Newspaper columns that evaluate the evidence in recent studies

Does smaller fingertip size explain why women have a finer sense of touch than men?

Are men diagnosed with prostate cancer more likely than other men to die of a heart attack during the following year?

Can probiotics help prevent the onset of Crohn’s disease?

Maybe, according to recent studies.

But Jeremy Singer-Vine’s Research Report column in the Wall Street Journal today raises questions about these studies and others. Questions about:

• will animal research translate to humans?
• confounding factors that an observational trial may not have accounted for
• small study size
• skewed sample

And in her WSJ column today, Melinda Beck analyzed some of the evidence about the benefits and harms of coffee drinking – in diabetes, cancer, heart disease, hypertension, cholesterol, Alzheimer’s Disease, osteoporosis, pregnancy, sleep and mood effects.