math odds why people are not protesting over cancer and Heart disease?

[nec209]

So I was looking at this web site today showing odds in person life time some one dying. I’m shocked most people fear fire, Motor-vehicle crash and airplane crash , yet people do not show the same fear over cancer and heart disease and they have a way higher chance of dying.

Looking at the table.

Motor-vehicle crash    1 in 106

So if you have 106 people that live on your street one person will die in car crash in their life time.

Fire or smoke        1 in 1,399

Well if there is 1,399 people that live on your street one person will die in their life time.

Choking on food    1 in 2,618

Well if there is 2,618 on your street one person will die in their life time 

But looking at this Cancer 1 in  7

So if you have 7 people that live in your house one person will die.

And hear disease is 1 in 6

Web site data source I got it from..

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/all-injuries/preventable-death-overview/odds-of-dying/
 

 

 

Edited February 1, 2021 by nec209

[iNow]

4 minutes ago, nec209 said:

I’m shocked most people fear fire, Motor-vehicle crash and airplane crash , yet people do not show the same fear over cancer and heart disease and they have a way higher chance of dying.

And to understand why, you must consider which parts of our brain drive the fear response and what risks we faced in our ancestral past... which fears were selected for and how survival / avoidance of those fears was driven by acting without analytic thinking or reasoning... it was automatic / reflexive.

[Phi for All]

I don't think it's shocking at all. Cancer and heart disease take time, and time gives us hope. Knowing your restaurant meal could be culinary heaven one minute but leave you gasping for a life-sustaining breath the next can be panic-inducing and terrifying. Pain is part of it too. No medication to ease my pain when I'm being burnt up in a fire. 

[dimreepr]

Most people fear, what they've been taught to fear; the shocking part is, it's incredibly easy to teach; all you need is a trusted adult.

And no means to question them...

[swansont]

Why would people be protesting any of this?

I think part of the fear has to do with things we have some control over. And, as Phi noted, immediate vs off in the remote future 

[Prometheus]

Are people more scared of crashes and burning than disease? Even if it's true of some people i suspect it's heavily dependent upon age and what's happening in your part of the world. 

[Phi for All]

15 minutes ago, swansont said:

Why would people be protesting any of this?

Ironically, if the protesters could hire dieticians to ensure a healthy diet, daily walking in a circle holding a sign could be the best way to lower your chances of cancer and heart disease. But I don't see most people being willing to give up behavior that puts them at risk for heart disease and cancer, much less demanding that it happen NOW!

[CharonY]

In addition, folks are going to die from something. Also, folks react more to things that have (seemingly) quick strategies to address, whereas as issues such as cancer and coronary heart disease require long-term changes which most are uncomfortable doing. In addition chronic respiratory disease can be linked to air quality, but we are not really doing enough to improve that either.

And even then, COVID-19 in the US has overtake coronary heart disease as cause of death for a few weeks and there are still folks denying its very existence. So there is that.

[John Cuthber]

"why people are not protesting over cancer and Heart disease?"
They did.
We no longer allow smoking in public places.

[nec209]

5 hours ago, swansont said:

Why would people be protesting any of this?

I think part of the fear has to do with things we have some control over. And, as Phi noted, immediate vs off in the remote future 

Well I think part of the problem is the world we are in today people are hooked on watching TV,  watching movies , playing video games, sports and more entertainment and pleasure.

This keeps people so busy they have little time to say oh I may die from this or that. It also some thing you can’t see or touch like you see in news like a house fire, crime, car crash or plane crash or building exploding. But cancer or heard disease would not make news.

We spend billions of dollars on entertainment and buying things. And rich people that have billions are drown in on the way too optimistic I will be alive for long time. Well they hooked on lifestyles and money high.

When comes to healthcare it is less sexy in the public eye than entertainment,  money and pleasure.

Well if the public was panicking and freaking out they would be huge hardship of giving up most all this entertainment and pleasure and really limiting this at all.

And people who have billions of dollars would not be thinking of running this addicting money high of keeping this money and wanting more and more money but be panicking and giving this money to scientists. 

So the way the human brain is built is design to make people way too optimistic I will be alive and will not be dying any time soon.

And governments around the world love to spend billions of dollars on wars and people like to spend billions of dollars on entertainment.

But spending money on cancer research and heart disease research and building hospitals and treatment places is less sexy in the public eye than entertainment.

