Regarding Feruchemy...

[Steelheart]

If I have a fever, could I start storing Warmth in a Brassmind, would it break the fever? Same thing with a case of someone on fire - could they transfer that heat to the Brassmind and not get burned? (Sorry if this has alrady been asked....)

[The One Who Connects]

I don't think you could actually prevent being physically burned, but the heat could be transferred. It may have been mentioned as a way to avoid heat exhaustion as some point, though I haven't the faintest clue where

[Savanorn]

I assumed it was sort of only internal body heat that was stored. 

So if you had a fever you could indeed store the heat to make yourself feel better. . . But it wouldn't break the fever because as soon as you stopped storing it would pop back up. 

 

 

[Spoolofwhool]

3 hours ago, Steelheart said:

If I have a fever, could I start storing Warmth in a Brassmind, would it break the fever? Same thing with a case of someone on fire - could they transfer that heat to the Brassmind and not get burned? (Sorry if this has alrady been asked....)

You could, but it would completely ruin the point of the fever. When you're sick, your body starts a fever to raise the body temperature in order to kill the virus/bacteria causing it. The fever breaks when the body deems that the virus/bacteria is gone and returns to normal. If you store warmth while you have a fever, you would stop the fever, but would still stay sick. I imagine in might actually be better to tap warmth when your sick in order to kill the sickness more quickly, though you would have to make sure you don't start doing extra damage to your body from the heat. 

[Yata]

If Brass Feruchemy follows the same rules of other Feruchemical Abilities. You will probably recive some amount of heat resistence while tapping a Brassmind. Not immunity but some help to resist it.

If this is true be a Firesoul (if I remember right the name) is the best Feruchemical defence aganist infection or a lot of disease....where the gold doesn't work very well.

Edited September 13, 2016 by Yata

[Spoolofwhool]

6 hours ago, Yata said:

If Brass Feruchemy follows the same rules of other Feruchemical Abilities. You will probably recive some amount of heat resistence while tapping a Brassmind. Not immunity but some help to resist it.

If this is true be a Firesoul (if I remember right the name) is the best Feruchemical defence aganist infection or a lot of disease....where the gold doesn't work very well.

Gold burns off disease as well. I believe it was stated that Miles never got sick.

[Yata]

7 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

Gold burns off disease as well. I believe it was stated that Miles never got sick.

Probably because he was always with a surplus of Healing. Every infection was destroyed before he can actual develops...Probably Gold may heal also the diseases but you need much more than other uses.

Wayne said the Gold-Healing doesn't work very well with disease (i think it's because the disease itself is another living being and resist a bit the Invesisture)

[Kingsdaughter613]

Actually, he was talking about a cold. Colds are caused by viruses which are ... weird ... to say the least. It's possible they go inert when tapping gold, which also heals the damaged cells. But once they're 'dead' they no longer register as a threat, so gold doesn't get rid of them. 

We need information on bacterial infections. Also autoimmune diseases, and cancers. I think gold healing should heal cancer, but not an autoimmune disease. and then there are genetic disorders... That one would really depend on one's cognitive image I'd think.

in all cases actual damage should be healed, but whether or not the illness returns... Adding to the questions to ask Brandon if he EVER comes anywhere near  NY.

[Savanorn]

1 hour ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

Actually, he was talking about a cold. Colds are caused by viruses which are ... weird ... to say the least. It's possible they go inert when tapping gold, which also heals the damaged cells. But once they're 'dead' they no longer register as a threat, so gold doesn't get rid of them. 

We need information on bacterial infections. Also autoimmune diseases, and cancers. I think gold healing should heal cancer, but not an autoimmune disease. and then there are genetic disorders... That one would really depend on one's cognitive image I'd think.

in all cases actual damage should be healed, but whether or not the illness returns... Adding to the questions to ask Brandon if he EVER comes anywhere near  NY.

Well, if gold can heal soul damage I'd imagine it could heal cancer or autoimmune disease.

Unless you viewed yourself as fundamentally diseased. Take Renarin's spectacles for instance. 

Like, if you were a diabetic I'd imagine it'd heal that too, but maybe you'd have to keep healing it. 

[Kingsdaughter613]

The thing with an autoimmune disease is that 'technically' nothing is wrong. The white blood cells just think various important organs are enemies. You don't want to get rid of your white blood cells and antibodies, but I don't see how gold healing can convince the immune system that harmless things are not threat. A simple thing would be to find out if you could heal an allergy with gold.

cancers are caused by mutated cells. Gold should be able to fix that easily. Genetic diseases are caused by a more wide scale version, where most or all cells contain a mutation. I think this one might be able to be fixed if the individual does not view the mutation as a fundamental part of them. I'd still want to clarify though.

it should be able to cure diabetes. After all, it just undoes the damage to the pancreas. The genetic factors would likely remain.

biggest question is regarding a fetus. How does one count an unborn child? Part of the mother or not?

