Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Seth Roberts has died

blog.sethroberts.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 134 posts

Re: Seth Roberts has died

#71

Post by drewblaisdell »

maj0rhn wrote: post #69
ryanholiday wrote: post #42

I was fortunate enough to publish Seth's final column this morning. http://betabeat.com/2014/04/seth-roberts-final-column-butter...

You owe it to your readers to say that Seth's death is a warning to those who would flaunt conventional medical wisdom, as he clearly did. Anyone who stakes their life on a single published meta-analysis is unwise. Anyone who puts faith in a single assessor of cardiac risk, coronary CT, is unwise. It is ironic that the most apt assessment of Seth's life and death comes from a margarine commercial popular in the 1970s…

> You owe it to your readers to say that Seth's death is a warning to those who would flaunt conventional medical wisdom, as he clearly did.

Your comments in this thread are inappropriate and untimely. We do not yet know what caused Seth's collapse, and to jump to blame his experiments because you disagree with his methods is shortsighted.

Re: Seth Roberts has died

#72

Post by gadders »

GigabyteCoin wrote: post #58
userbinator wrote: post #35

I'd be really interested in knowing his cause of death. He has had extremely high fat intake due to all his experimentation: http://blog.sethroberts.net/2011/11/25/butter-and-arithmetic...

Collapsing during strenuous activity is typically heart failure in my experience. It happens all the time up here in Canada when people shovel snow.

From his last column, linked to above:

"It was nice to know all that but I did wonder: Was I killing myself? Fortunately I could find out. A few months before my butter discovery, I had gotten a “heart scan” – a tomographic x-ray of my circulatory system. These scans are summarized by an Agatston score, a measure of calcification. Your Agatston score is the best predictor of whether you will have a heart attack in the next few years. After a year of eating a half stick of butter every day, I got a second heart scan. Remarkably, my Agatston score had improved (= less calcification), which is rare. Apparently my risk of a heart attack had gone down."

Re: Seth Roberts has died

#73

Post by gadders »

kbutler wrote: post #59
gadders wrote: post #36

Slightly offtopic - The logic around weight "set-points" seems plausible. Has anyone ever had any luck with the Shangri La Diet?

I lost about 20 lbs in 6 months doing it a few years ago. I did find that I had less inclination to snack or eat large meals. Then I increased cardio, stopped the diet (why? I don't recall), and proceeded to gain it back (while doing 3+ hours/week of cardio). I've tried various things with limited success and been meaning to try Shangri La again. Personal anecdote, post hoc ergo propter hoc, etc.

Thanks. Always good to hear a first hand account.

Re: Seth Roberts has died

#74

Post by maj0rhn »

drewblaisdell wrote: post #71
maj0rhn wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You owe it to your readers to say that Seth's death is a warning to those who would flaunt conventional medical wisdom, as he clearly did. Anyone who stakes their life on a single published meta-analysis is unwise. Anyone who puts faith in a single assessor of cardiac risk, coronary CT, is unwise. It is ironic that the most apt assessment of Seth's life and death comes from a margarine commercial popular in the 1970s…

> You owe it to your readers to say that Seth's death is a warning to those who would flaunt conventional medical wisdom, as he clearly did. Your comments in this thread are inappropriate and untimely. We do not yet know what caused Seth's collapse, and to jump to blame his experiments because you disagree with his methods is shortsighted.

They are completely appropriate and very timely. "Collapsed while hiking." The only way that can happen is with an interruption in blood flow, which means a clot or a bleed. If you want, I can go into details, but with his butter and his omega habits, he was putting himself at risk for both, contradictory as that may sound.

Re: Seth Roberts has died

#76

Post by thebooktocome »

abruzzi wrote: post #8
geuis wrote: post #2

For those of us who don't know who Seth Roberts is, who is Seth Roberts?

Inventor of the "Shanghai-la" diet, among other things: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seth_Roberts

Shanghai is a different place than Shangri-La. For starters, the former exists.

Re: Seth Roberts has died

#77

Post by drewblaisdell »

maj0rhn wrote: post #74
drewblaisdell wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You owe it to your readers to say that Seth's death is a warning to those who would flaunt conventional medical wisdom, as he clearly did. Your comments in this thread are inappropriate and untimely. We do not yet know what caused Seth's collapse, and to jump to blame his experiments because you disagree with his methods is shortsighted.

They are completely appropriate and very timely. "Collapsed while hiking." The only way that can happen is with an interruption in blood flow, which means a clot or a bleed. If you want, I can go into details, but with his butter and his omega habits, he was putting himself at risk for both, contradictory as that may sound.

> "Collapsed while hiking." The only way that can happen is with an interruption in blood flow, which means a clot or a bleed. If you want, I can go into details, but with his butter and his omega habits, he was putting himself at risk for both, contradictory as that may sound.

This is not science. You are drawing a conclusion to support your own preconceived medical notions based on incredibly limited evidence.

The world does not need more armchair coroners, claiming they've determined causes of death in comment threads hours after someone has passed.

Re: Seth Roberts has died

#78

Post by maj0rhn »

gadders wrote: post #72
GigabyteCoin wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Collapsing during strenuous activity is typically heart failure in my experience. It happens all the time up here in Canada when people shovel snow.

From his last column, linked to above: "It was nice to know all that but I did wonder: Was I killing myself? Fortunately I could find out. A few months before my butter discovery, I had gotten a “heart scan” – a tomographic x-ray of my circulatory system. These scans are summarized by an Agatston score, a measure of calcification. Your Agatston score is the best predictor of whether you will have a heart attack in th…

No. Coronary calcification is but one stage in the process of atherosclerosis. So he could have had severe atherosclerosis without extensive calcification. This is why coronary CT is not a perfect test for prediction heart attacks. Furthermore, coronary CT cannot assess the tendency of the blood to clot, which is a function of both local and systemic factors. A useful guideline is that physiology is never as simple as one test or one variable.

Re: Seth Roberts has died

#79

Post by sethfan »

maj0rhn wrote: post #69
ryanholiday wrote: post #42

I was fortunate enough to publish Seth's final column this morning. http://betabeat.com/2014/04/seth-roberts-final-column-butter...

You owe it to your readers to say that Seth's death is a warning to those who would flaunt conventional medical wisdom, as he clearly did. Anyone who stakes their life on a single published meta-analysis is unwise. Anyone who puts faith in a single assessor of cardiac risk, coronary CT, is unwise. It is ironic that the most apt assessment of Seth's life and death comes from a margarine commercial popular in the 1970s…

Hey, I got an idea. Instead of engaging in virtually baseless speculation and jumping to conclusions, why don't you go fuck yourself?

You may be right about what killed him, asshole, but how about you let his body get cold first before you start tut-tutting and wagging your finger?

Re: Seth Roberts has died

#80

Post by maj0rhn »

sethfan wrote: post #79
maj0rhn wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You owe it to your readers to say that Seth's death is a warning to those who would flaunt conventional medical wisdom, as he clearly did. Anyone who stakes their life on a single published meta-analysis is unwise. Anyone who puts faith in a single assessor of cardiac risk, coronary CT, is unwise. It is ironic that the most apt assessment of Seth's life and death comes from a margarine commercial popular in the 1970s…

Hey, I got an idea. Instead of engaging in virtually baseless speculation and jumping to conclusions, why don't you go fuck yourself? You may be right about what killed him, asshole, but how about you let his body get cold first before you start tut-tutting and wagging your finger?

Dude, I am trying to save lives here. The more people that think his methods were safe, the more people who are going to die. I would even like to save your life, despite your propensity for name-calling. Now is the teachable moment.
Post reply on HN