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Taking control of your body: Lessons from a cell biologist
“While the Human Genome Project was making headlines, a group of scientists were inaugurating a new, revolutionary field in biology called epigenetics. The science of epigenetics, which literally means ‘control above genetics,’ profoundly changes our understanding of how life is controlled… Genes are not destiny! Environmental influences, including nutrition, stress and emotions, can modify those genes without changing their basic blueprint. And those modifications, epigeneticists have discovered, can be passed on to future generations as surely as DNA blueprints are passed on via the Double Helix.” –p67, Biology of Belief, by Bruce H. Lipton, PhD, 2005
“You may consider yourself an individual, but as a cell biologist I can tell you that you are in truth a cooperative community of approximately 50 trillion single-cell citizens. Almost all of the cells that make up your body are amoeba-like, individual organisms that have evolved a cooperative strategy for their mutual survival. [p27]… I also [make] it clear to my students that each cell is an intelligent being that can survive on its own, as scientists demonstrate when they remove cells from the body and grow them in a culture. [p37] I knew intuitively when I was a child, these smart cells are imbued with intent and purpose; they actively seek environments that support their survival while simultaneously avoiding toxic or hostile ones. Like humans, single cells analyze thousands of stimuli from the microenvironment they inhabit… [and] select appropriate behavioral responses to ensure their survival. Single cells are also capable of learning through these environmental experiences and are able to create cellular memories which they pass on to their offspring.” [p38]
The evolutionary push for ever-bigger communities is simply a reflection of the biological imperative to survive. The more awareness an organism has of its environment, the better its chances for survival. When cells band together [i.e. into higher organisms] they increase their awareness exponentially… A process of cytological specialization enables the cells to form the specific tissues and organs of the body. Over time, this pattern of differentiation, i.e. the distribution of the workload among the members of the community, became embedded in the genes of every cell… significantly increasing the organism’s efficiency and its ability to survive… The efficiency it offered enabled more cells to live on less… The amount of energy conserved…contributes to both an increased survival advantage and a better quality of life. [p40]
But today’s understanding of cooperation in nature goes much deeper than the easily observable ones. ‘Biologists are becoming increasingly aware that animals have coevolved, and continue to coexist with diverse assemblages of microorganisms that are required for normal health and development,’ according to..an article in Science [Ruby, et.al. 2004] The study of these relationships is now a rapidly growing field called ‘Systems Biology.’ …Living organisms, it turns out, actually integrate their cellular communities by sharing their genes… Now scientists realize that genes are shared not only among the individual members of a species, but also among members of different species. The sharing of genetic information via gene transfer speeds up evolution since organisms can acquire ‘learned’ experience from other organisms. [p44] This sharing of information is…nature’s method of enhancing the survival of the biosphere… [and] Now that we are aware of this inter-and-intra-species gene transfer mechanism, the dangers of genetic engineering become apparent. [p45]
“ In reality, the idea that genes control biology is a supposition, which has never been proven and in fact has been undermined by the latest scientific research. Genetic control…has become a metaphor in our society. We want to believe that genetic engineers are the new medical magicians who can cure diseases and while they’re at it create more Einsteins and Mozarts as well. But metaphor does not equate with scientific truth. [H.F.] Nijhout (1992) summarizes the truth: ‘When a gene product is needed, a signal from its environment, not an emergent property of the gene itself, activates expression of that gene.’ In other words, when it comes to genetic control, ‘It’s the environment…’ [p52]…[and] it is the changing of the proteins’ electromagnetic charges that is responsible for their behavior-generating movement, not DNA. [p60]. Geneticists experienced a… shock when, contrary to their expectations of [finding] over 120,000 [human] genes, they found that the entire human genome consists of approximately 25,000 genes. More than eighty percent of the presumed and required DNA does not exist!… The one-gene, one-protein concept was a fundamental tenet of genetic determinism… No longer is it possible to believe that genetic engineers can with relative ease fix all our biological dilemnas. There are simply not enough genes to account for the complexity of human life or human disease. [p63]
