Gene Therapy is Helpful or Harmful to Human being?

Imagine the impossibility of gene therapy. More than one gene defect has been associated with cystic fibrosis and retinitis pigmentosa. Would gene therapists propose replacement of all of these genes, at any cost? How would new genes be implanted into a recessed organ like the human eye? Researchers propose using viruses as carriers or vectors for new genes. Yet these viruses are problematic in themselves. The recent death of one patient in a gene therapy experiment, where viruses were used to inject new genes in place of old ones, may cause drug companies to back away from further research. 

Do genes control disease?

With a map of every human gene, maybe the course of dreaded diseases could be altered. But there are severe limits as to what gene therapy could ever hope to accomplish. Despite all the hype over biotechnology, gene therapy has cured no human disease to date. 
In Britain, geneticists are attempting to create a race of cancer-free babies. Even though defective dominant genes are responsible for only 2 percent of cancer cases, and even the existence of these genes does not assure the baby will develop cancer, the geneticists are analyzing eggs that have been removed from the mother and fertilized by in vitro fertilization. What the reporters don’t say is that the “cure” is to end the life of the embryo, which it is only 6 to 10 cells in size. Thus the cancer is prevented. It’s just another form of abortion! 

More can be accomplished with diet and lifestyle modification than with gene therapy. Even though considerable evidence shows that exercise, diet and other lifestyle factors reduce the incidence of adult-onset (Type II) diabetes, scientists continue to search for a genetic link to the disease. 

Can genetic disorders be altered, or are they inevitable? 

Can genetic disorders be modified by nutritional factors? Yes. Hemophilia is corrected by supplying a missing blood clotting factor. Various congenital malformations of glands can be overcome by supplementing with the hormones produced by these glands.
Misplaced priorities
Mankind is taking what it doesn’t know, and saying it holds great promise, while ignoring what it does know. The fact is, most people in the world don’t die because they have bad genes; they die prematurely because of foul water, poor sanitation, poor quality or quantity of food. Why spend billions of dollars on mapping the human gene pool, the benefits from which have yet to be proven, when the money could be spent on controllable factors in our environment that will readily improve the status of public health?

THE DANGERS OF PORK-EATING

Pork-raising has come to be one of the great industries of this country; and since the supply is wholly regulated by the demand, it may be taken as a proper index of the prodigious quantities of swines flesh which are daily required to satisfy the gustatory demands of the American people. No other kind of animal food is so largely used as pork in its various forms of preparation. The Yankee makes his Sunday breakfast of pork and beans, while the same article is a prominent constituent of at least two meals each day during the remainder of the week. Pork and hominy is almost the sole element of the Texan farmer; while in the Western States pork and potatoes constitute the most substantial portion of the farmers bill of fare. The accompanying dish may be hominy, beans, or potatoes, but the main reliance is pork in each case.
In the case of no other animal is so large a portion of the dead carcass utilized as food. It seems to be considered that pork is such a delicacy that not a particle should be wasted. The fat and lean portions are eaten fresh, or carefully preserved by salting or smoking, or both. The tail is roasted; the snout, ears, and feet are pickled and eaten as souse; the intestine and lungs are eaten as tripe or made into sausages; black pudding is made of the blood; the liver, spleen, and kidneys are also prized; the pancreas and other glands are considered great delicacies; while even the skin is made into jelly. In fact, nothing is left of the beast, not even the bristles, which the shoemaker claims. Surely it must be quite an important matter, and one well deserving attention, if it can be shown that an animal which is thus literally devoured, and that in such immense quantities, is not only unfit for food, but one of the prime causes of many loathsome and painful maladies. Let us examine the hog a little, and see what can be determined respecting his real nature, and his office in the economy of nature, if he has any.

Garlic equal, or superior to, penicillin

Garlic is another natural antibiotic mentioned frequently in the Bible and used as an herb by Egyptian and other healers of antiquity. The antibiotic activity of garlic is considered to be “quite remarkable.” As early as 1858, Louis Pasteur tested the antibacterial properties of garlic and onion and found they killed or stopped the bacterial growth in culture dishes in his laboratory. Despite Pasteur’s findings, as antibiotic activity from mold was discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1922, and then pharmaceutical companies patented and profited from antibiotic drugs, garlic was disregarded and only considered a folk remedy for infections. History has conveniently been written to attribute the discovery of antibiotics to Fleming rather than Pasteur.
Even strongly diluted garlic preparations can kill many forms of bacteria, as well as fungi and viruses. One scientific report shows that fresh-crushed garlic can kill bacteria at a distance of 20 centimeters (about 8 inches) by its vapor alone. Compared on an equal weight basis, penicillin is 50 times stronger than allicin, the active ingredient in garlic. The antibiotic activity of 1 milligram of allicin equals the antibiotic activity of 15 units of penicillin. [Garlic, The Science and Thera-peutic Application, HP Koch, LD Lawson, 2nd edition, William and Williams, Baltimore, 1996] However, garlic kills a wider variety of bugs, and does not induce the problem of antibiotic resistance. Garlic can also be consumed as a preventive against infection, whereas antibiotic drugs can only be prescribed after an infection is diagnosed. Garlic has advantages over, and is safer than, antibiotic drugs. [Garlic, Nature’s Original Remedy, Fulder S, Blackwood J, Healing Arts Press, Roch-ester, Vermont, 1991] 
Some antibiotics work by inhibition of cell-wall degrading enzymes. Garlic was tested against two common antibiotic drugs, tetracycline and streptomycin, and found to be equally effective as drugs at inhibition of growth and enzyme production. [Hindustan Antibiotic Bulletin 37: 44, 1995] 
Aloe vera
Aloe vera, often used topically to help heal wounds, bites and burns, is another potent antibiotic in the digestive tract when consumed orally. [Economic Botany 17: 46, 1963; International Journal Dermatology 30: 679, 1991]