Medicine and Hygiene is making us weak?

I will try to put this as short as possible,
Is Medicine and Hygiene making us weak?

It is said “Only the strong survive in Evolution” which is obviously true,
If Medicine is giving us antibiotics and not letting our bodies get immune by itself to the virus the medicine is targeting.

Passing this down trough generations will make future children continue to rely on medicine.

If we didn’t have medicine, Let’s see your opinion, Would we have less diseases and more strength thanks to natural immunization, or would we be stronger thanks to the medicine.

Hygiene is a lesser part of this discussion, I suppose if we are filthy trough generations we will adapt to our environment and change physically, Our your thought, would we not manage to adapt soon enough and die out too soon,
or any other thoughts.

Edit: It is purely coincidence between this topic and house, I don’t even watch it :3

discuss

Consider the average life span now opposed to the average life span in the past. It’s increasing. I don’t think we can claim that is due to us becoming more resistant to viruses.

Originally posted by Darkruler2005:

Consider the average life span now opposed to the average life span in the past. It’s increasing. I don’t think we can claim that is due to us becoming more resistant to viruses.

Well what would you claim it on?

Medicines.

There are certain diseases our body simply cannot become immune to. These diseases have killed many over the course of the ages, such as in the middle ages. Having medicines making us immune to those will increase our chance to live. Of course, there are many more factors such as specialized doctors which increase our chance to live, but rather due to the fact that there will be less deaths at birth.

Hey man I saw House last night too.

And get this, the occasional weird person with a slightly weaker immune system that you’re talking about is better then say… washing our hands so we all don’t catch Black Plague.

Hey man I saw House last night too.

Shit, did I really miss it? Aren’t new episodes on Tuesday?

It is said “Only the strong survive in Evolution” which is obviously true,

That is not true. The animal best suited for its environment survives, which may not include strength.

Personally, I try to steer clear of medicines unless I have no other option. Cancer is far different from the common cold. If I found out I had some form of cancer, I’d probably do anything I could to treat it. A cold, on the other hand, I’ll just let my body deal with on its own.

And of course, many medicines carry a certain risk for dependency. It’s all about the specific situation and doing it in moderation.

Originally posted by JohnRulz:

It is said “Only the strong survive in Evolution” which is obviously true,

That is not true. The animal best suited for its environment survives, which may not include strength.

Well by this, It means the best, not necessarily strong people, It’s a well known quote.

Originally posted by SuperSaddler:

Originally posted by JohnRulz:

It is said “Only the strong survive in Evolution” which is obviously true,

That is not true. The animal best suited for its environment survives, which may not include strength.

Well by this, It means the best, not necessarily strong people, It’s a well known quote.

And due to medicine, hygiene and technology, humans are the strongest. We’ve evolved beyond just adapting to our environment. We make the environment adapt to us.

I don’t have hygiene, because I do not shower. I do not shower because I am going green, and showering is just too much of a waste of clean drinking water.

The ladies I pick up at my local farmers markets and co-op love me for this, and give me all the booty I want.

Imagine how much water we would save, how much water the poor kids of Africa would have, if we all stopped showering.

Think about it, and go truly green.

2 Interesting posts above me.

Interesting.

/Sherlock Holmes picture with pipe

The water that you don’t use by not showering doesn’t go to Africa, it goes to some other person on the same water system as you.

Originally posted by VintageVanguarde:

Originally posted by SithDoughnut:

The water that you don’t use by not showering doesn’t go to Africa, it goes to some other person on the same water system as you.

Now it does, but if we all stopped showering it would go to Africa via the magical liberal ‘I feel good about myself and can brag because I helped the kids of Africa’ fail train.

Yes it would.

Hygeine keeps us healthy, so does medicine. The thing about medicine, in my opinion, is that it is a temporary solution. An artificial addition to your immune system. I agree that there are diseases out there that require medicine for a person to survive, no doubt, but taking a tylenol every time you have a headache, or cold medicine everytime you are sick, really won’t help you in the long run to fight off diseases/viruses by yourself. You will be dependant on medicine, but the diseases aren’t, and this will weaken your defences.

Actually it is that the medicines are make the germs and such more resistant.

If we didn’t have medicine, Let’s see your opinion, Would we have less diseases and more strength thanks to natural immunization, or would we be stronger thanks to the medicine.

I think ‘stronger’ is a pretty loosely used term there. Without medicine many people would die from some rather common conditions, so I would say that makes it better to have than not.

Hygiene is a lesser part of this discussion, I suppose if we are filthy trough generations we will adapt to our environment and change physically, Our your thought, would we not manage to adapt soon enough and die out too soon, or any other thoughts.

The problems with being dirty are that you face a higher risk of disease, and since diseases constantly adapt you would never really adapt to it. Thus there is no valid reason to ignore hygiene. There is such a thing as being too clean, but that is kind of an individual issue and generally only effects those with some severe form of OCD.

Originally posted by SaintAjora:

If we didn’t have medicine, Let’s see your opinion, Would we have less diseases and more strength thanks to natural immunization, or would we be stronger thanks to the medicine.

I think ‘stronger’ is a pretty loosely used term there. Without medicine many people would die from some rather common conditions, so I would say that makes it better to have than not.

Hygiene is a lesser part of this discussion, I suppose if we are filthy trough generations we will adapt to our environment and change physically, Our your thought, would we not manage to adapt soon enough and die out too soon, or any other thoughts.

The problems with being dirty are that you face a higher risk of disease, and since diseases constantly adapt you would never really adapt to it. Thus there is no valid reason to ignore hygiene. There is such a thing as being too clean, but that is kind of an individual issue and generally only effects those with some severe form of OCD.

You have a good argument on Hygiene, however, yes many people will die from common conditions, but those who don’t would be immune, and therefore likely killing out that disease. Even if we lost a large sum of humanity, If the immune persons was healthy, they could make offspring much easier.

You have a good argument on Hygiene, however, yes many people will die from common conditions, but those who don’t would be immune, and therefore likely killing out that disease. Even if we lost a large sum of humanity, If the immune persons was healthy, they could make offspring much easier.

Vaccines achieve the same effect as contracting the condition, but in a more controlled manner. You aren’t really eliminating the natural process, just reducing its negative side effects.

The offspring won’t always be immune to the same diseases. While antibodies are passed along from the mother, that does not mean that it will be antibodies that work against the new form of the disease. Guess what? All forms of life undergo evolution, including microorganisms that do us harm. Vaccines are made from existing strains found in the population so will actually do us more good than if we had caught all of the diseases naturally — and with none of the irreparable damage that occurs from foreign occupation. Medicine creates healthier people. Healthier people breed better. You’d have a better argument if this was about surgical medicine or technology that shapes our environment, but there’s really no issue here.