The site I am linking to here, has a lot of accessible scientific research papers on all kinds of health related topics. They are accessibly written, but usually link to the original research papers if you want the full version. I think it is one of the best and most scientific sites of the kind. I rarely look here and don't find something pretty interesting to read.

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/health

 

Very interesting

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/air-pollution-isnt-only-bad-for-lungs-say-studies-its-also-bad-for-mental-health

 

"They studied a group of nearly 390,000 people, mostly in Britain, over a period of 11 years and found there was an increased risk for depression and anxiety even at pollution levels below UK air quality standards."

Very interesting

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/air-pollution-isnt-only-bad-for-lungs-say-studies-its-also-bad-for-mental-health

 

"They studied a group of nearly 390,000 people, mostly in Britain, over a period of 11 years and found there was an increased risk for depression and anxiety even at pollution levels below UK air quality standards."

Studies like this one and the ones they cite as related suffer from the problem that they are looking for associations - correlations in fact.

 

I am certain that you are familiar with the old saying, 'correlation is not causation.'

 

Dealing with that issue is a fundamental part of any course in 'research methods and statistics'.

 

The fact that two things seem to fit together in the data does not mean that one caused the other. For example - there is a robust correlation in the UK between drowning and sales of ice cream. Drownings go up as ice cream sales rise. Would anyone claim that the sales of a confectionery product caused the drownings? Of course not. In that case there is an obvious external factor which is much more likely to account for the increase in drownings. People in the UK rush to spend more time by water bodies when the weather is hot and sunny and also happen to buy more ice cream at these times. It is the proximity of lots of people - especially the young to bodies of water which leads to the drownings.

 

This is just an illustrative example of why studies of correlation which almost all of these ill health / air quality papers claims depend on and this is why I object to their use in building up fantastical claims related to air quality issues - especially when the air quality of the UK is VASTLY better than it has ever been since the Industrial Revolution - an objective fact - which I have repeatedly linked to with government web site graphs and data.

 

I do not disagree at all that heavy air pollution is both unpleasant and harmful. I am of an age to remember when most homes in the city of my birth were heated by coal fires burning filthy bituminous coal which caused a heavy stink of the chemical byproducts of low temperature coal burning. I remember that most of the grand public buildings built of sandstone were black with soot - an obnoxious chemical cocktail of poisonous compounds. NONE of that exists now, but we are constantly bombarded by exaggerated claims which are easily knocked down, and can be demonstrated as ridiculous by simply looking at the graphs I have shown here which make it clear that particulate pollution has been vastly reduced since even the 1970s - eighty percent reductions in particulates and similar in Nitrogen Oxides. This is an entirely different country to the one I lived in sixty odd years ago as far as air quality is concerned.

 

The claim in the article linked to, suggests that air pollution is related to depression. This is ridiculous. The writer points out that -

 

""Socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals were observed to be at a much higher risk of late-life depression in this study," they said. "They are simultaneously exposed to both social stress and poor environmental conditions, including air pollution."

 

Indeed, they may be, but WHICH of the factors mentioned CAUSED their increased tendency to depression? Shortage of money? Social stress? Poor environmental conditions?

 

Also though; the writer does not mention probably the most damaging blight on the lives of socio-economically disadvantaged people - low levels of education and absolutely terrible life-style habits, such as bad diet, high incidence of toxic habits such as smoking, alcohol and drug abuse and chaotic behaviour. THESE kinds of issues are vastly more damaging than the one picked out for attention.

 

This is absolutely terrible research. And a useless article if you want to know what caused the depression or other health issues. It ignores the most likely causes and focuses on one of the least likely ones.

 

Coming back to the core of my issues with this kind of material - you can only attribute causation by controlling for all the variables. This is what experiments do. The researcher either removes or controls for all the variables, and this is very difficult to do when we are talking about multi faceted problems and doing so over the lifetime of participants . Only if you do this, can you then assert with confidence, that increased consumption of ice cream either does or does not cause an increase in drowning, or that low levels of air pollution create depression.

