Live data from Hacker News

That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

nytimes.com

71–80 of 251 posts

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#71
This is a bit of an aside, but I have to say this: even as a young person, take falls very seriously. I was 22 or so when I slipped in the shower. I was falling to the side and was going to hit my head, so I decided to twist so that I'd fall flat on my back, figuring I'd be fine. Well, I was, until a few hours later, when I started having chest pain and my left arm went numb and started getting shooting pains.

Thinking it was a heart attack, I went to the ER and was told I was fine, and it was probably just a pinched nerve from the fall. Three years later, the pain hasn't stopped -- the chest pain isn't so bad these days usually, but my left arm is almost continually numb and, well, the body doesn't really get used to the pins-and-needles feeling. If I had taken it more seriously, had a CT scan taken at the time, etc, it may have been caught early. Unfortunately, now that so much time has passed, doctors are at a loss as for what's going on.

I'm still finding new doctors and doing my own research into what's going on, but this process has been excruciating. So, please, if you have a fall: go to the doctor, and have them do a real examination immediately. When I went, they focused on my heart and didn't even so much as look at my neck or my shoulder; had I gone after the fall, they may have figured out what it was, and I wouldn't be in pain years later.

Hope this cautionary tale helps someone!

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#72

In the derivatives world, there's a saying for trying to bet against highly unlikely events with catastrophic risk for small gains: "picking up nickels in front of a steamroller." The issue is when you pick up enough nickels and watch for the steamrollers vigilantly first few times, you grow complacent and think that you are the master of nickel pickers and steamrollers are slow mofo's. You try to pick more nickels a…

[deleted]

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#73
post #50
post #16

One of the reasons falls are so fatal for old people is because elderly people in our society rarely stay active. Look at cultures like the Chinese, where you so elderly women up in the morning doing Taichi, or working out on those weird outdoor gym sets in the rest of the day. Maintaining strength and flexibility during old age helps mitigate damage from falls a lot. Physical deterioration is often a self-fulfilling…

The real reason falls are so fatal for the elderly is because the victims become immobalized, causing them to become less active. After a fall, many elderly people are bed-ridden which causes a whole host of greater health problems which are the actual killers. But then good health and daily activity are the best ways of preventing falls, (along with balance training and physiotherapy, especially after a surgery or s…

Daily exercise is an individual choice, but humans are social beings. An implicit societal framework for being physically active helps at the margins... and the margins are pretty large.

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#74
"Cause of injury: Lack of adhesive ducks." - Sheldon

I'm not sure what the takeaway from this article is supposed to be. Always be conscious of your safety but not to the point of constant paranoia?

Isn't that basically -- dare I say it -- common sense?

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#76

Strangely not mentioned at all, so I'll put it here: Jared Diamond is the author of Guns, Germs and Steel , his most famous work. It addresses the question of how and why European societies were able to advance themselves so much farther ahead of all other civilizations. There is also an excellent four-part series streaming on Netflix.

I think Collapse is better than Guns, Germs and Steel. It is about the end of isolated settlements, and the path which lead them to their demise.

And I think it should be mentioned that Guns, Germs and Steel is rather extreme in suggesting an 'geological determinism.' [1] While his arguments are generally quite good, there is simply quite a bit more happening. A nice book to balance this is Ian Morris, Why the West Rules--For Now.

[1] Jarred Diamond actually warns of this determinism fallacy, but the book certainly left me with the impression that such a determinism exists.

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#77

The CDC has keeps statistics on how people in the USA die http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm Looking at the 2011 prelims "Accidents (unintentional injuries)" comes in at #5 with 122,777 deaths and Intentional self-harm (suicide) is at #10 with 38,285. Assault (homicide) is no longer in the top 15. Also, Assault (homicide) by discharge of firearms is 11,101 with all other Assault (homicide) totaling 4,852. To gi…

In 2010 most deaths by firearm were suicides [19,392]. There were 11,000+ homicides by firearm. And 412 deaths from legal intervention by any means.

In other words, the person you are most likely to kill with a gun is yourself.

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#78

Not discussed is how the author's hyper-vigilance impacts his life in the form of stress. Stress kills.

Its possible to be careful and unstressed. I avoid caffeine. I don't even think about it any more; I just don't choose drinks containing caffeine.

"I don't even think about it any more" means you're not being "hypervigilant". I'm using the author's word-choice here.

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#79

The takeaway for programmers: every time you write a statement, the odds that you're introducing a bug are quite small, but you do this a lot, so the odds guarantee you will introduce a bug. The guys at NASA who came to TX/RX in Houston used to treat soldering defects as a statistical certainty. You empirically determine your solder failure rate, count the solder joins in the project, then look for your predicted num…

"They" in this instance was one Joseph Stalin.

Re: That Daily Shower Can Be a Killer

#80

The takeaway for programmers: every time you write a statement, the odds that you're introducing a bug are quite small, but you do this a lot, so the odds guarantee you will introduce a bug. The guys at NASA who came to TX/RX in Houston used to treat soldering defects as a statistical certainty. You empirically determine your solder failure rate, count the solder joins in the project, then look for your predicted num…

"They" in this instance was one Joseph Stalin.

Oh yeah! I've been watching too many WWII documentaries. Linus Torvalds also once said that there's a point after which a quantitative difference becomes a qualitative one. ( Back when the grumps were complaining that the world didn't need his stupid git thing.)
Post reply on HN