Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Disclaimer

Disclaimer
While every caution has been taken to provide my readers with most accurate information and honest analysis, please use your discretion before taking any decisions based on the information in this blog. Author will not compensate you in any way whatsoever if you ever happen to suffer a loss/inconvenience/damage because of/while making use of information in this blog. The author is not responsible for the accuracy of the information and content, and recommend that readers of the blog to make a thorough research on their own, in order to reach a wise decision on their own for their health.

Friday, August 9, 2013

Presentation: A New Theory on Human Physiology and Bacterial Nutrition

Following the presentation I was invited to do on July 30th, I had uploaded the video of it for others to learn and expand their mind regarding what science is describing to us.

The video is 14:30 minutes long and does not have the Q&A part to it. I may add that in the future, as there were some good questions that came up.

It is password protected.
Password is: joel87joel

A New Theory On Human Physiology and Bacterial Nutrition HD [vimeo]

Wednesday, July 31, 2013

How to make Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut Recipe


1 Cabbage (Large)
2 Carrots (Medium size)
1 tbsp Sea salt


Ceramic* Crock Pot or Bucket
Ceramic Plate (which fits inside the crockpot)
A towel
A weight


+===========INSTRUCTIONS=============+
Peel off first layer of cabbage and throw away.
Slice cabbage into strips and discard the hard core.
Place in Crockpot, sprinkle tbsp Sea salt and beat
the cabbage to extract all the juice from the leaves.
Grate both Carrots and add into the crockpot.
Place ceramic plate and squeeze downward,
until brine covers the plate and forms a barrier
between the cabbage and carrot mix with the air.
Place a weight on top of the plate to help keep
the content submerged underneath the brine.
Cover the top of the crockpot with a towel.
Best conditions for a successful fermentation
are in a room temperature of 71.2° F.
Fermentation period lasts a week in the summer.




The Community for Responsible Nutrition | Joel D. Jacobson
http://en-responsiblenutrition.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

The Bacterial Entity and the Hunger for Connection

bacterial-entity-communityOccasionally repeats itself the contemplation of our biological identity we call human, which is reflected by science as entirely ecological in nature.

Human evolution, as classical mechanics describes it, is evolution of an organism irrespective of the theory that all the environment participates in its evolution. 
 
Is it possible that animals adapted to the govern of man, at the pace man changed his way? 

Books worth Reading - Book Reviews

Here are a few books I read, that are worth reading. I will elaborate more as you read on. Keep in mind, that the order I write them in is important, so read the whole thing like it’s a review of a collection of works. It seems like each book came to me at the right moment, step by step developing a broad story. In the end of this book reviews, you will find a link to an additional article that takes the knowledge you can derive from reading these books and makes sense out of it all in the hopes to explain a high enlightening notion of mechanisms of health by natural design.


  • Omnivore's Dilemma - by Micheal Pollan
  • Gut and Psychology Syndrome - by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride
  • Full Moon Feast - by Jessica Prentice
  • Earthing - by Clinton Ober, Dr. Stephan Sinatra and Micheal Zuker


Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Omnivore's Dilemma is an extensive investigation by journalist Micheal Pollan, who describes western society's close relationship with corn. How corn depends on human hands to survive, and how our industry today is based upon corn's overabundant farming to supposedly feed the nation. Micheal goes on a journey to track down the simple fast food staple found in a Burger at MacDonald, by going to see the farms that drove the animals off the land in order to supply an excessive amount of corn, that ends up largely consumed by the animals that were driven off the land and placed instead in a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO).

In his meticulous investigations, Micheal describes the huge change in US policies that propels farms to lose their farming security and convert their operations into supplying excessive amounts of corn. This change in policy dragged many farmers into a mode of survival from season to season. There is a hunting description of the sites where the corn is gathered and the operations that hold thousands of livestock in conditions far from humane.

Nutrition isn't the concern in this book, but rather the history, advancement in technology and the practicing policies of the western civilization. The book moves on to another section, devoted to Michael's personal involvement in helping a grass farmer named Joel Salatin in his extraordinary farming design based on mimicking patterns in nature. Joel Salatin describes it as Beyond Organic, as a practice of maintaining a rhythm and cycle of growing grass as the main focus and administering livestock and poultry at the right time. Michael describes a week long adventure on Polyface farm in Virginia, and has the opportunity to supply juicy quotes from Joel Salatin and the intimate interaction with the meat that comes out of that farm.

