Every second of every day, countless repair crews work quietly throughout your body. 

DNA is copied.

Proteins are built.

Damaged cells are repaired.

The immune system searches for abnormal cells.

Most of this happens without our ever noticing.

Occasionally, however, a biological misfire escapes detection. That is when medicine is asked to join the repair crew.

The Complexity of Life

The complexity of life continues to be one of the great wonders of medical research. Thankfully, life’s secrets do not need to be fully understood for life to emerge, flourish, and often endure without our fully understanding how it all works.

The wonder of life inspires curiosity and has fostered extraordinary scientific research.

The numerous medical strategies for assisting in healing are too vast to summarize within this brief report. However, a few examples of normal cellular processes that repair and protect our bodies are identified within to explain our knowledge of the function of cell mechanisms; this is only a small part of human biology, in reality. 

The reader should appreciate, there are an abundant number of biological mechanisms, i.e., the circulatory system, neurological system, endocrine, hormonal, skeletal and so forth. Think of all of the specialists you must select from when you go to a doctor. Our bodies are really still built beyond our comprehension!

Various Cell Mechanisms

Overall, our cells divide, DNA copies, proteins build, and systems work in harmony within our bodies. At each and every level noted, our bodies are built to repair and protect all cells through quality control systems and immune surveillance. 

Thousands and thousands of papers are available explaining the cell.  Scientific literatures, journals, conferences, funded research projects, and professional societies focus regularly on cell research, and hold meetings to communicate their increasingly new knowledge of such each year.

One remarkable example is the the Human Protein Atlas, an international research project that maps proteins within human cells (https://www.proteinatlas.org/humanproteome/subcellular ) . Given the 200 or so types of cancer this project assists in identifying, with great specificity, the probable antigens which may be utilized to treat a particular cancer through modification of T cells, (CAR-T therapies) (Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell) which seek out, attack, and destroy the cancer cells that carry the target protein.

Think of CAR-T therapy as retraining the body’s own immune soldiers. Doctors remove a patient’s T cells, teach them to recognize cancer cells by giving them a new “GPS system,” grow millions of these enhanced cells, and return them to the bloodstream, where they hunt down and attack cancer. It is one of the most promising examples of precision medicine because the treatment is custom-made for each individual patient (TC).

When I was first diagnosed, I discovered this Project and could follow their research on basically a Table on one page. Now their tracking of all of the proteins within cells covers multiple Tables and many pages of reporting from scientists and practitioners around the world.

Personally I am still searching for those proteins within my cell that they may identify so that I may utilize such in my own understanding. Over the years I have had genetic testing, genomic testing, and molecular testing. I am frustrated each and every time my reports mark my biological tissues as “indeterminate” or “unknown”.  I often ask for additional biopsies so that current research practices may describe my particular biological misfires more precisely. If researchers someday identify the key biological target within my own cells, perhaps another repair crew will be able to join those already working to keep me healthy.

Our Repair Crews

Simply stated our repair crews, within our bodies consist of: DNA repair, protein building, immune surveillance, disease detection, and quality control systems.These repair systems fix the errors found, or remove the affected cells, disrupt the affected pathways, re-wire or create new or alternative pathways, and so forth through the remarkable accuracy and resilience of the human body.

These processes for repair and protection correct most of those intermittent biological misfires. However, sometimes the misfires escape detection. Sometimes defective cells are not found and continue to live and divide and cause various diseases within the body. Consider:

• Misfires occur.

• Repair crews usually succeed.

• Sometimes they fail.

• Medicine helps.

As for my own status, one might say that my necessary repair crew has yet to be discovered. I am maintaining the status quo without a change in status. While I wish I may learn more about my own system, I do believe that through a variety of personal choices I do have a repair crew operating within my own biological system. I must have, or I would be deceased by now.

Finding Persistent Misfires

These intermittent biological misfires are a normal part of living. Our bodies are built with tremendous redundancy. Most misfires are evidentially detected and silently corrected. A few persist. Very rarely. A few defective cells may exist within our bodies and accumulate. These are not a failure-this is the complexity of life. My own life is one example.

Medical science has developed numerous noninvasive strategies to search for misfires through blood tests, x-rays, ultrasounds, MRI, CT scans, PET scans, robotic surgeries, and interventional radiologies. Such are utilized regularly to find misfires, diagnose such, and begin medical treatments.

Biology Versus Emotion

Our biological systems are amazing, silently working throughout our busy lives. They are mostly ignored until a routine annual exam, an accident, or illness emerges.  We go to our doctors as we are instructed to do and then, often as a surprise, we discover A MISFIRE!

Your emotional response to the discovery of the misfire is my focus within these papers.  As they say, LIFE HAPPENS.  It is what you do in life that matters.

It is how one responds to the unexpected, or surprise event in life that is my interest and motivation in speaking with you.

As I noted in Part Two, what I am observing during my life is that many of our responses to health problems, in particular to a diagnosis of cancer, for example, is the response of FEAR.

Fear is a natural response, but it does not have to become your guide.

Fear can narrow our thinking and make it more difficult to weigh our options carefully. You might use the analogy “frozen in fear”.

If your doctor discovers that your “misfires” are persisting, then that means that your natural repair mechanisms, or your “repair crew” can not handle the job at that moment.  

NOTE: this does not mean that the misfire does not have a solution. It simply means that your body’s natural systems are overrun. Your body needs external assistance.

Finding Joy Through Medicine

Medical scientific research has uncovered numerous clinical practices to help you at this point. These discoveries are amazing. Medical science is beyond your greatest expectation I would imagine.

The available clinical practices are simply too numerous to describe, and increasing every day for your benefit.  If we use our child analogy I referred to earlier, medicine today is like going to a candy store for the child.  There are many choices.

This status of the medical professions today should not make you feel fearful, on the contrary, you should feel joyful!

Modern medicine now offers treatments, and often multiple treatment options, for an extraordinary number of diseases that once had few or no effective therapies. I see and hear about all of the wonders of our current medical practices.  Please feel free to share your own experiences with me, as well as others.

As I conclude this particular paper, I wish for you nothing but the best outcomes! I do hope that my suggestions are helpful for you. 

This world of ours is a world of wonders.  Look up. Look around. Be grateful for your life. 

Be happy and calm your emotions. Use music. Use art. Read. Share your medical journey with the patients you meet in the waiting rooms. Journal your joy. Explore the world around you.  Do not let fear make your decisions for you, as you begin an amazing medical trip from illness back to health.

In gratitude, and hoping for your peace of mind.

# gratitude ultra

Note: In the next section (five) we will focus on various factors such as aging and chance that may also influence your biological findings in addition to cell misfires. As you begin to think ahead with me ask yourself: Why do some misfires persist while others disappear?

Building Our Vocabulary: Can you define or explain each of the terms?

Intermittent biological misfires

Repair crews

Persistent misfires

Silent repairs

What I Hope You Remember

• Most biological misfires are repaired silently.

• Our bodies employ remarkable repair crews every day.

• Sometimes a misfire persists despite those repairs.

• Medicine often becomes an extension of the body’s own repair crew.

• Fear is natural, but it does not have to guide our decisions.