Great write up man and something that springs to mind for me is I bet there is also a correlation between the increase in fast food intake and increase in dietetics, Chronic conditions like Ulcerative Colitis amd Crohns disease and heart disease. Western countries like Australia and Ireland have far higher rates in the past fifty years... Over the same period large swathes of the population have moved away from whole foods and exercise intensive professions to fast food, convenience food and sedentary keyboard professions. Society is a bit screwed in that manner, but each of us when aware of it, can make decisions for ourselves and our families - more exercise for everyone, less convenience and fast food and focus on whole foods with proper nutrition and natural goodness.
sitting on the metaphorical couch, completely out of financial shape and energy, it is very, very hard to come back from it.
Nice anology... It's amazing how many people are financially illiterate and these are intelligent people - doctors, dentists, solicitors who are friends of mine. They are happy to leave their hard earned cash in a bank account paying 0.01% to 1% interest or for some with larger sums the bank is actually charging them. Bad enough that inflation is nibbling away at their nestegg, but now they want to pay even more... crazy... all for this perceived stability that a savings account offers.
On the matter of the hyper scalers dodging their local tax obligations, Ireland sees the exact same thing and we have the European HQ of the largest ten tech companiesbin the world based in Ireland and they are all using creative accounting practices to pay a pittance in tax, while the employees here pay close to 50% in various taxes once earning above €65,000 per year approx.
an entire rebuild is required from the ground up, but the challenge is very few are really interested in taking part in that rebuild and instead
True, but it will never happen, like asking Turkeys to vote for Christmas.
I agree. I have ulcerative colitis (since 16) and I think what triggered it was my change in diet in the two years prior, as I had my own income from work and very high independence with all things. I think that it won't trigger for all, but I think that the type of food creates a kind of "allergic reaction" in some people, likely combined with a gut flora combination, or a bacteria that affects it.
I had a massage the other day and he thanked me for sitting behind a screen all the time. :D
In the past it used to be a kind of "agreement" where the companies get a tax benefit, because they hire locals. But that is not the case now, as the incentive is to maximize the benefit by hiring as few as possible and shifting obligations to cheaper areas through the global network. From a few years back I wrote something where it was on average, Google employees earned 1.7M for the company, but Ford employees were around 200K. That is quite a difference, and is why the tech companies are so highly valued, as with far fewer people, they can earn far more, without the need for that much capital expenditure or equipment.
It is a mess...
If the turkeys are living on the poverty line, perhaps it is preferable :D
The turkeys I'm talk about hardly know that poverty line exists and don't care either. They are over paid senior civil servants who remain in place regardless of which party is the majority in Government with as juicy defined benefit pensions as you can imagine..
I have UC also, since the age of 25, just after I returned from my travels around SE Asia and Oz. Mine surfaced during a stressful time in a job which I think can be a contributing factor too. These ailments are far more prevalent in my more Western first world countries.
Very interesting comparison between Ford and Google, serious difference there in earning potential 😳
Hopefully you are handling the UC okay - I was misdiagnosed until I was 18 and was in a pretty critical condition by that stage and didn't respond to any of the drugs available at the time. Handled it by myself through diet (but it was not ideal) until a few years ago and now get Infliximab IVs every two months to control it.
From a diet perspective, cutting out as much carb as possible helped me a lot.
Ya it's well controlled now thankfully, similar to yourself, infusions every 6 weeks. Thankfully I haven't had to do a round of steroids in a good while... those are awful things! Impossible to sleep on the initial high dose 🙈
I tried the specific carbohydrate diet which was a book I was recommended and it worked well, but found it unsustainable long term, as you want to live too..
Good to hear. I have mine this week - do you get a handful of days of tiredness, headaches and thinking issues after?
"Life without bread" ?
It worked for me, but the carb level I needed was so low, I couldn't maintain it either. But, it did give me the chance to improve it and then control it better. I gave that book to a few people over the last two decades with milder symptoms, and after a couple months of low carb, they could introduce again and it was okay. I think in my case, too much damage has been done for too long.
The steroids almost killed me. It gave me pancreatitis 6 times in a year and on top of that, it was eating through my hipbones due to the high dosage I was given.
I never thought I would make it this far in life. :D
No, I actually dont get any side effects luckily, although I did get sunburnt today which is a bit stupid and irresponsible as too much sun is a no no on the infusions, but I love the pool and beach while on holidays with my three sons..
That's nasty as man... Hate those Pred little devil tablets with a passion, but have not had near the hardship you've had with them hearing that.. They basically blitz your entire gut microbiome... kill all the good and the bad bacteria... fair enough they stop the inflammation, but the collateral damage is horrendous... The Infleximab was a god-send for me..
I didn't know about the sun! Luckily, I have a natural tan ;D
I was resistant to it at the beginning, but it has made life much easier for me and now I am able to travel far more freely than before.
Enjoy the holidays! :)