2021's Dumbest Scientifically Published Exercise Recommendation For The Treatment Of Obesity

[First written blog post since March 2020. What an awful 20 months. Though the pandemic is certainly not over yet, it feels like it's time to start writing again. Not sure what the frequency of posts will be, but it's nice to be back]

I wouldn't have believed it was real if I hadn't seen this phenomenon so many times before - a research study trying to tie their findings to the treatment of obesity despite the findings being either incapable of leading to clinically meaningful weight loss, or ridiculous to suggest in the first place. Here we've got both.

Published in Cell Reports Medicine, the paper Altered brown fat thermoregulation and enhanced cold-induced thermogenesis in young, healthy, winter-swimming men looked at the brown fat stores of Scandinavian men who alternate brief outdoor winter swims with a dash to the sauna 2-3x weekly. 

What'd they find?

The non-randomly selected winter swimmers, all 8 of them, whose average BMIs were 23.7 and whose average age was 25, were found, when exposed to cold, to generate more heat from their brown adipose tissue than their 8 age and weight matched controls. 

How many calories did that brown adipose tissue heat generation burn? If we take their results at face value (their results are orders of magnitude higher than found in a prior study of albeit older subjects), they report that during a "cooling period" of 30 minutes (there was no difference during a "comfort state"), resting energy expenditure was higher in the winter swimmers by an extrapolated 484kcal/24hours. They also reported that winter swimmers spent on average 11 weekly minutes in cold water. So during those 11 minutes the winter swimmers might well be burning 3.7 more calories than their non-winter swimming counterparts - the equivalent number you'd consume eating 1/10th of a carrot. 

The paper is full of various hypotheses to try to tease out the findings from this very small study. 

But what struck me was their final conclusion, 

"Finally, our findings motivate investigations of winter swimming as a lifestyle intervention for increased energy expenditure in obese subjects as a potential weight loss strategy."

Really? Your n=8, non-randomized, observational study of young men without obesity, that didn't control for any weight related variables, which showed that during their 11 minutes of winter-swimming the swimmers might burn 3.7 more calories per week for 4 months than non swimmers motivates investigations of winter swimming as a potential weight loss strategy in people with obesity?

Photo By Jaan Künnap - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=87539864

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Justin Ling, in Macleans, on the persistence of hygiene theatre

Sarah Zhang, in The Atlantic, on how we've lost the plot on COVID.

Andre Picard, in The Globe and Mail, on how now is the worst time for governments to be catering to antivaxxers

Announcement wise - well I think it's time for me to start blogging again. Though COVID is definitely not gone, with vaccinations coming for our children, I feel more comfortable amplifying topics not-COVID related. Look for first post back this week highlighting the stupidest appeal to obesity in a journal article that I've ever seen. Also, it's that time of year again, and should any of you want to donate to my Movember fundraising, here's the link

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Nisreen A. Alwan, in the BMJ, on how childism during the pandemic has seen governments failing to protect children

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Also, I wrote something for Medscape on that story you might have heard about where eating one hotdog apparently shortens your healthy life by 36 minutes

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Katherine J. Wu, in the Atlantic, on the dangers of Delta for kids.

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Jillian Horton, in The Toronto Star, on Canada's broken (I'd argue cut) emergency brake and the failure of our politics and politicians.

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Katelyn Jetelina, in Your Local Epidemiologist, discusses the risk of long COVID even for those who are fully vaccinated. 

André Picard, in The Globe and Mail, makes his case for vaccine passports.

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Andrew Coyne, in The Globe and Mail, makes the clear case for vaccination mandates in Canada. 

Katherine J. Wu, in The Atlantic, with a view that I share wholeheartedly on why she's still masking despite being fully vaccinated. 

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Katherine J. Wu, in the Atlantic, on how to understand breakthrough infections in the vaccinated. 

Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, in Medium, covers the terrible, fraudulent research that's been used to promote ivermectin. 