 

I am reluctant to get drawn further into this discussion because it has been shown to be entirely fruitless. There are people here who have a religious attachment to what amounts to a doctrine. It has nothing to do with actual data and well conducted research. They spurn the opinions of Dr Spiegelhalter, the emeritus professor of statistics at Cambridge University that the claims that forty thousand people a year in Britain die prematurely because of air pollution are pretty much baseless, so what can I say that will convince them. might as well go to Salt Lake City and tell the prophets of Mormonism that Joseph Smith was a con man.

Very interesting

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/air-pollution-isnt-only-bad-for-lungs-say-studies-its-also-bad-for-mental-health

 

"They studied a group of nearly 390,000 people, mostly in Britain, over a period of 11 years and found there was an increased risk for depression and anxiety even at pollution levels below UK air quality standards."

Yeah, depression must be caused by pollution - nothing to do with tyrannical government, mass immigration, lock downs, city living, threat of war and rising prices.

Indeed, they may be, but WHICH of the factors mentioned CAUSED their increased tendency to depression? Shortage of money? Social stress? Poor environmental conditions?

 

"Covariates

A directed acyclic graph was drawn to discern which covariates are confounders (eFigure 1 in Supplement 1).31,32 Sociodemographic factors (age, sex, race and ethnicity, length of time at residence, and assessment center), socioeconomic status (Townsend deprivation index, education level, and employment status), and local environmental exposure (24-hour weighted average noise, and proximity to major roads) were collected at baseline. The detailed information for covariates is described in eMethods in Supplement 1."

 

EXTRACT

 

I am reluctant to get drawn further into this discussion because it has been shown to be entirely fruitless. There are people here who have a religious attachment to what amounts to a doctrine. It has nothing to do with actual data and well conducted research. They spurn the opinions of Dr Spiegelhalter, the emeritus professor of statistics at Cambridge University that the claims that forty thousand people a year in Britain die prematurely because of air pollution, are [pretty much baseless, so what can I say that will convince them. might as well go to Salt Lake City and tell the prophets of Mormonism that Joseph Smith was a con man.

They spurn the opinions of Dr Spiegelhalter, the emeritus professor of statistics at Cambridge University

I certainly don't - I always listen very carefully to what he says - his conclusion in his 2017 article was that

"It can still be good to seek improvements in air quality, but only provided these are based on a careful analysis of the costs per life-year saved."

 

I don't see how his 2017 article is relevant to peer reviewed research published in 2023 that you kindly directed me to via the Science Alert website

 

eta emeritus means having retired but allowed to retain their title as an honour. Most retired professors are emerirtus (some have "gone emeritus" but not Dr Spiegelhalter)

Edited September 2, 20241 yr by Peter.Bridge

https://medium.com/wintoncentre/the-risks-of-alcohol-again-2ae8cb006a4a#id_token=eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6ImIyZjgwYzYzNDYwMGVkMTMwNzIxMDFhOGI0MjIwNDQzNDMzZGIyODIiLCJ0eXAiOiJKV1QifQ.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.wytCj02-2WfItWcN1lJOLfRES2Nd1S2BwUwQMjOF1EJIE7KcxKH9dTIl_aZIFwqSRRUU8eNlvmI9_2R4ELCNZjefB4BpKQsDlgAil3TSJjY4CFK7vgF8Caxi-DsMNhchEbKxzTY0kREpXDXVq_Ko76JEPq6puS4BSGcFsjazhpU9LQ9XYTRneQfzSObCFmSREMrOOqmeyj07uU9D8PMQd_smoPOksPPbHniB-e4SdWHfO0bVu-pfhTbEZjEgWJMIp9SDXvsnbxcVBsgQwfILrJsXsqLehYN0I2ty_ngaIw2jJFh5JxcnQRrN1mLX9rPczerh135GKYS8AyFXN5gfXw

Speigelhalter talks at minute 21 here about the pointlessness of creating anxiety about low level risk:

 

Minute 21

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct5xn6

I remember the days of the "J shaped curve" when small amounts of alcohol was supposed to be beneficial - that all seems to have changed now. Also then the guidelines were not more than 28 units / week for men

I remember the days of the "J shaped curve" when small amounts of alcohol was supposed to be beneficial - that all seems to have changed now. Also then the guidelines were not more than 28 units / week for men

I can remember driving in France in teh late 1970s and there were billboards all over the place with a fat little red faced man with either a wine glass or a bottle of vin rouge in his hands and a slogan under neath saying

 

"Not more than two litres".

