Is it helpful or hurtful to humans? Is it weakening our body's defenses? If we have survived thousands of years without it, why do we need it now? Discuss. Thanks, Aaronator
They have survived for thousands of years, but their life expectancy and life span blew ****ing ****. We should discuss how medicine is being used ineffectively, and leading to the mutations of certain diseases, blah blah blah.
Anything that isnt constantly challenged grows weak. Glasses and vision correction perpetuate the lifespan of humans in situations where without them, they would have perished (a person with a small visual impairment will enjoy the same benefits as one who has naturally clear eyesight). This means that when they reproduce, their children may share their diminished vision, leading to a "slowing" of natural selection, "good" genes determinate of eyesight are passed on at normal rate (compared to say, a universe where glasses and vision correction didn't exist), whereas "bad" genes determinate of eyesight are passed on at increased rate (compared to say, a universe where glasses and vision correction didn't exist). Genetically, the solution to this problem is to change the genes. Technologically, the solution to this problem is to create ocular implants that bestow increased vision, or (preferably) a visor that enables the wearer to correct thier vision as well as extend it above the normal level. I prefer the idea of technological methods, though they may seem like a "kluge" to some. So yeah. Modern medicine, while not "necessary", it's an important part of long-term human survival, and it does more good then harm.
Well, bacteria is getting much stronger than it ever was. Without antibiotics, we would all be dead. So my vote is that meds are good.
It depends, painkillers and things like that are just to soothe your physical feelings, while not providing much benefit, I can understand having them for major migrains or medical procedures and other stuff(like cases where morphine and other major painkillers are used). But I don't think taking two tylonol because you have a little headache is helping in any way. But if we didn't have medicine we wouldn't live as long, lately we've been starting to abuse it though.
Actually, bacteria get stronger as a result of medication. People get well usually before their prescriptions run out. So, they stop taking their pills and the bacteria adapts to the drug. That's why medicine is so expensive, because new research has to develop to combat new strains of bacteria. We could still be using penicillin if people had properly taken their medication.
You are correct. We cannot fix what has already begun. It's a good thing we have antibiotics all together. People do get well before their antibiotics run out, they should continue to finish the bottle as per instructed by their doctor. If they choose not too and the spores that are not killed turn into the adult bacteria, then they are doing all of us no good. Keep in mind that people died every day of bronchitis and pneumonia before antibiotics were created, so most people forget that, and try to shift the blame. Meds are important if used for the correct reasons. It's like anything else too much of a good thing can be bad.
I'm agreeing with Rusty. Its a never ending battle. Eventually though, humans are going to stumble and we won't be able to find a cure for one of the mutated genes. If medicines were never used, bacteria wouldn't be as strong.
Humans as a species have survived thousands of years without medicine. Humans individually had survived to be on average 40 years before modern medicine. Like rusty said, only reason bacteria/etc. is getting any more dangerous is because it's adapting around our previous methods of combating it, like antibiotics and such (the flu, for an example; also, cancer and heart disease have become the most prevalent causes of death due to the fact that there is no easy cure for them like antibioitcs). On the plus side, this means that once we ever do come across an alien civilization that wants to invade Earth, they'll all succumb to our super-viruses and bacteria that have developed over the last couple of thousands years.
Medicine has been around for thousands of years. Bacteria and Viruses have always mutated, but we have always advanced. The issues we are facing now are that we are struggling to advance further, mostly due to social and moral limitations.