It's an interesting article, but I was puzzled by the fact that they gave coloured water to some volunteers to check the placebo effect...surely the whole point of this kind of test is that the volunteer doesn't know whether or not they are drinking the 'real' thing. There is no way anyone could mistake 2 tablespoons of vinegar mixed with 200ml water for plain water with food colouring in it. The vinegar taste is very, very strong (wondered if I was over-imagining the strength of it, so I have just tried drinking this dilution myself, and you couldn't be in any doubt you were drinking water with vinegar in it!)
Also interested to note that one volunteer reported less painful joints even though scientifically, the differences were supposedly too small to get excited about. Would love to know what the long-term effects are on joint health. I was tested for anaemia some years ago - results came back and the GP said my levels were so nearly normal that it couldn't possibly be affecting my health but gave me iron tablets anyway - which totally transformed me from a lethargic wreck into someone brimming over with energy. So I am always a little sceptical now when I'm told the difference is too slight to make a real impact!
Yes I agree there Dorothy – the placebo effect in this experiment I imagine is impossible to test, and so any subjective result like the perception of pain cannot necessarily be attributed to the treatment ie the vinegar, because the coloured water people know they are getting just that! Better if there is an objective measure eg the anti-inflammatory marker but still there is no proper way of testing for placebo.
You also mentioned about small differences – if the number of people taking part in the experiment were large enough, then even if an effect is only small, it could still be statistically significant – and therefore more likely that whatever it is (that was being measured) was not due to chance and therefore may work for more other individuals too. That's why all trials involving people need to have very large numbers and also because as Elisabethrose says we are all very variable so eg just looking at two people, for example, may give a very different result.
I have seen one or two of his programmes and they always make for compelling viewing – and must be fun for the participants and are a good way of introducing the public to the idea of scientific experiments. However I am sure they aren't intended for any reliable conclusions to be drawn but a bit of fun and good TV – after all the sample size is minute – in this experiment 10 in each treatment – so unlikely that any result would be statistically significant, and they are not carried on for long enough to determine any lasting results! Hopefully if the right research has not been done though, his work can point the way for further more in depth trials into various treatments?
As for the explanation in the article about acetic acid and blood sugars in relation to apple cider vinegar – what a weird thing to say – I mean what does malt vinegar contain but acetic acid???!!
Now I've seen the article I'm not tempted to watch though as I know the outcome!!!!
Hurdity x
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Topic: BBC Trust me I'm a doctor investigates apple cider vinegar (Read 11036 times)