Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The problem with medical studies

Here is a clear example of why we need to be skeptical about medical studies:

Daily aspirin may do more harm than good: study on Yahoo! Health

At the very bottom of the article it states:
While there was no difference in the number of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular events suffered, major bleeding occurred in two percent of the aspirin group compared to just 1.2 percent of the placebo group.

The problem, of course, is that we do not really know if the 0.8 percent difference in "major bleeding" could be caused by other factors not related to the use of aspirin.

I am sticking with my daily 81 mg dose of Aspirin unless I see a change in my body that tells me I should do otherwise.

1 comment:

Stephanie said...

You mean there's only _one_ problem with medical studies?

Honestly, if you have enough money, you can fund research that comes to the conclusions you want.

Look at the lots of water/no water arguments. Or the egg/no egg studies... or any other silly contradictory study that comes along.

oh, better start stockpiling the asprin, though - The FDA is going after natural thryoid medications, stating that they've never been actually approved to treat thyroid disorders (never mind the 100+ years of evidence supporting it). Since asprin has never been techinically approved by the FDA may make it the next target. Whee!

Love how our government is so 'helpful'... But that's a rant for another day. :)

Steph