theDoctor said...
diet and modern medicine are the two biggest killers in western civilisation

Well so long as you stick to your guns next time you fall ill or get injured, then kudos to you.

Me, I'll be straight off to the doctor.

No, this is rubbish:

theDoctor said...
people clean themselves and their surrounds more and the birth rate is higher now and the rates of infant mortality and women dying during childbirth are lower, so statistically thats why we live longer.

diet and modern medicine are the two biggest killers in western civilisation

Agree on sanitation. Previously little bothered with during many periods of history until modern medical science discovered that cleanliness was important and why. Then societies started cleaning up.

Agree that overeating (aka obesity) is probably the single largest problem in the developed world. We now have so much food available that people eating too much is causing them health issues. This wasn't the case when people were living on a potato a day.

Lower infant mortality... do you imagine that just happened by accident? Don't think so. Advances in medicine reduced disease in both mother and infant and gave us the means to repair many forms of damage to both. Birth rates have reduced in the western world to a point where the population in many developed countries is reducing. This is mostly attributed to better education.

The numbers are pretty clear. Middle ages you'd be considered an old man at 40 and probably wouldn't make it to 50. There was a time not so long ago when you'd retire at 65 and be lucky to make it to 70. The average life expectancy in Australia is now up around 72 and increasing. It's even longer in some other countries. That not just because we wash our hands.

Of course, if you don't want to believe them, then feel free to ignore the facts as usual. Sure go ahead, ignore hundreds of years of improvements. Obviously eating some crap that a snake oil merchant tells you're is "plankton" is a far better way to go. Go ahead, it's your funeral.

it is a fact that diet and prescription medicine are the largest killers in western civilisation.

theDoctor said...

it is a fact that diet and prescription medicine are the largest killers in western civilisation.

Not a fan pain killers then? You must be pretty tough not taking them with your broken arm.
(Do antibiotics count as prescription medicine?)

japie.......Only an ardent population reduction freak would argue against immunisation etc. but that is hardly modern medicine.

that is on the assumption that vaccines prevent disease.

in the australian documentary Vaccines The Hidden Truth doctors and research scientists show this clearly not to be the case.

mercury [thimerosal],acetone,lead,formaldehyde and aluminium are some of the ingredients mentioned in this doc.

reported in the january 19th 2010 international express newspaper...''up to 200 hundred doctors,nurses,police officers,forensic scientists and binman say they have devolped serious physical and mental health problems after injections essential for their work over the past 10 years. all have given up their jobs and some are now 60 percent disabled.

in one case Steve Robinson , a previously fit 43 year-old father of three, was vaccinated six years ago against hepatitis A and B, polio,tetanus and diphtheria as part of his work as a forensic specialist.

two days later he became ill and devolped muscle weakness and chronic fatigue. Mr Robinson, from morpeth,nothumberland, is now 60 percent disabled, which an industrial tribunal put down to the vaccinations.

he has also been diagnosed with macrophagic myofascitis, a disabling condition which may be caused by the aluminium in vaccines.''

theDoctor said...

ok then, define modern medicine....

Modern medicine subsumes anything that has been scientifically proven to work.
Alternative medicine is mostly voodoo and hocus pocus. If it isn't it's included in mainstream practice so its not alternative any more.

Modern medicine is dangerous due to errors of many kinds but the fundamentals of modern medical practice are so far ahead that there is no reasonable alternative.

However the statistics on death and disability caused by medical errors are frightening. If memory serves, a survey by Adelaide Uni in the 90s found that deaths due to medical errors were ten time the road toll.

Maxm,

You know that that was a facile answer. It was worthwhile reading and you took some time over it but you expose yourself pretty badly.

Knock something that cannot be proved but in the case of salmon farming you only show ignorance in your reply.

Salmon and trout farming is more destructive than battery chickens, both to the environment and the end user.

This is a multi billion dollar business that took off in the north sea in Norways fjords. I studied fishery management at the Hampshire College of Agriculture and specialised in trout and salmon propagation. It aint' good mate.

A conspiracy theory? Nah mate no conspiracy. Just the usual old collusion of invested money.

Do a little research into Ewos and tell me how much Oil Money is invested in fish food. You will need to go through Belgium in the Euro Parliament!

That's alright mate. Someone has to have a **** stir. It you don't it goes all crusty on top and putrid beneath.