Decline and Fall of Homo Sapiens

Decline and Fall of Homo Sapiens

Sub-title: How capitalism regained its grip in the 21st century but failed to spot it wasn't in the 19th Century anymore.

Many of the problems that beset us in the 21st Century arise from the rapid increase in global population over the last century. Increases in wealth and improvements in health accounted for an increase in childhood survival and, average age of death, which in turn fuelled a Malthusian increase in population numbers globally. 

Technology has largely met the increase in the consumption of energy to feed, warm and transport the populations. But with  catastrophic environmental consequences. This much is all so well known and a path so well trodden that it hardly needs to be restated here.

What is gradually dawning on the world however is that humans may be dying out, just like any organism that explodes into profusion exhausts its environment and declines. Below without any supplementary, exhaustive referencing are some facts easily gleaned from a thousand  official websites

 Global Population Decline is due to:

1) Birth rate decline

            a) declining sperm count

                i) increased oestrogen and phyto oestrogens in diet

            b) older first time mothers

                    i) daughters of older mothers have none or fewer children

            c) gender disphoria/identity/sexual orientation

                    i) change in male-epigenetic signalling

                    ii) changes in female epigenetic signalling

                    iii) homosexual partnership increase

                    iv) low reproduction in LBGTQ+ individuals*

2) Elective smaller families

        a) increased access to contraception

        b) increased access to abortion

        c) reduced authority of religious/societal mandating access to sex only through mariage

3) Mortality increase

           a) pension age increase

           b) increase in type 2 diabetes

           c) reduced health care access

            d) pandemics

Add, them up, no one factor is deciding the issue and there is no escape, humans are not reproducing at anywhere near replacement levels from Dublin to Bejiing ( India is still increasing but it is due to reduced infant mortality which will level out).

The interesting thing from my point of view is, how was the Malthusian nightmare avoided? Malthus himself formulated his over-population 'expansion to crisis' model in the mid 18th century, having witnessed first hand pre-famine Ireland where the newly-acclimatised carbohydrate rich potato, combined with a religious imperative to procreate, created a population boom which was accompanied by incredible, epic poverty amongst the poor.

Here is how I think we were saved, or will be saved from overpopulation and then  doomed by depopulation: Economics, in this case Capitalism.

The logic is simple. Children have always been a blessing and a burden. To support dependent children in a capitalist society you need your own money. If you  procreate beyond your means to support your progeny, you will be poor, or very poor and may have to give up children to illness, realtives or strangers.

Population control, that is intercourse without procreation, could be achieved in the past by abstinence, coitus interuptus, good menstrual cycle timing and  use of condoms (from mid 19th century). Unless of course  particular religious practices forbade these already unreliably methods. Finally , abortion was available at great personal risk and with universal condemnation from most societies.

Once  hormonal contraeptive pills became available and chemical or physical abortion became safer, the game changed completely. 

A family of one child or two has more disposable income than one with more children. Modern living, the good life, from London to Moscow to Delhi to Bejing depends upon disposable income in order to buy goods and services which define the good life and keep the people 'happy'. Most countries, with exceptions like North Korea, prefer the capitalist 'carrot' to the socialist stick to keep the population quiet.

Capitalism produces near unlimited wealth for the few and  minor aspirational wealth for the many. In the latter instance it is obvious that having fewer to no children will maximise personal wealth. With contraception readily available and with dimished authority of religious demands to reproduce it is obvious that the number of children will reduce.

Logically if you want to be maximally wealthy in a capitalist society then no-children is the answer.

Second best is one maybe two children conceived as late in life as passible.

Population decline means labour shortages. Once again technology can solve the probllem. Automation which started seriously in the period called the Industrial Revolution has developed markedly into the era of autonomous robotics and AI. A cycle is generated, fewer workers means more automation: more automation means fewer people are needed. Simply put, if  birth rates recovered what on earth would you do with the people? Meta-work, the work that occurs in offices and meeting rooms as opposed to productive work still convinces most people that it is  meaningful mostly becasue their time is well compensated but the illusion will vanish inevitably thereby generating an existentail crisis.

Terminal capitalism therefore, like terminal popultion growth is not far away. The means of production will no longer depend on labour and so compensation for labour beomes meaningless for the majority. The rich will pay the remaining people to simply to consume or the whole cycle of manufacture fails. 

