Technological progress: better hearing than normal hearing

Banjo said:
I am perfectly content with being deaf. I know it's not the same for everyone else, but seriously, there is more to life than than just being deaf and it has nothing to do with hearing.
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Thanks for pointing that out and I respect your opinion. I started with the idea that both deaf and HOH are quite similar.

As for myself, I hear nothing in public at all when people speak. I never pick up what someone standing next to me is saying in a store for example. I can speak with a few people at most standing nearby me and they sometimes have to repeat themselves. And it must be silent in the background.

I must admit that I have never known any other deaf or HOH person before apart from an old grandmother, so I do not know anything about other people's experience and opinions.

I suppose that deaf people have a simpler relationship to their condition. They do not have to pretend to act like a hearing person. But I have always lived in the world of hearing people. Tell me if I am wrong.

And there is sunshine, football, pubbing, etc in this world to look forward to. So much more than merely discussing deafness and hearing disability.
 
HH scientist said:
Thanks for pointing that out and I respect your opinion. I started with the idea that both deaf and HOH are quite similar.

As for myself, I hear nothing in public at all when people speak. I never pick up what someone standing next to me is saying in a store for example. I can speak with a few people at most standing nearby me and they sometimes have to repeat themselves. And it must be silent in the background.

I must admit that I have never known any other deaf or HOH person before apart from an old grandmother, so I do not know anything about other people's experience and opinions.

I suppose that deaf people have a simpler relationship to their condition. They do not have to pretend to act like a hearing person. But I have always lived in the world of hearing people. Tell me if I am wrong.

And there is sunshine, football, pubbing, etc in this world to look forward to. So much more than merely discussing deafness and hearing disability.
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There is a lot you might want to learn about the history of being "culturally" deaf, HH scientist. Like you, I came to this site five years ago without any knowledge of deaf people, not knowing any myself. I didn't even have friends who were deaf, barely knowing anyone with a hearing aid.

It is sort of like trying to discover your heritage as an adopted child, when the adopted has little knowledge of their identity. A Jamaican child to a Polish family, perhaps one day he might want to explore his Jamaican roots. That information lies in wait for him to discover if he wants to return to it. That is similar to what the deaf culture is all about.

This forum is a haven for information of that kind, the experiences, threads, and topics of countless individuals who have expressed their concerns, experiences, dislikes, and fondest memories. I believe if you are interested, it just takes a little back browsing to find out what you need.

By the way, how is the PhD cand. working out for you? What is your research conducted in, if you have the freedom to discuss?
I just finished my part as a lab associate myself, for a socio-psychology based genetics research on cancer intervention. With all the work the principal investigator was handing over to me, I thought it'd never end. I can see your end having much more 'fun' :wave:
 
deafskeptic said:
Been there done that. There's noooo escape from diabetes.
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There most certainly is, but it is only experimental and you have to be a lab rat: Diabetic rats cured with their own stem cells - health - 07 October 2011 - New Scientist

Diabetes is a complex disease. You can treat it to some extent, but maintaining your blood sugar level similar to non-diabetics requires Olympic skills. Far from everyone has that. You can measure your blood sugar level, but it requires pricking your finger getting out a drop of blood, and it is also quite expensive. So diabetics have to guess their blood sugar level and guess the right amount of insulin to inject depending on their level of activity, amount of food, etc. That is difficult of course.

Nonetheless, I am an optimist about future possibilities.
 
naisho said:
There is a lot you might want to learn about the history of being "culturally" deaf, HH scientist. Like you, I came to this site five years ago without any knowledge of deaf people, not knowing any myself. I didn't even have friends who were deaf, barely knowing anyone with a hearing aid.
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Same here, discovered this site a week ago.

naisho said:
It is sort of like trying to discover your heritage as an adopted child, when the adopted has little knowledge of their identity. A Jamaican child to a Polish family, perhaps one day he might want to explore his Jamaican roots. That information lies in wait for him to discover if he wants to return to it. That is similar to what the deaf culture is all about.
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Definitely. It feels like being an orphan or adoptee and discovering your roots.

naisho said:
This forum is a haven for information of that kind, the experiences, threads, and topics of countless individuals who have expressed their concerns, experiences, dislikes, and fondest memories. I believe if you are interested, it just takes a little back browsing to find out what you need.
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This forum is a gold mine of information. I do not want dwell too much on this, but I would like to discover a little bit about the deaf community and HOH community.

