Some of the most important words in a medical explanation are easy to overlook: may, can, tends to, is associated with. They indicate what a claim does—and does not—say. I treat those qualifiers as part of the information, not as cautious language to trim away for a cleaner sentence.
Match the wording to the claim
A description of an association should not quietly become a statement of cause. Likewise, a possible benefit should not read like a guaranteed outcome. The wording needs to reflect the evidence being summarized, and the source material should be checked whenever an edit changes how certain a statement sounds.
Make uncertainty understandable
Qualifiers can confuse readers when they arrive without explanation. If a result varies across people or situations, I try to say what the variation depends on when that information is available. A direct sentence about what is known, followed by a clear note about what remains uncertain, is often easier to follow than a string of hedges.
Keep the limits in view
Evidence has boundaries, and a useful article should not hide them in a footnote-like afterthought. The type of evidence, the group it concerns, and the question it can answer all affect how a reader should interpret a claim. If those details are relevant to the point, they belong in the explanation.
When I edit a sentence about health, I ask whether its confidence matches its support. If a reader could reasonably take more from the wording than the evidence allows, the sentence needs another look.