3 ms·

I am not a doctor so I don't have the skills to evaluate this paper. But it strikes me that this area must be very hard to scientifically evaluate. There are n

by chvid 7y ago

I am not a doctor so I don't have the skills to evaluate this paper. But it strikes me that this area must be very hard to scientifically evaluate. There are number of 'big' ideas out there on health and each person seem to have their own preference. Cold showers, hot baths, meditation, that food should be vegetarian, organic, mostly meat and high on protein, vitamin c, extreme exercise and so on. These are very cultural and some times even religious. This "culturalness" affects the authors too. We want certain things to be true because it agrees with our values. For example that organic farmed food is healthier than non-organic. This is a meta study that cites a lot of other studies. Some of them have very small sample size; in particular the ones dealing with humans. And I wonder how was the control done? People cannot help noticing that they do not get food. What was the effect size? Were subjects excluded from the experiment because they were too weak not to eat (or just didn't want to)? Would the study be published had it not shown an effect? And so on ... Just because you sum up accross multiple studies; it does not necessary give better a signal because the noise may not be random.

randcraw 7y ago
Agreed. I think the purpose of papers like this is not to advocate for the therapy today, but to encourage scientists and research funding figures to more seriously investigate the phenomenon. As others here have noted, the past studies have been quite small, and because the treated study participants experience hunger, adding a blinded control group is difficult. These faults will have to be addressed before results are actionable clinically. But if they appear promising, there may be creative ways to address them, if the researchers do get sufficient motivation and funding.

3 ms·

I am not a doctor so I don't have the skills to evaluate this paper. But it strikes me that this area must be very hard to scientifically evaluate. There are n

by chvid 7y ago

randcraw 7y ago
Agreed. I think the purpose of papers like this is not to advocate for the therapy today, but to encourage scientists and research funding figures to more seriously investigate the phenomenon. As others here have noted, the past studies have been quite small, and because the treated study participants experience hunger, adding a blinded control group is difficult. These faults will have to be addressed before results are actionable clinically. But if they appear promising, there may be creative ways to address them, if the researchers do get sufficient motivation and funding.