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The Body Electric
Personally, I'm sure we can get the human heart to mend itself. As a
result of being confronted by this wonder in newts, I'm convinced that
the potential repertoire of living cells is absolutely enormous, far greater
than the healing powers normally manifested by most animals or even
those dreamed of by doctors. Even in the newt this "superregeneration"
doesn't appear unless 30 to 50 percent of the heart is gone. Something
about the massiveness of the injury or the approach of death then boosts
the healing process into overdrive.
I readily admit that the discovery sounds a bit like science fiction,
even as toned down into the subdued technical prose of our report, pub-
lished by Nature in 1974. I had trouble believing it myself at first.
Because it seemed so incredible, there was no rush to confirm and extend
our discovery. Today, even though our observations have been corrobo-
rated by University of Michigan anatomist Bruce Carlson in 1978 and
by Phil Person in 1979, complete with electron micrographs of the cell
changes, most biologists still don't accept heart restoration as fact. Per-
haps because the reality is so outlandish, Carlson wouldn't publish, and
Person has been unable to get his work published in the peer-reviewed
journals. Our original paper of ten years ago is still officially uncon-
firmed, and the other workers are still puttering around with little
wounds. This attitude must change. Knowledge about the controls of
this process will be of incalculable value to medicine, for this is ideal
healing. Spilled blood closes a wound at the body's center and replaces
the missing part in a few hours. You can't get much more efficient than
that.