And what effect would healing have on medications? Contraceptive medication works by altering the natural cycle. What would happen if gold 'fixed' things by restoring natural hormonal balances? "Do not use gold feruchemy while taking progestin. Use of gold feruchemy while taking progestin may cause ovulation to resume. This may result in pregnancy." I am sooo looking forward to the modern day trilogy... I want to see how this is addressed.

[Savanorn]

55 minutes ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

The thing with an autoimmune disease is that 'technically' nothing is wrong. The white blood cells just think various important organs are enemies. You don't want to get rid of your white blood cells and antibodies, but I don't see how gold healing can convince the immune system that harmless things are not threat. A simple thing would be to find out if you could heal an allergy with gold.

cancers are caused by mutated cells. Gold should be able to fix that easily. Genetic diseases are caused by a more wide scale version, where most or all cells contain a mutation. I think this one might be able to be fixed if the individual does not view the mutation as a fundamental part of them. I'd still want to clarify though.

it should be able to cure diabetes. After all, it just undoes the damage to the pancreas. The genetic factors would likely remain.

biggest question is regarding a fetus. How does one count an unborn child? Part of the mother or not?

And what effect would healing have on medications? Contraceptive medication works by altering the natural cycle. What would happen if gold 'fixed' things by restoring natural hormonal balances? "Do not use gold feruchemy while taking progestin. Use of gold feruchemy while taking progestin may cause ovulation to resume. This may result in pregnancy." I am sooo looking forward to the modern day trilogy... I want to see how this is addressed.

A fellow science kid appears?

I more mean that if gold is health and autoimmune disease is a disease (which it kinda is, but with an issue with the cause) like, for example, if you were a type 1 diabetic and you burned gold, not only would your islet cells be healed but your immune system might stop targeting them, because a 'healthy' system shouldn't work that way.

But, I would think that allergies could be healed by gold by a similar rationale, as a 'healthy' system shouldn't be that way.  

Importantly I should note that I am taking this in the context of gold based healing for diseases to be difficult but not impossible, so maybe an autoimmune disease or allergy would be even more difficult. I mean, at the higher level of gold-based compounding Miles didn't even need to breathe. 

So, essentially, at some level gold is a sort of panacea 'soul healing' mechanism rather than one that engages a specific individual (or series) of physical regenerative pathways. 

We agree on cancer which I suspect is for the same reason, genetic damage that can be healed by cancer. 

To expand on what I said abut diabetes, my understanding is that if you were a diabetic with a load of glucose and ffa in your system, your pancreas would still be smashed hard so you'd go through the typical phase of healthy to insulin resistant to frank diabetic unless you healed regularly. For a compounder this is easy, but for a Bloodmaker it'd be a little more of an issue. But, I feel that was essentially what you meant. 

I would guess that an uncomplicated pregnancy would be healed, that is, remain healthy whilst a troublesome one (such as an ectopic one) might be terminated. 

 hahaha, that's an awesome point. 

I don't think it'd effect menstrual cycles, I mean, people still age on gold and they are part of the natural system. 

However this might depend on how the woman views herself and her cycles, I'd imagine that a day into a period a woman could potentially tap gold to quickly remove the endometrial tissue (like Wayne and his back burn) and regenerate a new layer, essentially cutting short a period and jumping right ahead.

I'd be interested if a woman who needed say...an egg donor was given an unkeyed goldmind if she could restore her store of folicles.  

Actually, I'd be pretty interested in how a Hundredlives-style compounder or Bloodmaker's conditioning response would work.

Usually post-exercise muscle damage results in inflammation and increased biochemical signalling, such as AMPK activation in speed and endurance based feats, which drives increased mitochondrial biogenesis, or uses different mechanisms (like myostatin downregulation) to enhance muscle growth post strength based training. 

If you regenerate this post exercise damage, would you regenerate with hypertrophy or without?

My gut says without, you're 'cheating' and you should be restored to what you were before the damage, not where you could be.

But, using the evidence, you'd get the gains, we see this with Kaladin getting fitter despite using stormlight, albeit unintentionally, to heal and enhance his performance and I'd guess that if gold is healing it should heal the damage in the best possible way, so jump right into hypertrophy. 

Hah, there's probably better uses for gold compounding than a slight increase in gym gains though. 

 

 

Edited September 14, 2016 by Savanorn

[Kingsdaughter613]

I think gold and illnesses depend on the root cause. So some would heal and some won't. 

I believe gold healing actually cleans out the system, so all the excess glucose etc. would be removed. If the damage to pancreas is also healed then the person would no longer have diabetes, but the factors that cause it may remain so they would still be at risk of getting it again later. Ditto with some forms of cancer that have genetic causes. And it just occurred to me that removing the mamaries as a preventive wouldn't work... Nor would many other elective surgeries! And a compounder who acts like Miles probably couldn't even get past the first incision.

