Writing in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, the researchers report that the mineral was associated with reduced risks of both basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and squamous cell carcinoma (SCC).

On the other hand, blood levels of carotenoids and alpha-tocopherol (vitamin E) were not associated with any influence on skin cancer risks, report the researchers from Queensland Institute of Medical Research, the University of Queensland, and Maastricht University.

In the US, over 1.5 million people are diagnosed with skin cancer every year. According to Cancer Research UK, a charity, over 76,000 cases of skin cancer were documented in 2005 but this is thought to under-represent the problem.

Jolieke van der Pols and her co-workers examined 485 adults randomly samples in from an Australian community. While no relationship between serum carotenoids or alpha-tocopherol levels and the incidence of BCC or SCC was recorded, the researchers noted an association between selenium levels and both forms of cancer.

The highest average selenium levels of between 1.3 and 2.8 micromoles per litre were associated with a 57 per cent reduction in the incidence of BCC, and a 64 per cent reduction in the incidence of SCC, compared to the lowest average selenium levels of between 0.4 and 1.0 micromoles per litre.

“Relatively high serum selenium concentrations are associated with an approximately 60 per cent decrease in subsequent tumour incidence of both BCC and SCC,” wrote the researchers, “whereas serum concentrations of carotenoids or alpha-tocopherol are not associated with later skin cancer incidence.”

Selenium and cance

Selenium is a trace element that occurs naturally in the soil and is absorbed by plants and crops, from where it enters the human food chain – either directly or through consumption of meat and other products from grazing animals.

The mineral is included in between 50 and 100 different proteins in the body, with multifarious roles including building heart muscles and healthy sperm. However, cancer prevention remains one of the major benefits of selenium, and it is the only mineral that qualifies for an FDA-approved qualified health claim for general cancer reduction incidence.

The claim reads: “Selenium may reduce the risk of certain cancers. Some scientific evidence suggests that consumption of selenium may reduce the risk of certain forms of cancer. However, FDA has determined that this evidence is limited and not conclusive.”

To access FDA’s qualified health claim guidance for selenium, click here .

Source: Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention
2009, Volume 18, Issue 4, Pages 1167-1173
“Serum Antioxidants and Skin Cancer Risk: An 8-Year Community-Based Follow-up Study”
Authors: J.C. van der Pols, M.M. Heinen, M.C. Hughes, T.I. Ibiebele, G.C. Marks, A.C. Green

Researchers led by Honglei Chen, MD, PhD from National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences looked at the length of telomeres, DNA sequences at the end of chromosomes that shorten as cells replicate and age.

The ageing and lifespan of normal, healthy cells are linked to the so-called telomerase shortening mechanism, which limits cells to a fixed number of divisions. During cell replication, the telomeres function by ensuring the cell’s chromosomes do not fuse with each other or rearrange, which can lead to cancer. Elizabeth Blackburn, a telomere pioneer at the University of California San Francisco, likened telomeres to the ends of shoelaces, without which the lace would unravel.

With each replication the telomeres shorten, and when the telomeres are totally consumed, the cells are destroyed (apoptosis). Previous studies have also reported that telomeres are highly susceptible to oxidative stress.

Dr Chen and his co-workers noted that telomere length may therefore be a marker of biological ageing, and that multivitamins may beneficially affect telomere length via modulation of oxidative stress and chronic inflammation.

According to results published in the new issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the telomeres of daily multivitamin users may be on average 5.1 per cent longer than in non-users.

“To our knowledge, this was the first epidemiologic study of multivitamin use and telomere length,” wrote Dr Chen and his co-workers. “Regular multivitamin users tend to follow a healthy lifestyle and have a higher intake of micronutrients, which sometimes makes it difficult to interpret epidemiologic observations on multivitamin use.

“Further investigations would be needed to understand the role of multivitamin use and telomere length and its implication in the etiology of chronic diseases.”

Multivitamin use

According to a National Institutes of Health (NIH) State-of-the-Science Panel, half of the American population routinely use dietary supplements, with their annual spend estimated at over $20 billion.

Recent results of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey showed that 35 per cent of the US adult population regularly consumes one or more types of multivitamin product (Am. J. Epidemiol., 2004, Vol. 160, Pages 339-349).

New study

Dr Chen and his co-workers analysed multivitamin use and nutrient intakes, as well as telomere length of 586 women aged between 35 and 74 in the Sister Study. A 146-item food-frequency questionnaire was used to determine multivitamin use and nutrient intakes.

Compared to non-multivitamin users, the researchers noted that that telomeres were on average 5.1 per cent longer for daily multivitamin users.

In an attempt to identify specific nutrients that could be behind the observations, a positive relationship between telomere length and intakes of vitamins C and E from foods was observed.

“Whereas the evidence is not sufficient to conclude that these 2 dietary antioxidants mediated the observed relation, the results are consistent with experimental findings that vitamins C and E protect telomeres in vitro,” wrote the researchers.