In the Third and last section, Michael goes on an adventure of intimate explorations of a hunter and gatherer, as far as he could experience in the Bay Area and California wilderness. He debates the issue of hunting and gathering, supplying a wealth of quotes from poets and renowned writers on the subject. He makes friends with people knowledgeable in hunting and gathering, and makes his personal hunt come true and an unforgettable foraging adventure after wild and exotic mushrooms. In the end he cooks up a full meal in recognition for his efforts and gratitude for the chance to explore and share with the readers in his book.

After reading his book, the Omnivore's Dilemma, I developed a huge appreciation for his work. Micheal Pollan describes and debates an Omnivore's dilemma in western civilization. Without his work, one cannot fathom how brutal western policies are and how it has driven the healthy image of a farm far far from what it traditionally was and is pictured in most of our imaginations. Thanks to him, one can gather real information on the options a human being faces, whether to drive animals off the land and conform to a brutal governmental policy, or become a land orchestrator, with the heart and knowledge of mimicking nature as to supply a more harmonious rhythm to meat production, or take it a huge step backward in human evolution and instead just hunt for meat and gather mushrooms.

The bottom line is, you have many options to choose from, and they are equally accessible. It might only be a matter of personal education and at the disposal of those who own the skills that essentially make a way of life approachable.

Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride

Her first edition published in 1988, the book I read was the 7th edition, and somewhat up-to-date on the science relating to nutritional knowledge. The book has a clear and undeniable connection between the health of the digestive tract and chronic illnesses, specifically psychological ones. The main focus of the book is understanding digestion processes, the overwhelming connection between poor diet and the development of an imbalance in gut bacterial populations, and the best part is the in-depth guide into a protocol the doctor has developed, that has successfully sealed and healed the gut of many Autistic, Schizophrenic and Psychotic children and adults and improved their lives greatly.

The book is as simple as a guide designed to restore digestive health by eliminating carbohydrate rich food, and implementing a more traditional diet based upon meat and vegetable stocks, fermented food (primarily sauerkraut, but also yogurt and sourdough) and much more. Because the gut is home to thousands of different bacterial species and sub-species, the undeniable truth that “food controls the population” gets a deeper meaning, largely related to our personal responsibility to the state of our health. Though, due to growing psychological disorders in children, the parents are liable to the child’s health resulting from the toxic environment that their bodies are exposed to on a meal to meal basis while growing up in western civilization.

Dr. Natasha exposes you to the effect of sugar consumption. Due to sugar being an easy source of food for opportunistic bacteria (those who tend to develop a pathogenic expression), those grow in numbers and outnumber the probiotic bacteria (symbiotic and life giving bacteria). Consuming sugar, from sweets and processed foods (like bread and pasta), causes these bad bacteria to secrete toxins, that damage the gut wall and severely impair digestion of proteins and fats. She introduces the opiate-derivatives from gluten (gliadorphin) and milk (beta-casomorphin-7), as being an issue of improper digestion by intestinal enzymes due to damage done by bad bacteria to the cells that secrete them. The combination of a damaged gut wall (leaky gut) and opiate-derivatives due to incomplete digestion leads to exposure of the brain to toxins, that leave the child’s immune system impaired and cognitive growth is disrupted.

She essentially leads the reader into an understanding that digestion can be improved by adhering to beneficial food sources and specifically the introduction of probiotic food. Those good bacteria improve in population on the diet she guides you into adopting, which rewards you with a healthier gut and complete digestion. The idea is to replace the dominating populations that are not beneficial for you, with populations that are beneficial for the cells environment. This is a protocol that lasts from a year to two years, and starts with eliminating a lot of food choices from your meals and gradually adding more choices over time in a process that verifies your bodies tolerance to these foods.

I was impressed by the wealth of knowledge she shares, and in particular the depth in guiding the reader into practicing a diet for themselves or for another, as a therapy. She strongly suggests those who are planning on having a baby, to start the process by amending their own personal diet, as the baby inherits the bacterial population from the mother at birth and through the parents eating habits. With proper nutritional habits implemented prior to the baby’s conception you can assure a smooth pregnancy and a healthy delivery. With proper probiotic balance, the child will develop a strong immune system and will have a smooth transition into solid food. She describes many cases of Autistic children that were suffering language and school setbacks to have regained learning capabilities and in many of these cases these children were able to reverse the symptoms of these syndromes to undetectable levels.

