[JBinKC]

Lots depend upon the circumstances type of cancer, how advanced it is etc. but an ounce of prevention is the best cure IMO. Exhibiting a preventative healthy lifestyle that includes limited exposure to carcinogens like no smoking, fresh air, limited alcohol consumption, exercise, organic foods with lots of varied antioxidants, proper pH maintenance and vitamins.

[lorenzo]

Gene therapy rids men of cancer
Two men have been cleared of deadly skin cancer using genetically modified versions of their own immune cells.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5304910.stm

See also the Q&A on the gene therapy:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5305420.stm


No miracle cure yet, but definitely a major breakthrough.

And then to see some people hating science and technology; some even want to get rid of it all and return to some pre-modern state of wilderness.... tssss.

Technology and science are the only way out for us, out of cancer, out of climate change and out of peak oil.

You don't mind me posting about scientific breakthroughs here at the open discussion forum, once in a while, do you? Just to keep things real, and to keep some reactionaries with their feet on the ground.

[davep]

And then to see some people hating science and technology; some even want to get rid of it all and return to some pre-modern state of wilderness.... tssss.

A lot of people are opposed to GM crops. This has nothing to do with using GM cells for a human's immune system, as the genes are not passed on.

Technology can be good of course, however it is of limited effect in cancer etc due to the complex nature of some conditions and the ineffectiveness of the cartesian approach to that complexity.

[rogerhb]

The last thing in the world we need is more diseases being cured....

(a) it increases population

(b) it increases amount of wealth squandered in health

(c) increases virrulance of diseases that survive (eg MRSA etc)

[Chaparral]

(b) it increases amount of wealth squandered in health

I wholeheartedly agree. Wealth should be squandered on destroying cities and democratically elected governments, blowing little Iraqi and Lebanese kids to bits and buying really awesome cool looking fighter planes at 300,000,000.00 a piece and CEO, entertainer and pro athlete salaries. Maybe enough of it could even be spent on fcuking up the planetary ecosystem for the next 100,000 years.

Piss on this spending wealth on health nonsense. Just makes little kids and old people live happier & longer.

Next thing you know someone will suggest spending it on education and research or ecosystem remediation.

[rogerhb]

(b) it increases amount of wealth squandered in health

Just makes little kids and old people live happier & longer.

It makes people live longer but is there any evidence of being happier?

If the major problem is that of overpopulation I fail to see how making people live longer is part of the solution.

Health care is a bottomless pit. You can *always* spend more money.

[Chaparral]

It makes people live longer but is there any evidence of being happier?

if it makes me & mine live longer I'm all for it. We love music. We love wine. We love food. We love art. We love the skies and the forests and the oceans and the life within them. We love life. If were alive, were happy. Don't know about everyone else though.

If the major problem is that of overpopulation I fail to see how making people live longer is part of the solution.

hey now, I didn't say I was gonna take one for team humanity did I? That's someone else's job. Lets see if we can trick one of those guys contemplating a dirt nap into offing themselves so I can use their resources. We need the acreage that would sustain them for more vineyards

Health care is a bottomless pit. You can *always* spend more money.

Heh heh, seems like military budgets, CEO salaries and everything else don't it? How 'bout we use the overage to pay people like me to do plant transects for arcane ecology research that only a few land managers and grad students will ever read?

[cubes]

(b) it increases amount of wealth squandered in health

Can I assume you've never been seriously ill then?

[Miki]

The last thing in the world we need is more diseases being cured....

That would be the simple solution, but simple solutions to complex problems are usually wrong, as per your signature .

(a) it increases population

Time to spend some money on birth control education (in doing so, start with the American teens, who have the highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the "civilized" world)

(b) it increases amount of wealth squandered in health

As opposed to what? Political campaigns, illegal wars, or $100 000 "gift bags" for the guests of the Oscar's?

(c) increases virrulance of diseases that survive (eg MRSA etc)

That only applies to viral diseases, as far as I know. Cancer is not a viral disease. And there are ways to avoid that even with viral diseases (ie, stop prescribing antiviral meds unless they are really needed).

[rogerhb]

As opposed to what? Political campaigns, illegal wars, or $100 000 "gift bags" for the guests of the Oscar's?

My recommendation would be for nations to pay off their national debts so the next generations don't have to.

Alas, the plebs are addicted to debt and selling off their childrens futures.

[Miki]

As opposed to what? Political campaigns, illegal wars, or $100 000 "gift bags" for the guests of the Oscar's?