Being the first study to report such an association, Dr Chen and his co-workers emphasized that the evidence is only preliminary and that additional epidemiologic studies are required to further explore the association. The implications of the findings in terms of ageing and the etiology of chronic diseases should be carefully evaluated.

Source: American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
June 2009, Volume 89, Number 6, Pages 1857-1863, doi:10.3945/ajcn.2008.26986
“Multivitamin use and telomere length in women”
Authors: Q. Xu, C.G. Parks, L.A. DeRoo, R.M. Cawthon, D.P. Sandler, H. Chen

The Scurvy – Heart Disease Connection
Solution to the Puzzle of Cardiovascular Disease

I would like to congratulate Stanford University for addressing the need for preventive and natural answers to the number one cause of death in the industrialized world. I will present to you the facts that atherosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes are not diseases but the direct result of long-term vitamin deficiency. And therefore they can be prevented by natural means, without pharmaceutical drugs or surgical intervention. Heart Disease is an early form of the sailor’s disease scurvy. In my presentation I can only focus on the most compelling evidence. All existing hypotheses of atherogenesis have one problem in common – they defy human logic. The theory that high cholesterol levels, oxidized LDL or bacteria damage the vascular wall would lead to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques along theentire vascular pipeline. Inevitably, peripheral vascular disease would be the primary manifestation of cardiovascular disease. This is clearly not the case. It doesn’t require a degree from Stanford or any other medical school – any lay person can solve the Plumber’s riddle. The arteries, veins and capillaries in our body are a pipeline that is 60,000 miles long. But this pipeline fails in 90% of the cases at one specific spot: The coronary arteries, with the length of only one billionth of the total vascular pipeline. If bad water quality – e.g. high cholesterol – would cause damage to this pipeline, it would clog everywhere, not just at one spot. Obviously, elevated cholesterol can not be the cause of coronary artery disease. The solution to the puzzle of cardiovascular disease, therefore, must lie in the explanation of coronary artery plaques as the predominant manifestation of cardiovascular disease. To solve this puzzle we need to refocus our attention away from the blood stream and its constituents towards the one and only relevant target: the stability of the vascular wall. As opposed to animals, the human body cannot synthesize vitamin C. Ascorbate deficiency results in two distinct morphological changes of the vascular wall: Impaired vascular stability due to decreased collagen synthesis and loss of the endothelial barrier function. The sailors of earlier centuries died within a few months from hemorrhagic blood loss due to lack of endogenous ascorbate synthesis combined with a vitamin deficient diet aboard. When the Indians gave those sailors tea from tree barks and other vitamin rich nutrition, blood loss was stopped and the vascular wall healed naturally. Today, everyone gets some vitamin C and open scurvy is rare. But almost everyone suffers from chronic vitamin deficiency. Over decades, micro lesions develop in the vascular wall, especially in areas of high mechanical stress such as the coronary arteries.Just as in the sailor’s disease scurvy, so does vitamin C induce the natural repair of the blood vessel wall in cardiovascular disease leading to a halt in progression and even to natural regression of vascular lesions.

In contrast to current models of atherogenesis, the Scurvy / Heart Disease Connection can answer all key questions in clinical cardiology today. Why do we get infarctions of the heart and not the nose or ears? The answer can be reduced to two factors: Structural impairment of the vascular wall due to vitamin deficiency combined with the mechanical stress from pulsatile blood flow in the coronary arteries. It is at this unique spot where the underlying structural impairment is exposed first. Why do we get arteriosclerosis, but not venosclerosis? The cholesterol and the infection theory would inevitably lead to clogging of veins and capillaries. The scurvy heart disease connection provides the only logical answer to this phenomenon. Why animals donÆt get heart attacks, but people do? Why do bears and other hibernators with cholesterol levels of 600 mg/dl are not extinct from an epidemic of heart attacks? The answer: Animals produce their own vitamin C in amounts between 1 gram and 20 grams each day, compared to the human body weight. These amounts of ascorbate are obviously sufficient to optimize the stability of their vascular walls û without any necessity for Statins. Why are all important risk factors for CVD closely connected to ascorbate deficiency, including, diabetes, hyperlipdemia, homocysteinuria and others. The common denominator of these metabolic disorders is to provide compensatory stability for the vitamin deficient vascular wall. This is also the reason, why ascorbate deficiency increases fibrinogen and thromboxane levels while decreasing endothelial derived relaxing factor (NO) and prostacyclin. Lets turn to key evidence for the scurvy / heart disease connection. The guinea pig, like man, cannot synthesize ascorbate endogenously. In our published research we demonstrated that, when guinea pigs are fed vitamin C only at the level of the human RDA they develop atherosclerosis. These vascular lesions are histologically indistinguishable from human atherosclerotic plaques. In contrast, the control animals receiving Vitamin C levels of one teaspoon vitamin C per day have clean arteries. These experiments were confirmed by Meade et al. in an ascorbate “knock out” animal model. The first manifestation in these animals was the deterioration of the vascular wall, resembling early atherosclerosis in man. We confirmed these results in a clinical study in patients with preexisting coronary artery deposits measured by Ultrafast Computed Tomography. Following a defined vitamin program, the progression of calcification significantly decreased and in some cases the disappearance of lesions was documented, as you can see in this X-ray CT pictures. Copies of the publication of this clinical study are available at this meeting or online. The scurvy heart disease connection means a paradigm shift in medicine from symptom-orientation to the only relevant preventive and therapeutic target: The stability of the vascular wall. With the discovery of the scurvy / heart disease connection, the “world of heart disease” has ceased to be a plate and has become a globe. Now that we have identified the true nature of cardiovascular disease, its eradication is only a question of time. Already in ten years from now the headlines of the leading newspapers may read: “WHO proclaims heart disease as eradicated / The pharmaceutical market of statins and other symptom-oriented drugs have collapsed on Wall Street / and the cardiology departments at Stanford and other Medical Schools are closing”. On behalf of millions of patients with heart diseases I call upon Stanford University and other medical institutions to accept their responsibility and join us in the eradication of cardiovascular disease. ]]> http://healthisbeautynow.com/2009/07/16/eradicating-heart-disease/feed/ 0 http://healthisbeautynow.com/2009/07/15/franco-columbu/ http://healthisbeautynow.com/2009/07/15/franco-columbu/#comments Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:16:22 +0000 admin http://healthisbeautynow.com/?p=268 It is a long way from Sardinia to Southern California, and no one knows this better than Franco Columbu, who arose from humble beginnings on the Italian island of Sardinia where people live in much the same way as they have for centuries. His successes as a boxing champion, international bodybuilding superstar, entrepreneur, author, Doctor of Chiropractic, and most recently actor and film producer, are deeply rooted in his Catholic upbringing and the strong work ethic which he learned as a young shepherd and farmer in Ollalai, in the primitive inland mount region of Sardinia.

