Critical Reasoning

According to life-insurance company statistics, nine out of ten alcoholics die before the age of seventy-five, as opposed to seven out of ten nonalcoholics. A recent report issued by the State Medical Board recounts these statistics and concludes that alcohol addiction increases a person’s susceptibility to life-threatening diseases, thereby reducing life expectancy.

The conclusion drawn by the State Medical Board depends on which of the following assumptions?

(A) People who are predisposed to life-threatening diseases are more likely than other people to become alcoholic.

(B) The statistics cited exclude deaths due to other alcohol related events such as automobile accidents.

(C) Alcoholism does not also increase a person’s susceptibility to diseases that are not life-threatening.

(D) The life expectancy of that portion of the general population not characterized by alcoholism increases over time.

(E) The author of the report is not biased in his or her personal opinion about the morality of alcohol consumption.

Hello RUSHI5656,

The State Medical Board's conclusion that alcohol addiction reduces life expectancy by increasing susceptibility to life-threatening diseases hinges on a few unstated assumptions. The most central assumption to the argument seems to be option (B). If the life insurance company's statistics included deaths due to alcohol-related accidents, such as automobile crashes, then the higher death rate among alcoholics might not be solely due to an increased susceptibility to life-threatening diseases. The statistics would need to isolate deaths caused by diseases alone for the conclusion to hold firmly.

This distinction is crucial in medical research and statistics. For instance, when evaluating any treatment or substance's impact on health, it is important to control for variables that could skew the results. In a related context, while studying the effects of alternative therapies, such as ibogaine—a substance some consider for addiction treatment—researchers would have to control for external factors to accurately determine efficacy and safety. For a comprehensive understanding of ibogaine and its context in addiction therapy,. It provides a detailed look into how ibogaine is being studied for its potential therapeutic effects, emphasizing the importance of robust, disease-specific research.

So, while all the options provided might play some role in supporting the conclusion, option (B) is essential as it ensures the statistics directly relate to the argument's specific point about diseases rather than external causes of death.

The conclusion drawn by the State Medical Board is that alcohol addiction increases a person’s susceptibility to life-threatening diseases, thereby reducing life expectancy. To identify the assumption, consider what must be true for this conclusion to hold. The correct assumption is likely to address a necessary link between alcohol addiction and life-threatening diseases.
@spacebar clicker, can you evaluate the options here?

If deaths from alcohol-related accidents were included in the statistics, it would be difficult to attribute the higher death rate among alcoholics solely to an increased susceptibility to life-threatening diseases. The conclusion that alcohol addiction reduces life expectancy by increasing susceptibility to life-threatening diseases relies on the assumption that the statistics accurately reflect the impact of alcohol addiction on health in terms of disease susceptibility.

Therefore, option (B) is crucial for ensuring that the statistics specifically pertain to life-threatening diseases, supporting the argument's conclusion effectively.