First, I must define Remedy Research: Remedy Research is that research that says carrot juice (or a vitamin or supplement, etc.) is good for your gout, hemorrhoids, heart, eyes, brain, etc., and that carrot juice (or a vitamin or supplement, etc.) is not good for your gout, hemorrhoids, heart, eyes, brain, etc.
Let?s take Vitamin E. My neighbor who suffers from heart disease takes 800 mg of vitamin E everyday. She says it makes her heart tissue pliable and really nice. Now 800 mg is way above the recommended dosage. She doesn?t care.
I use to take high dosages of vitamin E, but I don?t now. Why? Remedy Research said ?Stop doing that!?
Here is a government report item on vitamin E: A 1994 review of 5,133 Finnish men and women aged 30-69 years also suggested that increased dietary intake of vitamin E was associated with decreased mortality (death) from heart disease. http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamine.asp
Over 5 thousand Fins. Wow!
Here is another report on vitamin E: At a recent meeting of the American Heart Association (2004) researchers presented data that showed high levels of vitamin E may cause death. A statistical analysis combining data from studies involving 136,000 indicated that subjects receiving high doses of vitamin E had a 5% increase in death. The cause of death in these studies was not reported. http://www.medicinalfoodnews.com/vol08/issue3/vitamine.htm
Maybe they got run over by a train.
There are lies, damn lies, and statistics.
Let me tell you a secret: Statistical research can be useful.
Let take the above. Have a zillion people take lots of vitamin E and another zillion take none. Come back in five years and see how many are still alive. Draw a conclusion.
What should the conclusion be?
Proper Conclusion: We checked the death rate of those who take lots of vitamin E with those who took none. We checked a zillion people so there is a high probability that our results are correct and that there is a difference ! in death rate. No conclusions can be drawn as to why more people died who use lots of vitamin E. No causes of death were determined.
The above is not statistician talk. I didn?t use it because you would not know what in all hell the conclusion was.
Now, how should the above statistical information be used?
First, the reasons for death must be determined.
If there is an increase in heart related deaths (or any other disease), it should be studied further.
What were the exact causes of heart disease deaths? Can they in anyway be related to vitamin E?
If they can, then what exactly is the property and mechanism by which vitamin E may kill you?
If you don?t have the answers to the above questions, then forget the statistics.
Start over!
Your only conclusion must be: That specific statistical test does not correlate with known science.
That goes for the Finnish test too but to a lesser degree because the Finnish test was related specifically to heart disease deaths. But that study also has to be verified by science. You have to know the mechanism by which vitamin E causes heart problems or prevents them.
We American spend billions of dollars on prescription and nonprescription medicines and health supplements. Some studies indicated that certain prescription drugs are harmful or useless. Some studies show that nonprescription health supplements are useful. Others show they are detrimental or useless. Some studies show that certain nonprescription supplements are superior to certain prescription drugs.
Things are so confusing that many seek the advice of quacks or naturalist. Unfortunately, most medical doctors know little about natural supplements that are not in their formulary.
Every year a lot of people swarm into Mexico for magical treatments. Mrs. King was one of these which resulted in the closing down of a number of medical clinics by the Mexican Government.
Americans are interested in natural remedies. It?s part of our culture! . It?s u p to science to determine what does what by what mechanism. Using statistics for the wrong purposes just confuses the heck out of everybody.
John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He is Executive Representative of IWS sellers of Tyler Hicks wealth-success books and kits. He also sells TopFlight flagpoles. He calls himself Taylor Jones, the hack writer.
More info: http://www.tjbooks.com
Business web site: http://www.aaaflagpoles.com
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น