# Scientists! "Studies show..." Blah Blah **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 27, 2005, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430 "2005-04-27T20:18:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430/21 "2005-04-28T02:59:39Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Snake venom, poison ivy, and nightshade are all “natural.” Doesn’t mean I’d use them as medicine. Just an aside, I know that modified snake venom has made a great antitoxin for snake bit victims for awhile. Judging from Google, there’s a lot of research into venom for other applications such as fighting cancer and heart disease. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ccd318/32.png) [@The\_Hook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hook)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430/22 "2005-04-28T05:35:40Z")
> [@hauss](#): > > What I want to see is a study that shows whether studies are legitimate. Somtimes the body takes a long time to heal itself… do the studies hang around long enough to see? Ok, don’t do anything that has ever come out of one of those studies. For examples, stop taking shots, don’t visit a doctor if one of your orifices is bleeding for no reason, don’t give a crap when your kidneys are infected, and speaking of crap, don’t do a damn thing when you haven’t had a bowel movement in over 2 months. Proceed to die. There, the studies work. However, the conclusions you hear from the media are processed conclusions, like most food these days. It’s bad for you. 😃 > [@](#): > > I see a lot of people **not** doing this stuff… they take vitamins and do colon cleansers instead. Stupid people. > [@](#): > > What I think I have a problem with is family doctors’ advice. And advice that doctors give in the casual setting. Very impresonal, very simplistic. Very simple-minded, “I haven’t heard of that, and since I can’t use what I know from med. school to actually think, just take these and you will feel better.” **Stupid** doctors. Again, please, blame the doctors and their patients, not the studies. Not the science. ---
**Author:** ![mic84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@mic84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mic84)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430/23 "2005-04-28T06:08:00Z")
> [@hauss](#): > > I just know how to keep myself healthy. > > […] don’t have any unhealthy habits Come to think of it, that’s an _excellent_ way to keep yourself healthy. It’s really too bad doctors don’t see it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430/24 "2005-04-28T06:41:58Z")
> [@hauss](#): > > What I want to see is a study that shows whether studies are legitimate. And then you could have a study to see whether studies of studies are legitimate. And then you could have a study to see whether studies of studies of studies are legitimate. And then… ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430/25 "2005-04-28T12:38:47Z")
> [@hauss](#): > > What I want to see is a study that shows whether studies are legitimate. This is a standard part of the scientific method, and includes followup studies to test previous results (replication is critical to accepting a finding) and meta-analysis to look at multiple sets of data. > [@](#): > > Somtimes the body takes a long time to heal itself… do the studies hang around long enough to see? The whole point of clinical studies is to separate out genuine beneficial effects of treatment from healing which would take place in any case without treatment. Quack remedies sell in part because users “know” from their own experience that they are being helped, when the condition for which they are treating themselves resolved on its own either temporarily or permanently. > [@](#): > > I just know how to keep myself healthy. If it works for you, nifty. The late lamented **Wildest Bill** used to say this regarding all the weird supplements he poured into his system. Personally, I feel a lot better dealing with science as opposed to personal testimonials. A bit more on [naturopathy](http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/Naturopathy/naturopathy.html) for you. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430/26 "2005-04-28T12:58:15Z")
“(I) keep the air in my room clean at night with purifier”. Air “purifiers”, including the heavily hyped Ionic Breeze Quadra, have been found in consumer testing to be ineffective. Dunno if they checked on placebo effect, though. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430/27 "2005-04-28T13:24:27Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > And then you could have a study to see whether studies of studies are legitimate. And then you could have a study to see whether studies of studies of studies are legitimate. And then… … who will study the studiers? ---
**Author:** ![irishgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8edcca/32.png) [@irishgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irishgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430/28 "2005-04-28T17:28:00Z")
If you have even a rudimentary knowledge of statistics you can usually work out whether a study is legitimate or not. That’s what Confidence Intervals and P values are for. Cochrane Reviews are usually a good source of information too, as they’ll identify the flaws in the studies for you, and usually integrate the data to give a nice simple answer. There was one UK study on Oral Contraceptives that followed 46,000 women for over 20 years… before deciding that it was a safe medication based on the fact that the group who had used the pill had exactly the same mortality as the group who had never used the pill…is that long enough for you? ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430/29 "2005-04-28T18:46:17Z")
> [@](#): > > milk or any weird mucous producing food like that I did a google search on this when my DIL announced it one day. It had to be true because her father said so and he’s a doctor. As an idea, it seems to have been around since roman times. It’s been disproven by at least one study. Drinking milk when you have a cold leaves a temporary sensation that the mucus already in your throat has thickened. It passes. You will not create any more mucus that someone else with a cold who has not had milk. Not that I expect the idea to die out any time soon. ---
**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2005, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430/30 "2005-04-28T21:13:05Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > … who will study the studiers? I dunno. Coast Guard? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientists-studies-show-blah-blah/301430.md?page=1)