Last year, when I was diagnosed with brain cancer—the inoperable, incurable kind—I stumbled across a fascinating app called Yuka. It lets you scan the barcode of products (food and cosmetics) you’re considering purchasing, revealing what’s in them so you can make informed choices. One of the most stunning realizations I had was how much of our food is filled with endocrine-disrupting chemicals, carcinogenic compounds, and/or chemicals that harm the microbiota. I wonder when “science” will recognize that the massive overload of these tiny chemicals in everything we consume is wreaking havoc on our bodies.
Several weeks ago, I uploaded before-and-after photos of my brain scans to X—one from when I was diagnosed with brain cancer in December 2023 and one from last month. Unbeknownst to me, I was uploading them to an AI that could analyze the two images. The AI immediately noted the “remarkable neuroplasticity” apparent between the two scans. That was the most positive feedback I’ve received from anyone. To have something—or someone—tell you that what you’re doing is working and that you’re improving is incredibly encouraging. My oncologist, on the other hand, only asked, “What kind of vitamin did you take?” as if that explained it, followed by, “When do you want to come back for another scan?”
I’m doing fine now because our bodies have an incredible ability to heal themselves. That’s another thing science hasn’t fully figured out, but we are pretty amazing.
I really dislike these "just do better" takes about obesity.
If you take an organism and evolve it over half a million years to prefer a particular type of nutritional stimulus *and* make that stimulus available in cycles of scarcity in abundance *and* the organism develops physiological methods to buffer nutrients in order to smooth those cycles. And if you then take away those cycles you're going to get that buffer being overrun. As sure as the day is long.
Yes, humans can use their rational faculties to override those behaviours, if they're lucky enough to be in the right circumstances, for some amount of time.
But at a population level, no. It just can't happen. The only solution is to use our rational faculties to ameliorate things at a population level.
This is all true, but not due to a limitation in AI but rather a limitation in healthcare. No one denies that access to healthcare saves lives, but there is a strong diminishing return. Most of the money is spent on services that have no proven value.
To achieve greater health, we have to focus more on lifestyle. A great example is comparing China to the U.S. China has caught up to the U.S. in life expectancy, but spends about $672.45 per capita on healthcare vs $13,432 per capita in the U.S. China is also much poorer per capita than the U.S., which disproves that low income has to be a primary driver of poor health outcomes.
To boost our life expectancy to compete with Japan or Sweden, AI is not going to get us there. We need to go back to basics, but don’t expect a revolution soon. No one makes big money helping people achieve better lifestyles.
AI assistance in colonoscopies is doing nothing but increasing the cost. The number of "polyps" that end up being benign mucosa has increased enormously. This increases the cost for the patient, doctor and insurance. I hope someone is "teaching" AI that not everything that appears to be a polyp is actually a polyp. I don't know how much over-diagnosing it is doing in radiology, but the over-diagnosing of "polyps" is ridiculous.
Once you get addicted to ultra-processed food, added sugar in everything, tobacco, vaping, alcohol and other mind-altering substances, plus a virtual, sedentary existence, it is tough to make a change, and your 15 minutes with your doctor is not gonna do it. Never was. I think most people know that these are unhealthy habits. The change comes from personal responsibility.
People make poor decisions in America regarding health. AI won’t give them self discipline to exercise, get off the couch, turn off the tv, put down the junk food-soda, stop smoking anything….. I Agree with you
Last year, when I was diagnosed with brain cancer—the inoperable, incurable kind—I stumbled across a fascinating app called Yuka. It lets you scan the barcode of products (food and cosmetics) you’re considering purchasing, revealing what’s in them so you can make informed choices. One of the most stunning realizations I had was how much of our food is filled with endocrine-disrupting chemicals, carcinogenic compounds, and/or chemicals that harm the microbiota. I wonder when “science” will recognize that the massive overload of these tiny chemicals in everything we consume is wreaking havoc on our bodies.
Several weeks ago, I uploaded before-and-after photos of my brain scans to X—one from when I was diagnosed with brain cancer in December 2023 and one from last month. Unbeknownst to me, I was uploading them to an AI that could analyze the two images. The AI immediately noted the “remarkable neuroplasticity” apparent between the two scans. That was the most positive feedback I’ve received from anyone. To have something—or someone—tell you that what you’re doing is working and that you’re improving is incredibly encouraging. My oncologist, on the other hand, only asked, “What kind of vitamin did you take?” as if that explained it, followed by, “When do you want to come back for another scan?”
I’m doing fine now because our bodies have an incredible ability to heal themselves. That’s another thing science hasn’t fully figured out, but we are pretty amazing.
I really dislike these "just do better" takes about obesity.
If you take an organism and evolve it over half a million years to prefer a particular type of nutritional stimulus *and* make that stimulus available in cycles of scarcity in abundance *and* the organism develops physiological methods to buffer nutrients in order to smooth those cycles. And if you then take away those cycles you're going to get that buffer being overrun. As sure as the day is long.
Yes, humans can use their rational faculties to override those behaviours, if they're lucky enough to be in the right circumstances, for some amount of time.
But at a population level, no. It just can't happen. The only solution is to use our rational faculties to ameliorate things at a population level.
This is all true, but not due to a limitation in AI but rather a limitation in healthcare. No one denies that access to healthcare saves lives, but there is a strong diminishing return. Most of the money is spent on services that have no proven value.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35447356/#:~:text=Results:%20Of%201%2C567%20eligible%20interventions,and%20harms%20are%20under%2Dreported.
To achieve greater health, we have to focus more on lifestyle. A great example is comparing China to the U.S. China has caught up to the U.S. in life expectancy, but spends about $672.45 per capita on healthcare vs $13,432 per capita in the U.S. China is also much poorer per capita than the U.S., which disproves that low income has to be a primary driver of poor health outcomes.
To boost our life expectancy to compete with Japan or Sweden, AI is not going to get us there. We need to go back to basics, but don’t expect a revolution soon. No one makes big money helping people achieve better lifestyles.
“Obviously, the drug revolution is helping with obesity” —really?
Interesting a former JAMA editor still sings the same song.
AI assistance in colonoscopies is doing nothing but increasing the cost. The number of "polyps" that end up being benign mucosa has increased enormously. This increases the cost for the patient, doctor and insurance. I hope someone is "teaching" AI that not everything that appears to be a polyp is actually a polyp. I don't know how much over-diagnosing it is doing in radiology, but the over-diagnosing of "polyps" is ridiculous.
Once you get addicted to ultra-processed food, added sugar in everything, tobacco, vaping, alcohol and other mind-altering substances, plus a virtual, sedentary existence, it is tough to make a change, and your 15 minutes with your doctor is not gonna do it. Never was. I think most people know that these are unhealthy habits. The change comes from personal responsibility.
People make poor decisions in America regarding health. AI won’t give them self discipline to exercise, get off the couch, turn off the tv, put down the junk food-soda, stop smoking anything….. I Agree with you