Lewis Coleman
I am a board certified anesthesiologist with some 40 years of experience in California. My goal is to inspire professional reform and advance in the field of anesthesiology, and introduce improvements in the care of critically ill patients.
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Soon after Selye published his theory, the discovery of DNA inspired great excitement in medicine and biology. Many believed that the secret of life was at hand. It was widely anticipated that the stress mechanism works closely with DNA to enable embryological development, because the DNA mechanism by itself does not explain this. DNA would then resume quiescence, but the stress mechanism would remain active to maintain and repair mature structures. These powerfully simple ideas inspired an intense international search for the stress mechanism that lasted 30 years and consumed hundreds of research careers, thousands of test animals, and millions of dollars.
Stress researchers proposed two important theories to facilitate their research. Capillary gate theory postulates a submicroscopic mechanism that governs capillary blood flow and provides a superior explanation of hemodynamic physiology. Tissue repair theory postulates a single mechanism that governs tissue repair. Unfortunately, the two theories seemed incompatible. The era of stress research produced numerous important scientific advances, but no clue could be found to the existence of testable mechanisms that could confirm either capillary gate theory or tissue repair theory, let alone a single mechanism that explains both.
Selye’s ideas were never refuted, but the search for a mechanism of tissue repair was mostly abandoned after 30 years of fruitless effort. Since then, the DNA paradigm has dominated biological research. DNA has revolutionized genetics and criminal justice, but it has failed to explain either embryological development or adult biology in complex life forms, and there is growing frustration with the lack of theoretical progress in the biological and medical sciences1, 2.
Now, 60 years after Selye’s original prediction, fresh evidence from unrelated research has enabled the first crude description of the long-sought “Stress Repair Mechanism” (SRM) that maintains and repairs the vertebrate body. It closely resembles the “coagulation cascade” that appeared during the heyday of stress research, but fresh information enables the SRM to provide detailed explanations for hemodynamic physiology, hemostasis, and tissue repair, while the coagulation cascade provides only a crude description of clot formation. The SRM incorporates both the capillary gate and tissue repair theories in the form of semi-independent sub-components, each of whose activity exaggerates that of the other. This enables the SRM to focus its powerful effects to maintain and repair tissues, and explains how it generates a bewildering variety of dynamic effects. Its appearance explains the Cambrian Explosion, and it provides fresh insights to embryology and evolution. It enables Selye’s Unified Theory of Medicine that encompasses cohesive new theories of physiology, pharmacology, stress, tissue repair, anesthesia, analgesia, allostasis, atherosclerosis, amyloidosis, apoptosis, angiodysplasia, angiogenesis, anaphylaxis, capillary hemostasis, coagulation, edema, inflammation, fever, malignancy, metastasis, eclampsia, diabetes, hypertension, infarction, congestive heart failure, rheumatoid disease, Multi-Organ Failure Syndrome (MOFS), Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), asthma, influenza, pneumonia, and sepsis. The SRM thus fulfills all the predictions and expectations of the previous generation of stress researchers. Stress theory is thus poised to complement and rejuvenate the DNA paradigm, and inspire a new era of productive research and pharmaceutical development.
Soon after Selye published his theory, the discovery of DNA inspired great excitement in medicine and biology. Many believed that the secret of life was at hand. It was widely anticipated that the stress mechanism works closely with DNA to enable embryological development, because the DNA mechanism by itself does not explain this. DNA would then resume quiescence, but the stress mechanism would remain active to maintain and repair mature structures. These powerfully simple ideas inspired an intense international search for the stress mechanism that lasted 30 years and consumed hundreds of research careers, thousands of test animals, and millions of dollars.
Stress researchers proposed two important theories to facilitate their research. Capillary gate theory postulates a submicroscopic mechanism that governs capillary blood flow and provides a superior explanation of hemodynamic physiology. Tissue repair theory postulates a single mechanism that governs tissue repair. Unfortunately, the two theories seemed incompatible. The era of stress research produced numerous important scientific advances, but no clue could be found to the existence of testable mechanisms that could confirm either capillary gate theory or tissue repair theory, let alone a single mechanism that explains both.
Selye’s ideas were never refuted, but the search for a mechanism of tissue repair was mostly abandoned after 30 years of fruitless effort. Since then, the DNA paradigm has dominated biological research. DNA has revolutionized genetics and criminal justice, but it has failed to explain either embryological development or adult biology in complex life forms, and there is growing frustration with the lack of theoretical progress in the biological and medical sciences1, 2.
Now, 60 years after Selye’s original prediction, fresh evidence from unrelated research has enabled the first crude description of the long-sought “Stress Repair Mechanism” (SRM) that maintains and repairs the vertebrate body. It closely resembles the “coagulation cascade” that appeared during the heyday of stress research, but fresh information enables the SRM to provide detailed explanations for hemodynamic physiology, hemostasis, and tissue repair, while the coagulation cascade provides only a crude description of clot formation. The SRM incorporates both the capillary gate and tissue repair theories in the form of semi-independent sub-components, each of whose activity exaggerates that of the other. This enables the SRM to focus its powerful effects to maintain and repair tissues, and explains how it generates a bewildering variety of dynamic effects. Its appearance explains the Cambrian Explosion, and it provides fresh insights to embryology and evolution. It enables Selye’s Unified Theory of Medicine that encompasses cohesive new theories of physiology, pharmacology, stress, tissue repair, anesthesia, analgesia, allostasis, atherosclerosis, amyloidosis, apoptosis, angiodysplasia, angiogenesis, anaphylaxis, capillary hemostasis, coagulation, edema, inflammation, fever, malignancy, metastasis, eclampsia, diabetes, hypertension, infarction, congestive heart failure, rheumatoid disease, Multi-Organ Failure Syndrome (MOFS), Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS), asthma, influenza, pneumonia, and sepsis. The SRM thus fulfills all the predictions and expectations of the previous generation of stress researchers. Stress theory is thus poised to complement and rejuvenate the DNA paradigm, and inspire a new era of productive research and pharmaceutical development.