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A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are In Decline (nytimes.com)
Slashdot reader schwit1 quotes an article from the New York Times: Something strange is going on in medicine. Major diseases, like colon cancer, dementia and heart disease, are waning in wealthy countries, and improved diagnosis and treatment cannot fully explain it...it looks as if people in the United States and some other wealthy countries are, unexpectedly, starting to beat back the diseases of aging. The leading killers are still the leading killers -- cancer, heart disease, stroke -- but they are occurring later in life, and people in general are living longer in good health.
The Times cites one researcher's pet theory that the cellular process of aging itself may be gradually changing in humans' favor.
The Times cites one researcher's pet theory that the cellular process of aging itself may be gradually changing in humans' favor.
is the future. Not space, not 3D printed houses. Biotechnology, whether the sci-fi type or simply eating better, or just believing you won't age... Have you seen pictures of 20-somethings from 50 or more years ago? They all look 40. Not these days!
Previous generations worked with asbestos without precautions they would have to have today, had lead in the petrol, and eat food with additives that are now banned. Not to mention rarely using sunscreen and smoking more. It's hardly a surprise that things are improving.
I've been diagnosed with Brugada Syndrome, so I'll be dying of heart failure eventually. Probably when my batteries are flat, or passing through a security scanner, which temporarily disables my defibrilator. Or when someone hacks my heart, given that my ICD is Wi-Fi enabled. Yes, I can be hacked. My cardiologist says not to worry about it, because there's not many people clever enough to hack me. I have my doubts, as the manufacturer won't tell me how my heart is secured "for obvious security reasons". My experience is that whenever I hear that, the tech in question is porous as all fuck.
The Times cites one researcher's pet theory" that the cellular process of aging itself may be gradually changing in humans' favor.
Yeah, right. Evolutionary changes like that are bound to have happened within the time periods that we've been keeping detailed health records.
No, cancer caused cell phones. So a drop in cancer rates means a drop in cell phones too!!!!
Cell phones ARE a cancer.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
My pension plan is in even worse condition now...
Sig ?
The causes of death know only one thing, and it's that they will always add up to 100%.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
It's those HFCS, pesticide-laden, high-calorie french fries made from artificial chemical GMO potatoes from China that's killing off all the cancer and other diseased cells.
Next up: the healthy cells.
OK, let's try to be serious again.
Free, as in your money being freed from the confines of your account.
I'm willing to bet it is because sometime around 1990 or so we took something out of our diets... some synthetic additive or something, that was a big player in many cancers, but was never linked.
The article reminded me of "The House on the Hill" in which statistical outliers (ie immortals) are organized and living parallel to mainstream society over the ages.
Maybe we're starting to see an increase in the number of outliers?
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
During the cell division process radiation in these bands help tighten up the telemerese at the end of DNA. Every time the cell replicates the first few hundred basepairs come untangled, frayed and do not replicate well. But our DNA has very long sections on either end to cushion for the loss. Eventually the cushion is lost and actual genes start getting messed up and lost. That is how ageing happens. The radiation in these bands have positive effect in reducing the amount of fraying during cell replication.
Watch out pseudo scientists. Like real science, pseudo science is also cuts both ways. One can use it to spread fear and paranoia about any new technology or it can be used to ascribe totally unwarranted benefits to new things too.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Major diseases are down? Violent crimes are down? You'd never know this from the media I watch.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
It's Darwin at work. People get children much later in life than they used to. This means the chance that they get a healthy child is lower than it was before. The children who are born healthy have a greater chance of reproducing and living long and healthy lives, so they also get their old age deseases at a higher age. Their children get this ability too so humanity as a whole gets to live longer and healthier (provided nutrition isn't a problem).
-- Cheers!
is that people today generally tend to look younger. I myself am in my late 30's, but look early 20's, and I feel that it's becoming more and more common to see people with young faces, compared to let's say 15-20 years ago.
