4 ms·

Leaving sex out of the equation was an unfortunate oversight. STDs cause a lot of grief and arguably as much or more damage than diet. AIDS speaks for itself;

Leaving sex out of the equation was an unfortunate oversight. STDs cause a lot of grief and arguably as much or more damage than diet. AIDS speaks for itself; herpes is implicated in Alzheimer's, heart disease and other ailments and is just a general curse without the modern antivirals (although many persons are naturally immune); gonorrhea and syphilis continue to mutate to new drug-resistant forms.

vzidex 7y ago
You can have sex without getting STDs - either by sticking with one/few monogamous relationships, or just using protection. On the other hand, sex has been found to have lots of benefits (I'm at work so I don't want to be looking up citations, but intuitively a few minutes of cardio can't be a bad thing).
- Bartweiss 7y ago
  "You can have sex without getting STDs" also means it's a pain to study. Almost all mortality is statistical - you can smoke your whole life without getting lung cancer - but STDs are an even more random risk factor. There's no cumulative damage across events, detection and treatment are massively influential, and different populations have completely different risk profiles. These findings are backed by two cohort studies, one on female nurses in the UK and one on male health professionals in the US. There's really not much chance their STD outcomes correspond to the general population.
gowld 7y ago
Also celibacy causes a lot of unhealthy stress and unbalanced hormones.
newnewpdro 7y ago
Not to mention having children, which if my experience is any indication is the #1 reason parents use for being overweight and unfit, not having time and/or energy to properly care for themselves now that they have kids.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- mrr54 7y ago
  Ironically the best way to care for their kids is to set a good example by eating and living healthily. When was the last time you saw healthy parents with an obese child or obese parents with a healthy child vs. how often you see healthy parents with healthy children and obese parents with obese children?
  - smallcharleston 7y ago
    My mom was in extremely good shape with obese children. She was a homemaker who did hours of exercise everyday. As such she could basically eat potato chips and donuts and stay in great shape. For people who had to do things like study or work, it didn’t work out.
    - mrr54 7y ago
      'Obese' implies 'unhealthy' but 'not obese' doesn't imply 'healthy'.
reaperducer 7y ago
Leaving sex out of the equation was an unfortunate oversight. Maybe it's covered under "vigorous exercise?"
astura 7y ago
>AIDS speaks for itself HIV does not significantly reduce life expectancy for patients who consistently take retroviral therapy. https://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20170510/life-expectancy-with-hiv-nears-normal-with-treatment https://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20170510/life-expectancy...
Bartweiss 7y ago
It is an unfortunate drawback, but I don't think it's an oversight. This data comes from cohort studies on nurses and other healthcare workers, so it wouldn't generalize well at all. We can assume eating veggies and smoking cigarettes affect them similarly to other people. They might be more likely to recognize problems and seek treatment, but they're not actually getting more or less nutrition out of kale. When it comes to sex though, doctors and nurses are likely to have very different risk factors than the population average, in ways that are hard to rigorously study. Even beyond using protection or getting tested, they probably don't have the same protection error rates, partner pools, etc., as the general public.

vzidex 7y ago

You can have sex without getting STDs - either by sticking with one/few monogamous relationships, or just using protection. On the other hand, sex has been found to have lots of benefits (I'm at work so I don't want to be looking up citations, but intuitively a few minutes of cardio can't be a bad thing).

Bartweiss 7y ago
"You can have sex without getting STDs" also means it's a pain to study. Almost all mortality is statistical - you can smoke your whole life without getting lung cancer - but STDs are an even more random risk factor. There's no cumulative damage across events, detection and treatment are massively influential, and different populations have completely different risk profiles. These findings are backed by two cohort studies, one on female nurses in the UK and one on male health professionals in the US. There's really not much chance their STD outcomes correspond to the general population.

gowld 7y ago

Also celibacy causes a lot of unhealthy stress and unbalanced hormones.

newnewpdro 7y ago

Not to mention having children, which if my experience is any indication is the #1 reason parents use for being overweight and unfit, not having time and/or energy to properly care for themselves now that they have kids.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
mrr54 7y ago
Ironically the best way to care for their kids is to set a good example by eating and living healthily. When was the last time you saw healthy parents with an obese child or obese parents with a healthy child vs. how often you see healthy parents with healthy children and obese parents with obese children?
- smallcharleston 7y ago
  My mom was in extremely good shape with obese children. She was a homemaker who did hours of exercise everyday. As such she could basically eat potato chips and donuts and stay in great shape. For people who had to do things like study or work, it didn’t work out.
  - mrr54 7y ago
    'Obese' implies 'unhealthy' but 'not obese' doesn't imply 'healthy'.

reaperducer 7y ago

Leaving sex out of the equation was an unfortunate oversight. Maybe it's covered under "vigorous exercise?"

astura 7y ago

>AIDS speaks for itself HIV does not significantly reduce life expectancy for patients who consistently take retroviral therapy. https://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20170510/life-expectancy-with-hiv-nears-normal-with-treatment https://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20170510/life-expectancy...

Bartweiss 7y ago

It is an unfortunate drawback, but I don't think it's an oversight. This data comes from cohort studies on nurses and other healthcare workers, so it wouldn't generalize well at all. We can assume eating veggies and smoking cigarettes affect them similarly to other people. They might be more likely to recognize problems and seek treatment, but they're not actually getting more or less nutrition out of kale. When it comes to sex though, doctors and nurses are likely to have very different risk factors than the population average, in ways that are hard to rigorously study. Even beyond using protection or getting tested, they probably don't have the same protection error rates, partner pools, etc., as the general public.