Short Quiz – The Immune System and Health in General

[johnkarls]

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1. Did our author, Matt Richtel, write an essay entitled “How to Get the Best From Your Immune System?

2. Did the essay end with some frequently-asked questions (FAQ’s) which he treated seriously, if not reverentially?

3. Was FAQ No. 4 “Should I pick my nose?”?

4. Was FAQ No. 3 “Should my child eat dirt?”?

5. Was FAQ No. 1 “Does vitamin C do anything to keep me healthy?”?

6. Was FAQ No. 2 “Does being in the cold increase my likelihood of getting sick?”?

7. Was FAQ No. 5 “What about vaccines? If I keep my immune system healthy, why do I still need vaccines?”?

8. Was FAQ No. 6 “When is a fever considered a risk?”?

9. Was FAQ No. 7 “Should I try to reduce a fever?”?

10. Was FAQ No. 8 “What would I [i.e., Matt Richtel] do?”?

11. So what is the public-policy issue associated with our focus book “How to Get the Best From Your Immune System”?

12. Does it offer an opportunity to approach from a different angle what we have often studied -- that the U.S. spends more-than-double the GDP per capita on health care than any of the other 37 members of the O.E.C.D. (an organization of the world’s economically-developed countries)?

13. And that despite spending so much more than any other O.E.C.D. member, the UN’s World Health Organization reports year after year that the performance of U.S. healthcare is NOT ONLY outranked by all of the other 37 members of the O.E.C.D., but even by some third-world countries?

14. BTW, has Yours Truly made most of his focus-book recommendations on the basis of presentations to the Harvard Club of NYC by authors whose new books are coming off press -- following which we pepper them with questions?

15. And do only approximately 1% of such presentations seem good enough to actually propose the book as a focus for our group?

16. Did such a NYC Harvard Club webinar on 9/29/2021 feature Sergey Young presenting his new book “The Science and Technology of Growing Young: An Insider's Guide to the Breakthroughs that Will Dramatically Extend Our Lifespan . . . and What You Can Do Right Now” (BenBella Books 8/24/2021)?

17. Did Yours Truly refrain from proposing “The Science and Technology of Growing Young” as a focus book for our organization (though I am currently reading it on the side) because Sergey Young turned out to be a venture capitalist specializing exclusively on funding longevity breakthroughs?

18. And as such, did not know what causes aging when faced with a question from Yours Truly?

19. By way of background, did my daughter Hilary Karls graduate from MIT in 2005 with a double degree – BA in Economics and BS in Electrical Engineering?

20. And during her Christmas and Spring breaks, did she always want to attend so-called “Nano Conferences” led by MIT professors?

21. Is a nano one billionth (i.e., 0.0000000001)? And were these so-called “Nano Conferences” opportunities for experts from around the country IN DIFFERENT FIELDS who deal with incredibly-small quantities (e.g., medical researchers, astro-physicists, computer programmers, etc., etc.) to gain valuable insights from experts in other fields who deal with incredibly-small quantities?

22. In exchange for underwriting her Nano-Conference expenses, did Your Truly always require Hilary to provide a report afterwards on what had transpired?

23. Did one of those reports contain a description of an informal discussion during a meeting break regarding how long it would take human life expectancy sans accidents like getting run over by a bus – to go to infinity???!!!

24. In other words, NOT ONLY would cures be found for EVERY human malady, BUT ALSO the aging process itself would be arrested???!!!

25. For the curious, did those Nano experts all agree circa 2005 that this would take at least 20 years BUT NO MORE THAN 40 YEARS???!!!

26. By way of deep background (since this was already a background digression), have we already studied that there is NOT a single atom in any human body that was there seven years earlier? And that, for example, dust is primarily old human skin cells which the average-sized human being sheds at the rate of more than 1 million/hour?

27. And does the aging process itself comprise the increasing inability of human cells to replicate their DNA 100% after a certain number of cell divisions?

28. So did Hilary report that the Nano experts agreed that 20-40 years from circa 2005 it would be possible to enable all human cells to replicate their DNA perfectly even after an infinite number of cell divisions?

29. BTW, did all the Nano experts agree that when this day arrived, it would be possible for each human being to NOT ONLY halt the aging process BUT ALSO to dial it back to whatever age you want, such as being a teenager all over again? Since this “only” means replicating your original DNA at virtually a 100% level which predominated when you were a teenager?

30. But back to Sergey Young and “The Science and Technology of Growing Young”, when he finished his presentation and the question period arrived, did Your Truly pose a question based on the aging process comprising the failure of your DNA to replicate itself completely?

31. And did Sergey Young have no idea what I was talking about – presumably because as a venture capitalist, he had never received a funding request from anyone researching this technology?

32. And do you think Yours Truly works so hard on our organization 19 years after “retiring” because he anticipates that he might actually last until human life expectancy reaches infinity and, as seems inevitable for everyone after our pensions are destroyed by inflation, we will have to go back to work so it is a good idea to keep in shape intellectually???