The future of medicine, and other fantasies
Scientific American asked ten 'visionary' science experts on its advisory board to tell the world what societal changes they foresaw for the coming decades. You can read the results of their cogitations in SciAm′s August 26, 2010 online edition (1). I myself was mainly interested in what they had to say on the subjects of health and medicine.
George Church's piece "Medicine I can call my own" focuses on the promises of stem cells and affordable genome sequencing. Stem cells hold promise for regenerative medicine. Mapping each patient′s genome should, in the author′s opinion, lead to customized diagnoses, treatments, and diets:
"In the near future, a complex ecosystem of health care and software providers will empower doctors to treat each patient as a unique individual. Your stem cells will be fashioned into ad hoc treatments. Your genome will get sequenced every year or so to check for the emergence of cancer cells, auto-immune cells, inflammation, and so on and will help predict what treatment may work best if a disease appears. Not just knowing but shaping your biology will be part of your life." (1)
The piece reminded me of Thomas Edison′s optimistic prediction:
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease." (2)
Edison′s prediction obviously didn′t come true. What happened instead was that Big Pharma took control of the American medical system. Here is how economist Paul Zane Pilzer put it in 2001:
"Sadly, most physicians have become 'technology dispensers' for the products and services of the large multinational medical companies — companies which always seem to tip the scale between profits and patients in favor of profits. In some cases this means manipulating the federal government against the public interest in safety as well as in dollars." (3)
Not only does the pharmacutical industry have no interest in your wellbeing — you are more profitable to them chronically ill than healthy — but neither does the food industry. In fact, both food and drug companies will try to suppress perfectly sound health claims through their influence on regulatory agencies, to protect their profits. Pilzer again:
"While there is obviously no direct conspiracy between the $1 trillion food industry (which causes most of the problems) and the $1.4 trillion medical industry (that treats just enough of the symptoms to get the 'targets' back to work and consumption) the economic effect is the same as if these two industries were conspiring against the American consumer in the most sinister fashion.
On a microeconomic level, each time consumers get real information that could help them take control of their health, the food and medical industries, acting in their own economic self-interest, manipulate this information against them." (3)
Pilzer wrote about the American situation and for an American audience, but these problems aren′t unique to the U.S. Just a couple of days after they gave us a glimpse of the future as they saw it, Scientific American offered us this gem: Researchers at Imperial College London actually proposed that restaurants serving things like cheeseburgers and milkshakes ought to include a statin pill with each order to "offset the health risks of the high fat meal" (4).
Would you take health advice from doctors like these? Yet, the medical establishment has been very successful in equating good health with good medical care in people′s minds. For example, both Thomas Edison and the writer of the SciAm piece took it for granted that health is the purview of medicine. Similarly, the terms 'health care' and 'medical care' are used interchangeably by far too many writers.
Good health is largely the result of a proper diet and exercise, etc. You don′t need your genome sequenced to know whether junk food is right for you or not, and you can find better sources of health information than your family doctor. Most physicians don′t know much more about nutrition than their patients; the subject isn′t even taught in most medical schools!
I do hope that stem cell research and the genome project will lead to medical breakthroughs; we need access to quality medical care even if we make every effort to adopt a healthy life style. But drugs cannot compensate for a lousy diet and a lack of exercise, and bad life style choices will undo any benefits that medical advances might bring.
But they can keep their 'complex ecosystem of health care and software providers' that is supposed to empower doctors to treat each patient as a unique individual. A 'complex ecosystem of lobbyists and drug reps' to control doctors and protect Big Pharma′s interests is far more likely anyway.
Sources
George Church's piece "Medicine I can call my own" focuses on the promises of stem cells and affordable genome sequencing. Stem cells hold promise for regenerative medicine. Mapping each patient′s genome should, in the author′s opinion, lead to customized diagnoses, treatments, and diets:
"In the near future, a complex ecosystem of health care and software providers will empower doctors to treat each patient as a unique individual. Your stem cells will be fashioned into ad hoc treatments. Your genome will get sequenced every year or so to check for the emergence of cancer cells, auto-immune cells, inflammation, and so on and will help predict what treatment may work best if a disease appears. Not just knowing but shaping your biology will be part of your life." (1)
The piece reminded me of Thomas Edison′s optimistic prediction:
"The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest her or his patients in the care of the human frame, in a proper diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease." (2)
Edison′s prediction obviously didn′t come true. What happened instead was that Big Pharma took control of the American medical system. Here is how economist Paul Zane Pilzer put it in 2001:
"Sadly, most physicians have become 'technology dispensers' for the products and services of the large multinational medical companies — companies which always seem to tip the scale between profits and patients in favor of profits. In some cases this means manipulating the federal government against the public interest in safety as well as in dollars." (3)
Not only does the pharmacutical industry have no interest in your wellbeing — you are more profitable to them chronically ill than healthy — but neither does the food industry. In fact, both food and drug companies will try to suppress perfectly sound health claims through their influence on regulatory agencies, to protect their profits. Pilzer again:
"While there is obviously no direct conspiracy between the $1 trillion food industry (which causes most of the problems) and the $1.4 trillion medical industry (that treats just enough of the symptoms to get the 'targets' back to work and consumption) the economic effect is the same as if these two industries were conspiring against the American consumer in the most sinister fashion.
