mendelian randomization: alcohol does not decrease cardiovasc dz
A large-scale study using mendelian randomization analysis found that there was no protective effect from even small amounts of alcohol on cardiovascular disease (see alcohol intake cardiovasc mendelian random JAMA2022 in dropbox, or doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.3849). Many thanks to Tim Naimi for his input on this.... -- mendelian randomization (MR) basically uses specific genetic variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that are strongly associated with a specific behavior (eg alcohol consumption), with the assumption that these SNPs/genetic variations are randomly represented in the population, to see if there is a causal effect on an outcome (cardiovascular diseases) from observational data. -- so, this technique represents a relatively easy-to-do analysis, sort of "randomized controlled trial" (since these SNPs are assumed to be randomly represented in the population), and pretty much eliminates reverse causation (the possibility that