naisho said:
By the way, how is the PhD cand. working out for you? What is your research conducted in, if you have the freedom to discuss?
I just finished my part as a lab associate myself, for a socio-psychology based genetics research on cancer intervention. With all the work the principal investigator was handing over to me, I thought it'd never end. I can see your end having much more 'fun' :wave:
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I am doing bioinformatics which is a mixture of computer science, statistics, maths and genetics. My research is on microsatellite mutations. It is interesting but it is nothing to do with deafness or diabetes - at least not yet. Microsatellites probably have a role to play in epigenetics (gene expression), the regulation of activity of genes. I am doing a lot of programming (C++, Python) and statistics.

naisho said:
socio-psychology based genetics research on cancer intervention
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What on earth is that 'socio-psychology' thing?
 
naisho said:
genetics research on cancer intervention
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Naisho, one thing that you should know is how quickly this is moving. The regular bloke in the street (and a lot of scientists too) are completely unaware of this. The cost of DNA sequencing for example is falling by 20-90% per year, and it is probably >50%/year right now.

Take a look here: Genome.gov | DNA Sequencing Costs

This will make it possible to obtain the particular mutations of cancer of a particular patient having a particular type of cancer. It just has to be cheap enough. Some people are talking about the $1000 genome and think that a breakthrough will occur after this. That is when it will be affordable for the middle classes in industrialized countries. It will spread quickly thereafter all over the world, and become an integral part of health care even in the poorest countries. As a comparison, it has taken 20 years for mobile phone access to spread to more than half of the population all over the world (China, India >50%, Africa ~30%, I think). DNA sequencing the entire world will happen in less than 10 years probably.

Hope is also that the data generated and knowledge from the data can be used for curing diseases rather than merely diagnosing them, i.e. we can develop cheap and effective drugs. I mean, what is the point of getting an early cancer diagnosis if there is only a small chance of survival? It is just an earlier death sentence.
 
HH scientist said:
You have a point. Poverty causes disease, but I am also sure that disease causes poverty. The influence and augment each other. It is some kind of spiral. But if you want to get of them both, you have to start somewhere with both or either of them.
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How does disease cause poverty? I am interested in your train of thought here.
 
HH scientist said:
Same here, discovered this site a week ago.



Definitely. It feels like being an orphan or adoptee and discovering your roots.



This forum is a gold mine of information. I do not want dwell too much on this, but I would like to discover a little bit about the deaf community and HOH community.



I am doing bioinformatics which is a mixture of computer science, statistics, maths and genetics. My research is on microsatellite mutations. It is interesting but it is nothing to do with deafness or diabetes - at least not yet. Microsatellites probably have a role to play in epigenetics (gene expression), the regulation of activity of genes. I am doing a lot of programming (C++, Python) and statistics.



What on earth is that 'socio-psychology' thing?
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I would hope that naisho was referring to bio-psychology or neurobio-psychology. There is quite a bit of research being done in these areas regarding the psychological factors that influence genetic predisposition.
 
jillio said:
How does disease cause poverty? I am interested in your train of thought here.
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I would agree that disease causes poverty in many places around the world. In Africa, malaria is a serious disease that kills off people in their prime. AIDS, even more so. Tsetse flies that spread sleeping sickness and other diseases contribute to the poverty of people who would otherwise be working.

Whatever can be done to eradicate these diseases and the carriers of them would greatly help the economic welfare of the people living in those areas.

AIDS of course is a special case because you can't kill off the carriers, obviously. But to the extent that prevention efforts can be successful, people who might otherwise contract the disease can instead go on to have healthy, successful lives.
 
jillio said:
How does disease cause poverty? I am interested in your train of thought here.
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I was thinking of really poor countries in Africa. They have malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, parasites, and so on, and so forth. Because of many people remaining constantly sick and work-incapacitated, other people have to do the work and take care of the sick. Therefore, they are getting nowhere and they cannot escape poverty. Say that five of the worst diseases in Africa were to disappear overnight, I am sure that next year would be very different to this year.
 
Beach girl said:
I would agree that disease causes poverty in many places around the world. In Africa, malaria is a serious disease that kills off people in their prime. AIDS, even more so. Tsetse flies that spread sleeping sickness and other diseases contribute to the poverty of people who would otherwise be working.

Whatever can be done to eradicate these diseases and the carriers of them would greatly help the economic welfare of the people living in those areas.