Franco has won every important title in bodybuilding and power lifting, an extraordinary achievement. He is a two-time Mr. Olympia, the most prestigious and lucrative title in bodybuilding, and has been Mr. Universe and Mr. World, among others. Even more amazing is the fact that he won his second Mr. Olympia at the age of 40, while completing his studies to become a chiropractor and five years after he had completely dislocated his knee in competition.

His power lifting World Records include: Bench Press 525 lbs., Squat 655 lbs., and Dead Lift 750 lbs. He is even in the Guinness Book of World Records for blowing up a hot water bottle to bursting using only sheer lung power!

Dr. Columbu brings decades of fitness training experience that has roots in natural therapies long before and contrary to the world of body-building’s traditional training methods.

Titles Won in Bodybuilding:
• Mr. Italy
• Mr. Europe
• Mr. International
• Mr. World
• Mr. Universe
• Mr. Olympia
Titles Won in Powerlifting:
• Champion of Italy
• Champion of Germany
• Champion of Europe
• World Champion
World Records in Powerlifting:
• Bench Press 520 lbs.
• Squat 655 lbs.
• Deadlift 750 lbs.
Records in Weightlifting:
• Olympic Press 325 lbs.
• Snatch 270 lbs.
• Clean and Jerk 400 lbs.
Boxing: Amateur Boxing Champion

THE MAN BEHIND “THE” PERFECT SMILE

ROBERT IBSEN, D.D.S., president and founder of DEN-MAT CORPORATION (http://denmatcapital.com/), virtually established the smile makeover business in 1974 when, as a practicing dentist, he became dissatisfied with available cosmetic dental materials.    Since then, he has been revered by his peers for developing products and techniques that have vastly improved cosmetic dentistry procedures like veneers, bonding and tooth bleaching.  His most recent development, painless and permanent LUMINEERS® by CERINATE®(www.lumineers.com), the most minimally invasive veneer option, has helped revolutionize the ease and comfort factor of cosmetic dentistry.

From day one, Dr. Ibsen discovered new ways of practicing and thinking for his colleagues.  With over 150 products and 103 patents, Den-Mat allows the country’s most skilled cosmetic dentists to offer esthetic solutions that meet the needs of every patient.

For example, research-proven, award-winning LUMINEERS creates beautiful smiles without the pain and discomfort of traditional veneers, because the extraordinary process doesn’t require the removal of original tooth structure.  No other veneer is as minimally invasive – not even a post-procedure aspirin is necessary.   Tens of thousands of dentists nationwide are now using LUMINEERS in their practices, with more added everyday, thanks in part to the convenient 1-877-LUMINEERS referral number, which directly connects patients with LUMINEERS dentists in their neighborhood.  1-877-LUMINEERS has mutually benefited both dentists and consumers.

Dr. Ibsen also developed the Sapphire Whitening Light, clinically proven to increase the efficacy of the most popular whitening gels from 3-6 shades.  No other light is research-proven to work effectively with all bleaching agents including: Zoom, Luma Lite, Opalescence and Rembrandt.  Results of these bleaching agents, combined with the Sapphire Whitening Light, are longer lasting than any bleaching without a light. The Sapphire Whitening Light is safer because it emits no harmful UV rays.  Studies also show that it causes no post-procedure sensitivity, offering the most comfortable bleaching experience available today.

