"J. R. Molloy" wrote:
>
> From: "Damien Broderick" <d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au>
> > If so, one might expect muscle builders to get more cancers in their
> > micro-torn tissues (but then there's also oxidative damage, of course),
> sex
> > maniacs to get testicular cancer, curry eaters to get stomach cancer
> > (assuming this ferocious stuff insults the lining and causes increased
> rate
> > of repair *without itself being mutagenic*), etc.
>
> Thank you, Damien, for the chuckle. Yes, wouldn't it be poetically
> befitting if sex maniacs were to get testicular cancer (unless there're
> female sex maniacs). How very appropriate. And, gluttons deserve to get
> stomach cancer. Hey, we already know about smokers and their just reward,
> right? Does this mean geniuses are more susceptible to brain cancer?
Not sure, studies have shown that maintaining complex writing habits
delays onset of Alzheimers, much as when weightlifters cut back on
weightlifting, they will turn to fat if not stingently dieting. As an
anecdote, my mother's father was a genius who was a publishing
executive, an engineer, and wrote, painted, and played violin till late
in life. When he gave up many of his activities to cart my injured
grandmother around, he decayed so badly in a year that he is now
comatose from Alzheimers and micro-strokes from hardened brain arteries,
while Nan is still tooling along, just slightly more dotty than she
always was.
This convinces me that the brain is most definitely a muscle.
What I think is happening is when a natural repair process is on
overdrive for so long that when the stress that creates the damage
stops, the repair process doesn't know enough to stop repairing....
Perhaps it is that with the brain, continuous highly complex thoughts
require a plasticity that needs some sort of re-enforcement such that
when it stops, the re-enforcement doesn't stop and plaques build up.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Mon May 28 2001 - 09:56:39 MDT