Living Into Our Hundreds and Beyond...

A few questions today before I get to our main topic. My first question is, if it's evaporated milk, why is it still there? My next question arose as I was shopping one day. I'm walking down the diary aile and I came across fat free half and half. Well, isn't that just half?

Now, on with the show, er, I mean blog.

As a species and due to medical breakthrough after medical breakthrough, we have been living longer and longer. The current life expectancy is around 72-75 years of age. I am thoroughly convinced that as medicine continues to advance, we will easily live into our hundreds healthier and with more vitality.

Even though there are many causes of death, we will find cures. We will figure out everything which causes us to age and halt or reverse the process. We will be able to let cells continue to divide indefinitely. One of the things which contributes to the aging process is the fact that a cell can only divide so many times before it can no longer divide, and dies. This is referred to as apoptosis and now it is not reversible. Someday it will be.

We will learn how to prevent apoptosis when we finally understand why a cancer cell can divide indefinitely. When we fully understand cancer, and we will; this will provide us with the knowlege to increase our life expectancy into the hundreds of years.

Another thing which contributes to aging is cumulative DNA damage. We will learn how to fix and prevent this. And we will halt or reverse the aging process.

We will be able to take a single cheek cell, place it in a petri dish, add all the proper nutrients and growth factors and grow any organ we may need. The transplanted organ into our body will be our own, so there will be no need for a histocompatability check.

With this cheek cell we will be able to clone a new us. Cheek cells will be placed in storage just in case we are hit be a car, or die traumatically; so a trustee can grow a new you. Will the clone have the same conscious awareness as the donor of the parent cheek cell is a discussion for another day.

None of this will happen so long the Government continues to regulate Health Care. This will definitely not happen with a National Healthcare System. The fact that the powers to be now are even considering such a sweeping change is a testament to the profound ignorance of what has happened in other countries with a National Healthcare System in place. One only needs to look at Canada and Great Britian as but two examples of failed health care.

To my opponents who think Canada's health care is good, why are so many Canadians coming over the border to receive healthcare in our great country.

We need less regulation of medicine, not more. Look at the computer industry which runs largely unregulated. Look at the advances that have occurred only within the last 10 years. We have smaller and smaller personal computers, which do more and cost less. This is only possible due to the absence of regulation of this industry.

I have been a physician about 16-17 years. Most of my collegues are honest, caring people. They deeply care about their patients, stay awake at night worrying about them, always wondering if they provided the right care. I say 'most' of my collegues because I am a realist. There are some doctors who are not like that. But they are the exception, not the rule.

We do not need more regulation of the health care industry. We need less. Interestingly enough, what will drive down medical errors in hospitals and offices will be the appearance and utilization of computers at all hospitals and offices. What will help medicine achieve its goal of zero error will be when the unregulated computer industry becomes an intimate part of the medical field.

Without the de-regulation of medicine, my vision of the future of our lives, a gift which can never be had back, will never be attained.

Dr Jim

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