BiTherapca Health

Niacin has been described as the 'Youth Pill'. Niacin and nicotinamide are converted to NAD which boosts lipid metabolism, directly reducing oxidative stress, with the resultant conversion to NADH, which has potent anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, though oxygen free radicals are produced along the way in the metabolic path. The irritant nature of niacin which produces prostaglandins(responsible for flushing) will additionally boost metabolism through increased calcium entry into the cell, will generate free radicals and promote inflammation in a dose-dependent manner. Of interest, sirtuins(silent information regulator 2) proteins, protein deacetylators, cause the de-acetylation of acetyl-lysine residues, alongside the hydrolysis of NAD into O-acetyl-ADP-ribose, the deacetylated substrate and nicotinamide, which in an end-product inhibition manner blocks sirtuins activity. Exercise,fasting and niacin which generate NAD(the former two by oxidizing and exhausting...

Many physicians who have treated and followed up HIV/AIDS patients have observed and reported that most of the patients who smoked tobacco(cigarette) or drank alcohol rapidly went out of health and succumbed to full-blown AIDS. Recent studies have shown that cocaine activates quiescent white blood cells(T-lymphocytes) and causes them to take up the HIV but the cells stop short of destroying the HIV or dying with the virus, in defense, to save the patient. Rather the infected white cells provide a sanctuary for the the virus, which eventually replicates and infects other cells, following further episodes of cocaine activation trigger. In fact during viral latency the virus exploits the host's autophagy system to supply nutrients, prevent death and prolong the survival of the host cell and by corollary its own very viability and then slows down both the host cell's and its own activity, prevents viral protein synthesis and the expression of antigens so as to escape detection un...

The body's defense system(the immune system) has many decks, checks and balances. Too little of it and it will not perform the desired function and too much, it will destroy the body. The first barrier to infection portal into the body is the keratin which covers the largest organ of the body, the skin; and the internal equivalent surface covering is protected by mucus alone or with cilia that keeps intruders at bay.Tears and saliva have their role to play. Epithelial cells serete an antibiotic called defensin which kills pathogens that attempt to break through this barrier. Of course, clot, following trauma, sequesters and prevents microbes from spreading in the body. There are 10 times more microbes in our gut, respiratory tract, on our skin and the other orifices than are our own human cells. These attach to the their lining and prevent more virulent(disease-causing) counterparts from gaining foot-hole, multiplying and causing harm to our body cells. Our body recogn...

Acute stress prepares the body for action by ramping up metabolism, actually catabolism or the breakdown of food, including old and devitalized organic tissue(by autophagy) to provide energy, usually in the final form of ATP, to help the body move. The immune system is shut down with cortisol, the stress hormone, to optimize the energy resources needed to fend off or escape from danger. Tissue repair and growth are slowed down by this hormone, for the time-being, for a similar reason. There is the release of stored food and digestion of devitalized or damaged tissue. This happens through adrenaline and glucagon which mobilize glucose and fats and then stimulate corresponding insulin release that enables cells assimilate glucose. Phosphorylation inside the cells increases--of insulin receptor and glucose and these become more chemically active and cAMP levels rise. Glycolysis increases and the Krebs cycle in the mitochondria matrix provides reduced(non-oxidized) intermediates which t...

After fertilization and as the cell divides, the resulting DNA folds onto histones as chromatins, coils of chromosomes on proteins, and can do so in many different ways that determine the characteristic of a cell type that makes it different from another, though genetically identical, and this is dependent on the niche(environmental conditions). Genes for Histone acetylase(remodeler), DNA methylases and ribonucleases, which determine the fate of the cell will all be expressed in the totipotent or pluri-potent stem cell to bring about the possible arrangements. But what pushes(drives) the cell to specialize will be the master genes, genes that code for the transcription factors that regulate other genes being expressed in each cell. Transcription factors are usually synthesized, then expressed on the cell surface as receptors or antennae. They respond to environmental cues such as steroid hormones, cytokines and other growth factors, light, heat and contact, hence the importance of th...

Many degenerative diseases like Alzheimer disease(dementia) and Parkinson's disease are characterized by garbage accumulation in the brain. In the body, garbage disposal is carried out by the lymphatic system which runs alongside veins and the spinal cord, and driven by pulsation from muscle contraction, nerves and pressure build-up in the interstitium. It sweeps through in tissues and as it does so, carries with it tissue debris that has not been or has been poorly cleared by tissue phagocytes, and failed to return into venous blood.  The debris passes through lymph nodes, where more phagocytosis takes place, and the lymph vessels empty into the the large veins, and the debris is cycled and broken down in the liver through metabolism and sent out in feces, or excreted in the kidney. New lymph is formed from interstitial fluid, found in all tissues. The lymphatic vessels from the digestive tract contain the lymphatic fluid that carr...

