My girlfriend has MS. So far, she's had at least 2 flare-ups since being diagnosed in January. One included partial blindness and the loss of sensation in almost the entire left side of her body. She also gets 3 injections a week. They cause her to bruise like crazy and have panic attacks because she hates needles. Should I expect her to join the military and cry all day about how I'm better than her because I'm not sick?

tl;dr do you have a point, or am I going to skip it along with your next post?

How nice of you to interject with zero context while insinuating that I somehow want your girlfriend (who has MS no less) to join the military.

You are an idiot.

yep, lots of conflicts of interest. which is why it's harder than ever to get new drugs approved, because advanced modern statistical testing almost always proves that new drugs do absolutely nothing (just like homeopathy, acupuncture and herbal tinctures.)

?

Patents on drugs is why they are hard to approve. Whoever gets that patent also gets the rights to sell and make millions... so they better hope side effects aren't death.

um. no.

you can patent anything you want at no cost to yourself (other than the cost of applying for the patent.)

In order to sell drugs for human consumption they must be tested by the FDA to show a statistically significant effect in a double-blind trial relative to a placebo.

Which is why the latest "Cures Cancer" breakthrough isn't immediately out for public use, even if it seems like it works and has no ill effects. Gotta be sure.

ugh. The independent scrutiny and private investments to prove the drugs as safe in the eyes of the FDA is what has lead to having "patents" to protect all the work they spent in finding a cure to whatever ailment it claims to help. Even though you make it sound easy, it's not and the companies often have to resort to using isolated findings that are cherry picked to present to the FDA.

Yes. Testing a new drug takes years and can cost millions or billions of dollars. A pharmaceutical company might have gone through dozens or hundreds of attempts for every one success.

As opposed to how pharmaceutical companies operated without the FDA: literally selling snake oil and curing cancerous lesions with alum.

Actually... considering your opinions about medicine, you'd probably like it just fine.

But that's your game, isn't it: to build an army of superhuman soldiers who are so hardcore that their autoimmune system is eating them from the inside out so they obviously cannot be affected by any sort of biological warfare? I can see right through you.

No but this staunch regulation in the industry has created left and right limits for modern medicine that seems to be motivated only by money and no longer improving the actual health of its people.

It sucks but if the Government actually started taxing fast food the way it does cigarettes than I think we as a nation would be better off. It sucks but I think we are realizing that normal people can't help themselves from becoming obese.

Except that your statement could only really be used to apply to Americans. The USA is the epitome of Consummerism, yet the same things that are available in the USA are available to pretty much every other civilized country in the world. Yet, America remains the one of the most extremely obese modern societies. It's also one of the must unhealthy countries in the world. For an example, see what's called the French Paradox.

Basically, over years of observation scientists noticed that French people are relatively a lot healthier than Americans, while at the same time they have diets that are relatively similar to Americans, and in a lot of cases, they consume a much higher amount of Saturated Fat's and Calories as well. Yet, they remain a thinner overall country, and in extremely healthy condition compared to Americans. There is a plethora of information on the internet for you to sit and research and quite a few theories to explain it.

Taxing it won't do anything. People will *****, that's about it. It's the same as when your gas skyrocketed... Nobody really did anything but complain and ***** and moan. If people want something, or want to do something, they are going to do it. Regardless of the consequences. Smoking, and eating fatty foods included.

Humans are a race built on instant gratification, and these things provide us with that. It's no wonder a lot of us can't resist McDonalds fries or Dairy Queen's Blizzard's.

Plus, Popeyes chicken is ****ING AWESOME.

That pretty much sums up about every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night for College students.

Egh, if you've been around as long as you claim to have been, then you should know by now that this community is mostly composed of people who revel in their own ideals and shun opposing thoughts. It's one thing to think someone's ideas are stupid, and another to say them.

Still riding that 'internet is a free pass to be an ass' horse from the 90s.

So what though? There's still some fun conversations once in a while. You're still here OP, so apparently YOU can't leave either. I know, I know... we have your soul and so you're eternally bound. It was in the contract when you signed up.

Being without a soul for so long makes massassians cranky...

Now accept what I have said and believe nothing else.

