My guess: most of them. - Paul Buchheit

Bear in mind that Amundsen, who beat Scott to the South Pole, had already figured it out, and he and his men didn't suffer from scurvy. http://www.amazon.com/gp... - Piaw Na

I don't know, I'm starting to see a lot of these problems as symptoms of societal disease rather than just individual pathology. The solutions will probably be conceptually simple, but will involve a lot of sacrifice, and a lot of redefining of what our society considers desirable. It's the implementation of a simple solution that always proves challenging. - Victor Ganata

But there ain't no cure for the summertime blues. - Josh Haley

here's one thing that could be doing more harm to us than we know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki... - Gus

Heh "tl;dr: scurvy bad, science hard" - Victor Ganata

This is an amazing essay. I learned a lot. - Stephen Mack

Our most common treatment for cancer involves injecting toxins into the body and expecting the cancer cells to die first. I suspect we'll look back on that as sheer lunacy as well. - DGentry

I wonder how many of those ailments are simply due to having a diagnosis. Time was, you weren't autistic, you were shy or retarded. You weren't obese, you were fat or lazy. - Gabe

DGentry: Almost all medicines work that way though. You add something that is toxic to the thing you want to get rid of, but not quite toxic enough to kill the bits you don't. - Otto

For every ailment there is a cure, the trick is how to find the cure that does the least amount of harm. - Shakeel Mahate

I wouldn't be surprised at all to learn that a majority of afflictions today to be environmental in nature. We humans have a terrific zeal for implementing all kinds of technology without full (or fair) examination of the impact it might have directly (or otherwise); interaction with factors seemingly beyond the scope of study have often been concluded as causal. - ɐ ɯıʞ sıɹɥɔ from BuddyFeed

"...a striking demonstration of the problem of induction." Yep. Induction before deduction. - Greg Biggers

"They had a theory of the disease that made sense, fit the evidence, but was utterly wrong. They had arrived at the idea of an undetectable substance in their food, present in trace quantities, with a direct causative relationship to scurvy, but they thought of it in terms of a poison to avoid. In one sense, the additional leap required for a correct understanding was very small. In another sense, it would have required a kind of Copernican revolution in their thinking. It was pure luck that led to the actual discovery of vitamin C." - Clare Dibble

With regard to autism, hypertension, obesity, and depression, we do have an advantage over the state of affairs with regards to scurvy in the 19th century-early 20th century--we know something about the pathophysiology of these conditions. We know at least some of the molecules involved, and some of the physiologic processes that cause these conditions. We have theories about synaptic receptors and neuronal migration with regards to brain development and the interactions of neuroendocrine hormones with arterial smooth muscle and with calcium release, we have ideas about excessive caloric intake and inflammatory mediators. In some cases, we even know how to treat the conditions with at least some success. What we don't have is an easy, quick fix that doesn't require a lot of effort. We could, of course, still be missing some crucial factor that would make treatment foolproof, but a lot of problems don't have simple solutions, and for those that do, a lot of simple solutions are difficult to implement. - Victor Ganata

Synchronicity. A couple weeks ago Wikipedia featured that South Pole expedition on its front page. I was reading it and was stunned that scurvy was an issue, which led me to read up on scurvy, etc. But this entry really helps clear up that question for me. Thanks! - Spidra Webster

Victor, I love your posts & comments and miss them when you're gone. You make my brain hurt. In a good way. - Spidra Webster

A secondary theme in the article concerns our seemingly limitless ability to embrace any technological innovation as an unquestioned improvement, with no "downside" whatsoever, over how things were done previously. Cooking, boiling, pasteurizing, distilling... all were innovations with clear benefits, but each process also causes a reduction of some valuable component of a healthy diet. In the last century we have drastically altered our agricultural methods, relying on monoculture + pesticides to greatly increase yields, but at a cost to crop diversity, nutrient content, etc. Meanwhile, so much is unknown about the long-term and wide-range effects of pesticides on the environment--and thereby on humans and all organisms up and down the food chain--that we're really just playing a game of roulette. And when there is some indication of a problem, the first inclination seems to default toward denial and disbelief. To do otherwise threatens profits, of course. We are highly resilient as a species, which has enabled us to survive. But that quality also helps to obscure the fact that something we're eating/drinking/breathing may be harming us. That which doesn't kill you doesn't always make you stronger... it may just need more time (or, genetically, a few more generational recursions.) - Mark J Severely Corny

http://ff.im/oOdNy Hello Paul, is said by many that our beloved FriendFeed could close. These days many people are alarmed and are intended as Cliqset different social networks. For my part I hope that FF will continue its excellent service, that even better with new initiatives since it is more than a year that no longer run no news. Can you tell us something? Friendfeed will remain open? Sorry if I write here, but it is the fastest way to contact you. PICCHU - PICCHU