Full Moon Feast by Jessica Prentice

Stumbling on this book is a blessing, as the author of this collection of traditional wisdom's imparts on the reader a comprehension of health from a traditional perspective on nutrition, as simple as a yearly lunar cycle.

Jessica Prentice loves food and her personal journey of illnesses drove her to deal with health and nutrition from an early age. Her cooking skills are evident between each chapter that follows an in-depth conversation on a particular lunar cycle. You will find after each chapter an accompanying collection of recipes associated with that particular cycle of the moon. What makes sense in this book is the abstractness of a lunar cycle and its connection to our traditional lifestyle following the changes in seasonal availability of major staple foods. She begins with the Hunger Moon, which is devoted to the time of year that scarcity is everywhere and accepted, in the spirit of celebrating and appreciating the lack of abundance before nature restores its resources. Scarcity exists and the awareness and endeavor through such a moon period imparts a deeper connection of spirit to the forces of nature and it’s governance over life and its cycles.

What follows are moons devoted to significant abundances throughout the year. Like the Sap Moon, that discusses syrup production from maple trees and many other trees, and the traditional process of cooking the sap down into sugar. Every chapter you will find the author quoting texts from traditional sources, like stories from indigenous tribes that practices a similar activity around that time and how they found nourishment from nature by following this intimate rhythm. Other moon cycles worth mentioning are the Egg Moon, that discusses the correlation between different cultures and their celebration of a moon full of egg production, like Easter. Or the moon of producing fat, since livestock is kept traditionally and helped cultures survive with its many gifts, you find that cultures would cherish fat as a storage food for time of scarcity.

The main drive of the book is to restore your connection to food, because the author found health and healing from connecting with food. In a world where fast food and processed food is convenient, many suffer digestion problems and lack the knowledge of preparing their own meals let alone comprehend their seasonal availability and importance. Real food heals those that intimately interact with it, which form a personal bond of spirit to spirit. As all food is alive, the ultimate understanding of “Living takes life”, whether a life of a plant or a life of an animal, a connection to the cycles of life and death is discussed. Not in order to convert plant-base eaters into omnivores, but in order to look at the sacredness of life as it goes past our lives and truly nourishes us.

I greatly cherish this collection of insightful descriptions of traditional wisdom and forgotten practices. To fathom the notion that Honeymoon originates as a moon cycle, when newlyweds would consume only raw honey in order to increase their fertility, pulls you back into wondering how honey was once understood as truly nourishing. Real honey, which is unprocessed, meaning not heated and not filtered, can supply all the amino acids the body requires as well as many nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants. It’s only when you process it that you lose the nourishing effect of honey, and all you are left with is sugar.

I highly recommend reading Full Moon Feast, as it really is dedicated for health by learning about the traditional way of life prior to the industrial age. Most of us have not inherited good eating habits and cooking skills due to the fast pace of western civilization, and thus we suffer from digestive problems due to processed foods found abundantly around us year in and year out. Scarcity is not any issue anymore, so it becomes convenient to order online a hamburger, which we have no idea where it came from, how many animals are in that one burger and how far it had to travel.

Earthing by Clinton Ober, Dr. Stephan Sinatra and Martin Zucker

Is this the most important health discovery ever? After reading this book I understood our connection to nature on a whole different scale. Earthing, called also Grounding, is the simple act of exposing your bare feet to the earth’s soil. This helps discharge the static buildup in your body, that harms internal hardware (like the mitochondria), and allows the flooding of all your tissues and organs body-wide with simple antioxidants – namely, electrons.

This book was written as a simple introduction into the science of antioxidant replenishment through discovering your true connection, physiologically speaking, with the planet you are living on. It delves into the main issue of illnesses, as it is reflected by scientific journals, called inflammation, and how half an hour of exposure to these ground currents turns all inflammation body-wide just like water to fire.

The book begins with Clinton Ober telling his personal life story of discovering the healing effects and his personal desire to share it with anyone in his path. He didn’t have much of a scientific background, but that didn’t stop him from conducting the first studies that clearly demonstrate an improvement in people who connected to this stream of free electrons. He later got involved with Dr. Sinatra, a cardiologist who clinically understood the hearts electrical nature, and had conducted many more studies that improve the literature on the subject of Earthing.

