The sound of health.

Giamila Fantuzzi

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2014.00351

Abstract

THE SILENCE OF HEALTH “Health is life lived in the silence of the organs” wrote the French surgeon Rene Leriche in 1936, a concept later adopted and further developed by the physician and philosopher Georges Canguilhem (1). Albeit certainly resonant with the experience of health defined as the state of well being perceived by an individual, this concept is less valid when health is evaluated in terms of physiological homeostasis. Here, I will introduce the notion that healthy cells are actively involved in signaling for the presence of health, as contrasted to the widely accepted concept that stressed cells send out messages indicating lack of health. I propose that, although true at the level of human beings feeling the state of their own health, Diderot’s view that “When we are well, no part of the body informs us of its existence” (2) does not apply to the physiology of cells, tissues, organs, and the body as a whole.

Highlights

THE SILENCE OF HEALTH “Health is life lived in the silence of the organs” wrote the French surgeon René Leriche in 1936, a concept later adopted and further developed by the physician and philosopher Georges Canguilhem [1]
Albeit certainly resonant with the experience of health defined as the state of well being perceived by an individual, this concept is less valid when health is evaluated in terms of physiological homeostasis
I will introduce the notion that healthy cells are actively involved in signaling for the presence of health, as contrasted to the widely accepted concept that stressed cells send out messages indicating lack of health

Summary

Introduction

THE SILENCE OF HEALTH “Health is life lived in the silence of the organs” wrote the French surgeon René Leriche in 1936, a concept later adopted and further developed by the physician and philosopher Georges Canguilhem [1]. I will introduce the notion that healthy cells are actively involved in signaling for the presence of health, as contrasted to the widely accepted concept that stressed cells send out messages indicating lack of health.

Results

Conclusion