Bring Back the Mind

*Please note that this is not written by a qualified physician. Please see your doctor before trying anything suggested here.*

We are plagued by mental disorders. Alzheimer's is the 6th leading cause of death in the US. More than one million Americans suffer from Parkinson's. All in all, about 26.2% of adults in America have a mental disorder of some sort. But what if we could cure them and reverse them using stem cells?

List of Mental Diseases. The more people it affects, the larger the text. Image Credit: alzcare.org

There are some promising studies for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and other disorders. However, we need to dig into some philosophical issues first to see if this is even possible.

Imagine that you have a ship (we'll call this ship #1), and that you are asked to build the same ship. You measure all the dimensions and using new planks, build an exact replica (ship #2). The question: Is ship #2 a different thing than ship #1? We'd probably say yes.

Now imagine that you have ship #1, and rip out a few old planks and replace them with new ones. You rip some more out, and replace. You continue to do this until you have replaced all the planks with new ones. The question: Is the ship the same thing as it was before?

This is called the Ship of Theseus Paradox and has been debated for years. How does this relate to mental disorders? Imagine each plank represents a neuron. With age and diseases, you may need to "rip out" some of these malfunctioning neurons and replace them with new ones (stem cells).

The point is that it is not the physical matter that makes us special. It is the way it is organized. The design of our brain is what is important, not the actual atoms that make it up. Atoms can always be replaced: design can't be.

This clarifies what stem cells could do. When you have a neurodegenerative disorder, your neurons die, and are gone. The saddest part though is that the design is lost with them.

But there is hope. When we learned to walk, we had to organize our neurons so that we could walk. When dogs (who have lost the ability to walk) are implanted with stem cells, they too again have to learn have to walk. Stem cells are the physical matter, and with training, we can organize them properly. We can restore the design by learning.

This means that your grandpa and grandma may have lost their smarts. However, with stem cells, they can re-learn them. In fact, not only could they re-learn them, but they could also get better because they have fresh neurons to tackle the problem.

© Nicholas Shah and Learning More Than Living, 2013. Please note that the material included this was not written by a licensed medical professional. Therefore, please consult your physician before trying anything suggested in this article. Please note that there was an image used from alzcare.org. This blog does not claim ownership of that image. Nicholas Shah does not claim ownership to the ideas put forth here. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Nicholas Shah and Learning More Than Living with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Thank You.