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The Dark Ages of Health

Waverunner

Senior Member
Messages
1,079
As long as we don't have efficient diagnostics and efficient treatments for viral and other infections, many diseases, including CFS, will cause much more suffering, than they should. For many ill people, we still live in the dark ages of medicine, this hopefully will change.

http://chronicsorethroat.wordpress.com/site-map/viruses-in-perspective/

We are living in the Dark Ages of heath, where we are surrounded by thousands of contagious viruses, bacteria and other pathogens in the environment that would like use our bodies as their long-term home. Once these microbes have insinuated themselves into our metabolisms, they frequently remain there for life, where they can slowly (or sometimes rapidly) degrade our physical and mental health. Most of the time this health degradation is subtle and sub-clinical. You may not realize it, but even in a “healthy” individual, pathogens living in their body’s tissues will subtly reduce that person’s mental and physical faculties, so that they will never reach their complete genetic potential. Other times, the health damage wreaked by these pathogens is overt and severe, precipitating a clinical disease, much suffering, and often an early death.
Pathogenic microbes are extremely common in people: Epstein Barr virus is found in around 95% of adults, HHV-6 virus in over 90%, Coxsackie B virus in 55% of adults, cytomegalovirus in 50% of adults, and parvovirus B19 in 50% of adults. Most of these, once caught, cannot be eliminated. Our bodies are considerably overburdened with persistent viruses which often alter our physiology.
Medical research is discovering that more and more physical and mental disorders, from mild to serious, are linked to chronic low-level infections in the body tissues. It may turn out that the majority of non-genetic diseases are caused by infectious microbes.
It is often not just the microbe itself that damages the body, but also the indirect effects of the microbial infection — indirect effects such as the immune system malfunction caused by microbes deliberately disrupting our immune system (immune evasion, as this is called), and the autoimmune inflammation that is often triggered by microbes. Autoimmune inflammation (which is our own immune system mistakenly attacking part of our body) can damage and destroy various cells and structures within the body, leading to disease.
We are beginning to appreciate that the human body does not lapse into disease on its own, but rather, the body only tends develop disease when compromised by pathogenic microbes (and of course environmental toxins).
In a certain sense, this is very good news: it means that our bodies are far more robust than we have hitherto assumed.
It is also good news because if, in future, we manage to purge all these disease-causing microbes from our bodies, we should be able to eliminate the vast majority of common human diseases, such as clinical depression, anxiety disorder, nervous breakdowns, burnout at work, personality problems, anorexia, autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, bipolar, schizophrenia, multiple sclerosis, heart disease, cancers, diabetes, obesity, etc.
At some point in the future, we will look back at all these diseases, and they will seem like ancient history, like grim tales from those bad old days when we were unable to rid our bodies of disease-causing microbes.
Of course, right now, we are living in these grim times; but at least we are beginning to see the light.

This page examines these grim, but opportunity-laden, circumstances, and calls upon human ingenuity and genius to address and rectify this dire state of human health.
Continue here
 

heapsreal

iherb 10% discount code OPA989,
Messages
10,089
Location
australia (brisbane)
So true.
Do you think that one day when they solve cfs/me it will open the flood gates to many other illnesses that are thought of as mental health conditions.
 

Waverunner

Senior Member
Messages
1,079
So true.
Do you think that one day when they solve cfs/me it will open the flood gates to many other illnesses that are thought of as mental health conditions.

Yes, definitively. I don't know if singularity (the moment when computers become as smart as humans) will be the key event but as soon as we can virtually grab a human body, we will get a gigantic boost in treatment. But first we need better diagnostics. In the future we will have a laboratory on a chip. A few years after its release (we already have prototypes), the standard chip will not cost more, than a few dollars, it will be highly sensitive and it will detect hundreds of parameters within a few minutes. No matter where you are on this world, a remote village in Africa, a military base in in the jungle or the North Pole, you will be able to carry a laboratory in your pocket. As soon as we are able to diagnose viral and other disease parameters in a reliant way, we are able to view the extent, to which they are present and cause problems. As soon as we can feed their characteristics into a virtual model of the human model, computers will help us to calculate a solution. Right now we use trial and error, which is not very efficient, nearly never leads to cures and costs huge amounts of time and money, in the future we will go to the root cause of diseases.
 

Vincent

Senior Member
Messages
126
Location
Baltimore, Maryland USA
We are in a medical dark ages run by allopathic tyrants and their side kicks, big pharma, with their fake drug studies, ghost writing in journals, direct to consumer advertising, etc.

I would take exception with:

Yes, definitively. I don't know if singularity (the moment when computers become as smart as humans)

This will never happen. The test of human intelligence is 'what do you do, when you don't know what to do?', machines will never be able to 'think' in this manner. You can not create a script or a program for every eventuality or event in the future. It is simply impossible. We hardly understand our own species, how can we create a robotic clone of it?
 
"Of course, right now, we are living in these grim times; but at least we are beginning to see the light."

My advice: Stay out of the light. If you see the light and go into it, please return with answers. Like why?
 

alex3619

Senior Member
Messages
13,810
Location
Logan, Queensland, Australia
This will never happen. The test of human intelligence is 'what do you do, when you don't know what to do?', machines will never be able to 'think' in this manner. You can not create a script or a program for every eventuality or event in the future. It is simply impossible. We hardly understand our own species, how can we create a robotic clone of it?