Chronic stress, be it psychological or disease-induced, raises stress hormone levels to a dangerously high level that instead of boosting metabolism will have an opposite effect, through the negative feedback loop. Small stress, fondly called eustress , raises biological ( physiological) function and prepares the body for the daily activities. Its release is controlled by the biological clock and follows pulses in a 24-hour-cycle(circadian rhythm ). The master clock, hence the entire genome with its control of the body function, is governed  by the environmental gene switches, mainly sunlight(night/day) and temperature, hence vibrational energy, and meals. In fact, our development right in the womb responds to these cues. So we can readily see what chronic stress, with the resulting stress hormone release, which is not in little, small physiological waves(pulses), induced from captured environmental vibrations, does to an...

Phagocytosis, and hence the immune system, evolved to take care of the nutritional basic need of the cell. The phagosome which contains the engulfed 'food' particle fuses with the lysosome, containing digestive enzymes called lysozymes, proteases and lipases to form the phagolysosome. Phagocytosis can take place in the absence of inflammation i.e. without the blood vessel involvement and recruitment of leucocytes from blood.  In fact, resident macrophages, mast cells, dendritic cells, fat progenitor cells and, for that matter, all body cells have lysosmes, vesicles containing digestive enzymes, and carry out phagocytosis i.e they are technically phagocytes(cells that eat). These lysosomes store food(proteins, carbohydartes and fats) and contain lysozymes that digest carbohydrates and proteases and lipases, which are enzymes that digest the other food substances and make them energy- or structure-convertible. In fact, this is the ...

The body organs operate many sub-biological clocks; these superimposed on the main clock, regulating wakefulness and sleep. Most organs will grow(cell division) at certain times of the day and repair at night. Human energy resources are well managed so that repair(maintenance) has a priority over everything else. Physical activity(eustress) generates growth hormone which leads to food and devitalized tissue breakdown, followed by organ growth(cell division). When such exercise reaches the level of distress, stress hormones(corticosteroids) get to be released, counteract the growth hormone, and vital tissue breakdown takes over and this prevents growth. Other forms of distress such as disease and immune distress, psychological distress, inflammation and aging, have a similar effect on the body. Most organs deteriorate and degenerate under such conditions. Following a good dose of exercise in the day, autophagy(recycling of devitalized tissue) r...

Postive emotions do not mean high emotions, just like bliss does not mean overt excitement. In fact, the reverse is true. While high emotions(arrogance, lust, anger, hatred{ego} and, at the other end of the spectrum, fear{superego}) involve the sympathetic drive, ramp up metabolism(stress response), are destructive; positive emotions(love, empathy) involve the parasympathetic system, including the vagus nerve that slows the heart and which, together with other parasympathetic nerves that dilate the blood vessels, lowers blood pressure. People with high vagal tone are able to control their emotions, experience better health and enjoy better harmony with their surroundings. And the virtuous cycle continues. Meditation, spiritualism(not necessarily religiosity) and relaxation techniques like yoga bring forth positive emotions and increase the vagal tone. All these harmonize one's self with the environment(others). You feel light-hearted after such practice because blood vessels...

Many medical practitioners and scientists have always pondered over how non-toxin-forming micro-organisms cause disease. The fact is that by causing stress, these agents ramp up metabolism, to take care of the stress sequelae(threat; exertion and external damage with consequential, respective autophagy/apoptosis and inflammation; and ultimate repairs) and they use up the host's food resources, to stay alive. Additionally, microbial waste may contribute to the host's metabolic burden. The body responds to foreign intruders, which deprive it of valuable nutrients and cause stress(damage), by fighting back with the immune system, whose function is equally highly energy-demanding. When the immune system is not strong enough, the body's effort to get rid of the microbes is futile and the adaptation acquired by these foreign agents makes them to go into a small cell-wall,'wounded', dormant state within the host cell, and this promotes prolon...

Whether stress causes health or disease, tissue deterioration or build-up, depends on the state of mind. When a stressful activity is accompanied by a positive frame of mind and good feeding(eustress), muscle build-up is promoted. When it is accompanied by negative feelings(distress), there is weight loss and if starchy food is eaten alongside(as is often the case), fat is built up, instead. In either case metabolism  increases, but in different ways in each case. Distress causes free radical  production which promotes further inflammation and eventually organic peroxide production which decreases immunity and impairs mitochondria function, and may lead to cell death. Eustress, on the other hand, leads to nitric oxide production which minimizes the detrimental effects of oxygen free radicals and promotes ATP production, even in low oxygen medium as it dilates blood vessels and supplies nutrients and oxygen. Stress, in general(both distress and eustress),...

