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817 points dynm | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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jaggederest ◴[] No.43306580[source]
This is actually a thing I wish existed, but I don't have time and energy to make it right now. I'd pay $25 a month or more.

Basically it's an application that lets you do self-experiments like this, properly blinded and with good statistics. A challenge-dechallenge-rechallenge study is one of the ones I like, but if you want to do one you essentially have to design the study anew each time, and it would be convenient to run multiple at once if that's possible.

I'm not interested in generalizing, I just want to know if (for example) taking Vitamin D every day at 1000 iu is enough, or whether I should be taking more or less. I can get labs done on this, of course, but again I'm more interested in subjective wellbeing than blood levels beyond avoiding deficiency or hypervitaminosis.

Maybe such an app exists and I simply don't know about it.

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walthamstow ◴[] No.43307056[source]
I think this is an awesome idea. You get two boxes of daily pills labelled A and B, you take A for a month then take B for a month, and log your feelings throughout. At the end the service reveals which month was Vit D (or whatever) and which wasn't.

I guess you could get your partner or a friend or family member to do it for you?

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mathgeek ◴[] No.43307377[source]
While this is a wonderful idea in theory, a key reason it's often not used for experiments is that there are just too many variables to control for (including, for example, the ongoing effects of spending a month wondering if you're taking something that's affecting you... which affects you in and of itself).
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akoboldfrying ◴[] No.43307803[source]
Don't those effects cancel with the effects on those participants who take the same 2 treatments but in the reverse order?
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1. kortilla ◴[] No.43307819[source]
That’s why you need multiple participants and why this idea for doing experiments on just yourself doesn’t work well