As Margeret Thatcher onced observed  in a monetarist pure-capitalism,along the lines that 'there is no such thing as society': well, it'll have to be re-invented, and quickly, if we are to survive.

*LBGTQ+: Less than 20% of same sex couples have any off-spring, under 50% of women identifying as bisexual have given birth and transgender pregnancy is in laboratory stage so is numerically effectively zero. 

post script:

It is worth noting that Sapiens is the only surviving species of  the once quite diverse Homo genus. It is not unlikely in my opinion that the Neandethals and Denisovans to name two species simply died out because they stopped reproducing in sufficient for existentail reasons rather than environmental. Consciousness has a price.

DNA based vaccinations, mitochondria and Oops!

Oops! but maybe a good oops.

 ‘We demonstrate that human recombinant adenoviral vectors co-localize to mitochondria.’1

It is emerging that folk who had the AstraZenica vaccine during the Covid pandemic are showing long term resistance to ‘non-target’ pathogens1. Rephrased prosaically and with anecdotal embellishment this can be summarised as not getting colds/sore throats, for years now.  When it seems certain to one that ‘a cold is coming on’ or ‘I am coming down with something’ … nothing happens, the symptoms go away in a few hours.

To remind readers, the AZ vaccine was fundamentally different from those produced by Pfizer and Moderna. The AZ vaccine used a modified chimpanzee adenovirus to introduce its payload (engineered DNA) into cells. This DNA was in  turn transcribed into mRNA which in turn was translated into the now fabled ‘spike protein. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines however introduced only the mRNA into the cell by loading it into fatty microspheres which can then merge with cell membranes and discharge their mRNA payload. 2

The end result, translation of the code to make the spike protein, and hence confer immunity to Covid-19 is pretty much the same for all vaccines save for the now famously debated data on side-effects.

It gets interesting though with the AZ adenovirus vector + DNA approach. In the wild, adenovirus enters cells efficiently because that is what the virus has evolved to do. It is a ruthlessly efficient hypodermic-style predator designed to breach the outer membranes and walls of animal cells  and bacteria.

The engineered version, the so called vector, leverages the virus’ ability to get into cells but has within it now a custom payload, in this case rather than viral genes it’s now the DNA code to make the mRNA to make the spike protein3.

The ‘oops’ moment is almost certainly to do with what happens to the injected DNA long after entering the cell. We know the DNA ‘works’ because the spike protein gets made, so it is certainly transcribed and makes the target mRNA. Now, mRNA does not last long inside a cell, it cannot be repaired and so ultimately degrades and its molecules recycled. Not so with DNA. 

DNA can be destroyed but it can also be protected and repaired. Also adenoviruses can enter a cell intact and have long preyed on mitochondria2, deliberately down-regulating them to stop mitochondria doing one of their jobs, ie destroying virus infected cells. 

To cut a complex story short, AZ’s DNA, just as happens with natural virus DNA, will inevitably be found just ‘hanging around’ in the nucleus: in micronuclei in the cytoplasm and inside mitochondria. In the latter, like in the nucleus we now know that there are plenty of repair enzymes to keep it going. So in short, artificially introduced DNA unlike mRNA is likely to persist. If it persists it will be transcribed unless actively prevented from doing so by the cell’s control mechanisms.

There is also no reason for such semi-integrated DNA to be transcribed completely faithfully, spike proteins could easily become spike-like proteins.

So it is no great step of imagination to speculate that we the AV recipients,  have a population of ‘infected’ cells, not being terminated by mitochondria, and turning out viral proteins either through the normal cytosolic ribosomes or using the mitochondrial ribosomes. Either way these proteins will involve the inevitable ‘prepping’ of the immune system on an ongoing basis.

Referring to my previous post on mitochondria and Covid immunity. It made the link between 'prepped innate immune sytem and the mitochondria in monocytes and their progenitors cells which are particularly plentiful and active. These cells would be likely targets for the adenovirus vectors and the source of long term memory.

Non-target immunity’ would sum this up nicely. Just don’t tell the anti-vaxxers they may envy my modified genetics.

1. https://www.jci.org/articles/view/162581

2). 2019;63(1):111-116. doi: 10.4149/av_2019_114.

