Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick • Hacker News Board

Re: Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick

#61

Post by leereeves » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 4:33 AM UTC

yarou wrote: post #53

leereeves wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When did I suggest that?

It's sort of implied in your comment that black Americans have the same access to the superficial perks the person you were responding to suggested. Here's a simple thought experiment for you. If you took the starting rating, x, for a set of Americans, I think you'd find that whites have a higher initial starting rank than someone who's black or Hispanic. It's harder to climb the ladder when you start out on a lower…

I think that thought experiment starts from a flawed premise. There's no starting rank for a set of Americans - different people have different starting ranks.

Obama's daughters start out well ahead of a homeless white boy, for example, and any bias that would lead to aiding Obama's daughters instead of the homeless white boy is unjust.

Re: Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick

#62

Post by bootload » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 5:41 AM UTC

"The focus on black adolescents is significant. In much of this research, white Americans appeared somehow to be immune to the negative health effects that accompany relentless striving."

Poverty in youth, is a predictor of future poor health outcomes. This is the conclusion of so many Dunedin study papers. [0] An unexpected finding, the effects of poverty are ^not^ reversed by future wealth. I can't find the specific study for this, however another report displays another unexpected find, "The high-need/high-cost group of adults could be identified as young as age 3years on the basis of their ‘brain health,’". [1]

While poverty is the root cause, race determines poverty, the health outcomes are lifelong.

Reference

[0] http://dunedinstudy.otago.ac.nz/publications

[1] http://dunedinstudy.otago.ac.nz/news-and-events/article/53

Re: Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick

#63

Post by majkinetor » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 6:32 AM UTC

SnappyT wrote: post #58

majkinetor wrote: post #52

This thing is something people observed for a long time and its totally contextual - In "How to make stress your friend" TED talk, Kelly McGonigal showed that people who believe that stress is damaging will actually get it that way and vice versa. I wonder how much of it actually boils down to chronically high cortisol levels. People that perceive stress as harmfull are more prone to its damage and we know that posit…

While you didn't suggest where you source your Vitamin C, it may be helpful to point out that the "grams of C in the wild" that are generally eaten by primates are probably from natural sources. You may find this article interesting to read, as there are questions as to have safe and effective certain vitamins and supplements are: Why" rel="nofollow">http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20161208-why-vitamin-supplem... vit…

Please, that is nothing but propaganda. If you have a title 'vitamins are bad for you', its a marker that you shouldn't read any more. That is meaningless the same as would be 'cars are bad for you', 'vacciness are bad for you' etc. You can't condemn entire technology but particular instances of it.

Anyway, there is no such thing as 'natural vitamin C'. Its just vitamin C. I take several grams of ascorbic acid (AA) powder either pure or mixed with sodium bicarbonate (natrium ascorbate). AA is the same thing that my liver would produce if GULO gene wasn't disfunctional, something that back in time maybe made sense in evolutional context but now most certainly doesn't as context changed dramatically.

What people actually descibe unknowingly when talking about 'natural vitamin C' is plant based molecular complex of myriad of substances (form of low dose multivitamin) and that is entirelly different topic.

Re: Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick

#64

Post by refurb » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 7:03 AM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #50

venomsnake wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there info about social status. Because Trump should be on his deathbed now and Obama must be already very very sick. And generally speaking successful politicians live long. Castro, Mugabe... And they did had a lot of adversaries. And won against the odds.

Look at pictures of recent presidents when they enter office and when they leave office: https://newsandfroyo.wordpress.com/2015/04/06/why-the-draft-... (Ignore the article, I just picked it because they've already collected before & after photos of each of the last 4 presidents.)

I always find those pictures a little suspect.

First, except for Obama, the first picture is a nicely choreographed headshot (make up?) and the second is a candid photo with no attempt to make the person look good.

Second, except for Bush'88, all of those Presidents were in office for 8 years. I don't know about you, but I'm not surprised a person in their later years looks older almost a decade later.

My Mom was never President, but she looks much older when she was 60 vs. 52.

Re: Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick

#65

Post by refurb » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 7:05 AM UTC

FrancoDiaz wrote: post #46

automatwon wrote: post #17

The Trump administration could do much more to damage Americans’ health than just repeal the Affordable Care Act and leave people without access to hospitals and medications. And somehow they manage to tie it back to Trump

It's the NYT. They had to find a way.

