Why do we have to be lucky to not get a shitty disease...

[Deleted]

So you hear about all kinds of people all over the world, this one has cancer, that one has a muscle weakening disease....


I just can't stand it's so random that people get sick...


Strokes and heart attacks are things you can control...


But should the rest of us wait? And see if we get cancer some day? Or a disease that slowly eats away at your neurological system?

I just hate that you can never tell if somebody is going to get a disease like that... something out of our control.

[Deleted]

Why worry? There is nothing you can do about it and even if they could predict your method of death, would you want to know?

[Deleted]

Feeling helpless is something we ultimately must come to accept.

[TequilaFlavor]

Because we're - in the end - insignificant and powerless little beings, compared to the universe or even this insignificant little planet.

Once you understood and accepted that you will live a much happier life.

[Darsithis]

For the most part, we live a lot longer than we did, diseases aside. In the past, we died to far more things:

- Easily treated infections from cuts/lacerations
- Wild animals
- Each other (far more often than today for most people)
- Starvation, famine, lack of clean water (dying animals in the water upstream could contaminate a lot of water)
- Mental issues that were diagnosed as possession or witchcraft
- Genetic disorders that couldn't even be fathomed, much less treated

Today we have eradicated piles of diseases, and many are survivable, even curable in ways that only a century ago didn't exist. For most developed countries our water is almost always clean and readily available. Medical care can extend the life of someone that might never have made it out of the womb before. Drugs can help control mental problems that 300 years ago would have had you burned at the stake.

I'd say we have a better chance at living today than we used to. Those same cancers and diseases have infected us for millennium, but now we're able to treat those disorders and provide a level of care and life expectancy that didn't exist before.

[oplawlz]

Lightning strikes and rabid squirrel attacks are pretty random too, do they keep you up at night?

[Dezerte]

Lightning strikes and rabid squirrel attacks are pretty random too, do they keep you up at night?

Great, thanks... now I won't be able to sleep tonight.

[Darsithis]

Great, thanks... now I won't be able to sleep tonight.

No worries. The dangers inside the house are worse. Besides the people you know and love who could snap at a moment's notice, you've got a variety of knives and poisons someone could push down your throat while you sleep. And spiders.

[LiiLoSNK]

There are many many things you can do to reduce the risk factors of getting almost all diseases. You probably know this, but it's your best bet towards coming to terms with this thing people call "Life".

[Calizari]

'Luck' has nothing to do with it. I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and just had a biopsy yesterday to rule out cancer in my thyroid...I will know hopefully by the end of the week.
Autoimmune diseases are not easy 'to reduce the risk factors of getting'. Some things we just have no control over. So many things they still have no clue about or cure for.

I agree that this is part of life...my mother had RA and Thyroid problems, and also cancer. The autoimmune stuff I am at a higher risk of getting just because the autoimmune diseases are more a hereditary thing it seems. Nothing I can do about it. But I am not going to think about it any more than I have to...I take my meds and try not to get myself into a rut that would only add depression to my problems...and another pill the doc would give me. No thanks, most of these pills have more side effects than the stinking disease they treat.
I do what I can, when I am able and hope for the best. In between the really bad painful days, I play WoW to have fun. I don't want anyone to feel sorry for me, just know that not everyone in this world is happy, healthy and playing at the top of their game at all times. It's just how it goes.

To the OP...I would say to live your life. You only get one chance, so make the best of it. Being positive is the best thing you can do for yourself and others (healthy or not). A positive attitude has more of an impact on your life (and those around you) than you realize.

Waiting not so patiently for Blizz to be done mucking up stuff so I can log on and play,

[Deleted]

Ok...it still sucks but alright.

I don't see why people spend so much time working and doing that with their life though, working is fine and all, but if you have one life....enjoy it?..

[Seirith]

Strokes and heart attacks are things you can control....

That isn't always true. My grandfather died of a heart attack and was a very healthy person. He was never over weight, ate the right foods (fruits,veggies,lean meats) and was always busy. He rarely sat because he was always doing something.