AIDS of course is a special case because you can't kill off the carriers, obviously. But to the extent that prevention efforts can be successful, people who might otherwise contract the disease can instead go on to have healthy, successful lives.
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If the people were not living in poverty ridden conditions, the disease would not spread as it does.
 
jillio said:
I would hope that naisho was referring to bio-psychology or neurobio-psychology. There is quite a bit of research being done in these areas regarding the psychological factors that influence genetic predisposition.
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Is it not the other way around?

Traditional genetics holds that DNA -> RNA -> protein. This is still very much true but modern genetics also holds that there are lots of factors that determine which genes are active and which are not. This is called gene regulation and the science is called epigenetics.

I am sure that genes could influence psychological factors, but I am unsure of psychological factors affecting genetic predisposition. I suppose that it could happen, but very little is known about gene regulation.

This is in part to due with the cost of finding which basepairs in DNA are active and which are not. It is getting cheaper, but so far the vast majority of sequencing has been concentrated on DNA, RNA and proteins, not the regulation of genes.
 
HH scientist said:
I was thinking of really poor countries in Africa. They have malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, parasites, and so on, and so forth. Because of many people remaining constantly sick and work-incapacitated, other people have to do the work and take care of the sick. Therefore, they are getting nowhere and they cannot escape poverty. Say that five of the worst diseases in Africa were to disappear overnight, I am sure that next year would be very different to this year.
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That is the direct result of the poverty ridden conditions in which they live. Check the populations through which those diseases run rampant. They are certainly not in the upper echelon. Their poverty not only keeps them in conditions in which disease spreads, but prevents them gettting proper medical care.

I doubt it. As long as the stratification that exists continues, there will be another disease come along to take the eradicated one's place. Here in America, there are numerous disorders that are more prevalent in the poor. Insufficient access to proper medical care, diet, and unsanitary conditions are the primary reasons. The disease did not create those conditions. It is the result of those conditions.
 
jillio said:
That is the direct result of the poverty ridden conditions in which they live. Check the populations through which those diseases run rampant. They are certainly not in the upper echelon. Their poverty not only keeps them in conditions in which disease spreads, but prevents them gettting proper medical care.

I doubt it. As long as the stratification that exists continues, there will be another disease come along to take the eradicated one's place. Here in America, there are numerous disorders that are more prevalent in the poor. Insufficient access to proper medical care, diet, and unsanitary conditions are the primary reasons. The disease did not create those conditions. It is the result of those conditions.
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If I'm not mistaken type 2 diabetes is one of those disease that affect the poor more than the upper class here in the USA.
 
HH scientist said:
Is it not the other way around?

Traditional genetics holds that DNA -> RNA -> protein. This is still very much true but modern genetics also holds that there are lots of factors that determine which genes are active and which are not. This is called gene regulation and the science is called epigenetics.

I am sure that genes could influence psychological factors, but I am unsure of psychological factors affecting genetic predisposition. I suppose that it could happen, but very little is known about gene regulation.

This is in part to due with the cost of finding which basepairs in DNA are active and which are not. It is getting cheaper, but so far the vast majority of sequencing has been concentrated on DNA, RNA and proteins, not the regulation of genes.
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We are not victims to our DNA nor to our genetic predispositions. Most definately, psychological factors can influence genetics. Inf act, psychological factors can create actual biological changes in the brain. They also have a huge effect on immune systems.
 
jillio said:
If the people were not living in poverty ridden conditions, the disease would not spread as it does.
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I think it's the other way around. If these diseases (all of them) were not spreading as quickly as they do, people would not be so poor.

So many of these diseases take out people in their prime working years. You have whole villages where the population of people 18 - 35 or so has been shredded, and grandparents are raising the grandchildren.
 
Beach girl said:
I think it's the other way around. If these diseases (all of them) were not spreading as quickly as they do, people would not be so poor.

So many of these diseases take out people in their prime working years. You have whole villages where the population of people 18 - 35 or so has been shredded, and grandparents are raising the grandchildren.
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Children who are raised in poverty has a higher risk for alll kinds of diseases. A sick child does not create the poverty. It was there before they got sick.

Children raised in poverty most often become adults stuck in poverty. They are more susceptible to disease by virtue of their poverty ridden childhood. Not only are they more susceptible, due to the innadequate conditions under which they were raised, they are more at risk for developing life threatening consequence.
 
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