Dedicated to man’s ability to reverse engineer the very essence of things.
People, animals, plants– all begin with a single fertilized cell that divides, and divides, and divides again. These undifferentiated “stem” cells are identical to each other, and in human beings each cell possesses the capability to become any of the 200 different types of cells that make up the human body.
At some point in that process, however, the cells begin to change. Instead of each cell being just a carbon copy of its parent, it develops a character all its own. Some cells become heart cells, others bone or blood or nerve cells. As each cell develops its own specialty and begins the long process of making its own unique contribution to the body as a whole, that cell simultaneously loses the ability to transform into other cell types. Something is lost, but something gained; the cycle of life.
Early research in the 1980s revealed the magic ability of stem cells to morph into differentiated cells, but it was initially thought that only cells from embryonic tissue retained this ability, that once it was lost it was lost forever. However, in 2006 it was discovered that some adult cells could be reprogrammed. In essence the cell’s youthful ability to become anything, anything at all was restored. Such autologous (“own tissue”) cells, being a part of the patient’s own body, eliminate many concerns of transplant rejection. The fountain of youth actually exists, buried deep in the blood and bone and lipids of every living human being.
In one short decade, investigation into the potential of stem cells to treat a multitude of human ills has expanded dramatically. It appears that in time heart disease, brain and spinal cord injury, deafness, loss of sight, diabetes and a host of other ailments can be halted or reversed through the magic of these immature but powerful cells.
How ironic it is that the cure for so much disease and suffering is not an “advance”, per se, but rather a “return”, a return to an earlier, less formed state of existence. Only by going back can we progress forward. There is a philosophical truth there, written in our own DNA.
IMAGE: By Priit Tammets (originally posted to Flickr as tomat) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons”
![By Priit Tammets (originally posted to Flickr as tomat) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons”](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATomat.jpg){kind=link}
December 20, 2016
It’s not just cats getting fat
The “obesity epidemic” came upon us suddenly. It began roughly 1978, rapidly accelerated until 1997, then leveled off. When it began, about 32% of the population was overweight, another 13% were obese, and a scant 1% were extremely obese. When it ended, 34% were overweight (roughly the same as when the epidemic began), but the percentage of obese individuals skyrocketed to 31%, while the extremely obese saw a five-fold increase to 5%.
And then it stabilized, but at the higher percentages. Despite all the public health programs, the focus on nutritional information, the waxing and waning of dozens of diets, the percentages have remained stubbornly the same, with a slight drifting upwards.
The consequences of the “new normal” have been catastrophic. Healthcare costs related to obesity now top $190 billion, over 20% of the annual medical spending in the U.S. It contributes to the leading causes of death— diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and some cancers. It reduces quality of life, limits mobility, exacerbates conditions such as arthritis and depression.
So what caused it? The abrupt shift upward in all overweight categories, combined with an equally-abrupt levelling off, suggests an external force of some sort rather than a genetic cause that would manifest over a much longer timeframe. What happened in the late 70s to catapult a sizeable portion of the population into an unhealthy range?
And why did it level off? The increase from 1978 to 1997 was a relatively straight line, climbing inexorably upward until in 1997 the acceleration stopped; the graph again twitched horizontally and has remained more-or-less level since.
And most importantly, why has it not reversed itself? With all of the focus on healthier habits, exercise, proper nutrition, medical intervention— why have we not reverted to our former slender selves?
There are a few likely candidates for culpability, plausible singly or in combination. The next few posts will examine some of them.
October 1, 2016
What you don’t see can hurt you
“You’ll never hear the bullet that kills you.” True. And by the same token, you’ll never see the disease that ends your life. Tiny and pervasive, the viruses and bacteria and fungi that invisibly permeate the very air around you are potentially more deadly than bullets, more silent than poison, more lethal than gas.
Until ‘germs’ were identified in the 1800s, the cause of disease was mysterious. An imbalance of ‘humors’ of the body was put forth as one possibility; ‘miasma’ or ‘bad air’ was another. The latter actually came close to the truth, for airborne diseases at any rate. At first microscopes helped identify the culprits, and when those proved inadequate their more powerful cousins the electron microscopes were developed. As the ability to delve into the unseen world around us evolved, our ability to cope with its less desirable denizens evolved also.
Cancer, dementia, even aging itself– they continue to trouble mankind. With all of our knowledge, with all of our specialized equipment, we can’t pin down a cause, Not yet, anyway.
The good news? Equally invisible, equally potent, equally mysterious are the beneficial viruses, bacteria and fungi. In fact, the good guys are winning or you wouldn’t be reading this post.
So the question is– what are we still not seeing?