The worst disease ever in human history

denverdoc

While NIDA may have influenced this official recognition, alcoholism, has long been considered a disease in many quarters and research based on this assumption has produced some very interesting findings, not the least of which that it is subject to greater genetic influence than say, most cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Addiction is one of the few illnesses I know of where victims are so often incapable of seeling and/or using treatment to their advantage. Certainly, not the only one as heart disease, diabetes, obesity and many forms of psychiatric illness seem to share in common this odd inability to modify behavior for ones benefit.

In terms of the morbidity and mortality, it does rank near the top, to say nothing of lost productivity and the damage done to others, both directly (1/2 of all violent crimes inclusding homicide I believe are committed under the influence) and indirectly. Curiously the amount of money spent on treatment and resesrch pales in comparison to more glamorous diseases such as cardiovascular--when I last taught medical students on the subject, the outlays were something like 50:1 in favor of the latter.

Despite the destigmatization that has occurred over the last 20 or so years, there is still a belief, both among the general public as well as health care professionals that the illness is self-inflicted. Yet in all my years of treating addicts I have not met one who chose to become one.

gravenewworld

Smoking is still the #1 leading cause of preventable death world wide. Not obesity, not alcholism, not AIDS, not malaria, not TB, not obesity. SMOKING STILL #1.



Stupid.



The top 3 killers worldwide are

1.) heart disease
2.) stroke
3.) lung cancer.

Smoking contributes to ALL 3 of the top 3 killers worldwide.

mgb_phys

According to the WHO - top 10 causes of death:

Developed countries:
Ischaemic heart disease 3,512,000
Stroke 3,346,000
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 1,829,000
Lower respiratory infections 1,180,000
Lung cancer 938,000
Car accident 669,000
Stomach cancer 657,000
High blood pressure 635,000
Tuberculosis 571,000
Suicide 499,000


3rd world:
HIV-AIDS 2,678,000
Lower respiratory infections 2,643,000
Ischaemic heart disease 2,484,000
Diarrhea 1,793,000
Cerebrovascular disease 1,381,000
Childhood diseases 1,217,000
Malaria 1,103,000
Tuberculosis 1,021,000
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease 748,000
Measles 674,000


A bit arguable, since diarrhea is a symptom not a disease and it's a bit arbitrary how you split heart disease.
In the developed world it would seem that if you stay away from cigs, fast-food and SUVs you will be OK.
Many of these disease are newcomers or are a result of a more modern lifestyle. Evidence from the number of mutations in the genome to counter it suggests that throughout human evolution malaria has been the big one, upto a couple of hundred years ago it was still one of the biggest killers in Europe. Some estimates suggest that half of all humans who ever lived contracted it!

gravenewworld

And all of those have an extremely good chance of having smoking as their hidden cause.

henxan

What is the problem with this.. We are running into some critical overpopulation problems now, whats the problem?

gravenewworld

PREVENTABLE death. It costs everyone money when it shouldn't.

NoTime

I don't know about that obesity thing.
I read a comment in a research article that being 10lbs overweight was equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day in terms of health risk.

Last I checked the insurance companies docked you 5 years off your life expectancy.
So in terms of years of life lost it doesn't seem to be a big deal compared to something like malaria where children tend to be the victim.

gravenewworld

There are numerous sources out there that claim smoking is the #1 leading cause of preventable death in the world. You can simply search google to find a ton. Here in the US, obesity is approaching #1 status as the leading killer because Americans in general smoke less than a lot of countries in the world per capita wise. However, consider places like Japan where obesity isn't that much of a problem. Almost 2/3 of Japanese men smoke . In China it is estimated that 350 million people smoke . Smoking rates have dramatically risen in Asian countries. By 2020 WHO predicts that smoking will kill 10 million people per year world wide. Obesity is a problem among industrialized nations, however, you will find smokers EVERYWHERE. Smoking is still king when it comes to killing and will remain in the top spot for years to come.

henxan

It costs everyone a lot of money? What is this, youre a greedy bastard?

