Re: Bloodcurdling movies and measures of coagulation: Fear Factor crossover trial
Dear editor,
having our fingers in the pie of vascular disease, we read with a greedy interest the excellent paper from Nemeth et al1. With time, we acquired a taste for BMJ's New Year articles. This year's one is cherry on the cake. The researchers were able to cut the mustard and show convincing evidence that horror movies are bloodcurdling movies. We shall not polish the apple, and we sincerely congratulate the authors for it. We went bananas when we read their paper… but then we saw the video and we got ourselves into a stew over the feeling of a confounding factor in the authors' results.
The documentary is undoubtedly food for thought and seeing a big cheese comments on wine production in France is likely to drive you as cool as a cucumber (Not a high calorie diet). The horror movie shows rotten apples turning the screen red with blood and is not the cause of our trouble. Our attention was caught on the video by the two females on first raw going on a binge and bolting marshmallows down, a usual stress reaction2. We would like to sugar-coat our belief but think that authors might be in a pickle because of this. Indeed, pro-coagulant activity and specifically Factor VIII is increased during hyperglycemia3.
We do not want to make a hamburger out of their work, but we would milk the authors for the results of glycaemia, or urge them to confirm their fascinating observation under strict food restriction.
1 Nemeth B, Scheres LJ, Lijfering WM. Bloodcurdling movies and measures of coagulation: Fear Factor crossover trial. BMJ 2015;351:h6367.
2 Video game playing increases food intake in adolescents: a randomized crossover study. Chaput JP, Visby T, Nyby S, Klingenberg L, Gregersen NT, Tremblay A, Astrup A, Sjödin A. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Jun;93(6):1196-203.
3 Effects of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia on circulating tissue factor procoagulant activity and platelet CD40 ligand. Vaidyula VR1, Rao AK, Mozzoli M, Homko C, Cheung P, Boden G. Diabetes. 2006 Jan;55(1):202-8.
Competing interests:
No competing interests
22 December 2015
Pierre Abraham
Physiologist
Clement KORENBAUM, (Medical Student), Samir HENNI (Vascular Medicine physician)
Rapid Response:
Re: Bloodcurdling movies and measures of coagulation: Fear Factor crossover trial
Dear editor,
having our fingers in the pie of vascular disease, we read with a greedy interest the excellent paper from Nemeth et al1. With time, we acquired a taste for BMJ's New Year articles. This year's one is cherry on the cake. The researchers were able to cut the mustard and show convincing evidence that horror movies are bloodcurdling movies. We shall not polish the apple, and we sincerely congratulate the authors for it. We went bananas when we read their paper… but then we saw the video and we got ourselves into a stew over the feeling of a confounding factor in the authors' results.
The documentary is undoubtedly food for thought and seeing a big cheese comments on wine production in France is likely to drive you as cool as a cucumber (Not a high calorie diet). The horror movie shows rotten apples turning the screen red with blood and is not the cause of our trouble. Our attention was caught on the video by the two females on first raw going on a binge and bolting marshmallows down, a usual stress reaction2. We would like to sugar-coat our belief but think that authors might be in a pickle because of this. Indeed, pro-coagulant activity and specifically Factor VIII is increased during hyperglycemia3.
We do not want to make a hamburger out of their work, but we would milk the authors for the results of glycaemia, or urge them to confirm their fascinating observation under strict food restriction.
1 Nemeth B, Scheres LJ, Lijfering WM. Bloodcurdling movies and measures of coagulation: Fear Factor crossover trial. BMJ 2015;351:h6367.
2 Video game playing increases food intake in adolescents: a randomized crossover study. Chaput JP, Visby T, Nyby S, Klingenberg L, Gregersen NT, Tremblay A, Astrup A, Sjödin A. Am J Clin Nutr. 2011 Jun;93(6):1196-203.
3 Effects of hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia on circulating tissue factor procoagulant activity and platelet CD40 ligand. Vaidyula VR1, Rao AK, Mozzoli M, Homko C, Cheung P, Boden G. Diabetes. 2006 Jan;55(1):202-8.
Competing interests: No competing interests