17 May 2022: Mental Health Awareness Month

May is mental health awareness month. This message is from the Michigan Dept of Health & Human Services:

If we’ve learned anything from the pandemic, it’s that our mental health and physical health go hand-in-hand. We’ve learned, as outlined in Governor Whitmer’s Mental Health Awareness Month proclamation at https://www.michigan.gov/whitmer/news/proclamations/2022/04/29/may-2022-mental-health-awareness-month?utm_campaign=&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery, that mental health affects how we think, feel and act; how we handle stress; and how we relate to others and make choices. Dr. Debra Pinals, MDHHS Medical Director for Behavioral Health and Forensic Programs, recorded a short video message encouraging us to stop and think about that—and know that help is available if needed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymHvJZm_jh0

One source of help is the MDHHS Stay Well program, which was created in the early days of the pandemic and still offers services and resources to help you manage emotional distress. Here are a few:

* The Stay Well counseling line still provides emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Dial 1-888-535-6136 and wait for the prompt to press “8”. Counseling is free and confidential.

* “Cultivating Joy” video series. Visit Michigan.gov/StayWell and click the black button that says Video Resources. You’ll find a collection of short, animated videos designed to help you rediscover optimism and hope.

* The “Be Kind to Your Mind” discussion group meets weekly on Zoom. Anyone can join for a chance to connect with other Michiganders who’ve been weathering the proverbial COVID storms. Register at https://bit.ly/3PilXrV.

Remember, there’s no shame in seeking help if you’re struggling emotionally. In fact, it can keep serious mental health issues at bay. So, here’s to your health – both mental and physical.

16 May 2022: Another threat to the health of women and girls

I find these articles to be disturbing:

* Abortion foes push to narrow ‘life of mother’ exceptions,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/05/13/abortion-ban-exceptions-mothers-life/

* What the “Life of the Mother” Might Mean in a Post-Roe America, https://www.newyorker.com/science/annals-of-medicine/what-the-life-of-the-mother-might-mean-in-a-post-roe-america

We want our physicians to be focused on what is in the best interest of the patient. Health care becomes more dangerous to patients when physicians must also consider possible criminal prosecution, loss of their medical license or loss of hospital privileges for providing optimal care to their patients.

For those of us who place primary importance on the health of the women and girls in our life or in society, I think we need to get more involved politically, in some way. I am circulating the petition for the Michigan Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative, https://mireproductivefreedom.org/, and urge all who care about this issue to get more involved, in some way. What are you doing?

@NatPpolitics

30 April 2022: Adult versus childhood cancer

I have revised "Curing cancer - Adult versus childhood cancer', see https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/.../adultvschildhoodcan.... This brief article compares cancer in adults to cancer in children and adolescents focusing on numbers of deaths, clinical (microscopic) types, survival rates, etiology (how they arise) and curative treatment. Click at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/onz6IND to sign up for our monthly newsletter.

12 April 2022: Curing cancer - reductionism versus complexity

 I have updated my article: Curing cancer - Reductionism versus complexity. It begins:

In 1971, President Richard M. Nixon announced the beginning of the "war on cancer" in the United States. Fifty years later, despite massive government expenditures and testimonials that the war on cancer "did everything it was supposed to do", cancer is still a leading cause of death with high mortality from cancer of the lung, colon, pancreas and breast.

Our war on cancer has failed because our basic approach to biology is wrong. Biologic thinking has traditionally relied on reductionism, the theory that the behavior of the whole is equal to the sum of the behavior of the parts. Based on this theory, sophisticated systems are presumed to be combinations of simpler systems that can be reduced to simpler parts; this implies that disease is due to flawed parts and treatment merely needs to identify and repair or destroy the damaged parts. Although logical and rational, reductionism does not accurately describe the functioning of complex systems, including human biology.

Rest of article, https://www.pathologyoutlines.com/ccnblog/reductionismvscomplexity.html

8 September 2021: Pancreatic cancer update

This essay summarizes current knowledge about pancreatic cancer and recent updates to our pancreatic cancer treatment targets. Link, Blog, PDF.

