20 JUN 2017 by ideonexus
Ikigai and Mortality
Objective: To investigate the association between the sense of “life worth living (ikigai)” and the cause specific mortality risk. The psychological factors play important roles in morbidity and mortality risks. However, the association between the negative psychological factors and the risk of mortality is inconclusive. Methods: The Ohsaki Study, a prospective cohort study, was initiated on 43,391 Japanese adults. To assess if the subjects found a sense of ikigai, they were asked the que...30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus
Science Provides, but Science has a Cost
Childbirth and infant mortality have decreased, lifetimes have lengthened, and medicine has improved the quality of life for many people on Earth. But science imposes, in exchange for its manifold gifts, a certain onerous burden. We are enjoined also to consider ourselves scientifically, to surmount as best we can our own hopes and wishes and beliefs, to view ourselves as we really are. We know that in looking deep within ourselves, we may challenge notions that give us great comfort in the f...James Randi on the hypocrisy of accepting the benefits of science without accepting the reverence or appreciation of it.
12 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Autism as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Diseases and other medical conditions can also have this self-fulfilling property. When medical conditions are widely discussed in the media, people are more likely to identify their symptoms, and doctors are more likely to diagnose (or misdiagnose) them. The best-known case of this in recent years is autism. If you compare the number of children who are diagnosed as autistic64 to the frequency with which the term autism has been used in American newspapers,65 you’ll find that there is an a...As the illness gets more attention, more people are diagnosed with it.
12 JUN 2012 by ideonexus
An Optimistic View of the Rise of Cancer
The fact that death from cancer is on the increase is not only a problem of medicine, but its at the same time testifies to the wonderful efficiency of medical science... [as it] enables more persons top live long enough to develop some kind of cancer in old and less resistant tissues. It means people are living long enough to get cancer.