The Free Radical

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As above, so below.

As within, so without.

Universal Law: The law is one… and reciprocal…

…or, we’re all in this together.

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Among our contemporaries, philosophy is not compelling. Abstract thought is not persuasive. We have lost the value of trading in mere ideas. It has to get real and personal before massive sweeping change can really have a chance.

Irrefutably, things are getting pretty real… and personal. All of our lives are being touched.

Nothing grabs our attention like the challenges of compromised health. The etymology of health is found in wholeness. When health begins to fail, we— and the world around us— become fractured; things fall apart.

Autism is skyrocketing; heart disease is still the grimmest of reapers; cancer rates are inexorably on the rise; Alzheimers and dementia are more like inevitable milestones; diabetes is the new normal; and in the midst of all that, severe depression just makes good sense.

But don’t despair; it is always darkest right before the dawn. On the horizon, a new paradigm emerges…

The Folly of Micromanaging Complex Systems

At what point do we accept the abject failure of allopathic medicine?

It was destined to fail from the outset. Perhaps, in the beginning, it wasn’t so easy to see. All we wanted was relief from our various ailments. We wanted medicines to correct what had gone uncomfortably wrong in our lives. And the allopathic paradigm of the last hundred years promised to deliver a specific remedy for every complaint.

This untenable solution was a marketer’s dream… and completely unrealistic in practice.

The human organism— its complex physiology and metabolism, along with its interactions in a changeable environment, its adaptations and responses— this evolving human being represents perhaps the most complex system in existence. Just the intricacies of ‘simple’ nutrition, at the micro-chemical level, is still poorly understood. The myriad variables attending specific disease profiles are too numerous to adequately list. The number of little things that can go wrong— along with each of their potential cascading effects— are incomprehensible in their variety and expression. These bodies are complicated far beyond our current understanding.

Employing a strategy of micromanagement to such a poorly-elucidated complex system is utterly destined to fail. If you don’t understand how the system works, right down to every electro-chemical atomic detail, then your interventions can’t consistently work. Micromanagement of complex systems is predicated on a thorough understanding of the systems involved. Without such an understanding, how can we know among the millions of variables which buttons to push and which levers to pull, and when? At the very best we can say “Hey, let’s try this, and see what happens.” Isn’t that essentially what your doctor is saying every time you’re handed a prescription? Yeah, it might work… for a time, but there’ll be unforeseen consequences: side effects.

And even those who’ve broken away from the allopathic cartel, who’ve adopted a more holistic approach, whose strategies are based more in prevention, utilizing primarily nutrition and detoxification— even these have a tendency to fall into the micromanagement trap. “Maybe I should try high doses of vitamin C for this persistent infection… perhaps this enzyme will help with my bloating… I’ll try this herb for this and that supplement for that… or maybe I just need a little extra iodine, or magnesium… and how are my copper levels?… etc.” It’s still a hit-or-miss strategy based in micromanaging a poorly understood complexity… but at least such natural nutrition-based remedies have a very low capacity to cause harm, unlike pharmaceuticals.

Our conscious minds are ill-suited to intervening in— let alone, supervising— complex systems we don’t adequately understand. Can you imagine if the healing of a little cut on your finger required your conscious attention and direction every step of the process? Would any of us really have a clue what is required at the microscopic or even molecular level to take place… and in what precise order? Fortunately, we’re not required to consciously know and think our way back to health. Our bodies already know the way.

There was a time when I too fervently believed that pretty much every health challenge could be pre-empted or prevented by the two-prong strategy of nutrition and detoxification. As long as we were effectively cleaning out all of the gunk and pumping in all of the right building blocks, our cells should be immortal. Right? We’ve all heard about human cells surviving the bodies from which they were taken, living seemingly immortal lives in carefully controlled petri dish environments. All they need is to be adequately hydrated to flush out all the toxins and waste, and to be fed with the proper nutrients in a timely fashion. Seems simple. Seems legit.

But what is most-oft forgotten about our isolated cells in their petri-dish paradise is the intelligence of the human operator— that person in the white lab coat who carries out those life-giving functions. That human operator needs to be disciplined, diligent, consistent and knowledgeable… otherwise the cells will quickly die. But inside our bodies, there is no omniscient scientist co-ordinating such events. That duty falls to our innate body intelligence. Only our own bodies know how to heal our own bodies.

Only our own bodies know how to heal our own bodies… only when that innate intelligence is functioning at peak efficiency. Our Innate needs to be fully informed; and conversely, it needs to be able to precisely inform all the cells— and all the non-human actors involved— exactly what to do in order to heal. The missing factor from our detoxification and nutrition strategy is communication. What could be more important in complex systems than effective communication?

