[FRIAM] The Problem with the Mutation-Centric View of Cancer

[Nick Thompson]

Marcus and Glen,

 

As it happens, I am finishing the last chapter of THE EMPEROR OF MALADIES <https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwiu_5PTvYzWAhVlw4MKHbbrDAYQFghMMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FEmperor-All-Maladies-Biography-Cancer%2Fdp%2F1439170916&usg=AFQjCNFB3J_IGLBs_RiwUNTkQyqpmM00nQ>  as we speak.   

 

I was (am) overwhelmed by it.  About half way through, I thought, I will never go near another doctor again.  By the next to the last chapter, I was back to thinking of medicine as, at least, plausible.  Six weeks post bypass.  I still don’t have angina.  

 

Nick 

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

 <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

 

From: Friam [mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com] On Behalf Of Marcus Daniels
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2017 5:01 PM
To: FriAM <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The Problem with the Mutation-Centric View of Cancer

 

Glen writes:

 

"In order to *perform* as a whole body, whatever supplements you're providing to promote one thing over another, you are also curtailing everything else.  The body reacts to extreme exercise in the same way it reacts to fasting, by restricting which systems get the extra juice."

 

Right, all that is not permitted is forbidden.   I suppose if it must be very extreme (to work -- if it would), then there is a real risk of injury or overuse that come sooner or later and then the trouble-making diversification of the microenvironments would start again. 

 

Marcus

  _____  

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com <mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com> > on behalf of ┣glen┫ <gepropella at gmail.com <mailto:gepropella at gmail.com> >
Sent: Monday, September 4, 2017 2:39:20 PM
To: FriAM
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] The Problem with the Mutation-Centric View of Cancer 

 



On 09/04/2017 01:26 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
> I mean to balance culling of developed/adapted cells, it would be good to have stored blueprints in a refrigerator somewhere so that the poison doesn't harm them.

I don't understand what you're saying, really.  If we refine chemo so that it becomes as specific as antibodies, then I'd say it's not a "poison" anymore.  But I'm always guilty of using language badly.  So, who knows?

> Could goal-oriented growth displace `bad' growth?  I'm thinking of Lance Armstrong's remarkable return to racing, for example.   Some massive energy draw that directs resources in a good way.
> 
> Why should curtailing better than directing?   It seems counter-intuitive that a slow metabolism would be preferable to a fast one, when it comes to fighting disease.

I don't think it is necessarily better.  But we have to admit our ignorance.  By *promoting* some growth (in false distinction from curtailing all growth), you have to have control of the system.  And there are way too many variables for us to control.  My guess is, at this stage in our understanding of how biology works, unbalanced promotion will find persnickety edge cases that produce disease.

But the Lance Armstrong argument is NOT a promotion argument.  In order to *perform* as a whole body, whatever supplements you're providing to promote one thing over another, you are also curtailing everything else.  The body reacts to extreme exercise in the same way it reacts to fasting, by restricting which systems get the extra juice.

So the argument I (or Longo) might make is not that a slow metabolism MUST be preferable, just that for most people, especially e.g. 70-year olds with fresh diagnoses of cancer, fasting is likely to be easier than launching a bicycle racing career.


-- 
␦glen?

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