Questioning HIV/AIDS, Human-Caused Global Warming, and Other Orthodoxies in the Biomedical Sciencesby
Donald W. Miller, Jr.,
MD Six paradigms in the biomedical and climate sciences have become established orthodoxies. Some of them, like HIV/AIDS and the lipid hypothesis of coronary artery disease have achieved the status of dogma. Nevertheless, skeptics have raised valid questions about them. With the real cause, truth, or more probable hypothesis for the disease or phenomenon in question added, along with selected references, they are:
Coronary atherosclerosis is an inflammatory response to arterial injury. Things that can injure the inner lining (endothelium) of coronary arteries include chronic stress, smoking, and a lack of physical exercise. Injurious nutritional causes include excessive consumption of sugar (and white flour), Omega-6 polyunsaturated vegetable oils (which promote inflammation), and any amount of trans fatty acids. Cholesterol and saturated fats are innocent. Nutrient deficiencies that predispose to vessel injury include insufficient intake of Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins (particularly B6, B12, C and E), amino acids (particularly arginine and L-carnitine), minerals (selenium, magnesium, iodine, copper), and other free radical-quenching antioxidants (alpha lipoic acid and coenzyme Q10) and flavonoids (plant phenols). Increased iron and homocysteine blood levels and microbial infection (Chlamydia pneumoniae) play a causative role in atherosclerosis. Impaired nitric oxide release, and depletion, also plays a role (nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels and blocks the release of inflammatory cytokines).
Genetic mutations cause cancer The real cause is aneuploidy, an abnormal number and/or structure of chromosomes, in concert with replicative telomere (the caps on the ends of chromosomes) erosion and epigenetic maturation arrest of tissue stem cells (due to methylation of DNA).
Variations in solar intensity and the sun’s magnetic effect on celestial cosmic rays cause global warming (and cooling), not CO2 emissions, natural or human-generated.
HIV causes AIDS
The linear no-threshold hypothesis This hypothesis says that the damaging effects of toxins are dose-dependent in a linear fashion down to zero. Even a tiny amount of a toxin, such as radiation or cigarette smoke, will harm some people. The real truth is: Low doses of a toxin can be beneficial, based on the phenomenon of hormesis – "a dose response phenomenon whereby a substance that in a high dose inhibits, or is toxic to, a biological process will, in a much smaller dose, stimulate (or protect) that same process." Radiation in small doses stimulates immune system defenses, prevents oxidative DNA damage, and prevents and suppresses cancer.
A competing, revolutionary, and perhaps more accurate hypothesis for the structure of cells is the Association-Induction hypothesis. Gerald Pollack and Gilbert Ling posit in this hypothesis that the three main components of a living cell – proteins, water, and potassium ions – are structured together in a gel-like matrix, where the cell’s water is organized into layers alongside proteins. Cell function does not depend on the integrity of the cell membrane, and membrane "pumps" and "channels" are not what they seem. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a product of this view of cell physiology.
March 4, 2008 Donald Miller (send him mail) is a cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is a member of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness and writes articles on a variety of subjects for LewRockwell.com. His web site is www.donaldmiller.com Copyright © 2008 LewRockwell.com |
Scientists
who question these paradigms are denied grants by peer review study
panels. The reviewers enforce these state-sanctioned orthodoxies
by rejecting applications for funding research that challenges them.
I review this subject in 