“Since 1974, Den-Mat has consistently developed products that allow dentists to preserve, restore, and enhance teeth without the extensive cutting, drilling, and tooth removal that have characterized dentistry in the past,” states Dr. Ibsen.  “I am constantly looking for the best, safest and most convenient solutions.  The future of cosmetic dentistry is tremendously exciting.”

In addition, Dr. Ibsen virtually pioneered the consumer whitening toothpaste category in 1990 with low-abrasion Rembrandt Whitening Toothpaste.  His Rembrandt Oral Care Products, which centered on beauty without sacrificing good, safe oral hygiene, became resoundingly popular among consumers.  The blockbuster success of privately held Rembrandt Oral Care Products led to the brand’s acquisition by Gillette in 2004.

As a graduate of the Southern California College of Optometry and the USC School of Dentistry, Dr. Ibsen is an esteemed lecturer, educator and author.  He has served as Expert Examiner for the California State Board of Dental Examiners and as a Clinical Lecturer at Boston University’s Henry M. Goldman School of Graduate Dentistry.  He is also named as Associate Clinical Professor at the New York University College of Dentistry and is Clinical Instructor at USC’s School of Dentistry.  He is a member of the Pierre Fauchard Academy, Fellow of the International College of Dentists, American College of Dentists, Academy of Operative Dentistry, Academy of General Practice, Academy of Dentistry International, Academy of International Dental Studies, and the American Academy of Dental Materials.

Dr. Ibsen has maintained a general practice in Santa Maria for almost 50 years.

For more information on Dr. Ibsen, call (805) 925-3271 or email to robert@denmatcapital.com

Pamela Rae invited my to present a speech on an interesting subject free of choice amidst of a select group of eminent speakers on a symposium on beauty and health. I was tempted, as I had been thinking about doing something like for a long time. To get out my view on things. I took the challenge. It took me quite some time however – I think some 2 months – to come up with a coherent view that relates to the subjects of this symposium. What’s on the menu for today then? My experiences, observations and analysis of daily life processes and events and my knowledge of physics, models and systems have led me to believe that there is a simple but general description of the world around us. It is not a very precise description but an adequate and usable one. During the next hour I will present to you concepts and their relationships that can help you to understand the world around you somewhat better so you can solve problems more effectively or improve conditions. Concepts like system, feedback, cause and effect, constraint, energy, entropy, equilibrium, self-organization, order, memory, potential, ambition, creativity, value, money, beauty, health and their relationships will be introduced. I will use examples related to different aspects of daily life to illustrate these concepts.
However, words are not enough to get the message across. I will use some schematics to illustrate them since pictures tell more than a thousand words. Maybe part or all of these concepts are already known to you, which is likely since they are quite general. If that is the case I hope your insights are enforced. To those who hear about these concepts the first time I’d like to say, use them to your own or other’s advantage. I hope you enjoy the presentation. If you do, let me know. If you don’t, let me know too. We thrive on feedback. Let me first serve you some ingredients and recipes as food for thought.
In order to serve a good meal, any chef needs proper ingredients, a recipe and a well equipped kitchen for preparation.

I’ve come to learn my ingredients and recipes in the kitchen (a very well equipped R&D laboratory) of a large Dutch multinational chemical company called DSM. Ever since I left university I’ve always been involved with mathematical modeling, describing chemical engineering equipment, chemical reactions, thermodynamic properties of mixtures of components all for a single purpose: to simulate chemical processes on a computer. These computational models were used to analyze, understand, control and optimize processes and to train operators working in DSM production facilities. I consider these models condensed knowledge gained from concrete and thought experiments to be reused in other situations and for different purposes. There is potential and thus value in these models. I’ve also worked in the field of artificial intelligence, making computers perform tasks other than numerical computations. This required modeling of knowledge and analyzing tasks performed by experts in the field of control, design, assessment, troubleshooting (diagnosis) and modeling, and mapping these models and tasks to computer software. I met and talked with many very interesting people that shared a lot of knowledge, skills and experiences with me. I’ve come to see that there are many commonalities in representing knowledge and executing tasks. The meals that came out of that kitchen had a lot of ingredients and recipes in common so to speak. During the continuation of my career at DSM production facilities, being responsible for stabilization, optimization and the safety of chemical processes, this insight only was reinforced. There are general principles at work in a chemical plant, and not only there. In whatever direction I looked I saw commonalities, the same principles being applicable, the same jobs being done, the same ingredients and recipes used. Even today in my own kitchen, a company the creates software for operator training simulators, I add value and make money by selling software based on these concepts.

I would like to present some basic ingredients and recipes that can be used for a multitude of meals. You can become a chef too.

