My surgeon friend told me medical studies are like the bible. You can find a paper that says something is bad for you and another that says it is good for you. So just believe the one that makes you happier.
You can definitely find contradictory studies. The solution is not to abandon research, but to recognize that A study means very little, unless it's a systematic review or meta-analysis (in which case it's a study of many studies).
Don't pick the one study that shows what you want. Pick all the studies and go with whatever the preponderance of evidence suggests. That's science, and it's by far our most effective and reliable way of learning useful and non-obvious truths about the world.
