A few posts including this one reminded me of Pavel's 2014 article
"The Cost of Adaptation" which started with
According to Prof. Bayevsky, at any given moment, between 50 to 80% of all
people are in the so-called donozoological state, or between health and
illness. According to academician Nikolay Amosov, these people are only
“statically healthy” — until the environment disrupts their fragile status
quo. Although they may be feeling fine, even a mild infection is potentially
dangerous to them. Not the infection itself, but the complications from the
strain it puts on the supply systems. You might know someone who died of a
cardiac arrest while struggling with some other malady.
Say, Bob’s tissues need a gallon of blood a minute at rest and his heart can
pump out 1.3 gallons per minute max, which is average — this is called the
maximal cardiac output. Everything is fine and dandy — until the man goes to
South America and catches typhoid fever. His energy requirements skyrocket.
Fighting a disease is not unlike performing hard labor. Typhoid fever
doubles one’s oxygen consumption. The heart now has to pump two gallons of
blood per minute. Except...its limit is only a gallon and a half. Bingo. The
traveler returns home in the jet’s cargo bay in a body bag. The man died
from failure of systems that were not even stricken by the disease. Had Bob
cared to work on increasing their functional reserves, he would have
survived.
Translated:
据Bayevsky教授说，任何时候，百分之五十至八十的人处于donozoological（查不到。
暂时乐观地理解为亚健康。）状态，介于健康和病态之间。Nikolay Amosov教授认为，
这些人只是“静态”健康-直至环境打乱了他们脆弱的常态。尽管他们目前感觉不错，一
个轻微的感染对他们来说都有潜在的危险。不是感染本身，而是感染对供给系统的压力
引起的并发症。你可能听说过有在与其他病搏斗时死于心脏病的人。
举个例子。Bob的身体在休息时需要每分钟一加仑的供血量，他的心脏最大输出是每分
钟1.3加仑，这是平常值-称做最大心脏输出。平时一切正常，直到一天他在南美得了
伤寒。他需要的能量象火箭般地攀升。抗击病魔和重体力劳动很相似。伤寒使所需的
氧气摄入量倍增。他的心脏现在必须每分钟输出2加仑。可是。。。它的上限只有1.5。
这个游客在飞机货舱的尸袋中回了家。这个人死于那个疾病没有直接攻击的系统崩溃。
如果Bob平时努力提高系统的功能储备，他本能活下来。
Of course, the article went on to say that one must rob his health to pay his
sport. But most people are not bothered with that problem. As pointed out above,
most people live in static health.
