Thread: Cell Renewal - Proving the Myth

I have seen it said that EVERY cell in the body renews itself every x number of years, most often it seems to be 5 or 7.

I just cant buy this thinking about issues such as scars, fractures that while they heal remain in the bones, long term diseases, conditions such as emphasima (sp?) where renewal of the cells in the lungs would theoretically bring about a cure, paralysis, finger prints, eye colour, long term memory, aging etc.

What I am seeking is credible references which prove that TOTAL renewal is a falsehood. Sure there is a great deal of change in the body but according to my preliminary googling I have already seen mentioned that the brain, spinal and nerve cells do not regenerate.

Despite constant curiosity I am not really scientifically minded so I would appreciate any guidance in referencing a rebuttal to the assertion that not one part of our body is permanent.

Renewal every 5-7 years sounds like bone, and only bone, most cells dont really do that.

As for emphysema, that's a pretty complicated disease but part of the reason its such a problematic disease is BECAUSE cells cant repair/renew themselves. (for others reading, I am aware this is mainly due to lack opposition to neutrophil elastase acitivty).

This is the baloney that I am oppossed to. I am going to try to get this Seven Mysteries of Life and see if it is better referenced than "recent studies" although somehow I doubt it. None of the biological information that I have accessed on-line about Murchie indicates that he had any scientific qualifications and it appears that he was some form of religionist or at the very least had views compatable with theological leanings.

Recent studies at the Oak Ridge Atomic Research Center have revealed that about 98 percent of all the atoms in a human body are replaced every year. You get a new suit of skin every month and a new liver every six weeks. The lining of your stomach lasts only five days before it’s replaced. Even your bones are not the solid, stable, concrete-like things you might have thought them to be: They are undergoing constant change. The bones you have today are different from the bones you had a year ago. Experts in this area of research have concluded that there is a complete, 100 percent turnover of atoms in the body at least every five years. In other words, not one single atom present in your body today was there five years ago.*


* Taken from Guy Murchie, The Seven Mysteries of Life (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1978), pp. 321-22.

www.scienceofidentity.org

Every cell and every atom in your body are different things!

What do you mean that the atoms would be replaced? What would happen to the old ones? I could understand that some cells are being replaced, by being damaged or digested first, and the products would be used for their synthesis again, but I don't believe that to be possible at the atomic level ( unless there are little quarks and electrons swimming around inside your body, waiting to be associated into other atoms!)

Look at it this way. You breathe in a bunch of oxygen which goes somewhere and gets hooked up chemically with other molecules that become part of your cells. And you eat a bunch of food. Now I don't know about you, but most days I excrete a large number of atoms. I'm fairly sure some of them were once part of me.

Originally Posted by Ophiolite

but most days I excrete a large number of atoms.

We all do...