Gideon M-K: Health Nerd

A forest plot created with ChatGPT. Slightly prettier than I could’ve done myself, but also a bit less accurate. I do love the trees. This is the third in my series teaching you how to read and interpret scientific studies. This time, we’re looking at meta-analyses. These are one of the most important types of statistical analyses that you’ll come across, and there are a few really simple things you need to understand to not get tricked by them.

Pictured: Deadly, according to the headlines. Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash Smoking was a remarkable public health success. A single, simple behaviour that on its own increased your risk of dying by a truly staggering amount. Despite the addictive nature of nicotine it’s still relatively straightforward to get people to change a single facet of their lives. These days, everyone is trying to find the new smoking.

Pictured: A retracted paper from one of the most notorious fabricators in the history of science. In the world of science, the main process we have to deal with seriously bad research is called retraction. This hearkens back to the old days of scientific publishing when articles were in paper journals read by a small handful of academics.

The perfect header for this piece: it says good vibes, but the vibes of the photo are decidedly grim. Photo by MARK ADRIANE on Unsplash Positivity is everywhere these days. You can’t go more than a mile without seeing a bunch of posters extolling the benefits of always looking up, or having an activewear-clad smiler tell you that all you need to do is put a smile on your face and the world will improve.

Pictured: A nose (and teeth) Photo by Tony Litvyak on Unsplash It feels like there’s a new cure for aging every week. Where once we talked about health in general terms, or wanted stuff that enhanced our wellbeing, the new quest is to break the bonds of time and stop people from getting older. Or, at least, to stop us all from experiencing the health problems that happen when you reach a certain age.

Pictured: Coffee, but also a nice symbol for trying to find scientific studies on a topic and group them together. Photo by Efe Kurnaz on Unsplash In 2023, I started a series for paid subscribers looking at some basics of epidemiology and evidence appraisal. Stuff that you probably wouldn’t know unless you’ve done a masters of public health or similar, but which is really important for understanding how the world of scientific evidence works.

Pictured: Cool t-shirt. Photo by Alexander Grey on Unsplash It’s been two years since the Cass review into gender identity services in the UK came out. Since then, the UK has progressively restricted access to gender clinics of all kinds for trans teens, now offering only a handful of appointments a year. The new clinics exclusively focus on psychological and psychosocial interventions, with the UK government having banned the use of puberty blockers entirely based largely on Cass’ recommendations.

The ongoing story of bizarre overestimates of Long COVID rates Pictured: The first stock photo result for Long COVID. Photo by Heike Trautmann on Unsplash The question of how many people get Long COVID has always been contentious. The reason for that is pretty obvious—as COVID-19 has decreased in acute severity, causing far fewer hospitalizations and deaths, the argument has become almost entirely about Long COVID and the possible impacts it may be having on our health.

This is why we rely on evidence rather than opinions. Pictured: Old age, probably. Photo by Vlad Sargu on Unsplash One of the most common beliefs you’ll find about health is that your life is basically under your control. That your actions largely define how sick you are, and your daily routine can be the difference between dying young from diabetes and running marathons at age 85.

Pictured: Potentially brain destroying chemicals. Photo by Supliful - Supplements On Demand on Unsplash I’ve written many times about how supplements are probably a waste of money. That’s because in most cases, common supplements you can buy in the supermarket or pharmacy aisle are either disproven—the evidence shows that they don’t work—or unproven.