When communication begins to break down, parts become isolated, factionalized and desperate. Cancer cells are the very loneliest cells of all. But it’s worth remembering that cancer cells share the very same DNA as the surrounding cells; they belong directly to the cancer patient. There’s no foreign invader here; no malicious intent. Cancer cells have lost the ability to communicate with their immediate environment; our Innate has lost the ability to communicate with the cancer. Every particle of Life is programmed at the deepest level for survival above all else. When cells are cut off from the collective intelligence of the larger organism, they often resort to doing whatever they can to survive— in perceived isolation— by reverting to a more primitive fementative metabolism and reproducing as quickly as possible. Can you blame them? You can, but you would gain nothing of value thereby. Cancer is perhaps the most extreme manifestation of the breakdown of our internal communication systems.

In recent years, I’ve known too many people who have significant knowledge about holistic health and who are consistent in their application of such, and yet their health continues to decline despite their best efforts. It became obvious that something was missing from the big picture. Communication is perhaps the key to it all.

The Progress in Recent Decades

I was still a student in high school when the Human Genome Project was first conceived (1984). And the subsequent mapping of our DNA was achieved during the period from 1990 to 2003. It was a monumental and ambitious task… holding great promise.

Within the prevailing paradigm, the Human Genome Project promised the ultimate in targeted marketing strategies. Designer drugs could be developed for every genetic predisposition to every disease. Specific genes could be targeted for chemical expression or suppression. Pharmaceutical CEOs were drooling at the prospects. But it didn’t quite turn out that way.

At the genetic level, the human being was found to be far less complex than expected, having in the neighbourhood of 20,000 genes as opposed to the predicted 200,000 or more. The assumption at the beginning was that every gene was coded for one specific protein, and the gene was either switched on or off. The anticipated view was much like a computer: binary and predictable.

What was discovered instead was that each gene could have dozens of expressions, coding for a variety of proteins— which were environmentally determined in the moment. And thus was born the newer science of epigenetics.

Epigenetics is concerned with multitudes of environmental variables affecting specific gene expressions minute by minute. Change the environment, affect the genes. In such a manner, the internal environment of the human organism is made to directly correlate with its immediate external environment. They are reflections of each other, in a responsive feedback loop.

At the conclusion of the Human Genome Project, it was generally assumed that genetics accounted for roughly 20% of our physiological expression. Things like height or eye colour were hardwired into us and couldn’t typically be altered. With the subsequent emergence of epigenetics, that number fell to only about 5%… inversely correlating with the other portion of our DNA, the “junk” DNA. There was a plethora of evidence showing that our bodies are much more responsive to immediate environmental factors than previously thought. Even the mere shape of the protein molecules produced according to genetic instructions mattered significantly; it wasn’t just the specific sequencing of the peptides. The “junk” DNA, it was discovered, was continually creating micro-RNA in response to innumerable environmental factors. There was a lot more going on at the molecular level than anyone had anticipated.

And finally, this diverse molecular variance led to the discovery and study of the brand new science of redox signalling. (Much more about that later.)

The End of War Consciousness

Western culture is steeped in war consciousness. Every challenge is a fight. Every choice decides who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. “Support the troops and eradicate the enemy!” War, or warring, is the basic predisposition of our minds. Historically, it’s how we frame everything.

Cancer patients most often speak of “beating their cancer”… even though the cancer is every bit as much them as the non-cancerous cells. We all “fight” against colds, and try to “eradicate” infections. We are taught as little children to think of sickness as a fierce “battle” raging within us, and we are the “battlefield.” Since at least the time of Darwin, we have framed ourselves as competitors in a never-ending contest. The lofty ideal of “peace” is a mere concept, unachievable and ephemeral; peace is nowhere to be found on this endless battleground.

But war consciousness is a perspective; it is a way in which to view the world and ourselves. It is a filter, a paradigm. But is it the truth? And does it serve our progress?

Whether you believe Einstein or not, we live in a relativistic universe. All things are connected, and therefore are in relationship with one another. And what do we know about relationships? The success or failure of our relationships depend directly and invariably upon our ability to effectively communicate. This is as true at the molecular level, the individual body level, the societal level, or at the level of stars and planets as anywhere else. Where there is good effective communication, good relations are maintained and the integrity of the whole is supported and expressed. Where communication breaks down, relationships deteriorate, isolation and fragmentation occur… and the big picture can no longer be discerned.