Well, firstly, I would like to point out that you have what could be misinterpreted arrogant attitude. Then what I am going to say probably will please you!

Actually Poland did a research on this subject, and wouldnt you know it, its actually good for the economy! People die earlier, ergo less expenses for treatment the elderly. This actually by a great deal outweighs the negative consequences you mentioned. Another extremely positive factor is the relative high taxes being put on tobacco sales. This depends on the individual countries, but for instance for Norway, which I come from, have put taxes in the range of several hundreds of percent on the tobacco.

Therefore, as a conclusion, there is no economic negative aspect to tobacco. If one is to state a reason for banning tobacco, it would be on a basis of telling people of how they should live their life. Like in a communistic system. Is that ok?

gravenewworld

LOL, so what is better spending tons of filthy lucre on treating PREVENTABLE DISEASES or spending all of that money on AIDS research?


So I have been told.


You know what is also good for the economy? Consuming as much as possible. I guess we should continue to consume as much as possible irregardless of the disastrous effects it may have on the environment.

Also please link to the Polish study. From what you have described the Polish study seems to have only examined costs of treating smoking illnesses vs. cost of elderly care. If you are going to talk economics then start thinking like an economist. Smoking also has costs from lost productivity. You can not simply ignore that HUGE point and must factor it in to how much smoking really economically costs.


Where did I ever mention the word 'ban' ? Get a friggin clue dude.

OmCheeto

Cars is apparently the correct answer. (In the good old USofA at least)
Most of the modern diseases affect mostly older people who would not have been alive at their age a couple of hundred years ago. So healthcare, media, and general societal hysteria might come in as a good second, third and fourth as most deadly diseases.

http://www.disastercenter.com/cdc/

Odd. The music playing in the background where I'm at is "So alive"

I always knock on wood when I hear that song.

NoTime

Lol. Preventable?
You could eliminate AIDS if everyone stopped having sex.
As an added benefit this would solve all enviromental problems in about 60 years.

You could solve the malaria problem just by moving all people out of the tropics.

PS: While I don't have any handy links I've seen other studies that indicate smokers die cheaper.

NoTime

You don't have to go back that far. IIRC the life expectancy in the USA in 1900 was 45 and probably remains in that neighborhood for a lot of the world currently.

Personally I'd pick poverty.

gravenewworld

No AIDS is still transferable from non sexual contact.



You should read this book then that was published by MIT
http://books.google.com/books?id=J4i...with-thumbnail

There are 100s of studies out there that have tried to determine the net cost of smoking to society, however, most of them only concentrate on one thing such as medical costs vs. savings in shorter lifespan while ignoring many other costs attributed with smoking like lost productivity.

In that book Sloan (Duke Economist) conducted one of the most recent and comprehensive studies of the net cost of smoking and concludes that even if you factor in the shorter lifespans of smokers, smoking still places an economic burden on the rest of society.


Sure smokers pay cigarette taxes, but they earn less over their lifetime (because of the more time they need off etc.) thus leading to less taxes paid into things like income taxes.

Read the book.


Even though Malaria in the US is rare (and considered to be eradicated in the US) there are still reported cases of Malaria infections from people who didn't even travel outside of the US.

http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/features/surveillance.htm

Also moving 4 billion people from tropical climates or sub saharan Africa in order to avoid malaria IS NOT REALISTIC.

ZapperZ

In case people have forgotten, please click on the link to PF Guidelines. You are also welcome to use the REPORT button if you believe a post is out of line. If you choose to IGNORE all that, then a bunch of you will be forced to go find a life elsewhere away from PF.

Zz.

jim mcnamara

Zz has it exactly. You guys are arguing ad hominem - not critiquing data or data gathering procedures. That is a fast path to getting a horizontal line thru your username.

henxan

Yeah, I see that I went a bit over the border there.. Well, now I know where the limit is set, and Ill try to refrain from passing it in the future :)..