5 ms·

Mushrooms may 'reduce the risk of mild brain decline'

67 points by tartoran 8y ago

blauditore 8y ago
I wonder if the study was actually focusing on Mushrooms and brain decline, or on a broader set of topics (other foods, lifestyle etc.). If it's the latter, that might just be a small part of a large dataset, thus the result of p-fishing.
C14L 8y ago
> "may"
- DougN7 8y ago
  Yeah, I hate weasel words like that too. Eating sand “may” make me a genius. For that matter it “may” allow me to fly!
  - chabes 8y ago
    At this point, it’s not actually been tested. “May” is an appropriate word here, because there is a suggestion (based on the study) that something may (or may not) be correlated.
bencollier49 8y ago
Chinese mushroom eaters. Goodness only knows what the cultural connotations and confounding variables must be.
firethief 8y ago
"People who remember eating mushrooms more often have dramatically better memory"?
- ekovarski 8y ago
  Could be true as I don't remember the last time I ate mushrooms. :)
sametmax 8y ago
The correlation seems a bit broad. If you eat a lot of mushrooms, it increases the probability you cook and eat fresh vegetables. That itself is a big factor in health.
- chabes 8y ago
  I agree, though I think studies like these encourage further studies. Researchers are basically saying that there is evidence that points in a certain direction, so let’s follow it and see what it reveals. I’m personally extremely excited about the suggestions of this research, and am looking forward to future studies that are more in-depth.
  - sametmax 8y ago
    You're right, I should not be so quickly dismissive. More knowledge is always good either way.
- vidarh 8y ago
  Does it? Maybe it does, I don't know. But none of the ways I'm used to eating mushrooms involves much vegetables at all - fresh or otherwise - so I'm curious whether that is actually true or based on assumption related to specific traditions of use.
mabbo 8y ago
> The National University of Singapore study's findings were based on 663 Chinese adults, aged over 60, whose diet and lifestyle were tracked from 2011 to 2017. What concerns me is how many variables were tracked. Every year, come Superbowl Sunday, we hear about all the patterns: no team that had an under-32 coach from West of the Mississippi has ever won (I've no idea if that's true, but that's an example). The problem is that there's so many variables compared to data points that it's easy to find a pattern. 663 adults sounds like a lot of data, but this wasn't a study about mushrooms, it was tracking many different variables in diet and lifestyle. Maybe the mushroom pattern is random chance. There's also correlation vs causation. Perhaps mushrooms are eaten more in a region where mild brain decline is less common. Maybe mushrooms taste better to people with genes that also make brains not decline. All that said, as a guy who loves eating mushrooms I fully support further studies.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
yeahdontask 8y ago
Sigh. I read the article thinking it was going to be about psilocybin. Those kinds of mushrooms seem to help me ward off brain decline. :-p

67 points by tartoran 8y ago

I wonder if the study was actually focusing on Mushrooms and brain decline, or on a broader set of topics (other foods, lifestyle etc.). If it's the latter, that might just be a small part of a large dataset, thus the result of p-fishing.

C14L 8y ago

> "may"

DougN7 8y ago
Yeah, I hate weasel words like that too. Eating sand “may” make me a genius. For that matter it “may” allow me to fly!
- chabes 8y ago
  At this point, it’s not actually been tested. “May” is an appropriate word here, because there is a suggestion (based on the study) that something may (or may not) be correlated.

bencollier49 8y ago

Chinese mushroom eaters. Goodness only knows what the cultural connotations and confounding variables must be.

firethief 8y ago

"People who remember eating mushrooms more often have dramatically better memory"?

ekovarski 8y ago
Could be true as I don't remember the last time I ate mushrooms. :)

sametmax 8y ago

The correlation seems a bit broad. If you eat a lot of mushrooms, it increases the probability you cook and eat fresh vegetables. That itself is a big factor in health.

chabes 8y ago
I agree, though I think studies like these encourage further studies. Researchers are basically saying that there is evidence that points in a certain direction, so let’s follow it and see what it reveals. I’m personally extremely excited about the suggestions of this research, and am looking forward to future studies that are more in-depth.
- sametmax 8y ago
  You're right, I should not be so quickly dismissive. More knowledge is always good either way.
vidarh 8y ago
Does it? Maybe it does, I don't know. But none of the ways I'm used to eating mushrooms involves much vegetables at all - fresh or otherwise - so I'm curious whether that is actually true or based on assumption related to specific traditions of use.

mabbo 8y ago

> The National University of Singapore study's findings were based on 663 Chinese adults, aged over 60, whose diet and lifestyle were tracked from 2011 to 2017. What concerns me is how many variables were tracked. Every year, come Superbowl Sunday, we hear about all the patterns: no team that had an under-32 coach from West of the Mississippi has ever won (I've no idea if that's true, but that's an example). The problem is that there's so many variables compared to data points that it's easy to find a pattern. 663 adults sounds like a lot of data, but this wasn't a study about mushrooms, it was tracking many different variables in diet and lifestyle. Maybe the mushroom pattern is random chance. There's also correlation vs causation. Perhaps mushrooms are eaten more in a region where mild brain decline is less common. Maybe mushrooms taste better to people with genes that also make brains not decline. All that said, as a guy who loves eating mushrooms I fully support further studies.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

yeahdontask 8y ago

Sigh. I read the article thinking it was going to be about psilocybin. Those kinds of mushrooms seem to help me ward off brain decline. :-p