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That number says nothing. I could imagine, for example, medications prescribed to improve health that today would not even be considered a problem. Maybe to co

That number says nothing. I could imagine, for example, medications prescribed to improve health that today would not even be considered a problem. Maybe to correct various imbalances resulting from individual genetics? Or that some medication readily available today becomes prescription over time. Or that people become more aware / better tested of their health problems as time progresses and start taking medication earlier, before their problems become acute issues. Anyway... why I think it is true is because of couple really sad factors: * People seeking comfort and less able to exercise discipline. For example, even bikes which were supposed to be healthy option today mostly have little motors built into them... * Disinformation. People seek shortcuts and there is a huge industry that exploits it that nobody really attempts to deal with. For example, dieting has been shown to not work (on its own) and yet any obese person is bombarded with information about dieting but not really any useful recipes how to deal with their problem. It does not help that most health professionals do not really know how to deal with obesity, either (for example, claiming that dietary fat is responsible for it when the opposite is true (dietary fat is necessary to help losing weight)). * Education and popular culture pushing the idea that being fat is somehow OK (no, it is not healthy and should never be accepted as a good example). People with obesity pick up on any shred of support and tend to ignore any information that will conflict with it. * Medical establishment continuing to only deal with symptoms, not causes of problems. People should seriously understand that sugar is far more dangerous and insidious than tobacco. Or that bad dietary habits is what is causing most of our health problems (including most types of cancer, heart disease, etc.) The issue here is that treating a disease is much, much, much more expensive that it would cost to prevent it (for example educate people, ensure healthy food available, provide guidelines, do medical checkups regularly, etc.)

