Scientists Say Catholic Nuns Should Take Birth Control | TheBlaze.com.
Your friendly pharmer got a call from EWTN today regarding This ‘Nonscience’, by Kara Britt and Roger Short.
The quality of this Lancet article is comparable to the those in the Journal of Irreproducible Results, a hilarious research PARODY journal, which entertains science nerds such as this one. But one does not expect parody or satire in the Lancet. But, yes it sometimes contains garbage.
First of all, the increased incidence of breast cancer was highlighted uppermost in the illustrations of the article in question, though the pill does not protect against this disease.
Second of all, according to the authors themselves, the nuns show less than or equal risk of ovarian and uterine cancer than the general population until AFTER age 70.
Third, the lower doses hormone replacement therapy, which used to be given to reduce the risk of such disorders has been largely discontinued, except for short term use for menopausal symptoms, because it was not efficacious as a preventative.
Fourth, the birth control pills are associated with thromboembolism and stroke to a much higher degree than the pharmaceutical regulatory bodies are apparently aware, because such associations so often go unreported.
Pharmer could go on past number ninety nine until the readers are bored to tears.
There is extremely poor analysis of risk vs benefit in this article, and this has generated one more insane recommendation of preventative “medicine”.
The detrimental advice in the Lancet leads to a burning question:
Did these two authors get whacked with a ruler by nuns in grade school?
