Friday, May 25, 2012
Fejfar Law and Medicine Articles Blog: The Yahoo Helath Article on Calcium and Heart Fail...
Fejfar Law and Medicine Articles Blog: The Yahoo Helath Article on Calcium and Heart Fail...: The Yahoo Health article by Lisa Collier Cool, which appeared on Yahoo News on May 24, 2012, which deals with calcium consumption and heart ...
The Yahoo Helath Article on Calcium and Heart Failure
The Yahoo Health article by Lisa Collier Cool, which appeared on Yahoo News on May 24, 2012, which deals with calcium consumption and heart disease, is fatally flawed. It appears that Collier compiled a number of old studies, and upon this, has asserted that there is a higher risk of getting a heart attack if a person takes calcium pills as apposed to taking none at all. Now here are the flaws in her article:
1. The standard deviation in the studies have not been disclosed. Any standard deviation higher than
.0001% is invalid. Many researchers have been caught using standard deviations higher than
1 or 100% which are totally invalid. At a standard deviation of 1 or 100% all of the data is
excluded.
2. Assuming a study group of 1,000, as cited in the article, with 6 heart attacks per, 1,000,
then a person has only a .6% chance of getting a heart attack when using calcium.
3. Assuming a study group of 30,000, as cited in the article, with 6 heart attacks per,
30,000, then a person has only a .02% chance of getting a heart attack when using calcium.
4. As to the bone fracture statistic, we do not know the circumstances surrounding the fracture.
For example, falling off a staircase from 15 feet down to concrete is a much different
situation than simply slipping and falling on a sidewalk.
5. We do not know if the 6 persons smoked cigarettes or not. Smoking cigarettes is thought
to be a significant cause of heart attacks, etc.
6. We do not know the ages of the 6 persons, each could be in their 90's in terms of age,
when it is much more likely to die of a heart attack.
7. We do not know the diet for each person. Malnutrition can be a cause of heart failure
8. We do not know that amount of calcium supplement tablets that each person was taking.
Given the foregoing, the article that Ms. Collier is flawed and should not be taken seriously.
1. The standard deviation in the studies have not been disclosed. Any standard deviation higher than
.0001% is invalid. Many researchers have been caught using standard deviations higher than
1 or 100% which are totally invalid. At a standard deviation of 1 or 100% all of the data is
excluded.
2. Assuming a study group of 1,000, as cited in the article, with 6 heart attacks per, 1,000,
then a person has only a .6% chance of getting a heart attack when using calcium.
3. Assuming a study group of 30,000, as cited in the article, with 6 heart attacks per,
30,000, then a person has only a .02% chance of getting a heart attack when using calcium.
4. As to the bone fracture statistic, we do not know the circumstances surrounding the fracture.
For example, falling off a staircase from 15 feet down to concrete is a much different
situation than simply slipping and falling on a sidewalk.
5. We do not know if the 6 persons smoked cigarettes or not. Smoking cigarettes is thought
to be a significant cause of heart attacks, etc.
6. We do not know the ages of the 6 persons, each could be in their 90's in terms of age,
when it is much more likely to die of a heart attack.
7. We do not know the diet for each person. Malnutrition can be a cause of heart failure
8. We do not know that amount of calcium supplement tablets that each person was taking.
Given the foregoing, the article that Ms. Collier is flawed and should not be taken seriously.
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