WillPostForFood 3y ago
or birth control
- onetimeuse92304 3y ago
  Birth control is not prescription and it would be a sad world if it was.
  - civilitty 3y ago
    Condoms and morning after pills aren’t, but all oral contraceptives for women were prescription only until norgestrel was approved this year [1]. [1] https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-nonprescription-daily-oral-contraceptive https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-appr...
  - sseagull 3y ago
    If we are talking about oral contraceptives, it was prescription-only in the US until earlier this year. “On July 13, 2023 the first US daily oral nonprescription over-the-counter birth control pill was approved for manufacturer by the FDA.” (From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control)
  - lenzm 3y ago
    Dunno where you are, but it requires a prescription in the US. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/health/otc-birth-control-pill.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/health/otc-birth-control-...
MattGaiser 3y ago
I can easily see this being 80-100% of the population in a few years. The human body is not some miracle or well oiled machine. It is a poorly and erratically manufactured product done in inconsistent environments. As we learn more about our bodies, we will regularly discover things that should be fixed or optimized. I have asthma. Only in childhood did it threaten my life, but why wouldn't I want to breathe well all the time? A friend has ADHD. Sure, he can do ok without the meds, but is now a superstar with them. Birth control can eliminate all sorts of annoying fertility issues for women beyond simply not getting pregnant.
- rf15 3y ago
  On the other hand there's an entire industry around selling placebos of various shapes and sizes; and even the meds that are functional often ruin your kidneys and other organs over time. Medication, while useful in many cases, is often a double edged sword we use too liberally and irresponsibly overall.
  - chiefalchemist 3y ago
    For example, antibiotics. Over-prescribed to the point there infections / bacteria immune to them.
- onetimeuse92304 3y ago
  I have no idea what causes asthma. But I disagree on one thing, I do think human body is a miraculous, well oiled machine. It is just that we tend to misuse the machine and do things to it that were not foreseen by the manufacturer, so to speak. You void the warranty if you sit by the computer all day, move only with your car and then ensure there is something sugary in your mouth for 16 hours a day. I did have a lot of health problems which I corrected once I put enough (a lot, actually) effort into understanding and correcting them. I am not saying that all health problems can be resolved this way, but a lot of them can be solved with simple lifestyle changes. Especially if you live in a western world and have income to be free in choosing what you eat and able to have a good night of sleep and spend a part of the day in exercise.
- 3y ago
lazyasciiart 3y ago
My nephew was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 8 - I'm hoping he spends over 90% of his lifetime on prescription meds, assuming he doesn't at some point get an artificial pancreas or some future magic technology. 100 years ago that wouldn't have been imaginable for him.
ramblenode 3y ago
> For example, dieting has been shown to not work (on its own) > Or that bad dietary habits is what is causing most of our health problems I don't understand how both of these can be true at once. Or maybe you mean something more specific by "dieting"?
- InSteady 3y ago
  GP is not necessarily wrong on the overall points, but they are a little bit all over the place. Leading with e-bikes being a sign of the decline of our discipline and health kind of threw me. I wonder, have they ever tried pedal assist for 5 miles or so? It's actually spot on for the 30ish minutes of daily light to moderate exercise that is more strongly correlated with longevity than any other type of exercise (at least from what I was reading a few years back). It's actually far better for most people, especially those trying to get back into exercise in middle age and beyond, to go nice and easy while setting themselves up to be consistent about it. As for the dieting thing, we can charitably interpret them to be highlighting the important distinction between focusing on dieting vs changing one's diet. Dieting (ie short term, often trendy, extreme, not always backed by any science, sometimes outright silly) absolutely doesn't work as shown by a great deal of scientific literature, and can cause serious harm. On the other hand, changing one's diet in thoughtful and strategic ways absolutely does. Some people rather successfully argue the latter is by far the best way to successfully lose weight and improve health outcomes in the long term.
  - onetimeuse92304 3y ago
    That pedal assist is just a gateway drug. It is not something that is used by people who require it -- I don't think there is many people who can't ride a bike but pedal assist somehow enables them to do it -- those people are usually driving cars anyway. My friends who got e-bikes all had no trouble riding regular bikes but after some time discovered the convenience of it and followed with more powerful models with more durable batteries. They are essentially riding electric scooters now, no health benefits compared to driving a car. And the teens and twentysomethings pretty much only use scooters to get around here -- no longer walking anywhere. If B is two intersections from A, they will look for a scooter to cross the distance while being able to look on their phone. It is not better for most people. Instead, it robs people of the few occasions they could actually be walking around, as if we had too much of it already. People seek comfort and large portion of population is either unaware of the benefits, or unable to exercise willpower to decline comfortable scooters lying around on the sidewalks. -- And as to dieting, I should point out that words "diet" and "dieting" have completely different meanings and at least in my mind are entirely separate and independent. So I have no trouble saying you need to pay a lot of attention to your diet and at the same you should completely discard most of dieting advice. There is no logical problem at all. The goal is to fix your life habits around your food (aka "diet") and start eating healthy food, in a healthy way on a daily basis vs going for interventions aimed at quickly bringing down your weight (aka "dieting") when your weight starts causing you physical or mental discomfort, with no or a halfhearted plan for any long term followup. Remember, weight is only an indicator. By the time your weight is up, you have already disregulated, damaged a lot of things in your body. Our bodies can take a surprising amount of metabolic damage before our weight starts going up -- that's why young people seem to be relatively healthy while having very unhealthy habits. Just like with cigarettes and lung cancer, you have to do it for long enough time before you get sick. So you are 20-something and you feel fine, then sometime in your 30s or 40s, without change in your habits your weight starts steady climb up. The way to understand it is you were eating shit food all your life, but it took until 30s or 40s before your body got damaged enough for this to start visible, long term decline in health. Interventions, aka "dieting" does not work. Because it can bring down the weight (and most of the time it even can't do that). But the weight is only an indicator, bringing down the weight does not magically fix your body yet. It takes sustained effort over long time to undo most of the damage and couple of months of dieting is not going to do it. The only way your dieting can bring you any results is if it a part of a sustained effort to change your life habits. It is a necessary step to get better -- but most popular advice does only consider one goal -- weight loss. There is no plan for what to do afterwards. There is no plan what to do with your cravings for the food you liked. There is no plan how to deal with our self sabotage.

WillPostForFood 3y ago

or birth control

onetimeuse92304 3y ago
Birth control is not prescription and it would be a sad world if it was.
- civilitty 3y ago
  Condoms and morning after pills aren’t, but all oral contraceptives for women were prescription only until norgestrel was approved this year [1]. [1] https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-approves-first-nonprescription-daily-oral-contraceptive https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/fda-appr...
- sseagull 3y ago
  If we are talking about oral contraceptives, it was prescription-only in the US until earlier this year. “On July 13, 2023 the first US daily oral nonprescription over-the-counter birth control pill was approved for manufacturer by the FDA.” (From https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birth_control)
- lenzm 3y ago
  Dunno where you are, but it requires a prescription in the US. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/health/otc-birth-control-pill.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/13/health/otc-birth-control-...

MattGaiser 3y ago

I can easily see this being 80-100% of the population in a few years. The human body is not some miracle or well oiled machine. It is a poorly and erratically manufactured product done in inconsistent environments. As we learn more about our bodies, we will regularly discover things that should be fixed or optimized. I have asthma. Only in childhood did it threaten my life, but why wouldn't I want to breathe well all the time? A friend has ADHD. Sure, he can do ok without the meds, but is now a superstar with them. Birth control can eliminate all sorts of annoying fertility issues for women beyond simply not getting pregnant.

