XIV. Leaps in High New Medicine
XIV. Leaps in High New Medicine
No “incurable” disease will be “incurable” forever, and any disease will find a cure at last.
Since the ancient times，medical science has played a great role in mankind’s conquest of diseases. Today, in the 21st century, along with continual advance in high and new technology，and with continual leaps in high and new medicine, the flower of life will bloom more splendidly and will keep flourishing, bringing about new wonders continually.
The high and new medical science of the 21st century will be another great power for realization of mankind’s dream of eternal life.
(I) Overcoming Incurable Diseases：From “Incurable” to “Curable”
Hardly anyone dies naturally, but dies of a disease or other kinds of unnatural death. When you see their death certificates，you can never find a single one in which the “cause of death” is written as “old age”, but instead, it is always marked with some disease or accident.
Incurable disease is Azrael’s greatest accomplice，being our archenemy in prolonging our life. Mr. Sore Kent, an American expert in longevity research, said the following interesting words: “In most cases, when we announce a person is ‘dead’, most parts of his or her organism are still working quite well. The reason for announcing death is only that the doctors have no means to revive the patient, not that the patient has already reached the absolute state of inability to live.”
Thus, it can be seen: “Incurable disease” is a disease that doctors (we) cannot cure at a certain time, in a certain place and on a certain occasion, but never a disease that is “incurable” forever. In the 18th century，smallpox was an incurable disease, running wild in the whole world，putting people into a helpless position, but has it not died out on our earth already? In the 20th century，pulmonary disease was a terrible “incurable disease”，but can we still call it “an incurable disease” now?
No “incurable” disease will be “incurable” forever, and any disease will find a cure at last. Quantum leaps in life sciences have caused modern medical science to rise into high and new medical science，and it will go on advancing by leaps and bounds. Just take the gene for example: research has shown that all human diseases are related directly or indirectly to gene, and all human diseases can be regarded as “gene diseases” or “hereditary diseases”，either being “single gene disease”, or “polygene disease” or “acquired gene diseases”. All the so-called “incurable diseases” now such as AIDS, cancer, cardiovascular diseases, congenital dementia, senile dementia, diabetes and so on, are gene diseases, and all of them will turn from “incurable” to “curable” one after another. Along with the fast development of gene technology, that day will come sooner or later when all those “terrible specters” will disappear from every corner of the world.
(II) Organ Transplantation：Freeing the Body from Damage
The only cause of many people’s death is the damage of an organ which endangers the life. Nevertheless，now, the day will come soon when all the organs of the human body can receive artificial transplantation，and the function of the artificial organs may improve limitlessly. Organ transplantation is one of the disciplines with the fastest speed of development in the high and new medicine.
In the ancient book Liezi, there is a story about Bian Que (famous doctor in the Spring and Autumn Period(770-476 BC) changing hearts for two persons to cure a disease, and of course, it is a pure fantasy. In Pu Songling’s Liao Zhai Zhi Yi, there is a description about Lu Pan changing the head for Zhu Sheng’s wife: “He took out the dagger from his boot, pressed the lady’s neck with one hand，cut her head like cutting a piece of bean curd, and the head dropped beside the pillow. Then he hurriedly took the head of the belle from Zhu Sheng’s arms, put it onto the neck, adjusted the position until it was proper, and then pressed it…” He moved the head of a belle onto the neck of an ugly woman. All such fantasies as Bian Que’s transplantation of the heart，Pu Songling’s description of the head transplantation，have become reality by the aid of science nowadays.
All the human organs can be replaced by high-function artificial organs, which may result in an entire high-function artificial “body”. Everyone can change or renew any organ，so the body is just like a Rolls-Royce compact car: whenever a part breaks down，you may change and renew it and no part is unchangeable. Or like a computer，any part of it，such as the CPU, hard disk, motherboard, CD driver, memory and so on, can be changed at any time. In future, if any organ of the human body goes wrong, you may change it perfectly at once, and it is so easy, just like changing a part for the car or the computer. The reason why human needs the body is only for keeping the survival of the brain (mind), and, the true essence of a human just lies in the brain (mind). By organ transplantation，we can keep the human body healthy forever, and moreover, its function can improve limitlessly, thus, we shall have ideal “Jingang body” (free of damage) described in the ancient myth.
In the past, organ transplantation met with two big problems: one is the too few sources of organs for transplantation; the other is the rejection reaction after the organ transplantation. The rejection reaction often leads to a high failure rate，and besides, there are too few sources of organs, so, the feasibility is very low；In transplantation of animals’ organ for people, there is also rejection reaction，and we have to take the risk of being infected by some viruses typical of the animal. Kang Youwei (famous scholar and reformer in the late Qing Dynasty) once received a pair of transplanted testis from the ape. At first, he walked lightly, became very vigorous, as if having been rejuvenated, but later, things went from bad to worse, he became listless, and collapsed at last. It just resulted from the rejection reaction.
