First off: I am an intelligent and healthy person. My father is in pharmaceuticals and biotech and I ask many questions, so I would say that my understanding of medicine/health trends is a little higher than average, but . . . . . . Today I overheard a woman in my place of working telling another woman (loudly i was not eaves dropping) that she was so proud: Her daughter was growing up and becoming a woman. . . and so young too. Only 9 years old and she got her first period. How wonderful. This surprised and angered me enough to tell the woman: Among any number of things that could be wrong, hormonally or other wise with her daughter, that her age alone rockets the girl up to something like a 70% chance of having to battle cervical cancer. Also, that many cases of menstration at young ages are caused by sexual contact or abuse, or are a symptom of a things like severe kidney or liver issues, rather than actual menstration. I may have over reacted to this, but it is an issue close to home for me: I have 3 young children who I worry about (cause thats what parents do), and I have to constantly battle ignorance about health issues for them. Examples: there is breakfast offered every morning at my oldest daughters school. It is healthy because it contains fiber, whole grains and calcium. It is chocolate milk and fruit loops. Mashed potatoes are the only vegetable that should be served at a meal. Even loaded with I cant believe it's not butter and sour cream. Yes, they are techincally a vegetable, but you get the idea Diet soda is a better alternative. Soda in general should accompany every meal. Real Butter and whole milk have too much fact to be healthy. I've only had one small heart attack, I can still enjoy most of my eating habits and drinking beer all weekend. I have anxiety and depression, put me on a seritonin inhibitor or re-uptake inhibitor immediately. (not a issue for people that really need it, but a look at how many people are on these drugs and do not need it or just convince themselves they need it) Any of these sound or seem familiar? I have trained all sorts of people from athletes who want to get better to fat single mothers of 3 who want to get skinny enough to attract a man. I spend much of my free time learning more about what is going on in health related research and putting the time into analyzing certain ideas. Like that of the diet soda vs. regular soda. I've listened to all sorts of plans, people, ideas. In all my experience, I find people today have so little actual knowledge on the subject of health as a whole, meaning in and throughout life, that it is almost scary. Or maybe I just completely over-reacted to some woman's ignorant pride in her daughter.
Hopefully the girl has or will have the HPV shot. Otherwise, settle down a hair. This is America, and people will live like **** if they want to. Our system will take care of them
It's not the living like **** that bothers me though. It is the lack of understanding they have towards their bodies. they have no idea how things work within themselves. that is scary. like people who starve to be skinny or who are that "fat" kind of skinny, where their internal fat is a serious health risk, but they don't look like they're out of shape.
I completely agree about so many people being oblivious about their health and how they live. This nation is so set on convenience it's a joke. Then people turn around and wanna pop a pill and become skinny. I don't really have a comment about the lady being excited about her daughter having her period aside from thinking that's a weird thing to brag about in the first place. It kinda makes me wonder if my dad went to work and told his friends when I got my first boner. I really wanna know the rest of the story though. What did the lady say? I feel like there's gotta be a funny ending to this story lol!
I doubt it lol. Ive done body comp tests on say a 130lbs 5'7" girl that came back 30-35-%. If you saw her in clothes, you'd think "normal girl" in a sports bra and shorts: you can see there is no muscle definition of any sort, so basically internal organ lining fat. this = health issues.
She started to get angry, but the woman she was talking to stopped her and said something along the lines of: "he's right". That made her get a very worried expression. Thinking about it now, I feel bad because I can only imagine that the little girl is in for some serious questions and doctor visits.
Dr. Bacon pays my paycheck man. Colin, I work in the medical industry and it amazes me the stuff that I'll see. What I've come to accept is that you can lead the horse to water, but you can't make it drink.
Let's get a large milk shake from mcdonalds--two straws, roll up the windows in my car, and pass gas together.
Uh, settle down. I'm pretty sure that mankind has been ok for the past 10+ thousand years because we didn't know everything. In fact, health science is a nice cause to our world overpopulation and will ultimately kill social security as well. Thanks a lot.
^^^ An interesting, and even valid, point. And for most of that 10k+ years I might argue that human beings have not had a better handle on cause-and-effect in relation to their health for pretty valid reasons like the preeminence of survival, superstitious beliefs, and a lack of "scientific reasoning." But that is mostly neither here nor there. What we DO have now is the medical science you mentioned and access to reasonable thinking and education. Honestly, I think the latter two are of much greater value for our culture right now. [I got to ranting. I moved it to the bottom in case anyone actually cares, but my point follows.] This is from Surgeon General Carmona's comments to a Senate Subcommittee March 2, 2004. Follow the link for the short statement he gave and who to, etc. "Today pediatricians are diagnosing an increasing number of children with Type 2 diabetes—which used to be known as adult-onset diabetes. Research indicates that one-third of all children born in 2000 will develop Type 2 diabetes during their lifetime. Tragically, people with Type 2 diabetes are at increased risk of developing heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and blindness. These complications are likely to appear much earlier in life for those who develop Type 2 diabetes in childhood or adolescence." "We must increase our efforts to educate and encourage Americans to take responsibility for their own health." "Kids don't automatically know how important it is to be physically active for an hour a day. They don't all know that they need five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day. That concept is part of what I'm talking about with Americans of all ages: increasing our health literacy." http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/news/testimony/childobesity03022004.htm I found that speech very scary. I mean, 1 in 3 kids turning 9 this year will be diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes in their lifetimes! On the whole it is surprising how little people actually know about the workings of their own bodies. But what else have you got?! I'll leave it at that for now. (Except for the digressive rant.) /rant picked up Cause-and-effect, right? But Americans - and I DO include myself here - have a propensity to be lazy both physically and intellectually. We believe that if there is not currently a pill or medical procedure to fix things, there soon will be. And that is because we have bought a bill of goods from those who stood to profit from it. Who needs to evaluate and make changes to their lifestyle? That is inconvenient and painful. /rant dribbled away
It isn't just Americans. The first world is moving toward more sedintary lifestyles (office work, etc) and a greater availiblity of dense calorie food.
no way there's any milk in those. more like "partially gelatinated, non-dairy, gum-based beverage" from mcdonalds.
live fast, "love" hard, and die young :cheers: I'm a firm believer in the idea that the #1 problem we face as a species is overpopulation. the more we know, and the "better" care we take of ourselves, the longer the average life span gets, and the harder life gets for all of us, farm land decreases, landfills take over, the people who hate each other get closer and closer to each other, clean water becomes scarce, etc. at this rate, it's only a matter of time before a major plague/famine drops our numbers back drastically (or worse...we make like the dinosaurs), or we find a way to leave (a la Wall.e and Firefly/Serenity). it sucks that the people that happened to be born in third world countries have to starve to death, and wonderful people die young because of curable diseases (I have had my fair share of family members both taken by and saved from similar major diseases), but it may be a sacrifice we need to make for us all to survive. not to mention the fact that modern medicine has eliminated evolution's ability to weed out the weak and stupid (again, like wall.e, "what? we can....walk.....on our......legs?). I like to think I'm doing my part by not wearing safety goggles, not using jack stands, and not having health insurance :run: wow....that was a little deep and morbid for 2am. I'll have to spend the next 10 minutes looking for something really stupid to post in the "after 2am" thread.
Heh, I've said it before and I'll say it again -- as rediculous as this sounds, AIDS may in fact be what saves mankind. :eek4:
