So, Bruce Lipton’s name has been brought up twice around me in the last week.  Someone posted a youtube video of a ten minute interview with him this morning.  More or less, he’s got this idea that our attitudes can make huge changes to our bodies down to the level of gene expression.  

Of course, I should probably look more into what he has to say, but so far it seems pretty clear that he’s lost touch with reality…here are my complaints based on this interview.  Before you berate me, note that I haven’t had a chance to read more into this guy, but I plan on it after this hellish week of finals.

First, he defines epigenetics very poorly.  I would have failed developmental biology and genetics if I used his definition.  Yes, it’s a complex and highly variable method for controlling gene expression, but he somehow attributes the nervous system to be the only player running the show.  Simply not true.  Take a developmental biology course and you’ll quickly learn this.  There’s a whole lot more going on there.  Not all of it understood, but that’s ok- people are working on it.

He talks about the immune system like we don’t understand anything about the intricacies of Major Histocompatability Complex and other methods our bodies distinguish our cells from others.

Any undergraduate studying biology should roll their eyes at the way this guy talks about biological science.  At this point, I am convinced he’s avoided staying up to date on the primary literature because his wild ideas wouldn’t hold up to what we know.

Lastly, I wonder if he’s read much of the literature about limitations on the strength of the placebo effect.  Once again, I highly doubt it.