samuraisaint wrote: ↑Sat 27 Jun 2020 8:15am
Ghost Like wrote: ↑Fri 26 Jun 2020 7:02pm
Hey samurai, interesting point you raise. There's actually been no peer reviewed studies that confirm whether or not smokers are more susceptible to the virus or not.
Bizarrely there has been a school of thought that suggests smokers are less susceptible as the cilia within the lungs has been damaged so badly from smoking that they are unable to remove the virus cells once inside the lungs. Interesting theory.
There is truth in what you say Ghost Like, I have heard from very old asthmatics that they were given the go ahead by doctors to smoke cigarettes as it cleared out the airways!!! Mind you I was told that by old guys and it was 30 years ago, so I take it with a grain of salt.
I did see that people who had a range of conditions which were paired put people at advanced risk. I think it was catalyst or four corners, or it may even have been on an SBS news program. But they ranked the risk factors in order and they looked like this:
Diabetes/Obesity
Dementia/Stroke
High Blood Pressure/heart condition
Cancer
Asthma (low risk)
Now, I can't honestly remember if smoking was in that list now, but I remember it definitely being alluded to at some point.
On another point I think the issues of childhood obesity will need to be tackled seriously by our federal government now. A lot of young people and children are developing really poor life habits (fast food/takeaway diets combined with little incidental daily exercise) and it puts them at risk of destroying their health. I suspect this may be a reason for the high mortality rate in the United States for example because the top two risk factors go hand in hand.
How is it that Billions and Billions of taxpayers funds are spent on a myriad of drugs that are questionable in their efficacy and questionable in their ability to heal or cure or prolong the life of many and yet the real problems are easily preventable.
How is it that I can't watch a game of football on a Friday or Saturday night without 10 McDonalds ads per hour telling me subconsciously that 'If I love my family or my children or grand children that I should be taking them to Maccas'. FFS, I do love them and I refuse to take them there. I am not a sheep, but I know that most parents and especially most young people that watch that crap are brainwashed into visiting a Maccas or a KFC every time they are hungry....especially poor people who prefer to eat cheap meals with little nutritional value and high in salt and fats and sugar.
These are the same people who will probably end up obese, or sick, or get diabetes or possibly and end up with cancers if they are regular Maccas customers and the two major parties just keep ignoring the real problem.
There are so many diseases that have had a back seat to cancer and I think atm with Covid-19 it basically represents how fragile and costly it has been to our economy when there are stresses on our health care system. Unless a large percentage of people are assisted with better health, better nutrition and a better lifestyle (including a work/life-balance) we’ll be wasting money and resources in the wrong areas and not really addressing the fundamental issue of what it means to have ‘good health’.
Usually each year the politicians focus on cancer research and cancer drug funding and there is a huge amount of 'Hypocrisy' when it comes to 'health' and the health budget
Both the Libs/Nats and ALP want spend considerably more on cancer drugs each year and assisting people with cancer. That is fantastic but are they also ramping up funding for prevention and for education so that people have access to the right imformation on nutrition and the role that diet and lifestyle plays on people's long term health?? I don't think so
Funding and legislation is needed to assist in reducing the growing cost of drugs and drug treatments as opposed to the money needed for health prevention programs. Why don't they spend as much on educating and feeding people the right foods and providing health and wellbeing and fitness programs as they do on the industry that thrives AFTER people fall ill?