DocLightning From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 14050 posts, RR: 55 Posted (3 months 2 weeks 6 days 2 hours ago) and read 1340 times:
I get asked this a lot by different people. The most common one is the common cold. Why isn't there a cure for the common cold? Or cancer?
Here's why:
The "common cold" is actually an infection of the nasal and upper respiratory mucosa with one of several possible types of virus. There can be adenovirus (typically with really swollen glands and bad systemic symptoms), rhinovirus, coronavirus, parainfluenzavirus, respiratory syncytial virus, a bunch of picornaviridae (including influenzavirus), etc. So any "cure" would have to cover all of these, but they have all very distinct methods of reproduction, so it's exceedingly unlikely that any one molecule could inhibit reproduction in all sorts of virus. So most likely, it would have to be a cocktail of about ten molecules in one capsule. Hah... good luck.
Not only that, but those molecules all have to to be exceedingly safe. For a drug to get approved for a non-life-threatening condition these days, it has to be safer than aspirin. Aspirin would never get approved these days.
And not only that, but remember that the average cold lasts not much more than 3 days, so the cure would have to work FAST. Most people who go to the doctor do so on the second day of a cold, so it would have to work in hours. But even if you stopped all viral reproduction within minutes of taking the cure, it would take a good day or two for the inflammation to die down, so you wouldn't immediately feel better.
So we totally could cure the common cold, but it's not worth it.
Now, cancer is a similar story on the surface, but it's actually very different. There is no such thing as "cancer." There is prostatic carcinoma (about ten kinds of it), acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ductal carcinoma, cervical carcinoma, colonic adenocarcinoma, etc. Each of those have several different specific phenotypes and genotypes that predict their response to various treatments. Each of these genetic subtypes will have specific mutant signaling proteins that can be selectively attacked by a drug. But whether that drug will be safe enough to pass muster with the FDA is a big question. And as each genetic subtype is relatively rare, even in common forms of tumor, each drug would have a limited market. We can cure some forms cancer, and we've been making great progress, but it's going to take a very long time, even with unlimited funding.
Also, remember that cancer permanently damages bodies. A small tumor in one place can be easily destroyed without too much long-term damage, but once cancer is metastatic, it breaks bones, fuses organs, and does horrible things. You can't cure that.
swissy From Switzerland, joined Jan 2005, 1711 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 22 hours ago) and read 1245 times:
Quoting DocLightning (Thread starter): I get asked this a lot by different people. The most common one is the common cold. Why isn't there a cure for the common cold? Or cancer?
Having 3 kids...yep asked these questions just last week a Doc @ Mac Master kids hospital.... in our case it started all with our son swallowing a marble... and we got more then we bargain for. After x-rays they found a spot on top/back of his right lung and the marble. Marble is gone however he p/u the type B flu and for the last 4-5 days he is just a zombie...
As for the spot on his lung...well, we just started, Doc's were busy checking for birthmarks, waiting to hear on a MRI and genetics test/eye test, they think it might be NF IIRC, still all very vague right now. Son is 6 years old and adopted, so we do not have much med records... mother gone and father unknown....
Kudos to the ER Doc seeing/discovering that small dot/spot...well our lives just changed 180 degrees and it all started with a lousy marble....
It goes away in warm climates or during the warm season and comes back when temperatures are low again, generally under 10°C.
None of the treatments have proved successful so I am doing my best with it with natural remedies. The obvious solution would be to move to a hot climate but that might just be hiding the problem.
There was a better way to fly it was called Concorde
poLOT From United States of America, joined Jul 2011, 475 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 20 hours ago) and read 1183 times:
Quoting danielmyatt (Reply 2): There is a away to eradicate the cold virus though, but it'll never happen. keep everyone inside, on their own for two weeks.
That wouldn't eradicate the cold at all, in fact it can make things worse (it is one of the reasons why people get more colds in the winter...they are inside more often).
dc9northwest From Romania, joined Feb 2007, 1177 posts, RR: 2 Reply 5, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 18 hours ago) and read 1122 times:
Medical question:
In Romania (and continental Europe in general), folk culture claims "draughts" (moving air currents) cause colds and sometimes much worse conditions (including, but not limited to, death). This is supposedly true even if there are 35 degrees outside and 50 degrees in the train--you still can't open a window without some old lady complaining... Don't even get me started on A/C, which gets turned on and off every 20 minutes in summer as somebody complains.
Any medical facts disproving that draughts cause all sorts of illnesses? Or, perhaps, proving it, if that is the case?