Localization of human recombinant adenoviral vectors to the mitochondria following transduction of human cell lines

B J Morrison, M Abu-Asab, J C Morris, J C Steel

• 
  

3)https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/health/oxford-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine.html

Mitochondria, immunity and Covid

 Mitochondria, immunity  and Covid

Just when I was thinking posts about mitochondria had dried up along comes a really intriguing finding. This intriguing finding concerned the effects of the Covid 19 Astrazenica vaccine and was published this January by Trinity College Dublin1.. In the Republic of Ireland AZ’s DNA vaccines were dropped in favour of the mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer due to the concerns raised about adverse responses to the vaccine amongst the young. TCD’s findings however have shown that recipients of the AZ DNA vaccine are showing long-term increased immunity to a wide range of so called ‘non-target’ pathogens. 

I picked up on this publication as anecdotally my wife and I ( both AZ recipients) had been puzzled by our lack of infections through the past two winters. Nothing, not a cold nor a sore throat. We would get the initial symptoms of various infections many times only to find six hours later they were gone. Repeatedly we had remarked on this oddity. 

Anyway, it turns out that it is all due to the innate immune system. I confess I was hazy on the very existence of a separate immune system to what I now know is the adaptive immune system. It also transpires that the training of the innate system is all the rage today. The innate immune system is very ancient and is a multifactorial defence against ‘non-self’ invaders found in most living creatures from insects to fungi. 

Our innate immune system, simplified, revolves around large white blood cells called monocytes. These are short lived cells capable of destroying bacteria and virus-filled infected cells by phagocytosis, in other words by eating them. They are also able to participate in so-called cross-talk communications with other parts of the immune system via the cytokine signalling network. The innate immune system has a good memory, possibly even inheritable. The monocytes are short-lived and it is supposed that the memory ( created by epigenetic modification of DNA) resides in the progenitor cells. These cells are similar to and derived from stem cells but can only give rise to one type of cell, in this case monocytes.

It gets very interesting when looking at the training of the innate system. In this context training means activating it to be on the alert for pathogenic changes such as bacteria or cancer-transformed cells. Regarding vaccination, the BCG vaccination and the Astrazenica vaccination have a training effect. The work on AZ is new but the off-target health benefits of BCG have been well known for many years. 

It is the simple molecules that activate the system, namely  beta-glycans (sugary molecules found in cereals) fumarate ( a TCA cycle intermediate) and squalene as from extra-virgin olive oils (EVO), from shark oil and now famously found in vaccine adjuvants.

At last this is where the mitochondria come in! Trained monocytes have, more, larger mitochondria with many cristae, high membrane potentials, multiple inter-mitochondrial fusions and higher ox-phos ratios than in non trained monocytes. Together these factors point to a powered up cell with deep reserves of energy.

Of the training agents, fumarate will stimulate mitochondrial TCA activity and so generate energy via the membrane electrical energy and squalene is a precursor of cholesterol which in turn is essential for the electrical integrity needed for the high inner membrane potentials and an effective free radical shield provided by the outer membrane. 

So, here we go again, chicken v egg. Trained immunity is dependent on mitochondrial performance because  training factors directly affect mitochondria: mitochondria are the watchdogs of cell health. 

Why? Because the cell is their home.

1. https://www.tcd.ie/news_events/articles/2023/research-indicates-wider-benefits-to-astrazeneca-vaccine/**

2. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.01715/full

The Mitochondrial Hegemony

 

Mitochondrial Hegemony

More on a mitocentric view of life.

A recent publication ¹ has shown that in the development of Parkinson’s Disease (PK), mitochondria switch to a situation where their substrate or ‘feedstock’ is from fatty acids rather than from  normal metabolism of glucose. 

This may sound esoterically biochemical and just a specific example from a particular disease, but it is of great significance. To me, it is another example of mitochondria ‘deciding’ the fate of cells. But this last sentence requires elucidation because it has been well known for many years that cell death, surely the ultimate example of a cell’s fate,  is initiated by mitochondria. 

Specifically, cell death is started by electrical depolarization of mitochondria followed by a release of the weakly-bound protein Cytochrome C from the inner mitochondrial membrane through the outer membrane which in turn sets off a cascade of reactions leading to cell death.