“In the chromosome, the DNA forms the core and the [regulatory] proteins cover the DNA like a sleeve. When the genes are covered, their information cannot be ‘read.’ …How do you get that sleeve off? You need an environmental signal to spur the ‘sleeve’ protein to change shape, i.e. detach from the DNA’s double helix, allowing the gene to be read [and copied by the cell]… As a result, the activity of the gene is ‘controlled’ by the presence or absence of the ensleeving proteins which are in turn controlled by environmental signals. [p68] The story of epigenetic control is the story of how environmental signals control the activity of genes… The revised scheme of information flow…in biology starts with an environmental signal, then goes to a regulatory protein and only then goes to DNA, RNA, and the end result, a protein. The science of epigenetics has also made clear that there are two mechanisms by which organisms pass on hereditary information… Studies of protein synthesis reveal that epigenetic [tuning]‘dials’ can create 2,000 or more variations of proteins from the same gene blueprint. [p69]
“We now know that the environmentally influenced fine-tuning…can be passed from generation to generation. A landmark Duke University study published in the August 2003 issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology found that an enriched environment can even override genetic mutations in mice. In the study, scientists looked at the effect of dietary supplements on pregnant mice with the abnormal ‘agouti’ gene. Agouti mice have yellow coats and are extremely obese, which predisposes them to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. In the experiment, one group of yellow, obese, agouti mothers received methyl-group rich supplements available in health food stores: folic acid, vitamin B12, betaine and choline. Methyl-rich supplements were chosen because a number of studies have shown that the methyl chemical group is involved with epigenetic modifications. When methyl groups attach to a gene’s DNA, it changes the binding characteristics of regulatory chromosomal proteins. If the proteins bind too tightly to the gene, the protein cannot be removed and the gene cannot be read. Methylating DNA can silence or modify gene activity… The mothers who got the methyl group supplements produced standard, lean, brown mice, even though their offspring had the same agouti gene as their mothers. The agouti mothers who didn’t get the supplements produced yellow pups…which ate much more [and] wound up weighing almost twice as much as their… counterparts… [and were] diabetic while its genetically identical counterpart is healthy. [p72]
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“Living organisms are distinguished from non-living entities by the fact that they move: they are animated. The energy driving their movements is harnessed to do the ‘work’…such as respiration, digestion, and muscle contraction. To understand the nature of life one must first understand how protein ‘machines’ are empowered to move. The final shape, or conformation (the technical term used by biologists), of a protein molecule reflects a balanced state among its electromagnetic charges. However, if the proteins positive and negative charges are altered, the protein backbone will dynamically twist and adjust itself to accommodate the new distribution of charges. [Like charges, as in two negative terminals, will twist apart]. The distribution of electromagnetic charge within a protein can be selectively altered by a number of processes including: the binding of other molecules or chemical groups such as hormones; the enzymatic removal or addition of charged ions; or interference from electromagnetic fields such as those emanating from cell phones. [p56] [It] is the changing of the proteins’ electromagnetic charges that is responsible for their behavior-generating movement, not DNA. [p60]
“[My] nominee for the true brain that controls cellular life [is] the membrane… I refer to it in my lectures as the magical mem-Brain… The true secret of life lies in understanding the elegantly simple biological mechanisms of the magical membrane –the mechanisms by which your body translates environmental signals into behavior… Cell biologists gained insight into the amazing abilities of the cell membrane by studying the most primitive organisms on this planet, the prokaryotes… which include bacteria and other microbes [that] consist only of a cell membrane that envelops a droplet of soupy cytoplasm… A bacterium carries out the basic physiologic processes of life like more complicated cells… They can sense where there is food… they can recognize toxins and predators and purposely employ escape maneuvers to save their lives. In other words, prokaryotes display intelligence! [p76]