I know we do have a problem with obesity, particularly compared with the rest of the world, but I do always get a little annoyed when people make it out to seem like all Americans are grossly unhealthy and obese. Sure, you get a lot of obesity in the midwest and a lot of more rural and suburban areas, and maybe it's just because I don't see quite as much of in it my area, but I would say, without any real evidence, that it's the same everywhere. You get larger people in less urban areas and smaller people in your big cities, because you have to walk a lot more. The differences just seem to be more extreme over here. I would argue, again, without any real evidence, to feel free to flame me for this, that obesity and its related health issues are less of a problem overseas because people seem to walk a lot more abroad. (granted, I could just be using my own experience as a basis, in which case of course I walked more - I didn't have a car there. And, once again, I tended to be more in cities)

Of course we don't eat right either, and Temperamental, yes the French eat more in terms of calories and saturated fat, but I think eating more bread and cheese (stereotypes yay! I just mean they take those calories in with *real* food) is different than grabbing fast food 4 times a week on your lunch break. I think that's the other problem a lot of Americans run into. We're a very fast-paced society and employers don't value the "lunch break" very highly.

Anyway, I'm not sure why it annoys me, because it is a problem in America, but it does. We're not all obese. That's my little rant.

Also, while I wrote my thesis on how evil big-pharma companies don't care about patients and only care about making money, I think a distinction needs to be made between very distinct groups that fall under the umbrella of our healthcare industry:

R&D for pharmaceutical companies
upper management, also for those companies
The FDA
Doctors
Pharmacies
Insurance

While I would argue that, as a rule, upper level management and insurance care very little for individual patients (my thesis was on the marketing activities of big-pharma) I don't think we can say the same for everyone else involved. This is in regards to SoldierSnoop and nothing specific he said, but I got the impression that you were trying to say no one in health care cares about patients anymore. You're right, management level pharma companies essentially are trying to expand their consumer base in any way possible, but they're just one player in the field. You can't say that no one in the health care industry cares about patients anymore.

It actually isn't a stereotype, or rather, I was not pointing one out or alluding to one. One third of the US is considered Obese, and a large majority approacing or within a range of it. French eat more than bread and cheese, including a large amount of saturated fat induced foods. They just don't eat processed crap, most of their food is naturally sourced. But that's just one factor of many. Hell, they've even found that mummies from ancient egypt displayed signs of Heart Disease and clogged arteries. Those people worked like dogs, and I doubt they went to Mcdonalds afterwards. Imagine the lunch breaks they got?

The whole "lunch break" thing is a cop out. Your lunch consists of either an hour of your day or a half hour depending on your job. What about the remainder of your days? Dinner? Ordering in take out for that? Not going to the gym because you "don't have enough time", are all factors. Not just having a limited lunch.

Regardless of having a quick lunch or not, you can often find time to get meals throughout your day that are healthy and keep you going. Try taking an apple for a bathroom break, or grab a quick bowl of salad or some bread with peanut butter on it while you're in between tasks. There is always time that comes up somewhere in your day for that. Most people would rather just go hungry and wait until dinner to order in a huge bucket of chicken.

It's just an easy, tasty excuse.

don't call me a dick you ***hole

You are what you eat.

For the first point, I think we're arguing the same point - they eat a lot of calories and saturated fats, just not as much processed, which is exactly what I was trying to say.

As regards to the rest - of course you can't blame the entire obesity problem on fast lunch breaks. I never meant to say that you can, though I would say it's a factor - just one of many. And of course it's possible to fit healthy eating into your schedule, no matter how hectic. It's just often quicker and easier not to. Is it a good excuse? Of course not. Should America have such a big obesity problem? (pun intended) No! No one's helpless, we all know how bad the food we chose to eat is, and anyone can exercise on their own time. I'm just saying living in an area where you walk more than you drive takes care of some of the problem. I'm saying, just like you are, that because the French usually get their caloric and fat intake from real food, not processed crap, they don't have the same problem.

I like how dick isn't censored but ass is.
Assdick.
E: Oh wait it isn't, what.

We are talking about the exact same thing on both points. I just misread your original post and didn't bother to re-edit and erase the post I made and put all that hard work into.

In that case: GO TEAM!

oh man... this thread is great!

Can I just say that after I wrote the post about processed food, I went and reheated some of my leftover Chinese food

How did this go from dicks to food?

well it's still about things snoop puts in his mouth

People started having civil arguments. Nice.

....
...


..Tag team?

is this thread gayer than the navy yet?

Wow, there's a whole series of 'insane Hawaiian' videos.

No, it's the selfless concern for others. Doctors don't have to be altruistic and getting a degree in medicine or biology has nothing to do with altruism.


A suggestion. Because, god damn you need it.


Cite a damn source already instead of talking out of your ass. Show me how any of those "toxins" are measured to be in significant quantities in people's bodies, how they do damage if they are, and how blood flow removes them. Oh, and how about some proof that any of the areas you mentioned have insufficient blood flow to remove said toxins. And where do they go? That you could talk about toxicology without mentioning the liver is pretty frightening.

This thread is gayer than the Air Force bending the Navy over the kitchen table.

In fact, given how competitive med school is, altruism is probably a disadvantage for doctors.