|
|
528 Chama, N.E., Albuquerque, NM 87108 http://www.cbass.com |
From The Desk Of Clarence Bass
By Clarence and Carol Bass
|
|
Progress in Medical Science: A doctor's view
Dr. Anthony L. Komaroff, editor of the Harvard Health Letter for 30 years, has written his last column. In it he reviews some of the medical advances that he witnessed during his 60 year career as a doctor with a plea for continued commitment to science and medical research.
Readers of this website will be particularly interested in one of his named medical advances.
As he points out, some of the most important areas of medical advances now allow doctors to prevent, diagnose, and cure disease rather than merely hold a patient's hand as he did as a first year doctor when a young leukemia patient died.
Genes and Genetics: When he started college they had just learned that genes are made of DNA but his professor said that not in their lifetime would they know how many genes we have, how they work, and if they can be repaired to prevent or cure disease. As he says, his professor was wrong and we now know the answers with more to come.
Stem Cells: Scientists postulated that stem cells might help cure disease but didn't know how - our immune system would attack foreign cells from another person. Forty years later they discovered how it's possible to use your own adult cells to help repair the heart or brain and perhaps help patients with Parkinson's and other diseases.
Vaccines (a much debated subject today): he believes they are the most important technology ever invented; they have saved millions of lives (mostly children's) in his career.
Healthy Lifestyle: Over 50 years, large studies involving hundreds of thousands of people have shown how much our lifestyle affects our health - and that you can do more for yourself than taking any medicine.
Imaging: Technologies now allow you to see inside the patient without touching them to help spot and fix problems that may save their lives.
Heart Disease Detection and Treatment: Use of powerful drugs to lower blood pressure and cholesterol and new technologies such as stents, heart valves, and pacemakers have reduced deaths from this No. 1 killer in industrialized countries.
Cancer: Science is coming up with answers about this No. 2 killer: why aren't cancerous cells eliminated by the immune system, how can cancer be caught in its earliest stages, why do some cancers spread throughout the body. Answering these questions leads to miraculous treatments.
Antiviral therapies: Over the course of his career he has seen development of antiviral drugs for HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C virus infection.
Artificial Intelligence: It took a century for thousands of scientists to determine the shapes of just 30% of human proteins. In 2021, overnight, AI determined the remaining 70%. He calls the merger of medical science and AI the most spectacular accomplishment of all.
Organ transplantation: As he was starting medical school organ transplantation, after a decade of failure, was finally beginning to achieve success and now we have people living full lives with the use of an organ from another human being.
He ends his last column in the December 2025 issue by saying that most of his ancestors died from heart attacks in their 40s and 50s but he's lived until his mid-80s because science discovered those bad genes and how to treat them to counter their adverse effects. He calls for continued commitment to science and medical research.
My Take
It's fascinating to read these observations from this retiring physician giving a capsule view of events that he has lived though and experienced firsthand while others of us have just observed them from afar without a daily effect in our own field.
I was delighted to see his inclusion of medical recognition of healthy lifestyle as a major factor in our lives. I have been writing about combining weight training, aerobics, and good nutrition throughout my ten books and it is gratifying that the medical field acknowledges that healthy lifestyle is a major advancement in scientific thinking.
Clarence Bass by Pat Berrett
February 1, 2025
Comment on this article: FEEDBACK Ripped Enterprises, P.O. Box 51236, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87181-1236 Home | Products Index | Ripped Bks | Lean Adv. Bks | Lean For Life | Recommended Bks | |Consultations | Tapes | To Order | Feedback] Copyright © 2026 Clarence and Carol Bass. All rights reserved. |
