Archives: July 2005
Mon Jul 18, 2005
Obese People Seek Pure Flavors
Physicians wishing to prevent their patients from regaining weight must guide the patients in transforming the way they think. Otherwise the good work in losing weight will go for naught. The bariatrician must understand the fat CULTURE. More...
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Thu Jul 14, 2005
Scientific Bias Reflects Media Bias
It's interesting to see the way that biases developed by editors in U.S. news organizations for the purpose of increasing sales/ratings extend to scientific organizations that should be interested only in the unbiased truth. A famous example was the 1996 New England Journal of Medicine article by Abenhaim associating "diet pills" with primary pulmonary hypertension when the data were conclusive only for fenfluramine. A similar error was made in Heidi Connolly's 1997 article associating diet pills with heart valve disease. She had 28 cases of valvulopathy with phen-fen, but she had cases with fenfluramine alone, too and no cases with phentermine alone although phentermine monotherapy was more prevalent than phen-fen or fenfluramine. Oops. Did she mention that? Did the NEJM notice? Nope. More...
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Mon Jul 11, 2005
Agricultural Subsidies and Obesity
Each year the United States government gives American farmers 24 billion dollars in subsidies to grow grain and soy beans in excess. The purpose of the dole is to keep food prices low and voters happy. The result is obesity, the erosion of land and rivers choked with topsoil and pesticide runoff. More...
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