In the NY Times article they mention that there were at least a couple of differences between this study & the positive study that came out in 2009. Anyone care to calculate the Bayesian probability of caloric restriction extending life based on 1 positive study & 1 negative?
Since the 2009 study was, at the time, accused of data-mining with its mortality statistics (this criticism is explained in the NYT article), while this one has not been (so far), I’d regard the 2009 datapoint as weaker than this one and hence the two studies as a weak net negative.
EDIT: And depending on how you interpret the diet of the control animals (the positive 2009 study let controls pig out, the negative 2012 study forced controls on a more moderate normal healthy diet), one could argue that the the 2012 study is much stronger than the 2009 study for the question we really care about: will switching from a healthy moderate diet to an extreme CR-style diet improve my health & longevity?
In the NY Times article they mention that there were at least a couple of differences between this study & the positive study that came out in 2009. Anyone care to calculate the Bayesian probability of caloric restriction extending life based on 1 positive study & 1 negative?
Since the 2009 study was, at the time, accused of data-mining with its mortality statistics (this criticism is explained in the NYT article), while this one has not been (so far), I’d regard the 2009 datapoint as weaker than this one and hence the two studies as a weak net negative.
EDIT: And depending on how you interpret the diet of the control animals (the positive 2009 study let controls pig out, the negative 2012 study forced controls on a more moderate normal healthy diet), one could argue that the the 2012 study is much stronger than the 2009 study for the question we really care about: will switching from a healthy moderate diet to an extreme CR-style diet improve my health & longevity?
Closer to even odds than your prior, whatever that might be...