Dalrymple here just looks at one problem with scientific research: the results are very hard to replicate. The scientific community is jammed with competition and the need to produce papers and studies . . . results. Scientists can't take the time to replicate to confirm what others have done.
And that's just one problem.
I'd add that, in the medical industry, scientists are bought by the pharmaceutical companies to produce results that promote sales of their drugs, then tell their PR departments (a/k/a "the legacy media," like NYT, WaPo, USA Today, etc.) to promote the results. I have little proof, but little doubt, that's what happened when a study earlier this year said people who fast intermittently have a 91% increased chance of heart disease. Google searches for "intermittent fasting" brought pages of stories, blaring the results . . . and then we learned that the study hadn't even been released, but rather, only a synopsis was available, almost as though the folks who published the paper didn't want the details to emerge. An identical Google search this morning brought up none of the stories on the first page. It's like the pharmaceutical companies said, "Let's make a big splash with this synopsis, then let the story disappear because it's all bulls***." But the heck if I know.
I wish I could trust the medical establishment. I like my doctor. I think he's an honest guy who keeps up with the professional literature. The problem is, the literature is filled with bulls***, so even though I think he's trying his best, I never take his advice "straight." I put it in a blender with other factors and try to decide what's best for me . . . a dubious proposition, I'm afraid, but the only one available.
Aside: GLP-1
Ozepic appears to use GLP-1, a peptide found in Yerba Matte tea. Huberman for years has been promoting Yerba Matte for this reason. I drink it, though not as often as I should. I have found that it helps suppress my appetite. The first time I drank it, I was stunned at how much my appetite that day shrank. I haven't been able to, ahem, replicate the robust results of that first use, but overall, it definitely seems to help.
Don't, incidentally, get the smoked Yerba Matte. I guess it's carcinogenic.
Here's the kind I use (Amazon).
Similar conflicts of interest and biases exist in virtually every field of medicine, particularly those that rely heavily on drugs or devices. It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine . [Quote from Wikipedia, which linked to this story, which I haven't read]:
Marcia Angell
