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As medical research progresses, the question is inevitable. when will it die?
Today, the 65 and 75 years are considered too early. At age 85, Alzheimer's disease begins to apply to many, but many consider it too short for life. Nevertheless, most people will think that if the heart stops during a walk on the ground at the age of 95, that's fine.
But how much will technological advances mean for our age and our health?
The role of pharmacology
The pharmaceutical industry is highly research-intensive, but also benefits from massive growth in all forms of medical knowledge facilitating the design of drugs for specific disorders.
At the same time, this industry is like everyone else. They will have repaid their investments. The earliest would be best. We hear constantly about drugs that cost patients hundreds of thousands of dollars and over $ 1 million a year. Such problems will only be more related to the emergence of a new treatment for rare diseases and different types of cancer.
It is not always easy to understand the pricing patterns of the pharmaceutical industry. There are examples of out-of-market prices, as was partly the case with very expensive cholesterol-lowering drugs. When the regular cholesterol-lowering drug costs 300 kroner a year, it is important to ensure that the public pays more than 50,000 kroner per year for new and better drugs.
It may be time for the pharmaceutical industry to review its business models. There are few drugs that cost something special to make and a model that optimizes the price compared to the sale is served on both sides of the table. Some companies have found such a model.
By the way, the pharmaceutical industry does not just launch products at high prices. The same goes for new, effective medical devices, but we do not hear that often.
The heart is no longer the one
Before that, cardiovascular diseases were the ones that ended most lives in Norway. But for decades, the health system has many skills. What was once a major surgical procedure is now ambulatory by inserting stents blocking the dense blood vessels. You can even switch to artificial heart valves by sending them over the years and, in other words, by extending them into the heart opening.
At the same time, most people are becoming better acquainted with what is good for the heart. The fact that so few smokers contribute powerfully to survival. In addition, there are many new drugs effective to regulate blood pressure, blood viscosity and reduce dangerous cholesterol.
In 2016, for the first time, more Norwegians died of cancer than cardiovascular disease. Over the past 30 years, the number of deaths from cardiovascular disease has decreased by 80%, indicating that this trend will continue.
Cancer and brain disorders
The fight against cancer is intense and it is not surprising. It is now the disease that affects most Norwegians. With age, the incidence of cancer also increases. Cancer is a mutation that occurs in cells when they divide and if we live long enough, almost everyone will have cancer.
Nevertheless, we have received many cancers. Traditional methods of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are increasingly sophisticated and are supplemented by new types of immunotherapy, as we have just seen. This has allowed us to survive an increasing number of types of cancer, or we can live longer with cancer than before.
Brain diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, remain a leading cause of death. In addition, patients and their families steal a lot of good years while the brain is sinking. Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of death, but the trend is positive thanks to better public health.
The hope has been that the pharmaceutical industry is developing a drug, but that does not seem to happen with the first. In fact, it is thought that research does not seem to succeed and that we must rethink the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease.
The least lethal suffering
During the great sufferings we find a large number of smaller ones. Many of these are due to genetic abnormalities and lead to metabolic diseases and inherited diseases such as Huntington's disease and hemophilia (hemorrhagic disease). These are small groups of patients, which means that even an expensive drug generates a relatively low income for the manufacturer. Therefore, we find here the most expensive drugs, recently mentioned Spinraza, which targets the rare atrophy of the spinal muscle caused by a genetic disease.
Diabetes, whether type 1 or 2, has a major impact on public health and mortality. Insulin delivery helps, not least, the insulin sensors in the blood that control the dosage properly via pumps. Nevertheless, it is only a "patch on the wound".
Preventing the disease is the best. The hope is that we can prevent antibodies from "misunderstanding" and destroy insulin-producing beta cells, giving type 1 as early as infancy. Once the injury has occurred, it can be hoped that an insulin-producing cell transplant can trigger insulin production.
Antibiotics and climate threats
Alexander Flemming, who had discovered penicillin in 1928, had warned against the bacterium's ability to develop resistance in the Nobel salon after the price it had received in 1945. We did not have it heard, and now there is hardly an antibiotic to which no bacteria has developed resistance.
Part of the problem is that drug manufacturers are not looking for new active substances because they produce low income. After a few days, the healing is over. Then chronic diseases are relative pure gold mines.
One possible solution with which he works is the development of new antibiotics and new methods funded by governments to eliminate harmful bacteria. The use of viral vectors is one of these options. This means that viruses are targeted to deliver drugs that kill bacteria.
Although we have active ingredients against bacteria since 1928, fighting viruses has been worse, but the vaccines have been very effective. Nevertheless, we are now seeing more antiviral drugs. Today, it is possible to completely cure people with hepatitis C and it works with means against several other viral diseases.
One of the main goals is to find funds that can kill the HIV virus, not just control them.
Another medical threat we face will be the result of climate change. It's not just animals and plants that find new habitats when the soil is warmed up. The same applies to bacteria, viruses, fungi and other pathogens included.
New technology
The new research on CRISP, which is actually derived from bacterial immune defense against viruses, has provided us with phenomenal technology to cut precisely into genes. Only the imagination limits what this new tool can achieve in the years to come. With such technology, we can edit hereditary diseases on the way to the embryo.
The same is true for stem cell research. The hope is that we can regenerate tissue, for example. stroke, or by building new organs with this technology as it evolves.
Another technology that benefits the drug is the enormous computing power associated with artificial intelligence. The combination of DNA sequencing and this type of computer can provide a new type of precision medicine that we had not had before. In a few years, it will be possible to determine exactly which of the many available medications is best for an individual and, for example, the type of cancer that the person has received. The work is in the starting well, but such therapy by precision medicine should bring considerable gain in terms of several years of life and improved health.
We no longer need the big, expensive health records we've built over the decades. Artificial intelligence will extract what it needs from log systems, which contain a large amount of data on large populations.
Aids and lifestyle
Many walk around with smart clocks and training devices that teach you about heart rate and movement. In the future, we will have access to many more personal diagnostic equipment that can send data to our health monitoring systems. They can give advice much earlier than today, when we see the doctor for the first time, when we actually find that something is wrong.
In addition to everything emerging from new drugs and therapies, the person can do a lot. Nothing beats a healthy lifestyle to reduce the risk of death.
Statistically, there is a huge difference between population groups. Generally, academics live longer than others, because they live in better health. The average life expectancy has exceeded 80 years, but there are groups in society who live only a few years above 70 years old.
A survey showed that the most populous group of the population was women science teachers. They are on average around 90 years old.
Source: Medical Director of the drug, Steinar Madsen.
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