On Tue, Jan 08, 2008 at 09:53:12AM -0800, Mike Marion wrote:
What you're asking sounds a lot like those articles that came out a few months back with the headlines like "Drinking sodas linked to health issues" and such. If you actually read the article, what the conclusions seemed to say were that people who tended to drink soda, tended to have other habits that often lead to health issues (metabolic something). But that the soda (including diet) wasn't a cause. But the couple of articles I read all seemed to start out with something like "if you drink soda (even diet) you're more likely to have health issues..." which seemed to imply a casual relationship, likely on purpose to grab readers' attention.
Last year, New Scientist had an article about a study that found a correlation with certain health issues, and men who don't shave every day. They guessed it had to do with poorer food choices and less exercise. The real problem is when someone thinks that they can change the one correlating behavior and become healthier. Perhaps thinking that shaving twice a day will be even healthier. Correlation or causation can be real tricky to determine. Dave -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