A warrior’s mindset forever chooses who should live and who should die. But what if all the participants are necessary, that all are needed? What if wiping out the bad guys is the wrong strategy? What if there are no bad guys?

A New View of Human

Our exquisite complexity arises from diversity. Just as ecological diversity gives rise to environmental complexity, we too are an ecology, a community. And there is no “us versus them.” It’s all just us… needing to take responsibility.

At most, our human cells comprising these bodies number around 100 trillion. However, the microbes— the bacteria, fungi, viruses and other microscopic players— who carry out up to 90% of our physiological functions in a symbiotic relationship with our cells, number around 1.5 quadrillion. That means that at the microscopic level of this human existence, we are outnumbered cellularly about 15 to 1 in our own bodies. Overall, we are so incredibly outnumbered in the microbial world that if war and competition was really the way of things we would’ve been conquered or outright destroyed long ago. If the microbes who live within us and upon us truly wanted us dead, we’d be dead within seconds… and there’s nothing we could hope to do about it. We need them. And for the sake of balance, let’s assume that they need us too.

These human bodies have very little capacity on their own for digesting and assimilating the nutrients in our food. Rather, it is the community of microbes living in our gut who do most of the heavy lifting. And those living on the surface of our skin are essential for our protection and physical integrity. Even within our healthy tissues, microbes are integrated at the functional level. Nature does not typically produce any sterile environments; microbes are everywhere, as they’re meant to be.

Three Seats of Consciousness

The human being has at least three distinct seats of conscious, or if you prefer, three separate minds. Most of us locate our consciousness in the head and associate it with the brain and nervous system. Only in recent decades has the heart too become widely recognized as a separate (emotional) centre of consciousness. And the third distinct mind within these bodies has only been gaining traction in western culture in the last few years. It resides in our gut, as our innate body intelligence (or just the “Innate”).

Our head consciousness, the seat of our thinking, operates primarily electrically, sending signals via the nerves throughout the body. Heart consciousness is our emotional centre of awareness, utilizing a communication system consisting primarily of complex and potent chemical messengers called hormones. And the gut brain is primarily localized in the very centre of our bodies, relying on a complex system of redox signalling molecules in order to communicate with the entire internal ecology of the human organism. And each of these systems overlap.

The gut brain is our Source-connected primal (first) consciousness, and it is mostly non-human. It correlates internal reality with external reality at the molecular level. Simply, it adjusts the internal conditions of body functioning to match the current conditions of the immediate environment. For example, if the body is taking in food which is grown in nearly lifeless soil devoid of microbial diversity, the microbial diversity within the gut will similarly diminish in direct proportion. The unfortunate consequence of such an instance is that a reduction in diversity results in lowered complexity which equals less consciousness— or a degradation in the ability to effectively communicate. (Our guts become literally autistic: isolated and overwhelmed.)

Perhaps it is time to recognize that it is wholly unrealistic to expect that we as individuals can possibly maintain our health in the midst of an environment which is suffering and rapidly degrading. Our inner world is inextricably tied to the condition and functionality of the world around us. The undeniable truth of this is being driven home by the sharp escalation in global health challenges occurring everywhere, including even in the most developed of nations.

Honouring The Ancient Ancestors

There seems to be something inherent in the human being which reflects upon and honours the past. Perhaps it’s as simple as knowing that self-knowledge begins in knowing where we came from. Among a humanity long lost in the seductive hallucinations of incessant mentation, along with a sprinkling of severe emotionalism, most folks carry notions of our ancient ancestry involving either vanished primates, the machinations of unknown gods, ancient alien astronauts, or a combination of these. And who is nearly always forgotten in our elaborate thinking? Our true ancestors: the mitochondria.

In the far distant past, Earth was a very different place. Billions of years ago it was teeming with life— microbial life— but the uncountable inhabitants were all single-celled. Among the prokaryotes (cells lacking a nucleus), the mitochondria were especially gifted in utilizing oxygen— whose planetary level was suddenly abundant and on the rise— for producing very abundant energy. And it seems that the ancient mitochondria conceived an ambitious plan. They learned how to build/grow multi-cellular organisms from their eukaryotic cousins, embedding themselves within the new physiology as the energy-producing organelles, our very own mitochondria.

Interestingly though, the mitochondria present in each and every one of our human cells doesn’t share our human DNA. Mitochondrial DNA is separate and distinct, despite the fact that these ancient organelles are inextricably integrated into our cellular biology. We couldn’t live for a second if not for the energy production provided by the mitochondria. In this way, we can think of the human being as an amalgamation of “self” and “other” in a singular functional organism. We have always carried the Ancient Ancestors along with us on this incredible human journey. Ain’t that kinda neat?

