slyseal28 said:How do you cure a gene?
Well, you just asked the million-dollar question.😁
The cold truth is that you can't just "fix" a bad gene once it's there. However, if we look at the long game, medical science is working toward a future where we can use IVF to modify an embryo's genetic makeup, hopefully scrubbing away those predispositions to various diseases before a child is even born.
Think of it this way: having a genetic predisposition isn't a guaranteed death sentence; it’s just a loaded gun. It doesn't mean you'll definitely get sick during your lifetime. What interests me far more than the genes themselves are the "triggers"—those environmental factors that act like a match to a fuse, igniting that faulty gene and kicking off abnormal cell division, which leads to things like cancer. Smoking, for instance, is one of those massive triggers, along with several other high-risk lifestyle choices. Of course, the baseline genetic predisposition still plays a heavy role in how easily that fuse is lit.
The whole genetic landscape is incredibly complex. For a bad gene to actually manifest as something like cancer, the odds skyrocket if you inherit that specific defect from both sides of the family tree. We're talking about a cumulative effect—if you have close relatives on both your mother's and father's side who suffered from the same issue, the statistical probability climbs significantly (and I suppose that pattern can stretch out to distant cousins too).
It's a grim reality that we are living witnesses—and often victims—of various harmful manipulations of the human body, including our reproductive cells. Radiation, for example, can wreck the very genetic structure held within an egg or sperm cell. When fertilization occurs involving one or both of these compromised cells, children can be born with degenerative issues. These might not always be glaringly obvious at birth, but these kids become carriers of a degraded genetic code that is inherently prone to further mutations in future generations.
Genetic disorders can also stem from much less "radical" causes. Quite often, even a relatively minor benign illness can damage reproductive cells enough to result in offspring with genetic defects.
On the flip side, exposure to negative radiation or the ingestion of free radicals—essentially toxins—can damage a cell so severely that it goes haywire and begins dividing uncontrollably in a malignant fashion, even if the gene itself wasn't initially broken.
Chemotherapy and radiation work by nuking malignant cells, essentially stopping them from dividing and spreading their mutations throughout the body. Regarding your question about relapses and the likelihood of them returning, we've touched on this here recently, and regardless of what the genetic profile looks like, my stance remains unchanged.
To put it bluntly and simply, that's the extent of what I know.🙂
