It can be seen that coping with various non-communicable diseases (NCD), including cancer, maintaining and promoting health, adapting to the environment and giving full play to human potential all belong to the category of human health engineering.
At present, the main goal of human health project is to solve the NCD problem, and on this basis, further develop and integrate various factors conducive to the return of health, and make contributions to more comprehensive and in-depth medical reform.
Definition and connotation of human health engineering
The preliminary definition of human health engineering is: it is an understanding and method of treating human life (respecting human beings themselves) based on system theory, and it is a systematic engineering with people as the center and the goal of maintaining and improving the stability level of human system. Its connotation is not limited to engineering technology, but an open synthesis of humanities and technology. Specifically, it can be described as: "human life is an open and powerful self-organizing system, which has the self-organizing adjustment function of spontaneously moving towards the goal of orderly structure, reaching a healthy physical and mental state and adapting to environmental variation, and the self-organizing function of the body when it is sick is reflected in the self-repairing function of eliminating pain; All chronic diseases, including cancer, stem from the steady-state imbalance and instability caused by long-term overload stress response, so chronic diseases are a partial embodiment of the overall imbalance; It is an effective way to deal with chronic diseases by cutting off the stress source of overload, changing the state of physical and mental disorder into a state of coordination and rebuilding the self-organization function. "
It can be seen that coping with various non-communicable diseases (NCD), including cancer, maintaining and promoting health, adapting to the environment and giving full play to human potential all belong to the category of human health engineering.
At present, the main goal of human health project is to solve the NCD problem, and on this basis, further develop and integrate various factors conducive to the return of health, and make contributions to more comprehensive and in-depth medical reform. The specific contents of current human health projects are as follows:
3. 1 Life is an open and powerful self-organizing system.
Mr. Qian Xuesen put forward the "system engineering theory" by combing the quantitative system engineering methods abroad in the practice of starting the rocket, missile and space industry in China. On this basis, he creatively put forward the concept of "open complex giant system" for the whole natural science problem, which pointed out the direction for the development of system engineering theory from engineering system engineering to the whole objective world, including humanities, thinking science, social science and other new scientific systems. Mr. Qian Xuesen pointed out many times that the life system, especially the system of people with advanced psychological activities, is an open and complex giant system.
As a self-organizing system of an open complex giant system, the human body is open. It is precisely because the human body system exchanges material, energy and information with the surrounding environment, absorbs ordered energy from the environment, and discharges the disordered energy generated by the system during metabolism to the environment. The disordered energy in the system can be expressed by entropy. Therefore, although entropy will be produced continuously in the course of life, the premise of system opening makes the whole system a process of decreasing entropy and increasing orderly energy. When the order in the system can reach a certain level, the system will spontaneously change into an orderly state in time, space and function, resulting in a new stable and orderly structure. This is the self-organization of life, which is also called the dissipative structure of the system in academic circles.
German theoretical physicist H. Haken believes that organizations can be divided into two categories: heteroorganization and self-organization. If a system forms an organization through external instructions, it is another organization; If there is no external instruction, the system automatically forms an orderly structure according to some tacit rules, which is self-organization. Self-organization phenomenon is ubiquitous in nature and human society. The stronger the self-organizing function of a system, the stronger its ability to maintain and generate new functions. He further proved that as a self-organizing system, there must be a "destination point" or "destination ring" of system change. In a system with self-organizing behavior, when the system obtains ordered energy from the environment, the direction of the phase space in the system changes with time, which is the "end point" of the system. No matter where the space starts, the system will eventually reach this "destination point" which represents the ordered structure. The "target ring" of the system means that the ordered structure of the system is not fixed under more complicated conditions, but oscillates repeatedly with time, that is, there is a closed ring in the phase space, which is the "target ring" of the system. The key point of this purposeful behavior in the system is that the subsystems that make up the system spontaneously produce an orderly structure, that is, self-organizing behavior, through their nonlinear interaction and cooperation under certain conditions. A system with this behavior is called a self-organizing system, and the subsystems in the body are organized in an orderly manner and go to a coordinated "destination". This "invisible hand" is the "order parameter" in the self-organizing system.
If we can really find the specific "order parameters" existing in the self-organization system of the body and make proper use of them, it will play a key role in human health and eliminating diseases. From the perspective of human health and disease, the self-organization function can be summarized as the following three aspects:
⑴? The function of keeping healthy
In each period of human life, the subsystems in the body should move towards the orderly state of each period of life, which is reflected in the healthy state of perfect function and structure in each period of life. This is the embodiment of the function of self-organizing system to move to the "end point" spontaneously in maintaining health.
