are ilnesses needed?

[Marius66]

I have been wondering if humans have evolved a certain amount of symbiotic relationship with some ilnesses to the point where they are beneficial to us. Sort of like certain trees which depend on occasional forest fires to provide them with the canopy space they need to thrive.

For example a cough which we all get sometimes may clear out debris from the lungs and without this illness a buildup may occur over years. Or a stomach upset causing your body to flush out your insides and making you more healthy in the long run, a high temperature caused by flu causing your body to kill off other bacteria as well as the flu.
And if trying to hard to eradicate these things completely may leave us vunerable to other malaises.

[burningredphoenix]

A cough is not an illness first of all; it’s a reaction that helps us dislodge a foreign substance in our lungs.

Second, illness is such a broad word. there may be some ailment causing factor out there, but in my opinion, our body does vitaly need it. However, there may be exceptions. I believe that ADD, which I think occurs in one out of ten people, may not be a bad thing. Doctors classify it as a disorder, and are hasty to look for ways to cure it, but what if ADD is in fact a genetic mutation for a good reason; what if it is indeed a form of evolution that people are blind to see.

[MrMistery]

ADD? You mean attention disorders?
I think illnesses are needed but for another reason. Natural selection. It no longer applies to humans, but it applies to every other living thing on the planet. Thus illnesses, from this point of view, are a good thing…

[freindhacka]

to understand illnesses you must first understand where they come from. You have two types of foreign invaders native to people. One the bacteria, and two the virus, well fungus also. What is the goal of each and how does this effect us?

1) Bacteria, just want to replicate, it just so happens that your body might make a really nice home to procreate. Unfortunately this might cause colds, food poisoning, gas, and other symptoms. You’re body has one real effective way of fighting these. Mucous. If bacteria is in your nose, throat, or lungs, your body produces excess mucous to flush them out. Some areas of the body will release enzymes on certain occasions. Kind of the reverse thing that happens when you have an allergic reaction(Body can’t dispose of or reacts to foreign substance).

2) Virii are very very different from bacteria. A virus is technically not a living thing, just happens to have a membrane and some genetic material in it. Since the definition of a living organism is a means to replicate or procreate. Think of it like a comupter virus. It gets in, and uses a host to make copies of itself. This is true of all virii, simply because if it didn’t make copies of itself then it’s a dud. Now, your body can react to a virus in two ways. One is white blood cell recognition and two is antibodies. If a body cannot completely remove a viral infection the host develops a genetic regonition imprint, or basically has a genetic imrpint for the virus in question.

The interesting thing about imprinting is, if cells are effected, and do not devour/explode by making copies, then it becomes part of the cells permanent genetic makeup. Also if a host is infected repeatedly by different strains of the same virus, it is possible that the host will develop a permanent base imprint of the virus. This imprint can potentially be passed on to offspring. Imagine that!!! you can get immunities from your parents!!!

It is quite possible to transfer imprints for all host effected illnesses and then pass it on. This is highly unlikely however. White blood cells and bone marrow are often the cells that gain viral imprints/mapping to destroy foreign invaders.

[MrMistery]

that is what gene therapy is based on-rewriting the genome using a mild virus. But we still have a long to go until there

[Bio-Hazard]

I’d like to think natural selection still applies to humans. Depending on my factors such as radiation that has begun to cause cancer more and more often in people.

I suppose that there is a predisposition for people to have a weakness to ultraviolet radiation and other forms of radiation to give them an early onset of cancer. Other people seem to be stronger to the radiation and don’t get cancer.

I wouldn’t through away the idea of natural selection yet. There seems to be an interesting change going on and I will still hold onto the idea.

It’s true that some bacterial infections could provide us with aid in some biological disorders while at other times they only serve to bring us down. A good majority of the time however it will make the body a bit stronger and it’s resistance better.

[MrMistery]

With medicine progressing, natural selection would simply be forced to admit defeat faced with modern doctors…

[mith]

don’t forget that diseases also mutate to survive i.e. super staph

[MrMistery]

yeah, but we keep on curing them! By the way, what is super staph?

[canalon]

Super staph would be Staphylococcus aureus with multiple antibiotic resistances, mostl importantly methicillin and vancomycin, and usually with those all other drugs. Which make them almost impossible to kill. Nasty bugs.

[February Beetle]

Sure we feel like we are very advanced in medicine but we are just as advanced then the generations before us, and the generations after us will laugh at our science. (Well, maybe) And by messing with so many diseases we could be hurting ourselves. Accidental outbreak of a lab disease? What about the increase use of antibiotics and anti-bacterial hand soap? Both are helping bacteria evolve to be resistant.

Also, what about autoimmune diseases? Are those caused by outside factors or are they pretty much genetic?

[MrMistery]

I guess it would depend on the desease
About your theory: it has happened! EBOLA!!

[canalon]

quote MrMistery:

I guess it would depend on the desease
About your theory: it has happened! EBOLA!!

what do you mean?

[MrMistery]

Well i saw a documentary on discovery and it said that ebola was engeneered

[canalon]

A first for me. I seriously doubt that, like all kind of conspiration theory.

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