We're all going to die!!!!!

[b0redom]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31095384

What a stupid article.

[kalniel]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-31095384

What a stupid article.

They're talking about death in a particular period of time (12 years), not over lifetime. Implication is that moderate exercise prolongs lifespan. No exercise reduces it in comparison, and the new thing: extreme exercise also reduces it in comparison to moderate exercise.

[b0redom]

Indeed, but the article seems to have collected information via questionnaire rather than proper scientific testing. It also doesn't mention the cause of death, if you're running outside, you're more likely to get run over etc than someone sitting on the sofa watching TV.

There also aren't any numbers in the article. If 2 people died during the 12 years who were extreme runners, 1 person died who run twice per day, and 2 people died on the toilet having consumed their own body weight in pies and burgers, you're twice as likely to die through running etc.

Anyway almost time for my bike/run session. Hope I don't drop dead.

[kalniel]

Indeed, but the article seems to have collected information via questionnaire rather than proper scientific testing.

It's a correlation analysis, not controlled experiment. It many cases it's considered unethical to perform controlled experiments on humans, especially regarding lifestyle decisions over the long term, so this is the only approach that can be taken.

Once you've found a statistically relevant correlation (which would include taking account of other factors), then you can start more directed studies testing your hypothesis of causation factors.

[kalniel]

Actually you know what bugs me most about the BBC reports like this - they don't cite the journal article properly and instead just give a generic link to the journal website, which makes it much trickier to find the article and stops important citation tools from picking up the fact a website article has been written on the paper and ought to count as a (media) citation.

edit: gah that's because it's not been published yet. These are just advanced findings and we have to wait till 10th feb to get the paper. That's quite annoying as we have to take the peer reviewers words for it..

[Infinite]

Who do you think is stupid? The American College of Cardiology or the BBC?