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Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

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Re: Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

#21

Post by nik61 »

jganetsk wrote: post #13
giberson wrote: post #5

Hate to raise a cynical tone, but in all likelihood his his longevity is mostly due to him having money. I expect, that in most cases patients with similar motor neurone diseases, their money simply runs out--unable to afford ongoing medications, care and new treatments, they die from the disease they simply can't afford to treat.

I suspect you are greatly overestimating the power of money in managing motor neurone disease.

This is the case, as I have reason to know, and as my mother did before she died of it in 1994. It may have been quite expensive to have diagnosed her as it took a long time and involved a number of procedures. After that nothing could be done at all until she needed palliative and supportive care in her last weeks.

Re: Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

#22

Post by robin_reala »

harold wrote: post #2

I've often wondered if his sense of purpose, and ability to continue working are what have contributed to his longevity. Certainly inspiring to see what he has accomplished in his lifetime so far.

My dad died of MND in 2003 after a fairly short length of time, somewhere in the region of 3.5 years after diagnosis. I put Dr Hawking’s longevity at least partially to being happy to work completely in his brain. Conversely, my dad was a very phsyical person and always had some project to build on the go. When that was taken away from him he seemed diminished.

Incidentally, he did try to carry on coding using Dragon Dictate, but it was painful to watch. I wonder if speech recognition has come on any since then? Apple’s Siri seems fairly remarkable although I haven’t had a chance to use it yet. Is anyone on HN coding by speech?

Re: Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

#23

Post by pessimist »

blasterford wrote: post #11
sun123 wrote: post #3

It raises the age old question again. I sometimes think how people achieve so much. May be being immobile saves his energy from distraction and helps leaves time to think about black holes.

I know it's going to be a very unpopular opinion here, but I find it hard to see the worth in thinking about black holes and other physics/astronomy questions. Is the large hadron collider really worth the money? Can someone highlight some real world advances that this sort of thing provides? eg will it make holographic TVs possible or hoverboards?

When the Queen asked Michael Faraday of what use his funny experiments with magnets would amount to, he is reported to have said - "Of what use is a new born baby?"

From another angle, during some collider hearings in congress, the physicist RObert Wilson was asked: "Did the collider have anything to do with promoting “the security of the country”"? He replied "nothing to do directly with defending our country except to make it worth defending".

In other words, fundamental research has definite technological implications, but also just satisfying our curiosity about nature is reason enough.

Re: Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

#24

Post by ckayatek »

I did ALS research in grad school and his case seems to be an outlier. Generally ALS is late onset (55+) and rapidly lethal (<3 years expected survival). That being said, early onset cases are often slower to progress and if I remember correctly his onset was in his late 20s, which is very early. There are really no medications or treatments that are effective for ALS, no matter how much money you have.

Re: Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

#25

Post by rudiger »

giberson wrote: post #5

Hate to raise a cynical tone, but in all likelihood his his longevity is mostly due to him having money. I expect, that in most cases patients with similar motor neurone diseases, their money simply runs out--unable to afford ongoing medications, care and new treatments, they die from the disease they simply can't afford to treat.

There's evidence that "brain activity" can slow the progression of neurological disorders, particularly those that selectively affect motor neurones. I'd argue that Hawking's incredible utilization of his brain, staying active as a theoretical physicist, has helped to keep his disease from overwhelming him.

Re: Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

#26

Post by __alexs »

parfe wrote: post #14
giberson wrote: post #5

Hate to raise a cynical tone, but in all likelihood his his longevity is mostly due to him having money. I expect, that in most cases patients with similar motor neurone diseases, their money simply runs out--unable to afford ongoing medications, care and new treatments, they die from the disease they simply can't afford to treat.

>in all likelihood his his longevity is mostly due to him having money. I think you mean "Socialized Medicine" "I wouldn't be here today if it were not for the NHS," [Hawking] said. "I have received a large amount of high-quality treatment without which I would not have survived...." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/12/stephen-hawking-ent...

Indeed. I'm sure the multiple dedicated full time assistants and general adoration of everyone around him helps keep him positive too though. It's probably easy to have a pretty terrible quality of life with ALS even if you do have money for medical treatment.

Re: Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

#28

Post by giberson »

gerggerg wrote: post #10
giberson wrote: post #5

Hate to raise a cynical tone, but in all likelihood his his longevity is mostly due to him having money. I expect, that in most cases patients with similar motor neurone diseases, their money simply runs out--unable to afford ongoing medications, care and new treatments, they die from the disease they simply can't afford to treat.

If you hate to do it than whats the point? The dude may have the care and the luck to keep him alive but he's also continued to produce jaw dropping work without being able to move much more than his eye balls. He can't eat or defecate or walk or wave or even make facial expressions but has contributed relentlessly to cosmology, theoretical physics, and the education thereof. Regardless of the reasons why he is survi…

I was in no way indicating he doesn't deserve to survive or that he hasn't made invaluable contributions to science.

>If you hate to do it than whats the point?

Mainly my post is counter weighting others that mostly attribute Hawking's longevity as a testimony to will power. It's also subtly defamatory to the relationship of money and health--in that (perhaps unavoidably so) having money greatly enhances one's life expectancy in the face of mortal diseases. That's not to say wealth is a golden ticket that affords you a reprieve from any illness but it certainly helps to prevent you from being lumped in with all the "average" cases, to be one of the uncommon cases that "defies" the usual outcomes.

Re: Stephen Hawking to turn 70, defying disease

#30

Post by rmc »

giberson wrote: post #5

Hate to raise a cynical tone, but in all likelihood his his longevity is mostly due to him having money. I expect, that in most cases patients with similar motor neurone diseases, their money simply runs out--unable to afford ongoing medications, care and new treatments, they die from the disease they simply can't afford to treat.

For the record (since some USA newspapers were reporting the opposite), Stephen Hawking is from the UK with the NHS (what can be called 'socialized healthcare' in the USA, and 'public health system' in EU).
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