First there is the system. A system is a concrete or conceptual subject you can contain in a box or balloon, it can be enclosed by a definite closed surface that completely separates it from its surroundings. A system can be as small as a molecule or as large as our earth. In that sense your body can be considered to be a system. A system usually has a state, characterized by a set of quantities like temperature, pressure, composition, volume, mass etc. most of the quantities are open for measurement so the state can be quantified. Another characteristic of a systems is that systems themselves can be decomposed or partitioned into smaller systems. Usually systems have interactions with other systems. Thermodynamics define them as isolated systems if they do not have such interactions with their environment (a mere theoretical concept as there is no such thing in nature), closed systems if they exchange only energy with their environment and an open systems if they exchange both matter and energy. Thermodynamically speaking, your body is an open system since you eat, breathe and through perspiration losing heat. Interaction with the surroundings changes the state of the system and the state of the system changes the state of the surroundings through exchange of matter and energy. Important to notice is that you can control the state of a system when you can manipulate the matter and energy exchanged.

Systems in a force field have a potential energy in that force field and if that potential energy is not the lowest possible one the system will literally move towards the lowest possible potential energy level in that force field. In the process towards this lowest possible potential energy, potential energy is lost or better transformed into other forms of energy like kinetic energy, chemical energy, electrical energy, heat etc. If there no heat production involved the transformations are reversible which means we revert the process and get the system back in its original state. If heat is produced the process irreversible, and entropy will increase. When it arrives at the point of lowest possible potential energy, we call the system at equilibrium. All systems thriving for the lowest potential energy is a very important basic law of physics. Two other basic laws of physics have been touched upon as well: the first law of thermodynamics which states that energy cannot get lost, only transformed and the second law of thermodynamics: entropy can only increase over time, lowering entropy in a system increased entropy outside the system for at least an equal amount. In order to create order here you have create a at least an equal mess somewhere else. To get a system out of equilibrium we have to explicitly apply force (bring the system in a different force field) and spend energy to change the state of the system. Let me also throw in another important basic law of physics being the law of conservation of matter. No matter can get lost. In fact, we humans are made out of star dust more than 4 billion years old. As an example I’d like you to consider an apple in a tree. It is subjected to the gravitational field of the earth. The force of gravity attracts the earth and the apple to each other. The lowest possible potential energy for the apple is to be on the earth’s surface. If it were not for the string that attaches the apple to the tree that is exerting a force equal and opposite to the gravity force (holding it in an equilibrium state as close as possible to the earth – lowest potential energy), the apple would start falling, losing potential energy, gaining kinetic energy and eventually would fall on the ground (or hit your head) where the potential energy is lowest, the kinetic energy is transformed into heat is the process of causing displacing and damaging some of the apple’s cells (or your head’s). The apple will be in a state within a potential well in the lowest possible state of potential energy. In order for the apple to fall, some energy is required to cut the string to the tree (to get it out of it’s current equilibrium). That can be your hand plucking the apple or UV light destroying the cells of the string. This energy distorts the equilibrium and the apple will look for a new equilibrium. If you pick up the apple, again energy is used to change equilibrium. By the way the equilibrium discussed is a static equilibrium. The state does not change and there is no movement. Systems can also be in what we call a steady state involving a dynamic equilibrium. The state does not change but there is steady movement and exchange of matter and energy due to the fact that the potential field is maintained usually at the expense of energy.

Causal models are another important concept to be introduced. A causal model is a quantitative or qualitative description of a system in one or more cause and effect relationships. There is the arrow of time. First the cause then the effect. It may be nano seconds or light years, one effect induces the other and it takes time for the effect to come and fully develop. Apart from the dynamics involved in these relationships there is what is called the static attenuation. Following the chain of cause and effect relationships backward will eventually get us to the inputs of the system, the interactions with the environment.  Things get interesting when the causal relationships contain cycles. Then the state itself keeps changing the state. This is what we call feedback loops and feedback can be either positive (reinforcing) or negative (stabilizing). Most systems in nature contain negative feedback loops that will bring systems to an equilibrium state.

Feedback and models are very powerful and necessary tools to achieve goals and equilibrium. If a system’s natural equilibrium and order is not the desired one we humans though experimenting and modeling have been able to find ways to influence the equilibrium and to bring it and maintain it where we want it to be. We produce new order, at a cost, usually energy and at the expense of increasing disorder outside of the system. When applying changes to the inputs of a system, the response of the system is used in two ways in terms of feedback at two different levels. First, the response is used to see if the desired goals have been achieved and if not, to use the model to adjust the inputs to the system and to bring it closer to the desired goal. Secondly the response is used to adapt the model if the inputs that were based on the model gave some unexpected response. The last being the cornerstone of science first put to paper by Karl Popper: models and theories can never be proved and can only be disproved; a single experimental outcome that contradicts the predictions of a model invalidates it. Kick it put, throw it away; it needs mending in order to be acceptable again. The necessary accuracy of a model plays an important role here. There are lots of valid inaccurate models that are very useful. We use them everyday in the form of qualitative models.

