Hitchens Moves Closer To Death

[charlou]

Morbid thread is morbid...

yah.

[devogue]

Wish this thread would die.

[Coito ergo sum]

Wish in one hand, crap in the other. See which one fills up first.

[devogue]

Wish in one hand, crap in the other. See which one fills up first.

Probably the wish hand - this fucking soup diet has mothballed my anus.

[PsychoSerenity]

Is there a video of the June 4th debate mentioned on the first page? And if there is, perhaps it could go in a different thread? This one is rather morbid. We are all moving closer to death, but there's no reason to dwell on it. Or on dev's anus.

[Atheist-Lite]

Is there a video of the June 4th debate mentioned on the first page? And if there is, perhaps it could go in a different thread? This one is rather morbid. We are all moving closer to death, but there's no reason to dwell on it. Or on dev's anus.

Death is the greatest mystery. There is nothing morbid in the mind of the intelligent inquirer.

[Coito ergo sum]

One day the lights will go out for each of us. But, it will not be bothersome in the least. It will be like getting sedation at the hospital. Nothingness. It will be like it was before you were born. Nothingness. Nothing to fear.

"For removing from me all fear of death, I am thankful to atheism." I. Asimov.

[devogue]

One day the lights will go out for each of us. But, it will not be bothersome in the least. It will be like getting sedation at the hospital. Nothingness. It will be like it was before you were born. Nothingness. Nothing to fear.

Hopefully.

[Atheist-Lite]

One day the lights will go out for each of us. But, it will not be bothersome in the least. It will be like getting sedation at the hospital. Nothingness. It will be like it was before you were born. Nothingness. Nothing to fear.

Hopefully.

There's a special sub-routine in the simulation for those atheists who think death is the end, put there by the simulation programmer just for the lulz.

[mistermack]

One day the lights will go out for each of us. But, it will not be bothersome in the least. It will be like getting sedation at the hospital. Nothingness. It will be like it was before you were born. Nothingness. Nothing to fear.

"For removing from me all fear of death, I am thankful to atheism." I. Asimov.

That's exactly what the reasoning part of my brain tells me.
Unfortunately, my ancestors for the last 500 million years have only survived because they had an overwhelming fear of death, and they've passed that on to my subconscious. So no matter how much I reason about death being just like not being born, I’m still shit scared of it.
Not from logic, but from the hard wiring in my head.

You can overcome it with logic, or blind faith, but it’s still there in all of us.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I have a friend that is about to die of the same disease that Hitch has. The doctors thought they had caught it early and operated on him, removing half of his oesophagus, half of his stomach, and sewing the two together. The operation left him with an 8-foot scar that spiraled around his body from his groin, around his back and up to his throat - they peeled him like a fucking orange! But the cancer came back - it lurked in a few lymph-nodes and bided its time. So now, he is in as bad a state as Hitch - probably worse - because he is so weakened by the surgery that he is unable to do much more than lie there and wait for the disease to claim him. He is now a half the size that he was 3 months ago.

YES! It is fucking scary! Reason all you want to, it is fucking scary!

BUT! Reason has a hope of determining how to beat this disease, and others like it. Reason can make EVERY death - my friend, Christopher Hitchens, the woman with a funny shaped nose in the next bed - worthwhile - because every snippet of information that medical science learns about the mechanism and progress of a disease might just be the one that will one day make it as much a part of history as smallpox.

Religion won't do that. Faith won't do that. Prayer won't do that. God won't do that. Jesus won't do that. Mohammed won't do that (in any of his various spellings!) But science WILL! One day.

So it is right to fear. It is natural to fear. But it is also right to hope. Not to hope blindly in some Deus ex machina bolt from the blue - but to hope in medical science that every single day is making advances that mean that the next generation hs less to fear from the diseases that the previous generation viewed as a one-way ticket to the grave.

Don't get me wrong, we will still die, but we will get to do a whole lot more living before that day comes!

[mistermack]

Research indicates that physical activity after a diagnosis of breast cancer may be beneficial in improving quality of life, reducing fatigue (7), and assisting with energy balance. Both reduced physical activity and the side effects of treatment have been linked to weight gain after a breast cancer diagnosis. One study found that women who exercised moderately (the equivalent of walking 3 to 5 hours per week at an average pace) after a diagnosis of breast cancer had improved survival rates compared with more sedentary women. The benefit was particularly pronounced in women with hormone responsive tumors (10). Another study found that a home-based physical activity program had a beneficial effect on the fitness and psychological well-being of previously sedentary women who had completed treatment for early-stage through stage II breast cancer (11). Increasing physical activity may influence insulin and leptin levels and influence breast cancer prognosis.

