The 19th century British statesman Benjamin Disraeli is famously known for the quote (possibly misattributed to him) that “there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
The wisdom of Disraeli can be seen when analyzing the recent hype over Galleri’s “Grail” test – a “liquid biopsy” that I have covered in a previous post. Grail tests a single blood sample for evidence of over 50 different cancers. The appeal is obvious. It would be wonderful to have a simple blood test every year or so as part of your checkup that can tell you if you have cancer or not and that can greatly increase the odds of early detection and cure.
Unfortunately, despite the hype surrounding the Grail test, this dream is not yet a reality.
This week I want to review a recent study which highlights the link between stress and chronic illness, and opens the door to new treatments for a variety of ailments.
Researchers took 242 patients with severe Rheumatoid Arthritis, and blindly randomized them to either wear a vagal nerve stimulator or else a “sham” device (meaning a vagal nerve stimulator that wasn’t properly working). This way the patients would all think they were wearing a vagal nerve stimulator, and any difference between the two groups could not be attributed simply to a placebo effect.
You might be wondering “what the heck is a vagal nerve stimulator?” So before going any further, let me take a diversion to give a bit of background.
