These examples demonstrate how critical it is to analyze the variables in a study carefully and consider wider information. We must ask whose study it is, what factors were considered, and how the data were interpreted. The scientific method doesn’t provide absolute truths; instead, it offers conclusions based on statistical significance. Science does not “prove” things, it puts up hypotheses (ideas) and they stand until someone finds some other data that disputes it. We often as a population accept things as fact when they are just hypotheses. For example, gravity wasn’t considered until Newton pointed it out. The earth was believed to be flat at one time. To prove something you have to have control of all the variables and know what you don’t know! Often, outliers and unaccounted-for variables remain overlooked, skewing our understanding of reality.
Consider the dietary cholesterol studies from the 1950s. Researchers claimed that foods like eggs and red meat were the primary contributors to high cholesterol and heart disease. However, these studies neglected important factors, such as the difference between saturated fats in processed versus whole foods and the type of fat replacing saturated fats (Siri-Tarino et al., 2010). Later research showed that polyunsaturated fats improved heart health, while carbohydrates had a less favorable impact (Mozaffarian et al., 2010).
Dr. Jeffrey Rediger’s book Cured explores how outliers—patients who defy medical odds—are often ignored in mainstream medical research. These cases provide insights into what's possible, but because they fall outside the statistical norm, they are often dismissed. Medical research focuses on normal. Have you ever aspired to the normal? What we believe as a society effects us. It may not stop us, but it is an energy we have to fight against to break glass ceilings. Many women ignored the research about pregnancy complications over 35. It had become popular for women to have their careers first and family later and they bravely forged a new belief breaking down old barriers and that led to a reanalysis of the previous data. Same data, just a different way to analyze it. Decades later women are no longer afraid to wait to have their children even into their forties.
Dan Buettner’s Blue Zones research, conducted in partnership with National Geographic, sheds light on longevity. These communities defy common beliefs about aging, showcasing how lifestyle factors—such as diet, physical activity, and social connections—affect health more than age alone (Buettner, 2009). Could such factors influence studies on collagen production and other aging-related processes? We don’t know because such “exceptional” populations are not included in the mainstream research. Watch programs on the blue zone people and you’ll see a very different centenarian.
As we engage with research, it’s essential to maintain a critical perspective. Scientific conclusions are only as reliable as the scope of the study. Remember, we often don't know what we don’t know. So, the next time someone cites research on aging, I’ll be asking many questions. Scientific conclusions are only as reliable as the scope of the study, and often, that scope is too narrow.
As one of my mentors wisely told me:
"I don't know if this is true or not—I just read it in a book."
Wade Poling,
Herbalist and wise man
This mindset encourages us to remain open-minded, to question, and to seek the broader truth that might lie beyond the data presented. It also reminds us to pay attention to the reality around us and believe our own eyes. This requires us to observe and think not just take in and regurgitate which much of our schooling teaches us. When I taught experimentally based Physical Science at WVU our approach was to ask questions when students confronted us with questions rather than giving answers. Sometimes the students actually yelled, “You want me to think!!!” and I would respond, “You are catching on.”
By the end of the semester, I heard things like this, “NO ONE’S EVER ASKED ME TO THINK BEFORE !!! !!!! WHY?????”
If you are a thinking person, it is likely not because of your schooling unless you had exceptional schooling experiences. That, however, is a related but completely different conversation for another article.
So please be careful when you are citing any research, especially that on aging. I will have many questions and I will point out that I have never sought to be average.
“If I had wings no one would ask me should I fly
The bird sings, no one asks why.
I can see in myself wings as I feel them
if you see something else, keep your thoughts to yourself,
I'll fly free then.
Yesterday's eyes see their colors fading away
They see their sun turning to gray
You can't share in a dream, that you don't believe in
If you say that you see and pretend to be me
You won't be then.
How can you ask if I'm happy going my way?
You might as well ask a child at play!
There's no need to discuss or understand me
I won't ask of myself to become something else
I'll just be me!
If I had wings no one would ask me should I fly
The bird sings, and no one asks her why.
I can see in myself wings as I feel them
If you see something else, keep your thoughts to yourself,
I'll fly free then.
Written by: PETER YARROW, SUSAN YARDLEY
Performed by: PETER, PAUL & MARY
References:
Buettner, D. (2009). The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who've Lived the Longest. National Geographic Books.
Heaney, R. P. (2002). Long-latency deficiency disease: insights from calcium and vitamin D. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 76(5), 907-910.
Kearns, C. E., Schmidt, L. A., & Glantz, S. A. (2016). Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research: A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents. JAMA Internal Medicine, 176(11), 1680–1685.
Kleinhaus, K., Perrin, M., Friedlander, Y., Paltiel, O., Malaspina, D., & Harlap, S. (2006). Paternal Age and Spontaneous Abortion. Obstetrics & Gynecology, 108(2), 369-377.
Mozaffarian, D. (2016). Dietary and Policy Priorities for Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, and Obesity: A Comprehensive Review. Circulation, 133(2), 187–225.
Mozaffarian, D., Micha, R., & Wallace, S. (2010). Effects on coronary heart disease of increasing polyunsaturated fat in place of saturated fat: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. PLoS Medicine, 7(3), e1000252.
National Institutes of Health. (2020). Calcium and Vitamin D: Important at Every Age. Retrieved from https://www.bones.nih.gov