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So far, full marks. How do we tackle the paper? |
What Journal is the paper published in and is it any good? |
If I started up Dr*T's Journal of Stuff, I could print what I like, and apart from a silly name, no-one would know whether it was any good or not. |
To find out a bit more about a journal, start at PubMed. Medical Oncology is on there, Dr*T's Journal of Stuff isn't. If the research journal is not on PubMed, I wouldn't bother reading the paper. Med. Oncol is a peer-reviewed journal, so no qualms there. On to the actual paper... |
How many people were in the trial and how many dropouts were there? |
(Technically two questions, but no matter). This is called the 'n'. For 'number'. Clever. How many patients took the treatment? The bigger the n the more reliable the result. |
e.g. I flip a coin twice, it comes up heads both times. |
Result: It is a two-headed coin. (n=2) |
I flip a coin 100 times, it comes up heads 100 times. |
Result: It is a two-headed coin (n=100). |
There is no hard and fast rule to this, but I would reckon that the general consensus of sciencey types would say that n<100 is not much cop. It may be a small scale trial which could then justify a larger scale trial, but the trial by itself should not be relied on too heavily. |
In this case, n=30, so the results in this paper are already hanging by a shoogly hook. |
The dropout number is also important. Without going into details of bias, it's a bit like saying in our experiment above "I flipped the coin 100 times, but I only looked at the result on 10 occasions". In this case, as the patients were being given the honey as well as their medication, you wouldn't expect dropouts and... |
What was the control and what was the active ingredient? |
It's important to know what is being tested. In this case, Life Mel honey is being tested. So (in my simple head) one would expect the basic trial to be set up so that some patients got Life Mel honey, some patients got 'every day' supermarket honey, some people got a sugar syrup and some people got nuthin'. Because th... |
We need to know if an effect is seen whether it is because of a placebo effect (compare with people who got nothing and with sugar syrup). If not, is it because of something inherent in honey or something inherent in that honey? |
This is where the paper crumbles. There is no control - all 30 patients in the trial received honey. So there is no way of knowing if the response seen is because of placebo effect or some other feature of the experiment unrelated to honey. |
There are other questions to ask (which will get added here in time) but for me, this paper is passingly interesting but of no value without further research. |
Bear in mind that we haven't really read the paper, or gone through the biology of the process or the analysed the methodology - just a few easy questions has weighed up this paper as being very much in the "nothing more than PR" camp. |
It may be the case that further investigation will lead to show some effect with everyday honey, or even Life Mel honey, but with the evidence given, it isn't possible to make the call. |
However, as a salesman, I think Life Mel have done just enough to market the product to the vast majority of people and have done well. The 20 people who will actually see the research as being of little value without follow up work (it was published 2 years ago) will not be the target market. Especially now they have ... |
I wonder will we see the large scale trial being published in due course? |
I'd be really interested if they do, but I am, as ever, sceptical. |
If you have further questions that you think could be of benefit in weighing up a published paper, please feel free to leave commment - thanks. |
1. Do you think that a journal citation index is a good way to determine if a n article is worthwhile? |
I appreciate that Medical Oncology is a relatively small and specialist journal, but a paper in big hitting journals like Nature or Science would, one hopes, have sufficient peer review to consider the question 'is there a control?'. |
2. True, but Science/Nature type papers rarely (although I stand to be corrected) will put through trials based on a commercial product aimed at providing scientific backing to the product. |
Bear in mind the questions above are aimed at people who won't necessarily make head nor tail of 50% of the paper, but will still be able to make a decision on its worth based on a few simple markers. |
3. Oh, and thanks for leaving a comment :) |
4. It's funny you should bring this up today - I've just posted a blog myself looking at claims surrounding a Cuban product called Policosanol (see http://layscience.net/?q=node/73). |
