Benefit of Nitrox?

[DKL]

The reg is supposed to go in your mouth, just to clarify procedure.



Bob

You are truly a wise man. I thought the reg was a bit uncomfortable.

 

[dmaziuk]

I don't know how many times I have pointed that out in the past. The methodology here is terrible. They subjected a handful of people to an experience that shouldn't bother anyone and then compared the results. If you are going to compare things, you have to push the experience beyond that bare minimum, and you need many more subjects to average out personal differences.

Scientists tend to laugh at "statistics" in medical studies. They're usually like that and those involving human subjects: much more so. Medics go "we had 30 patients and half of them were given placebo..." while the scientists say "we've collected a million data points so now we finally can begin to run some meaningful statistics". Passive smoking study is one of the more notorious examples though the part where "statistical conclusions" were below the calculation error threshold wasn't widely advertised.

 

[boulderjohn]

Scientists tend to laugh at "statistics" in medical studies. They're usually like that and those involving human subjects: much more so. Medics go "we had 30 patients and half of them were given placebo..." while the scientists say "we've collected a million data points so now we finally can begin to run some meaningful statistics". Passive smoking study is one of the more notorious examples though the part where "statistical conclusions" were below the calculation error threshold wasn't widely advertised.

I would think the problem of isolating the variables in these sorts of things would be a real problem. A preson subjected to a high amount of second hand smoke over a long period of time would have also been in contact with a wide variety of other environmental issues. I was raised in a household with two smoking parents. I was a victim of chronic childhood bronchitis through high school. I then went to college--another high smoke environment--and the chronic bronchitis continued. Then I graduated and lived in a smoke free home. After a year or two, I never had another bout of it again. Now, I'm pretty convinced, but can I prove anything without eliminating everything else going on in my life during that time?

Similarly, I once met one of the researchers that did the study on asbestos-related cancer in navy shipyard workers. He said that their biggest problem lay in the fact that pretty much every single one of them was also a heavy smoker. They could not possibly eliminate it as a related factor.

 

[dmaziuk]

I would think the problem of isolating the variables in these sorts of things would be a real problem. A preson subjected to a high amount of second hand smoke over a long period of time would have also been in contact with a wide variety of other environmental issues. I was raised in a household with two smoking parents. I was a victim of chronic childhood bronchitis through high school. I then went to college--another high smoke environment--and the chronic bronchitis continued. Then I graduated and lived in a smoke free home. After a year or two, I never had another bout of it again. Now, I'm pretty convinced, but can I prove anything without eliminating everything else going on in my life during that time?

Case in point: I grew up in a household with one smoker and one or two cats. I was a victim of chronic childhood bronchitis. And then one doctor suggested we run allergy tests on me. Living in pet-free homes I never had another bout of it again (and smoking, too).