The Common Roots of All Disease

Cancer cells have dysfunctional mitochondria; they are damaged beyond any reasonable repair. Without the ability to continue aerobic metabolic functions, the cancer cell reverts to fermentation instead, which occurs easily within an oxygen deficient environment. But cancer is a severe case, lying at the far end of metabolic dysfunction and disease. What are the common steps along the way leading to all manner of disruption, including cancer and virtually everything else?

You’ve probably heard of oxidative stress. Our overly simplistic answer to oxidative stress has been to load up on antioxidants. Obviously, this is a response taken directly from our entrenched war consciousness. “Got a problem with too many oxidants? Wipe ‘em out with tons of antioxidants!” The balance, however, between oxidants and reductants— inside the cells in particular— is an exquisite complexity that can’t be “solved” by merely eating more blueberries. Here, the main problem is that many food-borne antioxidants are simply too big and too complex to penetrate the cell membrane. It’s useful to remember that the scale used to measure the antioxidants in our food (ORP: Oxidative Reduction Potential) tells us only of the potential. There’s no guarantee that the antioxidants will react with or reduce anything; they only have the potential to do so. And that requires molecular intelligence.

Much of the damaging effects of oxidative stress occur and originate within the cells themselves. Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) are continually produced by the mitochondria in ATP energy production. When a balance of reductants like glutathione and catalase are also present, the ROS are neutralized in redox reactions— which signal health and wellbeing to surrounding cells, both human and non-human, as well as to the Innate which many of us regard as our immune system.

When this delicate redox signalling system falls out of balance (the reasons for which we will discuss further in subsequent essays), the cells become damaged from the inside out. Along with the sustained damage comes a loss of communication at the cellular and molecular levels. And this chronic condition leads to chronic inflammation. You’ve probably heard of that one too.

In simplistic terms, chronic inflammation is an immune dysfunction. The Innate becomes confused and the body begins to attack or overburden its own cells… and the condition of inflammation never seems to end. And this, in turn, leads to further immune dysfunction which can result in autoimmune disease profiles like diabetes or psoriasis, for instance.

The genesis of all disease as we currently understand it goes something like this: redox reactions within the cells become unbalanced; the cells suffer oxidative stress and damage; prolonged oxidative stress results in chronic inflammation; unchecked chronic inflammation leads to many disease profiles along with increasing autoimmunity dysfunction… which, in turn, leads to the all-too-common autoimmune disorders.

One might argue that infectious diseases are outside of this causality chain, but, in the new paradigm, pathogens can only proliferate and take hold, causing physiological damage, only once the body’s communication systems have already been compromised… early on in the above causality chain.

Conclusion

When a sick person takes a pharmaceutical drug, that drug may help with the alleviation of various uncomfortable symptoms. When a healthy person takes a pharmaceutical drug, it is quite likely to make them sick. Right there, a picture of a flawed paradigm emerges.

In the new paradigm, tools for health contribute to health and wellbeing in sick persons in the same manner that they make a healthy person even healthier. Such tools are holistic and their action is systemic; they are not attempts at micromanagement. Health is not merely the absence of diagnosable disease. It is our wholeness, our integrity, our ability to adapt and to thrive.

As I observe the world, sickness appears to be on the rise. Unfortunately, that’s the way it has to be before humans will take the degradation of the environment seriously. It has to get personal and ugly. Only once it becomes clear that we cannot be healthy living in a sick environment will we take significant meaningful steps toward correcting it all.

Looking Ahead

So far, we’ve hit all the highlights of the emerging paradigm in the most general of terms. In the instalments to follow, I intend to elaborate on each of the main themes touched upon here, focusing specifically upon the unique tools and technologies that have recently become available as a result of the new research and new thinking.

Here is a list of the proposed essays to follow shortly:

Restoring the Microbiome and Our Place Within It (Dr. Zach Bush and his product Restore)
The Magic of Redox Signalling Molecules (Dr. Samuelson and the product ASEA)
The Real God Particle (molecular hydrogen therapy; Tyler LaBaron)
The Buzz About Carbon 60
The Endocannabinoid System: Yet Another Signalling Pathway
Odds ’n Ends (DMSO, pqq, serrapeptase, stem cells, ACV, fasting, AUT or Orin Looping…)

(Proposed titles are subject to change.)

All of the essays to follow in this series will be based in my own experience with each of the products and modalities described.

Go to the next essay in this series Restoring the Biome