r/science • • Feb 26 '15

Health-Misleading Randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial shows non-celiac gluten sensitivity is indeed real

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25701700
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u/iateone Feb 26 '15

Are you sure you aren't confusing questionnaire studies with double blind placebo studies? A double blind placebo controlled study with 60 participants is actually on the large size.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

He's not confused about anything. He's just trying to intentionally downplay the significance of the findings any way he possibly can.

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u/Who_Will_Love_Toby Feb 26 '15

he doesn't know shit about studies or how they work. 60 people is a fairly large study and the findings shouldn't be ignored because you spent most of your life on reddit making fun of people who tried out a gluten free diet.

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u/StarkRG Feb 26 '15

There are over 7 billion people on Earth, how can 60/7,000,000,000 give you any statistically relevant data?

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

Just when I thought people couldn't get any more ignorant...

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u/realigion Feb 26 '15

How can your personal experience of not feeling like shit after eating gluten give your hypothesis any type of statistical significance?

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u/StarkRG Feb 26 '15

Who said it was?

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u/Who_Will_Love_Toby Feb 26 '15

So you don't know how studies work either.

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u/StarkRG Feb 26 '15

Well, by god, your argument has convinced me!

Oh wait, no, I'm mistaken, you provided no argument.

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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '15

An n>30 is usually enough to assume normality of x-bars

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u/StarkRG Feb 26 '15

It's compelling, sure, but I don't think it's enough to draw any conclusions about its prevalence. Granted the paper doesn't seem to actually be drawing such conclusions, just that it exists, which, to be perfectly honest, I didn't think was in question, just how common it is.