Physician, Heal Thyself

[coldjwplay]

Apparently experiments on mice have shown that scarring is all in the genes [link]. To quote from the article:

Biologists believe that a gene called p21 may hold the key to spontaneous healing, which could allow limited regeneration of the human body, as witnessed in newts, flatworms and the hydra. [Yes, at first I thought they meant the Lernaean

Comments

[aster13]

I think that self-harmers will have different motivators and methods etc - so i think that might discourage a small subgroup, but i am reasonably sure that many self harmers would be very pleased to reduce or remove their scarring and evidence of their self-harm.
Unfortunately, i think it would vary individually as to whether this would encourage or discourage further episodes - i suspect the net effect would be fairly neutral.

I'm not sure if this regenerative capability would extend as far as full scale repairs on disease or injury damaged organs (any idea?) - it would certainly be very interesting if that were possible!

[coldjwplay]

The effects are on a cellular level - and the skin is just a type of organ, remember - so I would be surprised if the effects weren't internal as well. This would be very useful in diseases like Crohn's Disease, where scarring of the intestines is one of the major symptoms and aggravating factors.

The one exception I wouldn't be surprised by would be the brain, since this method appears to work by allowing normal regeneration to function without retardation (i.e. the anti-tumorous retardation resulting in scarring), but the brain doesn't regenerate at all ever anyway. In other organs a degree of regeneration (and scarring) do take place. I suspect that this would be a good thing, too, as it would mean that our brains weren't jeopardised by the process (what if your brain "regenerated" a section that had memories or even motor functions in it?).