Alison Krauss - If I Didn't Know Any Better
1. When I first saw this discussion of abolishing suffering, I thought, "Ugh. This is why I don't spend time at ACX (or the EA forums). I even started writing a post against it (heck, the company is even called "far out"). But then I realized it would be irrational to badmouth something I hadn't fully read or considered.
Well, I'm glad I read it. I would give long odds (1,000:1 or more) that nothing will come of these particular efforts. Humans are, in general, just too conservative / squeamish / irrational. Even worse, we rationalize and even glorify suffering.
With that said, I believe the vast majority of people are doing less-worthwhile things than Pearce, Sparks, Kowrygo, etc.
This review, IMO, is definitely worth your time. (Unless you haven't done enough exercise for the week; more and more, I've come to realize that good exercise is the best use of our time, up to a point; link to mentioned videos.)
2. The Buddhist* Drug: Why Does Ozempic Cure All Diseases?
More: A 5-year observational study of ~12,000 individuals with obesity taking GLP-1 drugs (without diabetes) with propensity-matched controls:
A significant reduction of all-cause mortality (HR 0.23, 95% CI 0.15, 0.34)
Over the course of five years, obese people in the control group had a 3.5% chance of dying. Similar people in the group that took GLP-1 drugs (like Ozempic) had only a 0.75% chance of dying.
What's more, they found that the GLP-1 group had a lower risk of ischemic heart disease, heart failure, arrhythmias, hypertension, stroke, atrial fibrillation, acute kidney injury, and allergic reactions.
*Buddhism: Desire is the root of all suffering.
Please consider forwarding this to a friend or enemy.
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| Siena, Italy. That's a lot of gargoyles! |
2 comments:
Hi Matt,
I think GLP drugs are really cool. But not because they're good drigs, but because they help people eat less, which in turn drives fat loss.
One challenge I see in general, is that peole who diet tend not to eat enough protein. They go high on carbs, and we have all been trained to eat low fat. I think people would be healthier in general if they ate more protein and fewer carbs.
That's hard to do on a vegan or vegetarian diet, especially if it is a diet that does not allow dairy.
Even diabetes, which so many people think is caused by glucose or sugar, I believe has a large component of obesity as causal. Insulin doens't store only sugar. IT also stores excess fat floating around. So it may be simply excess calories that's driving diabetes. It's very complicated physiologically, and simple answers have not been found.
This is all based on years of experience and internet "research," with a heavy dose of confirmation bias.
Best,
Tony
Tony!
Nice to hear from you. How's the family?
I definitely agree with you. Protein is our main focus here.
https://www.mattball.org/2023/08/our-ego-hurts-animals.html
https://www.mattball.org/2022/09/my-current-take-on-nutrition.html
Trying to have more muscle and less blubber.
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