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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

#111

Post by 77897555 »

magila wrote: post #44

On the other hand, autoimmune diseases have been increasing in prevalence over the last century. While these diseases are rarely immediately fatal, in severe cases they can have a major impact on quality of life. Onset often occurs in early adulthood so the cost of treatment over a lifetime can be extremely high. The usual treatment, immunosuppressive therapy, also has serious risks of its own. While there has been m…

Clinically speaking, perhaps biological evolution had a chance of dealing with this.

Now, biological evolution has been replaced by "social evolution". A trait of physically debilitating condition, that is treatable, is no longer a reproduction fullstop. Those genes carry on. What genes will peter out are the absence of skills that are employable and not being able to find a partner because of that. Of course this is simplifying it to a large extent.

The human population will drop over the next millenia. Whether that is because of waterwars, lack of food, natural calamities, or space colonisation is left as an exercise for the future generations.

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

#112

Post by daveguy »

ekianjo wrote: post #99
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…

> increased time from atmospheric nuclear bomb testing (and the various dispersals of plutonium in the 60's and 70's) Ambient radioactivity, under a certain threshold (which is disputed) has actually shown some positive effects. If I remember correctly, folks living in naturally more radioactive areas have been showing lower cancer rates vs the average.

This is a great big citation needed. Come on, you can't "if I remember correctly" a statement like "some radiation is good for you."

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

#113

Post by elliotec »

ekianjo wrote: post #99
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…

> increased time from atmospheric nuclear bomb testing (and the various dispersals of plutonium in the 60's and 70's) Ambient radioactivity, under a certain threshold (which is disputed) has actually shown some positive effects. If I remember correctly, folks living in naturally more radioactive areas have been showing lower cancer rates vs the average.

What? Source?

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

#114

Post by alejohausner »

daveguy wrote: post #112
ekianjo wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> increased time from atmospheric nuclear bomb testing (and the various dispersals of plutonium in the 60's and 70's) Ambient radioactivity, under a certain threshold (which is disputed) has actually shown some positive effects. If I remember correctly, folks living in naturally more radioactive areas have been showing lower cancer rates vs the average.

This is a great big citation needed. Come on, you can't "if I remember correctly" a statement like "some radiation is good for you."

OK, I'll supply a citation, which argues the opposite. See the Wikipedia page on "radiation hormesis". Scroll down to "cobalt 60 exposure".

TL,DR: Many apartments in Taiwan were radioactive, because the steel in the structure had been mixed in with 60Co. Residents got big doses of gamma rays. And yet they didn't get much cancer! It turns out that no, gamma rays are not good for you; rather, most residents were young, biasing the sample (few young people get cancer). The study didn't account for this bias.

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

#115

Post by elliotec »

autokad wrote: post #49
Gibbon1 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Type II. Type II is insulin resistance. Which is probably caused by our industrial diet and maybe other factors. The rate is increasing dramatically. Type I is an autoimmune disease. I think it's not increasing. (no idea)

its less caused by diet than lack of mobility. we spend most of our waking day sitting down now. active over weight people with 'bad diets' are healthier than skinny inactive people. but its hard to legislate that, and much easier to pound the shoe on the table about sodas than it is to tell people they need to get up and move

No... It is absolutely caused by diet. Exercise is a factor, but only because you're expending the calories you brought into your body in the first place.

https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-topics/D...

I hope you're not a doctor!

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

#116

Post by macintux »

infogulch wrote: post #76
dankohn1 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'd heard that the most violent areas in New Orleans are those with high concentrations of lead in the environment, and a quick Google search brought up this piece from February that states that precisely:

http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2016/02/lead-exposure...

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

#117

Post by PhasmaFelis »

alexandercrohde wrote: post #89
magila wrote: post #44

On the other hand, autoimmune diseases have been increasing in prevalence over the last century. While these diseases are rarely immediately fatal, in severe cases they can have a major impact on quality of life. Onset often occurs in early adulthood so the cost of treatment over a lifetime can be extremely high. The usual treatment, immunosuppressive therapy, also has serious risks of its own. While there has been m…

Absolutely. I wish this article wouldn't speak so generally when I hear consistent articles about major spikes in: - Autoimmune issues (especially allergies) - Obesity (particularly in children) and diabetes - Autism - Depression, ADD, and similar disorders

> Autism - Depression, ADD, and similar disorders

My personal impression is that the rise of mental conditions is an increase in diagnosis, not occurrence. An awful lot of people who, just a few decades ago, would have been dismissed as lazy, stupid, whiny, or the all-purpose "crazy" are actually starting to receive recognition and treatment. That's a good thing.

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

#118

Post by lostlogin »

SCAQTony wrote: post #48
mrfusion wrote: post #16

I always wondered if the removal of lead in gasoline could account for a lot of this. Especially the dementia drop.

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.

Cleaner water, foot and environment are proposed causes for the allergy rate increases - the cleaners hypothesis. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/7589193/Excessiv...

Are more people gettin appropriate levels of exercise? Average fitness levels are in steep decline (mainly due to obesity) I thought. http://resmilitaris.net/ressources/10144/31/res_militaris_te...

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

#119

Post by duaneb »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #117
alexandercrohde wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. I wish this article wouldn't speak so generally when I hear consistent articles about major spikes in: - Autoimmune issues (especially allergies) - Obesity (particularly in children) and diabetes - Autism - Depression, ADD, and similar disorders

> Autism - Depression, ADD, and similar disorders My personal impression is that the rise of mental conditions is an increase in diagnosis, not occurrence. An awful lot of people who, just a few decades ago, would have been dismissed as lazy, stupid, whiny, or the all-purpose "crazy" are actually starting to receive recognition and treatment. That's a good thing.

> My personal impression is that the rise of mental conditions is an increase in diagnosis, not occurrence

Do you have a source for this? It goes against much I've read myself recently—for instance, depression has strong links to inflammation—perhaps shitty diets and no exercise are catching up to people.

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

#120

Post by teslabox »

bane wrote: post #53
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.

In countries which still practice wide-scale pickling, curing and fermentation -- stomach cancer rates are still very high. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-salty-diet-idUSTRE62N4KX20... While gastric cancer is declining, it is still the most common cancer in Korea. Past studies have yielded conflicting results as to whether a salty diet causes gastric cancer, though most found an association between salt use and ga…

That's a good point, but it's probably the organic acids rather than the salt (which the media report you've linked to blames). Bacteria which produce lactic acid are primarily used for traditional fermentation, I think, whereas distilled vinegar is made from ethanol by bacteria that produce acetic acid...

Hmm:

"Compared to acetic acid, [lactic acid's] pKa is 1 unit less, meaning lactic acid deprotonates ten times more easily than acetic acid does. This higher acidity is the consequence of the intramolecular hydrogen bonding between the α-hydroxyl and the carboxylate group." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactic_acid (emphasis added)

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