Personally, I had been grounding for a while prior to reading the book because of learning about the benefits of Earthing from investigating it online. Though, I found that I have a personal account on the efficacy of Earthing. I had found it gave me a lot of energy and my abilities to sleep were smooth. At some point I started neglecting to ground myself, and I noticed digestion problems, sleep problems, muscle stiffness and fatigue throughout my day. Even eating a full meal, that once gave me lots of energy to keep on working, had me feeling unable to tap into that available energy. I also experienced an inability to maintain the unconditional love and joy that lifts my chest up high and my spirits with it. Once I figured I hadn’t been grounding, I went back to doing so and all these problems vanished.

The book has a comprehensive feedback section, and what I deduced from it is that it helps a lot of people with a lot of problems. Severe problems, like chronic illnesses, to simple problems, like a deep cut to the skin. What I noticed was a recurring reaction, which as soon as these people ground themselves, within an hour a major portion of their pain, resulting from the inflammation, subsides. However, it has been also reported, that as soon as they disconnected from the ground or had forgotten to do so for even one night, the pain would return. Therefore, I concluded that Earthing is a major painkiller and an inflammation resolver.

It has an important role in shutting down inflammation in the body, allowing cells to switch the genes associated with healing and repair. This is crucial for the healing process to begin, however the return of the inflammation shows me that a deeper issue must be resolved, and it could be related to nutrition of some sort. Whether physical nutrition, mental nutrition or emotional nutrition, it really depends on a personal level. The Earth, is seems, sets up the stage and platform for healing to occur, but then it really is up to that person to amend his lifestyle. Personally, I would love to walk barefoot as a lifestyle, wouldn’t you?

In the book you will find visual evidence of the effect of Earthing. From thermal imaging to microscopic images of red blood cells, the effect is clear enough on camera to develop a personal belief that this simple act of Earthing is more than a miracle, but more like an evolutionary benefit of life on a planet. What Dr. Sinatra emphasizes is the drastic change, within 30 minutes, of many biomarkers of health body-wide, that he calls for rewriting physiological text books. I would agree, as this entire chase after antioxidants is a foot away, and all it takes is redesigning footwear, floors and mattresses to complement this connection we require from the ground. Thus, we could build our health from the ground up (as Dr. Sinatra loves to say).

+=================================================+

Now, these reviews are there to share the gist of what the authors share with the reader. Of course, a more detail analysis is required to get a more complete picture of all these elements and of more elements that can be derived from prior investigations I made into nutrition.

In the following article, you will find an in-depth connection between the knowledge you can infer from these books and hopefully you will acquire tools that will take you in a path of self-recovery from the diseases of civilization.

The Bacterial Entity and the Hunger for Connection

Monday, March 25, 2013

Molecular Defense System Overview


As our Planetary System has a defense system, called Human Beings, so do Biological Systems have defense systems. You can interchange between a 'defense system' to 'equilibrium system'. As we transition from observational perception of large objects to smaller ones, we perceive this mechanisms of complementary interactions on all plains of physical existence; namely the two biological and chemical ones, those are the Immune system and Molecular system. Biologically speaking, immune cells protect at the cellular level, while chemically speaking, molecular machines (i.e. enzymes) protect at the molecular level. Protection is assumed to be a function of these systems only when they are out of equilibrium, though when they are not assuming a protection role, they can be perceived as units of a system, which complement an evolved cascade of events that produce a meaningful expression or behavior.

Our cells are an evolved community of bacteria that formed symbiotic relationships and demarcated their city limits with a membrane. This membrane is alive, it holds signals and transporters and Epigenetic research has elucidated it's function as a sensory acceptor, which picks up environmental stimulus and a cascade of signalling events shift the expression of genes being read and transcribed. This leads ultimately to a cellular behavior or expression. Environmental stimulus is more then just emotions and thoughts, but also nutrient composition of the blood or stress of the environment.

A specialized bacteria in every cell called the Mitochondria, produces cellular energy, of which is required for many protein movements and processes. In the Mitochondria it has been observed that the mechanism of producing energy, via the Electron Transport Chain, produces also Reactive Oxygen Species or Free Radicals. These are atoms that are missing an electron at their outer shell, and since all elements aspire for an Octet, this atom will scavenge for one and in the process of fulfilling this drive, it harms an existing structure. This causes the structure to fall apart and propel a cascade of events leading up to gene expression of an Inflammatory Response.

