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Going to post another blog post from Dr. Samuelson. This one talks about what happens in the body with long lasting toxins and how redox signaling works to control those. I'm going to take it as a copy with a link at the end for the origonal post Many of us know how it feels to be intoxicated. Alcohol is one of the few neurotoxins that can make it through the blood brain barrier, it floods the brain and interferes with the signaling junctions between brain cells. When someone drinks alcohol and becomes intoxicated, the symptoms include a number of very familiar behaviors: inability to maintain balance or speak, cloudy recollection, lack of rational thought control, etc. and the intoxicated person may not even be able to have the presence of mind to realize that they are impaired. Thankfully, alcohol is gradually cleared from the brain over time and the majority of the brain cells regain their typical balance and function. What would happen, however, if alcohol could not be cleared from the brain. We then would be locked in a state of permanent intoxication, the signaling system in the brain would be impaired permanently. Without realizing it, we might find ourselves in a constant state of staggering, drooling, slurred speech, and lack of rational thought control. Even worse, this long-term intoxication might be diagnosed by medical professionals as permanent brain damage, causing us to eventually be marked as mentally disabled. When a signaling problem becomes permanent, the scene quickly loses its humor. This is an example of what can happen when signaling systems go wrong. By the way, neurotoxins like this do exist. Heavy metals such as mercury are among them. Mercury intoxication has been falsely diagnosed as mental illness all over the world for hundreds of years. It is possible that long-lasting toxins (those that have the power disrupt the vast signaling networks between cells) are part of the root cause of some modern types of chronic disorders. In order to regain the normal signaling function of the body, the neurotoxin would need to be removed from the environment and the body and the impaired cells must be given a chance to recover their normal signaling function (just like brain cells recover from too much alcohol). If the signaling blockages are indeed caused by a toxin, the symptoms then could be expected to quickly improve when the toxin is removed. The bad news is that intolerance to some neurotoxins can be passed from mother to child. For example, fish that have been exposed to tolerable amounts of mercury do not show any symptoms of mercury poisoning themselves, however their offspring show clear signs of mercury toxicity and undergo extensive death when they are exposed to the same “tolerable” amount to mercury. By their mother’s exposure to mercury the children have become hyper-intolerant to mercury. Lately among us humans, we are seeing a little too much intolerance to toxins and allergies to a variety of foods. And it is only getting worse with every new generation. Neurological problems, like Autism, also are growing wildly. If the trends keep on going, it is projected that in 2050 over ½ of the children in the U.S. will be chronically sick, with ¼ of them diagnosed with mental disorders ranging in the Autistic Spectrum. The growth rate of these disorders by far outpace any possible genetic disorders. Autism growth rate is at 12% per annum where world population growth is at a little over 1%. There are several reasons why a toxin cannot be removed from the body. Interestingly enough, toxins can get stuck in the body and brain if they are not able to be eliminated by the intestines. The intestines have about the same surface area as a tennis court and eliminate most of the toxins from our body. If the intestines become inflamed or leaky, then the toxins that are pushed out of the body into the intestines can then leak back into the blood through the leaky intestinal walls. This is called leaky gut. Clinical studies have shown that the conditions leading to acute leaky gut can be caused by ingestion of environmental toxins such as glyphosate (a widely used herbicide) and excess gluten. The same things that cause leaky gut can also cause leaky brain, allowing toxins to get past the blood brain barrier and make it into the brain. Agricultural practices of spraying wheat with glyphosate cause a double whammy (gluten and herbicides) to the intestinal and brain barriers for toxins. A recent analysis of common foods, showed significant amounts of the glyphosate herbicide. Cheerios, for example, was shown to have over 1,100ppb of glyphosate. These numbers are valid causes for concern, especially because small amounts of these toxins can break down gut filtration integrity and instigate acute leaky gut. Given time, the intestines and body can usually recover from a toxic insult, yet there is always concern that some of the toxins that leaked in can cause more permanent damage, become stuck in tissues, or trigger chronic inflammation and intolerances in ourselves and even worse in our children. It is wise to be cautious when it comes to these things. Recall that a toxin can be classified as anything that is not a natural nutrient, anything that cannot be used by the body must be eliminated by the body. In a perfectly healthy world, we would grow our own food in local community gardens. The main focus of this discussion is to enhance an awareness of how important these signaling processes are to the cells, tissues and systems of our body. We are built to be connected and happy. Things that interfere with this ideal state of affairs in our cells may also interfere with the joy of life and interfere with us reaching our true potential. Let us always be able to be meaningfully connected. Good nutrition, water, sleep and exercise, lack of toxins and redox signaling compatible environment will help us stay that way. https://drgarysamuelson.com/2017/05/01/when-signaling-goes-wrong/

