Humanities Devolution
Recent studies show that the average person has more medical issues than ever before
In a world of identity politics and pandemics, I find it a bit ironic that more people don’t tribalize around their chronic diseases. I’m not trying to say, I have anything against those in good health, they are definitely a minority though. At least according to “The Lancet”, a weekly peer reviewed general medical journal: That reported in 2013, over 95% of the world’s population has health problems, with a third having more than 5 ailments.
During this historical moment of facemasks and lockdowns, how do you protect yourself against low testosterone, autism, or auto-immune disorders? While you cannot be infected with any of the above, these chronic health conditions have been trending upwards. According to the American Autoimmune Related Diseases Association (AARDA), an advocacy group in East Detroit, an estimated 50 million Americans suffer from an autoimmune related disease. In a study by the Journal of Sexual Medicine, it is estimated that testtorone rates for men in the U.S. have dropped around 25% in the last two decades. The rate of autism has gone from 1 in 150 in 2000, to 1 in 54 in 2020 according to CDC studies.
It’s not difficult to pinpoint the underlying causes of these issues. It would just be a long list of vices, that you would hate me for making you read, you know the usual suspects, lack of sleep, stress, obesity, smoking, drugs and the like. In so many ways the accelerating rate of chronic diseases, are just the grand total of a society that has substituted caffeine for sleep, drugs for exercise, and fast food for real food.
Autism, low testosterone and auto-immune disorders, used to be fairly rare until as recently as the late 1980’s. During that period only 1 in 2500 people had autism, testosterone levels were about 40% higher, and autoimmunity related diseases were only starting to be noticed by medical professionals.
Drawing parallels from that timeframe, it’s easy to see how the world shifted during this period. The global population was still at around a cushy 5 billion people, Japan was really the only industrialized East Asian nation, and the former Soviet Union was still rebuilding from the ashes of their collapse. Of course much of that would change in the 1990’s, ever since President Nixon opened up relations with China, and the impact of factory pollution has skyrocketed along with technological progress.
It would be dishonest and irresponsible though, to lay all the fault at the feet of pollution. When other contributing factors such as obesity, alcohol, smoking and drug use, are far more prevalent factors in developing these issues. I think it’s imperative that people understand that you can transmit your bad habits through your genetics, and I hope you take that into consideration when researching these trends.
The major issue is that these health concerns are nowhere near isolated. Issues that stem from low testosterone are directly linked to issues with male fertility and sperm count. According to a 2017 study, by the Hebrew University-Hadassah Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Jerusalem, men’s sperm count in America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, have dropped more than 50% since the late 1970’s. In a world already struggling with procreation, this makes the dropping testosterone levels a matter of survival.
After controlling for external factors, such as age, race, BMI, smoking, alcohol use, and physical activity. Investigators from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES), found in 2016 that the mean average of testtorone rates dropped from 605.39 nanograms per deciliter in 2000, to 451.22 ng/dL in 2016. According to the American Urological Association (AUA), a male with a testosterone level below 300 ng/dL, should be diagnosed with low testosterone.
Low testtorone levels have also been linked to multiple auto-immunity disorders, such as diabetes, sarcoidosis, histiocytosis, tuberculosis. Even for men in their 20’s, low testosterone has become a prevalent issue. More and more young men are complaining to their doctors about their problems with energy levels, reduced muscle mass, irritability, depression and erectile dysfunction. It’s been reported in 2018, that 18% of men between the ages of 18-24 take Viagra for erectile dysfunction. While some of these men are using it for a “performance boost”, other young men are using it because of obesity and diabetes issues.
There have been studies that show testtorone actually protects men from auto-immune diseases, women are 3-9 times more likely, to suffer from autoimmune diseases than men. Women also get certain types of autoimmune diseases at higher rates and younger ages. Women also have higher rates for Auto-immune diseases like multiple sclerosis, grave’s disease, celiac disease, systemic lupus erythematosus, and rheumatoid arthritis.
What makes autoimmune diseases interesting, is that while being prone to autoimmune diseases is genetic, it’s still fairly vague what triggers an auto-immune response in the body: Which is when your immune system cannot distinguish between healthy tissue and potential antigens. It’s theorized that they are triggered via micro-organisms, like viruses and bacteria, there are currently 80 different types of autoimmune diseases on record. Because most autoimmune diseases are linked with the immune system: Most treatments focus on reducing immune system activity, which results in exhaustion and a host of other side effects; autoimmune diseases are usually chronic and generally cannot be cured.
Another condition that cannot be cured, but still has multiple treatment options is: Autism spectrum disorder. It’s also a condition we are a little bit more well informed on. While there is no single cause for autism, it is generally accepted that abnormalities in brain structure and function is the determining diagnosis factor. Genetic predisposition is also a leading cause of autism, for some, their autism can be associated with a neurological disorder such as Rett syndrome or fragile X syndrome. Most autistic children are usually diagnosed by the age of 3: Usually though exhibiting impairments in social interactions, communications, and restricted interests.
Autism is also unique in that a child’s environment, and external factors, can play a role in acquiring the condition. Beyond just the kinds of chemicals or food the child may be exposed to, other factors to consider are the father’s age, and drugs taken during the pregnancy. Mother’s with diabetes, premature birth, babies being born too soon after another sibling, have also been considered contributing factors to the development of autism. There have been no consistent statistics or studies so far though, that display which of these environmental factors have the greatest impact.
First diagnosed in 1943, autism was originally known as Kanner syndrome. Which when examined displayed a “specific pattern of abnormal behavior in children”, as described by Leo Kanner. Autism has been studied far more in-depth than auto-immune diseases, and yet there really is no conventional approach to dealing with autism either. Most effective therapies and interventions are individualized, with most autistic people responding well to highly structured, and specialized programs. Many of these programs can greatly reduce symptoms, and help people with autism in dealing with day to day life. Research has shown that the earlier an autistic individual starts receiving treatments, such as preschool or prior, the better off they will be in the long run.
As humanity walks down the path of technological advancement, it seems that the issue of chronic diseases seems to be walking down with it. While all of these conditions have widely available treatments, after decades of research, there still has not really been no cure found for most of them. Even our understanding of their origins are still limited. How do you combat illnesses that are both hereditary, and environmental, and trending upward?
Beyond healthy habits and lifestyle choices, there seems to be very few options in avoiding these problems, and even then are you just fighting an unstoppable tide? Every single year people seem to be getting married later, and conceiving children at older ages, and probably killing themselves with stress along the way.
The air that we breath, and the water that we drink, pays the true cost for all of this technological progress. Society is moving faster and faster into a world of toxic microplastics, chemical pollution and radioactive cellular frequencies, at this point genetic engineering may be our only saving grace. It’s kind of tragically humorous how environmentalists focus solely on the habitat, and animals, when they can point out much more personal consequences for the world humans are bringing their children into.