 

That wasn't a week. That was a day!

 

I'd be laid out ill for two days if I drank a litre these days. I think I would have been when I was thirty.

 

Funny thing is - I can't find that -phrase on the Internet, but I did find this one. I wonder if my memory is exaggerating.

 

https://www.wellandgood.com/walking-help-bone-density/

 

https://road.cc/content/feature/how-stop-cycling-making-your-bones-brittle-261478

The dye in Doritos can make mice transparent

 

"If Yellow 5 dye does prove safe in topical applications for humans, it might eventually be used for purposes as varied as early skin cancer detection, easing the process of routine blood draws for those with hard-to spot veins, speeding up laser tattoo removal, or supercharging photothermal cancer treatments, says Hong."

 

https://www.popsci.com/science/dye-mice-transparent/

 

 

Bird Flu Is Quietly Getting Scarier

Perhaps it’s time to talk about an H5N1 pandemic.

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2024/09/bird-flu-scary-awkward-phase/679770/

Teen Girls’ Brains Aged Rapidly During Pandemic, Study Finds

Neuroimaging found girls experienced cortical thinning far faster than boys did during the first year of Covid lockdowns.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/09/health/teen-brains-pandemic-girls.html

Online dating lets us look for similar education levels, adding to income inequality

 

https://fortune.com/2024/09/14/online-dating-apps-similar-education-levels-income-inequality-marriage-partners/

Scientists use magnetic nanotech to safely rewarm frozen tissues for transplant

 

"Looking to extend the viability of human tissues, researchers report inNano Letters their efforts to facilitate completely freezing, rather than cooling and then thawing, potentially life-saving organs. They demonstrate a magnetic nanoparticle's successful rewarming of animal tissues."

 

https://phys.org/news/2024-09-scientists-magnetic-nanotech-safely-rewarm.html

Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indulgence/dp/1472294114

 

Roche shares knocked by concern over side effects in obesity pill trial

 

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/roche-shares-drop-side-effects-result-early-stage-obesity-pill-trial-2024-09-12/

AI tool cuts unexpected deaths in hospital by 26%, Canadian study finds

"The cause turned out to be cellulitis, a bacterial skin infection. Without prompt treatment, it can lead to extensive tissue damage, amputations and even death. Bell said the patient was given antibiotics quickly to avoid those worst-case scenarios, in large part thanks to the team's in-house AI technology, dubbed Chartwatch."

 

https://www.cbc.ca/lite/story/1.7322671

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-calculated-how-much-exercise-we-need-to-offset-a-day-of-sitting

 

Scientists Calculated How Much Exercise We Need to 'Offset' a Day of Sitting

HEALTH19 September 2024

ByDAVID NIELD

 

 

We know that spending lots of time sitting down isn't good for us, but just how much exercise is needed to counteract the negative health effects of sitting down all day?

Research suggests about 30-40 minutes per day of building up a sweat should do it.

Up to 40 minutes of "moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity" every day is about the right amount to balance out 10 hours of sitting still, the research says – although any amount of exercise or even just standing up helps to some extent.

 

Much more at link above.

New Covid XEC variant starting to spread in Europe – what we know about signs and symptoms

 

More contagious virus is sublineage of omicron variant, scientists say

 

"As the novel coronavirus continues to evolve, data suggests XEC is growing steadily each day with an advantage over previously known subvariants."

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/xec-covid-variant-symptoms-b2620520.html

 

 

Unemployed could get weight loss jabs to return to work

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjd54zd0ezjo