It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
It was really fairly recent that we started living past 50.
soficrow
Nope. Lots of people used to live to 100 - like my Grandma, great-grandma etc - but high rates in infant deaths brought the averages way down. There is NO doubt that we're creating new pathogens and spreading them way more efficiently than ever before. Dementia is one outcome.
ACTUALLY, the average life span in 1900 was 49 years old.
It is forgetting.
mrsdudara
Dementia is not just simply forgetting. It is nerve damage which can be caused by a lot of things - drugs and alcohol use, B12 deficiencies, head injuries at any point in life can cause fluid to build in areas that eventually kill the nerves there. It can be caused by the vessels in the brain becoming hard, infections, or even issues with other organs.
we now have 60% more people living to a ripe old age
snarky412
reply to post by signalfire
It's time to have a real conversation about voluntary suicide when things get bad enough, take the 'sin' aspect out of it (thanks, church) and realize that sometimes, life isn't worth living anymore.
People don't hesitate to put their animals down when they start to suffer.
Yet, we keep our loved ones hanging on despite their miserable pain
Not belittling humanity but I have unfortunately seen loved ones suffer that we knew without a doubt was only going to get worse....and they did. So we ALL suffered thru the hell.
And when they died, we were relieved not only for ourselves but for our loved one who was going through the physical torture of pain.
Dying is the easy part
Losing a loved one is the hard part, hence why we tend to keep the sick hanging on despite their pain & misery -- and of course it's unethical to be able to release them from their hell
Although Dr. Kevorkian's way was frowned upon, I can see where he was helping families
Death is the answer some times when there is nothing left to do for them.
BDBinc
Oh please don't drop in the idea of euthanising/murdering people with dementia.
I guess you don't know its happening in some places to people with dementia as a cost cutting method .
Every single individual has the right to life, why tell people generally who should or shouldn't have the right to life. If you think about it there is much suffering and pain in the world but we don't propose murder as a solution for suffering or pain.
snarky412
BDBinc
Oh please don't drop in the idea of euthanising/murdering people with dementia.
I guess you don't know its happening in some places to people with dementia as a cost cutting method .
Every single individual has the right to life, why tell people generally who should or shouldn't have the right to life. If you think about it there is much suffering and pain in the world but we don't propose murder as a solution for suffering or pain.
And the flip side of the coin to your argument is who has the right to tell a person, if they so choose when/if the time comes, that they can't die?
Then you are taking that person's right away from them and placing it in the hands of hospitals and drug companies that only care about one thing.....$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$....
Have you seen a loved one close to you suffer like hell in pain and agony?
And knowing that they will only get worse until their time comes
I have.........and it's horrible to know that you can't do a damn thing about it.
BDBinc
It is forgetting.
mrsdudara
Dementia is not just simply forgetting. It is nerve damage which can be caused by a lot of things - drugs and alcohol use, B12 deficiencies, head injuries at any point in life can cause fluid to build in areas that eventually kill the nerves there. It can be caused by the vessels in the brain becoming hard, infections, or even issues with other organs.
It can be caused by many different insults to the brain( drugs, living un healthily, brain injury or just aging) .
The neural pathways are broken its simple really.
Why don't you like it simplified to forgetting .