4 ms·
Maybe fewer consequences than you'd think... https://rachel.fast.ai/posts/2024-08-13-crowds-vs-friends/ https://rachel.fast.ai/posts/2024-08-13-crowds-vs-frien
by cryzinger 1y ago
Maybe fewer consequences than you'd think...
https://rachel.fast.ai/posts/2024-08-13-crowds-vs-friends/ https://rachel.fast.ai/posts/2024-08-13-crowds-vs-friends/
"Your Immune System is Not a Muscle"
> Four main categories of pathogens that humans deal with are viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites. The evidence for pathogens that may be beneficial to the immune system is almost entirely for parasitic worms and friendly (commensal) bacteria. In contrast, many viruses can even trigger the onset of autoimmune diseases or allergies.
- kiba 1y agoThe air outside is constantly sterilized by UV light.
- ASalazarMX 1y agoCare to taste a spoonful of dirt in a sunny day to see how sterile it is?
- stronglikedan 1y agoI've done it, and aside from not being able to breathe well for a while while you douse your mouth and throat with a garden hose, nothing bad will come of it.
- ceejayoz 1y agoThis is a pretty common thing kids do. They're generally fine.
- ASalazarMX 1y agoAs a kid that ocassionally ate dirt, you're usually fine after it, if you ignore the worms you'll poop afterwards. My point was that it's not sterile even if it's under the sun all day, as UV rays don't penetrate deep, and dirt is a good thermal insulator. Bacteria and parasites, specially their spores/eggs, can be very hardy. It's amazing what our digestive system is capable of handling.
- ceejayoz 1y ago> My point was that it's not sterile even if it's under the sun all day, as UV rays don't penetrate deep… Then why make the point at all as a response to "The air outside is constantly sterilized by UV light"?
- ASalazarMX 1y agoBecause if sunlight really sterilized the air, which is transparent, it surely would disinfect every surface it touches. In reality, sunlight does disinfect, but life has evolved to withstand it enough to find a safe environment. BTW, hospital UV sterilizers work better because they're more intense than sunlight's UV.
- AngryData 1y agoIt certainly isn't sterile but if a spoonfull of dirt makes you sick then you should already be considered immune compromised.
- sailingparrot 1y agoAbsolutely not, most UV is blocked by the ozone layer, this is why we don't all develop skin cancer at 15. Otherwise, what would be the point of the UV-sterilization method?
- rolandog 1y agoI'm one of those that tries to jokingly correct the proponents of an often touted phrase by retorting "If it doesn't kill you, it makes you stranger".
- TrainedMonkey 1y agoThe anecdotic evidence they present of immune-system-is-not-a-muscle contradicts anecdotal evidence of doctors, nurses, kids who grew up in a dump, etc. never getting sick due to having amazing immune system.
- ASalazarMX 1y ago[flagged]
- ceejayoz 1y agoThat's an absolutely textbook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_fallacy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_fallacy
- ASalazarMX 1y agoIs this a false fallacy? If somethong can learn, it can be trained, and that's the dictionary definition of train: "to teach so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient".
- ceejayoz 1y agoThe fallacy is "if it can be trained, it is therefore logically a muscle". Ask your same dictionary to define muscle, and ask yourself if the immune system is a "band or bundle of fibrous tissue in a human or animal body that has the ability to contract".
- ASalazarMX 1y agoExcept my statement was "If it can be trained, it _behaves like_ a muscle", meaning that muscles and the immune system can be trained. I don't see how it can be reasonably misinterpreted as "the immune system is literally a muscle", I'm not talking about unfeathered chickens here.