December 19, 2013

Have You Ever Seen A Shark With Cancer?

For a long time people have learned from the animal kingdom. 

We learn how to fly from birds, how to swim from fish, how to fight from lions and tigers, and so on. 

But an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal gave this new and expanded meaning to me. 

Researchers are now looking at animals to learn how to ward off some of the worst diseases known to man. 

For example, apparently Sharks do not get cancer, but more than that even when scientists spent 10 years trying to induce cancer in sharks, they couldn't!

Shark have compounds that actually kill tumors--WOW!--If we could learn how to mimic that in humans, imagine the death and suffering that could be prevented, and the extension and perhaps quality of life that could be gained.

Similarly, grizzly bears, which can weigh 1,000 pounds, and can eat 58,000 calories a day, put on 100 pounds or more in the weeks right before they hibernate for the winter, yet bears don't suffer from routine ailments of obesity, such as diabetes, heart attacks, and strokes. 

Not that any of us want to be 1,000 pounds, but imagine if heavy people did not get all sorts of diseases from clogged arteries and the like.

While heart disease and cancer each accounts for 1 out of every 4 deaths in the U.S. and are the top two leading causes of death--how amazing would it be if we could not only "talk to the animals, walk with the animals..." but also fight disease like the animals? ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)
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