Research and studies

Looking into all the research that takes place in science.

I was naive before.  (This implies that I hope I am no longer naive)

I used to trust every piece of information and research that was presented in newspapers - especially papers such as the METRO.

Little did I know that there is no hard evidence for believing such claims.
As with many things in life you have to take it with a pinch of salt.

Dr Ben Goldacre's recently exploited many of the scandals of drugs companies who provide misleading data.
They can do so like this (as mentioned by him in the TED talks):
- by cherry picking their volunteers
- by stopping their study half way through when their desired results are produced
- or by compraing their drug to a placebo or one they know does not work very well 

more on this can be found on Goldacre's blog: http://www.badscience.net/2012/10/

So drugs companies are profit hungry, ruthless and provide no benefit to patients. Well or so it seems for some companies - some are now ready to release data so we will have to see about that.

On a more positive  note to a study that I thought was good. 

The recent study with ONE MILLION women - testing the effects of smoking.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19946427

I am impressed - they used so many volunteers - this to me shows dedication and effort in a genuine attempt to inform the public.

Although i do wonder why they didn't do the same for men. The costs for funding it? Were men less likely to volunteer for something like this? Would men have to be paid more as volunteers?

Just some thoughts that came into my head.

Abortion: the recent claim

This post is all based on comments by the current Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt.

To put plainly, he has said the limit for abortion should be limited to 12 weeks - this has sparked outrage within the abortion rights campaigners.

now let's examine the issue - there are reasons why we could believe his opinion:

- medical care is improving so a baby born at 24 weeks (the current limit) can expect to survive
-idea of foetus feeling pain at this point

also important stat to consider which may influence decisions before we discuss the opposing views: 91% of women terminate pregnancy before 13 weeks.

so where does that leave us?

-mothers may make decisions based on the disability of the child etc. and although some testing can be done before 12 weeks others that may confirm it may not be possible until after the 12 weeks.

-sometimes the mother is a vulnerable teenager who hasn't plucked up the courage to tell anybody

-the beginning of life is different to each mother so why should one person have the right to judge?

-because the majority of the mothers do abort before the 12 weeks it seems that it is the most vulnerable who terminate after this date so shouldn't they be given more help.

An even more problematic issue that arises from reducing the abortion limit is that more women would consider the "backstreet" option which is dangerous --> could lead to even more detriment not just to the mother, the economy due to it being illegal it will need police forces to monitor and criminalise -- eventually leading to overall loss.

i'm not sure what to think really just presenting all the reasoning here - i may come with a decision soon.

sources: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19854465