⑵? Self-organization to adapt to environmental changes
As early as the19th century, Bernard, a famous physiologist, put forward two environments of life, one is the ever-changing external environment and the other is the relatively stable internal environment. This relatively constant function of the internal environment is the primary condition for the survival of organisms. This should be the initial self-organizing description of life's adaptation to the environment. Cannon further expanded Bernard's point of view and put forward the "settlement theory" Cannon's point of view is that when the body is disturbed by internal and external environmental factors, the body can coordinate the activities of various organs and systems through complex negative feedback regulation mechanism and maintain a relatively stable state. This is the self-organization of the body to adapt to environmental variation. The author believes that the self-organization of human body to environmental variation is staged and multi-level. From the stage of adapting to the environment, the function of adapting to environmental variation is self-organizing at first, and then the structure enters the stage of self-organization. The self-organization of organizational structure behind this actually belongs to the stage of rebuilding organizational structure.
In addition, the self-organization of human body adapting to environmental changes has different levels and different properties according to the degree of body reaction. It can be roughly divided into physiological self-organization and pathological self-organization Physiological self-organization refers to the reconstruction of organizational structure formed by adapting to the environment, which will not affect other aspects of life functions, thus making the body have a higher level of internal stability. It is a self-organization that promotes health and should be fully utilized. Pathological self-organization refers to rebuilding the organizational structure of organisms to "adapt" to environmental variation, but this is at the expense of other temporary "unimportant" functions of organisms. The sustained development of pathological reconstruction will gradually transform temporary minor contradictions into major contradictions and enter a state of disease. Therefore, this is a self-organizing function that should be avoided as much as possible.
⑶? When a disease occurs in the body, the self-organization function is reflected in the self-repair ability to get rid of pain.
Besides accidental injuries, diseases can be divided into acute and chronic types. Acute disease can be regarded as a reaction caused by the stimulus intensity of environmental change beyond the internal steady state range and beyond the original self-organization state of the body. At this time, if the patient's original self-organization function is within the normal range, the body will automatically start the self-repair function to restore the body to health. The occurrence of various chronic diseases in the body actually means that the self-organization function of the body is weakened. In this case, if the ordered energy (negative entropy flow) of the body is increased through various ways, the self-organization function of the body will return to the normal state, and then the self-organization function will be reflected in the self-repair ability to get rid of various diseases and make patients recover. In fact, the self-healing ability of the body to its own pain can be regarded as a manifestation of the self-organizing system spontaneously moving towards the "end point". The orderly and perfect state of the function and structure of human tissues and systems itself includes the elimination of disorder. Disease can be regarded as a disordered part of the functional structure of the body, and the process of the body reaching an orderly state itself contains the significance of eliminating disease.
3.2 Understand chronic diseases
On the basis of the above-mentioned understanding of self-organization function of life, we understand chronic diseases from the perspective of system theory, and then put forward solutions that conform to the laws of chronic diseases. Generally speaking, all chronic diseases, including cancer, are due to the steady-state imbalance and instability caused by long-term overload stress response, so chronic diseases are a partial manifestation of the overall imbalance. The concept of stress response was put forward by H.Seyle in 1946. When stressors (internal and external environmental variations) act on a life system with internal steady-state characteristics, the system will trigger the concept of General Adaptation Syndrome (gas)-the stress response of the body. N Weiner, the founder of cybernetics, thinks that the essence of homeostasis lies in the "negative feedback regulation mechanism" at different levels in the life system (the multi-level self-organization function of the organism), and then puts forward that "man is the institution to maintain homeostasis, and human life lies in the maintenance of homeostasis", and gives a block diagram describing the homeostasis mechanism of life and the stress reaction with negative feedback regulation, as shown in figure 1.
Figure 1 stress response block diagram
Many subsequent studies have proved that a series of hormone secretion reactions (sympathetic-adrenal medullary system excitation, catecholamine release, hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis activation, promoting hormone secretion and so on). In the initial stage of stress reaction, it will gradually weaken with the process of gas production and return to the original steady state. According to H.Seyle's classification idea of stress response, combined with system theory, connecting the boundary between health and disease, and according to the classification principle (stress response result classification) that has been used in the classification of hypoxia stress response, the stress response caused by internal and external factors of the body is divided into the following three categories.
