Welcome

You can get garden variety health advice from the daily newspaper, the "health" section of most book stores, and of course thousands of web sites. I'm hoping to present thought provoking and maybe change provoking thoughts about individual and community health. This blog is not just what to do about health, but how to think about it. I'm looking forward to an exchange of ideas with readers. July, 2010

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Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Survival of the Fittest , part 3

There is a process of natural selection going on with insects, weeds, and microorganisms, and each of these have major implications for human welfare. Since the development of chemical controls for each organism(insecticides, herbicides, and antibiotics), survivors able to resist the impact of those controls have prospered. The population of chemical-resistant insects, weeds and microorganisms has been steadily growing, presenting a truly threatening future unless new technology comes along. Out of control insects spread infectious disease. Out of control weeds threaten our food production, and out of control microorganisms present a scenario where we run out of effective antibiotics, and more and more infections are untreatable. The world has faced similar threats in the past, and we have always been able to adapt and overcome. Time will tell whether this is the case with these current threats.

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