At no time in my long medical career have I seen so varied and disjointed an approach to science.
In fact traditional science has failed the public perception. People are sick and tired of being sick and tired. They are tired of long waits, nonsensical answers and a pedantic paternal medial system that promises new cures and miracle events that never materialize.
They are tired of taking drugs, dealing with dangerous and deadly side effects and constant negative approaches and campaigns against natural agents.
Remember all we need is more money. The 2+ trillion dollars in cancer research and the 1+ trillion dollars in diabetes and heart disease have not cured anything.
We now stand on the cusp of “genetic cures”. Let’s look at those for a second. Melanoma gene therapy is applicable to 18% of people with melanoma. Is that enough? Cystic Fibrosis cures now reach 5% of people. Is that enough?
And while you are pondering this question be reminded that the “cures” are now measured in months, not years or decades- at least not yet.
Researchers will tell you that many genes can lead to the same or similar diseases. They will tell you that such diseases are actually several very different diseases. They will not tell you that all cancers have a component of defective respiration ala Otto Warburg. Warburg won the Nobel Prize in the late 1920’s for his work in the field. His choices over the next 30 years of his life wound up getting him discredited as a scientist – until recently.
Progress can be slowed but not stopped.
Right now a company called BioViva has injected the AAV9 vector to deliver telomerase into a human being and have had some great success with the process, all testing is showing a significant increase in median telomere length.
My friend Mike Fossel and his company Telocyte are working on curing Alzheimer Disease with the AAV9 telomerase vector as well through an FDA trial. The FDA trial will take years of course but it will shut up the naysayers once and for all. By the way Mike’s Book “The Telomerase Revolution” is available from Amazon right now. Get a copy and learn from one of the true gurus in the field.
Right now there is a backlash in the scientific community against such therapies. The BioViva thing has caused all kinds of ethicists to yell “cease and desist human testing”. Sorry gang this IS HAPPENING and it is happening right now. Not 50 years from now , but RIGHT NOW!
If it fails (and it certainly doesn’t look like it will with the data we have so far) it will answer more questions than any other trial has ever answered about aging and anti-aging therapies. The ethicists say it’s a big deal if it fails because it involves a human being. They are right but this person was 100% informed and is a volunteer. Read that again please a VOLUNTEER. Also understand that I have personally guinea pigged it for a bunch of different stem cell therapies and would have allowed the AAV9 to be trialed on me in a heart beat.
If it succeeds it will also answer more questions than any other trial in history. People have sacrificed their lives and health for far stupider things than this. I applaud this effort and look forward to the final results whatever they may be.
Why would I be so adamant? How could an MD feel this way?
Here is the problem. No one has another 2 trillion dollars to waste. Science has had decades to do things their own way and failed miserably. The trumpets are blaring about new discoveries but mark my words these trumpets will sound flat notes. No one will hear them over the next round of trumpets however. NO one will admit. “WE screwed up!” They will just keep saying they need more money and painting a bleak picture of the heroic struggle against diseases that are smarter than mankind.
They will continue to say things like Cancer expresses telomerase so expressing telomerase can cause cancer. The short answer to this is: morons.
Or my personal favorite: Elephants over express the tumor suppressor gene P53 so they live a long time without cancer. Elephants live 60 to 70 years a full decade short of the current human life span at least.
Most cancers in humans occur after age 70 and continue to rise after that. Find me a 75 year old elephant in the wild not the zoo which is where these miracle elephants were studied, and maybe I will believe you.
Remember I was part of this problem for almost 2 decades!
But we can all take comfort. No one can stop the wheels of progress forever*
Doc
*There is one more thing I would love to see. When the BioViva study proves safe and effective I would love for all the people screaming foul to say, “We were wrong!” I say it when I am wrong and have on more than one occasion publicly. But if recent history is any indication, people will simply continue trying to obstruct progress, waste money and not even blink when the facts smack them upside the head. Don’t be on the tail end of this – invest in your health and well being NOW.