So what is significant about the first example which is observed in Parkinson’s disease?

What I want to posit is another shift in the 50yr scientific  journey of mitochondria from a mere structure, an organelle so called,  which is specialised in chemical energy transduction thence to modern orthodoxy (where it is now a symbiont) derived from free-living bacterial-like origins and living in subordinate partnership with its nucleated host cell. 

The next shift is to see the mitochondrion in a much more powerful role. A role which puts mitochondria at the very centre of life. Simply put, the mitochondria are ‘in charge’ of the cell not vice-versa. The mitochondria are living in a cellular ecosystem which they are able to reproduce into large trillion-cell organisms. 

 

A few supporting facts

Mitochondria provide the free-energy to maintain the low-entropy situation of a multicellular organism.

Multicellular undifferentiated clumps are possible without mitochondria². Typically as an example cancer-tumours have disabled their mitochondria (to prevent them initiating the cell death switch) but without the vast amounts of energy supplied by mitochondria the structure of the tumour is almost non existent and supplies of nutrients and disposing of waste prevents any viability outside host-victim.

Mitochondria have a fully functioning genome³

Few mitochondrial genes reside in the bacteria-like circular DNA within the mitochondria itself. What is there is highly redundant ( many gene copies ) which is unsurprising as mitochondria are in effect free-radical furnaces and gene damage highly likely. Most mitochondrial genes are to be found now in the relative safety of the host cell’s nucleus where it is tended and repaired but more importantly it is communicated with via a process called retrograde signalling. In other words mitochondria have outsourced their genetic information: stored it in the ‘cloud’ to use a modern analogy.

Mitochondrial energy-transduction biochemistry is ‘kludged*’ with its host’s energy -transduction biochemistry

The title above needs a fair amount of unpicking to make sense but can be appreciated maybe through an imaginative narrative well described nowadays and beautifully fleshed out in Wikipedia⁴:

Imagine free-living mitochondria emerging in a world that is becoming oxygen-rich as a result of photosynthetic activity. Imagine also vast pools of oil-like hydrocarbons resulting from decaying photosynthetic organisms. 

Mitochondria  fully oxidise a chemical we call acetyl. Essentially, acetyl consists of two carbon, three hydrogen and one oxygen atom. 

In my imaginary scene mitochondria are getting acetyl from free fatty acids (oily stuff) basically by chopping off two carbons at a time and hydrating them ( adding water) using a very complicated enzyme complex found on their inner membrane. They can still do this today and is coincidently described in the first paragraph of this essay.

Now imagine a bacteria-sized mitochondrion having been engulfed by a primitive, hunting amoebic-like cell … finding itself in paradise and being fed abundant acetyl, gratis! 

This is exactly what happens today. The ancient biochemistry we call glycolysis essentially takes sugars whose basic unit comprises six carbons and breaks them down to two, two-carbon units releasing a modest amount of free energy. Acetyl units for free.

The imaginary host cell above uses glycolysis to partly metabolise sugars without oxygen and the captured mitochondrion laps it up. Free food is rapidly fully oxidised to carbon dioxide and water and a powerhouse chimera is born. Over and over again and at some point the chimera persists and multiplies.

But, back to the title of this section, we have two alien biochemistries which are getting along fine but still have a long way to achieve glitch-free integration. My contention is that millions of years later with thousands of evolutionary modifications the junction between the two biochemistry has all the hallmarks of a kludge and should be seen as such and we often feel its effects even today.

 

To sumarise. What is this chimera? Is it a partnership of equals? Does one party dominate the other? Are ‘we-multicells’  just ‘Matrix-like’ hosts to the dominance of the mitochondria?

From a Dawkins’ selfish-gene perspective, for genes it is a win-win whatever your origin and as such a pointless distinction is being made. But from a physiological-health and longevity of organisms, ie ‘us’ the relationship between mitochondria and host does matter. 

Examples, just three of many relationships that matter:

For:  in the Parkinson’s example at the start of this article why has the junction failed, why have the mitochondria reverted to fat metabolism? 

Or; when we age we get fat disproportionately from sugar consumption as mitochondria fail to metabolise the acetyls and they are stored as fat

Or finally, during viral infection  whether oncogenic or simply a pathogen like Covid 19, mitochondria are in the front line destroying cells before they themselves are switched off.

