
Coffee Today Keeps Dementia Away - MaysonL
http://medheadlines.com/2009/01/23/coffee-today-keeps-dementia-away/
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ojbyrne
Back when I actually did research, I heard a nice way to summarize
journalism's take on research. They always pick stuff that's controversial.
But if it's controversial, it's because there's still ongoing debate on it. By
the time something is accepted in the scientific establishment, it's no longer
news.

The takeaway is - if it's in the news, it's probably not in any way
scientifically valid.

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dennmart
I'm getting very confused as to whether coffee (and caffeine, for that matter)
is good for you or not. Today I see this article, saying that it'll keep
dementia away; A week down the road, I'll find an article that says that
coffee causes cancer or something similar. It's a never-ending battle.

~~~
dmm
You should read the whole paper, the abstract is not enough. Observational
studies are extremely sensitive to the methods in which the data is collected.

For example I heard about a study linking meat consumption and heart disease.
To determine if there was a link, the researchers interviewed people every few
weeks asking them how much they ate of various foods. Do you remember how many
kilograms of chicken you've eaten in the past few weeks? I sure don't. Also I
suspect that there could be a bias in people reporting less meat, either out
of shame or people overestimating portions. A portion of chicken is eight
ounces, that is about the size of a deck of cards. These things made me
suspicious of their findings.

Science is hard. Stay vigilant :)