On a microeconomic level, each time consumers get real information that could help them take control of their health, the food and medical industries, acting in their own economic self-interest, manipulate this information against them." (3)
Pilzer wrote about the American situation and for an American audience, but these problems aren′t unique to the U.S. Just a couple of days after they gave us a glimpse of the future as they saw it, Scientific American offered us this gem: Researchers at Imperial College London actually proposed that restaurants serving things like cheeseburgers and milkshakes ought to include a statin pill with each order to "offset the health risks of the high fat meal" (4).
Would you take health advice from doctors like these? Yet, the medical establishment has been very successful in equating good health with good medical care in people′s minds. For example, both Thomas Edison and the writer of the SciAm piece took it for granted that health is the purview of medicine. Similarly, the terms 'health care' and 'medical care' are used interchangeably by far too many writers.
Good health is largely the result of a proper diet and exercise, etc. You don′t need your genome sequenced to know whether junk food is right for you or not, and you can find better sources of health information than your family doctor. Most physicians don′t know much more about nutrition than their patients; the subject isn′t even taught in most medical schools!
I do hope that stem cell research and the genome project will lead to medical breakthroughs; we need access to quality medical care even if we make every effort to adopt a healthy life style. But drugs cannot compensate for a lousy diet and a lack of exercise, and bad life style choices will undo any benefits that medical advances might bring.
But they can keep their 'complex ecosystem of health care and software providers' that is supposed to empower doctors to treat each patient as a unique individual. A 'complex ecosystem of lobbyists and drug reps' to control doctors and protect Big Pharma′s interests is far more likely anyway.
Sources
- Church G. Medicine I can call my own, in What comes next: Experts predict the future. Scientific American online, August 26, 2010.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-comes- next&print=true - The Quotations Page.
http://www.quotationspage.com - Paul Zane Pilzer. The next trillion. Abridged Version. VideoPlus 2001.
- Karen Hopkin. Researchers recommend statins with your fries. Scientific American August 26, 2010.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=researchers- recommend-statins-with-10-08-26
great site really informative i learned a lot great stuff keep it up
Reply to this
How inspiring post. I really enjoy reading this. Thank you for sharing....
Reply to this
The idea of bundling a statin pill together with a high-fat entree would be funny if it weren't so sad. We MUST---each of us---take responsibility for our health. The food industry and the pharmaceutical industry are paying attention to something EL$E.
More's the pity
Reply to this
Yes, unfortunately, stem cell advancements are still a hopeful fantasy. But once we get the breakthru, it will open so many health problem doors. Please let it be soon!
Reply to this
Hi, mate! I am utterly acclaim this way of assessment and all of connected.
Reply to this
The information that you have provided is very helpful. Definitely is one best blog.
Reply to this
Wow! That's a really neat answer!
Reply to this
Medicine has advanced over the years indeed; however I think it's ridiculous to include pills in food, as proposed by researchers at Imperial College London: "restaurants serving things like cheeseburgers and milkshakes ought to include a statin pill with each order to "offset the health risks of the high fat meal"'. People need more self control and need to take responsibility for what they eat. Medicine should not be used for such advancements.
Reply to this
It is instructive. But I would not have been able to.
Reply to this
Your article "The future of medicine, and other fantasies" is a superb starting point for a high stakes thriller mystery on how big pharma, the food industry, health organizations and the U.S. Government are conspiring to kill our people to pay off our country's debt.
Okay, I am sounding off but during the past 5 years, I was in and out of heart failure and most recently during the past 7 months, my episodes of ventricular tachycardia (VT), were non stop for up to 10 hours each day. You would have thought that one of my five cardiologists (they are all pill pushers) or one of my three electrophysiologists (they are invasive procedure pushers) would have suggested my VT's were the result of scare tissue from a previous heart attack coupled with extreme doses of Crestor.
Thanks to a "caustic" comment from Dr Oz and a heart-full comment by my yogi during meditation, I was able to fit the last piece into the puzzle, stopped my Crestor and within 10 days the VT's were reduced by 90%. Today they are gone, hopefully with no permanent heart damage.
Thanks to the internet and social media, we have data, information and tools to start a health revolution.
Reply to this
I completely agree with your ideas, the internet is with a doubt growing into the most important medium of communication across the globe and its due to sites like this that ideas are spreading so quickly. Looking forward to another great blog. Good luck to the author! all the best!
Reply to this