Nowadays, the great development of clone technology and stem cell technology (especially the latter) may solve both of the big problems completely. Clone technology can guarantee the sufficiency of sources of human organs, and stem cell technology can help us make new organs very easily, such as new hearts, livers, kidneys, nerves, limbs, bones, hairs, eyes, skins, blood vessels and so on，and the rejection reaction can be avoided, too. What is more, if one of your organs goes wrong, just by transplanting the stem cell with self-repair function, you may re-make any new and good organ，and it is the best solution to rejection reaction and shortage of organs for transplanting.
Along with the continual improvement of surgical operation technology, and with the fast development of pharmacology, immunology, genetics and gene engineering technology, organ transplantation will be improved all the time, its future development prospect is bound to be boundlessly splendid, which will offer a great hand to mankind’s realization of the dream of eternal life.
(III) Gene Therapy：Permanent Cure Is Better than Temporary Relief of Symptoms
Since the 1970′s，mankind has spent more money in research on diseases than ever before. USA spent a huge amount of money in a tumor program，but its effects were not good. Later, people found that many human diseases such as cancer and so on are directly or indirectly related to gene.
Soon afterwards, people realized another fact: as a matter of fact, all human diseases are gene diseases. Besides single gene diseases, there are polygene diseases，such as：malignant tumor, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, mental diseases, diabetes, rheumatism, immunological disease and so on. Moreover，there are acquired gene diseases derived from the invasion of pathogenic microorganisms into the human body, such as AIDS, hepatitis B, tuberculosis and so on. Nearly all diseases are heavily under the yoke of genetic gene. So long as we master the secrets of the gene and hence make some simple modification of the gene, we may cure completely many pertinacious diseases or incurable diseases in modern medicine, such as cancer, diabetes, asthma, hypertension and so on. We have good reason to believe, by further reconstruction of the gene, it is possible to enable people to live forever. Scientists have drawn such a picture for us：The doctor records the person’s gene map on a CD. In diagnosing，the doctor first reads the CD，just by comparing your gene with the normal gene map, he will find out your disease. Then he checks several possible “candidate genes”，and clarifies the key areas and key locations；Then, he will decide on a proper solution. Owing to different “conditions” of the genome, some kind of drug is effective on some people, but is not effective on others, or even will endanger the life. In accordance with the individual variations，the doctor can suggest an individualized “wonder drug”.
The above is a low-leveled gene treatment，and the more veritable “gene therapy” is to send the disease curing gene directly into the human cell to give play to its curing effect, that is, to cure the disease directly according to the disease causing gene. There are many ways to send the gene into the human body. There is a “gene gun”, which is like a gun, whose bullet is made of gold, very very small, so small as to be able to get into the cell and then be spat out. It can stick to the “curing cell” and get into the cell, and after being ejected out by the cell, the “curing carrier” will stay inside. In this way, by shooting a “gene bullet” into you to change your disease causing gene，your disease can be cured by the root.
If we say all the past therapies only “provide temporary relief of symptoms”，then，what gene therapy does is “to offer a permanent cure”. Genetics has shown as many as 6500 inherited diseases are caused by single gene defect, and by using the gene therapy to implant the related gene, we shall overcome many incurable diseases of mankind. The gene therapy has boosted medicine to a new prospect. Hence，gene therapy is called “the fourth revolution” in mankind’s medical treatment history.
(IV) First Medicine：The “Bian Ya” Medicine of the 21st Century
The current medicine is chiefly a curing medicine，and can only be called “Second Medicine”，because only preventive medicine is the “First Medicine”. Developing from curing to prevention，from taking curing first to taking prevention first，is the megatrend of development of the present medicine in the world.
The great Chinese medical scientist Sun Simiao of the Tang Dynasty pointed out long ago: “The upper-leveled doctor treats a disease that has not appeared, the middle-leveled doctor treats a disease that is going to appear, and the lower-leveled doctor treats a disease that already appeared.” He used the “the way of the upper-leveled doctor”，so he lived to the high age of 101. Judging from the present medicine, most doctors deal with “diseases that have already appeared”. But preventive medicine usually only deals with “diseases that are going to appear”, and high and new preventive medicine chiefly deals with “diseases that have not appeared”.