I doubt gold healing would normally effect a cycle, except perhaps to to regulate them. What I meant is that taking a hormone to prevent ovulation isn't the normal way a body functions. Gold healing might restore the bodies natural rhythms and cause ovulation. Which, if you are using progestin, is probably not what you want!

Another question of the same vein: many medications actually are types of toxins. Assuming you can't heal a virus at all, would trying remove the medication from the body?

I don't know how babies count spiritually. If they are part of the mother then healing should heal the infant. Since an ectopic pregnancy is just in the wrong place I'd think the healing would simply move the baby back to where it should be. In a non-viable pregnancy it would probably speed along the natural abortion process. A medical abortion would probably be 'fixed' in this scenario, if healing occurred to soon. If the baby is NOT considered part of the mother then healing during pregnancy would either not effect or eliminate the fetus.

I am really curious about this, largely because women's health is seldom dealt with realistically in fiction. It's either ignored, or used for laughs or drama. Since the next trilogy is supposed to have a female hacker as a major character in an 80s setting, I really want to see this dealt with. Failing that I'd at least like to get some answers...

 

[Savanorn]

Actually that's a really good point. Take an oral contraceptive pill, burn gold and you'd probably be fertile again. Makes perfect sense. Guess it is prophylaxis again. 

 

Hrmnm. 

I'm going to agree with you on glucose and ffas, mainly because I don't think Miles got exhausted from his feats either which he ought to have. Plus..if he didn't need to breathe and that implies the TCA cycle can then function independent of its most important input -oxygen- so he probably doesn't need mere glucose or acetyl CoA. 

Yeah. 

Really cool. 

I wonder if one could use mental gymnastics like Vasher to use gold to give them an optimal form. 

Finally, on medicine in general, I'd suspect you are right on. Burning gold would almost have to remove it for cases like chemo or atropene or digoxin. They are out and out poisons. 

I'd feel it'd be outweighed by the positives though. Like I can't imagine burning gold would be less effective than medicine.

However, I just had a thought, virus require cells to replicate and by healing this cells you ought to be able to purge them. Maybe why Wayne mentions the difficulty is because you'd have to tap gold for a long time. Long enough for the virus to die in the body without cells to coopt?

The only hitch here would be if gold is unable to remove things from the body. That is if it can only regenerate. I forget have we seen someone use it to heal poison before?

[Spoolofwhool]

21 minutes ago, Savanorn said:

The only hitch here would be if gold is unable to remove things from the body. That is if it can only regenerate. I forget have we seen someone use it to heal poison before?

In Alloy of Law, the butler poisoned Wayne and he tapped gold to get over the effects. So it does appear that it can purge foreign objects from the body. 

22 minutes ago, Savanorn said:

I wonder if one could use mental gymnastics like Vasher to use gold to give them an optimal form. 

Probably. How the gold heals you depends on how you view yourself cognitively. If you know about realmatic theory and how it applies to gold feruchemy, you could use gold to modify how you look or are physically. 

[Savanorn]

Smashing, top work spool. Have a delicious upvote.

[Kingsdaughter613]

It also removes things you don't view as toxins, like alcohol. Wayne complains about this. There are cases where you would want medication to remain in the body, such as a sleeping pill, or anti-depressive. So gold healing could be problematic in those cases.

I believe the shapeshifting caused by healing is limited in scope. I also think it's actually quite hard to do.

It's more likely that you'd heal back to your view of yourself. So if an athlete gone a bit to seed still views himself as fully fit he'd probably heal back to his previous form. The question for me is if it goes the other way too. (Someone who has gained some muscle but sees themselves as weak losing fitness levels.) You'd have to change your view of yourself to alter appearance and I doubt that's that easy. 

[Savanorn]

1 hour ago, Kingsdaughter613 said:

It also removes things you don't view as toxins, like alcohol. Wayne complains about this. There are cases where you would want medication to remain in the body, such as a sleeping pill, or anti-depressive. So gold healing could be problematic in those cases.

I believe the shapeshifting caused by healing is limited in scope. I also think it's actually quite hard to do.

It's more likely that you'd heal back to your view of yourself. So if an athlete gone a bit to seed still views himself as fully fit he'd probably heal back to his previous form. The question for me is if it goes the other way too. (Someone who has gained some muscle but sees themselves as weak losing fitness levels.) You'd have to change your view of yourself to alter appearance and I doubt that's that easy. 

Hzmm. 

I feel like a lot of this might be one of two things. 

Like, it is either deeply reliant on the subconscious. 

Or it would require very advanced mental control. 

So in this model a theoretical manipulation of the body, analogous to that performed by Vasher, would be like those ridiculously skilled monks who can halve their metabolism and try clothing in the snow. 

[Kingsdaughter613]

Vasher doesn't really change his appearance. He suppress his divine breath, but the appearance he takes on then does not appear to vary much between appearances. So his non-Returned from is likely how he views himself. When his Divine Breath is not suppressed he looks like a Returned, but Returned appearances have a lot to do with how OTHER people view them, as well as how they view themselves.