Our research indicates that a new approach we created for evaluating health risks should make it much simpler for consumers to choose which health recommendations to heed and which to disregard. The method, which was just published in the journal Nature Medicine, provides a simple way for policymakers and the general public to evaluate the quality of the evidence for a specific health risk, such as consuming red meat, and the corresponding outcome, ischemic heart disease, using a rating system of one to five stars.
The framework we created is based on several systematic evaluations of research on risk factors like smoking and outcomes like lung cancer. Three to five stars are awarded for links between risks and outcomes that are well-established, compared to one to two stars for situations where study data is scant or conflicting.
Only eight of the 180 pairings we looked at in our research obtained the highest grade of five stars, indicating very strong connection evidence. Among those eight five-star relationships were the links between smoking and lung cancer and the link between high systolic blood pressure and ischemic heart disease (the higher of the two numbers in a blood pressure reading).
On the other hand, consider the intake of red meat. Consuming 100 grams of red meat per day leads to a very little (12%) increase in risk for ischemic heart disease compared to consuming none. Because of this, it receives just a two-star rating, which is consistent with a very weak connection.
People need to be fully aware of the hazards they are exposed to, such as systolic blood pressure, which is rated three to five stars. One can significantly lower their chance of acquiring ischemic heart disease by monitoring and maintaining blood pressure as low as feasible.
To read our blog on “At Lahore Airport, 400 kg of pork intended for hotels was seized,” click here