⑴? Physiological stress response
Physiological stress response refers to the amount of stimulation caused by stressors within the range of steady-state regulation in vivo (surface self-organization level). At this time, although the body will also have stress reaction, it will quickly form an adaptive mechanism to the stressor, expand its steady-state adjustment range and improve the steady-state level of the system. This newly formed adaptive mechanism has actually prepared the body for receiving greater stimulation than the current stressor. It can be seen that this physiological stress response is beneficial to the overall health and should be fully utilized to serve human health.
⑵? Overload stress response
Overload stress reaction is defined according to the result of the reaction, that is, its result has gone beyond the adjustable range of internal steady state and entered a compensatory deep-seated self-organization process. At this time, the body will inevitably mobilize deep resources to make compensatory adjustments to the current main functions, give up some functions that are not very important at present, that is, the adjustment of the so-called "robbing Peter to pay Paul" nature, and enter the stage of pathological reconstruction of self-organization, which is a stress reaction that damages the whole. If this kind of injury is not corrected in time, on the one hand, the injury itself is the stress source of the internal environment of the body, and coupled with the overload stress reaction that will continue to occur in the future, the "secondary" contradiction of the body will gradually develop into the main contradiction, thus developing into a state in which the whole self-organization is out of control and unstable, leading to chronic diseases.
There are also two situations here. One is that the stress response caused by the stimulus intensity of stressors is within the physiological range. However, because the formation of adaptive mechanism is a process, it is originally a stressor within the physiological range. If the stimulation interval is too frequent, new stimulation will be accepted before the adaptive mechanism is formed, which will keep the stress response at a high level and cause stress fatigue. This is the result of the accumulation of physiological stressors, which has deviated from the essence of physiological stress response and become the type of overload stress response. The stimulation intensity of another stressor has exceeded the adjustable range of homeostasis in the body, so there is a disorder of homeostasis system.
The above analysis shows that the overload stress response is the starting factor of the overall imbalance in the future, and the continuous overload stress response is the direct cause of chronic diseases. Therefore, long-term overload stress response should be avoided.
⑶? Exhaustive stress response
When the stimulus intensity of stressors exceeds the compensation adjustment range of self-organization, the body loses the opportunity to mobilize deep resources for compensation, and the body directly enters a state of exhaustion. This is a potentially fatal stress response. From the above analysis, it can be seen that excessive or frequent stressor stimulation will exhaust the body's adaptability (excessive consumption of ordered energy in the body), which is manifested in the continuous increase of adrenocortical hormones, the imbalance of the body's internal environment, and the emergence of new internal stressors, thus promoting the steady-state system to develop in an overall unbalanced and unstable direction.
The change of lifestyle and attitude towards life and the deterioration of physical and chemical environment of life are equivalent to persistent stressors, and the overall disorder including pathological reconstruction is the result of excessive stress response of the body. On the basis of the overall imbalance caused by continuous stress response, combined with the "genetic factors" of the body itself, the body is manifested as various chronic diseases. This is the process of the blowout of modern civilized diseases (chronic diseases), and it also shows that various chronic diseases are indeed a partial embodiment of the overall imbalance of the body.
Through the analysis of the occurrence process of chronic diseases, we can draw the following conclusions: ① Modern civilized diseases are local manifestations of the overall imbalance, indicating that the formation of the overall imbalance is the fundamental reason for the occurrence of various chronic diseases, or the necessary conditions for the formation of various chronic diseases. (2) What kind of chronic diseases will happen when the body is out of balance is related to many factors, especially "genetic factors". Therefore, "genetic factors" play the role of "sufficient conditions" in the formation of various chronic diseases. ③ All kinds of chronic diseases can only meet the conditions of all kinds of chronic diseases if both "overall physical and mental disorders" and "genetic factors" exist at the same time, that is, both conditions are indispensable. Among them, "genetic factors" can be said to exist in most people and cannot be changed, while the state of "overall physical and mental disorder" is acquired and can be changed. This shows that the only feasible way to prevent and eliminate chronic diseases is to do a good job in the prevention and regulation of "overall physical and mental disorders", as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Block diagram of chronic diseases
3.3 "Human Health Project" to deal with chronic diseases
⑴? Two ways to treat chronic diseases
In order to control and treat chronic diseases, there are generally two ways: one is a disease diagnosis and treatment model with chronic diseases as the main direction; The second is to cut off the source of overload stress, change the state of physical and mental disorder into a state of coordination, and rebuild the health engineering model of self-organization function, as shown in Figure 3.