DocLightning From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 14050 posts, RR: 55 Reply 6, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 15 hours ago) and read 1051 times:
Quoting MadameConcorde (Reply 3): Raynaud's phenomenon.
I have what is known as Raynaud and it can be quite crippling during the cold season and causing much pain in my right hand.
Because that is an inherent problem, I doubt we'll ever be able to cure it. But we will probably be able to come up with a good treatment.
Quoting dc9northwest (Reply 5): Any medical facts disproving that draughts cause all sorts of illnesses? Or, perhaps, proving it, if that is the case?
Colds are caused by viruses, not draughts. There is no proof that draughts cause colds, especially not warm draughts.
Ken777 From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 6127 posts, RR: 4 Reply 7, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 13 hours ago) and read 991 times:
Quoting danielmyatt (Reply 2): The cold will never be "cured" as the strain of the virus changes so quickly,
There are some over the counter medications that will cure a cold in 7 days. Otherwise it takes a week.
As far as cancer goes, between the wife & I we have gone through 4 total. The better half had breast cancer and then acute leukemia. I went the prostate cancer route and then had a squamous cell carcinoma of the parotid gland.
Fighting 3 of those cancers called for surgery. The breast and prostate cancers called for radiation after surgery. All treatments have been effective (my PSA last week was 0.00 ), but we have to acknowledge that the wife's ALL was probably caused by the radiation after breast surgery.
So it's important to understand that there are a lot of outstanding cancer "treatments" out there that can cause their own problems. Leukemia is a clear risk of radiation treatment. Chemo can cause it's own problems. But treatment can keep you a live. My radiation treatments certainly had my tail pipe in the line of fire and radiation proctitis can get your attention. You also have to face reality on available surgeries and their side effects.
Oddly enough, I think one of the best cures for some medical conditions is focusing on the parents before and during pregnancy. Basic issues like smoking, drinking, drugs are obvious. Reliable monitoring, sleep, etc is also important. And improving delivery in some cases is needed to reduce problems like CP. Maybe I'm really talking about ensuring solid care for everyone, regardless of their financial (read insurance) situation.
dc9northwest From Romania, joined Feb 2007, 1177 posts, RR: 2 Reply 8, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 12 hours ago) and read 991 times:
Quoting DocLightning (Reply 6): Colds are caused by viruses, not draughts. There is no proof that draughts cause colds, especially not warm draughts.
How would you explain this to the older European generations, though? I've tried this exact argument many times, and each time, it has failed me. Some (older) medical doctors over there believe in the ill-effects of draughts, regarding colds and numerous other conditions.
I'm baffled... It's not only the not-so-bright people that believe it. Otherwise intelligent people think their cold was caused by a draught.
hOMSAR From United States of America, joined Jan 2010, 467 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 918 times:
Quoting dc9northwest (Reply 8):
How would you explain this to the older European generations, though? I've tried this exact argument many times, and each time, it has failed me. Some (older) medical doctors over there believe in the ill-effects of draughts, regarding colds and numerous other conditions.
I'm baffled... It's not only the not-so-bright people that believe it. Otherwise intelligent people think their cold was caused by a draught.
I've had someone tell me that it's not the draft that causes the cold, per se, but that being around rapidly changing temperatures can have some effect on the body that results in a weakened (if only temporarily) immune system, and that increases the likelihood that germs/viruses will cause problems.
DocLightning From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 14050 posts, RR: 55 Reply 10, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 890 times:
Quoting hOMSAR (Reply 9): Perhaps Doc L. can confirm/deny that.
Does temperature play any role in coming down with a cold besides I assume weakening the immune system? Or is it only picked up by running into someone who already has it?
DocLightning From United States of America, joined Nov 2005, 14050 posts, RR: 55 Reply 12, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 853 times:
Quoting JetsGo (Reply 11):
Does temperature play any role in coming down with a cold besides I assume weakening the immune system?
No role. It does not weaken the immune system appreciably unless you get hypothermic, which is a completely different story.
Pyrex From Portugal, joined Aug 2005, 3212 posts, RR: 30 Reply 13, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 845 times:
Quoting DocLightning (Reply 12): No role. It does not weaken the immune system appreciably unless you get hypothermic, which is a completely different story.
So it is OK to run around with no socks on during winter? Will you be so kind and send a note saying just that to my mother, please? Much appreciated.
Read this very carefully, I shall write this only once!
MrChips From Canada, joined Mar 2005, 835 posts, RR: 0 Reply 14, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 4 hours ago) and read 832 times:
Quoting JetsGo (Reply 11): Does temperature play any role in coming down with a cold besides I assume weakening the immune system? Or is it only picked up by running into someone who already has it?
