The following continues Chapter 2 of SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity:
The End of Diseases
Edward Jenner, (photo above) more than two centuries ago, established the foundation for immunology by developing a vaccine for smallpox. No one in the world died this past year from this disease.
Edward Jenner, (photo above) more than two centuries ago, established the foundation for immunology by developing a vaccine for smallpox. No one in the world died this past year from this disease.
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A couple hundred still succumb each year to polio and the plague, plus a couple of thousand from yellow fever and cholera. We are doing very well in neutralizing some of these classical diseases, for smallpox killed 2 million as recently as 1967. Up to 30 million died from Black Death (bubonic plague) in Europe 700 years ago and cholera took the lives of 500,000 in the 1830’s in New York City alone. However, one child dies of malaria in Africa every 29 seconds…one person is infected with HIV every 6.4 seconds…someone in the world expires from TB every 18 seconds. The major disease deaths come from HIV/AIDS (up to 3 million), malaria (up to 2 million) and tuberculosis (less than 2 million). But 56 million people annually pass away and 130 million are born, with the world population continuing to increase.
There were up to 6 million cases of malaria in the U.S. in the 40’s, which dropped to almost nothing by the 50’s through the spraying of DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane). Similar results occurred worldwide. Paradoxically, DDT was said to be the spur for Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which initiated the environmentalist movement, ultimately resulting in banning DDT use. After being prohibited for thirty years, the World Health Organization, though, began to again use DDT to control malaria, but in 2007 remarked that it is committed to phasing out the use.
More DDT, less malaria deaths. Less DDT, more malaria deaths. What to do? You say, why not use something else. Well, there is no something else today. They say vaccines are getting close, but this has been touted for several decades now.
In the U.S., heart disease and cancer account for more than half of all deaths. In the world, heart disease takes only 12.4% and cancer comes in at tenth place. Why? Because those in the developing world die earlier from HIV, diarrhea, tuberculosis and assorted other maladies.
The Gates Foundation has, perhaps, the ideal balanced goal. Do what you can today by providing vaccinations to save lives, while sponsoring research to eliminate those diseases in the future. The Foundation has about $66 billion to spend, almost half coming from Warren Buffet. It allocates about 5% of its worth each year, meaning that 95% gets invested, sometimes in controversial areas.
Perhaps a more sensible development area is to take the positive approach, that is, one whereby the body is strengthened to prevent diseases. There is exercise, of course…good diet, surely…reasonable body weight, certainly. But vaccines to prevent obesity, smoking and illegal drug use? They will all probably come because of demand, and a lean gene has already been detected in worms, flies and mice.
The same can be said for raising IQs and changing the body physique. The modern Wonder Woman or 21st Century $6 Million Dollar Man will begin to merge with machines. Transplants are now ordinary and totally non-biological body parts are routine. Artificial blood, cancer-killing nanobots, and immunotherapy treatments are just around the corner, if not tomorrow, than certainly in the 22nd century.
In 1907, Alois Alzheimer, a German neuropathologist, first identified certain protein clumps in the brain of patients with dementia. A polymer of a peptide, or a neurotoxic molecule called ADDL, has more recently been targeted as the culprit causing nerve cell (neuron) death or disruption. In a few years, a simple blood test will be able to predict whether you will contract Alzheimer’s in two to six years.
There is also the matter of inflammation, a little known immune-system response partly to blame for Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. If you can control chronic inflammation—which is stimulated by things like stress, overeating and smoking—you will be well on your way to a long life. How do you know you have this ailment? Simple. Talk to your doctor about a blood test for C-reactive protein (CRP). The higher your CRP, the worse the inflammation.
I served on the board of Hawaii Biotech during its transformative years, and observed the debate between developing vaccines for third world diseases such as dengue fever versus focusing on astaxanthin, a carotenoid (a kind of biological pigment) that can be extracted from microalgae, and is said to prevent inflammation. The result was a sensible split into two companies to do both.
