Week 2 Assignments

I enjoyed both the Mitosis vs Meiosis, and Citric Acid Cycle links. Since I'm taking Physiology right now, it's both a good review of what we've covered in that class, but also more in depth. I'm not sure I understood everything in the Citric Acid Cycle animation - if we were to fully understand that process, I think we would have to include a bit more lecture and question/answer during class time on the topic.

I know this wasn't one of the listed discussion questions for this week's class materials, but I was especially interested in the article "Health: The origin of a special success" and want to spend a bit of time on the topic of how molecular biology is potentially changing cancer treatment. When Steve Jobs passed away last year, I remember reading an article in which he talked about his prediction that he will either be in the last generation of people to die of cancer or the first generation to be cured of cancer through individual gene therapy. I found this idea incredibly compelling but also, given the track record of western medical science and therapy, potentially fraught with landmines that can't yet be predicted.

Still, the concept is interesting enough that I did a bit more reading on it and have included a few links below that you might find interesting.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-23/genome-map-helps-improve-cancer-treatments.html

A decade after the first draft of the human genome was published, hospitals and clinics are using DNA sequencing to generate better treatments and diagnoses for patients with rare childhood diseases, cancers and other mysterious conditions. Using new technology that can effectively print out an individual’s genome -- the instruction manual for making all the body’s cells -- doctors are examining individual components, called bases, to slow intractable cancers and treat one-of-a- kind diseases in children.

http://www.mesothelioma.com/news/2012/01/is-genome-mapping-key-to-cancer-cure.htm

Of all conditions mapped, sequencing cancer genomes has shown to be extremely effective. According to Barrett Rollins of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, cancer “is among the most promising targets because it is essentially a disease in which damaged genes let cells grow without restraint.”

Radiolab episode on placebos

http://www.radiolab.org/2007/may/17/

Check out this episode of the Radiolab show dedicated to placebos.

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With new research demonstrating the startling power of the placebo effect, this hour of Radiolab examines the chemical consequences of belief and imagination.

Could the best medicine be no medicine at all? We take stock of the pharmacy in our brains, consider the symbolic power of the doctor coat, and visit the tent of a self-proclaimed faith healer.

All over the world, people say they are healed by things that turn out to be placebo. So it's easy to think that they must have been faking in the first place if all it took was a little sugar pill to assuage their ailments. But keep your scoffing at bay. That little white pill may be inducing some very real effects. We talk to placebo experts Fabrizio Benedetti and Tor Wager who tell us about the well-stocked pharmacy in our brains, just waiting to be unlocked.

Then pain expert, Dr. Daniel Carr, takes us to the WWII Battle of Anzio, where a puzzled young medic sees that the same bullet can create very different experiences of pain. And Daniel Moerman tells us how the color of a pill effects how well Italians sleep.

Next up: a look at the placebo effect from the doctor's perspective. How the medical context alone can be the key into the brain's healing resources. We'll hear the story of Dr. Albert Mason, who found he had super-powers, used them for good, and then lost them forever. Then, we'll witness the real, measurable power of the white coat up-close as Jad follows his dad, Dr. Naji Abumrad, into the examining room. And then we'll visit the moment of transformation from medical student to healer: the white coat ceremony.

The very first placebo-controlled trial may have been the debunking of the charismatic Anton Mesmer (the enigmatic source responsible for the verb “to mesmerize”), an enlightenment figure with a healing technique that Ben Franklin, for one, thought was basically placebo performance. Historians Ed Cohen and Ann Harrington fill in the details.

Last, producer Gregory Warner takes us into the tent of a Christian faith-healing, where preacher Steve Buza treats all sorts of ailments, including scoliosis and carpal tunnel, and the healed reflect on the relationship between pain and doubt.

March 15 Class Discussion

Hi all,

I was not expecting to take Biochemistry this semester but was pleasantly surprised by the accessibility of the topics discussed in our first class. There are two topics in particular that I want to comment on.

The first is the ethics of doctors prescribing placebos without the patients' knowledge. I mulled over this for a while and couldn't help but feel that I was going around in circles in my brain. My line of thinking went something like this.

I believe strongly in the "mind-body-spirit" connection and the ability of the "mind" to heal physical symptoms. As someone who has a meditation practice, including intensive retreats, and who works for a meditation center, I've experienced for myself and seen others go through self-healing work through meditation and other forms of awareness practices.

I also have an interesting anecdote to share: the mother of one of my best friends experienced excruciating hip and back pain for years - the point where M.D.s had her on methadone and she was immobile. They never found any anatomical/physiological source of the pain. Then she went through a period of slight dementia and was hospitalized. While hospitalized, she was given anti-depressants - and all her debilitating pain went away.

All this to say, I think the placebo effect is powerful in that a lot of pain can be caused by chemicals, hormones, etc whose production or lack of production can be caused by the mind/heart. So is it unethical for doctors to prescribe placebos to achieve this effect? My instinct is to say no, even given the issues of trust and doctor-patient relationships. But I would draw the line at prescribing placebos that can have a negative impact on the body - such as antibiotics.

The second topic I want to touch on is that of environmental justice. We talked a great deal in our first class on the negative impacts that human technology has had on the greater environment. To me, it's great that so many people are coming around to thinking about sustainability. However, I'm equally worried that the "Green Movement" will perpetuate the mistakes of the previous environmental movements of the 60s and 70s, which resulted in a greater disproportionate siting of pollluting industries in poor, communities of color, etc. When middle class, white communities realized the negative health impacts of power plants, recycling centers, refineries, etc, the siting of new and relocated industries ended up disproportionately in communities that didn't have the political or financial clot to fight them. I hope that the current mass movement for environmental sustainability will be more inclusive and work directly to make sure that there is equal access.

There are many amazing organizations and people working towards these goals, especially in the Bay Area.
Check out the publication "Race, Poverty, and the Environment"
And Oakland-based organizaton: Green for All

Thus concludes my ramblings for this week.