As far as I know physics has the most detailed, quantitative and well established set of cause and effect models. They are universally applicable to all matter and energy. They are open for computation as mathematics is the language in which they are expressed (it’s a beautiful language because its dictionary’s content is very consistent). And mathematics can be translated into computer code. Because of all these characteristics these models can be used to design and engineer the things like silicon chips that make billions of calculations a second or an immense Saturn V rocket that had mankind visit the moon. In other areas of science the cause and effect models are not that precise, quantitative and universally applicable. Think of models in biology, medicine, economics and sociology. Their nature is qualitative and statistics is the ruling quantitative measure. Nevertheless they are useful, as we will see. They are even open to computation, although under very strict conditions. There is simply no better alternative yet. For those of you that have a holistic view on our universe (everything is related and interacts with everything) physics does not preclude such a view. In fact all forces known in physics work over distances, be it very large (for gravity that rules the movement of stars and planets) and very small (for the strong nuclear force that holds the protons and neutrons together). In our bodies the forces at work are potential differences most of them are of chemical and electrical nature. Differences in concentration and electrical charge make molecules move, react and produce energy for motion of muscles. Your body is full of small reaction vessels with thousands of chemical reactions going on right now.

Systems have dynamics, systems have dead time or inverse response behavior, systems are non-linear, knowing that, be prepared to wait for some response before taking the next action, be prepared to stick to a solution even though the system responds in the wrong direction and be prepared to change the magnitude of the action based on the systems state. To know about system behavior simply apply small stimuli and look for system the responses. But be aware that the magnitude of the stimuli is very important. If it is too small the system might not respond at all. If it is too large it might destroy the system. Also apply a single stimulus at a time in order to properly correlate inputs and outputs.

Stabilize systems before optimizing them. People are eager to go for optimality first. Only with perfect knowledge of the system to be optimized a control recipe for the inputs can be calculated. If this knowledge is not there and only qualitative models are available applying a control recipe does not guarantee the required outcome. The essence is to get feedback and fine tune the inputs. Take your time to learn the system and get it to the desired state.

Let me explain about bottlenecks and constraints. In order to reach a particular equilibrium in a system it might happen that the inputs of the system you are controlling saturate (e.g. hit limits), or some relationships in the system cannot be changed; the result being that the envisioned equilibrium is not achieved. This is what we call a bottleneck or constraint. You all know them: lack of money or credit to satisfy your material needs; lack of stamina to run a marathon; speed limits that prevent you from getting to a meeting on time; lack of qualified personnel to get the job done; being unsatisfied with your looks. Bottlenecks are not only part of your personal life; companies, governments and all artifacts produced by men are subject to bottlenecks and constraints. Foremost the laws of physics impose constraints we have to live with. Then there are social constraints like law and religion that are self imposed and intended not to allow all desired (personal) goals to be achieved. In order to identify and resolve a bottleneck you have to know the system and how the goals can be influenced by inputs; you need a causal model of the system. You can decide to buy a cheaper item that also satisfies your needs; you can exercise or take drugs to build stamina; you can decide to break the speed limit and take the risk of a speeding ticker or take an alternative and faster medium of transportation; you van hire personnel from Accenture; you can decide to have your teeth straightened as I did. All come at cost or a risk at cost and all have possible undesired side effects. And there is always the other choice, accept the bottlenecks and relax your expectations. To put it simple: increase or limit the driving forces; change the rules that govern the system or find new causal relationships that influence the goals.

Important to remember is that systems in a force field will go to an equilibrium state that corresponds to the lowest possible potential energy in that field. And also remember that energy is needed to distort that equilibrium. This also applies to the body. The body is an open system under constant attack from all sorts of energy sources and chemical potentials. Think of radiation, extreme heat or cold, height, speed, bullets, heavy metals, toxics (either directly digested or produced by microbes and viruses). All these can damage the body and distort the bodies equilibrium. Sometimes the attack comes from the inside in the form of auto immune diseases or cancer. For some of these attacks the body has built in feedback mechanisms that try to keep the body at a healthy equilibrium state. Our immune system takes care of most attacks by viruses and microbes very well. Health is the bodies favored internal state and it is doing a good job in maintaining it as most of us are ill only every now and then. The body renews itself constantly. Old cells are destroyed and replaced by new ones using the design plan in the bodies memory: its DNA. However it comes at a costs: it needs energy and the proper chemicals to keep that order. If the built in mechanisms are not able to maintain the order (lack of energy of proper chemicals, or the lack of feedback loop) we humans have the ability to reflect on our health equilibrium and use models and action to restore health. Doctors can perform surgery, prescribe medicine, and apply therapy to restore the desired equilibrium state. It’s a feedback control model external to the body using knowledge about the body available in a doctor’s memory or other sources of knowledge accessible to him.