Had a request for more information on how the ketogenic diet – a high fat, low carb diet – works with cells and health. So - grab a cup of coffee - this one is a bit of a long read, but only because the is so much information out there if you just look for it. I know I’ve talked about it some of this already – but i think a quick once over on how cells work is needed. We are taught that our 75 million or so cells in our body are little sacks of fluid (there is good evidence that they may actually be gel like and not fluid - Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life: Gerald H. Pollack ) In either system, there are little organelles in all cells called mitochondria. These are the most important little organelles in the cells, and create energy the cells need called ATP. (http://www.austincc....yerth/krebs.htm ) Generally the mitochondria create this ATP via oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHPOS) mainly by using pyruvate derived from glycolytic processing of glucose – other words simple sugars from carbohydrates are commonly converted to glucose and used for this. The Ketogenic Diet (KD) has been used to control epilepsy for over 80 years. The KD, which is high in fat and low in carbohydrates, mimics the metabolic state of starvation, forcing the body to utilize fat as its primary source of energy – a state known as ketosis. Ketosis usually kicks in after 3 or 4 days of eating less than 50 grams of carbohydrates per day. That's about 3 slices of bread, a cup of low-fat fruit yogurt, or two small bananas. You can start ketosis by fasting, too. This is different from ketoacidosis. Some people, including doctors (no offense to present company), get the dangerous condition of ketoacidosis confused with normal benign dietary ketosis but they are different conditions. Normal nutritional ketosis is NOT dangerous. Every person alive goes into mild ketosis each time they go without eating for 6-8 hours. The effects of ketosis vary with individual experience but ketones in normal amounts are not dangerous. Unless you are a Type 1 diabetic (meaning your pancreas makes no insulin at all) or a Type 2 diabetic with a really burned out pancreas, ketosis is kept in check by the presence of insulin in the body. Insulin regulates the flow of fatty acids from our fat cells. As long as insulin is circulating within the body, in general, the flow of fatty acids and the production of ketone bodies is highly regulated and limited to a range that is not dangerous. The basic chemical process for the cell to create ATP from fats instead of carbohydrates basically remains the same – but some steps get added before to get to the point of having glucose for the mitochondria to use. Hope this isn’t too complicated. Trying to keep it as simple as possible. When fat (in the form of triglyceride) is called upon to be metabolized for fuel, a substance called hormone sensitive lipase (HSL) breaks the triglyceride compound down into one glycerol molecule and 3 fatty acid molecules. These fatty acid molecules come in various lengths of carbon based chains. The fatty acids then flow into either liver or muscle cells and are transported into the mitochondria of the cell to be metabolized carbon by carbon in a process called beta-oxidation. As glucose levels fall and fatty acid levels in the blood rise, the liver cells ramp up beta-oxidation which increases the amounts of a molecule called Acetyl-CoA. As the level of Acetyl-CoA rises, it is shunted to a process called ketogenesis, which creates a ketone body called acetoacetate first. This ketone is then converted into the two other types of ketones: beta-hydroxybutyrate, and acetone. Meanwhile, the glycerol part of the fat molecule gets converted into glucose in a process called gluconeogenesis, which means "make new sugar". From there, it goes through the typical ATP producing OXPHOS. http://www.ketogenic-diet-resource.com/ketosis.html So what does this do for our bodies – and especially our cells and mitochondria? Ketogenic diets have been shown to upregulate mitochondrial biogenesis – the process by which new mitochondria are formed inside of cells. So we are stimulating the growth of even more fuel engines. One of the greatest areas that have the most mitochondria are brain cells. This is probably why many people report the effect of a high fat diet being like ‘the lights were turned on’. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16807920 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/666275 If we take into account that mitochondrial damage and energy production failure are central components of many neurological disorders, we can really see the benefits. Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy and a now a growing number of psychiatric disorders are being linked to mitochondrial malfunction and oxidative stress in the brain. That’s why patients with these condition often show improvement when moved to the KD. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19664343 Another way the KD improves brain function is through antioxidant effects. Oxidative stress can cause harm all throughout the body. You may have seen me mention this once or twice before. You may have also seen me write about glutathione. Glutathione is our body’s master antioxidant and detox substance. Ketogenic diets have been associated with increased mitochondrial glutathione levels and glutathione peroxidase activity in the hippocampus and reduced oxidant production. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18466343 One bigger kicker – at least to me. ThaiExpat will like this one. “As metabolic reprogramming from oxidative phosphorylation toward increased glycolysis is a hallmark of cancer cells (Warburg Effect); there is increasing evidence that the ketogenic diet may also be beneficial as an adjuvant cancer therapy by potentiating the antitumor effect of chemotherapy and radiation treatment.” “… dietary modifications, such as high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diets that enhance mitochondrial oxidative metabolism while limiting glucose consumption could represent a safe, inexpensive, easily implementable, and effective approach to selectively enhance metabolic stress in cancer cells versus normal cells.” I other words – it helps to shut down the cancerous cells energy supply, increase the ability of the mitochondria in cancer cells move back towards normal redox homeostasis and makes cancer cells more susceptible to conventional treatment. To sum it up – the KD has “Data from clinical and preclinical studies indicate that these diets restrict glycolysis and increase fatty acid oxidation, actions which result in ketosis, replenishment of the TCA cycle (i.e., anaplerosis), restoration of neurotransmitter and ion channel function, and enhanced mitochondrial respiration. Further, there is mounting evidence that the KD and its variants can impact key signaling pathways that evolved to sense the energetic state of the cell, and that help maintain cellular homeostasis.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24847102 So – it keeps your cells working right, it helps correct many things that have gone wrong, and may even help fight “The big C”. I sure hope that reiterates “The Goodness of Fats.” Remember – there’s 2 parts to this – Increase fats, decrease carbs.