“It is important for the cell to allow molecules to break through the [membrane] barrier..[for] life-sustaining food…[and] information… [The] membrane becomes a vital and ingenious mechanism enabling selected nutrients to penetrate the interior of the cell… Phospholipids, one of the two major chemical components of the membrane…are composed of both polar and non-polar molecules…. All the molecules in our universe can be divided into non-polar and polar categories based on the type of chemical bonds that hold their atoms together. The bonds among [electrically charged] polar molecules…behave like magnets, attracting or repelling other charged molecules. Polar molecules include water and things that dissolve in water [hydrophiles]. Non-polar molecules include oil and substances that dissolve in oil [hydrophobes]… The phosphate portion of the molecule is motivated to seek water, while its lipid portion…seeks stability by dissolving in oil. [p80]…Because the [oil] portion of the membrane is non-polar, it does not let positively or negatively charged atoms or molecules pass through it. In effect, this lipid core is an electrical insulator…[but..]Most of the cell’s nutrients consist of charged polar molecules that would not be able to get past the formidable non-polar lipid barrier. Neither could the cell excrete its polarized waste products. [Embedded membrane proteins, called]Integral Membrane Proteins (IMPs),…are composed of a linear backbone assembled from linked amino acids…[where] some are water-loving polar molecules and some are hydrophobic, non-polar molecules…that weaves itself in and out of the [membrane layer]. There are lots of IMPs with lots of different names, but they can be subdivided into two functional classes: receptor proteins and effector proteins… Receptors function as molecular ‘nano-antennas’ tuned to respond to specific environmental signals. Some receptors extend inward…to monitor the internal milieu of the cell. Other[s]…monitor external signals… Receptor ‘antennas’ can also read vibrational energy fields such as light, sound, and radio frequencies. The antennas on these ‘energy’ receptors vibrate like tuning forks. If an energy vibration in the environment resonates with a receptor’s antenna, it will alter the protein’s charge, causing the receptor to change shape.[p83]. [And] because receptors can read energy fields, the notion that only physical molecules can impact cell physiology is outmoded. Biological behavior can be controlled by invisible forces, including thought, as well as it can be controlled by physical molecules like penicillin, a fact that provides the scientific underpinning for pharmaceutical-free energy medicine. [p84]
“When you destroy its membrane, the cell dies just as you would if your brain were removed. Even if you leave the membrane intact, destroying only its receptor proteins, which can easily be done with digestive enzymes in the lab, the cell becomes ‘brain-dead.’ It is comatose because it no longer receives the environmental signals necessary for the operation of the cell. The cell also becomes comatose when the receptor proteins are left intact and its effector proteins are immobilized. To exhibit ‘intelligent’ behavior, cells need a functioning membrane with both receptor (awareness) and effector (action) proteins. These protein complexes are the fundamental units of cellular intelligence. Technically they may be referred to as units of ‘perception.’ …At the cellular level, the story of evolution is largely the story of maximizing the number of basic units of ‘intelligence,’ the membrane’s receptor/effector proteins. Cells become smarter by utilizing their outer membrane surface more efficiently and by expanding the surface area..so that more IMPs could be packed in… the eukaryote is thousands of times bigger than the prokaryote resulting in a tremendous increase in membrane surface area… The end result is more awareness, which translates to greater survivability. [p88]
“In 1985…I was reviewing the mechanics of the membrane trying to get a grasp of how it worked as an information processing system. That is when I experienced a moment of insight…[starting] first with the lollipop-like phospholipid molecules…arranged in the membrane like regimented soldiers on parade in perfect alignment. By definition, a structure whose molecules are arranged in regular, repeated pattern is defined as a crystal. There are two fundamental types of crystals. The crystals that most people are familiar with are hard and resilient minerals… The second kind of crystal has a more fluid structure…Familiar examples of liquid crystals include digital watch faces and laptop computer screens. To better understand the nature of a liquid crystal, let’s go back to those soldiers on parade. When the marching soldiers turn a corner, they maintain their regimented structure… They’re behaving like a flowing liquid, yet they do not lose their crystalline organization. The phospholipid molecules of the membrane behave in a similar fashion. Their fluid crystalline organization allows the membrane to dynamically alter its shape while maintaining its integrity…So in defining this character of the membrane I wrote: ‘The membrane is a liquid crystal.’ Then I started thinking about…a membrane with just phospholipids…[being] a non-conductor. However, when you add IMPs [integral membrane proteins], you realize that the membrane conducts some things across while keeping others out. So I [wrote]…’The membrane is a semiconductor.’ Lastly, I wanted to include…the two most common kinds of IMPs. These are the receptors and a class of effectors called channels because they [change shape and] provide the all-important means for the cell to let in nutrients and let out waste matter. I was about to write..’recptors and channels’ when I realized that a synonym for receptor is the word gate. So instead I completed my description by writing: ‘The membrane contains gates and channels.’ [p90] What hit me right away was… my new computer [with] a copy of a bright red book called ‘Understanding Your Microprocessor’… I grabbed the book and found..a definition of a computer chip that read: ‘A chip is a crystal semiconductor with gates and channels.’…I spent several more intense seconds comparing… biomembranes with silicon semiconductors… when I realized that the identical nature of their definitions… Twelve years later an Australian research consortium…published an article in Nature, which confirmed my hypothesis that the cell membrane is a homologue of a computer chip. [B.A.Cornell, et al. 1997] Cornell and associates successfully turned a biological cell membrane into a digital-readout computer chip. [p91] …The fact that the cell membrane and a computer chip are homologues means that it is both appropriate and instructive to better fathom the workings of a cell by comparing it to a personal computer. The first big-deal insight that comes from such an exercise is that computers and cells are programmable…[and] the programmer lies outside the computer/cell…[It was with a jolt that I realized that the gene-coding nucleus does not program the cell. [p92]
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“[B]ecause of their Newtonian, materialistic bias, conventional researchers have completely ignored the role that energy plays in health and disease. [p102] Biomedical scientists have been particularly confounded because they do not recognize the massive complexity of the intercommunication among the physical parts and the energy fields that make up the whole… Cellular contsituents are woven into a complex web of crosstalk, feeback and feedforward communication loops. A biological dysfunction may arise from a miscommunication along any of the routes of information flow… Once I realized the nature of the complex interactions between matter and energy, I knew that a reductionist, linear (A>B>C>D>E) approach could not even come close to giving us accurate understanding of disease. [p103] When you change the parameters of a protein at one point in such a complex pathway, you inevitably alter the parameters of other proteins at innumerable points within the entangled networks. [p104] When a drug is introduced into the body to treat a malfunction in one protein, that drug inevitably interacts with at least one and possibly many other proteins… [There is] the fact that biological systems are redundant. The same signals or protein molecules [p105] may be simultaneously used in different organs and tissues where they provide for completely different behavioral functions. For example, when a drug is prescribed to correct a dysfunction in a signaling pathway of the heart, that drug is delivered by the blood to the entire body. This ‘cardiac’ medicine can unintentionally disturb the function of the nervous system if the brain also uses components of the targeted signaling pathway…. Multicellular organisms survive with far fewer genes than scientists once thought because the same gene products (protein) are used for a variety of functions. [p106]
“ Hundreds upon hundreds of scientific studies over the last fifty years have consistently revealed that ‘invisible forces’ of the electromagnetic spectrum profoundly impact every facet of biological regulation… [E]nergetic signaling mechanisms such as electromagnetic frequencies are a hundred times more efficient in relaying environmental information than physical signals such as hormones, neurotransmitters, growth factors, etc.[p111] We know that living organisms must receive and interpret environmental signals in order to stay alive. In fact, survival is directly related to the speed and efficiency of signal transfer. The speed of electromagnetic energy signals is 186,000 miles per second, while the speed of a diffusible chemical is considerably less than 1 centimeter per second. Energy signals are 100 times more efficient and infinitely faster than physical chemical signaling. What kind of signaling would your trillion-celled community prefer? Do the math!