How you can help:

• Follow our Curing Cancer Blog at https://natpernickshealthblog.wordpress.com .
• Sign up for our Curing Cancer Network monthly newsletter by clicking at https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/onz6IND .
• Become an example to others of anti-cancer behavior. Read our American Code Against Cancer at http://www.natpernick.com/AmericanCodeAgainstCancer.html, decide what steps you can take to reduce your cancer risk and spread the word through your social networks.
• Contact me at Nat@PathologyOutlines.com with your suggestions or thoughts.

 

27 August 2021 - Updates to Strategic Plan to Substantially Reduce Cancer Deaths

This essay summarizes the latest version of our Strategic plan to substantially reduce cancer
deaths, http://www.natpernick.com/StrategicPlanCuringCancer.html  .

* First, it is important to have an ambitious plan that itemizes what needs to be done and
what needs to be better understood. Our plan might fail. But it is important to “dare greatly”,
see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_in_a_Republic, and attempt to achieve our actual goals, even if we do not know precisely how to do so.

* Second, reducing the high number of US cancer deaths is a management problem that
requires that we optimize each step of cancer’s clinical pathway (prevention, early detection,
treatment and failure to respond to treatment). It is not primarily a problem of finding a “silver
bullet” or “magic pill”.

* Third, we should study and reduce cancer deaths that occur shortly after diagnosis. These
may be preventable if due to (a) overzealous treatment that does not adequately balance
treatment side effects, (b) predictable infections or (c) damage to essential physiologic
networks that can be normalized.

* Fourth, we speculate that for each cancer type, even the most aggressive, there exists a
combination of perhaps 8-10 therapies that individually may be only partially effective but
together can be substantially effective. Effective combinations not only target the cancer cells
but their surrounding microenvironment; systemic networks involving inflammation, the
immune system and possibly hormones; germline variations in DNA and known patient risk
factors for this disease.

* Finally, we outline important therapeutic strategies, including:

– Treatment should focus on managing the malignancy to reduce death and disability, not
eliminating every possible cancer cell.

– Consider achieving “marginal gains” at all steps of the disease process, which may
increase possible treatment options and reduce a sense of futility.

– Therapy should be patient centered to the extent possible because patients may have
markedly different therapeutic preferences.

– Aggressively enroll patients into clinical trials so physicians can learn and improve over
time.

You can help:

* Follow our Curing Cancer Blog at https://natpernickshealthblog.wordpress.com/

* Sign up for our Curing Cancer Network monthly newsletter by clicking at
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/onz6IND .

* Become an example to others of anti-cancer behavior. Read our American Code against
Cancer at http://www.natpernick.com/AmericanCodeAgainstCancer.html, decide what
steps you can take to reduce your cancer risk and spread the word through your social
networks.

 

 

 

 

10 August 2021: Letter to President Biden

 

Let me know if you have comments for future letters or you have suggested contacts.

Thanks

--------

10 August 2021

Dear President Biden,

I am a pathologist who developed PathologyOutlines.com, a free online pathology textbook used regularly by pathologists worldwide.

Consistent with your goal of ending cancer as we know it, I have developed a strategic plan to substantially reduce cancer deaths from the current level of 600,000 per year to 100,000 per year, see http://www.natpernick.com/StrategicPlanCuringCancer.html.

Who do you know, in or outside government, who is willing to “think outside the box”, and focus on this long term goal and what we need to do to get there?

Unfortunately, most cancer physicians and scientists are focused on short term thinking - promoting their career and not ruffling too many feathers. They don’t want to take risks that may fail. In addition, too many scientists are wedded to reductionist thinking and focus on naive concepts such as “the cure” or “a world without cancer”. However, cancer is the result of intersecting webs of disturbed physiologic networks - we typically will need to cut many strands of the web to destroy its function - a few drugs will usually be inadequate to do that. We also need more ambitious prevention goals such as markedly reducing tobacco use and obesity and making dramatic changes to our diet if we want to substantially reduce cancer deaths.

Our work is moving forward with the help of a growing network of interested people, but the more people in our network, the better. I would appreciate your help, or that of your staff, in advancing this cause by identifying interested people to work with us.

We don’t need your money, but we do need your connections!

Please review and advise.