Two days before his heart attack he was doing volunteer work with the Salvation Army.

[Clockwork Pinkie]

Well, shit happens. I'm just glad I'm one of the lucky ones I guess (SO FAR!)

[Tziva]

The commonality of diseases like cancers are partly due to our increased longevity. The risk of cancer greatly increases as you age, and when people are living to 70 and onward, you will naturally have a huge increase in occurrence of something that might be seen far less in a population that seldom exceeds 40.

The same could be said for a lot of other age-related conditions. To be sure, many problems are the results of poor lifestyle choices that have come as a tradeoff for the same advancements in technology that have saved us from other kinds of deaths, but we're still biological creatures.

Viruses and bacteria want to survive just as much as we do

[Deleted]

Life is a losing struggle and no one makes it out alive. That's why we just have to make the most of the fleeting time we do have in the cosmos.

The mortal frame is a very feeble one. We're not built to last and unfortunately some of us are built with better building blocks than others. Super-healthy people might get a decade or two longer than somebody with a latent genetic disease or somebody who has the misfortune to contract a particularly nasty infection from some horrible germ, but we've all gotta die some time. Just try make sure you're in the best shape possible (or as in shape as you want to be) and focus on living, not eventually dying.

To quote Shawshank Redemption's Andy Dufresne: "Get busy living or get busy dying."

[hakujinbakasama]

Ok...it still sucks but alright.

I don't see why people spend so much time working and doing that with their life though, working is fine and all, but if you have one life....enjoy it?..

And yet, have you not seen how much people bitch about WoW on this site? At least this guy is "worried" about something /important/?

[Kasierith]

Life is a losing struggle and no one makes it out alive. That's why we just have to make the most of the fleeting time we do have in the cosmos.

The mortal frame is a very feeble one. We're not built to last and unfortunately some of us are built with better building blocks than others. Super-healthy people might get a decade or two longer than somebody with a latent genetic disease or somebody who has the misfortune to contract a particularly nasty infection from some horrible germ, but we've all gotta die some time. Just try make sure you're in best shape as possible (or as you want to be) and focus on living, not eventually dying.

To quote Shawshank Redemption's Andy Dufresne: "Get busy living or get busy dying."

Actually, through my rather rigorous studies of human physiology, its becoming more and more amazing just how adaptable and capable the human body is at surviving. Considering our physical side relative to the vast majority of organic life, its astounding that we're even able to retain homeostasis, much less fight off the myriad of other life that seeks to use our resources for their survival, and be able to adapt to the majority of problems that come our way. We probably generate a few hundred cancer cells a day, but our body is able to remove them. Even a relatively unhealthy person is at the high end of the survivability chain in life.

[Elodeon]

The OP has a point, and most of the above responses miss it.

Yes, we absolutely should not accept disease and death as a given. We have the means to overcome that, by investing heavily into biomedical sciences, which are relatively underdeveloped compared to their potential. Every cent we don't spend on biomedical research is a cent that adds to our death sentence.

We are hourglasses with less and less sand in them, every minute. There are near-infinite piles of sand right nearby, which we could be shoveling in, to top our hourglasses off. But we don't, because we are complacent. Instead, people wax poetically about needing to accept our powerlessness, being small in the universe, and defeatist shit like that.

[Sialanne]

You don't have to be lucky to not get a shitty disease. You have to be unlucky to get one in the first place.

[Deleted]

Actually, through my rather rigorous studies of human physiology, its becoming more and more amazing just how adaptable and capable the human body is at surviving. Considering our physical side relative to the vast majority of organic life, its astounding that we're even able to retain homeostasis, much less fight off the myriad of other life that seeks to use our resources for their survival, and be able to adapt to the majority of problems that come our way. We probably generate a few hundred cancer cells a day, but our body is able to remove them. Even a relatively unhealthy person is at the high end of the survivability chain in life.

Huh. Cool. =D
And, don't get me wrong, the human body is amazing! As are all living organisms (though some organisms exist pretty much exclusively to be scary assholes). It's just that we all have an expiration date and we inevitably wither and finally cease to function.