that goes too far, or a tradition we’ve described badly? Write to hello@thecareonline.com with the post URL. We read every message and correct posts in place.

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