Rough Draft Typed on November 1st, 2012. Just finished revising and adding final sections. To be honest, I am not that satisfied with level of depth I delve into in this paper but this is the Final copy I'm going to turn in anyways:
August
of 2005, Hurricane Katrina pummeled and pounded the gulf coast, especially the
city of New Orleans. It raged at a category 5 and peaked on August 28, 2005.
The levees of New Orleans were designed for a category 3. Unsurprisingly, the
levees had a small chance of holding up against the constant pounding of 20
feet high waves. The final death toll is set at 1,836, with the vast majority-
1,577- in Louisiana. An estimated 80% was submerged; at some places, as deep as
20 feet. Katrina caused about an estimate of $75 billion in physical damage;
however, the final total economic impact of Katrina in Louisiana and
Mississippi is calculated at approximately $110 billion. It was the costliest
natural disaster in the history of the United States. Late October of this year,
Hurricane Sandy has struck with the ferocity similar to that of Katrina. Power
outages are widespread and the very slowly recuperating subway services will
affect the final costs of the storm. According to Eqecat Inc., who provides
Catastrophe Risk Models, the estimated damages of Hurricane Sandy could be as
high as $50 billion. Hurricane Sandy is the second costliest natural disaster
in United States history. What is the point of all this?
Humanity
and the society we live in is a complex adaptive system as who we are and how
we live is in a constant state of fluctuation. We are always adapting to a
changing environment. The forward progress or backward progress we make as a
species for humanity and the environment is nothing but complex. Think of humanity
as a super-organism where each individual human being is a cell. Our bodies
consist of trillions and trillions of cells; depending which study we want to
reference, scientists estimate the number of cells from 10 trillion to 50
trillion! The number of cells that make up our collective selves absolutely
dwarves the number of human beings on this planet, which is at an estimated 7
billion people. Can you see the fractal relationship? Human beings are the
cells in a super-organism called humanity. The importance of this realization
is something I must credit Dr. Bruce Lipton for. For those that don’t know who he
is, Bruce is one of the foremost pioneers in the field of epigenetics and
through countless years of research, he has begun to merge the science of
quantum mechanics with that of cell biology, and I strongly believe that his
work will change the way healthcare will be geared towards in the future. The
realization is this, in a healthy human body, every single cell requires and
demands the same things human beings need. Every cell needs energy, metabolism,
communication, excretion, rest, and growth to function its purpose adequately.
Human beings need all these as well. There is no one that can live healthy and
be missing one of the listed requirements! These cells have learned to function
together in harmony through cooperation for the survival and thriving of their
collective whole. Unlike humanity, as of now, and the current state of affairs
in our societies, we live in a world where strife, difficulties, pain, extreme
inequality, and disharmony are absolutely abundant! Just to list some, the wars
in the middle-east for oil and “the war on terror” has led to the deaths of
countless individuals and the incredible inequality of our societies’ incomes
of the top 1% against the 99% is enough for the average person to grimace in
anger. After the Great Depression of the 1930’s, there was a period where the
bottom 90% was comparable to the top 10%. Around 1980 however, the wages of the
top 1% began to skyrocket, especially when compared to the bottom 99%. The
demonstration of Occupy Wallstreet which began in 2010 was precisely about that
feeling the bottom 99% have, that feeling of extreme inequality of having to
pay higher taxes as a percentage of our income, while all along, the top 1% continues to pay lower taxes. So the top 1%
receives more money, they pay less taxes, and the burden falls on the bottom
99%. Societies need governments who will ensure that everyone pays their fair
share. This is analogous to imagining all the cells of a couple fingers on a
hand receiving the vast bulk of energy whereas the rest of the cells in the
body are left to deal with hunger and starvation.
These
major inequalities are the source of humanities’ problems. Through the work of
Dr. Bruce Lipton, there is mounting evidence that shows that a constantly
suppressed immune system cannot fight back against infections and can result in
autoimmune diseases like cancer. We all have cancer cells in our bodies right
now, but with a healthy immune system, these rogue cells are eliminated and cannot
proliferate. A body in constant stress cannot fight against these rogue cells
allowing these cells to proliferate until a diagnosable tumor can be found by
physicians to give the “unfortunate” news of, “I’m sorry, you have cancer”.