rf15 3y ago
On the other hand there's an entire industry around selling placebos of various shapes and sizes; and even the meds that are functional often ruin your kidneys and other organs over time. Medication, while useful in many cases, is often a double edged sword we use too liberally and irresponsibly overall.
- chiefalchemist 3y ago
  For example, antibiotics. Over-prescribed to the point there infections / bacteria immune to them.
onetimeuse92304 3y ago
I have no idea what causes asthma. But I disagree on one thing, I do think human body is a miraculous, well oiled machine. It is just that we tend to misuse the machine and do things to it that were not foreseen by the manufacturer, so to speak. You void the warranty if you sit by the computer all day, move only with your car and then ensure there is something sugary in your mouth for 16 hours a day. I did have a lot of health problems which I corrected once I put enough (a lot, actually) effort into understanding and correcting them. I am not saying that all health problems can be resolved this way, but a lot of them can be solved with simple lifestyle changes. Especially if you live in a western world and have income to be free in choosing what you eat and able to have a good night of sleep and spend a part of the day in exercise.
3y ago

lazyasciiart 3y ago

My nephew was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 8 - I'm hoping he spends over 90% of his lifetime on prescription meds, assuming he doesn't at some point get an artificial pancreas or some future magic technology. 100 years ago that wouldn't have been imaginable for him.

ramblenode 3y ago

> For example, dieting has been shown to not work (on its own) > Or that bad dietary habits is what is causing most of our health problems I don't understand how both of these can be true at once. Or maybe you mean something more specific by "dieting"?

InSteady 3y ago
GP is not necessarily wrong on the overall points, but they are a little bit all over the place. Leading with e-bikes being a sign of the decline of our discipline and health kind of threw me. I wonder, have they ever tried pedal assist for 5 miles or so? It's actually spot on for the 30ish minutes of daily light to moderate exercise that is more strongly correlated with longevity than any other type of exercise (at least from what I was reading a few years back). It's actually far better for most people, especially those trying to get back into exercise in middle age and beyond, to go nice and easy while setting themselves up to be consistent about it. As for the dieting thing, we can charitably interpret them to be highlighting the important distinction between focusing on dieting vs changing one's diet. Dieting (ie short term, often trendy, extreme, not always backed by any science, sometimes outright silly) absolutely doesn't work as shown by a great deal of scientific literature, and can cause serious harm. On the other hand, changing one's diet in thoughtful and strategic ways absolutely does. Some people rather successfully argue the latter is by far the best way to successfully lose weight and improve health outcomes in the long term.
- onetimeuse92304 3y ago
  That pedal assist is just a gateway drug. It is not something that is used by people who require it -- I don't think there is many people who can't ride a bike but pedal assist somehow enables them to do it -- those people are usually driving cars anyway. My friends who got e-bikes all had no trouble riding regular bikes but after some time discovered the convenience of it and followed with more powerful models with more durable batteries. They are essentially riding electric scooters now, no health benefits compared to driving a car. And the teens and twentysomethings pretty much only use scooters to get around here -- no longer walking anywhere. If B is two intersections from A, they will look for a scooter to cross the distance while being able to look on their phone. It is not better for most people. Instead, it robs people of the few occasions they could actually be walking around, as if we had too much of it already. People seek comfort and large portion of population is either unaware of the benefits, or unable to exercise willpower to decline comfortable scooters lying around on the sidewalks. -- And as to dieting, I should point out that words "diet" and "dieting" have completely different meanings and at least in my mind are entirely separate and independent. So I have no trouble saying you need to pay a lot of attention to your diet and at the same you should completely discard most of dieting advice. There is no logical problem at all. The goal is to fix your life habits around your food (aka "diet") and start eating healthy food, in a healthy way on a daily basis vs going for interventions aimed at quickly bringing down your weight (aka "dieting") when your weight starts causing you physical or mental discomfort, with no or a halfhearted plan for any long term followup. Remember, weight is only an indicator. By the time your weight is up, you have already disregulated, damaged a lot of things in your body. Our bodies can take a surprising amount of metabolic damage before our weight starts going up -- that's why young people seem to be relatively healthy while having very unhealthy habits. Just like with cigarettes and lung cancer, you have to do it for long enough time before you get sick. So you are 20-something and you feel fine, then sometime in your 30s or 40s, without change in your habits your weight starts steady climb up. The way to understand it is you were eating shit food all your life, but it took until 30s or 40s before your body got damaged enough for this to start visible, long term decline in health. Interventions, aka "dieting" does not work. Because it can bring down the weight (and most of the time it even can't do that). But the weight is only an indicator, bringing down the weight does not magically fix your body yet. It takes sustained effort over long time to undo most of the damage and couple of months of dieting is not going to do it. The only way your dieting can bring you any results is if it a part of a sustained effort to change your life habits. It is a necessary step to get better -- but most popular advice does only consider one goal -- weight loss. There is no plan for what to do afterwards. There is no plan what to do with your cravings for the food you liked. There is no plan how to deal with our self sabotage.