Are we on the cusp of a medical golden age?

RudyGarmisch

RudyGarmisch

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Staff member
In the last decade, we have seen major diseases that used to plague our world become curable and survivable with the advent of new drugs and treatments. The diseases we cannot currently treat are most likely within our grasp to cure, given a directed investment and a few years. You may very well see cancer and Alzheimers be cured before 2010.

In developing nations, through a system of treatment and prevention of transmission, malaria and yellow fever could be wiped off the face of the earth. Its not a question of "can it happen?", its more 'how soon will it happen?"

This is obviously a good thing, right?

But think about the long term effect of curing all the diseases on this planet. Aside from the obvious "my god, the population will skyrocket" phenomenon, you also have to consider how it would effect developed nations where these diseases no longer appear. Think how the status quo would be disrupted. Drug companies and pharmaceuticals would no longer receive the funding for research and assume a much reduced role of mass production. Prescription drugs would nearly vanish. Physicians would lose prestige, as they no longer would be relied upon to extend life. The billions spent of medical research grants would also drop, and leave many a scientist out of a job.

So think about it - if we developed a cure for every disease and affliction on earth suffered by humanity, would we choose to give it to everyone and suffer the effects in the developed world? Or would we try to preserve our institutions and status quo, even at the cost of millions of lives we could save by giving it up?

 
thats a complicated question, and right now im in no state of mind to answer it but ill definitely think about it for a day and then voice my opinion.
 
in a changing world these things are obviously going to occur. new jobs will arise and the process should go on and on. but if palin is VP say goodbye to stem cells period. so when your mother is sick in bed with terminal cancer remeber that you voted them in
 
This is definetly something I've given a lot of thought to, mainly because I want to go into medicine when I go to college. Although developing cures for all diseases might have a negative impact on the economy by driving doctors and pharmacutical companies out of business, I believe that a human life, let alone millions of lives, is much more valuable than any institution we have.

In addition, the amount of money spent on researching currently incurable diseases (like cancer) is incredible, especially when compared to the relatively small amount of money spent treating curable diseases in third-world nations. This doesn't mean that I'm against modern medical research, I just mean that we should really be spending more time working with diseases we can cure in poor areas of the world.

As far as the rise in population due to medical success goes, I have very little ideas about a solution. It's wishful thinking to think that we will have colonies on other planets by the time the population grows beyond control, but as far as I can see its the only peaceful solution.
 
I believe by the time these diseases are completely gone we will already be living on the moon or somewhere in space. It's human nature to explore and expand and with modern technology it shouldn't be long until I can post on newschoolers from mars. Only problem would be there's not much snow there. Does mars dust slide as well as carpet?
 
I think its a simple fact that our country spends more on diseases that afflict our population, such as cancer or Alzheimer. The cures for many other diseases are out there, and I think that the only thing stopping us from eliminating the diseases are a directed and pointed effort to get the cures out there and teach prevention. But even just concerning our country, what are we going to do when we do find cures for cancer?
 
... the point you missed is that I think soon we'll have a cure for everything. The rate that we're progressing and curing or preventing disease is exponential.
 
then let that be the case. it is victory for man to rid the world of all of the plagues. we have accomplished wat we have always wanted. like skiminnesota said we will find other stuff to fix
 
....look, I feel like I'm repeating my original post.

Will pharmaceuticals and physicians and scientists allow us to rob them of prestige and importance and funding?
 
this is a bad thing?

here i got a good one for you,

when we have EVERY diseases, and everyone cured, then ALL the money we used to research how to fight them, and we give it to the poor....

 
o god no. wat i'm saying is... well take for instance antibacterial purrel. over time these bacterias will become immune to these kind of antibiotics and ba bam the process starts itself over again. they will always have a major part in society because it is always changing. it hard to say. the best answer is that time will tell.
 
... and I'm asking you, what are the realistic chances of THAT happening? We're talking about a massive scaling back of one of the largest industries in America and nullifying one of the most prestigious and best paid jobs. Its a multi-billion dollar industry - do you think that many people would let it go so easily?
 
it won't happen. either the scientists won't "find" the cures, or there will just be different viruses, plagues etc. to kill us off.
 