To counteract these free radicals, we observe that nature has equipped all cellular organelles and the cell in large, with a Molecular Defense System. These are specialized proteins that take part in cellular mechanism of electrical transport, like Coenzyme Q10 that transports an electron in the process called Electron Transport chain. However, this specialized property of carrying and donating an electron is regarded as an antioxidant effect. Antioxidants have been observed to neutralize free radicals by donating an electron they carry to the free radical, fulfilling it's octet and stabilizing it in it's environment.

Could it be that antioxidants act in such a favorable way only when free radicals are created in excess?

It appears that there is a difference between waking up in the morning, standing up and eating to running, lifting weights and calculating figures strenuously. The powerhouse of the cell, the Mitochondria, creates ATP energy and free radical by-products based on the rhythm of life we set out to do. The more energy requirements in a shorter time, the more free radicals are formed. Apparently the antioxidants in the Mitochondria and in the cell cannot keep up and damage to structure results, propelling an inflammatory response. This response is favorable for building muscles, but in many cases the antioxidant system is malnourished due to the hosts diet, which causes structure damage to occur quicker.

An inflammatory state of a cell is expression of a 'protection' behavior by genes and the subsequent proteins that are synthesized as a result. Once the cell has completed it's inflammatory response, it switches off the genes to do with inflammation events and turns on genes that have to do with cellular 'growth'. Cell's become sensitive due to food choices, like too much Omega 3 and 6 in the diet, which are unsaturated fatty acids. A study on the Mitochondria in a heart cell, using Coconut oil (90% saturated fatty acids), Olive oil (70% mono-unsaturated fatty acids) and Fish oil (69% poly-unsaturated fatty acids), has demonstrated and concluded that saturated fatty acids were favorable for the Mitochondria's health[x]. The following is a quote:
"The cardiac mitochondria from rats fed with coconut oil showed the lowest concentration of oxidized proteins and peroxidized lipids. The fish oil diet leads to the highest oxidative stress in cardiac mitochondria, an effect that could be partly prevented by the antioxidant probucol."

Then diet has an important effect on Mitochondrial health during activity. The next image illustrates the concept that "Stability increases with Saturation". Notice how the fatty acids structure reveals the stability of the compound.


Then in the case of excessive muscle contraction and biological movement, we can expect a high demand of energy production and chemical exchange. Simply running a marathon requires the heart mitochondria (which occupies 1/3 of the heart cell) to create an incessant supply of electron transporting in order to propel the bulk of ATP required to maintain structural integrity. When the coenzymes (that operate as antioxidants as well; i.e CoQ10) don't match the requirements, we observe a depletion in mitochondria defenses against it's own by-products and the end result is a harm to the heart muscle.

Antioxidants have been observed to be capable of replenishing their electrical charge. When an antioxidant fulfills its function, it donates its electron it had carried in order to stimulate the next process or to neutralize a free radical by-product. At this state, an antioxidant is considered "oxidized", but it's unique properties render it harmless to the environment. Moreover, when an "oxidized" antioxidant replenishes it's electrical charge, it is considered "reduced".

This has been observed in scientific literature in different avenues, like Vitamin C replenishing Vitamin E. Both are capable of antioxidant activity, but the difference is that vitamin C is water soluble (flows freely in aqueous solutions, like the bloodstream or cytoplasm) and vitamin E is fat soluble (found in cell membranes, LDL particles etc.). Vitamin E is responsible for it's own domain and interacts with processes in its zone, and vitamin C can swarm by cell membranes and replenish their antioxidant capacity.

This is essentially an evolved web of complementary interactions. Nature defines a holistic approach to sustain life, and so all biological systems co-evolved with one another. The human kingdom won't be here without co-evolving with the plant kingdom, animal kingdom and fungi kingdom. But deep down, in the depths of the molecular plain, a co-evolution has been intelligently designed as to utilize all beneficial elements, so you on the multicellular plain can experience health and longevity in a physical sense.



Bite, chew, grind and swallow is all that your precious body requires you to do on a multicellular conscious level. Much ancient wisdom and Epigenetic research are pointing out that thoughts and emotions, that are definitely part of your experience, are also part of a meals activity. Eat what you know to be beneficial! Your choices benefit your cellular and microbial prosperity.