Another interesting insight I gained during my work is that many tasks performed by professionals in different disciplines share the same tactics to achieve a particular goal. The tasks of diagnosing and repairing a defect car by a mechanic is in an abstract way no different than the task of diagnosing and curing a sick patient by a medic. Both look for symptoms, both set up a list of hypothesis, both perform tests to eliminate or confirm a hypothesis and both ‘repair’ the defect. The difference is in the description of the subject at hand. Causal models play an important role since they are the relationships needed to link root causes to symptoms. The task of design is no different for a drug designer or a chip designer. They both have a design objective, usually a set of specifications to be met by the end product, a set of basic elements that can be put together using  particular production method and are faced with general constraints imposed by the laws of physics. If the design not seems to feasible (the products produced do not meet the design objective) they have to reconsider the basic elements and production methods and come up with new ways to get results. Again the tactics are the same, the difference being to domain (and the available models describing it). The task of control in its basics is not different for a president running a country, a house wife running a household or a thermostat controlling the temperature of the house. All have goals,  measure their performance and take corrective action if the goals are not met and keep repeating this sequence to maintain on set point. Again the approach is the same, the description of the subject differs.
The message I want to convey is that being confronted with a problem in a particular field, look towards other fields for how problems are solved. Replace the description of the other field’s domain with the domain description in your field and get the problem solved.

After having introduced you to various ingredients and recipes I’d like to present you with some simple meals to give you some more food for thought.

Now that all ingredients and recipes are presented I’d like to serve some meals that I prepared using them. They are based on my own experiences and things I read about in books and papers.

The simplest example I can think of to explain feedback control is a house and its central heating/cooling. The system considered is the house bounded by its wall and roof and the state variable to be controlled is its living room temperature. The main disturbance that influences this temperature is the outside temperature that will influence the heat losses through conduction, radiation and convection. If you leave the system to itself it will follow the outside temperature, warm in the summer and cold in the winter, its natural equilibrium. Active feedback control is necessary to maintain the temperature at a comfortable level, . For that there is a thermostat, a small device that measures the temperature, looks at the setpoint entered and gives a command to the central heating/cooling to take action (manipulating the heat flows into/from the house) if measured temperature and setpoint deviate. The feedback is negative and this way the temperature can be stabilized, the thermostat will take care automatically if sufficient energy is available and the heating and cooling capacity is large enough to cope with the disturbance.

The body is full of built in feedback control. Because of that a natural equilibrium state (most likely healthy) can be maintained despite the fact that there external and internal forces at work that threaten the bodies equilibrium (disturbances to the body system). This equilibrium state is called homeostatis. It’s a characteristic of living organisms, they keep a particular level of order, nature has conceived mechanisms that produce and obtain necessary energy and molecules, direct any disorder out of the system and to not let it in at the first place. Let me name a few examples. The body temperature is controlled by the hypothalamus which keeps it at 37 degrees Celsius by managing the heat flows produced and lost by the body. The glucose level in the blood is controlled by the pancreas excreting insulin. The water and urea level in the blood in maintained at a constant level by the kidneys. Hunger, thirst are signals to start looking for food and water. Hormone level regulate very important processes in the body, as fertility, . Adrenaline makes you exceed your normal physical capabilities when the body gets excited. The immune system maintains a ‘zero’ level of alien life (bacteria and viruses) in our body. If it measures or identifies any intruders is starts producing antibodies that attach themselves to the foreign organisms which are then labeled to be destroyed by white blood cells. All simple but very efficient feedback control. Some feedback mechanisms are based on interaction of chemicals and do not involve the brain, some of them rely on brain activity.

If these mechanisms are disturbed themselves (dysfunctional organs, DNA defects, immune deficiencies, wounds) that’s when we don’t feel healthy. Part of these problems can be handled by the body itself but if the magnitude of the damage is too big we have to resort to external feedback control to get the body back to its healthy state. That’s where medicine kicks in with treatments like operations, medication and therapy. By the way, your own feeling of healthiness is a very important measuring device. Trust it, listen to it. Over time your mind has produced a very precise definition of your personal health. Any deviation will produce pain or an uncomfortable feeling. Those are signals to take action. As an example I’d like to tell you about my wife who was diagnosed with breast cancer 3 years ago. After a successful operation, breast reconstruction and radio therapy she’s close to where she was before the disease at least from a physical health perspective. Now you would expect MRI imaging or at least mammography to be performed every 6 months to monitor any changes in the body. Well, not anymore in the Netherlands. The treating oncologist simply talks to the patient about how they are feeling. They use the patient’s own health image to decide if and which measures are to be taken. Preventive monitoring using MRI can either give false hope of cure (nothing irregular to be seen) or a unjustified feeling unrest and of and fear (something irregular has been seen) that needs further investigation.

Another example of feedback control is related to my own body. After I was hit by a mini stroke last may I was prescribed blood thinners to reduce the chances of a thrombosis. For that a particular level of carbasalaat is to be maintained in the blood. If I were to stop taking medicine the body would get rid of the carbasalaat driving towards its natural equilibrium state. It’s the bodies internal feedback loop that is disturbed and activated by the medicine that gets in the system. So in order to maintain a particular level of carbasalaat in my blood I have to constantly take medicine to change the natural equilibrium into a new one where the amount of carbasalaat driven out by the body is equal to the amount of carbasalaat taken in. There is no measurement there, no explicit setpoint, only basic knowledge of how the body works. Interesting is that the amounts determine the level and the level determines the amounts. If the body can handle it, a new equilibrium will be found.

