Chronic disease

Refusing the idea that poor whites of the South were racially degenerate or dysgenically mixed, they argued instead that poor whites were suffering from chronic disease, the effects of which were commonly mistaken for degeneracy.

And the primary cause of disability is chronic disease — cardiovascular, musculoskeletal problems and cancer are leading diagnoses — rather than work-related mishaps or nonworkplace accidents, according to a 2007 study for the Life and Health Insurance Foundation for Education, a nonprofit organization that informs the public about insurance needs.

Instead of twentysomethings with one rare but curable disease, they find eightysomethings with many common chronic diseases that aren't curable.

The subjects had no associated acute or chronic disease, had not been previously exposed to endogenous or exogenous glucocorticoid compounds other than HC and were not presently receiving either contraceptive estroprogestative or anti-epileptic compounds.

Stringent exclusion criteria were employed to exclude regular alcohol drinkers, heavy smokers, the men with chronic diseases, urogenital infections, varicocele and other diseases which might lead to dysspermia, azoospermic men, and the men with 100% of immotile sperm, 100% teratospermia and incomplete data.

"There are some things that RFK Jr. gets right," says former CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden. "We do have a chronic disease crisis in this country, but we need to avoid simplistic solutions and stick with the science."