Page 18 - Spring 2019 Journal

Interestingly, the group that received meat “showed more leadership skills” (tinyurl.com/y26ufhgb). Is that why the powers-that-be keep pushing meatless diets, so that no lead- ers will emerge in the next generation to rock the status quo?
NOT THE ENEMY AFTER ALL
Remember when “high” cholesterol levels were public enemy number one? Then they found out that high-density cholesterol (HDL-cholesterol) was “good,” so to maintain the fiction that cholesterol is bad, we started hearing about the villainous low-density cholesterol (LDL-cholesterol). Now it turns out that LDL is not a bad guy either. A review headed by Uffe Ravnskov and just published in The BMJ online looked at thirty cohorts with a total of over sixty-eight thousand elderly people. In 92 percent of the participants they found an inverse association between all-cause mortal- ity and LDL. In other words, the higher your LDL, the less likely you were to die. Something to tell your doctor when he pulls out his prescription pad for a statin (bmjopen.bmj. com/content/6/6/e010401).
SECRETS OF LONGEVITY
Canadian Lillian Sharples just celebrated her one hundred seventh birthday. Lillian is known for her sense of humor and keen mind. She drove a car until age ninety-four and still plays a weekly game of bridge. She says she’s had a “few” drinks over the years but has never smoked. When asked the secret to her long life she answered, “I think I have arrived here by the grace of God and the next best thing is cod liver oil” (Renfrew Mercury, February 15, 2018).
CRISPR TECHNOLOGY—A BLUNT AX
Current techniques for genetic modification are sloppy and imprecise—resulting in many unwanted changes to the DNA. Scientists and investors are pinning their hopes on a new generation of genetic engineering techniques called CRISPR (which stands for Clusters of Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). Marketing materials have com- pared the CRISPR technology to a pair of sharp scissors. According to one puff piece, “CRISPR technology is a simple yet powerful tool for editing genomes. It allows researchers to alter DNA sequences easily and modify gene function. Its many potential applications include correcting genetic defects, treating and preventing the spread of diseases and
improving crops” (livescience.com/58790-crispr-explained. html). But scientist and Harvard professor George Church, one of the developers of the CRISPR technology, is having second thoughts. At a recent medical conference, he called CRISPR a “blunt ax.” “It’s called editing,” he said, “[but] I think it’s really genome vandalism” (tinyurl.com/yxgxvre9). Church proposes four other types of gene editing systems that might solve the problems they are seeing in CRISPR (such as making edits to a genome far away from the target site, resulting in “unintended alterations”). Of course, these methods will require similar hype to attract investors and are equally likely to disappoint. Eventually the world must come to the realization that the only solutions to our health and agriculture problems lie in good nutrition and wise soil husbandry.
CRISPR BACON?
Speaking of CRISPR, scientists claim to have created a leaner pig using the CRISPR technique. The genetically altered pigs have a higher body temperature and thus burn more fat and produce leaner meat. The researchers were looking for a way to provide pig farmers with animals that would be less expensive to raise and would suffer less in cold weather; the leanness was an unexpected side effect. But hello? Normal pigs survive cold weather because they are fat! In the U.S., the pork industry uses a chemical called ractopamine to keep pigs from becoming fat. The drug is banned in most of the rest of the world because research has linked it to lowered reproductive function, birth defects and increased disability and death in the animals. We predict that the FDA will show interest in the CRISPR pig as a way to phase out ractopamine. No one knows what effect eating lean CRISPR bacon will have on human beings because no research has been done (tinyurl.com/y9qh5mwo).
SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MODEL?
One claim for genetic engineering is that the technology will come up with cancer cures. Of course, that will not happen, but belief in the possibility led to a very interesting statement in an April 2018 report, entitled “The Genome Revolution,” which Goldman Sachs prepared for investors. The author, Salveen Richter, vice president of Goldman’s research division, worries that gene editing might actually eliminate disease, and that would not be a good thing. “Is
Caustic Commentary
16 Wise Traditions SPRING 2019