It's particularly relevant to your post because various people on Wikipedia added about 10 references to scientific studies showing the product worked, which upped the debunking stakes a bit. |
If you read my article (go on!) there are three things worth adding to your list before the person even reads the paper itself. |
1) Who are the authors, and what interests to they have. For example, the studies supporting this drug turned out to be funded by a Cuban public body set up to promote the product abroad in order to raise funds for the Cuban health system. |
2) Is the paper actually a trial? Some of the papers cited simply reported or commented on existing results. |
3) Does the abstract support the assertion made when referencing the paper? For example, one of the papers given as supporting Policosanol actually concluded that it had no effect - made clear in the abstract. |
So I was able to demonstrate that the list of references supplied was invalid before I even got to actually reading any of the papers themselves. |
Hope this helps, keep up the good work. |
5. Thanks Martin - I'm really pleased you left a comment! |
I had already read your article on Policosanol this morning and thought they complemented each other well. |
The additional questions you ask are very relevant, especially when meddling in the messy world of CAM journals - the abstract can sometimes be at odds with the "positive" spin put on it by the reporter. |
6. Thank you very much for an excellent article. It very well addresses some of the major pitfalls in studies like the one about Life Mel. And you are absolutely right in your conclusions: a group of 30 is too small and the controls are definetly insufficient. |
7. Dr Teeeeeee |
Love your work. Always have. ;o) |
Incidentally, Id be very worried if some common bee's honey was found to increase neutrophil counts in neutropenia patients (however much they charge for it). Although boosting differentiation of neutrophils from bone marrow stem cells may be useful for patients who have none (from chemotherapy or for other reasons... |
Cheers, Dr G |
8. Fantastic post - relevant and made me giggle. |
Issue #2 |
Perhaps the best dollar I’ve ever spent was on this game. Now go ahead, think about that. When was the last time you said you spent only a dollar and were completely satisfied. Even a bottle of soda generally will cost $1.25 or more and those are only temporary. 16 oz. only lasts so long and if you share it with someon... |
There’s no doubt that the zombie apocalypse is coming (see ref. Zombie Survival Guide) Or in some cases is already here. I’m pretty certain that everyone in Canada is a zombie. Beware our neighbors to the north! But I digress. So with everyone’s rising interest in the oncoming zombie hoard, pop media in all its forms b... |
As you can see they are pretty close in fun factor, hovering somewhere between a 7 and 8. However, Zombie Apocalypse costs 800 Microsoft points ($10) and IMaGWZ1i is 80($1), IMaGWZ1i has an astoundingly high positive CvF (cost vs. fun) differential of +6.5, while ZAs CvF is actually negative. That means IMaGWZ1i is ne... |
Even though Zombie Apocalypse came out only a month later, I’m going to claim that they completely copied IMaGWZ1i, and with their larger budget, were able to work on it an accelerated schedule to get the game released in just over a month. They both share the same concept; kill wave after wave of zombies. They both h... |
Now despite what I may have lead you to believe, this game really isn’t about the zombie apocalypse, but there are definitely zombies in it, and you must kill them, all of them. You get thrown in without any explanation of what to do, but do you need one? Controls are simple, left stick is movement and right stick shoo... |
Taking graphics out of consideration, the visuals are quite amazing. That is to say, if you were ever uncertain if a game could give you a seizure, this is the game to play. Seriously, this is a warning. If you have any friends with epilepsy and you want a good laugh, invite them over to enjoy up to 4 player co-op. Wi... |
The soundtrack is awesome. You can check it out yourself here. It’s a catchy little ditty about the game itself and often I find myself playing just to hear the song. On a side note, an odd point about the game is that the soundtrack is as long as the game itself. The game just ends. You either die or survive the prede... |
Please feel free to leave any comments/suggestions/ideas/yell at me. A like on facebook would be awesome, but subscribing would be more awesome! |
Thanks for reading! |
About hypergorilla |
I plays games.... a lot |
Posted on June 24, 2011, in Indie Games and tagged , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. 7 Comments. |