Free Electrons from the Ground

All life starts from the sun. Whether it's the sunlight converted into usable energy stored in plants, that then are consumed by herbivores and we, as humans, end up eating in our competition to live on that stored sunlight from both the plant and eating the herbivore, or the solar wind that charges up the ionosphere, that in turn charges up the surface via lightning, supplying charged particles of free electrons. Grounding is standing barefoot on moist soil or grass, allowing free electrons to travel through the conductivity of biological circuitry.

Scientists, like Dr. Sinatra and Dr. Oschman have observed and reported this interaction and connection we have to Earth. They report, that 30 minutes of exposure can replenish our electrical charge body-wide, essentially improving blood circulation by turning it from a ketchup consistency into a fine red wine. This phenomena has been observed to accelerate healing of tissues, as antioxidants are replenished and used up, replenished again by stored electrons in our tissues, and used once more to accelerate repair and healing mechanisms.

You can read more at my article: Free Electrons from the Ground

Replenishment through Nature

Detoxifying is becoming more popular, specifically since more and more people are suffering from the Military Industrial Complex's agenda of supplying processed food and obscuring our animal nature and connection of our soil to our health.

Everyone knows that if you eat a salad, or simply a vegetable, you feel better. There are 40% more antioxidants in organic produce, and 90% more antioxidants in organic milk, and that is all simple science: if you feed your food a good nutrition, you inherit it!

The plants and animals are connected to the free electron flow from the earth; plants with their roots and animals with their feet. We observe that plants create antioxidants for themselves and when we break open their cells, we have access to those rejuvenating compounds (via tea, fermentation and digestion). We disconnected ourselves from the earth when we walk with robber or plastic footwear. Instead of returning home after a long day and relying on Melatonin's antioxidant abilities during sleep, we can relieve a lot of mitochondrial and cellular stress by connecting to the earth.

However, you can't expect to simply stop replenishing your antioxidants just because free electrons can flow through your body. Proteins, like enzymes, fulfill their role and then are scrapped for pieces (amino acids) in order to rebuild new proteins and structures. There is a constant reuse of building blocks, and many of the complex antioxidant enzymes require co-factors (like vitamin B's) to create them. Hence whole food nutrition is required to tune up and replenish all beneficial processes.

Importance of Probiotics

What does bacteria have to do with our immune cells and molecular system? Simple.
When the beneficial population inhabits your gut, you have more bioavailable building blocks exchanged and flow into your bloodstream. Probiotic bacteria eat and then poop and pee minerals and vitamins, which are shared with you. This essentially raises nutrition in your body. But on the other hand, when opportunistic bacteria (pathogenic ones) thrive and dominate, they eat our food and secrete toxins, of which find their way into our blood, reach the brain and cause a plethora of problems.

If you control the food, you control the population. Simple, right?

Sugar and complex carbohydrates (like from grains, bread, pasta, potatoes etc.) feed the bad opportunistic bacteria. That's why many people suffer these days one a western type diet. It's filled with too much sugar! Too much of a breeding ground for toxin-creating bacteria that compete with our beneficial microbes.

You can learn more at my article: Extracellular Defense System Overview

In conclusion.

We have a system of molecular machines that aspire to balance the system and can accomplish this task as long as there is an adequate supply of nutrients and building blocks into your body. Probiotic bacteria enhance the availability of these nutrients, so quitting sugar all together while increasing probiotic proliferation will increase your energy and multicellular health. Fulfilling a daily habit of walking, standing or seating on the earth (as long as your feet make contact) will replenish your electrical charge and improve your blood flow as well as cognitive flow.

A lifestyle is your responsibility.
Usually you search for knowledge to improve that lifestyle.
You've got the knowledge now, take care!

