Medical and health things we'll be horrified by in the future

[Leavesofautumn]

This is inspired by a recent thread about sunbeds.

What things happen now, that in fifty years time we'll be horrified by in the same way that we're horrified by certain things from Victorian times now, or even things from the 1960s? I'm talking about both medical treatments, and products that are harmful to health. In fact asbestos is still a problem now if certain buildings are being demolished.

Smoking indoors is an obvious one - even now I'm amazed we ever went into a restaurant and specifically had to ask for a non-smoking table.

Sunbeds are already banned in Australia and Brazil.

Prednisolone is a nasty drug and I'd like to see it eventually fall out of use once something better has been invented.

Sorry no one needs to eat meat daily. It is unhealthy and unsustainable. Red meat is a class 1 carcinogen (like tobacco). Rearing beef cattle is environmentally disastrous. Please link your research which disproves this.

Mmm - Just checked the site and it appears a living will is legally binding if it has been completed correctly. It is time for me to update again

Not having social workers based in schools

Not seeing mental health as treated and directly related to social circumstances

Treating people as individuals rather than as one part of a social group

I have heard primary age school children asking who is going to vape when they are older. None want to smoke. Hopefully, vaping will be out by then too.

The high levels of sugar and artificial sweeteners (as mentioned).

Hopefully, any problems to do with women will be more recognised then. Whether that be medical, or looking back at the lack of support and boundaries for domestic abuse support or lower pay for jobs that women tend to go for...

Paying young people less who do the same job. They have futures to save up for and shouldn't be treated worse than older people.

The way we abandon young people in care and leave them in hostels at 16. What was the point in all that hard work trying to change their life around to abandon them at the biggest hurdle.

How much rubbish we create. I think we will go back to far less new toys, clothes ect.

The list goes on...

Yes if completed when you have capacity and correctly witnessed then any treatment you decline cannot be provided. (Although you are free to change your mind and consent at the time if you have capacity to do so.)

But it cannot be used to request treatment or to obtain euthanasia, only to decline consent for treatment.

Well said.
Can I add chronic pain to the list? Yep, all in the mind and can be cured with positive thoughts and CBT. Bollocks.

Doesn't apply if you get sectioned, though. I could complete a fully-compliant living will right now while 100% well, saying that no matter how sick I get, I don't want to be given antipsychotics, and if I'm sectioned they can just blithely ignore it, regardless of whether they think I pose a risk to anyone else. Oh, they say that they try to respect your wishes and take them into account, but where everyone else gets legal protection, mentals get "we'll try".

Vaping
Fillers
Fat positivity - not that I think people should be horrible to overweight people! And I know people can be overweight through no fault of their own. But people who are hugely overweight simply because of their own lifestyle choices (like Nico Avacado and the Slaton sisters) that isn't right at all; these people should not be encouraged.

Categorising /medicalising any childhood behaviour that doesn't fit a narrow definition of 'neurotypical'

Oh good point I missed that one. I find that enraging too so I won't say more...

RE dying of dementia, a million times yes .

I vividly remember caring for mum FT in the spring, watching her very rapid and terrifying deterioration and almost wishing I could end her suffering for her . I didn’t obviously but the trauma of those nights will never leave me .

She’s in a care home now and whilst I love my mum to bits and if I could I’d want her here for the rest of my life, she doesn’t know me, she doesn’t always know who she is, and it hurts like hell every minute of every day, there’s no escape and there’s so little you can do to ease it - speech, language, meaningful activity etc all being largely lost or going . You wouldn’t allow a dog to suffer like my mum has, it would be classed as cruel .

Under statement.

CBT saved my life aswell.

I couldn't leave the house before CBT.

The lack of proper basics in hospital like good food and water, a good night's sleep and a relaxing environment.

I’m not sure you fully understand type 1 diabetes.

Under statement.

Which is exactly what I was saying and sort of what this thread is about.

Who do you know who does fully understand T1D - and already knows now what new discoveries may or may not be made within the next 50 years? Not me, who has lived with it for over 20 years, not HCP or research scientists who specialise in it (by their own admission - any half-decent scientist doesn't just assume they know everything knowable and pack up and go home) - even the relative few who both specialise in it and have it.

Even on a layperson level, does it really sound wise to you to rely on 'tricking' the body into reacting to a substance that it thinks it's being introduced to, but isn't? I know people may well counter by saying that that's what injecting artificial insulin does, but firstly, the artificial insulin has been developed to replicate naturally-produced insulin as far as possible, and secondly, any adverse side effects that may or may not be caused by it are rather outweighed by the fact that death is certain for somebody with T1D without it.

As I thought I made clear, I was not stating any findings as a fait accompli - just putting forward a possible future finding that, to me, doesn't sound at all beyond the realms of possibility under the circumstances.

the artificial insulin has been developed to replicate naturally-produced insulin as far as possible

Just to clarify, I mean to replicate it fully in its effective application - not just to replicate the initial taste to the consumer, as with artificial sweeteners.

Well, all of us could come up with something that's not completely beyond the realms of possibility — artificial sweeteners might somehow cause autoimmune targeting of beta cells (the main cause of type 1 diabetes)! carrots might cause MS! crisps might cause myopia! — but unless you've seen something that suggests type 1 diabetes researchers think it's something worth looking into (and add far as I'm aware, dietary things they've looked into include breastmilk, cow's milk, vitamins D and E, and wheat gluten, but not artificial sweeteners), it seems a bit random. It would have made more sense if you'd said type 2, maybe?

All of those conditions - need - proper medical intervention (if they truly understood how much Vit D and Vit B /folate women - particularly pregnant and menopausal ones needed.. many issues would be diminished )

CBT - when used appropriately is a game changer - but - a bit like 'antidepressants' - used to ignore other issues is rubbish

I really
Hope so

My consultant and I were taking about this recently and agreed transplants (especially live donor) probably will be considered horrific!

True - and I take your point about T2D too.

Indeed, maybe we'll discover more in the future about what does cause the autoimmune targeting of beta cells - it could be that it's entirely random or a link could be found. All I'm saying is that, if there is a link that may be found in the future, I would personally (and others may well disagree) not be at all surprised if it's related to a widespread industrial way that's deliberately designed to trick your body as a whole in how it processes 'fake sugar'.

Being offered paracetamol in hospital as a form of effective pain-relief when you have broken your ankle...

YES.

@FurryDandelionSeekingMissile I was thinking type 2 perhaps because the majority of people I know with type 1 were diagnosed in childhood, particularly under 8. Most people who were children before the 21st century weren't given artificial sweeteners. They were in diet products then in foods aimed at diabetics, and not in foods aimed at the majority of the population.

Anyway the links to artificial sweeteners to disease aren't properly know, however there is an observation study (French I think) linking them to cardiovascular disease.

Agreed! I would so like to go back to this - my MIL spent a week in the maternity hospital (without husband staying!) to rest and recuperate and establish breast feeding. I was pushed to vacate the bed 2 days after a csection. I actually couldn't wait as it was impossible to sleep and there was no privacy for breastfeeding.

Artificial sweetners do not and never have caused a pancreas to fail.