The Battle between the two heavyweight, mailbase titans has begun. I don't have clue what Korobov was writing about, but found it interesting anyhow. Let's see what Dr Mel reply is. Will he or will he not outsmart Dr Korobov?... Stay tuned folks! Isaac -----Opprinnelig melding----- Fra: Stanislav A. Korobov [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sendt: 9. januar 2001 19:49 Til: [log in to unmask] Emne: Re: The Myth of Homeostasis As I have noted, Dr Mel C Siff likes Ilya Prigogine's works. And dislikes the notion of homeostasis. The like is understood for me but the dislike is not. As I know, the notion of homeostasis was offered in 1929 by Walter B. Cannon, an outstanding American physiologist, to describe biological mechanisms reacting to alterations of temperature and chemical state of the organism, and compensating these alterations by equal (in magnitude or functional importance) ones of the contrary direction. He implied under homeostasis those "co-ordinated physiological processes that maintain the most of steady states of the organism". He used another non-ordinary notion -- about the living organism's inner medium ("milieu interieur") -- which had been developed by another great physiologist (French), C.Bernard. The last had first pointed out that milieu interieur must be constant under any changes of the external medium. Then W.B.Cannon showed that unity and stability of the organism's milieu interieur have been maintained by the chain of complex and interrelated processes, among which the sympatho-adrenal system's function plays an important role. I think the details have been better expounded in his main-in-life book [Cannon W.B. The Wisdom of the Body. New York: W.W.Norton and Co., 1932]. It is essential to add that Prof.H.Selye created his stress theory using the notion of homeostasis as one of the key bricks. According to one of modern encyclopaedical definitions, homeostasis is "relative dynamical constancy of composition and properties of inner medium, and steadiness of main physiological functions of the organism". If so, we have been dealing with this "myth" every day, even every second. We'll die simply without this "myth". Of course, if you mean under homeostasis the absolute (with preciseness of 0.000...) and superlongterm (for centuries...) steady state, you are about a great mistake because it is definitely a "myth". However I do not think that W.Cannon meant such ideal state as a real physiological one. It seems that he offered the notion of homeostasis to provide us with a theoretical, schematic explanation of real, non-mythical phenomena. Whether the notion of skyline (the line of horizon) is a "myth"? You can really see it from your current place, you can sit in your car and go to it but you never reach it. Why that unknown man offered this notion? Because he/she had seen it and was trying to describe the world surrounding him/her. W.Cannon was a classical scientist, a representative of traditional, non-"alternative" school of medicine; he used real facts and scientifically-grounded approaches to make his conclusions. By the way, Dr Mel C Siff uses the "alternative health professions" term in his "The Myth of Homeostasis" e-mail. In this relation, I always remember the Prof.D.S.Sarkisov's article named "Medical Science and Pseudoscience" (unfortunately I have it in Russian only) published in "Magnetology" Journal (Vitebsk, Belarus') in 1991 (#1); a truncated version -- in "Physician" Journal (Russia) of 1990 (July). There is such marked phrase in that article (in my translation to English): "... such terms as 'non-traditional', 'alternative' medicine and similar ones ... are meaningless since only sole medicine exists -- scientific -- and, therefore, the its alternative may be only pseudoscientific medicine... ". I tnink W.Cannon was also trying to describe scientifically that state, which our organism is aimed at in order to be healthy, to live eventually. And he had made his description splendidly. We cannot exist without our tending to this state, without our relative (nothing is absolute!) successes in its reaching. Is the ABSOLUTE homeostasis of the living organism a "myth"? Certainly -- yes. And we, as practicians, are rather not needing in it. Is a RELATIVE homeostasis of the living organism a "myth"? Definitely -- no. And our main aim (as practicians, again) is to do so that our "living patient" would be as close as possible to this state! In this case he/she will be in the most healthy of all imaginable his/her states. Nota bene again: homeostasis is a RELATIVE DYNAMICAL constancy! Is this a "myth"? No, it is a reality. I would say that the ABSOLUTE homeostasis of the living organism is its death while a RELATIVE homeostasis of the living organism is its life. By the way, since the death of the living organism is also reality, then such "deathly" ABSOLUTE homeostasis is not a "myth" too. It seems to be very real as from all REAL view-points! Dr Mel C Siff writes that "ideas on homeostasis are dinosaurs from outdated science of the past". I.e.: "they are doomed to die". Maybe. Will see. N.Kopernik (Copernicus) also offered ideas regarding the planets' turning that were "doomed to die" in Church's opinion, and even "prohibited" during two centuries. However, today, do you consider Kopernik's ideas as "dinosaurs from outdated science"? About Ilya Prigogine. As I know, he is a physicist and a physical chemist. Not biologist. He has achieved really outstanding results in non-equilibrium thermodynamics. His most known achievement is, propably, the "Prigogine's theorem" which he had successfully demonstrated in 1947. This theorem is following (in my translation to English): "under external conditions hindering the system to achieve an equilibrium state, a stationary state of the system is corresponding to the minimal production of entropy". This is very interesting, of course, and, perhaps, has sensible theoretical importance, but who can tell me, how is this related to the human organism or, at least, to organisms of warm-blooded animals?! Whether such relation is anyhow proved? As far as I know, Ilya Prigogine was trying, for example, to use such thermodynamical characteristic as dSi/dt (the intensity of entropy production) to describe such biological processes as aging, seasonal bird migrations and others!.. (I found a criticism of this in the A.G.Pasynskii's manual on Biophysical Chemistry of 1968; Moscow). If similar extrapolations are permissible, why not to use in physiology such abstractio ns as homeostasis? Sorry for this long letter. I understand that it is hard to read, however the topic is too difficult (at least -- for me) to write shortly. Especially, in non-native language. My best regards, Stanislav A. Korobov, MD, PhD Physician-Physiotherapist P.O.Box 7, Odessa, 65089, Ukraine [log in to unmask]