Discussion Reply Instructions:

In one reply, critique a classmates discussion post by including the following information:

1, Identify whether there are additional potential risks and benefits of your classmates study to the participants who would complete your classmates study.
   
2. Evaluate your classmates conclusion about the balance of risks and benefits in his/her study. Do you  agree or disagree with your classmates conclusion? Please provide an explanation and not a simple yes/no answer to these questions.

In the study to determine if following a vegan diet will cure heart disease, it will be extremely important to select participants carefully. Risks related to participant selection include ensuring the other health factors such as recreational drug/alcohol use, tobacco use, other health conditions, etc. are the same amongst all involved. My thought is that participants would need to be non-smokers who are willing to abstain from drugs/alcohol for the duration of the experiment and have no other health conditions other than heart disease. From a health perspective, changing to a plant-based diet poses minimal risk as all other factors such as prescribed medication would remain intact. Also, participants would be under close surveillance by medical professionals to monitor their vitals along the way. It would also be important to teach the participants how to eat only whole foods including cooking/recipe instructions and balanced nutrition. If not properly educated, it is possible they could deprive themselves of necessary protein and carbohydrates.

Benefits of this study far out way the risks because the risks are minimal. Should the study be a success, a causal claim could be made that the vegan diet causes an improvement or altogether cures heart disease. Not only would the participants benefit from improved health, longer life expectancy and the potential to get off medications would improve their quality of life significantly. If the study is a success, the impact on society as a whole would be tremendous. There would be less heart disease, reduction in prescription costs for people, a reduction in the number of heart-related surgeries and increased life expectancy.