By adopting a mitocentric view of life we may begin to see connections and causes overlooked in the past.

*kludge: an ill-assorted collection of parts assembled to fulfil a particular purpose.

1.    https://www.ebi.ac.uk/metabolights/MTBLS2266/descriptors

2.    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4950268/#:~:text=Mitochondrial%20dysfunction%20induced%20by%20somatic,might%20contribute%20to%20cancer%20progression.

3.    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6468901/#:~:text='%20Mitochondrial%20retrograde%20signalling%20is%20a,survival%2C%20drug%20resistance%20and%20metastasis.

4.    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symbiogenesis

5.    Biosystems. 2013 Jan; 111(1): 1–10.

 

Post script August 2024

During a person's lifetime, evidence has emerged that mitochondria insert their DNA in small blocks into the cell's nuclear DNA. This occurence has been discoverd in post mortem studies on the pre-frontal cortex of human brains. The insertions occur multiple times over a lifetime but occured more often in cadarvers that died at a younger age ... and vice versa.

No mechanism for early death has been put forward. But in the context of this article it is fun to speculate that the mitochondria 'sense' something in their cellular world is amiss, likely affecting their own health and are attempting to put something right.

Malfunctioning mitochondria will generate more free radicles and may hasten cell death as a result. What are the mitochondria signalling and why?

https://www.cuimc.columbia.edu/news/mitochondria-are-flinging-their-dna-our-brain-cells#:~:text=Their%20analysis%20showed%20that%20nuclear,than%20individuals%20with%20fewer%20NUMTs.

Dietary Cholesterol, a must.

 I have always been really puzzled by a dietary paradox. These are the undisputed  findings that foods either high in cholesterol or highly cholesterogenic are associated with good health in old age especially with regard to cognitive decline.

I repeat these findings are not in dispute. Foods highest in cholesterol are exemplified by  oily fish and seafood. It is difficult to find a voice dissenting from the health benefits of regularly eating these foods. Usually, despite there being no evidence to support it Omega-3 lipids are given the credit for the health plus.

Cholestero-genic foods, that is foods that have an ingredient that is readily and simply converted to cholesterol, are extra-virgin olive oil and fungi such as mushrooms of various types. The cholestero-genic ingredient in the former is squalene and in the latter, ergothionine.

Squalene is in highest concentrations in shark and ray oils so consumed mostly in the Japanese cultures. Squalene by the way is also the mysterious black-art ingredient of big-pharma’s vital vaccine adjuvants. Ergothionene is an antioxidant and so is given a ‘health plus’ press because of the assumption ( false at worst, unproven at best ) that anti-oxidants in the diet are good for you.

So why are these foods good for you? It is easy to explain why their cholesterol profile is not mentioned because anyone not branding  the ‘c’ word as the devil is an apostate by definition. I think dietary intake of cholesterol has now been rehabilitated since it is known to have little/no effect of serum levels of cholesterol, however it is a struggle to find a magic ingredient to explain the foods’ benefits.

The more you obtain cholesterol via the diet the less is made by the liver and vice-versa The liver can synthesize all or very nearly all the cholesterol required by the body and set it in any form from low to high density lipoprotein droplets (VHDL, HDLl ‘good cholesterol’, LDL ‘bad cholesterol’). 

Cholesterol is obviously and immediately  essential or there would be no such fall-back mechanism. I did read long ago that lab-monitored cholesterol-free diets, as in totally free had a bad effect on the trialists, but this is just a memory now, I cannot find it. I also cannot find whether the liver can make 100% of requirements or not.

The liver’s cholesterol from scratch bio-synthetic pathway is quite complex and energetically expensive starting from a simple two carbon molecule joined to a coenzyme called acetyl-coA. This molecule is the principle feed-stock for mitochondrial energetics in the production of ATP as well as being the building block of fat.

The pathway is very important at the complicated end of the pathway nearer the final steps to cholesterol as it branches and twines  into sterol based hormones or, at the very, end vitamin D which is made from cholesterol.

The ergothionines and squalenes are at the more complicated end and need little work to complete their sterol final destination.

IS requiring the liver to synthesize cholesterol a bad-thing? My guess is that it is.

