1/ So I’m finally getting around to listening to the last episode of @ethanjweiss’s podcast, #BestKnownMethod, this one featuring @skathire. Because my last tweet-as-I-listened format has gotten lots of requests, I’ll do so here as well. Starting.... now
2/ After some biography, they are getting into the genetics, and @ethanjweiss adds a helpful explainer at 29:00 to help the lay audience (I’m only slightly less lay, but I still have plenty left ;) ). I always love when podcasts can do this.
3/ At 34:26 @skathire discussing the issue with epidemiology determining causation, he points out often X doesn’t cause Y, often there’s a third factor that can influence both (call it Z) creating the association. I agree.👌 But to be sure, this applies beyond epis, of course.
4/ at around 39:26 “Not just one gene... almost any gene that changes LDL cholesterol” [to high results in more heart disease, and any gene that naturally lowers results in less.] ...
...Probably everyone who knows me well — knows what follow-up question I’d want to ask
5/ Yaaaaay, at 51m @ethanjweiss is opening the subject of hyper-responders...
6/ 51:40 @skathire says (paraphrasing) The evidence is pretty clear every 40 mg/dL lowering of LDL you get a 22% reduction in risk and we can flip that for hyper-responders going upwards. “that relationship, that slope of LDL change and heart attack disease risk is pretty firm”
@skathire 7/ *** I'm taking the rare step of deleting the last tweet of Sek's quote (I almost never delete tweets). This is for intellectual honesty reasons as @skathire's initial statement is further qualified a few minutes later where he begins, "I should be more precise..."
@skathire 8/ Shortened version: @skathire feels confident LDL lowering will reduce risk, all else being equal. But he likewise concedes there's a lot of unknowns regarding CVD risk benefits regarding diet, particularly with weight loss.
@skathire 9/ 58:12 @ethanjweiss goes into another explainer here. I'm really digging these things. He's talking out correlation and causality...
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