[extropy-chat] Failure of low-fat diet

[Rafal Smigrodzki]

On 2/24/06, Robin Hanson <rhanson at gmu.edu> wrote:
> At 05:57 AM 2/24/2006, Samantha Atkins wrote:
> > >> But you didn't answer my question. What do you think stopped people
> > >> dying of those diseases, if it wasn't the vaccines?
> > >
> > > There are lots of logical possibilities, and my state of belief is
> > > that I am very uncertain about which one it might be.
> >
> >Which is most consistent with the sum of our scientific knowledge
> >about the the causes of various diseases?  That should be a useful
> >criteria for sorting among hypotheses.  It is standard practice to
> >choose those hypothesis most consistent with things we already have
> >pretty good certainty on.  Would you proceed using some other
> >metric?  If not then please show why alternative explanations are
> >preferable starting from what or incorporating and perhaps more
> >fruitfully explaining the phenomenon in question.
>
> Here is one explanation that has a plausible mechanism and isn't clearly
> contradicted by the data.   Mammals invoke the stress response in situations
> they consider stressful, which helps the devote energy to their muscles
> at the expense of other systems such as the immune system.   This reduces
> long term health.   As humans become richer they interpret fewer events as
> being stressful and invoke the stress response less often, and so are
> healthier.
> There is a multiplier effect for contagious diseases, so that healthier people
> living near each other benefit each other.   So a theory is that our increasing
> health is caused by our feeling less stress as we have gotten richer.

### Are you saying that exposing rich people to infectious agents they
have not been vaccinated against will not result in significant
morbidity?

This would be a very interesting claim...

Rafal