Science is biased, and it can kill you

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

Science is biased by what it sees. The 4,000 species of mammals have been exhaustively researched, while new species of insects are discovered every day. What is easy to observe becomes over-researched, that is, studied out of all proportion to its real impact on the world. Meanwhile, what is difficult to observe goes under-studied. Far more dangerous, doctors insist on diagnosing you based on known diseases, even though there is 100% chance that you carry viruses that have never been documented.

According to the World Health Organization, one third of all humans have Tuberculosis.

It seems like big news when a new sexually transmitted illness is discovered, and yet even as we discover one this year, we must recognize that there are others that we have not yet discovered.

Whole segments of life are discovered, potentially half of one of the 5 kingdoms of life, and yet few pause to consider the implications : humility is called for. There is a lot we don’t know. Crucially, we are probably infested with creatures that are, as yet, unknown.

Consider how slowly researchers have come to understand mycoplasmas:

Mycoplasmas are a specific and unique species of bacteria – the smallest free-living organism known on the planet. The primary differences between mycoplasmas and other bacteria is that bacteria have a solid cell-wall structure and they can grow in the simplest culture media. Mycoplasmas however, do not have a cell wall, and like a tiny jellyfish with a pliable membrane, can take on many different shapes which make them difficult to identify, even under a high powered electron microscope. Mycoplasmas can also be very hard to culture in the laboratory and are often missed as pathogenic causes of diseases for this reason.

The accepted name was chosen because Mycoplasmas were observed to have a fungi-like structure (Mycology is the study of fungi – hence “Myco”) and it also had a flowing plasma-like structure without a cell wall – hence “plasma”. The first strains were isolated from cattle with arthritis and pleuro-pneumonia in 1898 at the Pasteur Institute. The first human strain was isolated in 1932 from an abscessed wound. The first connection between mycoplasmas and rheumatoid diseases was made in 1939 by Drs. Swift and Brown. Unfortunately, mycoplasmas didn’t become part of the medical school curriculum until the late 1950’s when one specific strain was identified and proven to be the cause of atypical pneumonia, and named Mycoplasma pneumonia. The association between immunodeficiency and autoimmune disorders with mycoplasmas was first reported in the mid 1970s in patients with primary hypogammaglobulinemia (an autoimmune disease) and infection with four species of mycoplasma that had localized in joint tissue. Since that time, scientific testing methodologies have made critical technological progress and along with it, more mycoplasma species have been identified and recorded in animals, humans and even plants.
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Or consider the theory that auto-immune disorders are triggered by pathogens:

Pathogens like bacteria and viruses have been implicated in autoimmune disease for some time, said Dr. Lawrence Steinman, a professor of neurology at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. But convincing proof was lacking. New findings reported in the last two or three years, however, are offering more support for the idea in revealing biochemical mechanisms that may be involved.

This leaves open the question, do autoimmune diseases really exist? Or has the whole issue been misunderstood?

Researchers will change their minds on these issues, many times, over the next few decades, and some theories will rise, and others will fall. And yet, many doctors will continue to diagnose patients as if they had certainty on their side. They don’t.

I write all this with a certain bitterness, of course. I was misdiagnosed many times, and each time I was given the wrong answer, I was allowed to grow more sick. There is no way forward except to fight against the unearned certainty that infects so many doctors — they are sick with confidence, and they must be healed.

Post external references

  1. 1
    http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs104/en/
  2. 2
    http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1001324?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+plospathogens/NewArticles+(Ambra+-+Pathogens+New+Articles)
  3. 3
    http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110511/full/news.2011.285.html?s=news_rss
  4. 4
    http://www.rain-tree.com/myco.htm
  5. 5
    http://www.nytimes.com/1996/12/31/science/virus-s-similarity-to-body-s-proteins-may-explain-autoimmune-diseases.html
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