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Positive association between altitude and suicide in U.S. counties

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Re: Positive association between altitude and suicide in U.S. counties

#191

Post by cozzyd »

chongli wrote: post #62
nonameiguess wrote: post #45

The figure 1 makes it look like an awful lot like there is no pattern at all for the vast majority of counties, and then the few with the very highest suicide rates are all very high altitude. They also mention this, but I'm not sure country is a great way to measure this. Death Valley and Mt Whitney, the lowest and highest altitude points in the contiguous states, are in the same county. Might also want to remove Ve…

You could probably control for the Vegas issue by excluding suicides of non-residents, though I don’t know if that information is tracked or not. If that information is not tracked then it’s really useless!

gambling addiction is a problem for locals as well (perhaps more so).

Re: Positive association between altitude and suicide in U.S. counties

#192

Post by copperx »

mrguyorama wrote: post #179
what-no-tests wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

THIS needs to be spread around much more broadly. [UPDATE]: Looks like I'm getting downvoted by people who cling to their meds. Try physical activity and adjusting your self-talk. Try having goals and making steady progress toward them. What you need doesn't come from a pill, it comes from living life.

>What you need doesn't come from a pill, it comes from living life. Fuck off. Imagine telling someone with astigmatism that they don't need a physical modification and augmentation to their bodies, but rather "to live life", whatever that means. Meanwhile, after decades of swearing I didn't need a pill, I didn't want a pill to "change" me, etc, I got on pills, and my life actually works. I rode a rollercoaster for th…

Thanks for saying that.

Although I've resigned myself because I know that people will often not acknowledge and have empathy and understanding towards a condition if they haven't experienced it in their own skin.

It's depressing, but it seems to be part of the human condition.

Re: Positive association between altitude and suicide in U.S. counties

#193

Post by copperx »

the_economist wrote: post #24

High altitude is also associated with longevity, reduced heart disease, and more efficient mitochondria.

There's also a lower incidence of cancer in the population living in high altitudes despite being exposed to more ultraviolet light.

I believe the leading hypothesis is that the higher oxygen at lower altitudes causes more oxidation.

Re: Positive association between altitude and suicide in U.S. counties

#194

Post by irrational »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #104
irrational wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are Denver and SLC considered remote? My own city is about at sea level, but by car the next closest cities are 3 hours to the north, 6 hours to the east, and 9 hours to the south. I’d say we are more remote, despite being at a much lower elevation.

Denver and SLC are reasonably big cities. If you need, for example, a big-city childrens' hospital, they have them. Then you start to drive out of town, and there is N O T H I N G. I mean, from SLC, there's Ogden and Provo, maybe Park City. From Denver, there's Colorado Springs and Fort Collins. Once you get past those, it's a long way to the next anywhere. So are they isolated? Depends on how you define isolation. D…

Then it would be interesting to compare those cities to my own. If you leave the metro area, there is basically nothing in any direction for many hundreds of miles. But our elevation is at sea level instead of elevated.

Re: Positive association between altitude and suicide in U.S. counties

#195

Post by [deleted] »

what-no-tests wrote: post #109
imperio59 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that whole chemical imbalance theory was thoroughly debunked earlier this year as not being the cause of depression, just a marketing gimmick used to sell more anti depressants by pharma companies... "The serotonin theory of depression has been one of the most influential and extensively researched biological theories of the origins of depression. Our study shows that this view is not supported by scientific e…

THIS needs to be spread around much more broadly. [UPDATE]: Looks like I'm getting downvoted by people who cling to their meds. Try physical activity and adjusting your self-talk. Try having goals and making steady progress toward them. What you need doesn't come from a pill, it comes from living life.

[deleted]

Re: Positive association between altitude and suicide in U.S. counties

#196

Post by Schattenbaer »

Interesting. The WHO lists Lesotho as having the highest per-capita suicide rate in the world.

Lesotho is the country with the highest low point (1,400 metres / 4,593 ft) of any country in the world.

More than 80% of Lesotho lies above 1,800 metres (5,906 ft).

Re: Positive association between altitude and suicide in U.S. counties

#198

Post by LinuxBender »

lp251 wrote: post #153
PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For that to be true, you'd need to establish that blood oxygen levels differ significantly across altitude adapted individuals, and I don't believe that this is the case. Also, when I first moved from Philadelphia to a village in New Mexico at 6000', I remember reading that I should plan on a 3 phase adapative process that would take as much as 9 months to complete. This makes me give less weight to things like the 2…

Did you ever fully acclimate? After 3 years at 6000 ft I still had lower blood oxygen than at sea level. (per apple watch, so take that with a grain of salt)

I can only speak anecdotally about my experience when I was young and now that I am much older. When I was young I went from about 69' MSL to about 6780' MSL when doing a job at the Air Force Academy and we dared each other to run up some stairs. We made it about half way up and fell over laughing and gasping for air. Our team chief that smoked about a half a carton of cigarettes a day walked right past us shaking his head. For about a week or so I had some pressure in my leg near the hip but it cleared up.

I am much older now and a couple years ago I retired/moved from about 600' MSL to 6300' MSL and it took about a half of a year for my body to adjust including some pain in my legs with some associated popping and other weird pressure like feeling similar to what I had when younger but it took longer to go away. Probably too many decades behind a computer and not enough walking. I've had no feelings of self defenestration.

Re: Positive association between altitude and suicide in U.S. counties

#199

Post by appleflaxen »

ethanbond wrote: post #113
imperio59 wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that whole chemical imbalance theory was thoroughly debunked earlier this year as not being the cause of depression, just a marketing gimmick used to sell more anti depressants by pharma companies... "The serotonin theory of depression has been one of the most influential and extensively researched biological theories of the origins of depression. Our study shows that this view is not supported by scientific e…

1. A countervailing meta-analysis does not mean it's "debunked" 2. A theory being debunked does not mean it's "just a marketing gimmick" 3. The serotonin theory being debunked does not mean "chemical imbalance" is totally exonerated Great article though, thank you for sharing. Here's the paper itself for anyone interested (AFAICT it is oddly not linked in the UCL article?): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35854107/

Great points, but the word exonerated makes no sense in that context.

Re: Positive association between altitude and suicide in U.S. counties

#200

Post by ethanbond »

appleflaxen wrote: post #199
ethanbond wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. A countervailing meta-analysis does not mean it's "debunked" 2. A theory being debunked does not mean it's "just a marketing gimmick" 3. The serotonin theory being debunked does not mean "chemical imbalance" is totally exonerated Great article though, thank you for sharing. Here's the paper itself for anyone interested (AFAICT it is oddly not linked in the UCL article?): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35854107/

Great points, but the word exonerated makes no sense in that context.

> to clear from accusation or blame

Serotonin theory being debunked does not mean “chemical imbalance” is totally cleared from blame

Seems clear enough to me, but noted for the future!

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