Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Pricing

David Allison

👤 Person
1010 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

You get into what I call argument land.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

You can say, come on, David, it was a blinded drug I gave, and I know the kinetics of it, and I know it's out of the system by this date.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

How could it possibly be having this?

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

And I could say, well, Peter, you're probably right.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

It's a good argument.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

But the validity still depends on your argument.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

It's not an absolute a priori proof.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

And if I said, well, maybe what the drug did is it permanently changed something in that person.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

You're absolutely correct.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

And when you said statistics in the, or power rather, in the beta sense, that is what it is.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

It is statistical power, the probability of rejecting the null hypothesis if the null hypothesis is false, which is one minus beta, the type two error rate.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

There's actually a little bit more, but I think 90 plus percent of the motivation is what you've described.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

The other, as actually Kevin pointed out to me in some dialogue we were having, was sometimes it's just throughput.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

Even if I had infinite money, I can't put people through the procedure fast enough because there's only so many chambers.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

Someone else pointed out to me, it could be patient availability.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

If you said, I'm studying this in this rare population, I can't get a thousand people even if I had the money because they don't exist.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

I can only get 10 or 20 people.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

So all of those things strongly favor the crossover, which in almost all circumstances will be much more statistically powerful, meaning you can get the same amount of precision out of many fewer subjects.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

But the problem is that you have this carryover.

The Peter Attia Drive
#368 ‒ The protein debate: optimal intake, limitations of the RDA, whether high-protein intake is harmful, and how to think about processed foods | David Allison, Ph.D.

And so that the difference between the two groups who get treatment A and treatment B in the second period could be a function of the true effect of treatment A versus treatment B in the second period.