I promised this a while back. Got kind of busy and this took a bit of a back burner - but finally got it. There appears to be a continued public misconception that free radicals are bad, and that antioxidants are good. Of course, like most phenomena affecting our health, it’s not that simple. Antioxidants protect living cells from damaging “oxidation.” Oxidative damage is caused by things like radiation (sun rays), poor diet, chemicals (to include pharmaceuticals) and the chemical reactions that naturally take place inside of living cells as part of everyday metabolism. These types of events have the power to remove electrons from stable molecules, thereby generating “reactive oxygen species” (ROS) or “free radicals.” Free radicals are very reactive and unstable, because they are missing an electron (a negatively-charged particle). Molecules like to have a perfect balance of positive and negative charges at all times. So, these free radicals, in their mad search for an electron, will rip off electrons from vulnerable molecules in their path until they are happily balanced again. So, the original free radicals are now stable (phew), but now we have two new problems: First problem: when an electron is torn away from a molecule, the molecule can break apart or stop functioning properly. Second problem: these neighboring molecules are now missing electrons and are now unstable themselves…and so they go looking for electrons…and a chain reaction can occur. If this chain reaction is not stopped, the cell could be damaged beyond repair. This is why antioxidants are so important. All living things need antioxidants to protect them from the oxidative dangers of daily living. Luckily, Mother Nature provided us with plenty of our own endogenous antioxidants within our bodies, many of which are quite different from plant antioxidants. These include things like glutathione, super oxide dismutase, catalase, uric acid and cholesterol (yep – that cholesterol). These antioxidants are "small chain" antioxidants - meaning they can fit through the cell walls and go anywhere in the body. Most plant antioxidants are "large chain" antioxidants and really only work in the bloodstream. Until recently, the thinking had been that the more antioxidants, the less oxidative stress, because all of those lonely electrons would quickly get paired up before they had the chance to start mucking things up in our cells. But that thinking has changed. Free radicals are a natural byproduct of the body’s metabolism, but in most cases, naturally occurring endogenous antioxidants stabilize them and keep the damage to a minimum. Free radicals are a natural byproduct of aerobic metabolism in the cells (energy production using oxygen), which ramps up during physical activity. The free radicals produced by this increase in metabolism signal the cell to make its own endogenous home-made antioxidants. These endogenous antioxidants are very important, and may be responsible for many of the health benefits associated with physical activity. A 2014 review published in Nutrition and Food Science called for more research on the subject, but ultimately concluded that high-dose antioxidant supplements can effectively “abolish the beneficial effects of exercise” (italics mine). Researchers think that high levels of a single antioxidant (like the 1,000 mg of vitamin C in a packet of Emergen-C) can ****** up all the free radicals produced by exercise before they have a chance to trigger the synthesis of those beneficial endogenous antioxidants. Individuals who take large amounts of antioxidant supplements could enter the status of “antioxidative” stress. If antioxidant supplements decreases the level of free radicals too low, it may interfere with the immune systems ability to fight bacteria and essential defensive mechanisms for removal of damaged cells, including those that are precancerous and cancerous. So, antioxidant supplement overuse may actually cause harm. When large amounts of antioxidant nutrients are taken, they can also act as prooxidants by increasing oxidative stress. Pro- and antioxidant effects of antioxidants (e.g., vitamin C) are dose dependent, and thus, more is not necessarily better. Our diets typically contain safe levels of vitamins; therefore, high-level antioxidant supplements may upset this important physiological balance between the ROS formation and neutralization. Oxidative stress is damaging AND beneficial for the organism, as some oxidants (ROS) are signaling molecules in cellular signaling pathways. Lowering the levels of oxidative stress by antioxidant supplements is not beneficial in such cases. The balance between ROS and antioxidants is optimal, as both extremes, oxidative and antioxidative stress, are damaging. Therefore, it is striving for a balance – homeostasis – that a person needs to look at. Don't just take my word for it -here are the research articles I used for this. http://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2013/956792/ http://healthland.time.com/2013/08/06/the-truth-about-antioxidants/ http://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2014/761264/