The “miraculous doctor” Bian Que in ancient China is widely known to everyone. As the story goes，Bian Que cured the intractable disease of an emperor. The emperor asked him: “Are you No. 1 doctor in the medical world of present time?” Bian Que said: “No，I am only No. 2.” The emperor asked him: “Who is No. 1 then?” “My elder brother Bian Ya.” The emperor asked him: “How are Bian Ya’s medical skills higher than yours?” Bian Que said: “When my father Bian Gong was dying, he passed two secret medical books to us two brothers. One was the Way of Curing passed to me, so I can cure a disease that has already appeared. The other was Way of Prevention passed to my elder brother Bian Ya, as Bian Ya is more clever than me. Hence, he can cure a disease that has not appeared. Present people worship me so much just because I can cure diseases that have already appeared, but take no notice of Bian Ya, who is much higher than me as he can cure diseases that have not come. It is really unthinkable!”
Prevention of diseases is more important than curing of them, but people often only pay attention to treatment of diseases that have already appeared, and neglect prevention of diseases. Many people arrange their life this way：In the first half of the life, they use their life to exchange for money，and in the second half of their life, they use money to exchange for life. Of course, it is very foolish. Chairman of US Cardiology Society said, “When the patient comes to see the doctor after getting the disease, what the doctor can do to help the patient is already very limited. Even if the disease is cured, the patient cannot recover to the state completely the same as before the disease.”
To realize the great ideal of eternal life, we need many Bian Ques all right，but we need more Bian Yas! We need to develop “Bian Que” medicine，but we need to develop “Bian Ya” medicine all the more.
Preventive medicine is the first medicine，and is getting great development and great leaps with the drive from life sciences and biotechnology. Every person will have a gene map belonging to his(her) own, which clearly records the person’s health condition, disease history, easily occurring diseases and other data, and from this, you may forecast：Will you gain flesh? Will you become bald，and when? Will you die of diabetes or cancer… You may not believe what the fortune-teller or prophesy teller says, but what the gene map says is true. Once you have got the disease causing gene，you can reconstruct or remove it before the disease comes.
A “gene chip” just as big as the nail can help anyone test his health condition by himself. One minute is used for sampling, two minutes for measuring，and the result can come out in three minutes! You only need to drop a blob of blood or saliva onto the gene chip, then, you can identify the disease gene, find out the disease, and even know accurately how many cigarettes you may smoke or how much food you may eat every day. The gene chip marks another profound revolution of technology，which will bring about marvelous changes to preventive medicine. Its super discriminability can identify diseases that have not appeared, discover all kinds of minute changes of the seemingly healthy human body. With such a gene chip，it will be just as if we carry a private advanced laboratory with us. We have an upper-leveled doctor Bian Ya working beside us all the time, monitoring our health condition at any moment and place, so that we may take all kinds of super preventive measures timely.
Preventive medicine also concerns people’s food and drink, that is, nutrition. People’s life time is closely related to nutrition. Bioscience will turn people’s nutrition into nutrient substances processed with a special technology, which may help people live forever. For example，the “edible molecule food” that has already appeared now. It is not the food we eat everyday, but a food in the form most convenient for absorption by the human body. Molecule food will melt together with medicines and foodstuff, bringing an illness-free state for mankind. In the case of traditional food，we eat a lot, but utilize very little. For example, in the case of a man living to 70 and with a weight of 65kg, he will eat and digest more than 75 ton food in his life, but the nutriment he really utilizes is only about 5 ton, and all the other 70 ton is excreted out of the body as wastes. The molecule food is formulated reasonably according to the human nutrition need and the balance of chemical reaction, so as to promote or maintain the normal chemical reactions of all kinds in the human body, remove impediment in nutrient absorption, ensure the body’s maintenance of the adolescent health status, and resist aging. Scientists predict, by eating such a food，a person who has lived to 120 still looks like one at 20, and a 1200-year-old person is still at the height of his(her) youth and vigor, and still very pretty and charming.
According to experts’ predication，by the year 2020，even if a person is very healthy，he (she) may also need to take 3 pills every day，in order to prevent all kinds of troublesome diseases. Some are for preventing all kinds of cancer，some are for preventing diabetes, some are for preventing hypertensive and so on. Taking such measures for prevention will be a healthful life style, just like sports exercise.
Because of the look-ahead predictive way of thinking, the first medicine of the 21st century, preventive medicine, will be able to do better in prevention of diseases, so as to prolong our healthy life greatly.
All in all，the major means of health and longevity can not get away from medicine，especially the high and new medicine of the 21st century. The great leaps in the high and new medicine have brought about continual breakthrough in all aspects such as overcoming of incurable diseases, organ transplantation, gene therapy, preventive medicine and so on, which will certainly lead to the great ideal of eternal life.
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