This is a simple website whose sole purpose is to release an idea to the outside world. If it has been thought of already, please accept my apologies. If not, I hope it might be of some hope and help to those who are suffering. The concept is based on logic rather than medical science
HIV Virus Cell
Courtesy of 123RF.com
The placebo effect is well known in medical science but because it is not easily measurable it tends to have a reduced importance in the scientific world. Anecdotal evidence from friends who worked as nurses in cancer wards would indicate that patients who remained "positive" in their thinking had a longer life than those whose thinking was negative or depressed.
The conclusion is that somehow the mind must be playing a part. It is my belief that if this "positiveness" can be enhanced, the patient will have a better prognosis. How much better is unknown.
My mind hs been particularly focused and sharpened by the deaths by cancer of several good friends not the least my stepdaughter Gwen. Very few of us remain untouched by someone whose life has been shortened prematurely by the disease.
While listening to a radio programme on BBC Radio 4 some time ago, a doctor was explaining the current status of cancer research. While the doctors and researchers have had much success with young people with blood cancers, the main thrust in treatments appears to be using what might be called the "shotgun effect" using chemotherapy or radiation techniques which are effectively poisons. These methods, whilst effective at destroying the cancer cells, also produce severe collateral damage to the healthy cells around the tumour, and in the body generally. Much time and energy is aimed at reducing these side-effects in order to prolong the life of the patients with some sort of quality. Eventually the quality of life due to these "poisons" can be so dis-improved that some patients refuse to continue with the "chemo".
I was surprised and encouraged when I heard that a woman doctor in the United States had announced a "miracle cure" for a terminally ill young man. Apparently he had been using his imagination to destroy the cancer. I have long been a believer that the body has the ability to heal itself if the brain can be accessed to "recognise" the problem. God may have a hand in some of the miracle cures but He gave us a brain and there might just be a chance that we can learn to help ourselves!
The cancer and virus cells are very clever at hiding from the body's sophisticated immune system. If the immune system can be "taught" what they "look like" then it may be possible to defeat them.
In the late 18th century, the great scientist and doctor Edward Jenner observed that milkmaids did not appear to contract the deadly smallpox disease. He concluded that the reason for this was that because of their work they had previously contracted the much less dangerous disease of cowpox. By injecting the cowpox virus into his human patients he "immunised" them from the smallpox virus. In other words he had "taught" the body's immune system to recognise the smallpox which is similar to it's cousin cowpox.
Well, we don't have milkmaids any-more but we do have powerful microscopes. My belief is that it may be possible to help the immune system with images of cancer or the HIV virus (for example) and possibly even bacteria, injected not via the hypodermic needle but through the eyes, directly into the brain. Then hopefully the brain will find a way to communicate this information to the immune system. HIV might be the optimum to perform a test of the concept, as I believe the white blood cell count can be obtained with relative ease for a quantitative measurement of any success.
What is envisaged is a simple computer video "game", something like the style of the old "Space Invaders" where the subject shoots down the malignant cells instead of the aliens. I see it not as the vertical movement from the top of the screen but as an attacker which commences as a random pinpoint in the distance which slowly comes closer. When it becomes larger it must take the correct shape, preferably in 3D, of the exact image of the particular malignant cell which is being targeted. There are many different types and the program should have the possibility to load the correct one. Once the image has become large enough to be recognised, the patient is allowed to destroy it.
The only reason to use a computer program is to help to concentrate the mind. I see no reason to believe that this effect might not be achieved with an image alone (picture) if the patient has a good imagination and powers of concentration. The immune system must be crying out for help to identify the invader.
The author stresses that anyone who intends to use this technique should first consult their doctor and on no account discontinue any treatment they are presently receiving. The doctor is unlikely to disapprove although he might be sceptical. With any luck he will help the patient to find the correct picture to use.
Any doctors and software programmers out there interested enough to help write the program for a trial?
Greycat
