Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds • Hacker News Board

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#351

Post by martingoodson » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 4:27 PM UTC

dumbneurologist wrote: post #321

martingoodson wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Small study >Almost entirely irrelevant, provided it's properly powered--and based on the effect size and p-values, it is. Sorry to state this so strongly but I feel it's important to point out that this is misinformation of the most egregious kind. There is no examination of statistical power in this article whatsoever so there is no basis for your claim that this study is properly powered. Large effect sizes are…

Sorry to state this so strongly but I feel it's important to point out that this is misinformation of the most egregious kind. There is no examination of statistical power in this article whatsoever so there is no basis for your claim that this study is properly powered. The power is only relevant when you fail to detect an effect. This is a positive study, so the power is simply not relevant to criticizing that part…

  The power is only relevant when you fail to detect an effect.

This is absolutely false. Small, low-powered studies are more likely to produce false results than larger studies. This was well-documented by John Ioannidis over ten years ago, in work that should be required reading for all publishing scientists:

http://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/jou...

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#352

Post by ksk » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 4:38 PM UTC

_mbr6 wrote: post #291

ksk wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are many references to it in Ayurveda - the Indian/Hindu medical sciences. Ayurveda believes in using food as medicine to non only prevent a large majority of human diseases, but also to cure several of them — all with almost zero side effects. Homeopathy also has zero side effects (apart from having zero effects). There is no medical wisdom in any of the old texts (from any culture) that are relevant in 2018.…

> There is no medical wisdom in any of the old texts (from any culture) that are relevant in 2018. Seriously? We can do better than that - if you're going to make a statement that extreme, you'll need to provide sources to back it up.

The more extreme statement is that those texts have any value. Lets start with that first.

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#353

Post by ksk » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 4:48 PM UTC

fauigerzigerk wrote: post #304

ksk wrote: post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There are many references to it in Ayurveda - the Indian/Hindu medical sciences. Ayurveda believes in using food as medicine to non only prevent a large majority of human diseases, but also to cure several of them — all with almost zero side effects. Homeopathy also has zero side effects (apart from having zero effects). There is no medical wisdom in any of the old texts (from any culture) that are relevant in 2018.…

>When it comes to their health, people will go where there are results. Isn't that exactly what you are disputing? I think we have to allow for the possibility that some of the correlations identified over thousands of years may actually be real. I would never follow any of that advice, because I agree that the scientific process we have today is vastly superior and supercedes traditional medicine. "Try things and se…

Yeah 'some' of those 'correlations' might also involve sourcing crocodile dung [1]. Or maybe you prefer cutting open a vein and draining some blood when you feel sick? [2]

The qualifying time for the Boston Marathon today, was a world record 100 years ago. So yeah, maybe these remedies were 'world records' in their time. But now, we have advanced, and they're sub-par and often times downright dangerous.

[1] http://www.crystalinks.com/egyptmedicine.html

[2] http://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/14/health/death-of-a-presiden...

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#354

Post by roflchoppa » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 5:05 PM UTC

scotty79 wrote: post #322

eni wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's not turmeric, it's curcumin, which is about 2% of turmeric by mass (so, you'd need to eat ~4.5g turmeric daily to match study doses) Typical Indian cooking uses turmeric in pretty much everything. I wouldn't be surprised if daily consumption of turmeric is very close to the figures you mentioned.

Also: http://www.ijamhrjournal.org/article.asp?issn=2349-4220;year... > Worldwide, esophageal cancer is the eighth most common cancer [...]. In India, it is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related deaths. Granted it's probably due to alcohol and tobacco but curry probably won't save you from cancer.

chewing tobacco is more common, at least, on the uncles I watch.

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#355

Post by torstenvl » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 5:09 PM UTC

bildung wrote: post #296

geezerjay wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Appeals to authority, such as those you've made, are worthless. The motto of the Royal Academy of Sciences is quite literally "take no one's word for it". If you wish to blindly swallow assertions made by people with academic titles, perhaps you should start to listen to those who advise against it.

An appeal to authority is perfectly reasonable if the person in question is actually an authority in the topic discussed. The logic fallacy you probably meant is about appeals to authority in cases where the authority is in another domain.

No. An appeal to authority is always fallacious. Your heuristic may be useful, but it is just that - a heuristic, not an argument.

