Did you know we(skydivers) have low levels of Mono Amine Oxidase?

[Skylark 0]

This is interesting: http://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/toynbee4.html Does anyone have any other useful skydiving psychology links?

"Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

[quade 4]

Could you cut&paste the article? My firewall doesn't seem to want me to look at that website.

quade -
The World's Most Boring Skydiver

[hagar 0]

Quote

The world has become a terrifyingly safe place. Clean, healthy, predictable, relatively crime -free, children don't die much,most people live to a ripe old age, journeys are no longer a dangerous adventure,epidemics don't sweep us away - life is dull,dull,dull.We were born and evolved to take risks,feel fear,thrill,terror,burning with adrenaline.

Now that we no longer face real danger,we either invent it (horror movies) or,worse,we pretend it's all around is when it isn't.We have lost the ability to measure real risk.In a brilliant programme about modern attitudes to risk,this weeks Equinox (Monday 12th 9.00pm C4) [Ref. PT4:Analysis1.txt; PT5:Think1.txt;Think2.txt {Risk}; [Science 2]World 9; Video:OB4 Equinox;Reith] says it all - we live safer,but we fear more.

A new scientific discovery has found an enzyme called MAO (mono amine oxidase) that determines how much risk we like to take.Low levels of MAO mean people become high-risk takers.Needless to say,men have the lowest levels of MAO,while women and old people have higher levels. Extremely violent men in hospital for the criminally insane had levels of MAO one-third lower than the average - though it doesn't excuse or explain their behaviour,as others with low MAO may put it to socially useful purposes.

The enzyme doesn't determine your morality,only your appetite for risk.The bravest bull - fighters measured in Spain also had exceptionally low MAO.No doubt the bravery of war heroes,firefighters,trapeze artists, mountaineers,explorers and others generally admired can also be explained by lack of MAO. But the need to experience fear becomes harmful when it distorts reality,making us get our thrills from imagining the world is more dangerous than it is.

Newspapers and news bulletins these days are designed to give people the impression that even as the huddle in their armchairs,they are really up against raw and frightful threats.It makes people lose any sensible yardstick by which to measure relative risk.All this has spilled over into politics.Politicians outbid one another in promising the zero-risk society.

But,as this Equinox programme points out trenchantly,we need risk.The only totally risk - free status is death.To live is to take risks and morbid fear of risk can lead to a kind of living death. Nothing is risk free [Including cell-phones-LB] from the moment we wake up in the morning (sleep,of course,has its hazards,too).Twenty people a year are electrocuted turning off their alarm clocks,20 more die getting out of bed and 20 die putting their socks on.We have a huge scare over BSE when it is only killing the same number of people as alarm clocks.shouldn't we be having an alarm clock scare,too? [That's why figures should be put on incidence-LB]

One death from beef on the bone might be expected every 20 years at the current rate,but 40,000 people will die falling downstairs in that time.Should we make bungalows compulsory? On the serious side,the film shows the danger of phoney risk scares. [Like cell phoneys!? -LB] Recently,there was yet another birth -control pill scare when research showed a slightly increased risk of thrombosis with some brands.The result was,of course,that some women,who hadn't a clue how to assess relative risk,threw their pills away that day and got pregnant.Because pregnancy has a far higher mortality rate than the Pill,some may have died.

Journalists and politicians are often to blame [They are often innumerate.Ref: J.A.Paulos "A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper"],hyping up small scares without putting them into context with other equivalent risks.On this occasion,the risk calculation was that one woman in half-a-million would be saved by not taking the Pill,whereas 30 women in half-a-million could be expected to die in pregnancy.

The programme also looks at the scare over Ecstasy tablets following the death of Leah Betts - and here it gets to the heart of our attitudes towards risk.Professor John Henry of St Mary's Hospital in London,the leading expert,finds it impossible to explain the real risks because no one wants to know. He says alcohol kills 100 people a day,Ecstasy kills one a month.So why the terror of a recreational drug that is relatively safe? Because,suggests the programme,we all make elaborate risk-benefit calculations.We like to drink,we are used to drinking,we are use to knowing it can be dangerous,so we dismiss the risks.

