Frei's Final Word on the Supplement Bash

There are several things that I find interesting in his response.

• He describes the division of the 68 selected trials into high bias and low bias as subjective.
• Two studies showing positive (decreasing mortality) results were deemed to be high bias and discarded by the three authors of the study. Frei states that their justification of cutting these two is un-explained. Both of these studies had been published in two major medical journals.
• Most interesting to me is Frei's assertion that antioxidants might not be properly studied in clinical trials in the same way as drugs. Consider:

  ...clinical trials of dietary antioxidants have serious
  limitations. They may be the "gold standard" for testing
  safety and efficacy of pharmaceutical drugs, but are hardly
  suitable to test dietary compounds, which are metabolized
  in completely different ways from drugs.
  

  This makes me suspicious of those in the establishment who would prefer to lump supplements in the same category as any other chemical drug.
• Oxidative stress of patients was not assessed in any of the selected low bias trials.
• Doses of supplements were vastly different. Causes of death showed wide variation.
• Blatant misrepresentation of deaths by the meta-study authors in one particular study.

I have to conclude that anyone who thinks this study was legitimate is clearly part of the establishment which is constantly directing skepticism and doubt towards nutritional supplements. I think that's the least I can say.

One other thing to consider in this latest LPI newsletter. The report by Director of Development, Scott Palmer points out that the LPI receives a significant amount of it's funding by independent donation. The work of the institute is not geared towards patentable products. They are also not able to offer the same incentives to scientists as other institutions. All this points to a research effort which is perhaps more free of bias than others. Yet on the other hand, I know that many supplement advocates remain a bit frustrated with Dr. Frei's views on some things, especially the use of vitamin C. All this says to me that when Dr. Frei and the LPI come out and strongly condemn a meta-study as being biased, I'm going to be strongly encouraged to think they are right!

Update

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Pachelbel's Loose Cannon by LAGQ

I am really amazed at how many resources the Internet (and Youtube) gives to guitarists today. You can expose yourself to so much more variety than when I was a student back in the mid 70's. Even if we just limit the discussion to classical guitar. If I want to hear how a particular piece is played, I just search Youtube and I can pull up several recordings of the piece by both amateurs and pros. It's very helpful to see and hear how people are doing things. Will this translate into better performing guitarists in the future? Maybe so. There is certainly more opportunity to improve and understand the techniques involved but will it produce more heart and soul? This might be hard to say for sure.

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