The explanation I was given once was that in the winter time, especially in cold climates, the spread of the viruses that cause colds is aided somewhat by the fact that people are in close proximity to one another more often (as in, they're indoors more often than in the summer, for example).
sebolino From France, joined May 2001, 3611 posts, RR: 6 Reply 16, posted (3 months 2 weeks 4 days 18 hours ago) and read 754 times:
Quoting DocLightning (Reply 12): Does temperature play any role in coming down with a cold besides I assume weakening the immune system?
No role. It does not weaken the immune system appreciably unless you get hypothermic, which is a completely different story.
I know that many physicians say that, even my sister. I find it so strange.
It's so obvious that when you get cold by the head or feet, you get sick ... I've verified that many times myself. If I get out with wet hair when it's cold, I'm sick in the following hours.
The problem is that physicians are driven by very strong beliefs (learnt at university) and they just can't change their minds. Just like the story of the bacterias causing ulcer. The researchers who said that first were mocked until it was proven without doubt.
I just remember when I was in a train with a friend coming back from Copenhagen to his town. We were sleeping in the train in perfect health, with some alcohol in blood ok ... He was sitting just under an open window (in winter). The train was empty, no virus container around. We fell asleep in the train and made the round trip CPH-FREDERIKSSUND twice So it's quiet a long time under the window for him. A few hours later, I was back in France in perfect condition, and I called him. He was in bed unable to answer, totally sick with fever.
But nooooooo, it was not due to the open window, it was the crowd in the train or in the bars we visited. I was in the same bars, just beside him, but I'm so much stronger than him that I was not sick.
Strangely, when I'm doing the same kind of BS (f.e. wet hair in the cold) I'm also sick. But nooooo, it's the crowd.
One can explain what he wants about the immune system not being modified by cold, but the fact is that when you get cold you get sick (at least me and my kids, and everybody I know - I don't know about foreigners ).
It's perhaps not explainable today by the science (which I doubt by the way) but it's an observation.
Quoting MrChips (Reply 14): The explanation I was given once was that in the winter time, especially in cold climates, the spread of the viruses that cause colds is aided somewhat by the fact that people are in close proximity to one another more often (as in, they're indoors more often than in the summer, for example).
Yeah , I heard that too. You should explain to people in the Parisian metro in summer, that if they are not sick it's because they have much space around them
Sorry, but this argument is ludicrous (and again my own sister told me that - and I laughed).
Ken777 From United States of America, joined Mar 2004, 6127 posts, RR: 4 Reply 17, posted (3 months 2 weeks 4 days 17 hours ago) and read 738 times:
I think cold can impact, say, the sinuses. Then they can get nasty, start draining into the throat and chest and you can get an infection.
That's what happens to me if the humidifier on my auto pap is set too low. That produces an exaggerated example of cold directly on the sinus area and halfway through the night I'm sneezing. That carries on through the next day (even if I turn the heat on the humidifier up when the sneezing starts) and i can have an infection within a day or so. But that is from abnormal airflow over the sinuses and it can result in an infection, not a cold.
Airstud From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 1474 posts, RR: 1 Reply 18, posted (3 months 2 weeks 3 days 23 hours ago) and read 607 times:
Quoting Sulley (Reply 15): Why isn't there a cure for psoriasis?
I daresay you meant to ask, why doesn't Western medicine have a cure for psoriasis. My mom used to have psoriasis, all over her knees & elbows - Western-style docs (no offense, Dr. L) told her it would never ever ever go away.
Mom went the alternative/holistic route and her psoriasis has been totally gone for 20 years. Check out acupuncture, herbs, holotropic breathwork... don't give up the fight, man!
Quoting DocLightning (Thread starter): There is no such thing as "cancer." There is prostatic carcinoma (about ten kinds of it), acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ductal carcinoma, cervical carcinoma, colonic adenocarcinoma, etc.
Thank you for this...well, not for the depressing list, but for shedding the light that it's not correct to say cancer is cancer is cancer. When my mom was battling endometrial cancer a couple years ago, I was on the phone with her mom, who insisted that Mom was genetically predisposed to cancer, on account of my Grandpa had had pancreatic cancer. I told Nana that according to what I'd read on the gynecologic cancer foundation's website, there is never a genetic predisposition to endometrial cancer. Nana insisted that the fact that Grandpa had cancer meant that Mom was at risk for cancer. Cancer=cancer, she maintained. I kind of rolled my eyes at this, before admitting to myself that I'm no more of an oncologist than she is, but it was still frustrating.