Also, from another source:

For example, physical activity has been shown to reduce the risk of developing or dying from heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer, and high blood pressure. On average, people who are physically active outlive those who are inactive.

Obesity is Associated with an Increased Risk of: ..... cancer (endometrial, colon, kidney, esophageal, and postmenopausal breast cancer)

Regular physical activity reduces morbidity and mortality from mental health disorders.27 Mental health disorders pose a significant public health burden in the United States and they are a major cause of hospitalization and disability. Mental health disorders cost approximately $148 billion per year.22 Potentially, increasing physical activity levels in Americans could substantially reduce medical expenditures for mental health conditions.

In adults with affective disorders, physical activity has a beneficial effect on symptoms of depression and anxiety.27 Animal research suggests that exercise may stimulate the growth of new brain cells that enhance memory and learning—two functions hampered by depression. Clinical studies have demonstrated the feasibility and efficacy of exercise as a treatment for depression in older men and women.
The preventive effects of physical activity on mental disorders are less well studied. Some studies suggest physical activity prevents depressive illness. Future research will clarify the extent to which physical activity may actually protect against the development of depression.

Regular physical activity may also reduce risk of cognitive decline in older adults, though more research is needed to clarify the mechanism of this possible effect. Among people who suffer from mental illness, physical activity appears to improve the ability to perform activities of daily living.27

Clearly, whatever can be done to improve one's mental state during kemo and radiation, and otherwise during cancer recovery processes, helps the patient, and exercise/physical activity has been shown to have a beneficial effect on depression and anxiety (which are things very typically associated with cancer patients - they often suffer from depression and anxiety).

I've hilighted some of the crap in that post. I didn't get any further, as I nearly lost the will to live myself.

You can make a case for practically anything with that kind of selective quoting.
I have no argument of course with the principle that exercise is good for healthy people, and that being more healthy would help some survive cancer better.
I challenged the notion that taking up exercise would help sick people.
But if they feel well enough, then mild exercise could be a good idea.

Even top athletes take it easy, when they are sick, as they know that it can put their health back by a crucial amount. Some are never the same again, if they overdo it when they are ill.

That whole NCI video is biased and not properly supported, and I have a great suspicion that there is a lot of money to be made in a newly sprouted industry, of counselling cancer patients on how to exercise it away.
There are best-selling books to be written, and fitness dvds to sell, and they are even working up a new qualification of personal trainer to cancer sufferers, even though NO BENEFIT HAS BEEN PROVED or "no firm conclusions can be drawn".

It looks like they have identified a potential gold mine.
It's the american way.
.

[Coito ergo sum]

I have a friend that is about to die of the same disease that Hitch has. The doctors thought they had caught it early and operated on him, removing half of his oesophagus, half of his stomach, and sewing the two together. The operation left him with an 8-foot scar that spiraled around his body from his groin, around his back and up to his throat - they peeled him like a fucking orange! But the cancer came back - it lurked in a few lymph-nodes and bided its time. So now, he is in as bad a state as Hitch - probably worse - because he is so weakened by the surgery that he is unable to do much more than lie there and wait for the disease to claim him. He is now a half the size that he was 3 months ago.

YES! It is fucking scary! Reason all you want to, it is fucking scary!

BUT! Reason has a hope of determining how to beat this disease, and others like it. Reason can make EVERY death - my friend, Christopher Hitchens, the woman with a funny shaped nose in the next bed - worthwhile - because every snippet of information that medical science learns about the mechanism and progress of a disease might just be the one that will one day make it as much a part of history as smallpox.

Religion won't do that. Faith won't do that. Prayer won't do that. God won't do that. Jesus won't do that. Mohammed won't do that (in any of his various spellings!) But science WILL! One day.

So it is right to fear. It is natural to fear. But it is also right to hope. Not to hope blindly in some Deus ex machina bolt from the blue - but to hope in medical science that every single day is making advances that mean that the next generation hs less to fear from the diseases that the previous generation viewed as a one-way ticket to the grave.

Don't get me wrong, we will still die, but we will get to do a whole lot more living before that day comes!

Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome. - I. Asimov.

[Orwellian]

Any word on his health at this point?

[Coito ergo sum]

Has Bachmann Met Her Waterloo?
The old parochialism meets the not-so-new isolationism in Michele Bachmann.

http://www.slate.com/id/2298087/

Whew! He's back! He hadn't posted a Slate article since 6/14, missing two Mondays. Looks like he got one posted yesterday, though. Nice!

Get better Hitch. Beat that cancer and live to 100.