I'll be honest. I can't actually read this paper. My library doesn't carry this journal and I don't have $39.95 for a single PDF download. However....I think we're looking at experimental design of the year award.
1) Get 50 people
2) Give them 1g of ethanol per kg of body weight. (Siri says I'm 84kg...okay...you've got my attention....
...ummm...84/14 = 6 drinks for me. That's a bottle and a half of wine? Ouch. Okay. Admittedly, I've experienced that, but never as the subject of a scientific study.)
It gets better. The participants had to finish this alchohol in one hour!!
3) The best part. Blood draws every 15 minutes for 3 hours. Then every 30 minutes for the next 3 hours and then every hour for the next 9 hours.
3+3+9 = 15 hours of blood draws! 27 blood draws over the next 15 hours.
Can you imagine a study design that would be more unpleasant for the participants, study organizers, and perhaps particularly the phlebotomists? How fun is it to get a blood draw on someone who just chugged 6 glasses of wine? Is it worse then, or after 15 hours of visiting?
But that's what science is. An incorruptible pursuit of the truth. Kudos to these authors for asking the big questions.
No comments:
Post a Comment