statistical difficulties

[miriam_e]

In a couple of places recently I've read the uncritical statement that caffeine and nicotine have some apparent protective effect against alzheimers. I find this difficult to believe. I have seen spurious statistical effects before and have to wonder if this is another. Did study control for the number of people killed by cigarettes and coffee? If people die earlier from cigarettes then a younger, intrinsically more resilient group will remain, who may well be less likely to get alzheimers, but not because nicotine protects; it would be simply that the cigarettes had already killed the most susceptible.

I know people are fond of saying that caffeine is safe, but I frankly don't believe it (to my shame I do drink caffeine). When I was a kid I embarked on an experiment with a friend at school to mutate fruit flies by feeding caffeine to them. Doesn't sound like a safe substance to me. Doesn't it strike anybody else as odd that caffeine producing plants are rendered fairly safe from pests. Why would that be do you suppose? Perhaps the insects are, in a sense, smarter than we are. I am almost willing to bet that some day in the future we will find that caffeine has been afflicting society with massive health problems that we have been studiously ignoring, just as we did for so long with cigarettes, and still do to some degree with alcohol.

Comments

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

Your friend probably didn't die from heroin withdrawal, they probably overdosed on something else they used to take away the symptoms of withdrawal. I know you can die from alcohol withdrawal, but I'm pretty sure you can't die from heroin withdrawal.

There are two things that keep me using caffeine. I need to leave a window of 3 days for the headaches and sore skin and joints that I get from the withdrawal, and I value the little lift the drink gives me (even though I know it is probably simply alleviating the longer term caffeine-induced tiredness).

At this stage I am on track to giving caffeine up next week. Hopefully there will not be any visitors next Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

Well that's possible, however you can die from heroin withdrawal. Really. I think it depends largely on how long term the addiction is and how healthy the person is. And whether they have access to proper medical care.
Thankfully not everyone does have to die for it, but some can and do although with good medical care they probably wouldn't have.

Hokay, that makes me sad, moving on.

Good luck on your caffeine thing.
Perhaps you should put a sign on your door, or let people know to leave you be for those days.
My man when he gave up cigarettes for the last time, he'd figured out he needed to go away for at least 3 days. And he did that, and it was good.

[miriam-e.livejournal.com]

It should be pretty easy for me. I've done it before. I'm a bit of a hermit, so unless someone makes a surprise visit, which is very rare, I should be able to sleep and read my way through it. The trick is not to have to stay up nights to meet deadlines like I've had to do before... and ending up on the caffeine again.

Your guy sounds like he's smart and considerate. Good strategy -- eases the load on you and him.

I know a lovely person who tries to escape when the stress of weaning off drink and smokes gets too bad. Unfortunately she visits another nice person who drinks and smokes. Oops.

[dorjejaguar.livejournal.com]

It took my man a few tries to get that right, but yes, he's smart, he figured it out.

Good luck with your plan. :)