Some Notes About Statistics

Most statistics are created by making adjustments to observed values that transform these values into useful inferences. ¹

These adjustments result in reporting NOT what was observed. These adjustments can be valid and useful depending upon these adjustments. It also depends upon the motivation of those making the adjustments – that is, what beliefs that they wish to communicate to a wider audience.

There are a number of people who believe that smoking is not nearly as harmful as most believe and that eating bacon and egg rolls for breakfast each day is OK because “my great-uncle lived to be 95 and died after spending the day riding his horse around the boundary of his rural property.” Statistics can be provided to validate this.

Adjustments can be harmful if poorly motivated and are often misinterpreted in the reporting of studies. The assumptions made often omitted without any justification.

The reporting of the results in the studies in the media only highlights basic findings. For example, we all “know” that mammagrams and PSA testing has resulted in longer survival times – ignoring the effect of “lead time bias“. In reality, the increase in “survival time” is a result of living longer knowing that you are unwell – you are still dying on the same day. ² ~ ³

Back to the assertion that if you knew that drinking coffee, smoking, drinking alcohol or eating bacon and egg rolls would result in the loss of two years of life then you may consider it worthwhile.

It is impossible to know this. For an individual it may result in the loss of 15 years or have no effect on life expectancy. That does not mean that it is healthy.

A more realistic condsideration than longevity is healthiness. It is pointless living 10 years longer if those years consist of living with debilitating conditions.

Once again, this is not predictable. It is impossible to know what the outcome of any action will be.

The alternatives to coffee, alcohol and bacon and egg rolls may seem to be inconceivable but their consumption is largely a result of habit and addiction. Caffeine is a very powerful stimulant and the most widely consumed psychoactive drug.

People are not very good at delayed gratification. Embarking on any activity that results in a payoff in the future is not as appealing as having an immediate result – like NOW.

My mother died at the age of 92 after 5 years of painful living. Prior to that she was apparently health. Most poor health conditions do not appear suddenly but gradually arrive after years of inappropriate living. Society has not yet come to terms with what approriate living is even though people have been writing about this for millenia.

Consider the writings of Plato (428–347 BC), Sotion of Alexandria (1st century CE), Plutarch (50-120 CE), Rene Descartes (1596-1650), Richard Wiseman (Sergeant-Surgeon to King Charles II, 1630-1685), Dr. Walter Hayle Walche (1812-1892), Dr.William Lambe (1765–1847), Professor Russell Henry Chittenden (1856–1943) and Frederick Hoffman (1865-1946).

Rene Descartes received information in the form of dreams – dreams that changed the course of history. He opposed the concept of bleeding for treating illness some 150 years before the rest of Europe. According to Descartes, “bleeding shortens the days”. ⁴

Descartes proposed that the most effective treatment for disease was bed-rest and vegetable broth. He was a vegan and rarely drank alcohol – something that the rest of the world still has not woken up to 400 years later.

Historical Advocates of Plant Based Diets

Last updated on Tuesday 6 October 2026 at 17:23 by administrators

1. Kaufman, J. S. (2017) Statistics, adjusted statistics, and maladjusted statistics. American Journal of Law & Medicine. 43 (2–3), 193–208.
2. Gotzsche, Peter. 2012. Mammography Screening: Truth, Lies and Controversy. Routledge.
3. McDougall, John, and Peter Gotzsche, hosts. 2012. Peter Gotzsche, MD: Director of The Nordic Cochrane Centre: Part 1. May 2012.
4. Aczel, A. D. (2005) Descartes’ Secret Notebook. New York: Broadway Books.