AutismOne is a nonprofit, parent-driven organization that provides education and supports advocacy efforts for children and families touched by an autism diagnosis. The AutismOne/Focus for Health 2015 Conference was held May 20-24, 2015, at the Loews Chicago O’Hare Hotel in Rosemont, IL. One of the presenters was a man I'm happy to be able to call a friend - Dr. Gary Samuelson. He has PhD.s in Medical and Atomic Physics from the University of Utah, and has won the American Association of Physics Teachers Award for Teaching Excellence in his work with physics students (awarded on student and faculty recommendations from the University of Utah). He works as a independent science consultant to a variety of companies in the medical science industry. Some of his successes include developing the large-scale production of safe, stable nanoparticle structures capable of safely disabling viruses, attaching bacteria, detecting tumors, and delivering drugs, among many other major applications. Lately, Dr. Samuelson has focused on applications in the newly emerging redox signaling science, being developed world-wide. He has identified methods to produce safe and stable molecular complexes capable of stimulating many of the body’s natural healing responses, applicable to a wide variety of health issues. In the following link​​​ Dr. Gary Samuelson presents Redox Signaling Science to the audience at the 2015 Autism One Conference. It's long - but for science and health types, I think you will find it very interesting. The first few minutes dispel myths held by most people about the balance that exists in human biological processes. 43:45 reveals future uses of redox supplementation technology, at 49:20-51:00 the autism community is highlighted specifically, and the last 2 minutes will give you chills. It's a personal story of his interaction with a pharmaceutical company that was willing to let people die just so they could get hold of this technology. So glad the patent owners didn't let that happen. I've heard the story before - personally - from 3 of the people in the room when it happens. Every time I hear it, all I can do is shake my head in wonder. I have a video with the whole story, but since it specifically names a product, so afraid I can't post it here. http://www.autismone.org/content/dr-gary-samuelson-new-research-oxidative-therapies-and-redox-signaling

So - the post about the link witht the "cat poop parasites" and schizophrenia got me curious - so I started doing a litle research and thought I'd share it. There appears to also be a link with schizophrenia, oxidative stress, and glutathione. I've posted about glutathione before - http://dinarvets.com/forums/index.php?/topic/169917-the-big-three-bodies-own-natural-antioxidants/?hl=glutathione In a nutshell - it's the mother of all antioxidants, the master detoxifier and maestro of the immune system that is created by you own body. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/glutathione-the-mother-of_b_530494.html So now lets look at the link it has with mental illness - http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22938092 Abstract SIGNIFICANCE:Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) are classified as two distinct diseases. However, accumulating evidence shows that both disorders share genetic, pathological, and epidemiological characteristics. Based on genetic and functional findings, redox dysregulation due to an imbalance between pro-oxidants and antioxidant defense mechanisms has been proposed as a risk factor contributing to their pathophysiology. RECENT ADVANCES: Altered antioxidant systems and signs of increased oxidative stress are observed in peripheral tissues and brains of SZ and BD patients, including abnormal prefrontal levels of glutathione (GSH), the major cellular redox regulator and antioxidant.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19481443 Abstract In schizophrenia, a developmental redox dysregulation constitutes one 'hub' on which converge genetic impairments of glutathione synthesis and environmental vulnerability factors generating oxidative stress. Their timing at critical periods of neurodevelopment could play a decisive role in inducing impairment of neural connectivity and synchronization as observed in schizophrenia. In experimental models, such redox dysregulation induces anomalies strikingly similar to those observed in patients. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16410648 Abstract Altered antioxidant status has been reported in schizophrenia. The glutathione (GSH) redox system is important for reducing oxidative stress. GSH, a radical scavenger, is converted to oxidized glutathione (GSSG) through glutathione peroxidase (GPx), and converted back to GSH by glutathione reductase (GR). Measurements of GSH, GSSG and its related enzymatic reactions are thus important for evaluating the redox and antioxidant status. In the present study, levels of GSH, GSSG, GPx and GR were assessed in the caudate region of postmortem brains from schizophrenic patients and control subjects (with and without other psychiatric disorders). Significantly lower levels of GSH, GPx, and GR were found in schizophrenic group than in control groups without any psychiatric disorders. Concomitantly, a decreased GSH:GSSG ratio was also found in schizophrenic group.So - this means that schizophrenia can be viewed as a redox disease. Bottom line -"A treatment restoring the redox balance without side effects yields improvements of negative symptoms in chronic patients." (see first pubmed link). I'm still saying that all disease can be linked back to the cellular level - oxidative stress and it resulting changes are huge!