The average person now receives more radiation from medical treatment and diagnosis than the average person ever received from atmospheric testing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Background_radiation#Atmospheric_nuclear_testing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Background_radiation#Medical
If you look at the plot in the article, you can see that the gray line starts decreasing around '94.
This is clearly when Malda started thinking about creating Slashdot.
At the same time, we’re eating a really horrible nutrient-poor diet made up of industrial foods designed to make us want to eat more industrial foods. Plus we’ve got massive amounts of pollution from burning petrolium, hormones in the ground water, antibiotics in our foods, PBA from our food containers, and all manner of other junk ruining our health. Some people are still stuck on this bogus idea that autism is caused by vaccines, while they continue to eat a horrible diet and pollute their bodies in other ways that are much more likely to account for this measurable increase in the rate of autism (not quite explained by just an increased rate of diagnosis).
This brings up an idea that my wife pointed out. In recent history, there has been an increase in the rate of transgendered individuals. This has resulted in political polarization, where some people are demonizing them and others are saying that body dismorphic disorder is somehow a good thing. Both are wrong. People with body dismorphic disorder have every right to their dignity and to manage and adjust their bodies as they see fit. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an external cause, and we think a major factor is all of these hormines being pumped into the water supply. Lots of women take birth control pills, which is putting estrogen and progesterone into the water, and hormones are given to food animals. These are having an impact on development in fetuses and young children. So the next time some fundamnetalist asshole tries to tell you that there’s something BAD about people who have gender identiy issues, you can point out to them that we, as a society, did this to them. It’s our fault for poisoning the water and food. And the consequences are that more people with gender identity issues, and this is something we have to accept, and we have to treat these people like human beings and stop trying to put forth the idea that these people are crazy or making immoral choices.
Cannabis (scientific term for marijuana, if unclear) is a symphonic drug that (at least scientifically suggestively and anecdotally) is recognized to press against many (if not most, or perhaps even all) major health problems – and its lawful medical (and sometimes recreational) use has been on the rise over the past couple of decades.
Someone very close to me has a state license to use cannabis to oppose Alzheimer's disease, and the results have been thankfully impressive (symptom management has been literally brilliant, side effects virtually non-existent with no user complaints, financial cost friendly, and no sign of permanent mental decline with a reasonable sign of steady cognitive improvement).
Cannabis use is a complex (oceanic) subject, so blindly using whatever strain (or strain combination) available (among the hundreds, if not thousands, of strains in existence possibly with dramatically different psychological effects between two strains) at any intake amount and method is reckless and logically discouraged (fittingly noting that I don't condone criminal activity here – albeit no logic justifies the war on some drugs as being constitutional via the Commerce Clause, and drug use without objectively conclusively proven harm is clearly upheld by the ninth amendment logically constitutionally upholding our fundamental and supposedly unalienable right to liberty).
Strains that gently but firmly produce stable mind effects (e.g. Cheese) should be electronically vaporized (with precise temperature control for consistent intake), and at least in the case of mild dementia, a very small pinch of leafy material per dose (four doses daily – one in the morning, one in the afternoon, and two before bedtime) is all that's needed (i.e. the user gently feels the effects, so basically remains soberly competent for all intents and purposes).
I cannot state with certainty that cannabis is the cause of disease reduction as reported in this article, but there's interestingly fitting evidence demonstrating a connection worthy of further scientific scrutiny of a highly evolved plant (with hundreds of compounds) upholding homeostasis (balance, so stability necessary for survival) via the endocannibinoid system throughout the body and hypothetically leveraging the same mental system responsible for the Placebo effect upon proper use.
Sines of Impending Sines
If life expectancy isn't going up, that just means other things might be killing us before these diseases could, right ?
New things are always on the horizon
One thing is for sure, we'll reach the wrong conclusion and push people to do the wrong thing.
It's pretty simple really -- tobacco use:
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/tables/trends/cig_smoking/
Pizza is also a good homeopathic cure.