You just don't know high-quality, unbiased journalism when you see it. /s

Re: Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick

#66

Post by umberway » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 8:30 AM UTC

majkinetor wrote: post #52

This thing is something people observed for a long time and its totally contextual - In "How to make stress your friend" TED talk, Kelly McGonigal showed that people who believe that stress is damaging will actually get it that way and vice versa. I wonder how much of it actually boils down to chronically high cortisol levels. People that perceive stress as harmfull are more prone to its damage and we know that posit…

And now CRISPR technologies are being developed I trust that in addition to eliminating Huntington's disease, Tay-Sachs, Fragile X, and what have you, we will fix the GULO gene so that our bodies can recommence Vitamin C production.

Re: Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick

#67

Post by majkinetor » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 10:25 AM UTC

umberway wrote: post #66

majkinetor wrote: post #52

This thing is something people observed for a long time and its totally contextual - In "How to make stress your friend" TED talk, Kelly McGonigal showed that people who believe that stress is damaging will actually get it that way and vice versa. I wonder how much of it actually boils down to chronically high cortisol levels. People that perceive stress as harmfull are more prone to its damage and we know that posit…

And now CRISPR technologies are being developed I trust that in addition to eliminating Huntington's disease, Tay-Sachs, Fragile X, and what have you, we will fix the GULO gene so that our bodies can recommence Vitamin C production.

Yeah, that is already done in animals few times and even in human cells in vitro, see here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-gulonolactone_oxidase#Animal...

> There were number of successful attempts to activate lost enzymatic function in different animal species

This is not trival change however given the amount of time that passed and that some level of adaptation to loss ocured. It would however probably be milestone in human achievements.

Even if GULO is activated it might not be enough: The process of evolution does not necessarily result in the normal provision of optimum molecular concentrations:

http://www.cellmedsoc.org/research_archive/NHC/studien_pdf/o...

Found a paper on primate micronutrient patterns too:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1095643303...

Re: Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick

#68

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 10:33 AM UTC

chillacy wrote: post #56

majkinetor wrote: post #52

This thing is something people observed for a long time and its totally contextual - In "How to make stress your friend" TED talk, Kelly McGonigal showed that people who believe that stress is damaging will actually get it that way and vice versa. I wonder how much of it actually boils down to chronically high cortisol levels. People that perceive stress as harmfull are more prone to its damage and we know that posit…

> ‘They started asking people, “how much stress have you experienced in the last year?”’ The doctors also probed whether participants believed that stress was bad for their health – and then looked at the records to see who died. ‘People who experienced a lot of stress in the previous year had a 43 per cent increased risk of dying. But,’ McGonigal continues, ‘that was ONLY true for the people who also believed stress…

I thinks there's a similar, simpler, explanation:

1) People who say they don't stress 2) People who say they stress but don't believe it's harmful 3) People who say they stress and believe it's harmful

I find the (3) group is the one actually stressing, feeling all the anxiety etc.

The (2) group just talks about feeling stressed, but they just mean that they had lots of responsibilities etc, they didn't suffer actual stress (the mental issues associated with it) like the (3) group.

Re: Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick

#69

Post by coldtea » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 10:35 AM UTC

afterburner wrote: post #5

treyfitty wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Important qualifier: (I only read up to the middle) the results were largely associated with African American subjects.

Yes, they kept saying the negative effects didn't happen to whites, so I'm not sure what the takeaway here is. Life is harder for black people?

Well, even as a poor white, fighting poverty etc, it's different than dodging bullets in your neighborhood (as was often the case, in the time of the study), plus, the dominant race of society seeing you as criminal/inferior/threatening.

Re: Succeeding Against the Odds Can Make You Sick

#70

Post by majkinetor » Sat, Jan 28, 2017, 12:14 PM UTC

coldtea wrote: post #68

chillacy wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ‘They started asking people, “how much stress have you experienced in the last year?”’ The doctors also probed whether participants believed that stress was bad for their health – and then looked at the records to see who died. ‘People who experienced a lot of stress in the previous year had a 43 per cent increased risk of dying. But,’ McGonigal continues, ‘that was ONLY true for the people who also believed stress…

I thinks there's a similar, simpler, explanation: 1) People who say they don't stress 2) People who say they stress but don't believe it's harmful 3) People who say they stress and believe it's harmful I find the (3) group is the one actually stressing, feeling all the anxiety etc. The (2) group just talks about feeling stressed, but they just mean that they had lots of responsibilities etc, they didn't suffer actual…

What do you mean 'I find' ? How do you find ? By observation ?

Stress has unique biochemical pattern that can be measured.