I used to travel a considerable amount, many times outside of the country, so I got into the habit of getting a yearly flu shot.
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I used to travel a considerable amount, many times outside of the country, so I got into the habit of getting a yearly flu shot.
Last edited by David Powell; 02-08-2020 at 9:30 PM.
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Don't lie, its because your wife is a doctor and she makes you. Lol.Originally Posted by Matt Day
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Yes, get a flu shot every year. I'd get 2, if they'd let me.
Mark, I'm curious...what makes you think we've gotten "weaker"? By any measure, human health (in developed countries) is the best it's been in the history of humankind.
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While I would agree in some component with regard to antibiotics (which is now blowing up in our face) things like simple wounds that would have killed us are now a lesser issue population is often living longer at a colossal expense. Look at healthcare costs in the last 10 years of life. We Hve spawned an industry that nurses a lot of people along that makes for a years of life number that lands in the stats that doesn't really correlate to years of life.
Last edited by Mark Bolton; 02-08-2020 at 7:07 PM.
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I am ambivalent about the flu vaccine. It seems to have a small value. The Cochrane Collaboration ( which looks for objective evidence ) states that if you give 71 people the vaccine, you can prevent 1 case of the flu. So 70 just get a sore arm. It is your choice.
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Well, there are stats for at least more than a hundred years showing life expectancy moving up. Flu was one of those
"bring out your dead" things.
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Stats are moving up as are needed beds in assisted living facilities. We've all had family members in their 90s for 50 years.. it's not gone up much in my book to yhe contrary more and more people I know are dying of breast, colon, cervical, hodgkin's, heart disease from processed food, diabetes from sugar diet, on and on.
Last edited by Mark Bolton; 02-08-2020 at 7:31 PM.
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Well, that and I learned about herd immunity in high school.
Don’t get me started on people who don’t get their kids vaccinated, for anything.
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If you could choose, is there another time in human history you'd prefer to be living in? (With respect to living a healthier life)
I think the answer any sane person would give is a resounding "No". It was less than 100 years ago that diabetics were wasting into a terrible death because we didn't even understand that they needed insulin (or how to get/make/administer/dose it...). Less than 200 years ago, surgery was performed without anesthesia (as we had yet to discover/harness it).
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Great, the last 10 years of my life I will have to take 10 pills a day just to make it through those years. The only winner in that is the healthcare industry and the pharmaceutical industry.
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Currently my pill regimen has me taking 12 pills a day. A few years ago open heart surgery likely extended my life. To me taking a few pills everyday to live a few more years is a no brainer.
Today is a gift, that is why it is called the present. (Oogway in Kung Fu Panda)
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
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I'm good, I despise pills, doctors an all things associated with that. I will live until I am done. No propping me along.
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That is a very subjective question. I have grandparents and elder family members that lived very long and productive lives perhaps somewhat by genes (which I hope I got a few of), somewhat by luck, but a lot of it because they grew up in a different time where the AG/Food/Pharma industries didnt pump their food full of who knows what. The running gag in my family was my mother would come home from school and her mother would say " oh honey....the fox got in your hen house last night and killed your chickens" well.. guess what was for dinner? There was no fox. It was the chicken that pecked around in the yard and wasnt pumped full of chemicals, debeaked, antibiotics, chlorinated when it was harvested, and so on. The same for the beef, hogs, lamb, vegetables, fruit, on and on.
Youve allowed yourself to be sold a bill of goods while your eating food full of BpA, Teflon, Corn Syrup, and chemical fillers. All the while you think your living a great life because youll get a few extra years populated with 3-4 doctors appointments a week, fighting lord knows what type of cancer, or other malady, that will undoubtedly be traced back to some crap laced in the Taco Bell or groceries we bought "on sale" in a styrafoam wrapper that saved us $0.50 yet cost millions in treatment down the road.
In my late teens (late 80's) I chose to go vegetarian for two reasons, I didnt want to put the chemicals the food industry way back then was putting in my food, and #2 because I was unable to be a part of the process. I was unable to kill an animal to feed myself and I was unable to raise an animal to be killed to feed myself. So I decided that I shouldnt enjoy the spoils of a process I couldnt be a part of. That lasted for nearly 30 years. My grandfather at the time ridiculed me for this decision and I would argue with him that he walked out and got dinner out of the front yard. They milked cows, or went to the neighbor who did. Raised their own hogs. All clean, pure, food.
I asked him repeatedly, how many people he knew through his life whole legs just kinda quit working (MS)? Got tremors and became debilitated (Parkinsons)? Cancer? Breast Cancer? How many women in his life wasted away for some unknown reason and just died? NONE. Some memories of women dying in child birth. That was about it.
By the time I was 25 years old I knew numerous people with MS. Cancer was commonplace (almost 30 years ago). Heart disease (processed foods and sugar) common place to the tune of my mother and father.
So yes, there are times that I can think of that would have been better to live health-wise. Perhaps not if I had gotten a 12" laceration in my leg that would have killed me due to an untreatable infection, but without a doubt there are surely times when people were just as healthy if not healthier than they are today with regards to longevity and they were not saddled with the manufactured illnesses that are a part of daily life now due to chemicals and pharma in our food and water.
Do yourself a favor and go see the movie Dark Waters that documents a trivial case in scope of corporate chemical contamination of a population and then when it was found they transported their business to the rest of the world so now 99% of the population of the planet has this petro chemical in their body. All in the drive of profit.
So yes, I can think of times when it may have been better to live. Though if you have great insurance, and dont mind spending a ton of your life and elder years in the doctors office or hospital, this is most definitely a good time to live. (espescially for those profiting from your long term care).
Last edited by Mark Bolton; 02-08-2020 at 8:14 PM.
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I remember seeing people on quiz- stunt shows who wanted to win an iron lung. Last time I heard any mention of those
devices was a news item about there being only a couple of people useing them.
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Well that's a rational, albeit uncommon response.
You definitely have the right to decline any medication or any medical care at any time.
Make sure you sign healthcare advance directives to this effect and make sure your loved ones have a copy so if you collapse or end up in an accident, your refusal of medical care will be documented.
As long as the advance directives are brought to the attention of the medical providers, it cuts them off from doing anything that might help you.
I believe you can also get a Medic Alert type bracelet that alerts paramedics or any health care providers that advance directives exist. As long as your instructions can be made known, the most they can do is stand there and watch you die.
In the absence of this, they are obligated to take all interventions that at the very least meet the standard of care in your state.
Last edited by Edwin Santos; 02-08-2020 at 9:53 PM.
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