If I have a headache, I eat a large pizza and 2-3 hours later the headache is gone. Usually, at least. Sometimes it gets worse, but as everyone who has at least a passing interest in homeopathy knows, that's just the initial worsening. You just eat a second pizza and voila, headache gone!
Sometimes it doesn't work, then I usually try some other pizzas, it seems that my body starts to react wrongly, that usually happens when I have eaten a pizza without the symptoms (you should never do that, only use homeopizzas when you have symptoms!), then I have to switch from tonno to cardinale and it works again!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Every animal lives longer in captivity than it does in the wild. From cheetahs to jellyfish. Your house cat live up to 20 years, maybe 5 in the wild. Your jellyfish 10 months in your aquarium, maybe 4 months in the wild.
So, what does a human living in captivity look like? See the city. See the suburbs. See the grocery stores, the health care, the cars.
I have no problem seeing that all-day climate control, motorized vehicles, and unlimited easy-access food means a healthier body that can fight off major diseases for longer.
Ageing has always been biological wear-and-tear.
Yeah, more people abandoning that rubbish and seeing a real doc instead of relying on prayer to wish away the disease.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The thing is, in evolutionary terms the genes that kill you before procreation are actively selected against; yet those that kill you just as reliably later in life are passed on.
Well not exactly.
The prevalence of senility in all the other apes (except humans) begs to differ.
I'm not saying that Richard Dawkins is wrong, I'm just saying that he's simplifying a little bit for the purpose of an explanation, but reality always more complex in the tiny details.
The thing is, we human have invented one peculiar concept: the grandmother.
In most other species of apes, individuals don't serve a purpose once they're past their reproductive age. On the countrary, they are using up valuable resources that might be put to better use by the young and the individual that still reproduce (in the same pack/tribe/etc.)
Thus in most other species of apes, senile degenerescence seems to be actually the norm.
Past a certain age (not far from the end of reproductive life) most apes turn senile rather quickly.
There's a small advantage if individuals don't live too long after they stop reproducing, because it leaves more food for the younger individuals of the pack/tribe (individuals who share the same genetic mix - being the same extended family - and thus this is the special form of 'sacrifice' which might actually get selected for. Unlike 'lemmings suicide' urban legend). A gene leading to such situation will be selected for, because it leads to an increased number of individual carrying a copy of the gene, by optimising which individual keep reproducing.
Compare the situation with humans:
disease like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, vascular dementia, Huntington's and other neurodegenerative and senile diseases are *diseases*. I.e.: special conditions that only affect a small proportion of the population.
Most individual go through their later years *without suffering* from any of the above (in stark contrast of the remaining apes).
Why so? Grand mothers (and grand parents in general).
In human specie individual who are past their reproductive age will help raising the youngest generation (their grand children and grand nephews).
They take care of the youngs and, once language has been developped, they can also pass their knowledge by telling stories giving explanations...
Even if an individual isn't reproducing anymore, and even if an individual isn't in their prime anymore, these individuals are *still* very valuable for the pack/tribe.
Thus there's a very light incentive to select for individual who can stay functionnal in their late years. Even if they don't directly pass copies of their own genes anymore, they do help indirectly the survival of the rest of the pack/tribe and thus helps indirectly that the extended family grows (which shares genes with them).
(it's similar to the type of indirect help that you see in a beehive/anthill. Most individual are infertile worker. But because they are all very closely related, by helping they increase the survival chance of other individuals carrying the same genes even without reproducing.)
So if you have children at 40 (disregarding the complications and risks) it's likely that they won't inherit genes that are likely to kill them in their 30s. Thus the population in western "1st world" countries is aging, having children later and this may also be a contributing factor to the phenomenon.
Also the *reason* while parents decide to have children later in life also plays a role.
Most of such parent usually decide to reproduce later in life because of *career* reasons: They want to be in a better paying position to be better able to afford the children.
This has the direct effect on the availability of healthcare and eraly diagnostics.
But has again a very slight effect on the family structure.
