The Science of Optimizing Your Health

May 10, 2013 11:31 PM

An in-depth talk at Google that sums up the scientific research on living a healthy life with lots of practical advice.
posted by Foci for Analysis (15 comments total)

"In-depth"? I'm already seeing graphs with the bottom 70 percent cut off to exaggerate differences. And he's going on about how "amazing" and "incredible" this and that is, as if he were selling a knife set.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 12:22 AM on May 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

"In-depth"? I'm already seeing graphs with the bottom 70 percent cut off to exaggerate differences. And he's going on about how "amazing" and "incredible" this and that is, as if he were selling a knife set.

The difference between scientists and technology/innovation evangelists in a nutshell.
posted by jaduncan at 12:45 AM on May 11, 2013 [3 favorites]

I'm already seeing graphs with the bottom 70 percent cut off to exaggerate differences.
I don't think that is fair (and btw the speaker is an associate professor of medicine at northwestern university - so I think its fair to call the speaker a scientist not some "technology evangelist")

In that instance he makes a claim - that there are 72% fewer heart problems in those who adopt a specific "Mediterranean" diet, and then shows the graph which charts that development. If the graph went from 0-100% all it would emphasise is that most people don't get heart conditions, which is something that we already know - it is not misleading or exaggerating to focus on the relative difference here because that is what he is claiming.

If you are so anti-silicon valley that you're going to dismiss advice to "exercise regularly" and "eat more fish, vegetables and whole grains" as technobabble I would suggest you're not seeing the world in a complex or nuanced way.
posted by Another Fine Product From The Nonsense Factory at 1:05 AM on May 11, 2013 [8 favorites]

Wow, according to this video I can reduce my risk of heart diesase by 248%! Thus ensuring I will instead die from cancer and multiple organ failure, hooray!
posted by aw_yiss at 1:37 AM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

That's all fine, but which Mediterraneans taste better? They failed to cover that in Joy.
posted by Goofyy at 1:39 AM on May 11, 2013 [4 favorites]

If you are so anti-silicon valley that you're going to dismiss advice to "exercise regularly" and "eat more fish, vegetables and whole grains" as technobabble I would suggest you're not seeing the world in a complex or nuanced way.

If you think that my personal dislike of a certain style of presentation (the perceived need to sex up data like a kids TV show) means I dismiss the underlying data, I would suggest that it is not me that lacks nuance.
posted by jaduncan at 1:46 AM on May 11, 2013 [4 favorites]

This is a silicon-valley thing? So that's what I'm biased against!

No seriously, I don't doubt (or undoubt) the content. It's the form (powerpoint; woo) that gets my skepticism up.
posted by Rich Smorgasbord at 1:57 AM on May 11, 2013

Well, having listened to the whole thing, what struck me is that Dr. Devries has no idea who he's speaking to. He keeps trying to "sell" his nonprofit organization, to encourage Google to partner with them, to draw somewhat spurious similarities between his mission and the tech business's (doesn't he realize that Search Engine Optimization is Google's enemy?). But nobody in that room has any power; they're not the board of directors. They're ordinary employee schmoes, health nuts, moms and dads attending a bit of midday edu-tainment at work.

I don't know how he can improve his style but I think he needs to. By about halfway through I began to have the same feeling I always have at the doctor when she starts talking about diet -- cornered, hectored, and patronized. At one point he says something like, "doesn't it just make sense to eat the most healthy choice at all times?" No, not really. That extremist way leads to throwing up your hands and going out for Five Guys every night.

Or maybe it leads to the mindset lurking behind one of the questions he fields at the end, the woman who asks whether she's "undone" all her healthy eating by swallowing one double-stuff Oreo. Rather than seeing leafy greens as good medicine to be added to your life, the focus is on avoiding modern life's toxins which are poisoning you. In this view, the main value of (organic) veggies is that they're pure and uncontaminated, like the old macrobiotic movement. This is a pretty lousy way to see the world and, at the very least, turns you into one of those tedious Whole Foods bores.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 3:58 AM on May 11, 2013 [4 favorites]

Not to be superficial, but I can't listen to this speaker. He's got that soft, lispy Mr. Garrison diction. It's like nails on a chalkboard.

Is it too much to ask that all male public speakers have a warm, folksy baritone like Bing Crosby?

It is?

Damn.
posted by dgaicun at 4:11 AM on May 11, 2013

I'm already seeing graphs with the bottom 70 percent cut off to exaggerate differences.

This is only misleading if the difference between the high stat and the low stat is not very meaningful. In this case, it's quite meaningful. Cutting the y-axis serves to make the message clearer.

The goal of a presentation is to get meaningful information across quickly to your audience. In this case, a graph with an un-broken y-axis wouldn't do that... it would be harder to read and the message would be less clear. It would actually be bad presenting to show that.
posted by Old Man McKay at 7:02 AM on May 11, 2013

If the graph went from 0-100% all it would emphasise is that most people don't get heart conditions

In other words, it's obscuring the fact of how low the odds are that you will have an health problem that could have been avoided by following this advice. So, very, very misleading.
posted by straight at 8:33 AM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Great video, thanks Foci for Analysis! Enjoyed it. Many people don't want to hear this message and will find reasons to dismiss it.
posted by stbalbach at 9:42 AM on May 11, 2013 [1 favorite]

Post about exercise or weight management--predictable responses (50% +/-): flawed data, authoritarian, shaming, patronizing, content inappropriately presented, discriminates against ......, yes but. I have participated in MeFi and AskMefi since 2005 and am thoroughly convinced that any post re: the importance of fitness,"healthy diet" or weight management is particularly subjected to rigorous examination. I am an active enough reader to know that dialogue, disagreement and controversy is deeply embedded in the culture of MeFi and kudos to those who post links such as this.
posted by rmhsinc at 10:07 AM on May 11, 2013 [2 favorites]

I watched some of this and did not find it dense enough in information to hold my attention. There wasn't anything wrong in what he was saying that I could tell, but I did not find him credible. On the youtube page it has, in the author's bio:

Stephen Devries, M.D is a preventive cardiologist and Executive Director of the Gaples Institute for Integrative Cardiology, a nonprofit organization that promotes natural approaches to heart health. He is also an Associate Professor at Northwestern University.
Dr. Devries has had unique training, including a Fellowship in Integrative Medicine with Dr. Andrew Weil at the University of Arizona.

I actually like reading Andrew Weil's books and I can easily imagine going to study with the guy if I was a doctor. I absolutely would not advertise it after, though. Since I am not a doctor I can't tell if it's deserved or undeserved but the guy has entries (example) on quackwatch. Anybody know of a reliable takedown of the quackwatch?
posted by bukvich at 10:29 AM on May 11, 2013

There were some gems in there, particularly the point about not confusing multi-grain with whole grain. I already have a pretty good diet but he was able to help me round out a few things.
posted by dgran at 11:10 AM on May 13, 2013