Are you excluding things like retro-viruses and future diseases, or do you mean a cure for everything that exists and a cure for everything that could exist?
 
call me an optimist, but my cup is half full.

really are you trying to get at the "evil corporations" will block medical advancements?

haha i have a HILARIOUS story about "evil corporations"

one of my best freinds dad's runs human resources for " carlson company".......... and up at a family camp out, around the camp fire politics came up (gasp)......

while my friends cousin is HELL BENT that corporations are ruining the world, now what does he do you might ask?

he is a "community organizer" in downtown Minneapolis.....

do you know who funds his "community organizer" job?

(gasp)! carlson company! OMG, they donate 5 million dollars a year to just this ONE community organization...

GOD DAMN CORPORATIONS!!

haha he almost shit a brick when he found out the "evil corporation" his uncle works for litteraly PAYS HIS BILLS...
 
I think that we'll soon have the technology to both cure current diseases and quickly eliminate any new ones that come up, through analysis of their structure and detailed knowledge of how they interact with our bodies.
 
Jesus christ dude, I know of nobody who can take an innocent question and skew it into a conservative/liberal debate like you.

No, its not. I included scientists and doctors in this argument. I'd encourage you to go and actually read my posts before jumping to radical conclusions. Saves us a lot of time, and you a lot of embarrassment.
 
you miss the point, where do scientist and doctors get the money to fund their research?

pharmaceutical company's are the ones funding them, and THEY would loose if there were NO diseases, and what are pharmaceutical company's? CORPORATIONS

conservative liberal? i made a point, about corporations.....
 
That's not the major point of this thread though, it's not a stab at big corporations, it's a well thought out question. Either answer, or hit back and read another thread.
 
A large percentage of funding comes from donations and the government.

Look, you are completely twisting my question. Read back to the first post and just think to yourself about how easily you would let it all go for the good of the world if you were a prestigious doctor with a million dollar salary, or a CEO of a pharmaceutical company, or a scientist that has the option of curing a disease, but then never see funding again for now-redundant research. If these people were faced with the choice of saving everyone in the third world by giving up their paychecks and status, would they?
 
i can honestly say i would.

and i like to think that everyone i know who runs company's (medical or not ) would aslo.

if you are smart enough to cure a disease you sure as hell are smart enough to get a new job, that probably pays just as much, if not more.....

again, i am an optimist, life is to short to be dwelling on thoughts like this "the man is out to get me" or "the black helicopters are coming" "the world is against me" what ever the case might be.

my cup is half full, how full is yours?

 
o where are you pulling this "cancer and Alzheimer's" could be cured by 2010?

i would love to read it, both my great grandma, and great grandpa suffered from alzhimer's....
 
So a forty year old guy who spent 10+ years pursuing a PHD in infectious disease... can just go find another job that pays more.
 
but would there be any jobs for you if the everyone involved in medical research was laid off? everyone would be scrambling for new jobs associated with what they have studied already and most would be going back to college to get a new degree.

think
 
but would there be any jobs for you if the everyone involved in medical research was laid off? everyone would be scrambling for new jobs associated with what they have studied already and most would be going back to college to get a new degree.

think of how populated third world countries are already with diseases killing how ever many people a minute. i could honestly see the government not allowing all the diseases in third worlds to be cured just because of that and besiudes, by the time every modern disease was cured, old ones would be resistant and new ones would arise. to answer the question i dont think it will ever happen
 
ok so you are smart enough to have helped cure a disease? but you cant run a company? work in some sort of tech industry?

think.

how many people do you know are doing EXACTLY what their college education trained them for?

o and when the time comes that EVERY disease is cured, lets go on to animals, there are SO many medical, scientific mystery's in this world, we really are NOT running out of problems..

this goes to Rowen too, because you guys sorta echoed each other's posts...

seriously can you guys do me the honor of answering ONE question?

are your cups half full? or half empty?
 
i never thought about the veterinarian point of view. i guess my cup is half full in that i believe we can have develope cures for most diseases in the future, it just depends on what diseases can become resistant to medicine and how rapidly we see new diseases develop. its a hard question to answer but yea i guess you could say half full
 
sorry but it you reaaally wanted to get into that.. hate to say it but that 5 million dollars was most likely given for PR, not a benevolent gift
 
i asked rowen a question "do you think corporations will block medical advancements"?

then i said "HAHA" (take note at that) "i have a hilarious story about evil corporations"

evil corporations is the exact words my friends cousin used to describe "ALL corporations".... the scary thing is he just graduated college..

now how close minded and just plane WRONG of a view point is that? HORRIBLY WRONG, sure there are bad corporations, there are even "evil" corporations, but "all corporations" are bad.... no, that is just a WRONG, and misinformed viewpoint...
 