On the other hand,Ecstasy is only taken by the young not by policy makers,and to adults who experience none of its upside or benefits,the risk doesn't seem worth it. Everything we do involves risk-benefit estimates,which we may often get wrong. [So there is a "right" way of doing it then?-LB]We know driving kills,yet the car is so convenient we reckon the considerable risks worth while.Many fear flying,yet cars are far more dangerous. [How do we know this other than by statistics? -LB]

Programmes such as Crimewatch,and others yet more lurid,result in us believing murder stalks around every dark corner,trapping people at home through fear - but our streets are very safe. [In other words,what people BELIEVE, and what is TRUE are two different things - LB] We over - protect our children,making wildly wrong risk -benefit assessments on their behalf.It would be worth giving them more freedom for not very much more risk. [How many parents went into overdrive and were overly cautious,after the James Bulger affair? -LB]

Political priorities,our sense of success as a society,our willingness to be brave and have fun are all circumscribed if we make bad risk assessments.It's time risk was taught at school. [Or that mathematics was given greater emphasis for its impact on society,to diminish the "When am I going to use Trigonometry in my life?" attitude -LB] Every new scare in the newspapers should come with a kite-mark risk assessment,ranking it with everyday risks we already understand.So do watch this wise programme and consider the risk of getting risk wrong.

---
PCSS #10

[skydiverchick 0]

post edited because some else beat me to it

Mother Hen

[Skylark 0]

Sure. It was written by Polly Toynbee for the BBC. It's more to do with risk-takers and adrenaline than skydiving per se, but I think we qualify.

(edited to add: I was beaten, too)

"Into the dangerous world I leapt..." William Blake, Songs of Experience

[mikkif 0]

What if my alarm clock has Mad Cow?

Great article. I wish I had it last year when my co-workers refused to fly because of "terrorism", and I got stuck with all the travel. I tried explaining to them that more people died sitting quietly at their desks on 9/11 than in all the planes combined. I even made up a graph comparing fatality statistics between air and rail travel over the last ten years, even adding in the 9/11 fatalities... (yes, I am one of those kind of annoying geeks ). Only with all that added did it even come close. (New thrill-seeker ride: Amtrak!).

The only risk-free state is death

Sounds like a good sig for someone...

Freedom -- Expression -- Spirit

[Falko 0]

*Bump!*

I found this Thread in the DZ.com archive.
The article is great... next time I have a whuffo BS'ing me about the dangers of skydiving, I will print it out for them.

Ich betrachte die Religion als Krankheit, als Quelle unnennbaren Elends für die menschliche Rasse.
(Bertrand Russell, engl. Philosoph, 1872-1970)

[benny 0]

Funny, this ties in really nicely with the "AFF student on anti-depressants" thread

Never go to a DZ strip show.

[airgord 1]

I don't know about all that, but I do know that I have a low level of moola amoola, aka no money.

[Lindsey 0]

Hmmm....theoretically, if we all had low levels of MAO, then we'd also have low levels of depression, as low MAO means high serotonin. High serotonin means happy people....unless I'm not remembering my biochemistry correctly. Somebody help me out here.

Peace~
Lindsey

--
A conservative is just a liberal who's been mugged. A liberal is just a conservative who's been to jail

[Steph2 0]

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if we all had low levels of MAO, then we'd also have low levels of depression, as low MAO means high serotonin.

Yup, that's right... MAO inactivates serotonin, (by the process of deamination) so low levels of MAO should lead to high levels of serotonin
There'll always be exceptions to the rule though... I know a few grumpy skydivers who must have far too much MAO!

[smooth 0]

Did you know we(skydivers) have low levels of Mono Amine Oxidase? ***

It's mentioned in the IMAX movie - "Adrenaline Rush".

[AndyMan 7]

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Apparantly research is being done into using MAO inhibitors as anti-depressants.

It's not that they're doing reserach.... They've been available and widely used for some years now.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAOI

_Am

__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

[adamsr 0]

Does your level of MAO change, or stay constant. so are you born a risk taker or if you take risks your MAO levels reduce?

If MAO levels are linked to depression it could explain why i always feel down if i haven't jumped in a while!!

[Steph2 0]

Cheers for the info. I only knew about the reuptake inhibitors...
You learn something new every day
Steph
-x-

[pccoder 0]

I don't feel down, but I start to get sort of sick, sore throat, feeling achy, then I jump and feel great, then of course feel achy as hell two days later.

PcCoder.net