鸡蛋、阿尔茨海默病和青铜子弹声明

我们都熟悉灵丹妙药的主张：X 是有害的，Y 是唯一能杀死 X 的东西，而 Y 总是有效的。

In movies, if X a werewolf, Y is the silver bullet. In health scams, X is some disease and Y is the miracle cure.

You’re probably also familiar with what I’d call “bronze bullet claims.” X is harmful, Y is one of the few things that kills or prevents X, and Y tends to work.

This is a little more nuanced. Y isn’t the only thing that’s effective. It doesn’t work all the time.但它仍然很特别。

This is the stuff of clickbait and social media slop (see above), but peer-reviewed studies are sometimes to blame.

A famous example is the early-pandemic claim that hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment for COVID-19.

Hydroxychloroquine (plus azithromycin) wasn’t pitched as the only treatment, and it wasn’t expected to be 100% effective. It was just one of a few drugs that reportedly killed the virus.

However, the 2020 study that prompted this claim turned out to be a scam and was later retracted. No other studies have shown that the drug benefits COVID-19 patients.

We hear bronze bullet claims all the time, especially concerning foods and dietary supplements. Acai lowers the risk of cancer. Elderberry boosts immune system functioning. And, according to the study I’ll be discussing, eggs reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

Words matter. These are bronze bullet claims because of the way the food or supplement is described.

以巴西莓为例，它富含抗氧化剂和抗炎化合物，可以杀死培养皿中的癌细胞，并可以保护啮齿动物免受癌症的侵害。

So, sure, enjoy your acai product. It’s healthy (assuming no added sugar). Just don’t expect it to ward off cancer all by itself.

This brings me to a new study claiming to show that eating eggs reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The culprit turns out to be a simple bias in data analysis.

新研究

Never/rarely

1-3 times per month

每周一次

2-4 times per week

和：