I Am Legend Scenario in actual life

[mason]

I wouldn't be surprised if this "cure" just fades into the darkness in a few years. I recently saw a talk by a biologist who stated that cancer should be thought of as a cure rather than a disease.

Here was her reasoning:
Cancers usually show up in areas of your body that has been damaged. example: smoking too much causes lung damage so you get lung cancer. Since your cells are dieing in that area, your body's natural response is to make more cells to replace the damaged ones. In doing so, cancer is activated to speed the production of cells. But since our bodies can't turn off this mass production, we get sick from it. And this sets off a whole new field of research for this biologist which will probably take her entire life to complete. Hopefully she does find an answer. Seems very interesting to me.

 

[turbolapp]

So, in otherwords, we should be throwing alot more money into prevention.

 

[LazyHippy]

Gattica from what i remember kinda like brave new world and was good.

Sounds kinda similar... just d/ling now.

Turbo' .. I doubt the pharma companies would be too happy with that. :error:

 

[turbolapp]

true dat

 

[LazyHippy]

true dat

While they pull the strings in Washington (and elsewhere around the world), no serious money is going to be put into reducing the illnesses that keep them printing dollars.

Hell, I'm sure many would argue that it's not society/government that should be spending cash improving people's health, but it should be left to the insurance and drug companies... who have a vested interest in people being sick.

Going off on another tangent, I read recently that the Clinton regime threatened sanctions against poor African nations that produced generic AIDS drugs :repuke:, yet tax breaks are given to Catholic charities working in Africa, spreading the Word of the Lord about the evils of condoms.

 

[wrstroud]

LazyHippy, I think the root of the problem with the pharmaceutical companies, in addition to the vast amounts of wealth associated with the business, lies with how we have grown as a society. When someone becomes obese because they can't control their appetite they get prescribed an appetite suppressant. When little johnny won't obey the teacher because of a lack of proper parenting, he gets prescribed adderall to control the hyperactivity. When fat debbie can't put down her big mac, she gets prescribed meds to control cholesterol. The list goes on with antidepressants, etc.

Of course there are legitimate circumstances to use these drugs and when used correctly they are very helpful. Oftentimes the cure to many of the above illnesses is some good exercise and relaxation. The problem is, popping a pill and sitting on the couch to watch Fox news propaganda is much easier for many Americans. So this creates a perfect market for the companies to exploit.

 

[turbolapp]

While they pull the strings in Washington (and elsewhere around the world), no serious money is going to be put into reducing the illnesses that keep them printing dollars.

Hell, I'm sure many would argue that it's not society/government that should be spending cash improving people's health, but it should be left to the insurance and drug companies... who have a vested interest in people being sick.

Going off on another tangent, I read recently that the Clinton regime threatened sanctions against poor African nations that produced generic AIDS drugs :repuke:, yet tax breaks are given to Catholic charities working in Africa, spreading the Word of the Lord about the evils of condoms.

You're preaching to the choir here. I was brought up by a mom who belives the FDA is EVIL and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Unfortunately she also tends to be fanatical (she happens to be an Evangelical christian/doomsday born again too) so anytime they come out with an alternative medicine that can "cure" anything it is GOD (ironic huh?) She has a product called "ambertose" that she thinks will cure anything. Even Downs Syndrome. It reminds me of the Dad on My Big Fat Greek Wedding who sprays windex on everything because it will make everything better. Anyways I digress. I question the FDA but I still think it's a necessary evil. I just wish they had an equivalent for alternative medicine. I really wish there were some really good double blind studies to support this stuff and likewise it would be nice to have an organization to monitor the quacky stuff. But of course we never will because there is no money to be made from the alternative medicine since there is no large corporation that can patten all this stuff that's been around for hundreds or thousands of years.

 

[HarveyJ]

It's really interesting to look at a comparison between a country like America, where the markets really do control social policy, and countries that still (to some extent) have social restraints controlling the market.
By & large, Australia doesn't have a problem with over prescriptions of medications. In fact, anything that requires a prescription cannot legally advertise here. Companies can advertise the symptoms, and say "hey check out our website and call our number", but they're not allowed to mention their own names or any medications... So all those ads come off seeming as genuine as emails about C!4L1S...
And whilst our obesity rates are skyrocketing like those in the US, the average level of health is still substantially better, as we also have the healthy people that even out the figures... I get this creepy future vision of everyone being either UltraBuff, or ambulatory blobs heheh

LazyHippy: Try Terry Gilliam's Brazil. Pretty old now, but the FX in it are so good it still looks alright.

 

[LazyHippy]

It's really interesting to look at a comparison between a country like America, where the markets really do control social policy, and countries that still (to some extent) have social restraints controlling the market.
By & large, Australia doesn't have a problem with over prescriptions of medications. In fact, anything that requires a prescription cannot legally advertise here. Companies can advertise the symptoms, and say "hey check out our website and call our number", but they're not allowed to mention their own names or any medications... So all those ads come off seeming as genuine as emails about C!4L1S...
And whilst our obesity rates are skyrocketing like those in the US, the average level of health is still substantially better, as we also have the healthy people that even out the figures... I get this creepy future vision of everyone being either UltraBuff, or ambulatory blobs heheh

LazyHippy: Try Terry Gilliam's Brazil. Pretty old now, but the FX in it are so good it still looks alright.

I agree... and love that Film! (1984 meets Monty Python?!)

Watched Aeon Flux last night... kinda reminded me of this thread too.

 

[bam bam]

Man I loved Aeon Flux.

Damn good film.

 

[HarveyJ]

Aeon Flux the film, or the much much much better MTV cartoon series?
Cause compared to the cartoon, that was an amazingly woeful film... Great visuals, but total let down in the "WTF Factor" and story.