holistic's not a dirty word

it seems neurologists' specialism stops them asking why blood's swilling around depositing iron in the first place. They aren't able to take steps back from their microscopes. There was an interesting experiment into how eastern and western people 'read' a picture in front of them. We in the west saw a fish whist a more eastern appraisal noticed and mentioned the rocks, sand and weed in the background.

Western science doesn't appear to encourage taking steps back to get a better understanding of a fuller picture of the human body in all its complexity but moving beyond reductionism and applying holism to the human body would seem to me to be a good idea.

• Daisy Zoll Not being a scientist I cherry pick the data and pick out the bits I find interesting (let's not discuss GSK et al today!) I was interested in the fluid dynamicist a couple of years back pointing out (or what I chose to remember of what he was saying), we're a sealed unit and 'wonky' flow somewhere will affect elsewhere. From a patient's point of view I find drilling down deeper into the vagaries of your own personal bloodflow a bit like counting angels dancing on the head of a pin. How can we get some basic hypotheses tested to see if we can move this quagmire along a little? Mr/Dr Arata , what do you see as being the shape of the next steps to take from what you've seen in your practice?

  about an hour ago · Like
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  Michael Arata Fundamentally we are a collection of chemical reactions. Environmental input may alter those reactions. SNP's vary each individuals ability to respond to these environmental stressors. The more we understand about the uniqueness of each individual the better we are able to assist the body in returning to balance. The autonomic system is at the core of the response to environment. Perturbations lead to complex disorders so no one "therapy" will correct it. Rather a patient and consistent effort to restore balance, preferably tailored to an individuals polymorphisms is best. That is my view. Michael is fine 

  54 minutes ago · Like
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  Linda Rousay I will spare everyone my synopsis of the thread. After numerous brain storming sessions with my circle of physician types I deduce that there is not a common denominator with "MS". Therefore the currently accepted definition of Multiple Sclerosis is as inherently flawed as the autoimmune theory.

  46 minutes ago via mobile · Like · 1
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  Daisy Zoll ok Michael, thanks for response so can we take from what you say that double blind placebo controlled nonsense really isn't at all a useful model in treating ms let alone whether meaningful conclusions can be drawn from EAE...ie. it's flawed/we're f**ked from the ground up?

  43 minutes ago · Like
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  Michael Arata Nicely distilled daisy 

  42 minutes ago via mobile · Unlike · 1

(SNP sympathetic nervous system?) this post has been hanging around since the summer, I think.

I imagine there'll be many terms I've used in error but the basic premise of this post is to 'take a step back' (it's not the same as a backwards step)!

I signed up to Open2study the australian university's free online taster classes to encourage people to sign up to their paid for offerings. I'll let you know how they go.



these classes have been going great:
teaching adult learners
basic nutrition
anthropology *
human physiology: the body as machine
introduction to psychology

* he's a really good communicator and totally gets past the fact that it's a one way process with no interactivity (although there are evolution models to change variables on and run to get different evolutionary outcomes). If you feel like a bit of extra learning then I can't recommend this course enough

The human physiology class is pointing out to me the huge space for variation there is in the day to day running of the human body and I now feel a bit more aware of what Michael's been saying.

this is a slightly confused and more than likely confusing post but that's the way we perhaps need to look at aspects of the functioning of the human body... from lots of different angles?

Linda and Michael, I haven't sought your permission to reproduce your words here but as noone seems to read this blog I thought it might be ok, thank you both for your understanding