Our reality, subjective as it is, is not what exists but what we have tuned our mind to. Studies show that when we are in a crowded room, with many conversations going on simultaneously, we perceive all of them but discrimination, that filters out what we don't want to hear, occurs at a much higher level in the brain, but not at the lower level, as luminous brain scans will reveal. It, thus, shows that what we focus our minds on will affect us. If we believe in something so strongly, that becomes our reality, and this will determine behavior and affect character. It, therefore, should not surprise us that different people will have different points of views on many matters. Most of these are conditioned by our personal life experiences which affect our thought process. Science, as an objective tool, will be able to establish facts in situations where different opinions prevail. So although how we think will affect our health, the good thing is that we can change our thoughts(sinc...

We cannot assume that, as multicellular organisms, our other cell type cannot be foreign to our immune system and so will not be programmed for attack. In fact, our white blood cells, which do the attack, express some different sets of genes from other body cells and logically can attack our own body cells. The fact that this occurs in auto-immune diseases should be the rule rather than the exception, as we are made to believe, (putting aside the adaptation). What accounts for the apparent tolerance shown by our immune cells to our own cells is an adaptation. There is a similar tolerance shown by our immune system to 'non-disease' causing micro-organisms which inhabit our bowels. Tolerance occurs in gradation. When stimulation of the immune system is low(low dose of microbe) there is no response mounted against 'the foreign'; moderate stimulation leads to T-helper cells activation and attack; higher stimulation results in the weighing in of T-suppressor cells ...

How interesting, nature has ways of balancing up acts, with apparently contradictory mechanisms. For new cells to form and rejuvenate tissue, the old ones must die(tissue remodeling), hence new skin is formed only when the old one flakes off. The mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cells. It is here that food is burnt to provide energy, through the intermediary of ATP. Hence, nowhere is the function of the cell more affected biochemically than in its mitochondria. The nucleus, however, determines the overall destiny of the cell, since it here that most genes are found. Once the function of the mitochondria is severely impaired, the nucleus shuts down the cell, which eventually dies. So any damage to the mitochondria that leaves them in a state beyond repairs, immediately leads to cell death. The mitochondria will not function very well as we age. Due to the biochemical importance of mitochondria in th...

I have tried to explain, as simply as I can, diabetes mellitus, the types, risk factors, how to control it, when to prevent it and how. The good news is that type 2 diabetes which is more common is preventable even if genes may play a significant role in it. It should be pointed out that type 2 diabetes may eventually convert to the type 1, if poorly controlled and managed, as the high plasma glucose will eventually destroy the islets cells that produce insulin. The resulting types 1 and 2 mix, from this conversion, makes management even the more difficult. Although genes may play some role in diabetes, we can modify the genes by making some lifestyle modifications, mainly exercise, maintaining a healthy weight and eating nuts, fruits and vegetables, all of which are rich in fiber and micronutrients. Type 2 diabetes is more common than type 1 diabetes. While type 1 occurs mostly in childhood, due to autoimmunity(your body making antibodies to destroy your beta cells of the islets), m...

We are not just products of our genes but more especially what we make with them. The human brain cell expresses more genes than any other cell in our body in adulthood. So our brain cells are most active. The conscious mind places thoughts and ideas in the subconscious mind(habitual or automatic mind) which are then evoked for action  i.e. the conscious mind programs  the subconscious mind. The thoughts must be followed by strong feelings for good  imprint to take place. Once this is done, you then feel natural about them. Imagination, which switches on genes in the brain cells for imprint in the subconscious mind, must preceed major achievements, discoveries and inventions. Imagination is unique to one's experiences and environments, is personal and limitless, as opposed to conventional knowledge. The divine mind(universal subconscious mind), the spirit, the higher self, is what makes us part of the Supernatural bei...

They say 'Beauty is skin deep' but, better put, it is 'body and mind deep'. Most young-looking skins have some things in common: they have intact collagen and elastin which make skin tight and elastic, preventing sagging and wrinkles. Collagen and elastin are produced by fibroblasts and hold together skin cells that naturally die to form keratin in the outer protective layer of the skin( cornified epidermis). Collagen and elastin are protein in nature. (What goes for the skin is applicable to the hair as well) With time and aging this outer skin is subject to damage from environmental factors such as oxygen in the air and sunlight, which together produce damaging reactive free radicals. Excessive cold or heat puts stress(pressure) and strain(stretch) to the skin and will also damage the skin. Skin aging is usually due to damage from free radicals which are produced as a result of psychological stress, disease and toxins such as smoking, drugs and indulgence in too m...