For those of you donating to ALS don't forget about other conditions.

[DCal430]

Sad story of a 16 year old girl who is in the late stages of Huntington's disease, probably has less than a year of life left.

http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/01/6669156/with-no-cure-little-hope-a-family.html

I try to donate money to cancer, ALS, and diseases such as Hungtington's. I just hope people who have donated to ALS remember their are other terminal conditions, some of which affect the most vulnerable.

 

[DrPizza]

I recently saw a graph of where money was donated, vs. how many people died of certain diseases. Apparently, if you come up with a gimmick, or in the ALS case, create some sort of fad, you get a very disproportionate amount of money. Breast cancer's money is huge - probably more than all the other diseases put together, but it's far from the #1 killer.

 

[Strk]

I recently saw a graph of where money was donated, vs. how many people died of certain diseases. Apparently, if you come up with a gimmick, or in the ALS case, create some sort of fad, you get a very disproportionate amount of money. Breast cancer's money is huge - probably more than all the other diseases put together, but it's far from the #1 killer.

It's not the #1 killer, but it is one of the most common cancers, right after lung. Prostate is right behind it. I'm sure all the funding has helped make its 5-year survivability very high though. If anything, look at us compared to other countries. Breast cancer is one of the few things where our healthcare system excels.

 

[MrCassdin]

I recently saw a graph of where money was donated, vs. how many people died of certain diseases. Apparently, if you come up with a gimmick, or in the ALS case, create some sort of fad, you get a very disproportionate amount of money. Breast cancer's money is huge - probably more than all the other diseases put together, but it's far from the #1 killer.

Heart disease is the #1 killer, more than anything else, more than all the cancer and gun shots and drownings and car accidents combined. :thumbsdown:

 

[_Rick_]

Most cancer is just how people die of old age. DNA replication isn't bulletproof.
I wonder how many cancer patients are under 60, compared to over 60.

But yeah, ALS is definitely a first world problem.

I propose the suicide rate as a lower boundary below which terminal illnesses aren't really noteworthy, but rather a medical novelty.

 

[Rakehellion]

I recently saw a graph of where money was donated, vs. how many people died of certain diseases. Apparently, if you come up with a gimmick, or in the ALS case, create some sort of fad, you get a very disproportionate amount of money. Breast cancer's money is huge - probably more than all the other diseases put together, but it's far from the #1 killer.

It's the most common cancer. In women. Heart disease is the biggest killer.

But heart disease already gets billions in government funds. Lesser known illnesses like ALS need charities because they aren't getting much research in comparison.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Doesn't heart disease ultimately descend from being a fat ass?

When someone dies, they can't say "Mike died from obesity". They have to say specifically what made their body stop functioning. Heart disease would be that function in most cases for fatasses, correct? Let me know if I'm not understanding, but as far as I knew heart disease isn't exactly something that is preventable in most cases.... Other than saying "Go work out fattie".

 

[DCal430]

Doesn't heart disease ultimately descend from being a fat ass?

When someone dies, they can't say "Mike died from obesity". They have to say specifically what made their body stop functioning. Heart disease would be that function in most cases for fatasses, correct? Let me know if I'm not understanding, but as far as I knew heart disease isn't exactly something that is preventable in most cases.... Other than saying "Go work out fattie".

Not at all some disorders and disease cause heart disease and failure beyond a persons control. Conditions such as fibromuscular dysplasia cause heart disease and narrowing of the arteries, due to dysplasia of the muscles of the artery walls. There are other conditions that cause heart disease too that are independent of life style.

 

[moonbogg]

Fit people die from heart disease as well. Has to do with the foods you eat. I run a marathon every morning + I eat lots of bacon = my shit is dead at 40.

 

[dainthomas]

It's the most common cancer. In women. Heart disease is the biggest killer.

But heart disease already gets billions in government funds.

I'd like to see a graph of charitable donations per death. It almost certainly has to blow heart disease out of the water. When that ribbon started showing up on yogurt and bottled water, it crossed the line into racket territory.

 

[JimKiler]

I am waiting for the next fad, like the spaghetti bucket challenge for Diabetes or something like that.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Doesn't heart disease ultimately descend from being a fat ass?

When someone dies, they can't say "Mike died from obesity". They have to say specifically what made their body stop functioning. Heart disease would be that function in most cases for fatasses, correct? Let me know if I'm not understanding, but as far as I knew heart disease isn't exactly something that is preventable in most cases.... Other than saying "Go work out fattie".

Beyond incorrect.