Chance are high that both parent will try to get back to their highly paid position after the birth, and thus grand parents might also again play a very
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Basically everyone in the world is living longer. World is better for humans. Has been for decades. Better, in war, in disease, in nutrition. The surprise is that the doom-and-gloom press is surprised. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Gently reply
I'm predisposed to heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes (runs in both sides of the family). However, thanks to statins, and blood pressure meds I can avoid heart attacks and strokes. I've also cut sugar out of my life entirely, so even though I'm overweight (I'm working on that) my cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels are all in the normal range. The development of statins, though seems to be the key in reducing heart disease as the killer. My doctor is in a great shape, a marathon runner, but without statins, he says he'd be a prime candidate for heart disease because he also is predisposed to high cholesterol.
If pizza was a homeopathic cure, you'd take a slice, whizz it up with a pint of water, discard 99% off that and refill to a pint, then repeat the dilution many times, 400 for extra strength, then drink the not very pizzary water and it'd cure your headache.
The taste does get better with more dilution because frankly a pint of cold wet liquefied pizza is gross.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Otherwise, it must be all the antibiotics and steroids in our food chain....
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
It is clearly porn-related!
With advent of DVDs and internet, more people started getting more access to more poem! This causes humans to live happier and happier and happier lives, mitigating stress and letting their immune systems do better jobs!
Start your day with a new punctuation mark: the scare possessive—twice as tight and idiosyncratic and unreasonable as the regular possessive.
Homicides via firearm are down significantly despite a population increase (~230M in the 80s vs over 300M today) and there being more firearms than ever in private ownership. Even using some pretty creative definitions of "mass shooting" they account for less than 2% of the yearly homicides by firearm (low to mid hundreds). On average you're more likely to be clubbed/hammered (about 500 per year) to death that die in a mass shooting. People are quite frankly are more likely to off themselves with a firearm (suicide) than shoot another, which is a pretty succinct demonstration of how rare "gun violence" is.
But the oldest living people are never vegetarians.
Though they may all be killed by former friends sick of listening to them go on about being a vegetarian.
They sure do cause quite a lot of deaths, but not by cancer.
Cell phones are used to take selfies - it's all related. People are just too selfish to get sick anymore.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Or maybe they are, but there are systems in place to offset their damage to other sectors.
New and even major diseases are to replace the previously major ones...
Sent as ripples into the electromagnetic field. No single photon has been harmed in the process.
by the reduction in air pollution and cigarette smoking.
People are waiting until they're older to have children, which could select for women (men too, to a lesser degree) who remain fertile for longer. If fertility is correlated with general health, that could cause something like this.
See, I have to give you that one. I think I'd be too squeamish to chicken my own rabbits.
See, I have to give you that one. I think I'd be too squeamish to chicken my own rabbits.
Is that a rabicken or a chickbit? Guess it depends on which you stuff with which, but it's a lot easier to stuff a chicken than a rabbit.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
As jobs and wealth are more scarce than earlier there is less idle time, less appetite for risks, less resources for food.
And recently smartphones. Keep your brain engaged much more than TV can, even when you're socially deprived as most old people are.
internet access costs just as much as renting porn VHS back in the day though
maybe we jerk off more now, reducing stress? jack your way to longer life and happiness!
Maybe people are eating healthier?
wake up and hold your nose
My theory is that people are having less physical contact with other people, so diseases are having a harder time spreading. This is probably testable by checking which diseases are being reduced.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
and there being more firearms than ever in private ownership.
What is the distribution of guns per individual, though? I've read something about the same people who already owned guns buying more guns (usually some kind of pre-election hysteria).
Ezekiel 23:20
With all the uncontrolled pollution caused during the industrial revolution, it's not surprising that certain diseases are reducing in prevalence along with reductions in environmental pollution.
Whales live a long time.. Americans have become whales, LOL.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
...may select for people who still are and look young and healthy in spite of their age?
Not sure about that, but it is well known that medical research causes cancer in rats.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.