Yes... the statistics in this article are annoying (par for the course for BMJ, NEJM, and other medical journals). They use mixed-effects models and a lot of potential covariates (good) but then bin the variable of interest (BAD). I've seen a lot worse, but it's not optimal IMO.
This is basically an epidemiology paper, and the apparent statistician is an epidemiologist. As an interesting aside, I recently sat down for lunch with biostatistics grad students, and apparently they consider the epidemiology students/faculty/field to be incompetent wielders of "statistics-lite". I took it with a big grain of salt, but it does seem epidemiology is harder-hit by the replication crisis than most other biology fields.
Moderate drinking some days but not others, perhaps your liver/brain do better because they get "total rest days", whereas light/moderate drinking every day may put them in a constant state of irritation or stress. Just like with workouts.
Actually my understanding is that the harm of drinking to the brain mostly does not occur during the drinking itself, but the withdrawal period after the depressant is cleared causes excitotoxicity for neurons. This is why quitting heavy drinking cold-turkey may not be best health-wise (but may be easier to do psychologically). Also, cycles of binging and abstinence cause your neurons to be increasingly vulnerable to damage via some kind of priming mechanism.
Personally, I've been trying to cut back, and I'm much more worried about my brain than my liver. It may be that the optimal pattern may vary by organ.
Comments
Yes... the statistics in this article are annoying (par for the course for BMJ, NEJM, and other medical journals). They use mixed-effects models and a lot of potential covariates (good) but then bin the variable of interest (BAD). I've seen a lot worse, but it's not optimal IMO.
This is basically an epidemiology paper, and the apparent statistician is an epidemiologist. As an interesting aside, I recently sat down for lunch with biostatistics grad students, and apparently they consider the epidemiology students/faculty/field to be incompetent wielders of "statistics-lite". I took it with a big grain of salt, but it does seem epidemiology is harder-hit by the replication crisis than most other biology fields.
Actually my understanding is that the harm of drinking to the brain mostly does not occur during the drinking itself, but the withdrawal period after the depressant is cleared causes excitotoxicity for neurons. This is why quitting heavy drinking cold-turkey may not be best health-wise (but may be easier to do psychologically). Also, cycles of binging and abstinence cause your neurons to be increasingly vulnerable to damage via some kind of priming mechanism.
Personally, I've been trying to cut back, and I'm much more worried about my brain than my liver. It may be that the optimal pattern may vary by organ.