Symbiosis

A human body is composed of around 100 trillion individual cells. It sounds amazing that so many of these tiny functioning units of metabolism can produce a machine that operates so efficiently and effectively.

How do all these cells know what to do? How do they know how to relate to each other? What happens when the interrelationship begins to take a turn for the worse?

The study of the human body was influenced heavily by the application of microscopy in about 1800. Before this it was postulated that disease arose by a process of spontaneous generation, that is, by a metamorphosis independent from any other cause or external influence.

It sounds ridiculous to us today, although nothing was known of the microscopic world 200 years ago. Bacteria, viruses, ionizing radiation and carcinogens were not seen nor known.

Rudolf Virchow (1821-1902), a German pathologist, recognized that the cell was the smallest viable constituent unit of the body and manufactured a new and lasting set of ideas about disease–cellular pathology.

The study of disease could now be seen from the level of the human body and now that of the cell.

Soon after birth the surface of the skin, vagina and gut become colonized by a range of bacteria that are beneficial to the host. These are called commensal bacteria. You could say that these commensals are understood to be a part of the interrelated whole of the human body. Just like the sucker fish that clean their host, bacteria are essential for the human body. However, once the human body's resistance is impaired, these commensal bacteria can enter the tissues causing disease. During this situation, you could say that the balanced relationship between the bacteria and human host has been altered. This alteration could be due to a combination of characteristics of the bacteria and innate factors of the human host.

A cell of a human body has its own inherent metabolism. However, it is the contribution of all the cells that constitute the metabolism of the body. Without any cells, there would be no body metabolism.

It is no wonder that the harmonious functioning of all these cells is vital for a normal functioning body. Sometimes when just a single cell becomes altered it can dramatically change the whole body. This occurs in the development of cancer.

A cancer cell slowly accumulates alterations in its DNA. This can lead to new features of the cell such as immortality and evasion of normal cell death, insensitivity to growth inhibiting signals, self-sufficiency in growth promoting signals and sometimes unrestrained proliferation and eventually dissemination.

From the perspective of the altered cell(s), it may seem like it is doing no wrong. It is living better, longer and may be more fruitful. This is a disaster from the level of the human body.

The cell however does have its own life cycle and purpose of existence, it is just that the cells purpose is not the purpose of the human body.

Looking from within the (altered) cells, the logic and laws may seem unflawed. They have manipulated their state of existence to a point of complete control and self-fulfillment.

This is definitely flawed when viewed from laws beyond that of the cell, or from the perspective of the human body. The cells' characteristics have now changed and will inevitably affect their interrelationship with the rest of the body. This can be seen by tissue compression, displacement and destruction, not to mention the metabolic consequences.

The above paragraph is not quite clear in that is it the altered cell that the logic is unflawed or is it the normal cell logic which is still in place but the rules of engagement with the rest of the body has been altered.

The concept of symbiosis has been around in the world for a long time. Notably, Australian Aboriginal culture and thought has a strong emphasis on living in harmony, with land being central and even seen as an entity in its own right.

In time to come, these concepts may become more and more apparent. With the world becoming more globalised, people and countries are working more synergistically with each other. Then we will have to work more in balance with the environment, and eventually more in balance with the laws of nature and the universe. We may need to achieve a perspective which goes beyond that of our own. Beyond an objective that is our own. Perhaps one that corresponds to that of the larger metabolism.