As I have been jokingly critical of oil companies and former presidents, let me add one more target, the medical professioin. But first, an internet joke: 700,000 doctors supposedly cause 120,000 accidental deaths each year, so there is a 17% kill rate/doctor. There are 80 million gun owners in the U.S., with 1500 accidental deaths/year. That is a rate of 0.002%/gun. Are doctors more dangerous than guns?
For one, there is a tendency for doctors to prescribe too much medication. You can’t help but wonder about how much influence the drug companies really have. Second, on the matter of immunotherapy, when, for example, a child has a fever, there is a propensity to recommend Tylenol or aspirin, the purpose being to lower the temperature. Yes, perhaps, the child will then feel more comfortable and go to sleep, but it’s probably more for the mother who feels something has been done. However, the evolution of our body has engineered a reason for fever, which is mostly, I would gather, to combat viruses and bacteria. Then, too, hit with a cold and a runny nose, we take a variety of pills to reduce this condition. If anything, we should help our body by doing everything possible to eliminate this waste. Same for diarrhea. We tend to focus on short term comfort at the expense of long term resolution. I’m not a medical doctor, but I wonder about the illogic of many standard medical treatments.
Well, anyway, when will medical science totally eliminate all diseases? The easy answer is that this will just be a matter of time. The reality could well be apocalyptic, as there have been rumors of a “Black Pox,” some genetic combination of small pox and Ebola, with a 100% casualty rate. Thus, with a few retrogressions now and then inspired by nature, war and deviants, the more pragmatic answer is, sometime after finding the clue to eternal life, as the aging gene might be easier to identify and re-program than finding a cure for the totality of human diseases.
There were up to 6 million cases of malaria in the U.S. in the 40’s, which dropped to almost nothing by the 50’s through the spraying of DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane). Similar results occurred worldwide. Paradoxically, DDT was said to be the spur for Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, which initiated the environmentalist movement, ultimately resulting in banning DDT use. After being prohibited for thirty years, the World Health Organization, though, began to again use DDT to control malaria, but in 2007 remarked that it is committed to phasing out the use.
More DDT, less malaria deaths. Less DDT, more malaria deaths. What to do? You say, why not use something else. Well, there is no something else today. They say vaccines are getting close, but this has been touted for several decades now.
In the U.S., heart disease and cancer account for more than half of all deaths. In the world, heart disease takes only 12.4% and cancer comes in at tenth place. Why? Because those in the developing world die earlier from HIV, diarrhea, tuberculosis and assorted other maladies.
The Gates Foundation has, perhaps, the ideal balanced goal. Do what you can today by providing vaccinations to save lives, while sponsoring research to eliminate those diseases in the future. The Foundation has about $66 billion to spend, almost half coming from Warren Buffet. It allocates about 5% of its worth each year, meaning that 95% gets invested, sometimes in controversial areas.
Perhaps a more sensible development area is to take the positive approach, that is, one whereby the body is strengthened to prevent diseases. There is exercise, of course…good diet, surely…reasonable body weight, certainly. But vaccines to prevent obesity, smoking and illegal drug use? They will all probably come because of demand, and a lean gene has already been detected in worms, flies and mice.
The same can be said for raising IQs and changing the body physique. The modern Wonder Woman or 21st Century $6 Million Dollar Man will begin to merge with machines. Transplants are now ordinary and totally non-biological body parts are routine. Artificial blood, cancer-killing nanobots, and immunotherapy treatments are just around the corner, if not tomorrow, than certainly in the 22nd century.
In 1907, Alois Alzheimer, a German neuropathologist, first identified certain protein clumps in the brain of patients with dementia. A polymer of a peptide, or a neurotoxic molecule called ADDL, has more recently been targeted as the culprit causing nerve cell (neuron) death or disruption. In a few years, a simple blood test will be able to predict whether you will contract Alzheimer’s in two to six years.