My recommendation would be for nations to pay off their national debts so the next generations don't have to.

Alas, the plebs are addicted to debt and selling off their childrens futures.

Are you suggesting we let people die in order to pay the external debts?

Is there any country that does not have an external debt? My guess is that those debts will never finish. They seem to be a core element of capitalism.

[rogerhb]

Are you suggesting we let people die in order to pay the external debts?

Are you suggesting we beggar our children and grandchildren and condemn them to eternal servitude inorder to prolong the lives of those who ran up the debts in the first place?

[MonteQuest]

No miracle cure yet, but definitely a major breakthrough.

And then to see some people hating science and technology; some even want to get rid of it all and return to some pre-modern state of wilderness.... tssss.

Technology and science are the only way out for us, out of cancer, out of climate change and out of peak oil.

More circumvention of nature. Eliminate our remaining predators and accelerate the overshoot.

Disease can be looked upon as man’s keystone predator. “Keystone predator” is an ecological term used to describe the basic principle by which a predator may be a balancing force on an ecosystem. For this reason, special care must be taken with identified keystone predators to keep them from being hunted out of an ecosystem. Other than in some vials in a lab at the CDC, many of man’s keystone predators are extinct; others are of little consequence. Yes, we are no longer plagued with the evils of disease, but that was nature’s way of controlling our numbers and insuring the “survival of the fittest.” Predators usually capture the old, crippled, sick, or very young animals. Over long periods of time, predation actually improves the health of the prey population.

[Falconoffury]

What about this?

http://www.essiacinfo.org/

[TheTurtle]

(b) it increases amount of wealth squandered in health

Can I assume you've never been seriously ill then?

Can I assume you've never spent weeks sitting in a hi-tech ICU watching a loved one kept "alive" through the miracle of modern medicine only to finally lose her to the inevitable then?

There's a place for advanced health care and there are points when the money is, as Roger suggests, squandered. Unfortunately, I suspect most of it falls into the squandered category.

[Miki]

Are you suggesting we let people die in order to pay the external debts?

Are you suggesting we beggar our children and grandchildren and condemn them to eternal servitude inorder to prolong the lives of those who ran up the debts in the first place?

And what happens when your children and grandchildren get sick? Should we let them die so that there's money left to pay the debts?

[nwildmand]

while it is easy to sympathize with the sick one must understand that that the process of natural selection has in many ways been lost to the human race. this is just another example. modern medicine has allowed people with genetic defects to reach breeding age and further infect the population with thier defective dna.

in short i believe that modern medicine has caused the human race to stop evolving as a whole. the longer medicine give people the ability to breed the more sickly humans will become.

[Miki]

while it is easy to sympathize with the sick one must understand that that the process of natural selection has in many ways been lost to the human race. this is just another example.

modern medicine has allowed people with genetic defects to reach breeding age and further infect the population with thier defective dna.

While it's undeniable that antibiotics have contributed to the worsening of many viral diseses through natural selection, I'm not sure the same process applies to genetic diseases. Those diseases are way more complex than viral ones, and it's not like we understand them enough to help people live that long with them. If anything, science has progressed a lot in the detection of genetic malformations, but not so much in "curing" them.

Do you have any article explaining the connection between modern medicine and the increase of genetic malformations?

[nwildmand]

Do you have any article explaining the connection between modern medicine and the increase of genetic malformations?

not off hand i dont. its a mountain of information to dig through. its a fairly taboo subject but its only logical. take juvenile diabetes or lukemia. it runs in families. i grew up near a family in which 2 of the 3 kids had lukemia. they all lived through it and i only later learned that the father had it when he was a child. thus basically the whole family survived to pass thier defective jeans on to another generation.

i may look for some links backing this claim up but im not looking forward to it.

[Miki]

take juvenile diabetes or lukemia. it runs in families. i grew up near a family in which 2 of the 3 kids had lukemia. they all lived through it and i only later learned that the father had it when he was a child. thus basically the whole family survived to pass thier defective jeans on to another generation.

Yes, but there's an alternative explanation for that: the people in question may have developed better survival skills than other sufferers, or they may have a sub-type of the disease that is not as severe, all of which would contribute to their survival through natural selection. So it might not be that meds are precluding natural selection, but that natural selection is allowing some sick people to survive longer than others. Right?

i may look for some links backing this claim up but im not looking forward to it.

Do let us know if you find something. It's interesting.