Joel Jacobson



References:

[x] Mitochondrion. 2011 Jan;11(1):97-103. doi: 10.1016/j.mito.2010.07.014. Epub 2010 Aug 5. Dietary fatty acids and oxidative stress in the heart mitochondria. Lemieux H, Bulteau AL, Friguet B, Tardif JC, Blier PU. Source  Laboratoire de Biologie Intégrative, Université du Québec, Rimouski, Québec, Canada.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Extracellular Defense System Overview


This is the most important system to take care of, and on a daily basis.
  • Probiotic bacteria sequester Opportunistic bacteria (pathogenic) by secreting antibiotic-type chemicals (only when probiotic populations is larger then pathogenic).
  • Probiotic bacteria relief malnutrition, as they eat our food and poop and pee out minerals and vitamins. Pathogenic bacteria secrete toxins, which harm our own cells. 
  • Probiotic bacteria enhance function of the immune system. They maintain an environment that is suited for immune cells to thrive.
Why should I care?
We can observe from the many studies over the last 30 years that probiotic bacteria complete and definitely uphold a 'health cycle'. If we categorize all the defense systems of the body, we observe that there is a cellular one (immune system protecting cellular environment) and a molecular one (antioxidants neutralizing free radicals). These require building blocks, which probiotic bacteria enhance from our diets, but pathogenic bacteria that secrete toxins cause stress on these cells and empty their defenses. Simply, taking care of your bacterial population dramatically alters disease.

If you control the food, you control the population.
Some type of food actually feed bad bacteria, while other types exclusively feed beneficial bacteria. Just like roots of a tree has an ecosystem of bacteria, so do you. Our roots are internal, so you can imagine the gut as a root system designed to absorb nutrients and the bacteria help this process thrive... well, actually, they make it happen. This is an evolutionary symbiotic relationship; the human body has a forgotten organ that coats the entire digestive tract; from the mouth to the anus. A fine coat of bacteria. But the population is affected directly by food consumption; Sugar and complex carbohydrates feed bad bacteria, while vegetables and some fruit feed beneficial bacteria.

 

Bacteria are one of the oldest organisms on the planet. They are single cell organisms without a nucleus, aka prokaryotes, and certain species have evolved to produce oxygen by consuming carbon dioxide. The bacteria are the cause for the rise in oxygen in the atmosphere millions or even billions of years ago. This rise in oxygen accompanied an evolution of another bacteria into a new species, of which had made a remarkable effect on organism patterns and life. This species of bacteria, like the Mitochondria, made their way into a community of other bacteria to form a Eukaryotic cell; an evolved cell with the capacity to adhere to other cells of the same nature. Thus a multicellular organism evolved.

What can definitely be described as next to happen was formation of a multicellular organism; tissue by tissue, organ by organ, forming a community of cells that specialize in a task for the great good of the whole. However, as the multicellular organism developed a community of over a trillion adhering cells, bacteria remained the ancestors of us all and they remain to this day a part of the multicellular organism's ecological system.

There are 10 times more bacteria on the human body, then human cells. If we have approximately 1 trillion cells; from brain cells, skin cells, liver cells, heart cells, gut cells, muscles cells etc., you will find 10 trillion bacteria on and in the body. Now, you cannot find them in the blood or on your eyes, as the body keeps those zones sterile for the function of the system (immune cells etc.). However, in some cases bacteria find their way in, usually after an injury or consumption of food that promote a leaky gut (i.e. grains). On the right is a pie chart representing the percentage of bacteria you can find in and on your body [taken from here].

As you can deduce from the chart, bacteria are only present on surfaces that are in contact with the outer world, and the largest percentage is in the gastrointestinal tract (29%). Nevertheless, bacteria can be found in other areas as well, and may very will be connected to that areas healthful state.

Dysbiosis
A condition of imbalance in microbial populations on or in the body is called Dysbiosis. The germ fear in the beginning of the 1900 century brought many of the public to believe that bacteria are only pathogenic. Many people lack the knowledge that there are probiotic bacteria, and many who have heard of probiotic bacteria lack the perspective on the depth of their importance to the physical-biological body's health. They are our Extracellular Defense System, and I will cover why and how.

Pathogenic bacteria, like probiotic bacteria, seek food for them to nourish and reproduce. Some pathogenic bacteria can thrive on free sugar in the diet, others make the effort to harm the host's cells in order to thrive on minerals like iron. Bacteria are everywhere, also found in radioactive tanks, where people presumed life could not exist.

These pathogenic bacteria are harmful for the functionality of many organs, like the stomach; where Helicobacter Pylori has been observed to destroy parietal cells in charge of producing a specialized enzyme called Intrinsic Factor. This enzyme is responsible for transporting B12 across the gut lining into the bloodstream. Adults and children with this infection suffer from B12 deficiency, even when they take supplements or eat a B12-rich diet[1][2]. A probiotic supplementation resolved this issue[3].