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#356

Post by dahidahi1 » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 5:30 PM UTC

moh_maya wrote: post #286

dahidahi1 wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No axe to grind. What could I possibly have? > Science, particularly modern science, even with all its baggage and flaws and politics, is evidence based. Can be reworded as: "Science, particularly Vedic science, even with all its baggage and flaws and politics, is evidence based." The vedas are not any different than any sciences that mankind honestly developed. Only, it goes far beyond what we (aka modern science) a…

Now you are shifting the goalposts. This is what I am alluding to when I say, conflating multiple things. Who, in this comment chain, is making any point about Vedas being purely religious? That is not apposite to this discussion. The Vedas are a work of knowledge. In philosophy, in natural sciences. There is a strong argument to be made that they capture large parts of the essence of scientific temperament, which is…

I think you've misunderstood evidence based medicine as end-all, be-all of scientific analysis & only restricted to modern science. It is quite natural & largely common sense. Agreed, it is the gold standard for today, but it may not be so in the future, something else will come & upend that too as it always happens with scientific development. Remember Radium painting, that was also part of evidence-based medicine. By that account the Ayurvedic science has had fewer mishaps than science as practiced in modern times. Science is always about trial & error, my point is that it was not different from the times of ayurveda. This is as opposed to the biblical or quranic words of god, not the same thing at all.

Also, it is fair to say that Indian ancient texts have suffered significantly more destruction than others due to religious persecution and genocides against a peaceful civilization. The genocides are especially important because most information was transferred through word of mouth.

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#357

Post by bildung » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 5:45 PM UTC

torstenvl wrote: post #355

bildung wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An appeal to authority is perfectly reasonable if the person in question is actually an authority in the topic discussed. The logic fallacy you probably meant is about appeals to authority in cases where the authority is in another domain.

No. An appeal to authority is always fallacious. Your heuristic may be useful, but it is just that - a heuristic, not an argument.

> No. An appeal to authority is always fallacious.

Says who? ;)

> Your heuristic may be useful, but it is just that - a heuristic, not an argument.

Indeed, but in many but the most trivial cases (stuff like newtonian physics, or computer science, where most arguments are easily falsifiable) heuristics is all we have. Just look at the set of comments we are currently part of, e.g. many of the p-value posts, or the criticism of the small sample size. Those are valid arguments, but also wrong. But how can someone not trained in empirical science find out? Relying on an authority (relevant to the topic at hand) is a valid way to be wrong less often.

To put it pointedly: How do you know its always fallacious? Have you actually proved it yourself, or is this from a textbook/the internet, e.g. - from an authority? ;)

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#358

Post by lgessler » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 6:07 PM UTC

senatorobama wrote: post #248

lgessler wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ayurvedic medicine is far from infallible. Take this for instance, a selection from a reasonably popular Ayurvedic text ( https://www.amazon.in/Bhojan-Chikitsa-1-Ganesh-Narayan-Chauh... ) that is aimed at a general audience and purports to explain the health benefits of various common foods (my translation follows): > कैंसर: कैंसर में पहले तीन दिन रोगी को उपवास कराएं, फिर अंगूर सेवन कराना आरम्भ करें। कभी-कभी एनिमा लग…

How do you know Hindi?

In short, State Department money. Namely:

http://clscholarship.org/

https://startalk.umd.edu/public/about

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#359

Post by komali2 » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 6:38 PM UTC

oligopoly wrote: post #164

komali2 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wasn't achieving my weight goals like I hoped so I threw my arms up and said "FUCK IT chicken and sweet potatoes for lunch from now on." I've been eating curry-powdered baked chicken for maybe 3 months straight for lunch nearly every day and somehow it's fine. Mostly I'm craving the massive amount of protein it gives me so maybe my body is overriding any "boredom" of the food?

Your body gets used to what you are eating and you actually start to crave that homemade stuff if you go on holidays. I've been eating chicken curry, rice and broccoli for the past 7 years. Only eat something else on cheat days twice a month and the occasional times I buy minced meat. Not really that hard. Tastes great and honestly if you mind too much how the food taste your goals are somewhere else and/or have depl…

Overnight steel cut oats + flaxseed + chia seed + peanutbutter = my breakfast for the last 4 months.

Are we on the same diet?

Re: Curry spice turmeric boosts memory by nearly 30%, eases depression, study finds

#360

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 25, 2018, 6:49 PM UTC

closed wrote: post #323

dumbneurologist wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of your criticisms from wikipedia pertain to this publication. The paragraph is essentially making the argument that a randomized, double blind (DB), placebo controlled (PC) clinical trial (RCT) is unlikely to show that curcurmin is effective. yet, the published article is exactly that, and shows a statistically measurable impact on a clinically meaningful endpoint: a direct refutation of the paragraph. the fact…

When a small sample size produces a big effect, it does not mean you can be more confident in the effect! All things equal, you'd expect confidence intervals / credible regions to be very large. Another way to say this, is that since the measurement error is large, you expect spurious findings that result from something like p-hacking to be large (they have to be to be significant).

[deleted]