Saturday 30 January 2010

Cooking the books on Alzheimer's

Study shows cigarette smoking a risk for Alzheimer’s disease


When all studies were considered together, the risk factor for developing AD from smoking was essentially neutral at a statistically insignificant 1.05.

So where did the dramatic headline come from? Step forward Dr. Stanton A. Glantz (for it is he), who has found an association after "controlling for study design, quality of the journals, time of publication, and tobacco industry affiliation of the authors." 

Blimey, that's a lot of controlling and sounds very subjective. Is the self-styled "anti-smoking lunatic" Glantz really the best man to be judging bias? When it comes to identifying 'tobacco industry affiliation' he generally seems to use the six degrees of separation theory.

If anyone has the study, I'd love to see it. Please e-mail me: author@velvetgloveironfist.com.



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Study is by payment only - for everyone I think.

Anonymous said...

"controlling for study design, quality of the journals, time of publication, and tobacco industry affiliation of the authors."

This must be the funniest thing I've ever read in an academic journal. I'd really like to see the article, but I'm not paying. Any medical students or doctors out there?

Anonymous said...

Stanton Glantz is most definitely NOT a "doctor". He is an engineer by profession but has been conferred honorary titles and degrees of various sorts by anti-smoking fake-charities run by pharmaceuticals who funnel immense tons of money to his enterprises. If you look up his background on the UCSF website, I believe you will also find he has won an Academy Award for Best Actor at one point in his life too. The man is really just a political stooge, a puppet, putting on a show and tell, just like the rest of them. But "doctor", I don't think he is, he's an engineer or some such thing by profession.