1. How sophisticated is our understanding of cancer?
It seems to me, that "our" understanding of cancer is quite sophisticated, but that there are still a lot of mysteries to be solved. I am very impressed with how much time many scientists have dedicated to working with cancer and understanding it more and more. this is essential. it seems so daunting considering the amount of different kinds of cancers and all of the various causes and manifestations. While their understanding is sophisticated in many ways, it seems that there is still so much to be discovered-- people are still dying of cancer every day, so clearly our knowledge of how to prevent cancer is limited.
2. How does TCM approach to cancer differ?
Well, first of all, "cancer" doesn't really exist as such in chinese medicine. rather than thinking about the mutation of genes, for instance, i think that TCM practitioners would refer to the (chinese) organs and channels that are being effected. i would, honestly, like to learn more about how acupuncturists are handling patients with cancer and what they consider cancer to be. i know that legally we can't treat it, but we can make substanctial strides in battling the side-effects of western treatments (like chemo) that destroy much of the healthy body as well as the disease. If an acupunturist did, in fact, intend on confronting the cancer itself, their approach would take the entire body into consideration, not just the parts being attacked. I would think that the strength would be called upon all of the vital substances, fluids, and forces in the body to re-establish balance, therefore doing away with the extreme imbalance that is awry. Overall, i think TCM is more about "reconfiguring" what we already have, maybe boosting it along the way, where as Western approaches are often about killing the attacker with outside forces, leaving the body to cope with the repair.
3. Are out genes still being shaped by natural selection?
I dont' see why they wouldn't be. If natural selection didn't still exist (even in regard to humans) than evolution would be a thing of the past, and it is most definitely a thing of the present and future, as well. Evolution is the force of the Wheel, if it diffused, the Wheel would stop turning and all life would cease. it sounds dramatic, i know, but i basically, i don't think that you can take the evolution out of Life, it's our common purpose. Bluntly, i think that any consideration that human evolution may have stopped is absurd.
1 comment:
Could you imagine if your entire species stopped evolving? We would still be figuring out how to build a fire! It's a kind of sad reality in terms of the greatness of modern science to conutinue to find and desire to end a certain illness/disease, but not quite fast enough to save everyone. I hope maybe we can however honor them by helping others who are we are able to help.
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