[extropy-chat] Failure of low-fat diet

[Robin Hanson]

At 06:29 PM 2/27/2006, Rafal Smigrodzki 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? ...
> >
> > 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...

I would not make that claim; all this story needs is a reduced 
susceptibility for
rich people, all else equal.


Robin Hanson  rhanson at gmu.edu  http://hanson.gmu.edu
Associate Professor of Economics, George Mason University
MSN 1D3, Carow Hall, Fairfax VA 22030-4444
703-993-2326  FAX: 703-993-2323