2016-03-22 18:12:00
Anxiety , the thread
Life expectancy is growing both globally and within United States to all time highs.
https://www.nia.nih.gov/research/publication/global-health-and-aging/living-longer
Cancer rates are down 20% in 2 decades and steadily decreasing. Most people seem to think cancers are getting worse.
http://m.cancer.org/cancer/news/news/cancer-statistics-report-death-rate-down-23-percent-in-21-years
Globally people have been getting significantly healthier and more prosperous over the past 200 years in a pretty consistent manner (despite occasional setbacks).
The world has globally become less violent over years, decades, centuries, and millenia, and a person in the Western World today is probably the least likely to be a victim of violence of any kind compared to any society in history. (Yes, there are lots of anecdotal cases where it has gotten worse, and the trend isn't monotonically downward, but it is still a quite significant and consistent downward trend, with plenty of understanding on reasons why.) Many people I talk to think we live in a time of violence, mostly due to news reports and ignorance of history.
https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_the_myth_of_violence?language=en
This is largely due to the state of the media. The news has a huge negativity bias because scared people are far more likely to tune in.
That being said, I think your cancer fact is off a little. The survival rate of cancer is up 22 percent while the rate of incidence by age has remained steady (in raw numbers there are more cases but that is due to our increasingly aged population).
Mosul Dam in Iraq is in sad fucking shape. At this point it could break any day and no one would be surprised, yet no one is doing anything. Let me rephrase: if it broke, it has the potential to be the worst man made disaster in history. Imagine the 2004 tsunami, but in the middle of one of the most heavily populated places in Earth instead of the middle of the ocean. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/02/mosul-dam-engineers-warn-it-could-fail-at-any-time-killing-1m-people
Palm Oil and deforestation.
A surprising amount of people aren't aware of this, but our mass consumption of palm oil in manufactured products is having a devastating impact on a huge number of plant and animal species, it's also destroying the livelihood of other humans.
Because palm oil is an efficient source of vegetable oil, it's use has expanded rapidly during our lifetime in manufactured products; from chocolate and crisps, to shampoo and even lipstick and candles - it's really profitable. Next time you visit your local supermarket, check out some packaging on manufactured foodstuffs, it seems like it's in everything.
http://www.worldwildlife.org/pages/which-everyday-products-contain-palm-oil
Because it needs the constant high humidity, and a shit load of land, it's grown in rainforest climates. As a result of this, massive areas of rainforest are deforested every year to grow this crop. This practice is destroying the biodiversity that once came along with these habitats, particularly in Indonesia's rainforests and peatlands, which are among the world's most species-rich environments and home to numerous endangered plants and animals, such as orangutans, Sumatran tigers and Bornean rhinos. It's also destroying the livelihoods of people living next to the forest - people who have depended upon it's resources for many generations. Along with that comes the conflict between humans and animals as they are squeezed into ever shrinking habitats, which usually results in some shocking animal cruelty.
Palm oil is also quite unhealthy, with almost half of it consisting of saturated fats - which is linked to heart disease and high cholesterol. Palm kernel oil, which is often used for cocoa icings, ice cream and caramel, contains up to 80 percent saturated fat. Unhealthy for the consumer, unhealthy for the environment... which is also ultimately unhealthy for the consumer.
Some links if you're interested:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1uOuX6Yp5I
https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/topics/palm-oil
The speed that africa is developing with and how fast everything is getting better in there. Atleast something positive compared to the other comments.
Also: That the amount of wars in the world are extremly low from an historicall point of view.
Having worked in the overall "help Africa" field, a big problem with the perception of Africa is NGOs. It's easy to get aid if everyone thinks that Africa is a big shithole. If people learn that there there is a growing middle class, it becomes a bit tougher to sell humanitarian aid.
Africa is getting better, but the high growth rates can be misleading. You have to subtract out the annual population growth rate from the GDP figure to see if people are actually getting richer.
This also helps explains Japan's negative growth rates to an extent. Everyone could individually be getting richer even as the overall economy declines due to falling population.
Thailand is in the shits. Military coup is still on, and there's no sign of a resolution. Even if there is it won't be a long term fix as the "Red" party will win and the "Yellow" party will protest, leading to demonstrations and a further coup. The country has had some 18 coups in the last 60-ish years.