One of shocking things I read when a scientist in a lab thinks this new drug may work or this new treatment may work can take any where from 5 to 10 years of testing to see if it will work or not. As they have to test it on slides first under a microscope than test It on mice that take long time than test it on people that take very long time.

Than people get mad at them they moving too slow. And society can spend billions of dollars on entertainment and along with government spending billions dollars on war.

 

8 hours ago, iNow said:

And to understand why, you must consider which parts of our brain drive the fear response and what risks we faced in our ancestral past... which fears were selected for and how survival / avoidance of those fears was driven by acting without analytic thinking or reasoning... it was automatic / reflexive.

Also could be in the past fires and wars where more common than today. And also factoring in the human body was not built to last to your 80th or 90th birth day.

Where most people in the old days would not live to their late 30s.

So in a way people are living longer now and are getting cancer where in the old days these people would be dead.

The human body was not built to last this long.

Edited February 1, 2021 by nec209

[iNow]

41 minutes ago, nec209 said:

The human body was not built to last this long.

It was built to last as long as it lasts, which is itself contingent on genes, diet, and exercise. 

Edited February 1, 2021 by iNow

[swansont]

1 hour ago, nec209 said:

But spending money on cancer research and heart disease research and building hospitals and treatment places is less sexy in the public eye than entertainment.

But we do spend money on research. It’s not like cancer research isn’t happening, or auto safety isn’t being improved.

And you point out the time factor. Additional money can’t speed up things that need time. 

[Arete]

If you look at the proportion of grown adults who will purchase scratcher lottery tickets, or think that the risk of the COVID vaccine outweighs the risk of contracting COVID, etc, etc, etc. You'll realize an astounding proportion of the human population has zero understanding of how odds ratios and statistical probability work. 

[zapatos]

3 hours ago, nec209 said:

Well I think part of the problem is the world we are in today people are hooked on watching TV,  watching movies , playing video games, sports and more entertainment and pleasure.

This keeps people so busy they have little time to say oh I may die from this or that.

This is where you and I differ.

Obsessing over whether I am going to die of this or that is generally a waste of life. You only go around once so enjoy it while you can.

Edited February 2, 2021 by zapatos

[nec209]

11 hours ago, zapatos said:

This is where you and I differ.

Obsessing over whether I am going to die of this or that is generally a waste of life. You only go around once so enjoy it while you can.

Well I don’t think people should be obsessing over it and people should get on with their life but people who have billions of dollars and governments that start wars and stop spending trillions of dollars on the wars and put it in say education,  healthcare,  research and building hospitals and stuff.

The problem is the human brain is wired to be way too optimistic. Some of that is good as we don’t want people panicking.  But If I was Bill Gates having billions of money and now his age putting 98% of his money into schools, education,  healthcare,  research, labs and building hospitals and stuff will not save him and probably not his kids but his grate grand kids may live to 120  If all the billionaires had this attitude

But I realize it hard to do it because people are drawn to entertainment and pleasure. And money is really powerful addicting  thing that changes people.

 

 

 

 

 

[dimreepr]

59 minutes ago, nec209 said:

Well I don’t think people should be obsessing over it and people should get on with their life but people who have billions of dollars and governments that start wars and stop spending trillions of dollars on the wars and put it in say education,  healthcare,  research and building hospitals and stuff.

The problem is the human brain is wired to be way too optimistic. Some of that is good as we don’t want people panicking.  But If I was Bill Gates having billions of money and now his age putting 98% of his money into schools, education,  healthcare,  research, labs and building hospitals and stuff will not save him and probably not his kids but his grate grand kids may live to 120  If all the billionaires had this attitude

But I realize it hard to do it because people are drawn to entertainment and pleasure. And money is really powerful addicting  thing that changes people.

The problem is, not all of us are contributing to life, whatever the hours we work.

 

You may as well ask, how does a token of food fill our bellies, better than food? 

If all the billionaire's, spent their money on feeding people, rather than filling their ego's; some of us may live another day...

[Prometheus]

13 hours ago, zapatos said:

Obsessing over whether I am going to die of this or that is generally a waste of life. You only go around once so enjoy it while you can.

I agree it's not something we should obsess over, but it's certainly something worth thinking about. As the stats show, there a relatively few sudden deaths so chances are death is something you will experience: the last thing. By spending some time thinking about the subject we can improve that experience  In my experience most people are woefully under prepared for that final experience.. 

[dimreepr]

If I had a super-power, "lucky me" would be at the top of the list...