According to Dr. Lipton, cancer in the body is a result of disharmony of one’s
perception of one’s environment. Through his research, he’s found that contrary
to what many believe, the vast majority of us are not victims of our genes in
the sense that “genes load the gun, and life pulls the trigger” quote. He has
found that it is the perception of one’s environment that ultimately controls
which genes express themselves, hence the field of epigenetics. Notice that I
said, perception of one’s environment and not environment. His work explains
how one person growing up in a difficult situation can come out unaffected,
while another sibling come away with a mental disorder or physical health
issues. A more accurate saying should be, “constant stressors load the gun, and
perception of those stressors pull the trigger”. On a side note, writing this
to a professor who has learned and probably teaches what is taught in
textbooks- I’m sorry if my assumption is specious- the knowledge I am imparting
from Dr. Lipton may seem somewhat new and incorrect to you, and I would
understand your healthy skepticism. However, for several weeks now, I have been
studying the works of Dr. Bruce Lipton and I strongly agree with his ideas as
they are evidenced based and I can attest to them in my life as someone dear to
me has recently been diagnosed with a malignant tumor, and the surrounding
circumstances that led up to this tumor makes all too much sense with the
information Dr. Lipton is imparting- yes, it was around the time of the
diagnosis that I serendipitously discovered the work of Dr. Lipton.
In
essence, cancer cells are rebelling due to disharmony in the body. An
equivalence of cancer in society is homelessness. Homelessness is a result of
people not conforming to the standards of society and as a result, have ended
up not contributing to society. Although homelessness is not so much a burden
to society in the way that cancer is to the body, criminals certainly are.
Prisons house criminals who, many of them have mental health issues. The most
prevalent mental health disorder in criminals is antisocial personality
disorder. Anarchy and riots in cities is also comparable to cancer in the body.
Riots where damage is physical is seen as broken windows, damaged buildings, cars
being set on fire, damage to property, and injury to individuals in the form of
broken bones from fights and stupidity that also result in scrapes, bruises,
and burns. Emotional damage is done in the form of anger, violence, unruly
behavior, and fear in those who are not following the rogue behaviors. In fact,
according to mob psychology, many initial pacifists and bystanders get caught
into the negative influence and end up finding themselves being unruly when
caught in the middle of a riot. Mob psychology tells us that it is so easy to
get caught up into the anarchy. Anarchy in a society is the ultimate analogy of
cancer in the body. Riots occur from built up anger. Anger is manifested as a
result of inequality. Let’s not confuse the word, riot, with the words,
protests and demonstrations, which the world witnessed in 2011 as widespread
protests were held in Cairo and many parts of Egypt. Were there riots? Yes. Was
there anarchy? At times, definitely. But the vast majority of the collective groups
were standing up for their beliefs in a non-violent manner. Demonstrations and
protests are not synonyms of riots.
Natural
disasters are the environmental stressors to the “super-organism” of humanity.
Riots are the result of inequality in the complex adaptive system of society.
Riots equal cancers. The question is, what is the proper way of treating riots
and cancers? According to the conventional methods of western science, we
should we fight back with damage “control”. Current mainstream western science
advocates we fight back with chemotherapy and radiation. Now what exactly does
chemotherapy and radiation do? Both chemotherapy and radiation attempt to
control the damage that the cancerous cells will do. In equivalence, the
government sends out police squads, law enforcement individuals, and even
military organizations to create fear in the “rebels”. They use physical
tactics such as tear gas, batons, and other weapons to try and subdue the
“rebels”. They use psychological tactics such as fear, intimidation, and even
violence to try and subdue the “rebels”. In case after case of widespread protests
and demonstrations with an abundance of support from the indigenous, what is
the result of these government’s tactics? Do the subdued and oppressed groups,
back down? From a holistic point of view, the answer is an obvious, NO! Every
oppressed group will rise. From the abolishment of slavery, to Gandhi and the
independence from the British, to Martin Luther King Jr.’s influence to end
segregation and promote civil rights, and to the oppression of women and the
rise of women’s advocacy, when a group that is resistant to settling for
“normalcy”, encounters resistance, violence is almost certain. However, this is
exactly what chemotherapy and radiation does. These methods of treating cancer
only control the “rebels” for a certain amount of time. These methods to do
promote the healing of those rebellious cells in the same way that government
resistance does not and will not appease the groups that are demanding positive
change. Of course, current western medicine does not realize this because
doctors and physicians can only perform their jobs to the extent of their
received education. It is the education that is the problem, not the healthcare
providers.
This
is a big problem though. So much of the education that healthcare providers
receive is influenced by the huge, powerful pharmaceutical companies. Western
science is mostly based off of Newtonian physics right now. It is the belief
that physical problems in the body are a result of physical issues. If we have
a problem with the cardiovascular system or digestive system, it’s due to
chemicals. The realm of quantum physics is ever so slightly beginning to show us
that energy can have an impactful influence on our cells- this is from the work
of Dr. Bruce Lipton again.
