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A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

nytimes.com

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Re: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

#71

Post by sjg007 »

kiba wrote: post #65
sgt101 wrote: post #7

wow - I have no clue (obviously) but possible reasons : - better home heating (less open fires, more heated bedrooms) - increased time from atmospheric nuclear bomb testing (and the various dispersals of plutonium in the 60's and 70's) - better nutrition in general - higher genetic diversity in breeding populations; not many peoples grandparents all come from the same village in the developed world now - less polluti…

We might actually benefit from some amount of radiation, rather than assuming that increased amount of radiation equals higher cancer risk. It's called radiation hormesis. Though I don't think there's a scientific consensus on this issue.

Unlikely, we've evolved with ever present background radiation and have a dna repair mechanism to counter act it but that does not mean radiation makes us stronger.

Re: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

#72

Post by copperx »

rollthehard6 wrote: post #21
mrfusion wrote: post #14

It mentions statins as something obviously good but is there any evidence they're actually beneficial? I thought cholesterol was good now?

Some doctors and researchers believe the benefit from statins is more to do with the decrease in inflammation caused by them. Possibly widespread use of statins has beneficial effects on other disease processes too.

However, non-steroidal antiinflamatories are linked to cancer.

Re: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

#73

Post by cperciva »

sjg007 wrote: post #71
kiba wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We might actually benefit from some amount of radiation, rather than assuming that increased amount of radiation equals higher cancer risk. It's called radiation hormesis. Though I don't think there's a scientific consensus on this issue.

Unlikely, we've evolved with ever present background radiation and have a dna repair mechanism to counter act it but that does not mean radiation makes us stronger.

IIRC genes related to DNA replication are highly conserved; thus our DNA repair mechanism was probably evolutionarily "optimized" for conditions a long time ago. Have background radiation levels remained constant on timescales of hundreds of millions of years? I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if it varied significantly considering that cosmic radiation is a significant source and the strength of the Earth's magnetic field fluctuates significantly.

Re: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

#74

Post by cma »

JacksonGariety wrote: post #61
SCAQTony wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is never one thing; your lead assessment is probably a serious contender among other pollutants. Then there is better hygiene via food handlers, stiffer USDA rules, cleaner water, less smoking and second hand smoke, more people exercising too.

Smoking rates are only decreasing in developed nations. Globally it's increasing by ~1% each year.

That's lower than population growth so would still be a global per-capita reduction.

Re: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

#75

Post by Gibbon1 »

mrob wrote: post #63
Gibbon1 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I think there was a large study done comparing a newer cholesterol lowering drug with statins. The result was the new non-statin drug wasn't effective at all even though it lowered cholesterol levels.

You might be thinking of CETP inhibitors. This class of drug modifies cholesterol levels to numbers associated with better health, but so far none of them have conclusively improved health outcomes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CETP_inhibitor Anacetrapib is still in stage III trials so it's too early to consider the concept a failure, but I think the bad results so far are evidence that hyperlipidemia is a symptom n…

Yes those drugs. Hard to say conclusively, but the failure of most of CETP inhibitors is troubling news for the hyperlipidemia theory. Meaning possible hyperlipidemia has multiple causes and in and of itself isn't bad.

AKA

Cause A results in hyperlipidemia.

Cause B results in hyperlipidemia.

Cause C results in hyperlipidemia and arterial plaques.

Cause D results in hyperlipidemia.

Re: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

#76

Post by infogulch »

dankohn1 wrote: post #69
ChuckMcM wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There have been a number of meta studies which have tried to link the removal of lead from gasoline and the drop in violent crime. The correlate well.

The evidence for a connection between removing lead from gas and reduced violent crime is much stronger than just a correlation: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/02/lead-exposure...

Other sources of lead, such as paint, are still an epidemic in poor neighborhoods. I wonder how much of an impact it's having, and if there's a measurable correlation with the age of houses and violent crime.

Re: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

#77

Post by throwwit »

kiba wrote: post #65
sgt101 wrote: post #7

wow - I have no clue (obviously) but possible reasons : - better home heating (less open fires, more heated bedrooms) - increased time from atmospheric nuclear bomb testing (and the various dispersals of plutonium in the 60's and 70's) - better nutrition in general - higher genetic diversity in breeding populations; not many peoples grandparents all come from the same village in the developed world now - less polluti…

We might actually benefit from some amount of radiation, rather than assuming that increased amount of radiation equals higher cancer risk. It's called radiation hormesis. Though I don't think there's a scientific consensus on this issue.

It's probably more beneficial for evolutionary 'creativity' than the complex pathways in biology you depend on; and that's gotta be the only reason a quirk like that is still around.

Re: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

#78

Post by rgarrett88 »

cma wrote: post #74
JacksonGariety wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smoking rates are only decreasing in developed nations. Globally it's increasing by ~1% each year.

That's lower than population growth so would still be a global per-capita reduction.

I would imagine a global smoking increase statistic would be per-capita as well but without a citation we won't know.

Re: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

#79

Post by illumin8 »

JacksonGariety wrote: post #61
SCAQTony wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is never one thing; your lead assessment is probably a serious contender among other pollutants. Then there is better hygiene via food handlers, stiffer USDA rules, cleaner water, less smoking and second hand smoke, more people exercising too.

Smoking rates are only decreasing in developed nations. Globally it's increasing by ~1% each year.

The article indicates most of the lower disease rates are also in developed nations, so this could be indicative of a correlation.

Re: A Medical Mystery of the Best Kind: Major Diseases Are in Decline

#80

Post by illumin8 »

autokad wrote: post #40
ktRolster wrote: post #5

This is weird: >Until the late 1930s, stomach cancer was >the No. 1 cause of cancer deaths in the >United States.

stomach cancer was spiked due to h-pylori. water treatments put a huge dent in that

A comment like this could be very insightful, but you didn't mention what h-pylori is, or why water treatments help reduce it.
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