The good news is, I guess my Sis and niece aren't at anymore of a risk for it than they were otherwise.
Aesma From France, joined Nov 2009, 3001 posts, RR: 3 Reply 19, posted (3 months 2 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 464 times:
Quoting Ken777 (Reply 17): I think cold can impact, say, the sinuses.
I think you're right. When I get a cold (nothing really serious as I'm very strong) it's every time because I have been in the cold without anything on the face. When I was younger I often got out with wet hair, sometimes it even had frozen when I arrived at school, but that didn't make me sick, as long as I had my nose/mouth covered.
I'm not saying it's unrelated to viruses, however, as I'm sure I carry a lot of nasty things that just don't affect me most of the time.
New Technology is the name we give to stuff that doesn't work yet. Douglas Adams
In Romania (and continental Europe in general), folk culture claims "draughts" (moving air currents) cause colds and sometimes much worse conditions (including, but not limited to, death). This is supposedly true even if there are 35 degrees outside and 50 degrees in the train--you still can't open a window without some old lady complaining... Don't even get me started on A/C, which gets turned on and off every 20 minutes in summer as somebody complains.
Any medical facts disproving that draughts cause all sorts of illnesses? Or, perhaps, proving it, if that is the case?
A valid response might be a cure for ignorance.
OK, we got the same thing here in Indonesia... "Masuk Angin", literally, "catching the wind" or (enter wind)...
I am by no means a doctor, but here it goes...
It is not the same as a medical "common cold" (viral), although it is often confused as one.
I was reading about it out of general curiosity the other day. The way I see it is basically how one's body react to changes that can upset thermal comfort. Thermal comfort is maintained when the heat generated by human metabolism is allowed to dissipate, thus maintaining thermal equilibrium with the surroundings. The sensation of feeling hot or cold is not just dependent on air temperature alone.
Basically, our body loses heat through convection, evaporation, conduction, and radiation. How fast we lose the heat from the skin by convection depends on the air convection around us. Our bodies are always try to keep our body temperature within a certain range to avoid discomfort (from minor to adverse). How we try to maintain a given surface temperature within an environment partly depends on our perception of the temperature as well.
Now how one's body cope with temperature changes, is generally the same, but the tolerance level until discomfort occur, differ from person to person.
When cold (the non-viral kind), some people can cramp easily, others won't. Different parts of the body I think also have different susceptibility to cramps, and it varies from person to person. This is probably why in some cultures like in Romania, the "draught" can be deadly... which is probably getting a heart cramp... (in Indonesia, we call such a misfortune "angin duduk" (the sitting wind)... strange name indeed).
Temperature changes or perceived temperature changes can also cause the body to alter the target temperature... which can end up causing a fever, or lower one's temperature.
So, "draught", is probably just getting the chills... There's a billion dollar industry here on ailments for "masuk angin/enter wind"... But no, it is not a disease requiring a cure for. It is basically our own bodies and how it reacts with the environment... there is no "cure" per se... "curing" it just require common sense on how to deal with it or prevent it.
Quoting sebolino (Reply 16): Strangely, when I'm doing the same kind of BS (f.e. wet hair in the cold) I'm also sick. But nooooo, it's the crowd.
LOL!!!! Yeah, here we ask, "if the medical profession does not recognize "chills"/"enter wind", whatever, what the hell is it? Because there's a billion dollar industry out there dealing with this!"
Answer: It's is not an illness. it's like "cancer"... there is "no" cancer... but there are "prostatic carcinoma (about ten kinds of it), acute lymphoblastic leukemia, ductal carcinoma, cervical carcinoma, colonic adenocarcinoma, etc."
And when these "chills"/"enter wind", do assist in the development of the "common cold" (ie: virus caused), go back to DocLightning's original post in this thread.
So, there goes my rubbish reply !
Mandala499
When losing situational awareness, pray Cumulus Granitus isn't nearby !
bhill From United States of America, joined Sep 2001, 751 posts, RR: 0 Reply 21, posted (3 months 2 weeks 2 days 15 hours ago) and read 444 times:
It would seem to me that we would not want to cure every disease out there, otherwise, how would we keep our immune system in shape? And you wonder if Mother Nature did not design it that way...every time we come up with a cure, something else either becomes resistant, or a whole new disease crops up to replace it. It may sound harsh but "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" might be truer than we think. I do think that when we lick HIV, a whole bunch of other understandings will fall into place. I'm not saying don't research or try to cure human suffering, but we always seem one step behind the game.
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however he p/u the type B flu and for the last 4-5 days he is just a zombie...
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