Look, thats great for your cousin, but thats neither here nor there for this argument. I never said corporations were evil, so please, stop trying to make this into some politically charged debate about the will of corporations.
 
as a guy currently in graduate school going for a PHD in cell and molecular biology, I can tell you that we have already passed the golden age.

The 90s saw a huge boom of different patents on god knows how many different drugs. Hundreds of small biotech companies started up as a result, but now all those patents are expiring and these companies have nothing else that makes money and are being swallowed up by the big pharma companies. There are far fewer patent applications now because all the drugs for "easily curable" diseases were obviously found first. There are also fewer drugs making it through clinical trials because of higher standards of the FDA.

Because of the very low percentage of drugs that actually make it through the patent process and how incredibly expensive it is, pharma companies are playing it safe and pushing only the drugs with the highest likelyhood of making it thru the clinical trials. This usually means a slight modification on an already existing drug. This ultimately prevents scientists from taking risks and thus reduces the likelihood of any significant breakthroughs.

I could go on but I'll leave it at that for now.

 
DAMMIT, how many times do i have to say it? I NEVER SAID YOU DID say anything about corporations, that is why i asked you "do you think corporations would try and block the cure of diseases ...

it was a "funny story"

you know A STORY!

also, not trying to be a dick or anything, but i have done my best to answer your posts, would you honor me by gracing my post with the answer to a simple question that i have asked at least twice ?

is your cup half full? or half empty?

im sorry that you are so dam defensive on the subject, i explained why i asked it, and i was hoping you would take my post at face value, but i guess not.
 
"call me an optimist, but my cup is half full.

really are you trying to get at the "evil corporations" will block medical advancements?"

again, just say "yes" or "no" or something to the effect!

all you did when i asked this question is "whine whine whine, dont say that word ehhhhhh"

i also explained why i called them "evil" so READ MY POSTS (in the words of you) i asked a simple question, so take it as one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
i don't know yet if i'll go into industry or stay in academia. either way it wont be as glamorous as many think it is. im gonna be poor for a good while and unless I'm one of the top scientists, engineers will probably make a lot more money then me. oh well. we'll see what happens.
 
chris rock @ 3:11

He's got a point, we're not going to cure shit from now on, we'll make illness livable -- make it so you just take a pill to keep the disease from killing you

did everyone forget about the thread a while ago about researchers in Canada who had found a 'cure for cancer' but because it'd be open to the generic market, it wasn't going to be produced.

we won't reach the golden age of medicine until medicine is removed from the sphere of commodity.

Personally i'd rather we figure out a better way to handle the basic needs of human life first,ie. make sure people aren't dieing from dehydration, malnourishment FIRST then we can start worrying about cancer and aids. To me medicine today is working from the top down-- starting with the most superficial 'ailments' of society, and ignoring the vast majority of people who suffer from the most unfortunate disease -- poverty.

 
do you love life?

is "life good" ?

do you have the a mind set of an optimist? or a fatalist?

do you believe that you can accomplish ANY DREAM YOU HAVE ? no matter how big..

do you look at a difficult situation and go "fuck my life" , "fuck the world", "the man is out to get me" or stuff along those lines?

or do you see adversity as a learning situation where you are being given the opportunity to learn form the situation?

is life good Rowen? or does life suck balls?

because NO matter the situation, "life can be good" in the mind of an optimist. (for the most part, but i hope you know what i am getting at, but just in case let me give you some examples)

one of my best friends from work was HOMELESS! i mean 100% fucking homeless, at the age of 15, but Ben being Ben... he found good, and he made good choices, he was still happy! now he is almost exactly the same as any other 18 year old...

 
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