Week Seven: Cell Biology and Cancer

Western Approaches to Cancer
I think the Western approach to Cancer is very unsophisticated. There are too many anomalies to believe that we have the whole story. Why do some patients survive when they are not expected to, and the other way around? It happens too much to create any faith in the western understanding of the disease.

It seems pretty clear that the environment is playing a role in cancer, and that there is some genetic component to it. But, why does it afflict some in a family and not others, or some in Chernobyl or Nagasaki and not others.

TCM and Cancer
I think the Chinese approach of recognizing the psycho-physiological connection holds the key. As we learned from the great presentation on the Biology of Belief, there is too much to ignore on this. The problem is that this type of inquiry seldom lends itself to generalization, and so the progress in dealing with the disease will be zig-zaggy.

Are We Still Evolving?
Hah! It's so typical of us to assume we are no longer evolving because we're perfect, right? I'm not surprised at all that there has been evolution in the last 10,000 years.

Of course not. The world keeps changing and so do we. I think it's interesting to look at the lactose-tolerant gene and that it developed in agrarian northern europe. It's cool that our bodies, over generations, update for new situations. I hope we don't need to adapt to excessive UV radiation, heat and swimming as global warming sets in...