Cures

Cures have been found for many diseases that once ravaged the human population, but there are still plenty of cures yet to be found.  Diseases like cancer, multiple sclerosis, and the neuron-muscular group still claim lives every year.  Each disease damages, disables and ultimately kills in its own way; so a cure would need to counter the disease.  Let’s see how a cure might work in these three examples.

Cancer.  What happens with this family of diseases?  Somehow cells start multiplying like crazy, destroying normal cells, sapping energy and if not treated eventually killing the patient.  The closest thing to cures we have now include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation.  But these aren’t cures; they only put the cancer in “remission”, which means it can start up again anytime.  We also see the trying side effects of these treatments including hair loss and heavy fatigue.

What would the ultimate cure for any cancer do?  For starters it would be able to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells.  With this knowledge the cure would seek out and destroy cancerous tissue while leaving normal tissue alone.  The destroyed tissue would be flushed out of the body and normal tissue would be stimulated to replace it; repairs would be made on other damage caused by the cancer.  The cure wouldn’t just run one cycle and then be done; it would remain forever vigilant to keep cancer from coming back much better than the body’s own immune system would.  Patients who have been cured would still need frequent check-ups.

Multiple Sclerosis.  With this disease, the myelin of the nerves is gradually eroded away by some unknown means.  A good analogy is to compare it to gradually whittling away the rubber insulation on an electric wire.  As more and more myelin is lost, the nervous system starts to “short-circuit.”  Patients eventually are confined to wheel-chairs and later die.

The ultimate cure for this terrible disease could take two possible approaches.  The best would be seeking out and destroying whatever is destroying the myelin.  Once that’s done, the myelin destruction would need to be reversed.  That would be a whole different branch of research to learn how to regrow lost myelin but it would be well worth pursuing.  Another possible approach for a cure would be to reverse myelin loss faster than and then later as fast as the disease destroyed it.

Neuron-muscular diseases.  These are the toughest of all; included are diseases like muscular dystrophy, myesthenia graves and Lou Gehrig’s Disease.  With all of them muscle and nervous tissue is being wasted away.  Patients gradually become weaker, are in constant pain, and at the present time invariably die. 

The ultimate cure for these diseases would somehow stop the tissue loss and then reverse it.  For many years it was theorized that muscle and nerve tissue couldn’t reproduce but new research has shown that it might be possible.  If it is, people with these diseases could over time be restored to full health as their lost muscle and nerve tissue is restored. 

Now I know all these cures are easier proposed than carried out; medical researchers really have their work cut out for them.  But this just explores what cures for disease need to do.