Hi Vincent, yes its impossible, its also irrelevant. This argument only applies to expert systems, which are the least interesting and least flexible of the AI systems. They implement rules. Rules are limited. Smarter systems achieve much higher performance by not using rules. They are reactive systems. They have been around for decades. These systems learn, adapt and create new solutions. They are still not well enough advanced to rival even a not so bright puppy, but there is no basic reason they cannot achieve an AI. However a very dumb reactive system will outperform a very bright expert system in the real world, and very visibly do so. Look at Rodney Brooks old robots ... no programming in the traditional sense, no rules, but they can explore complex environments.

The singularity is not when we have computers as smart as people. The term is borrowed from black holes .... its the point at which nothing can be seen on the other side, as light cannot leave. The singularity in the futurist sense is the point at which the future becomes so unpredictable that all bets are off. One way this might happen is when machines design and build machines, which go on to design and build successive generations. However it could happen just due to the complexity of the changing world.

I met Rodney Brooks once, listened to a seminar, and heard him speak at an AI conference. There are many other approaches that learn and adapt, its not just his approach, but they have one thing in common: they don't use rules as in expert systems. I gave a lecture on this in one of my intro to AI lectures back in 1995.

Bye, Alex
 

Waverunner

Senior Member
Messages
1,079
"Of course, right now, we are living in these grim times; but at least we are beginning to see the light."

My advice: Stay out of the light. If you see the light and go into it, please return with answers. Like why?
Sorry but what's your point?
 

Waverunner

Senior Member
Messages
1,079
The singularity in the futurist sense is the point at which the future becomes so unpredictable that all bets are off. One way this might happen is when machines design and build machines, which go on to design and build successive generations. However it could happen just due to the complexity of the changing world.

I met Rodney Brooks once, listened to a seminar, and heard him speak at an AI conference. There are many other approaches that learn and adapt, its not just his approach, but they have one thing in common: they don't use rules as in expert systems. I gave a lecture on this in one of my intro to AI lectures back in 1995.

Bye, Alex


Hi Alex,

Singularity University refers to Ray Kurzweil’s book “The Singularity is Near":

The book description says:

"For over three decades, Ray Kurzweil has been one of the most respected and provocative advocates of the role of technology in our future. In his classic The Age of Spiritual Machines, he argued that computers would soon rival the full range of human intelligence at its best. Now he examines the next step in this inexorable evolutionary process: the union of human and machine, in which the knowledge and skills embedded in our brains will be combined with the vastly greater capacity, speed, and knowledge-sharing ability of our creations."

So what is singularity? Do we have a clear definition in a futurist sense?
 

WillowJ

คภภเє ɠรค๓թєl
Messages
4,940
Location
WA, USA
So true.
Do you think that one day when they solve cfs/me it will open the flood gates to many other illnesses that are thought of as mental health conditions.

yes, I think one day when we solve ME/CFS, the solution will be the golden key to many other illnesses, hopefully some which are now (incorrectly) thought of as mental health conditions and also MS, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and the like.

or that's what I like to think at any rate :D
 

Waverunner

Senior Member
Messages
1,079
It's just shocking to see, how many diseases are associated with infectious pathogens. If we only take a look at diseases starting with "A", we go from Alzheimer to Autoimmune disease.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_human_diseases_associated_with_infectious_pathogens

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease is associated with the bacteria Chlamydia pneumoniae[13] and Helicobacter pylori,[14] and with the protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii.[15] Herpes simplex virus 1 is associated with Alzheimer's disease in individuals who possess the APOE-4 form of the APOE gene (APOE-4 enables the herpes virus to enter the brain).[16]
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a form of motor neuron disease, is associated with echovirus (an enterovirus) infection of the central nervous system,[17] and with retrovirus[18] activity (it is not known whether this retrovirus activity arises from a human endogenous retrovirus, or from an exogenous retrovirus).
Anorexia nervosa Infection with Borrelia[19] species bacteria is associated with anorexia nervosa. In rare cases, anorexia nervosa may arise after infection with Streptococcus[20] species bacteria. Anorexia (which is distinct from anorexia nervosa) is associated with the protozoan parasite Dientamoeba fragilis.[21]
Anxiety disorder Anxiety is associated with cytomegalovirus,[22] and the bacterium Helicobacter pylori.[23]
Asthma Asthma is associated with rhinovirus, human respiratory syncytial virus,[24] and the bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae.[25] Chlamydia pneumoniae is particularly associated with adult-onset asthma.[26]
Atherosclerosis Atherosclerosis is associated with the bacterium Chlamydia pneumoniae.[27][28]
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and learning disorders are associated with the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi and Streptococcus, and with HIV and enterovirus 71. Febrile seizures due to human herpesvirus 6 orinfluenza A are a risk factor for ADHD. Viral infections during pregnancy, at birth, and in early childhood are risk factors for ADHD.[29]
Autism Autism is associated with prenatal maternal infection with rubella virus or cytomegalovirus.[30][31] Clostridiabacteria species are associated with autism (these bacteria are present in greater numbers in the guts of autistic children).[32]
Autoimmune diseases Autoimmune diseases are strongly associated with enteroviruses such as Coxsackie B virus.[33] Autoimmune diseases are also associated with Epstein-Barr virus,[34] cytomegalovirus,[35] parvovirus B19,[36] and HIV,[37] and the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis.[38] Autoimmune thyroid disease is associated with Epstein-Barr virus[39]and Helicobacter pylori.[40]