[Anatolii]

Who is Bill Mahr?

-Arrian

[Boripiomi]

Living healthy is a huge preventative. And is often under emphasized. That being said, he sounds like a quack.

I have personal experience that by living healtthily you can stop having high blood pressure. Christianity (and some other religions) really do have the theme of living healthily within them, but people start focusing on the rules (which are sometimes silly to a modern person) rather than on the theme.

JM

[occalmnab]

Originally posted by DirtyMartini
Weird polical opposition to the drug companies? More like a person who has smoked way too much pot, and probably taken too much other drugs, and is opposed to the drug companies. And it's too bad because we need more opposition to drug companies.

[Ambassador]

Arrian --

Maher is an ultra lefty former stand-up comedian, current political/comedy talk show host. He has a show on HBO (showtime?) called Real Talk. He's like the Rush Limbaugh of the left. Conspiracy theorist. Militant atheist. Bush hater. Espuser of unsubstantiated claims and wild assumptions galore. Blah, blah, blah. I used to find his show mildly amusing, but even before this whole heath thing, he seemed to have gone off the deep end. He's also a complete jerk to his guests, who are usually middle of the road celebrities and political wonks. He did get Bill Richardson to come on for a week though.


Originally posted by SlowwHand


You've answered your own question. I don't think so -- it's a whole different attitude when he's talking about the health thing. He drops the snarky a-hole persona to a great degree. He really seem to think he's doing the world a huge service by telling everyone to get off their meds.

JM-

totally agree with you. The best thing to do for your health is to quit smoking or don't start. Also wear your seatbelt. After that -- eat healthy, exercise reguarly, and maintain a healthy weight. Those things can eliminate or reduce the need for antihypertensives or cholesterol lowering agents -- that's a very good thing. But he's saying stuff like -- don't take antimalarials when travelling to the tropics, or that he is absolutely immune to influenze. That is pure craziness and can be scientifically disproven.

edit: Thanks Imran, was wondering why the google search turned up so little

[Onervemurce]

Modern medicine has a lot of limitations, which aren't often mentioned. That said, it sounds like Maher is attacking modern medicine in some of the areas in which it is strongest, and the alternatives weakest.

[brandiweb]

Originally posted by Patroklos
Yeah, I hate new medical breakthroughs too Oh, I like medical breakthroughs. I just don't want them to be dependant on how much money someone can make from them.

[Edisesyethisp]

Originally posted by DanS
Modern medicine has a lot of limitations, which aren't often mentioned. That said, it sounds like Maher is attacking modern medicine in some of the areas in which it is strongest, and the alternatives weakest. Absolutely --

On one hand, you've the "fix me now, pill/surgery for everything, I have no responsibility for my own health" attitude which regards modern medicine as infallible. This is not good.

On the other hand, you have Christian Scientists, scientologists and now Maher saying that all medicine is bad and that God, thetans or clean-living pwn all disease -- forget modern medicine.

I guess the latter attitude would massively reduce health care expenditures, but it's incredibly naive, utterly insulting to the health care profession as a whole, and frankly dangerous.

I guess such an approach could sort of work in the U.S. where lifestyle influenced diseases such as heart disease, smoking and diabetes are huge problems. But he seems to be quite focused on infectious disease -- the leading killer worldwide, one of the more successful areas of modern pharmacy, and only under control in the US in the first place because of advances in medical care.

[agildeta]

Clean living can help against infection.

JM

[RlUbQU3R]

Well, I think that there is evidence that lot sof vitamens and other stuf f(like the stuff in green tea) fights infection or disease taht gets into your body. By this, I mean, if you are close to someone with the flu/etc.

I don't know about all diseases (and I would guess not), but being healthy at least rediduces your chance to have catch the disease or have cancer (cells mutate all the time, it is just most of the time our body kills them or makes them not harmful before they go overboard and take over our body).

JM

[zlZ95pjt]

Originally posted by DirtyMartini


There is evidence to support this. Like I've said. If I could be granted one wish in order to improve overall health in the US and Canada and decrease health care spending at the same time, that wish would be that each and every person eat healthy, exercise and maintain a normal weight. So you'll leave the good stuff alone?

[prowsnobswend]

I looked for the Mahar bit on YouTube but couldn't find it. I'm curious to hear how this message was delivered b/c it sounds just entirely too nutty.

[preachadaq]

I checked for the Letterman as well.

Dates they aired may help (or somebody like LS ).

[Feelundseenna]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpcSePrIwbA

that should be the link based on the comments below the youtube entry.

It's Maher, Feb 8, part 6

sorry, don't know how to post the actual clickable video thing.

[VoriEremiagem]

I think that's why I found it so scary. It's easy to dismiss rampant couch-jumpers as silly loons. Comedic talk show hosts who go out of their way to bring up such a topic and discuss it with such seriousness are scary.

[sisuarmalmicy]

Originally posted by DirtyMartini


There is evidence to support this. Like I've said. If I could be granted one wish in order to improve overall health in the US and Canada and decrease health care spending at the same time, that wish would be that each and every person eat healthy, exercise and maintain a normal weight. Likely the incidence of most diseases (cardiovascular, cancer, infectious included) would decrease.

Imagine that you cut your hand while preparing your organically grown brussel sprouts to refresh you after your 20 mile bike ride to protest at the tobacco farm. You wash your hand with soap -- a non medical and very effective antimicrobial measure, yet, in several days your wound is puffy and red. Good old stapholococcus aureus has set up shop. After a week of clean livin' your arm is red, the wound is draining foul-smelling pus and you're running a fever. The infection is creeping up your arm in angry red streaks and your body is wracked with uncontrollable shaking and chills. You begin to hallucinate and it is difficult to breath. Do you take the freaking antibiotic?

That's all I'm saying. Nice trolling though. Oh, I use drugs. I am jus tsaying that people don't appreciate how great healthy living can be.

JM

[CelexaNY]

Well, from that clip you can tell that he's not into vaccines or homeopathy.

[MilenaMKB]

Maher has gone off the deep end on this, almost like Michael Moore has become his Svengali.

I understand and even agree with his main points -- that over-reliance on prescription meds can lead to complications through drug interactions and such, and that the pharma companies are given way too much latitude in promoting new medications (ask your doctor!) that have hefty lists of side effects and a very short history. And I think all Americans are well aware that the high stakes and substantial lobbying power of the medical/pharma/insurance industries are the major barriers to a national health care system.

But the whole "modern medical science = evil cabal" thing has some shock power, he needs to be careful about how deep he gets into this. It's one thing to point out the silliness of marketing hype. But when a big part of your Bush-era rap has been about protecting peer-reviewed science from the evil creationists, it seems odd to jump down so hard against medical science.

Have another toke, Bill.

[Galsteinbok]

He's a nutter. Nuff said.

[swwatch]

I'm not debating whether we should have it, nor do I deny there's opposition to it, DanS. That would be off topic. I'm just stating that these are major barriers to it ever happening. Try to keep up.