TenuousGrip
Senior Member
- Messages
- 297
Years ago, I had a client who was a fairly famous genetic researcher at a prestigious research university. I asked him about the balance between nature and nurture. I've never forgotten his answer:
"Genetics loads the gun. Environment pulls the trigger."
I have no trouble believing that sustained, inordinate levels of stress (using every possible definition of the word 'stress,' including infection, trauma, insult, injury, etc.) could be the trigger in people genetically predisposed.
I fell apart medically after about six of The Worst Years Of My Life.
My sister-in-law was diagnosed with cancer after about a half-dozen of the most stressful years in her life. Did the stress have anything to do with her cancer ? Maybe. Possibly. Probably.
But we don't really hold most other illnesses -- like my SIL's cancer -- up to the BPS model the way they do with ME/CFS. Instead, we spend less time evaluating the path the patient took before becoming sick and more time treating their disease.
I'd gladly accept the existence of a BPS model that has some relevance in some cases ... IF .... like cancer and all other diseases where 'lifestyle factors' may play some role ... we stopped blaming the patients.
If first responders (eg, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, etc.) acted the way the medical community has toward us ... they'd arrive on the scene of a serious motor vehicle accident and -- instead of extracting the injured driver from the car and administering medical attention -- say
"I'm sorry, but it looks like you made an illegal turn. You're on your own."
:-(
"Genetics loads the gun. Environment pulls the trigger."
I have no trouble believing that sustained, inordinate levels of stress (using every possible definition of the word 'stress,' including infection, trauma, insult, injury, etc.) could be the trigger in people genetically predisposed.
I fell apart medically after about six of The Worst Years Of My Life.
My sister-in-law was diagnosed with cancer after about a half-dozen of the most stressful years in her life. Did the stress have anything to do with her cancer ? Maybe. Possibly. Probably.
But we don't really hold most other illnesses -- like my SIL's cancer -- up to the BPS model the way they do with ME/CFS. Instead, we spend less time evaluating the path the patient took before becoming sick and more time treating their disease.
I'd gladly accept the existence of a BPS model that has some relevance in some cases ... IF .... like cancer and all other diseases where 'lifestyle factors' may play some role ... we stopped blaming the patients.
If first responders (eg, paramedics, emergency medical technicians, etc.) acted the way the medical community has toward us ... they'd arrive on the scene of a serious motor vehicle accident and -- instead of extracting the injured driver from the car and administering medical attention -- say
"I'm sorry, but it looks like you made an illegal turn. You're on your own."
:-(