Europe, the Big Blue State

It seems that whatever deregulation in food and product safety occurs in the US will largely be countered by European regulation more far reaching than anything we have ever had here. Major US companies are already complying as Europe is a larger market than America. American consumers may thus either get regulated products anyway or at least get a choice.

Essence, genes, longevity and the Future

There is a concept in chinese medicine called essence. Essence is received in part from each parent. It controls development, maturation, reproduction and aging. Thus, essence is remarkably conceptually similar to the modern idea of genes. All the more remarkable when one realizes that all hte contours of this idea were already developed over 2000 years ago. Similar ideas existed amongst contemporary Ayurvedic physicians from India, as well. The theory of aging in Chinese medicine has always involved the decline of essence. Since the advent of modern genetics, there has been much discussion of the relationship between these two ideas. A fundamental question seems to be whether essence is something that decreases in amount or quality or both.

Genes, in the modern sense, do not decrease in amount over the course of a lifetime. But they do fail to make perfect copies of themselves as result of mutations. And the number of times a cell can replicate is limited by the length of the telomeres that orient the replication process. These telomeres shorten with each subsequent cell division and thus represent a built in decay process. There is no evolutionary reason for immortality of cells or species, thus no need for nature to evolve it. The fact that some species are naturally long lived is probably just a quirk with no fitness advantage. Nature only needs one to live long enough to reproduce and raise offspring to maturity. A tortoise hardly needs 200 years for that. So, while the quantity of DNA in each cell does not decline, the quality of cellular replication does so on a fairly fixed basis rooted in the gnes of each species.

In chinese medicine, it is said that prenatal essence is fixed and one maintains that essence for as long as possible by living right. In other words, by eating foods that prevent genetic mutations and accumulation of excessive cellular waste, and avoiding behaviors that promote them. Likewise, one maintains a stable code and has less need for cellular replication and thus the time between cell divisions is longer, lengthening one's lifespan to its maximum. But the telomeres will eventually shorten and thus there would appear to be a maximum span one can live. This idea is also congruous with chinese ideas about longevity. That you are born with certain potential and you can use it how you please. Restrictive lifestyle leads to longer life (but perhaps less temproral enjoyment).

But while proper lifestyle can only delay the inevitable, are there other options that can do more? In chinese medicine, there is an idea that proper lifestyle can only prevent further loss of essence (which I am comparing with genetic quality here). Once prenatal essence is lost, it can never be recovered. This would be akin to permanent DNA mutation or a premature shortening of telomeres due to poor lifestyle leading to increased need for cellular replication. However, there exists another idea from chinese mythology, let's say. That is, certain meditative and gymnastic practices, known collectively as Qi Gong, can actually restore prenatal essence which has been lost. That suggests that an alteration of consciousness and brain activity may be able to effect correction of defects in the genetic code. An interesting and not implausible idea, yet far from proven in any meaningful way (though easily investigated with modern analytical techniques).

The cutting edge of modern scientific medical research is focused on exactly this. How to prevent or correct the abnormalities in genes that accrue with age. A modern science of essence cultivation, if you will. The focus in modern medicine is on various methods, including gene therapy, therapeutic cloning, and perhaps most intriguing for a science fiction buff such as myself, nanobiology. While one might think that these developments are off in the distant future, there is evidence and consensus growing that major breakthroughs are right around the corner. While we have heard that for years regarding cancer treatment, I was never impressed. Ray Kurzweil, a brilliant futurist, has gathered together many great thinkers on his website, all mainstream and acclaimed scientists. The thesis they all agree upon is that the exponential acceleration in human knowledge and technology will allow progress to occur many times faster with each passing year. Major increase in human longevity are predicted to be developed in most of our lifetimes.

I got involved in Chinese Medicine in the mid 80's largely because Western Medicine didn't adequately address chronic illness or the stress syndromes that led up to it correctly. There was no interest in diet or exercise amongst most doctors. But all this has changed. Mainstream medicine now pays close attention to diet and exercise and stress reduction. American society is still dogged by an insane disease causing work ethic and people still eat terribly, but this is no longer to be blamed on doctors or television, which have both really caught up with science. The psychological factors that still drive people to kill themselves with their behaviors despite abundant widely available evidence is beyond the scope of this column. At one time, I thought it was just because people didn't know better when it now clearly seems to be something else. But I digress.

If western medicine can actually achieve what is predicted by Kurzweil and his allies, what will be the ramifications for alternative medicine and even the current practice of western medicine? If cancer, heart and liver diseases, and diabetes, as well as all immune mediated diseases, are eliminated through a combination of lifestyle, supplements, therapeutic cloning and nanobiology, what role will be played by Chinese Medicine. Acupuncture may still be useful for pain relief and rehabilitation. However, the same western high tech therapies used in chronic illness will also allow rapid and complete injury healing, even in neurological damage. Drugs will be largely unnecessary to either treat chronic symptoms or stimulate lost organ function because cellular therapies will eliminate such a need. There will always be acute ailments and injuries, but eventually nanobiology will allow these situtations to also be handled without drugs.

The paradigm shift that I have been envisioning for two decades has always involved the manipulation of biochemistry with substances. I imagined that herbal lore provided some clues about the holistic workings of the body that had been lost in the mad dash towards reductionism and isolated drug molecules. I still believe this to be true. However it may be that history has passed us by. While I have advocated for research to prove the validity and efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine, modern medicine is on the verge of a new paradigm that has little to do with either current western or chinese internal medicine. In other words, the age of using substances to manipulate qi or biochemistry at the organ level is perhaps almost over. In the future, all medicine will function on maintaining perfect (or even enhanced) replication and activity at the cellular level. It might seem unlikely that chinese herbal medicine has much to offer in this arena (I will address that later). Chinese medicine holds out the hope that one can live a long healthy life with the use of noniatrogenic medicine to palliate and support one. The recent dramatic shift in medical philosophy within western science, going on largely unbeknownst to the alternative medicine community, is a harbinger of a future dreamed of by Taoist immortality seekers rather than physicians.