The country has a very well respected monarch but his health has been deteriorating (he is 88 years old). Slight questions have been raised regarding the succession and the state of affairs following it.
The thing that is most damning however, is the civil war that the country is in, but not even Thai people know of this. The southern cities of yala and hat yai (bordering Malaysia) have a very oppressed Muslim minority, who are now revolting for the past few years. The military has been active in these areas and some of the reports coming out of there are really heartbreaking. Not many other parts have been affected at all, but, don't know what the situation would be like in the future.
The military government recently rejected refugees for the first time, there are major problems regarding slavery in the fishing industry and the economy is in the dumps. But hey, still a beautiful country.
Edit: just to clarify guys, while the issue is very real, tourists aren't gonna be affected by this much. Hell, 90% of the locals aren't affected either. But at the same time beware of scams and other such issues while in Thailand or south east Asia in general.
Brazil, the 5th largest country in the world, is going through a period of political upheaval so large that the president may be impeached. I feel like that would be on more people's radar.
Edit: Also because people seem to think Brazil is some backwater nowhere country, I just want to let them know that in addition to having the 5th largest population, it has the 7th largest economy, is the US's 9th largest trading partner (barely lower than France) and has a GDP per capita higher than Romania, Turkey, Mexico and China and comparable to Poland and Russia.
Things are going crazy. Rousseff has a disapproval rate of 69%. Too much money was stolen, and in the last 10 years the government has created an enormous credit bubble, which is about to explode.
Three years ago currency: $1 USD = $2 BRL
Today: $1 USD = $4 BRL
Now the companies are laying off most of the employees... And that's how you ruin a country economy.
Women's reproductive health is a mess. Yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, and UTIs are extremely common. Many women have recurrent BV or yeast infections despite regular visits to a gyno. The main reason for this is that the only treatment they can really be prescribed is antibiotics or antifungals. The problem with these treatments is that they don't treat the underlying issue, which is collapse of the vaginal microbiome, and in the case of antibiotics they make it even worse. Some people are prescribed "home remedies" such as boric acid suppositories, but these only temporarily help.
The main constituents of the healthy vaginal microbiome are Lactobacillus crispatus and Lactobacillus jensenii. In the USA, there is no currently available probiotic, OTA or not, that contains these two species. These species are also the most fragile, meaning that when you go on antibiotics to treat an infection, these good bacteria die off and cannot recolonize. You end up with a collapsed microbiome that cannot adequately defend against subsequent infections, which are also treated with more antibiotics. They also open the door to fungal infections, but BV and UTIs are the main problem, especially since they also pose a reproductive risk with adverse effects to pregnancy and childbirth. L. acidophilus, which is the main constituent of most probiotics you can get in the USA, is a very small part of the healthy vaginal microbiome, and taking it orally does absolutely nothing for your vagina, yet many doctors still advise you to do that (which is truly baffling).
So why isn't there a probiotic that contains L. crispatus and L. jensenii? Because a small pharmaceutical based in California has taken out a patent on an L. crispatus probiotic to treat UTIs, and is sitting on that patent having basically given up work on it around Phase 2 trials, despite excellent results (which have been published). In Europe, such a probiotic is available very cheaply and OTC. You can order it online, it's called Mycoress and sold out of France and the UK. There's no L. jensenii probiotic, and I'm not sure why, there may be technical reasons for that.
This issue is of course completely ignored by most people, and sufferers of these issues are not even aware that there is a very simple treatment that could be made available. I have spoken with gynecologists who are very frustrated with the lack of good treatment for recurrent vaginal infections, and they are also not aware that these treatments exist and work really well, but are locked up in a dead patent.
Well, I got gilded, so here are some sources:
The patent is held by the company Osel, and the probiotic is called LACTIN-V. http://oselinc.com/home/clinical-pipeline/
Osel has shown no activity on the patent since 2011 when Phase 2 trials were conducted. Here are the results from that. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21498386
This paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22693410 shows that crispatus and jensenii are fragile and that lack of colonization with them is correlated with BV, and that if they do return there is a correlation with BV cure. Here is a write-up on that paper for easier digestion of the facts. https://www.fredhutch.org/en/labs/vaccine-and-infectious-disease/news/publication-spotlight/analyzing_sexual_behavior.html
Here http://www.cocooncenter.co.uk/mycoress-10-vaginal-capsules/17892.html is a source to purchase MycoRess from the UK, they deliver to the USA. NOTE: I AM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL AND YOU SHOULD CONSULT WITH YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE USING THIS (OR ANY) MEDICATION.