Saturday Stories: Kids, New Zealand, And More Kids

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Hilda Bastian, in Absolutely Maybe, on what she sees as a dangerous trend towards exceptionalism in the COVID-Kids debate. 

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Diana Duong, in the CMAJ, briefly interviews me regarding obesity, weight bias, and COVID.

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Anna Merlan, in Vice, on the invermectin conspiracy mongers. 

Hilda Bastien, in The Atlantic, on why Novavax might be the best vaccine we've got. 

Saturday Stories: Delta, Ventilation, and Childhood COVID

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Tavia Grant, in The Globe and Mail, on the need to address ventilation in workplaces.

Edward Nirenberg and Risa Hoshino, in Medpage Today, on COVID in childhood.

Saturday Stories: Not Individuals, And Long COVID And Kids

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how health, including during pandemics, cannot be framed as a matter of individual/personal choice.

Elizabeth Cooney, in STAT, on what we do and don't know about children COVID long haulers. 

Saturday Stories: The Finish Line and Microchips

Jessica Smith-Cross, in QP Briefing, on Ontario's (and really everywhere's) COVID finish line. 

James Heathers, in The Atlantic, ponders whether or not he received a microchip in his COVID vaccine.

Saturday Stories: The Latest Scary Variant, Systematic Evidence, And Lab Leaks

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Hilda Bastian, in her blog Absolutely Maybe, on the evidence behind the systematic evidence behind all matters COVID. 

David Leonhardt, in The New York Times, with an explainer on the lab leak mess that is suddenly being discussed everywhere. 

Saturday Stories: They Were Loved

More than 25,000 Canadians have been lost to COVID-19 (and terrible governance given the bulk of those deaths were preventable), Macleans is collecting their stories. Please take the time today to click at least a few.

Saturday Stories: Vaccinating Kids, Hatred And COVID

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Bernie Farber and David Fisman, in The Globe and Mail, on the overlap between racism, hate, and COVID denialists. 

Photo byAnthony Crider; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 20:37, 9 April 2018 (UTC) - Charlottesville "Unite the Right" Rally, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=68193094

Saturday Stories: Blood Clots, NNTs, And Incentives

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Andrew Althouse, in Medscape, on vaccines and the failure of NNTs.

John Michael McGrath, in TVO, makes the case for paying people to get vaccinated

Saturday Stories: One Universal Coronavirus Vaccine, Fringe Science, And The Misnomer Of Vaccine Hesitancy

James Hamblin, in the Atlantic, on the promise of a single coronavirus vaccine which would protect us against SARS, MERS, COVID-19, and every other coronavirus-related disease, forever and ever.

David Robert Grimes, in Scientific American, on how COVID has opened the floodgates of fringe science. 

Stefanie Friedhoff, in STAT, on why we need to stop talking about vaccine "hesitancy".

Saturday Stories: Unanswered Questions, Ontario's Misery, And Vietnam's Triumph

Helen Branswell, in STAT, with the questions experts still have about COVID.

Justin Ling, in Macleans, with the almost unbelievable story of Ontario's science table and its recommendations versus what our government is doing. 

Julia Belluz, in Vox, on Vietnam, not an island, and it's incredibly successful strategy for dealing with COVID 

Saturday Stories: Is Canada a Country, The Gaslighting of Science, And A Non-COVID Piece From Me

Lauren Dobson-Hughes, in The Line, reflecting on Canada's responses to COVID wonders if we are actually a country?

Zeynep, in Insight, on the gaslighting of science.

And in non-COVID writing, here's my latest in Medscape How Dare There Be Effective Drugs for Obesity? which covers the bizarrely negative reaction that effective drugs for obesity face from the medical community and society as a whole

Saturday Stories: The End Of Year One, The End Of Hygiene Theatre, And The End Of The Whole Thing

Stephen Maher, in Macleans, with the comprehensive story of Canada's first year with the pandemic.

Emily Anthes, in The New York Times, on the end of overzealous cleaning.

