(Original Post: Announcing the Quantified Health Prize)
I've recently been hired by Personalized Medicine, a new research company trying to bring Less Wrongian rationality to the medical world. We're giving away a $5000 prize for well-researched, well-reasoned presentations that answer the following question: What are the best recommendations for what quantities adults (ages 20-60) should take the important dietary minerals in, and what are the costs and benefits of various amounts?
Entries are now due by January 15th, 2012. This is an update from the original date of December 31st, 2011. However, we will not change this deadline again, and it will be strictly enforced. If you submit your entry on January 16 at 12:01 AM Pacific time, we will not read it.
Why enter the contest?
More info about the contest, and instructions for submitting entries, can be found at the contest website at http://www.medicineispersonal.com/contest/home. Good luck!
Eat food like a sane person. If you don't have any underlying problem that prevents you from absorbing a specific nutrient you most likely don't need any supplementation. If you do think that you might have such a problem speak to a doctor.
That's obviously the default best recommendation unless someone finds serious evidence of a better way, but I'm pretty sure that the goal of the study is to see if there's already serious evidence of a better way out there.