People who attend support groups who have been diagnosed with a life-challenging illness live on average twice as long after diagnosis as people who don't.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
A lot of people spend their last decade of their lives in pain and misery combating disease.
There's a whole group of people who are 100-plus and have no disease. Why?
Probably most dying patients, even when suffering greatly, would choose to live as long as possible. That courage and grace should be protected and honored, and we should put every effort into treating their symptoms.
Many people find themselves with illness as they become successful: higher blood pressure and diabetes.
One in six people suffer depression or a chronic anxiety disorder. These are not the worried well but those in severe mental pain with conditions crippling enough to prevent them living normal lives.
I have been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). It's a terminal disease with an average lifespan of two to five years post-diagnosis, and scientists don't know what causes it. ALS prevents your brain from talking to your muscles. As a result, muscles die. As a result, every 90 minutes people die. I am a person.
I have sat with countless patients and families to discuss grim prognoses: It's one of the most important jobs physicians have. It's easier when the patient is 94, in the last stages of dementia, and has a severe brain bleed. For young people like me - I am 36 - given a diagnosis of cancer, there aren't many words.
People use so much more health care when they live longer.
As life expectancy extends beyond 80 years in some parts of the world, more people are struggling with brain diseases. For older people, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other conditions become a major impediment to quality of life.
People that go through serious illness - you can either go one way or the other. You can either become despondent about it all. Or it kind of rejuvenates you, makes you focus on what's important.
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