Public Health

An analysis of over 400,000 people's self-reported drinking habits finds that statistically drinking alcohol 4 or more times per week increases the risk of premature death by 20 percent. The increased risk was consistent across age groups. Because this is epidemiology, a lot of caution must be placed near the top. Recently, The Lancer published a paper they knew was bogus but had a media friendly claim; that the safe level of alcohol was none. But that was just a review of studies and included binge drinkers and alcoholics. And every paper of this kind will suffer from a glaring weakness; it…

On occasion there are renewed claims that even moderate alcohol consumption might "cause" breast cancer. As science advances so do claims about new ways to suggest harm. An example is recent claims about epigenetic alterations and lifestyle behaviors. Yet there are flaws in such a simplistic approach to correlating one lifestyle option out of hundreds, like modest alcohol consumption, and breast cancer, which comprises 21 subtypes with each subtype displaying its own unique pathological signature. In Cancer, the authors of a new paper highlight controversial instances where epidemiological…

A new paper declares that whole grains can help prevent type 2 diabetes  but a quick glance at the methodology will show you why you need to be skeptical. It doesn't matter if it’s rye, oats, wheat, wheatberries, bulgur, or couscous, any whole grain will do. Which is like declaring that any pasta can reduce type 2 diabetes, which will also be true - if in either case the calories are reduced. Type 2 diabetes, which unlike Type 1 does not involve an inability to produce insulin but rather involves insulin production being overworked, is overwhelmingly related to obesity. That is why…

People who go on low carbohydrate diets often report that they lose weight. And they do, because it is a crash diet. But as a long-term solution that and other fad diets are unsafe, as shown in a large study presented today at the European Society of Cardiology today. The study prospectively examined the relationship between low carbohydrate diets, all-cause death, and deaths from coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease (including stroke), and cancer in a nationally representative sample of 24,825 participants of the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES)…

Some researchers, clinicians, professional organizations, and health charities have been waging a war on sugar, calling for dietary recommendations to be changed and even for a sin tax on sugar, all claiming it will reduce obesity and cardiovascular diseases. In 2014, the World Health Organisation even recommended that adults and children reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than ten percent of their total energy intake.  Yet there is another contingent who claim the War on Sugar was retaliation by Big Fat for the low fat craze of the 1980s through the 2000s, and once the…

Secondhand smoke remains controversial because it takes statistical manipulation to link it to any deaths. Yes, it can be harmful to asthmatics, just like perfume or a wine cellar, but a whole advocacy industry has not been built up talking about how wine cellars must be killing people. And the most comprehensive study ever done on secondhand smoke and mortality has never been shown to be flawed.  Smoking is bad in too many ways to count. Does it cause arthritis? That is a bit of a stretch, unless you believe not drinking enough milk in childhood caused your hip replacement at age 80. So…

Last week I had a shocking cold. Blocked nose, sore throat, and feeling poorly. This made me think about the countless vitamins and supplements on the market that promise to ease symptoms of a cold, help you recover faster, and reduce your chance of getting another cold. When it comes to the common cold (also called upper respiratory tract infections) there is no magic cure (I wish) but some supplements may deliver very minor improvements. Here is what the latest research evidence says. Vitamin C For the average person, taking vitamin C does not reduce the number of colds you get, or the…

For years it would not have been possible to use the word “silence” in the same sentence with BPA (bisphenol A).  The safety of BPA has been a long-running, robust controversy, in particular regarding concerns that BPA might cause health effects at exposure levels in the very low range that we as consumers might experience every day.  At times, the loud and ubiquitous discussion on BPA might have best been described as a cacophony.  Lately though, just when you might expect the volume to reach a crescendo with results from the CLARITY study, it’s been strangely quiet. As with…

A recent study in European Journal of Clinical Nutrition finds that picky eaters are healthier. That doesn't mean you shouldn't encourage kids to try new things, but they are not going to end up unhealthy if they sat at the dinner table for an hour and still didn't eat that cabbage. And it debunks claims that picky eaters are at higher risk of being underweight, with poor growth, or being overweight. The study examined if people identified as picky eaters showed differences in height, weight and body composition from their non-picky peers. Height and weight were followed for 10 years…

Democracies have better teeth than dictatorships, according to recent statistical correlation presented at the 96th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) in London, held in conjunction with the IADR Pan European Regional (PER) Congress. John Estrada-Montoya, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, gave a poster presentation titled "Does a Country's Political Regime Influence Its DMTF Index." Estrada-Montoya and co-author Jesús Erazo Estrada, also from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, sought to determine whether prolonged exposure to a given…