So, study is here. It's a cross-sectional epidemiological trial using NHANES data to look at associations between milk fat and telomere length:https://new.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2019/1574021/ …
-
-
Show this thread
-
What's that you say? That doesn't sound anything like the headlines? I see you've spotted one of the MASSIVE GLARING ISSUESpic.twitter.com/NL2XpFgPY1
Show this thread -
The study used telomere shortening as a proxy for biological age Basically, shorter telomeres means 'older', because shorter telomeres are associated with aging
Show this thread -
(Telomeres are part of our DNA that stop it from breaking when it replicates. You have less of them as you grow older, which some people think is part of the reason that we get less healthy as we age)pic.twitter.com/6iLjGFhzIh
Show this thread -
FIRST PROBLEM: telomeres are NOT age. They are ASSOCIATED with age In other words, you can't predict much from shorter telomeres. It might just be that they get shorter as we age naturally, rather than causing our aging processes per sepic.twitter.com/9gn5y4Zy1e
Show this thread -
So making any claims about adding years to your life from this research is baldly wrong. The study made some weird extrapolations from shortened telomeres to 4.5 years of aging, but that's not very realistic
Show this thread -
SECOND PROBLEM: The analysis was cross-sectional Basically, the researcher (yes just one) took a sample of people at one point in time and looked at whether full-fat milk was associated with telomere issues
Show this thread -
This is a problem, because we haven't measured people over time All we can say is that, in the NHANES sample from 1999-2002, people with shorter telomeres drank more full fat milkpic.twitter.com/p5ZowpcOoI
Show this thread -
Which brings us to the THIRD PROBLEM: this study was observational in nature All the analysis did was look at the association between full/low fat milks and telomere length
Show this thread -
The study didn't even control for many covariates. It's not hard to see how your telomere length (a complex measure of DNA) could be influenced by things that this study failed to control for
Show this thread -
For example, it might be that people with sick parents are more likely to drink full fat milk. Having sick parents is associated with telomere issues, so instead of the milk it's the sick parents' fault
Show this thread -
Also, the main analysis treated fat % in milk as a linear variable? That's just total nonsense, you can't buy milk (in most places) that has 2.35% fat
Show this thread -
For this study to be correct, people would have to be homogenizing their own milk which is...unlikely
Show this thread -
Anyway, there are more problems but I think that's enough for now You can't really take much away from this study except that adults in 2000 who drank full fat milk might've had slightly shorter telomerespic.twitter.com/LSREjADsty
Show this thread -
TL:DR - drinking skimmed milk can't "add 4.5 years to your life" - the study had nothing to do with age - probably not causal - DRINK WHATEVER MILK YOU WANT
Show this thread -
Oh, forgot to mention that if this regression was accurate you'd expect that people who eat cheese, which has a very high percentage of milk fat, would have basically no telomereshttps://twitter.com/GidMK/status/1217927165884321792?s=20 …
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.