| We live in amazing times when it comes to | | | | this century and recent studies have warned |
| medical advances. In our media-centric world, we | | | | about the overwhelming numbers of patients |
| have a tendency to focus on disease outbreaks | | | | expected to be diagnosed with dementia and |
| or what seems like ever increasing odds of | | | | related afflictions in coming years. If modern |
| contracting cancer, but we never really stop to | | | | medicine is so effective, why are we seeing this? |
| put these facts in context. Certainly we have | | | | Once again, a little context goes a long way. |
| seen some significant outbreaks. SARS was a | | | | It’s not that modern medicine is failing us. On |
| major concern only a few years ago, causing | | | | the contrary, there have been so many medical |
| chaos in many parts of the world, including North | | | | advances that more people are now living longer. |
| America. But the death toll was measured in | | | | And in living longer, their odds of being affected |
| hundreds, perhaps thousands worldwide. The H1N1 | | | | by conditions that are known to strike most |
| (or Swine) flu, declared a pandemic influenza by | | | | frequently in elderly individuals -dementia and |
| the World Health Organization, generated a year | | | | cancers being perfect examples- have been |
| and counting of anxious parents and nervous | | | | increased. In other words, some cancers and |
| governments. Again, the death toll, considering the | | | | Alzheimer’s seemed less common fifty years |
| scope of the outbreak, has been extremely | | | | ago because people were dying before they’d |
| modest. In comparison, the 1918 influenza | | | | lived long enough to be affected. |
| pandemic killed anywhere from 50 million to 100 | | | | Medical researchers have already begun to tackle |
| million people worldwide. Was the 1918 flu any | | | | these age old scourges and progress continues to |
| more virulent than H1N1? Possibly, It likely | | | | be made. Diseases like HIV, which were a virtual |
| wasn’t any more deadly than SARS, though. | | | | death sentence only a few decades ago, are now |
| So what explains the dramatically different death | | | | largely manageable. Stem cell research holds a |
| tolls, especially since conditions today are even | | | | great deal of promise in the treatment of a wide |
| more favorable for disease transmission (i.e., rapid | | | | range of diseases and conditions ranging from |
| and frequent travel along with increased population | | | | cancer to heart disease, diabetes and spinal cord |
| and greater population density). The answer is | | | | injuries. And then there’s the potential of |
| advances in medical treatment. | | | | nano technology. I predict that many of us will |
| What about that cancer, dementia and | | | | look back on this century as the golden age of |
| Alzheimer's? It seems that the odds of being | | | | medical advances. |
| stricken by cancer in your lifetime has increased | | | | |