The causal model for a mini is of interest too. Its qualitative of nature but gives insight into the mechanisms that play a role and points towards root causes and thus can be used to generate hypothesis, perform tests and diagnose and come up with fundamental solution of the medical condition. Let me explain.

Now lets talk about how beauty fits in this model. There is a very famous saying about beauty: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And that’s a very true statement. Beauty is a personal and therefore subjective act of classification of a visual or audio phonic sensation. This does not mean that beauty cannot be approached objectively. Implicit to any classification is a reference to compare the newly interpreted sensation to. Now psychological research has shown that people share comparable references when it comes to beauty. These references are culture dependent, can be influenced and change over time. Some aspects of beauty are universal: symmetry, order, conformity, rhythm. Usually it’s the opposite that is felt: aspects of asymmetry, disorder, non conformity and randomness are considered not to be beautiful. There are particular bodily features that make people beautiful. And this beauty can be influenced. We can change the way we look. Products from beauty companies and services from plastic surgeons and dentists are available to create the desired beauty. Again a feedback loop at work. The set point being your desired look which deviates from the measurement being the actual look (the image in the mirror) and the control model being the vast arsenal of products and services available to change your look. Real beauty comes from within however and it shows on people’s faces. If you feel good and healthy it’s easy and natural smile, your eyes shine and that’s beautiful. It’s hard to do that if you don’t feel healthy.

Climate change (and controlling it) is an interesting subject. The system concerned is the earth, humans excluded, the state of interest its average temperature and the input to the system is CO2 produced by humans though burning of fossil fuels. That’s what IPCC researchers and politicians want us to believe. CO2 as the sole source for an alleged temperature increase. Of course there is a radiation pressure to CO2. More than a century ago made calculations on the back of an envelope based on a very simple model that came close to the numbers produced by very detailed model run on supercomputers presently? Why is the IPCC not taking into account water, the strongest green house gas there is? Clouds have a crucial impact on the earth’s heat balance and they are not very well understood. How can we predict the future of climate with any degree of reliability if we are not able to predict the weather next week accurately? When we run the models backward in time or start the models at different initial conditions at different times the match is gone. The more detail, the more parameters available for fitting. Weather changes the climate and the climate changes the weather, it’s the input producing the response with the largest time constant and largest attenuation we should be looking for. I think that’s the sun and its position in the milky way and that’s outside of our control.
But why to control it anyhow. The earth’s climate has never known a long lasting equilibrium. Should it get too cold next decade, must we start producing CO2? I think we are doing the right thing for the wrong reason, saving energy is a good thing to do. It is valuable; it is the basis for our current welfare, wellbeing and health. Since we know how to use produce energy and chemicals, the world has been able to provide a good life to more people than ever before and we need energy to keep it that way. I we run out of it the human race will go back to the equilibrium we had in the Middle Ages. And that’s not a pleasant prospect.

Computability

I’d like to conclude with a my view on the future of science. I think computers are going to play an increasingly important role in science. Even nowadays computers are an enormous help when it comes to performing particular tasks. They outperform humans when it comes to repetition, faultlessness and computational speed. Be it in design, control, prediction or data analysis. There are however prerequisites to the computability of problems humans face. In order for a problem to be computable a quantitive model of the problem at hand should be available. It means that de system that is subject of computation should be described in mathematical equations that relate the various state variables of the system. The best models available today are the ones based on first principles from physics, like mass and energy balances, thermodynamics, hydrodynamics, electrodynamics and relevant force fields. Not only mathematical equations are relevant, also the value of parameters and initial values of the variables in the system should be known. Then there is the issue of mapping the equations to computer code that is not trivial. The algorithms used should be suited for the problem at hand and should be efficient in terms of use of computer resources like memory and CPU, the computer code should be error free and the size of the problem, generally related to the number of variables in the system should fit the computer’s memory.

When it comes to computing processes in the human body the challenges are threefold: the mathematical modeling, determining the proper values of parameters and the computational size of the problem. On the first two challenges science is helped by continuously improving measuring techniques that allow monitoring (sometimes in real time) what actually happens inside and in between living cells. These measurements and the first principle models from physics are the basis for creating mathematical models and determining relevant parameter values. The computational challenge that is directly related to the size of the system that is subject of research is addressed by continuously improving algorithms, computer speed and memory size. With smarter algorithms, faster computers and larger memories, larger systems can be simulated in more detail. There are no limitations to this evolution except the limitations imposed by the laws of physics. As time evolves and more and more knowledge is gained and better algorithms and computers are developed more and more processes in the human body will become subject to computation. Instead of a trial and error approach, these models can help to design drugs and develop therapies and contribute to the wellbeing, health and beauty of humans. There is concluding remark to be made here: feedback and models are key in achieving and maintaining equilibrium. Thank you for your attention, I hope you’ve enjoyed the food.