 

[DCal430]

For some conditions their is also controversy if more money should go to help those who have it, as in support, or should more go towards a cure. Especially when it seems despite decade plus of research a cure is no closer to bring found.

 

[biostud]

 

[Rakehellion]

I'd like to see a graph of charitable donations per death. It almost certainly has to blow heart disease out of the water. When that ribbon started showing up on yogurt and bottled water, it crossed the line into racket territory.

Smaller causes need charitable donations because they don't have as much funding. No charity doesn't mean no money.

And who are you to tell someone what causes they can support? What about homelessness and education?

 

[BoberFett]

Smaller causes need charitable donations because they don't have as much funding. No charity doesn't mean no money.

And who are you to tell someone what causes they can support? What about homelessness and education?

Who's telling anyone what they can support?

The ice bucket thing was a fad, a very successful one. But a fad nonetheless. And while I can understand that living with a life altering genetic disorder is a terrible thing, it does seem like there should be higher priorities.

If everyone would take part in my food bucket challenge we'd probably save a lot more lives than the ice bucket challenge. The food bucket challenge is this. Carry a bucket everywhere, and when you're about to stuff junk food in your mouth, throw it in the bucket instead. The hundreds of billions we'll we save in health care costs over the next several decades by people eating healthier will dwarf the money raised to fight this one specific disease, and instead of paying for people's easily preventable diabetes treatment we can redirect that spending towards many other diseases.

 

[_Rick_]

I wonder how much of "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" really is just death by smoking.
I love how suicide pops up on in that graphic.

On the other hand, the numbers upon which the graphic is based are close to meaningless. Overall funding per death would be an interesting graph since donations amount only to a part of what funds research efforts, beside public spending and pharma industry spending, as well as some other sources of income.

 

[Rakehellion]

http://report.nih.gov/categorical_spending.aspx


NIH spending:
Cancer - $5,274 million
Heart disease - $1,634 million
Neurodegenerative - $1,619 million
ALS - $39 million

 

[BoberFett]

I wonder how much of "chronic obstructive pulmonary disease" really is just death by smoking.
I love how suicide pops up on in that graphic.

On the other hand, the numbers upon which the graphic is based are close to meaningless. Overall funding per death would be an interesting graph since donations amount only to a part of what funds research efforts, beside public spending and pharma industry spending, as well as some other sources of income.

Let's not limit it to death, but any medical condition.

I would guess our spending on erectile dysfunction is probably pretty out of whack.

 

[dainthomas]

Smaller causes need charitable donations because they don't have as much funding. No charity doesn't mean no money.

And who are you to tell someone what causes they can support? What about homelessness and education?

Hey, you can donate all your money to save the endangered three-eared Peruvian sea cucumber if you want. I don't care. If that's what makes you feel good.

But if you want results for your money, that particular disease is probably in the diminishing returns phase. You could send a pittance to one of those charities that buys mosquito nets for people in Africa and is guaranteed to save lives now.

 

[zinfamous]

Heart disease is the #1 killer, more than anything else, more than all the cancer and gun shots and drownings and car accidents combined. :thumbsdown:

In Men, yes. I believe Breast Cancer is #1 in women.

I think there's a lot of various reasons to complain about the funding for certain areas of research, but stop to think about this for a second:

ALS is extremely rare and as far as I know, affects less than 1% of people in the world. But, OMG why give it so much money! Well, that is precisely why this kind of drive is a good thing. Rare diseases don't get funding, so it is a great benefit to find money in any way possible. So there are a few labs and clinics that do ALS research...well, now there are a few very well funded labs, and probably money to fund about half a dozen more labs, including post docs and graduate researches.

This is a good thing.

 

[BoberFett]

ALS is extremely rare and as far as I know, affects less than 1% of people in the world.

Far less. Orders of magnitude less.

0.002%

 

[John Connor]

Her birthday is coming up. http://www.kjas.com/news/local_news/article_87befef4-219b-11e4-9323-0017a43b2370.html

 

[smackababy]

Hey, rather than spending all our efforts (and by that I mean meager monetary donations) and coming together to eliminate a single disease / condition at a time, let's instead, spread all that around (very thinly, I might add) to all diseases and conditions so very little actually gets done!

But, of course, because some celebrities got behind a campaign to raise awareness for a specific disease, we have to all jump on the "hate anything that is popular, including awareness for particular diseases" bandwagon.

 

[darkewaffle]

It's a good cause no doubt, but part of me wonders if it actually increases charitable giving on the whole or simply re-distributes where it goes. Are people doing to donate to the Salvation Army this Christmas if they already gave money to ALS?