Posted on 03/23/2017 2:49:45 PM PDT by blam
This study is halfway good, and halfway bad.
To start with, they might have good statistics, but good statistics often lead to bad assumptions. Statistics are only a starting point. Then the sociologists take over to interview people to discover why the statistics are the way they are.
This study reminded me of the finding that Arizona ranked 11th in the US for “gun homicides”. This was used to disparage gun liberty in AZ. But by itself that statistic was deceptive, because 70% of those “homicides” were in fact suicides. Adjusting for them and the AZ rate was about dead last.
So let’s examine the three mortality causes they mentioned.
Drug overdose. Lots of opioid street drugs are now being tainted with Fentanyl and its analogs. These are from 100 to 100,000 times more powerful than pure morphine. Heroin addicts can survive for decades while taking ordinary heroin. But introduce these dangerous synthetics and they are playing Russian roulette. Two identical portions of heroin, yet one of them is hundreds or thousands of times stronger than the other.
Bottom line: drug overdoses are exploding in number around the entire US. Naloxone, which can block the effects of normal amounts of opiates for a short time is being issued to all emergency services by the gross. It might take dozens of doses to pull someone through an overdose, or they die.
So this group is not “deaths of despair”, but poisoning. Murder.
Next up is suicide. The most common mental illness is depression. It has been linked in many ways to ADHD, for which many children have been given drugs, starting in the 1960, and steadily growing in their use. The long term consequences of this drug use may have a major impact on mortality.
At the same time, the male suicide rate jumps on retirement. This alone might skew the statistics.
The third cause is alcohol abuse.
Except for alcohol poisoning, this one is kind of a puzzler. This is because alcohol can kill not just acutely, but chronically, causing all sorts of health problems. But attributing these to alcohol is often difficult, because it is a contributing, not primary factor.
Good job leftists. Youve gotten exactly what youve worked so hard to accomplish.
And the progressives love it. White genocide is perfectly fine in progressive circles. Can you imagine the outrage if someone said “we need to make Mexico whiter?”
“Baby boomer peak birth populations are entering into the chronic disease/ early possible demise phases of their lives...so the numbers for early deaths will go up..”
Maybe, but being a baby boomer if a certain age has nothing to do with race, ethnicity or level of education.
The study points to middle age whites without a college degree having a death rates that have increased over other cohorts that fo not meet that demographic.
yep, Obummer was a success/s
Culture change bump
You need to seek comfort in the arms of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Prayers sent your way.
Go to a lively church. Go fishing. Play a musical instrument, draw, paint, or some other right brain activity. Kill your television. Read more good books. Exercise moderately.
The previous eight years may have something to do with it.
I am a born again Christian and an active elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. I am the choir director and the Treasurer of my small church. I am Chairman of the presbyterial Board of Finance and I sit on a denomination level finance committee. I serve on the local non-profit hospice board that raises money for indigent care. I have run the largest hospice fundraiser for the last three years and about to do my fourth.
I greatly value my Christian faith and it has been vital to my not falling apart long before now. But I do not, and never have, believed in Pollyanna Christianity or the Gospel of Prosperity. . . . Christians have great struggles with life also. Just read about the demise of the apostles. My struggles have been hard and spanned many years . . . I am simply tired and frustrated.
So the tax slaves that get blamed each night on the news for all that is bad in the world are unhappy?
That’s crazy talk!
What keeps me going? My kids, my grandson, Zag basketball, my 6th grade Old Testament class (19 years and running), my enjoyment of viticulture, all of the above.
BTW, I hate my job, and trying to hang in there for two more years. It's mind-numbing, CYA work that accomplishes little. However, it pays the bills, and I can't afford to be picky at 60+.
If I've learned one thing over the past 62+ years, "it's never enough", i.e. not when it comes to your job, your relationships with God, family, spouse, etc. Do your best with each day, that's about all you can do.
Who are you and what do you believe?
A born again Christian who believes in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Taking advantage of the USA’s almost nil import tariffs, Globalist Free Traitors sold out Americans to the world market. This is the result.
Free (Rape) Trade.
I've come to the conclusion that alcohol IS a primary factor, not just contributory.
No, I'm not a 'scientist,' but given the track record of many who call themselves scientists these days, maybe my layman's opinion is just as good. I'm also not a killjoy.
However I believe consumption of alcohol, even in 'moderate' amounts, is likely responsible for at least half of the occurrences of cancer in the US. It is also likely to blame for more misery, both physical and emotional, than any other substance we consume. Opioids are becoming almost as destructive, but alcohol is still king of the death chemicals.
I also with all my heart and soul.
I agree that alcohol is very destructive. However it is not consistently destructive in the same limited number of ways, but a whole litany of acute and chronic ways. And a large number of people use it in moderate or greater amounts without it causing disease and death.
As to cancer, it is at least 100 different diseases, caused by a combination of cellular malfunction *and* the inhibition of those factors that destroy malfunctioning cells, *and* the inhibition of the recognition that cancerous cells are malfunctioning.
In many ways, cancers behave almost like intelligent things. This is why there is a “rule of three” in oncology. If you attack cancerous cells in one way, they will *adapt* to protect themselves from the attack. So optimally, you use three different techniques at the same time, to overwhelm its defenses.
Since cancer requires more nutrition than normal cells, it has to persuade the body to create more capillaries to feed the cancer. And the list goes on and on.
Naturally, the body continually makes, then destroys, malfunctioning cells. The cancer must overcome this to survive.
Cancer often has a genetic component. Carcinogenic substances as well as ionizing radiation can make cancer happen.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.