There is also the matter of inflammation, a little known immune-system response partly to blame for Alzheimer’s, cancer, diabetes and heart disease. If you can control chronic inflammation—which is stimulated by things like stress, overeating and smoking—you will be well on your way to a long life. How do you know you have this ailment? Simple. Talk to your doctor about a blood test for C-reactive protein (CRP). The higher your CRP, the worse the inflammation.
I served on the board of Hawaii Biotech during its transformative years, and observed the debate between developing vaccines for third world diseases such as dengue fever versus focusing on astaxanthin, a carotenoid (a kind of biological pigment) that can be extracted from microalgae, and is said to prevent inflammation. The result was a sensible split into two companies to do both.
As I have been jokingly critical of oil companies and former presidents, let me add one more target, the medical professioin. But first, an internet joke: 700,000 doctors supposedly cause 120,000 accidental deaths each year, so there is a 17% kill rate/doctor. There are 80 million gun owners in the U.S., with 1500 accidental deaths/year. That is a rate of 0.002%/gun. Are doctors more dangerous than guns?
For one, there is a tendency for doctors to prescribe too much medication. You can’t help but wonder about how much influence the drug companies really have. Second, on the matter of immunotherapy, when, for example, a child has a fever, there is a propensity to recommend Tylenol or aspirin, the purpose being to lower the temperature. Yes, perhaps, the child will then feel more comfortable and go to sleep, but it’s probably more for the mother who feels something has been done. However, the evolution of our body has engineered a reason for fever, which is mostly, I would gather, to combat viruses and bacteria. Then, too, hit with a cold and a runny nose, we take a variety of pills to reduce this condition. If anything, we should help our body by doing everything possible to eliminate this waste. Same for diarrhea. We tend to focus on short term comfort at the expense of long term resolution. I’m not a medical doctor, but I wonder about the illogic of many standard medical treatments.
Well, anyway, when will medical science totally eliminate all diseases? The easy answer is that this will just be a matter of time. The reality could well be apocalyptic, as there have been rumors of a “Black Pox,” some genetic combination of small pox and Ebola, with a 100% casualty rate. Thus, with a few retrogressions now and then inspired by nature, war and deviants, the more pragmatic answer is, sometime after finding the clue to eternal life, as the aging gene might be easier to identify and re-program than finding a cure for the totality of human diseases.
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The Dow Jones Industrials crept up 44 to 8325. World markets all went down, making it all the more remarkable that, after the signs at the end of last week, it went up in the U.S. today. Crude oil continues to drop (see right) and gold fell $5/toz to $925.
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South of Baha, Tropical Storm Blanca at 45 MPH formed, and is moving northwest. It should turn West in a couple of days, entering cooler waters, and hopefully dissipate by Wednesday.
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3 ความคิดเห็น:
Malaria was counted as wiped out in the U.S. in 1939 by most CDC histories -- a few cases continued into the 1950s, but the epidemic proportions of the disease were gone.
This is significant because 1939 was 7 years before DDT became available for civilian use.
Mexico used DDT extensively and continuously from 1946 to now. Mexico experienced the same increases in malaria that the rest of the world did.
DDT is a deadly poison that lasts for decades once released. It knocks down mosquito populations for a couple of weeks, but then the mosquitoes roar back, resistant to DDT. Predators of mosquitoes, however, are knocked down for months, or years, or decades.
DDT is a quick path to spreading malaria. Listen to the experts at WHO. They know what they're doing.
Thanks for your thoughts. Wonder why the UN, and therefore, WHO, then, continue to almost tolerate this chemical.
WHO understands that, to beat malaria, we need every weapon possible. There remain a few cases where DDT may be the best choice. WHO urged DDT use in extremely limited circumstances for Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) from 1964 on.
The difficulties are these: There needs to be genetic analysis of the vector mosquitoes to be sure they are susceptible to DDT, and spraying needs to be done by well-trained professionals. It costs about $12.00 per application. One application on a hut will last about six months.
WHO sticks with a tool so long as it's useful, and in this case, so long as there is no good substitute. There are an increasing number of alternative chemicals, however, so the need for DDT continues to shrink.
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