The Mediteranean diet

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al_yrpal
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Re: The Mediteranean diet

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Doctors use NNT to signify the efficacy of treatments.

A combination of paracetamol and ibuprofen scores 2 - at least half of those taking this combination will receive some relief.

The score for Statins re heart disease and strokes is 400

The score for the Mediterranean diet is 60!

Source, The Times 2 today.

Al
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mjr
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Re: The Mediteranean diet

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Canuk wrote:Turmeric has been getting rave reviews of late as a 'super food' addictive. Everything for blood cleaning to preventing cancer!

And next week it'll be chilli again. Most things in moderation!
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meic
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Re: The Mediteranean diet

Post by meic »

I have a friend who has been "swearing by" turmeric for his arthritis for years now. I imagine he will still be doing so when all the followers of fashion have moved on to the next fad.
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Re: The Mediteranean diet

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al_yrpal wrote:Doctors use NNT to signify the efficacy of treatments.

That would be more impressive if NNT was expanded into Number Needed to Treat - how many people drawn at random from the population you have to drug for someone to get some benefit - rather than making people guess from examples.

al_yrpal wrote:The score for Statins re heart disease and strokes is 400

And what's the worrying thing about that? Even if they only worked for Familial Hypercholesterolaemiacs, which I think is who statins were originally developed for, it would be NNT 500, as FH is estimated to affect 1 in 500. So either it doesn't work for everyone with FH, its non-FH NNT is scarily much higher, or some mix of the two.

al_yrpal wrote:The score for the Mediterranean diet is 60!

It's also quite difficult to see a downside for it, too.

https://www.acatoday.org/News-Publicati ... anean-Diet from 2015 suggests it's more like 104 for statins - did The Times 2 cite its source for 400? It's possible that it's been reviewed as more people attribute side-effects to statins.
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al_yrpal
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Re: The Mediteranean diet

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The source for Statins 400 is NICE. Aren't they the folk that decide if medicines are approved for use within the NHS?

Al
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Re: The Mediteranean diet

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al_yrpal wrote:The source for Statins 400 is NICE. Aren't they the folk that decide if medicines are approved for use within the NHS?

Yes, on efficacy grounds at least.
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bigjim
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Re: The Mediteranean diet

Post by bigjim »

mjr wrote:
al_yrpal wrote:Doctors use NNT to signify the efficacy of treatments.

That would be more impressive if NNT was expanded into Number Needed to Treat - how many people drawn at random from the population you have to drug for someone to get some benefit - rather than making people guess from examples.

al_yrpal wrote:The score for Statins re heart disease and strokes is 400

And what's the worrying thing about that? Even if they only worked for Familial Hypercholesterolaemiacs, which I think is who statins were originally developed for, it would be NNT 500, as FH is estimated to affect 1 in 500. So either it doesn't work for everyone with FH, its non-FH NNT is scarily much higher, or some mix of the two.

al_yrpal wrote:The score for the Mediterranean diet is 60!

It's also quite difficult to see a downside for it, too.

https://www.acatoday.org/News-Publicati ... anean-Diet from 2015 suggests it's more like 104 for statins - did The Times 2 cite its source for 400? It's possible that it's been reviewed as more people attribute side-effects to statins.

I have absolutely no idea what all that means. Does that means statins good or bad? Mediterranean diet better?
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al_yrpal
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Re: The Mediteranean diet

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Yes, it means the right diet is more effective than pills. Only 1 in 400 will have a heart problem prevented with Statins whereas 1 in 60 will have a heart problem prevented by changing to the Mediterranean diet.

Al
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Re: The Mediteranean diet

Post by Vorpal »

NNT (number needed to treat) means the number of people who need to receive treatment, in order for one person to experience significant benefit, or to prevent one bad outcome.

NNT doesn't necessarily mean that a problem is prevented, only that an outcome is improved.
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