Over 1200 people have died so far building the world cup stadiums in Qatar. This article is the most recent one I could find, but it's from almost a year ago, so that's probably much higher by now. It estimates over 4000 will have died by the time the stadiums are finished. To put that in perspective: that's more than died on 9/11.
And no one is doing a single thing to stop it.
Countries and governments know about this, but they don't care. The Qatari government is trying to cover it all up and failing miserably, as the figures are easily accessible. They've imprisoned journalists that were invited to the country for taking pictures where they weren't supposed to and asking too many questions.
It's almost fucking North Korea levels of information suppression, but everyone still is just talking about the corruption in FIFA.
How could the followers of the world's most popular sport even stand for this? Their biggest complaint seems to be that the world cup will be held November/ December instead of June/July.
There are worse things going on in the world to people, like slavery, but this is pretty damn close. And yet no one seems to be standing up for these people.
Migrant workers are travelling (mostly from Nepal and India) to Qatar for construction work, having their passports taken from them so that they cannot leave until they've worked off their debt for getting them there, and thousands are dying because of the abysmal working conditions. And the rest are living in absolute poverty.
And yet FIFA still haven't rescinded the World Cup from them, despite figures estimating that it will DIRECTLY cause, by the end of construction, at least 4000 deaths.
Edit: since a lot of people are questioning the validity of the numbers, I have one thing to say: who gives a fuck?
Whether it's 1200 or 12, people are being forced into labour until they work themselves to death, and not being allowed to leave. And other countries are indirectly funding it, yet are not stopping it. That is the problem.
I'm aware of the problems with the statistics and them being based on incomplete evidence. But they are still estimates. Just because you find statistics that are different doesn't mean that yours are automatically correct and these are automatically false.
Buildings. Everyone talks about the carbon footprint of cars, industry etc. No one seems to care about buildings. The construction, maintenance and lifespan of buildings account for about 40% of the entire carbon footprint
Edit: they are the largest contributors to climate change, use the most resources and energy on the planet and they are rarely talked about. Need to get that hybrid. Gotta buy local to cut transportation impact. But the largest contribution to climate change is starting at you all day long going unnoticed by the general public.
Antibiotics are failing. Everyone knows there's 'superbugs' and shit but people don't seem to realize that we're giving our last line of defense antibiotics to livestock to fatten them up in places. Once enough shit can't be treated it's going to be back to the dark ages. Almost all modern medicine is made possible by antibiotics. Anything you need surgery for can kill you without them.
the oceans are dying.
my hobby is volunteering at the local aquarium, I'm not supposed to focus on depressing facts, but gosh I somehow sure do have an awful lot of them, where to start?
there's been a massive sea star die off going on for the past three years from Alaska to California, possibly elsewhere but nobody started looking until recreational divers off Canada noticed the corpses. almost all species have been affected, it's bacterial but nobody knows exactly what bacteria, could be a lot of different things because the linking factor seems to be sea water temperature going up and that ruining their little immune systems.
the salmon aren't coming back, there hasn't been enough fish in the cedar river to open recreational fishing since 2008, and every species is trending downwards over time. the problem is the dams and the dams aren't coming out for fish, not when they keep this area running on "green power".
the biggest threat to orcas, after the loss of the overall biomass of prey species, is whale watching boats. the legal limits aren't enough to not stress the animals and pilots will flout them for money.
every sea wall somebody puts up means less eelgrass habitat for little fish, and more flat surfaces only fit for jelly-polyps. every year there's more jellies and less herring. what eats herring? everything.
plastic erodes like anything else, but when it does the particles don't sink, they float among the plankton and get eaten with them.
sea turtles eat plastic bags but what kills them is the resulting horrible tumorous growths in their bodies.
carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is getting to the point where it can't be captured and fixed by sea critters growing shells, and instead the carbonic acid erodes and deforms what shells they can grow at the larval stage. the species we are going to loose from this would have been vital to solving the carbon dioxide problem.
don't get me started on bycatch
if you want to help: don't eat fish unless you know where it came from, recycle your plastics, pick up trash, don't release balloons, don't waste electricity, and for all our sakes,
throw your seashells back into the ocean.