1. I love the chart, I haven’t played zombie apoc. but I do love IMAGWZ1I. For me, graphics don’t matter as much as the game experience and if that is the case then IMAGWZ1I gets an A++ from me. |
2. Alien Boomstyles |
Research has shown that fun factor of Smash TV in the arcade is 12,500 tonight’s over IMAGWZII, increasing a further 16% if one of the joystick is partially broken. All for a measely $.25, how can you beat that? |
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A Canadian zoo took a bear through a drive-thru Dairy Queen for ice cream |
Do you wunder why the EA cannot figure out what is going on on Earth with the Extraterrestrialand UFO phenomenon taking place each day? Aside from the fact that EA cannot figure out the correct term for Extraterrestrial is Extra Terrestrial. Then combine that with the fact Extraterrestrial Spacecraft (ETS) don't fly th... |
If all that seems too confusing to you, do ever stop to wunder, how we are ever going to figure out what is going on when our main priority every day is focusing on such important topics as: |
Bear getting Ice Cream (article). |
You don't have to |
wunder why this has a higher priority than the ET & UFO phenomenon. |
Seas are absorbing way more heat than we previously thought |
We're totally past the point of no return. |
NSFW 'MURICA — The world's oceans have absorbed considerably more heat than previously estimated, according to a new study. |
The results, published in the journal Nature on Wednesday, found that seas around the globe may be absorbing up to 60 percent more heat since the 1990s than earlier estimates calculated, according to Scientific American. |
Researchers calculated the oceans have absorbed around 13 zettajoules of heat energy every year between 1991 and 2016, CNN reports. |
The findings suggest the earth is more sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions than previously thought. |
Rather than relying on direct ocean measurements, the researchers looked at the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1991. |
As oceans warm up, their ability to absorb oxygen and carbon dioxide decreases, thus more of those gases remain in the air. |
By measuring the changes in atmospheric oxygen and carbon dioxide levels, while also controlling for other factors such as human greenhouse gas emissions, the team was able to estimate how much heat the oceans have absorbed over the past few decades. |
Warmer oceans could potentially lead to sea levels rising faster than forecasted, dying off of coral reefs, increasingly powerful storms, faster rates of melting sea ice and affecting ocean currents, CNN reports. |
Adolescents who quit weed see rapid improvements in memory |
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Make the Most of This Winter |
Between the 20th May and 28th May I will be unavailable for appointments and for prescription arrangement due to attending surgery and post surgical recovery for my daughter in Brisbane. Please arrange for your appointments for after this by calling our clinic on 55939145. For remedy collections, please arrange for t... |
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Good Morning to you! I mentioned in last week's post about making winter really work for you and your health. I'm reminded about this as I mark my daughter's 10th birthday today. It was a chilly night when labour started, but it is truly amazing how that didn't even factor in when in the middle of such a momentous e... |
For those that know me well, I don't stop immersing myself into the ocean during winter months. Granted, in my hood we are blessed with warm water temperatures still in the low 20's, but the experience of cold is still very relevant. The Bondi Icebergs for example are famous for shunning the cold and greeting early f... |
Finding that elusive spark, vitality, spring and vigour is more commonly found in those who keep up a little uncomfortable challenge during these months. As a result of lifting pain relieving and mood enhancing hormones from exercise and slight hypothermia, the body gets to enjoy in return a rush of yihaa! For some, t... |
In winter, cold temperatures also offer us an opportunity to burn calories - shivering is an act of burning stored fuel to keep warm, so a little chilly discomfort can actually be very beneficial. Not to mention that when your body is heating itself up, it increases it's immune functions to fight bacterial and viruses. |
Remember - Winter is a great month to activate your body rather than hibernate it. Push through and you will find this season is a blip on the radar. Being cold is just a small piece of the discomfort picture - let yourself feel a little cold for a lot of benefit! |
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