Obama re-elected to grow our national pie, not just re-divide it

[SK in CV]

[quote=AN]BG, you really don’t get it do you. It’s not about this one study. It about the advancement of medicine in recent years. If you fails to see that, well, then there’s no point in debating further.[/quote]

Do you think there’s been some sudden lunge forward in life saving medical procedures and medicines over the last decade? There hasn’t. These sorts of medical advancements have been going on for century. Many of them have saved or extended millions of lives. BG and I were around when when everyone went to schools or community centers to get polio vaccine boosters. Those vaccines saved literally hundreds of thousands of lives. And I have no doubt that trend in medicine will continue. But it is far from a sudden explosion of cures.

If I remember correctly, the origin of this discussion is related to raising the SS retirement age. That might work just fine for the well educated and the rich. The problem is, that the under-educated and those with lower economic means aren’t living any longer today than they were 20 years ago. Not much longer than they were 50 years ago.

The rich and well educated get the benefits of these new treatments. Everyone else, not so much.

[spdrun]

Bearishgurl is right (as she often is) — type II diabetes has the pancreas working fine, but the body is unable to respond to insulin. Often caused by obesity and possibly by exposure to chemicals/toxins in what passes for “food” these days.

[an]

[quote=SK in CV]Do you think there’s been some sudden lunge forward in life saving medical procedures and medicines over the last decade? There hasn’t. These sorts of medical advancements have been going on for century. Many of them have saved or extended millions of lives. BG and I were around when when everyone went to schools or community centers to get polio vaccine boosters. Those vaccines saved literally hundreds of thousands of lives. And I have no doubt that trend in medicine will continue. But it is far from a sudden explosion of cures.

If I remember correctly, the origin of this discussion is related to raising the SS retirement age. That might work just fine for the well educated and the rich. The problem is, that the under-educated and those with lower economic means aren’t living any longer today than they were 20 years ago. Not much longer than they were 50 years ago.

The rich and well educated get the benefits of these new treatments. Everyone else, not so much.[/quote]
I see life saving medical advancement going to be on similar trajectory as technology. Yes, there have always been advancement. But I feel like we’ll see a parabolic increase in advancement in the next 20 years. Only time will tell, but I believe we’ll be able to live much longer than our parents. Only time will tell, but these kind of advancements that I’m posting seems to be coming fast and furious compare to the past. You mentioned Polio vacine. Today, we have medicine that will keep people alive with AIDS. That have saved millions of people. I don’t have the data, but I would love to see a comparison the quantity of medical advancement 20-30 years ago vs now. My gut is telling me it’s much more today.

[spdrun]

Life expectancy with HIV is still a few decades below non-infected people, even with the best of treatments. Part of the problem is that the drugs eventually kill the patient. Hopefully, there will be advances in immunotherapy that will “train” the body to fight things like AIDS and cancer on its own — basically figure out why some people already spontaneously recover.

[SK in CV]

[quote=AN]I see life saving medical advancement going to be on similar trajectory as technology. Yes, there have always been advancement. But I feel like we’ll see a parabolic increase in advancement in the next 20 years. Only time will tell, but I believe we’ll be able to live much longer than our parents. Only time will tell, but these kind of advancements that I’m posting seems to be coming fast and furious compare to the past. You mentioned Polio vacine. Today, we have medicine that will keep people alive with AIDS. That have saved millions of people. I don’t have the data, but I would love to see a comparison the quantity of medical advancement 20-30 years ago vs now. My gut is telling me it’s much more today.[/quote]

Obviously, what you believe has no bearing on actual facts. They don’t change based on what you believe.

The AIDS epidemic began just over 30 years ago. Successful treatment began 10 years later. Back when us old folks were born, most all cancers always killed. They don’t now. Mortality rates for prostate cancer, breast cancer, even blood cancers have declined dramatically. The parabolic increase in advancement happened 50 years ago. Might there be another one? Sure. It hasn’t begun yet.

[an]

[quote=SK in CV][quote=AN]I see life saving medical advancement going to be on similar trajectory as technology. Yes, there have always been advancement. But I feel like we’ll see a parabolic increase in advancement in the next 20 years. Only time will tell, but I believe we’ll be able to live much longer than our parents. Only time will tell, but these kind of advancements that I’m posting seems to be coming fast and furious compare to the past. You mentioned Polio vacine. Today, we have medicine that will keep people alive with AIDS. That have saved millions of people. I don’t have the data, but I would love to see a comparison the quantity of medical advancement 20-30 years ago vs now. My gut is telling me it’s much more today.[/quote]

Obviously, what you believe has no bearing on actual facts. They don’t change based on what you believe.

The AIDS epidemic began just over 30 years ago. Successful treatment began 10 years later. Back when us old folks were born, most all cancers always killed. They don’t now. Mortality rates for prostate cancer, breast cancer, even blood cancers have declined dramatically. The parabolic increase in advancement happened 50 years ago. Might there be another one? Sure. It hasn’t begun yet.[/quote]
There is no actual facts because we’re talking about the future. The fact doesn’t exist so how can it change?

Successful AIDS treatment began 20 years ago but isn’t it much cheaper and more readily available today? The parabolic increase happened 50 years ago, sure, but do you have proof we’ve dropped off that parabolic curve?

[swave]

One of the reasons that mortality rates for cancer has declined dramatically is that many more cancers are diagnosed today that wouldn’t have been diagnosed 40 years ago. Many of those cancers would have gone away on their own.
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1206809
The best way to improve health and reduce health care expenses is to eat right and exercise.
In the not too distant future, stem cells will be used to replace anything that breaks and genomics may be used to better target diseases with the right treatment.

[an]

[quote=swave]In the not too distant future, stem cells will be used to replace anything that breaks and genomics may be used to better target diseases with the right treatment.[/quote]This is the kind of exponential grown that I’m thinking about. Once we reach that holy grail, everything can be replaced. Then there’s nano-tech. Send in nano robots to go kill cancer/tumor cells. So, with stem cells, genom, nano-tech, and obamacare (or single payer system), we’ll see people living for a very very long time. I’m betting all of this will reach full fruition in my life time.

[spdrun]

Nano-robots are still a blunt axe. Ideal would be to use the immune system itself to kill cancer. We have cancer cells in us all the time. Lack of immune recognition of the same allows them to grow out of control.

If you’re interested, read about spontaneous remissions due to another (often viral) illness that makes the immune system hyper-vigilant.

[swave]

These advancements are unlikely to reduce the cost of medical care. Just make the lives of people who can afford it too long and make the earth too crowded.

[Author]

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