Ocean acidification!
Working for an environmental nonprofit is endlessly depressing. :(
I live in Japan and the ignorance about where their seafood comes from confounds and distresses me to no end.
"Well, if it's getting so rare, why is is only ￥400 per 100 grams?"
The global bee population is dying, this is a cataclysmic disaster for flower and fruit plants, and the animals that have adapted only to consume fruit and flowers. Not to mention human intressets as the price of fruits, nuts and berries will sky rocket as every plant will be needed to be pollinated by hand in order to harvest anything.
The effects of animal agriculture on climate change. It's the biggest elephant in the room and no one wants to acknowledge how important it is that we change the standard diet.
Internet shills. The internet is being used by various entities for marketing and propaganda purposes. It would be strange if this was not occurring, but if you mention it, people call this a conspiracy theory, or paranoid nonsense. In fact, this is openly admitted to on a routine basis, but people don't seem to enjoy reading the newspaper.
https://www.reddit.com/r/shills/
How one of the biggest threats to the human condition is one of the least understood: mental illness.
Think about the statistics regarding death, and how many of the highest factors relate to mental illness. Suicide, homicide (debatable but mental illness can lead to homicidal thought), accidents/overdose (drug addiction, drug abuse or otherwise reckless behavior in mania, obeying hallucinations or delusions in psychotic episodes, etc), the list goes on. Also, think about the lesser consequences. Lower work productivity due to depression or anxiety, as an example.
Type 1 Diabetes is a disease that is entirely different from type 2. One is an autoimmune disease where your body destroys all your insulin producing cells forever, and the other is a lifestyle disease where your body becomes resistant to insulin mostly because of laziness and obesity.
For people with type 1, usually diagnosed as kids, your entire life (usually tragically short) revolves around counting carbs, carefully monitoring physical activity, and dosing yourself with insulin 4+ times per day after checking your blood glucose. Even then you'll never actually get it right and your blood sugar will fluctuate constantly between dangerously high and dangerously low, every single day, for the rest of your life. But you have to try anyway, or live with the knowledge that you might die tonight from a severe low. And don't get me started on the medical supply costs (even in countries with "free" health care).
To top it all off, you're stuck dealing with the stigma of having diabetes, people constantly telling you about their fat aunt with type 2 who is missing both her legs because she just loves her sweets. Most people don't even realize there is an autoimmune type of diabetes, with no cure, that cannot be treated purely by diet and exercise, no matter how healthy you are otherwise.
So next time you want to make a hilarious joke about getting diabetes from your chocolate fudge cake, just remember.
Edit: As has been noted, it's not ALL doom and gloom. Certainly the standard of care has increased over time and people don't often die in their 30s or 40s anymore unless they have particularly bad control. But the fact of the matter is you can't avoid going high randomly, on occasion, and every time you do your body gets a little more damaged, until eventually the familiar complications arise. You don't see many Type 1s living to 100. BUT, most do live a relatively full life, if you're comparing them to the general life expectancy. Still, losing 20 or more years by genetic lottery is not a thrilling prospect, even if you do live until 70, and in the meantime it takes a lot of work to get there.
Edit 2: I did not mean to offend people with Type 2, and perhaps I oversimplified. There does definitely appear to be a genetic component, but I was just trying to differentiate the fact that Type 2 can be controlled with diet and exercise, while Type 1 cannot, under any circumstances. Further, Type 1 is not ever caused by lifestyle choices, while Type 2 usually is, even if there is also a genetic component.
Edit 3: By the way, I follow a lot of the research papers that come out that are seeking a cure for T1D. Almost all of them cite http://jdrf.org/ as a funding partner. If you have any extra money lying around and you're looking for a worthy charity, these guys are very well run and do a lot of good work. I'm not a shill for them or anything, but just in case anybody wanted to help out I thought I'd point them in a good direction!