Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Jimmc414 28 days ago
Agreed that seems like a potential conflict that should be scrutinized, but it highlights a real problem in health research. Who else would fund a 40,000 participant 15 year study about egg consumption and Alzheimer’s? How many studies are not conducted because no one is interested in funding them?
2 comments

The paper is an analysis performed on a larger dataset. No one created or ran a 15 year study on egg consumption. Someone ran a 15 year study that included dietary survey questions that happened to include eggs, and then someone other group mined the dataset for this analysis.

This particular study (AHS-2) was initially funded by the NIH (and has continued with NIH and mixed funding): https://publichealth.llu.edu/adventist-health-studies/videos...

> Who else would fund a 40,000 participant 15 year study about egg consumption and Alzheimer’s?

Your government. Health insurances. A university. Any of the thousands of billionaires on this planet.

None of the billionaires got that way by throwing money at egg studies. Bold to think they'd just start doing it now.

Insurance companies don't fund medical research AFAIK? But if they did, it would be coming out of your premiums.

The US Government is not a reliable source of research or funding these days.

Universities are generally looking for subjects that will further their prestige and expand the frontiers as they understand them. This isn't that. And they, too, have funding issues, tracing in many ways right back to the government.

GP was proposing better ways to fund research than having the industry sponsor the research that better fits their agenda. That was all.
The egg billionaires did.
Big Egg
> Any of the thousands of billionaires on this planet.

Fun fact, there's only about 3000 billionaires on the planet. It's a pretty exclusive club.