Editorial Policy

Last updated: 2026-05-17

Health Pandora publishes evidence-based health and wellness content for general consumer audiences. This policy describes the standards we apply to every article, how we source claims, how we handle errors and conflicts of interest, and how readers can contact us with concerns. It is binding on every contributor to Health Pandora.

1. Editorial Mission

Health Pandora exists to help readers make informed decisions about supplements, health products, and wellness practices by providing clear, honest, and evidence-based information. We are not a medical authority and our content is not a substitute for professional medical advice. We do not diagnose, treat, or prescribe.

We aim to summarize the best available evidence as it exists at the time of publication, explain its limitations honestly, and present readers with the information they need to ask better questions of their own healthcare providers.

2. Scope & Content Categories

Our editorial coverage includes:

• Ingredient research — peer-reviewed evidence on individual compounds and nutrients
• Product reviews — independent evaluations of dietary supplements and consumer health products
• Mechanism explainers — how biological systems (mitochondria, gut microbiome, etc.) are believed to work, based on current research
• Lifestyle and dietary practice reviews — what the evidence says about specific eating, sleep, exercise, and recovery practices
• Health-news interpretation — context for major new research findings or public-health stories

We do not publish: prescription-drug recommendations, diagnostic protocols, treatment plans for specific medical conditions, or content directed at clinical professionals.

3. Source Hierarchy

Every health claim on Health Pandora must be traceable to a published source. We rank sources by reliability in this order:

1. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses indexed in PubMed, Cochrane Library, or equivalent
2. Randomized controlled trials published in peer-reviewed journals
3. Observational studies (cohort, case-control) — used with appropriate caveats about causality
4. Official guidance from public-health agencies (NIH, CDC, NHS, WHO, EFSA, FDA)
5. Mechanistic and pre-clinical research — explicitly labeled as such; never extrapolated to clinical claims
6. Expert consensus statements from recognized professional bodies

Sources that are not acceptable as primary evidence: manufacturer-sponsored content presented as independent research; press releases without supporting publication; predatory-journal publications; social-media posts; AI-generated summaries used in place of the underlying study.

4. Editorial Independence

Our editorial conclusions are determined by the evidence, not by commercial relationships. The following are firm rules:

• No advertiser, affiliate partner, or sponsor reviews or approves editorial content before publication
• No payment, gift, or other consideration is accepted in exchange for a positive review
• Coverage decisions (what to review, when, in what depth) are made independently of commercial relationships
• When we receive product samples for review, this is disclosed in the relevant article and does not entitle the manufacturer to any editorial influence

If a contributor has a personal or financial relationship with a product, brand, or manufacturer that could reasonably be seen as influencing their writing, they recuse themselves from covering it. See section 7 below.

5. Fact-Checking Process

Every article on Health Pandora passes through a verification pass before publication. The process includes:

• Source verification — every cited study, statistic, and quotation is checked against the original source
• Currency check — older studies are flagged and re-evaluated against more recent literature
• Conflicting-evidence audit — where evidence is mixed, we look for and acknowledge counter-findings rather than cherry-picking
• Quantitative review — dosages, percentages, and effect sizes are verified against source data
• Plain-language review — claims are re-read for any overstatement, oversimplification, or misleading framing

6. Updates & Freshness

Health science evolves. Articles on Health Pandora carry a Last reviewed date and are reviewed on a regular cadence (quarterly for fast-moving topics, annually for stable subjects). When meaningful new evidence appears we update the article and disclose the change with a brief change note. We do not change publication dates to make older content appear newer.

7. Conflicts of Interest

Every contributor to Health Pandora must disclose any of the following before being assigned a topic:

• Financial interest in any product, brand, or company in the relevant category
• Personal use of (or strong opinions about) a product being reviewed
• Family or close-relationship ties to anyone in the supplement or health-product industry
• Past employment with any company being covered

Disclosures are documented internally and trigger recusal where there is any reasonable doubt. Where a disclosure would affect how a reader interprets the article (e.g. the writer has been personally helped by a product they're reviewing), it is stated within the article itself.

8. Affiliate Relationships & Monetization

Health Pandora earns commissions when readers buy products through affiliate links on our site. These commissions help fund the editorial work but do not influence which products we cover, what we say about them, or our ratings and conclusions. See our full FTC affiliate disclosure.

We do not accept paid placements, sponsored reviews, or any content that is created at the direction of an advertiser. Sponsorship of any kind — when present — is clearly labeled and visually separated from editorial content.

9. Contributor Standards

Articles on Health Pandora are produced by the Health Pandora Editorial Team. Contributors are required to:

• Have demonstrable experience in health writing, research, nutrition science, journalism, or a closely-related field
• Disclose all conflicts of interest (see section 7)
• Cite primary sources for every factual claim
• Submit drafts to the verification process described in section 5 before publication

Where individual contributors choose to be publicly attributed, their bio, credentials, and areas of expertise are published on the article and on a dedicated author profile page. Where contributors prefer not to be named (e.g. for privacy reasons), articles are bylined to the collective Health Pandora Editorial Team.

10. Use of AI Tools

AI tools may be used by contributors for research support (summarizing study abstracts, generating outlines, drafting placeholder text), but no AI-generated content is published without human source-verification, editing, and fact-checking. Every published claim is verified by a human against a primary source. AI is a research aid, not a content source. We do not present AI-generated text as if it were original human reporting.

11. Reader Feedback

We welcome reader feedback on our content. If you have concerns about accuracy, framing, balance, or any aspect of an article, please email us at contact@healthpandora.com. Substantive feedback is reviewed by the editorial team and, where warranted, leads to content updates documented in our Corrections page.

12. Errors & Corrections

When we get something wrong, we acknowledge it and fix it. Our full process for accepting and posting corrections — including how to report an error and what happens after — is on our dedicated Corrections Policy page. Major corrections are noted on the affected article itself with a dated change note.

Questions about this policy? Email contact@healthpandora.com.