
Ask HN: What problems are highly impactful, solvable, and under-resourced? - arikr
A la https:&#x2F;&#x2F;80000hours.org&#x2F;articles&#x2F;problem-framework&#x2F;
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Nomentatus
Chronic illness - other than palliatives. What's the root of the incredible
expansion of chronic illnesses? What aren't we trying to recreate some of the
conditions that applied 300 years ago when MS, atopy, autoimmunity, diabetes,
seasonal allergies, and so much more were rare or nonexistent, to find out
what's up?

Large numbers of deaths can be attributed to chronic illnesses, but scrape
away the money-grab for palliatives and the proportion of research dollars is
tiny. (Most "animal models" of diseases can only be used to test for
palliatives, not cures or prevention, since the cause of the model disease is
obviously not the cause of the human disease. The EAE "model" of MS being a
prime example.)

~~~
Someone
_”when MS, atopy, autoimmunity, diabetes, seasonal allergies, and so much more
were rare or nonexistent”_

Are you sure? My money would be on them being ‘rare’ because of underdiagnosis
(why complain about an allergy such as hay fever if people regularly die of
smallpox, measles (which is relatively new, being mutated from rinderpest
after the year 500. See
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles#History](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Measles#History)),
during childbirth, etc, and many others have deformations due to vitamin
deficiencies, badly set broken bones, etc?) or because they killed people.

Examples:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_sclerosis#Historica...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_sclerosis#Historical_cases),
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_mellitus#History](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diabetes_mellitus#History),
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_lupus_erythematosus...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systemic_lupus_erythematosus#Classical_period).
[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28038630](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28038630),
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergic_rhinitis#History](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergic_rhinitis#History)

~~~
Nomentatus
Yes, I'm sure, and it's not just my opinion, but consensus.

Autoimmunity was doubling every couple decades, but won't again 'cause more
than half the population now has eczema. Diabetes had been doubling, too.
Diabetes as a rare disease existed anciently (as did asthma, more commonly)
but exploded in the nineteenth century, as did seasonal allergies, starting in
the cities and only later smaller towns and rural areas, to the astonishment
of doctors. It was unknown before, as was MS. (Temporary loss of sight can be
caused by many things, including CCI or trauma.) Lupus goes back further. (One
famous case "first case of MS" a few centuries earlier was thought to be MS,
but is now thought to be lupus.)

I don't know of any ancient identification of seasonal allergies, and the Razi
Wikipedia page doesn't give one that. It wasn't common before the nineteenth
century, according to nineteenth-century doctors who watched it balloon during
their lifetimes.

We also have (a diminishing number) of native populations to study and atopy
is very rare, MS was unknown amongst them. Similarly diabetes. Etc.

My sources aren't general but journal articles, those notes aren't easily
available to me. I read at least the abstracts of getting on to 500,000
journal articles over about ten years and retain notes on 100,000 articles
(not all the original journal articles.)

One recent source re asthma:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26439263](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26439263)

------
sunstone
Child malnutrition can be substantially mitigated with those peanutbutter
balls.

------
lsiebert
Vaccines and other infrequent medical interventions. Something you can pop
once a day for the rest of your life is much more lucrative then a cure or
once every 7 years booster shot vaccine.

Chicken Pox is a type of Herpes virus. There's a vaccine for it, but not for
the two strains of herpes most associated with the term herpes.

Development of one seems to have been embroiled in... well lets just say some
trouble based on unethical experiments. But really, apparently 90% of people
are infected with either type 1 or type 2 herpes simplex.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_herpes_simplex](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_herpes_simplex)

[https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/23/health/fda-halford-herpes-
vac...](https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/23/health/fda-halford-herpes-vaccine-
research/index.html)

Likewise, Lyme Disease, has a vaccine for animals but not for humans, because
production stopped in 2002.
[https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/prev/vaccine.html](https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/prev/vaccine.html)

Oh, and while there is a non profit foundation for it, reversible male
contraception like RISUG/Vasalgel seems underfunded.
[https://www.parsemus.org/](https://www.parsemus.org/)

------
keithnz
Climate Change / Waste Management / Many "Green" issues

~~~
Regardsyjc
Adding to climate change- water management. Cape Town, South Africa had over
10 years to find a solution to their water problem but delayed. I read that
Bangalore, India might have used up to 80% of their groundwater... Water
management can be solvable and lack of clean water affects 2 billion people.

Not only that but climate change will dramatically affect coastal cities and
couple hundred more million people especially in Asia.

I've been researching water management lately trying to figure out what
potential solutions I could work on but haven't figured anything out yet.
There are sensors for identifying leaks or testing water. Better graphene
filters for desalination. Problems with microplastics/pharmaceuticals in tap
water that might be able to be fixed through reverse osmosis (RO) systems...
I've considered importing a bunch of RO systems and starting an RO business to
learn more. I recently learned that there might be 6 carcinogenic chemicals in
New York City tap water that is unregulated and a byproduct of the bleach they
use to sanitize the water...

Water management is directly connected with population growth. When people
move due to water scarcity or conflict from water scarcity it will only
exacerbate cities more.

Currently reading The Big Thirst and looking forward to reading Living with
Water Scarcity.

~~~
imhoguy
And for dry places with sun abundance the solar powered reverse osmosis is the
future. Absolutely interesting topic!

