6 replies to this topic

[ihatesnow]

http://www.nytimes.c...ncer-fight.html

[Mind]

Ala Kurzweil, who has been saying for a few years now that most areas of science are becoming "information science" and subject to Moore's law - including biology and medicine (cancer).

Cancer is the one disease I am most worried about. Most other chronic human diseases (Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart problems) are EASILY managed/avoided through diet and exercise.

[Hip]

Cancer is the one disease I am most worried about. Most other chronic human diseases (Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart problems) are EASILY managed/avoided through diet and exercise.

I wouldn't say that is true. Evidence is mounting that many chronic human diseases, including Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart problems, as well as MS, ALS, ME/CFS, lupus, AHDH, heart attacks, dementia, depression, metabolic syndrome, stroke, obesity, asthma, atherosclerosis, autoimmune diseases, etc, etc are underpinned by pathogenic microbes.

See here:

List of human diseases associated with infectious pathogens


Of course exercise, good diet, less life stress may help, though they are probably not going override the damaging effects of permanent microbial infections within the body.

I think the best disease-avoidance strategy is to try not to contract such pathogenic microbes:

Ways to prevent contracting pathogenic microbes that may later cause disease

Edited by Hip, 23 January 2012 - 05:07 PM.

[Danail Bulgaria]

I think, that the role of the microorganisms must not be placed on the first place as a cause for all chronic diseases. All the mentioned diseases have more than one factor, that causes them. It is more acurate to be said, that each of these diseases may appear after exposure to certain pathogenic microorganisms.

[Hip]

I think, that the role of the microorganisms must not be placed on the first place as a cause for all chronic diseases. All the mentioned diseases have more than one factor, that causes them. It is more acurate to be said, that each of these diseases may appear after exposure to certain pathogenic microorganisms.

It is certainly true that infectious pathogenic microbes do not cause disease in everyone that catches them. Epstein-Barr virus, for example, is strongly associated with multiple sclerosis (and many researchers believe that MS will be abolished once an EBV vaccine becomes available and deployed); however, EBV is found in 90% of adults, and yet the incidence of multiple sclerosis is around 0.1% in the UK. So EBV by no means always causes MS.

In fact, the incidence of MS is higher in more northern latitudes (in places like Scotland and Canada the incidence of MS is around 0.2%), and some believe lower sunshine, and thus lower vitamin D, may be the reason for this higher incidence. So certainly environmental factors play a part, as do genetics.

But Epstein-Barr virus is also linked to, or known to cause, other various diseases (autoimmune diseases, breast cancer, esophageal cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, seasonal affective disorder, lupus, multiple sclerosis).

So if you were to combine the incidence rates of all these above EBV-associated diseases, you'd likely find that the chances of an individual being made ill by EBV are non-neglicable.

Also, even if EBV does not cause an overt, recognized disease, it is conceivable that this virus in your body may cause many subclinical symptoms, that more subtly reduce your health in ways more difficult to detect.

And EBV is just one of hundreds of viruses that are very highly prevalent in the general population.

And then of course there are many intracellular and extracellular bacteria, fungi, and protozoal parasites that can also play very pathogenic roles in human health.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), for example, once erroneously considered a type of psychosomatic disorder, has now been linked to the intestinal parasites Blastocystis hominis and Giardia lamblia. Only certain pathogenic strains Blastocystis hominis (originating in the Middle East, but now spreading globally) are linked to IBS bowel problems; other strains of Blastocystis hominis are more benign. Blastocystis hominis is extremely difficult to eradicate, once you catch it.

Edited by Hip, 25 January 2012 - 03:26 PM.

[Danail Bulgaria]

I also had on mind, that the majority of the listed diseases can be caused, and most commonly are caused from other factors.

[Hip]

I also had on mind, that the majority of the listed diseases can be caused, and most commonly are caused from other factors.

Well, the truth is that the causes of most of the above diseases are not known. These diseases have statistical associations to infectious microbes and environmental factors, but as we all know, correlation does not prove causation.

Proving that an environmental factor or infectious microbe actually causes a disease is hard work.


I like to think that the body is actually very strong, reliable and robust, and that it will not develop a (non-genetic) disease on its own, but requires some external factors that damage the body before a disease manifests.

The two main external damaging factors are toxic chemicals from the environment, and infectious microbes.

We are getting much better at ensuring we are not exposed to toxic chemicals, and the general public awareness of the health risks of toxic chemicals is very high.

However, general public and scientific awareness of the health risks posed by infectious microbes is MUCH less, unfortunately.

Everyone these days thinks that high cholesterol or high homocysteine levels cause heart attacks and heart disease. I think this is nothing near the truth of the matter. Though cholesterol or homocysteine may be contributory factors, the driving force behind heart disease and heart attacks will be shown to be microbial infection, I believe.

Here are a couple of a references on microbes, not cholesterol, being the cause of heart attacks: 1, 2. This may be scary news for some people here, as you can take drugs to control cholesterol, but you cannot so easily prevent yourself from catching a virus that will suddenly precipitate a heart attack and kill you stone dead.

I have had experience of how a virus can cause sudden heart attacks: a nasty virus I caught spread around my family and friends, causing me to get chronic fatigue syndrome, and causing 3 heart attacks in other people who were otherwise extremely healthy. One heart attack was fatal. Another person died from a lung infection from this virus.


I think that as research progresses, the damage to the body caused by infectious microbes is probably going to be found to far greater than the damage done by toxic chemicals.

The general public and scientific awareness of the health risks posed by infectious microbes is far too low. There is FAR, FAR too little understanding of this, and far too little funding goes into researching the infectious microbe etiologies of disease.

Though many common chronic diseases may well have complex etiologies that involves both microbial and toxic chemical factors, and genetics will of course play a role too.