Mathematics
My kids grew up in the age of “new math.” It was a different way of looking at algebra problems. To understand the numbers better, new math turned all of mathematics into word problems. New math required students to better “understand” what was happening, as totals and sums and elements rolled together and apart, were divided, and multiplied.
That is my version of the definition. I had trouble helping my kids because in my elementary and junior high years we just “learned it.” There was no figuring it out, we just memorized formulas. They didn’t require understanding. New math was an entirely different way of looking at math, just as algebra and calculus were a new way to look at the “cyphering” of my grandparent’s generation. The numbers have always been there, but how to approach the numbers, and to make them make sense, has changed.
My grandkids don’t know about Euclid and Archimedes and their contributions to mathematics, especially geometry. Pythagoras might be the name of a giant raptor in their dinosaur world. I’m not sure about that one. Education changes just as cultures, medical science, and languages change. They all morph. They all evolve.
Ancient Egyptians and treatises in India described the disease we would know as Parkinson’s Disease (PD) as early as 1000 BCE. Parkinson’s Disease was also described by the Greek physician Galen in 175 AD. There was no calculation of the penetrance or incidence of PD for thousands of years. Parkinson described it in 1817 and his name was attached to it fifty years later. No one had invented statistics nor measured the frequency of diseases until the last hundred years. Mathematics evolve.
Diseases
Felty’s Syndrome is the occurrence of an enlarged spleen (splenomegaly) with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). It was said to occur in ten percent of rheumatoid arthritis patients at the turn of the last century (1900). However, I treated RA for 28 years (1978-2000) and never saw a case. Felty’s Syndrome had disappeared. Nobody knows why. Scientists surmise that perhaps a “trigger” that causes RA might have changed and therefore the clinical signs of RA might have changed as a result. Diseases evolve.
Parkinson’s Disease is probably no exception. The way Parkinson originally described the disease is true enough still, but now we know of four different subsets and a couple of these appear to be more frequent in occurrence in the last fifty years. Young-onset PD, trauma-induced PD, and PD, in general, seem to be increasing, despite adjustment for longevity and earlier identification.
Statistics
I have listed my PD markers with research foundations, and in many ways, I am just the number given to me by the research entities studying the disease. My number will show up in time and I like that. I feel good about participating in research. Without research subjects, how can we identify what works better and how can we master this disease? Whatever changes in Parkinson’s over the next one hundred years will not affect me, but I am glad to be a player in the new math of research. Statistics change.
Better Math
One hundred years from now, Parkinson’s will be one of those old diseases that formerly plagued humankind. It will fall the way of tuberculosis, cervical cancer, poliomyelitis, and smallpox. Medical science will seek out the genetic markers and alter them before the disease manifests. New drugs will induce remissions and cures. A vaccine will prevent the earliest symptom. Perhaps science will identify that what we call Parkinson’s is really a generic name holding five distinct diseases. The frequency and the incidence of Parkinson’s disease will approach zero occurrences. Parkinson’s will cease to be a cause of misery and suffering just as smallpox and Felty’s Syndrome were eliminated in the twentieth century. No Parkinson’s Disease. That will be a great reduction. In all mathematics, zero times any number equals zero and that is good.
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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Dan Stultz, M.D., is a retired physician who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease 14 years ago at the age of 57. He practiced internal medicine in San Angelo, Texas, for 28 years and became the President/CEO of Shannon Health System. He served as President /CEO of the Texas Hospital Association from 2007-2014 working on medical and health policy. He served as guest faculty at the Texas A&M Medical School in Round Rock and retired in 2016. He and Alice live in Georgetown, Texas.