Fig. 3 Two methods for treating chronic diseases
The model of disease diagnosis and treatment with the main goal of disease diagnosis and treatment is actually a modern western medical model. This model has contributed to the control of infectious diseases that have been circulating for more than 1000 years. Therefore, in the first half of the 20th century, it developed by leaps and bounds and became the mainstream medicine that dominated the world. However, since the second half of the 20th century, people have gradually questioned the actual effect of this medical model in treating diseases of modern civilization.
At present, the threats to human health and life mainly come from diseases such as heart, brain, lung and blood vessels, cancer and NCD caused by senile degeneration. Take cancer as an example. Since 10, the global cancer incidence and mortality have increased by 22%. Nearly half a century's practice shows that, although life science has gone deep into molecular and sub-molecular level and human genome sequencing has been completed, protein's genomics, structural biology, genetic engineering drugs, gene therapy technology and even system biology are all developing rapidly, and the investment is unprecedented (Nixon's "War on Cancer" plan has invested 656,543.8 billion US dollars). However, the control and efficacy of NCD have little effect. This transcendental assumption that the hope of solving NCD is completely pinned on the molecular and genetic level of "genetic factors" is logically problematic. Someone has done a long-term follow-up survey on 90 thousand pairs of twins. The results show that even identical twins have only 3% chance of developing cancer at the same time. This shows that apart from a few rare genetic diseases, genome is not the decisive factor, let alone the only factor, but the overall imbalance and instability are the basic conditions for the occurrence of various NCDs.
The mode of disease diagnosis and treatment not only has logical problems in the effect of treating NCD, but also has great influence on the whole society, economy and medicine itself. From 65438 to 0996, Kaki, Vice President of the World Bank, said in a report on medical problems in China: "Looking ahead, the prospect is very worrying. If there is no major change in China's health care model, the World Bank predicts that it may reach 25% of GDP by 2030. No society in history can bear such a burden. " In other words, if this disease pattern continues to develop, it will also affect the social stability of China.
In addition, medical devices are becoming more and more complex and expensive, and clinical branches are becoming more and more detailed. The commercialization trend of medicine is related to the interest chain in the disease medicine model.
The above analysis shows that this mode of disease diagnosis and treatment, which focuses on diagnosis and treatment, is really impossible to have an effect on chronic disease control logically, and a new method, health engineering mode, which can control the occurrence and development of NCD must be adopted.
⑵? Human health engineering model
As mentioned above, the human health project emphasizes understanding the state and stressors of patients with various types of NCD, so as to change their state and make it stable. As can be seen from Figure 3, for patients with various non-communicable diseases (including cancer), if we can try to cut off the stressors that can cause overload stress, or try to turn the stressors that used to stimulate overload stress into physiological stimuli, and try to adjust the disorder and instability of the body to return to a steady state, in this case, the fundamental conditions for the generation of various chronic diseases will no longer exist, and various non-communicable diseases will be eliminated. This is the systematic principle that applying health engineering model to patients can effectively eliminate various chronic diseases. The actual operation effect also proves that this health care model is very effective. It can be seen that for all kinds of NCD patients, what they need more is to restore health, rather than dealing with the disease itself first.
Therefore, the only feasible way to eliminate NCD is to change the "unstable state" into a "coordinated state", reshape the self-organization function, make full use of the self-repair power of recovery, and eliminate various NCDs. This is a health engineering model.
The implementation process of the health engineering model can be simply described as a "people-centered" SIR model, which monitors (checks) the information related to the state through perception-expression; The attribute of the recognition state-represented by recognition; The current situation of conditioning makes the body move towards "steady state"-expressed by regulation. The prefix SIR of three English words is a brief description of the health care model, as shown in Figure 4.
Fig. 4 Implementation process of health medical model -SIR model
When implementing the SIR model, its content not only refers to science and technology, but also includes the combination with humanities, and it does not rule out the method that can directly eliminate the lesions without damaging the whole. The specific method should weigh the pros and cons. For endogenous stressors caused by minor lesions, the method of directly removing lesions can be considered to save the orderly energy consumption of the body.
The focus of SIR model is the "R" link, that is, the conditioning of "order parameters" in the self-organization system of organisms. Including diet, cognitive education, engineering biofeedback, red light amplitude, multi-point synchronous vibration, low-frequency gyromagnetic and other equipment. Many encouraging results have been achieved in the treatment of cancer, psoriasis, chronic altitude sickness and other [6-7] NCD conditioning experiments.
In particular, the contents of each link in SIR model can be industrialized and networked, which provides feasibility for the control of chronic blowout diseases.