Let’s
delve into the countlessly-experimented and proven facts of quantum mechanics
and how it relates to the future of medicine. The quantum realm deals with the
tiniest particles that we and everything around us are all made of and unlike
Newtonian or Classical physics, which describes the motion of large everyday
objects and laws that can precisely and accurately describe the characteristics
of these large objects in motion, the quantum world is very much about
probability, chance, and absolute certainty is nonexistent. The double-slit
experiment is one of the most well-known experiments of quantum mechanics. The
result of the experiment confused theoretical physicists, whom ultimately
theorized that the position of one electron in any one moment in time is a
probability. Peter Fisher, a professor of physics at MIT, has summed it up in
this way, “You are not allowed to ask, where is the electron right now? You are
allowed to ask, if I look for the electron in this particular part of space,
what is the likelihood I will find it there?” The final understanding of the
double-slit experiment showed that our universe is ruled by probability and not
certainty. How can this relate to medicine? Well, the equations of quantum
mechanics allows us to very accurately and precisely predict the behavior of
groups of atoms and tiny particles with astounding precision. Keep in mind
however that these are electrons that we are trying to determine a
characteristic of. Human beings are made of trillions and trillions of cells,
let alone electrons, neutrons, protons, or even atoms. The number of these
subatomic particles in our bodies would be absolutely astronomical if we could
even one day attain that information. Quantum computing may one day be able to
help us predict more accurately of things like the weather, far in advance,
however this does not mean that we will be able to determine with absolute
certainty of the forecast of the weather. Some people think that we cannot
determine with absolute certainty the forecast of the weather because we simply
do not know enough about all the factors that contribute to our climate. Perhaps
if we knew about all the contributing factors that determine weather and
climate such as, where all the air and water molecules in the world are, had an
accurate model of how all these molecules interacted, and a powerful enough
quantum computer to simulate the gazillions of interactions, perhaps in
principle, we could tell you where every rain drop would fall. This is a very
reasonable idea especially because in our everyday world, we experience things
in terms of absolute certainty. And for a long time, many theoretical physicists
believed this was the case. Even Einstein believed that with quantum mechanics,
we just didn’t have enough information to put into our quantum models and there
were classical and deterministic variables that were hidden and not understood
in the experiments that would explain everything perfectly and thus render
quantum mechanics incorrect and useless. But with the experiments of John Bell
and Alain Aspect, the results tell us that there is no deterministic, everyday
underlying description of quantum mechanics and this is now known as quantum
indeterminacy. This means that we may one day be able to develop super-powerful
quantum computers that can solve problems with tremendous numbers of variables
but there is no certainty.
This
brings us to another problem in medicine. It is a problem in mindset. There is
an article called, “Chaos, and the Limits of Modern Medicine” written by James
S. Goodwin, M.D., that sums the problem up well. It is the fact that science is
about trying to completely understand why diseases happen to the degree that we
can control Mother Nature. I don’t feel that science shouldn’t go with this
attitude because it is this attitude that will allow humanity to develop
greater levels of understanding. The problem is when physicians adopt this same
mindset when dealing with patients. When healthcare providers treat individuals
as just another statistic in their attempt to fully understand a complex
disease, the healthcare provider is forgetting the ultimate job of the
provider. It is not, solely, to be thinking that someday we will be able to
control every facet of our bodies but to provide relief and palliative care for
all patients. Nursing in the word, has the connotation and meaning to nurse
someone in pain, to help take care of someone in pain. If we forget this
crucial mindset, we are failing our main objective as healthcare providers. And
as the double slit experiment has shown, the world we live in, is much of a
game of chance. “…science can tell us nothing about an individual. Science
speaks in terms of probabilities, of means and standard deviations, the
behavior of groups of electrons or proteins or people, not of individual
entities. Everything that makes an individual an individual, everything that
importantly defines an individual’s life, is outside the realm of science. The
practice of medicine involves only individuals” (Goodwin).
As
nurses, we must remember that the ultimate duty of a nurse is to heal patients
and to provide relief from discomfort to the best of our education and
abilities. We are not people who just pass out medications. We are not just
people who place IV’s, catheters, NG tubes, draw bloods, and so forth. We are
here to help people in need. We are here to make the world a better place.
Compassion and love are what will allow us to be the best nurses possible. They
are the keys that will also allow humanity to progress, care for each other,
and take care of our planet in a way that has only been dreamed of by the many positive
visionaries and people whose lives have ever so gradually, changed our planet
and humanity for the better.
References:
-What are Complex Adaptive Systems? A brief description of Complex Adaptive Systems and
Complexity Theory, by Peter Fryer
http://www.trojanmice.com/articles/complexadaptivesystems.htm
-Dr. Bruce Lipton's Work (The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter and Miracles)
-NOVA's Fabric of the Cosmos: Quantum Leap Documentary
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmX1W5umC1c
Can We Predict Everything?
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