Some positive perspective on health to balance out the gloom and doom...

[Silent3]

...of those who seem to think everything in the world is getting more unhealthy, more toxic, and more unlivable.

This is an amazing video that shows what has happened around the world to health and wealth over the last 200 years.


http://singularityhub.com/2010/12/09/hans-rosling-shows-you-200-years-of-global-growth-in-4-minutes-video/


Don't get me wrong. I don't view this video as a reason to be complacent about problems with our health care system or the quality of our food supply. The information here does, however, make it seem a bit over the top when people talk about everything we eat, drink, and breathe as if it were a hideous, poisonous, carcinogenic stew, cooked up and served to us by Evil Capitalism, as compared to a naively idealized "all natural", pre-industrial past.

[RKP5637]

1. In the US much of this was because of a strong robust middle class. I certainly

hope we're not seeing a reversal.

This was really interesting. The portrayal of data was very clever!!!

Thanks for posting this!!!

[laconicsax]

2. The real positive is that even though there's extreme disparity between wealthy and poor nations...

the average life expectancy in the poorest nations is still above the average life expectancy in the wealthiest countries of 200 years ago.

[HuckleB]

3. 200 years ago?

Isn't that about the time homeopathy was invented?

:shrug:

I do suspect that was long before we were capable of making modern acupuncture needles, however.

Hmmm.

[laconicsax]

4. Touché

Wiki says 215.

That's 215 years without any evidence that it works and people still swear by it.