On the other hand, probiotic bacteria essentially protect the cells from increasing pathogenic bacteria populations by secreting antibiotic chemicals, that inhibit competing bacteria. This is also achieved inversely; pathogenic bacteria can inhibit probiotic bacteria. This is accomplished by the population size - the bigger the population the stronger their effect on the competing species.

Control the Food and you Control your Health

Population has always been controlled by food, and there lays the cause for pathogenic bacteria overthrow of probiotic species. For example; a cow consuming a grain diet develops a dominant species of E. Coli and a specific harmful strain (Escherichia coli O157:H7) that thrives on the complex carbohydrate diet supplied by the grains, and as a by product they expel toxins and methane gas[4]. This causes severe inflammation in the cow's complex gut system (rumen), which impairs their health and their value of parts and by products they produce for the industry. However, it only takes 5 days on an evolutionary diet of grass (i.e. grass-fed diet) to observe a 1000-fold decline in the E.Coli population[5].

Could the same effect happen to humans? I see why not. A biological system is a biological system, and probiotic bacteria are part of this ecological system that is the human physical body.

Lets observe a case of a human trial published December 13rd, 2012[6]. An obese person is found to contain a pathogenic bacteria strain called Enterobacter, that composed 35% of the gut microbial composition and is observed to secrete endotoxins that cause inflammation in the gut's environment. After 23 weeks on a diet of whole grains, traditional Chinese medicinal foods and prebiotics, the strain of bacteria was reduced to "non-detectable" levels, "during which time the volunteer lost 51.4 kg of 174.8 kg initial weight and recovered from hyperglycemia and hypertension". 

Food that Strengthen your Probiotic Population

Now, prebiotics are food that contain resistant starch, usually a complex carbohydrate called Inulin, that is present in many vegetables and some fruit, and it exclusively feeds probiotic bacteria[7]. These are food like Raw Chicory root with 64.6% inulin (highest content), Raw Jerusalem Artichoke (31.5%), Raw Dandelion Greens (24.3%), Raw Garlic (17.5%), Raw Leek (11.7%), Raw Onion (8.6%), Raw Asparagus (5%), Cooked Onion (5%) and Bananas (1%)[8][9]. Though, cacao has also been found a prebiotic[10] and it's medicinal effects are vast (but sugar harms it's medicinal properties[11]).

The list of benefits from probiotic bacteria is long

Some strains produce B vitamins(including B12[12] and B9[13]), some produce precursors to CoQ10, some inhibit toxins and heavy metals. Like I said, the list is long. What is evident, is that these probiotic bacteria live in a symbiotic relationship with the biological organism. The soil in the ground is a biodiversity of bacterial organism, that break down materials and makes minerals available for the plant to uptake through their roots. Same thing applies to humans or any other animal (like a cow and it's rumen), these probiotic bacteria digest plant matter and release the contents of cells that our gut cannot digest on its own. 

These probiotic bacteria are our Extracellular Defense System and secondary digestive system. We require them to not only to break down food our gut is unable to, but to protect the inner environment (gut, mouth and airways) and outer environment (skin) clean of pathogenic bacteria. Since about 80% of your immune system is in your gut, taking care of the gut environment is crucial for a functional immune system in that area. Lactobacillus bacteria produce Lactic acid, that makes an environment favorable for immune cells. Lactate, from lactic acid, has also been observed to be the preferred energy source of neurons (brain cells), unlike what was previously thought was only glucose[14].

If you get a flu or cold, and your body is fighting off an infection, then you certainly have a condition of bacterial imbalance (Dysbiosis) and that means you were eating something that favored the disease causing bacteria, and now all you need is to eat something that favors the pro-life bacteria. You can also simply eat fermented food, like Sauerkraut, Kimchi and more.

You can hear an interview of Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride by Dr. Joseph Mercola (from Mercola.com). She is considered the authority in all that has to do with probiotic bacteria, as she has written a book called GAPS (Gut and Psychology\Physiology Syndrome) where she details her cases of curing many diseases by placing patients on a strict protocol. 

For further literature, I suggest reading this webpage: Probiotic bacteria: What are they? | Probiotics Help

For further articles of mine touching upon this subject, check out these following articles:
Books Worth Reading (A book called Gut and Psychology Syndrome)
The Bacterial Entity and the Hunger for Connection