What is the next BIG medical breakthrough?

In My Humble Opinion
1

When I was young, my mom said, “By the time you guys are old, life expectency will really be something!”

Doctors seemed to think so too. I remember an article from '87 or so about how much medicine will have improved by '07.

But where is our penicillin? Where our polio vaccine? Where our calomel? It seems the era has short-changed us.

To make up for lost time, I suggest that the following be invented tooth sweet, as the Swiss confectioners say:

Plaque-be-gone. This one unclogs your heart and unfux your brain. Plaque be gone! (If it works on the tooth too, so much the better.)

Main goal: Eliminate heart disease and most strokes.

Viromatic. This “silver bullet” immediately destroys all viri and nasti-prions in the body.

Main goal: Rid the body of most infectious disease.

Carci-byebye. Cancer “just died in your arms tonight” (“Cutting CREW”–Goldmember).

Purpose: No more cancer.

Can any Dopers develop timelines for the above. 2010? Sometime after Bush gets us to Mars? Not so soon? OK, how about after the mission is “accomplished” in Iraq? Get crackin’

Tools insulting each other:

A: You’re a hoe!
B: You’re a smart-adze!

2

Your “Plaque-be-gone” will be developed within 5 years.
Many, many research companies are going with this approach.

Alcohol softens plaque, aspirin reduces irritation at the attachment points, and many chemicals with “soapy” ions seem to attack the attachment areas. Some chemicals act as solvents to simply dilute the plaque, and some act as destructive forces to break the lipid chains. But so far only in vitreo.
But it can’t be long.

This is a much simpler problem than cancer, because cancer has more in common with living tissue we want to remain intact.

3

Two general areas of breaththroughs are coming out: Stem cells and chronic infections.

Stem cell research is going to have huge payoffs. It will finally solve a lot of cancer mysteries. Most cancers seem to involve stem cells that have gone haywire. A lot of treatments kill their progeny, but don’t work too well on the stem cells themselves. Once they figure out out to attack the stem cells, treatments will radically improve.

Plus there’s the other stuff: tissue regeneration, fixing organs, curing diabetes and a host of other diseases. Major stuff. The overseas medical companies will make a fortune on this. The US companies are toast unless somebody wises up.

As to chronic infections, many diseases are now suspected of being caused by chronic infections. Look at what has happened with stomach ulcer treatment. And since plaque was brought up, a lot of blood system problems leading to artery and heart problems might be caused by chronic infections. Cure the infection, and half of all heart attacks are prevented.

Just about every major system of the body probably has common diseases caused by chronic infections. We’re just at the beginning of understanding this. Once the agents are identified and vaccines produced, it will be a whole new world. Give a kid a shot and he’ll never get a couple forms of diabetes.

4

I agree with FTG. Stem cell research and super-antibiotics are going to be the big stories in the coming decade. Too bad we have such narrow-minded people calling the shots on stem-cell research. We could be part of the wave that will undoubtedly change medicine – and our lives – in ways we can only imagine.

Antibiotic research is equally important. The bugs that we cannot fight are getting stronger and stronger. A fast-moving infection can kill a person within hours. I think we’ll figure out a way to at least hold it off for a bit.

5

Where are they on developing a vaccine for caries (tooth decay)? I’ve been hearing about it for years…

6

It’s quite a bit more complicated then that. Anti-biotics, including penecilin have been so over-prescribed that viruses have developed immunities to them. The problem with your so called “super-antibiotics” is that they can have rather hideous side effects, which may well out weigh any potential positive effects.

And the human body needs to have certain viruses living in the body in order for us to survive. They play a vital role in many body systems including digestion and the immune system.

7

Major breakthroughs? How old are you Aeschines?

Lets see, how much has things changed in medicine since the mid-80s? For one, diagnosing has surged. The ability to go to a doctor and get results in less than a week. I hear back in the 60’s and 70’s you had to wait an upwards of two weeks for your culture or whatnot to get back from the lab.

Organization- computers have changed medicine. Few computers were availible in the 80’s even in hospitals. Networking was small, if available at all. Now a days, a persons entire medical history can be called up in a few seconds, medicine history can be cross referenced and caculations can be done that would have taken days to gather and consider. This certainly has allowed doctors to take on more patients.

Surgeries- many new surgeries have been made possible or more availible in the last 20 years.

Understanding- The genome has been decoded, we have a wider database of diseases and know how to slow down diseases such as HIV and treat many types of cancer.

Drugs- Breaththroughs galore! Years ago, we didn’t even have Cephelexin, just penicillin. If you were allergic to penicillin you were screwed. I could not even list how many breakthroughs in drugs itself that have come about in the last 15 years. Many more than just penicillin.

You really can’t compare us with the past. The present is built upon the past. Without the discovery of penicillin, we might not be where we are, it is hard to say. However, there have been many, many more drugs that have impacted our lifes just as much or more than penicillin has ever done. It is just that the pace of medical technology has increased at such a huge pace that you simply don’t hear about them. By the time some new discovery is put in the papers, a new one is surfacing, another major new breakthrough. After the 100th major, super duper breakthrough, we just kind of tune them out, and the papers aren’t going to print it, because we don’t care anymore.

8

Oops, forgot to state what I think the next breakthroughs will be:

DNA computers- up to 100,000 times faster than conventional computers, these miniture powerhouses will be used to diagnose cancer and other conditions. These things will be able to do complex caculations, allowing us to create on the spot “designer” medicines tailored to an individual. No more one size fits all attitude of modern pharmacy. (it is getting better though) These things are fast, but very limited in what they can do, many think that medicine is what they could do best.

Stem cells- From everything to growing teeth, hair and new hearts, these things will revolutionize medicine. No need to take another person’s kidney and then give the recipient drugs that destroy their immune system, we will use their own DNA to tailor make a kidney that will not get rejected. So much is possible with these it is frightning, but they do seem to offer near-limitless possibilities.

Record keeping: This is really possible today. Small chips can be implanted into a person just underneath the skin, which can be read by equipment that doctors will have. They will contain all the medical records of that person. Drug allergies, medications, treatments, which organs have been replaced, what set of teeth you are currently on, etc, etc. There are security issues invovled, but ways have been considered in which the output is so small, one would have to be within several inches of the chip with the device to read it.

Implants: Why bother replacing our eyes or ears with ones that were just as good as before? Why not make em better? Optical implants in which a GUI can connect directly with computer systems, allowing you to see, in 3D, IR, nightvision, television, etc, etc. Phones can be run off small implants under the pharnyx, reading the electrical activity of the muscles in the larnyx, so that subvocal commands can be relayed to a cell phone. No more loud talking, no more worry of the background noises being too loud, only your “voice” will be carried. There are many, many other possiblities with implants, and these will be seen in the near future.

I would say by 2020 most of these things will be implimented, barring a broad and quick political upheaval. That is my prediction anyhow.

9

Well, Uh…that’s why it’s the next big thing. The reason we have to make huge advancements is precisely because of the over-prescription of antibiotics. But we still have to have something to treat these bacteria. They come out with new, tougher antibiotics all the time.

And, I’m not a doctor or anything, but we don’t have permanent resident viruses…they’re bacteria. Viruses are unaffected by antibiotics. That’s part of the the problem. Doctors will prescribe antibiotics for viruses ( just to make people think they’re getting something for their $10 co-payment), and it has absolutely no effect on them.

10

I think you have viruses and bacteria confused. Viruses are entirely unaffected by antibiotics.