I really wish the scientific community would come out with more concrete information when publishing statistical studies. I want even more for the media who publish such studies to include questioning information.
A great example is this study which links vitamin supplements with an increased mortality rate. There are several problems I have with this. First, I think it's a little muddy to be announcing supplements as dangerous. Many people supplement because they've seen a doctor who has told them to. Perhaps these people have more health problems, which lead them to take the supplements, which could also explain the increase in the mortality rate. I don't think I'm entirely going out on a limb to say I find the correlation to be dubious at best.
I feel as though I am constantly telling people that correlation is not causation, especially when it comes to medical information. Just because it happens to be that way doesn't mean the vitamins are the cause. We just don't know enough yet to scare people out of taking supplements that their doctors have approved or requested them to take. Besides, a 2.4% risk is pretty low anyway.
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