Gregg Gonsalves, in The Nation, on what comes after the end of this stage of the pandemic. 

Saturday Stories: Anti-Science, The Pandemic's Wrongest Man, And The Not Great Indoors

Dangerous numpty. If you see, ignore.

Peter Hotez, in Scientific American, on the anti-science movement and the danger it poses to global public health. 

Derek Thomspon, in The Atlantic, explains why you should unfollow, unfriend, or at the very least ignore Alex Berenson and question those in your lives who share his ideas.

Dyani Lewis, in Nature, explains the simplest COVID rule of all to remember, if you're inside, you're in danger. 

Saturday Stories: Vaccine Passports, Canadian Vaccine Manufacturing, and Not Delaying Vaccine Boosters For The Vulnerable

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Leslie Boehm and Gregory P. Marchildon, in Policy Options covers the past realities and future needs of Canadian vaccine manufacturing. 

Isaac Bogoch and David Naylor, in The Globe and Mail, present the case for not delaying second shot vaccinations for Canada's most vulnerable. 

Saturday Stories: Africa's Incredible COVID Supply Chain, On AstraZeneca's Vaccine, And Asymptomatic Transmission

Javed Anees, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Reid Wilson, in The Hill, on the world leading way in which Africa approached COVID treatment and prevention supplies. 

David Spiegelhalter, in the Guardian, on why you need not be terribly worried about receiving AstraZeneca's COVID vaccine.

Angie. Rasmussen and Saskia Popescu, in Science, with everything we know about asymptomatic COVID infections and transmission.

Saturday Stories: Vaccines For Longhaulers, EMT Reflections, And Societal Reopening

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Jennifer Murphy, in The New York Times, reflects on her experiences as a NYC EMT during the worst of their pandemic.

Jane Philpott and David Walker, in The Ottawa Citizen, discuss the equitable reopening of society.

Saturday Stories: Windows, Mindestabstandsregelung, And Anti-Racist COVID Responses

Sarah Zhang, in The Atlantic, on the forgotten power of windows in a pandemic.

Luisa Beck, in The Washington Post, on the 1,200 new German words coined for the pandemic.

Aisha Lofter, in TVO, on the need for an anti-racist response to COVID.

Saturday Stories: Vaccines Will Work, The Vaccine Whisperer Hilda Bastian, And The Secret Life of SARs-CoV2

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Julia Belluz, in Vox, interviews the inimitable Hilda Bastian, the scientist who has been right on COVID vaccines every step of the way. 

Carl Zimmer, in The New York Times, on the secret life of a coronavirus.

Saturday Stories: Which Vaccine Should You Get, And Summertime

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James Hamblin, in The Atlantic, on what summer might look like (in the US mind you, here in Canada, given our exceedingly slow pace of vaccination, this might not apply)

Saturday Stories: No Herd Immunity Without Vaccines, Hygiene Theatre, And Sleepwalking Into Disaster

Michaeleen Doucleff, in NPR, explains how a small town in Brazil has tragically shown us that without vaccines, herd immunity is impossible.

Derek Thompson, in The Atlantic, on the waste of resources and the disinformation that is hygiene theatre

Brooks Fallis, in The Globe and Mail, on how Canada is sleepwalking into our next disastrous surge.

Photo by By Jesus Solana from Madrid, Spain - Black sheep . Do u also feel different? // la Oveja negra. Tambien te sientes diferente?, CC BY 2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5050231

Saturday Stories: The Australian Response, The Brazilian Variant, And The Russian Vaccine

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James Hamblin, in the Atlantic, on the Brazilian variant that's currently rampaging through a city that had been thought to be immune due to acquired immunity from a previously brutal wave in April 2020.

Joshua Yaffa, in The New Yorker, on Russia's Sputnik V vaccine and their race to immunity.

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Stephen Reicher and John Drury, in the BMJ, on how adherence to COVID recommendations is reliant more on resources and less on motivation or energy.

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Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, on how COVID has changed the face of science.

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