…”all organisms, including humans, communicate and read their environment by evaluating energy fields. [p120] The research I discussed…found that energy is a more efficient means of effecting matter than chemicals. [p125] Candace Pert was studying the human brain… In Molecules of Emotion, Pert revealed how her study of information-processing receptors on nerve cell membranes led her to discover that the same ‘neural’ receptors were present on most, if not all, of the body’s cells. Her elegant experiments established that the ‘mind’ was not focused in the head, but was distributed via signal molecules to the whole body. [p132]
“Humans and a number of other higher mammals have evolved a specialized region of the brain associated with thinking, planning, and decision-making called the prefrontal cortex. This portion of the fore-brain is apparently the seat of the ‘self-conscious’ mind processing…it is a newly evolved ‘sense organ’ that observes our own behavior and emotions. [It] also has access to most of the data stored in our long-term memory bank [including cells]… Endowed with the ability to be self-reflective, the self-conscious mind is extremely powerful… We can actively choose how to respond to most envorinmental signals and whether we even want to respond at all. The conscious mind’s capacity to override the sunconscious mind’s preprogrammed behaviors is the foundation of free will. [p134]
“I was excited by my experiments because I believed that they revealed on the single-cell level a truth for multicellular organisms—that the mind (i.e. acting via the central nervous system’s adrenaline) overrides the body (acting via the local histamine signal). I wanted to spell out the implications…in my research paper, but my colleagues almost died from apoplexy at the notion of [a] body-mind connection into a paper about cell biology… because the mind is not an acceptable biological concept. Bioscientists are conventional Newtonians –if it isn’t matter…it doesn’t count. The ‘mind’ is a non-localized energy and therefore is not relevant to materialistic biology. [p137] The placebo effect should be the subject of major, funded research efforts. If medical researchers could figure out how to leverage the placebo effect, they would hand doctors an efficient, energy-based, side effect-free tool to treat disease… The fact that most doctors are not trained to consider the impact of the placebo effect is ironic because some historians make a strong case that the history of medicine is largely the history of the placebo effect… [p138] [including] ‘fake’ surgery. [p139]
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“In multicellular organisms, growth/protection behaviors are controlled by the nervous system. It is the nervous system’s job to monitor environmental signals, interpret them, and organize appropriate behavioral responses… the nervous system acts like the government in organizing the activities of its cellular citizens… The body is actually endowed with two separate protection systems, each vital to the maintenance of life. The first…mobilizes protection against external threats. It is called the HPA axis which stands for the Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis. [p147] When there are no threats, the HPA axis is inactive and growth [cell renewal, respiration, digestion, etc.] flourishes… Once the adrenal alarm is sounded… [the] visceral organs stop doing their life-sustaining work of digestion, absorption, excretion and…production of the body’s energy reserves. Hence the stress response inhibits growth processes and further compromises the body’s survival by interfering with the generation of vital energy reserves. [p148]
“ The body’s second protection system is the immune system which protects us from threats originating under the skin such as those caused by bacteria and viruses… it can consume much of the body’s energy supply. [p149] The HPA system is a brilliant mechanism for handling acute stresses. However…not designed to be continuously activated.[p151] The HPA axis’ effect on the cellular community mirrors the effect of stress on a human population. [p153] [It shifts] the members of the community from a state of growth to a state of protection. [p154] …[S]tress hormones are so effective at curtailing immune system function that doctors provide them to recipients of transplants so that their immune systems wouldn’t reject the foreign tissues…. Activating the HPA axis also interferes with our ability to think clearly… Adrenal stress hormones constrict the blood vessels in the forebrain…[and] repress activity in the…prefrontal cortex…the center of conscious volitional activity… and reasoning. [p150]
“Inhibiting growth processes [which includes natural immunity] is also debilitating in that growth…is required to produce energy. Consequently, a sustained protection response inhibits the creation of life-sustaining energy. The longer you stay in protection, the more you compromise your growth…To fully thrive, we must not only eliminate the stressors but also actively seek joyful, loving, fulfilling lives that stimulate growth processes.” [p147] Biology of Belief, by Bruce H. Lipton, PhD
………………………………give you some love…………………………..
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