Overview & Conclusions about Unsolved Problems - for discussion Dec 6, 2017

Remember Ulcers, and the belief they were caused by worry & stress?
Was there ANY supporting evidence? How did ulcer experts discover that their paradigm was incorrect? Did they encourage other scientists to find the true cause? Did hospitals & medical schools test new treatments on patients? Did they test expensive anti-acids as ulcer treatments? (Try googling "Does stress cause ulcers?")

Read Wikipedia article: "Timeline of peptic ulcer disease and Helicobacter pylori"

Quotes from this excellent article: A single study, conducted in 1954, did not find evidence of bacteria on biopsies of the stomach stained traditionally; this effectively established the acid theory. (1974) A well regarded study of Peptic Ulcer Disease is published which does not mention bacteria. Patrick, W.J.A.; et al. (1974). "Mucous change in the human duodenum: A light and electron microscopic study and correlation with disease and gastric acid secretion". Gut. 15 (10): 767-76.
(1984) The New York Times publishes an article by its medical correspondent Dr. Lawrence K. Altman on the possible link between H. pylori and PUD. He states in 2002, "I've never seen the medical community more defensive or more critical... "

Compare past beliefs about ulcers to current medical beliefs about atherosclerosis, especially paradigms about cholesterol, smooth muscle cells and the location of "plaque".

Compare ideas about cancer: The idea that cancer is caused by cells growing too fast? Beliefs that chemotherapy works by slowing down the rates of cancer cells growth? Testing possible anti-cancer drugs based on whether they damage DNA or microtubules? Anaerobic metabolism being used to diagnose and locate cancers, but not used to treat cancer? Killing cancer cells by damaging them? Instead of by stimulating apoptosis?

Regarding the immune system: What about the idea that the immune system works by memory of which cells are "self"? By means of what property can a cell detect whether another cell is "self"
Which of the following could cause autoimmune diseases?
#1) Failure to weed out those B and/or T lymphocytes whose binding sites have the right shape to fit some protein or other molecule that is a normal component of the body?
#2) Reactivation of random recombination of VDJ sequences of DNA, in B cells, and the equivalent DNA in T cells.
#3) Loss of cells' ability to distinguish "self" from "non-self" molecules.
#4) Survival of some lymphocytes that should have been weeded out.
True or false: Until the mechanism of "weeding out" is understood, no cure will be found for MS?

What did Lisa Manning mean by "Coaction" in relation to causing sorting out of randomly mixed differentiated cells, either by differences in adhesion or differences in contractile tension?
Do cells minimize free energy? Is this a matter of logical necessity? As a simplifying assumption?

Wikipedia Article about "Differential Adhesion Hypothesis":.. explains cellular movement ... with thermodynamic principles. ... tissues are treated as liquids consisting of mobile cells whose varying degrees of surface adhesion cause them to reorganize spontaneously to minimize their interfacial free energy. Put another way, according to DAH, cells move to be near other cells of similar adhesive strength in order to maximize the bonding strength between cells and produce a more thermodynamically stable structure. In this way the movement of cells during tissue formation, according to DAH, parodies the behavior of a mixture of liquids. {Yes! They wrote "parodies"! Sigmund Freud strikes again!} Which parts of the DAH are hypothetical and which are descriptions?

Bones get stronger when (and also where, and in the direction that) more stress is exerted What are some possible methods by which bones detect stress? By which bones get stronger?

Unwanted calcification occurs in atherosclerotic arteries, resulting in stiffening and breakage. Note that elderly patients need increased calcification of bones and decreased calcification of arteries.