3 ms·
The major disease most strongly associated with a known, avoidable risk factor that I can think of is lung cancer. And Wikipedia tells me that > The vast major
by retsibsi 7y ago
The major disease most strongly associated with a known, avoidable risk factor that I can think of is lung cancer. And Wikipedia tells me that
> The vast majority (85%) of cases of lung cancer are due to long-term tobacco smoking.[4] About 10–15% of cases occur in people who have never smoked.[14] These cases are often caused by a combination of genetic factors and exposure to radon gas, asbestos, second-hand smoke, or other forms of air pollution.
So even for lung cancer, a significant minority of sufferers have never smoked. Genetic factors are obviously out of one's control, and the others mentioned can be pretty damn hard to avoid, especially if you're poor and/or born in the wrong place.
- newnewpdro 7y agoI would have gone for Atherosclerosis instead of lung cancer personally.
- retsibsi 7y ago> I would have gone for Atherosclerosis instead of lung cancer personally. Okay, but that isn't fully within anyone's control either, and you're still ignoring the diseases that are predominantly genetic, the ones that happen more or less randomly as far as we can tell, the ones caused by environmental factors in childhood, and all the people who get a 'preventable' disease despite doing what they could do avoid it. I'll stop arguing after this though, I think we're either talking past each other about the definitions of 'vast majority' and 'preventable', or having an unspoken argument about the general attitude we should adopt toward people with health problems, or at a factual impasse that we can both google our way around if we care enough.