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mapontosevenths • yesterday at 8:32 PM • 1 reply • view on HN

I'm saying two things:

1) Worrying about your health is mostly useless and probably won't move the needle much unless you have obvious problems.

2) The United States spends 20% of it's GDP to accomplish nothing. That 1 year of life expectancy gain is probably within the margin of error. Certainly modern healthcare can help at the individual level, but the society is so sick that any gains are washed away by the noise and we spend a truly enormous amount of money to get nowhere.

Our worry costs us a fortune, and generally just doesn't accomplish anything worthwhile.


Replies

devin • yesterday at 9:12 PM

"unless you have obvious problems" is doing a _ton_ of work. Most people _do_ have _obvious_ problems. Their weight, their cholesterol, their alcohol use, and on and on.

Saying "if you're healthy you shouldn't worry about your health" is a meaningless thing to say. The point is that most people _do_ have obvious room for some kind of health improvement, and as other commenters have pointed out, if it's not in the clear "this will help me live an additional N years" way, then very likely it is in the "this will make my life suck less as I age" way. Eg; Being able to walk up a flight of stairs without getting deeply winded.