Either the ‘good for you diets’ possess as yet unidentified ingredients that are ‘good’ or synergistic combinations common to animals, plants and fungi. Or, quite simply having to make your own cholesterol while possible is a bad thing.

Maybe the pathway being dedicated to cholesterol reduces energy available to mitochondria, maybe hormone production is unbalanced, maybe it damages the liver, maybe all sorts of things but I think this is where to look.

Cholesterol in the diet is good for you. Heresy for a while longer.

Ageing of Smooth Muscle 2

 

Introduction

Smooth muscle is the muscle that is found lining our hollow organs. That is to say, our intestines, bladder, blood vessels, uterus ( if applicable). It is also the muscle that closes sphincters (entry-exit to and from stomach, anus, urethra) and in the eye operates our iris and focuses the lens.

Smooth muscle, like cardiac muscle is not under our direct nervous control (as is skeletal muscle), it’s actions are, for the most part, autonomous and we are either unaware of its action (except during childbirth or intestinal or renal colic) Smooth muscle is also very strong, gramme for gramme when compared to skeletal muscle. Smooth muscle cells have mitochondria as do skeletal and cardiac muscle cells, and cell-death occurs in all these tissues using the same mechanisms.

Smooth muscle is not studied in any way comparable to skeletal or cardiac muscle but what has been carried out on the physiological and biochemical level does not suggest any fundamental difference in the tissues on the sub-morphological-histological level. It follows that it is reasonable to propose that smooth muscle will age as both cardiac and skeletal muscle ages.

It is also reasonable to propose that smooth muscle will be adaptive in a way analogous to hear and skeletal muscle. By this I mean that smooth muscle should respond to physiological demand in an adaptive sense, ie it can be conditioned, improved, by reasonable demand and use... ie exercised.

In old age a phenomenon with skeletal muscle called sarcopenia occurs when muscle mass is lost as mitochondria 'decommission’ old cells. This happens for a variety of reasons. The cells may be damaged or simply unused and have been marked ‘parked’ and have not been used for a long time, maybe due to illness, starvation or incapacitation.

For skeletal muscle we know that regular exercise, especially load bearing exercise, coupled with a good diet mitigates early sarcopenia. For skeletal muscle the 'use it or lose it' principle applies as old age encroaches. Cardiomyopathy does not exhibit sarcopenia with age but instead shows a thicken of non-functional muscle in the heart's cell walls. Again though physical activity benefits heart muscle seemingly through improving its uptake of oxygen and reducing stress hormones. In both cases the point is that these muscles respond to stressors* in a good way and adapt and condition as a result.

It seems, to repeat myself, unlikely to say the least, that smooth muscle cannot also be conditioned and de-conditioned through its physiological activity in respect to physical challenges.

The De-conditioning life-style

Let's take smooth muscle function tissue by tissue choosing four major groups..

1) Eyes. Pupil dilation and lens focus are controlled by the iris sphincter muscle and the lens' ciliary muscle, both are smooth muscles and not under our conscious control. A modern office worker will typically experience only regulated artifical light which will be similar if slighly less at home. In both cases the ambient light will be unchanging. In term of focal distance 'Work' and leisure today is heavily concentrated on screen focal distances be it phone, computer or TV. In other words these muscles are not called upon to do much work.

2) Guts. Motion through the gut and retention within the gut are carried out by smooth muscle. Three sphincters seal off the gut into compartments. Two enclose the stomach sealing it off while its muscles churn and emusifies food in a highly acidic environment. The third, the anal sphincter prevents waste from digestion being evacuated inconvenienty before water has been recalimed into the body. A 'mexican wave' of smooth muscle contraction known as peristalsis, moves liquids and semi-liquids and solids through the gut. De-conditioning these muscles is easy. Simpy put, food ingested approximates to pre-mastcated, pre-digested baby food. This is pretty much a description of many modern diets.

For example, a burger pattie is the norm today as the primary intake of meat. A pattie is basically macerated and emulsified meat and fat, saving the stomach substantial amounts of work. Carbohydrate intake is biased away from high fibre complex carbohydrates to oligosacharrides and simple sugars, again saving the gut work. Fat intake is overwhelmingly in what is termed 'hidden fat' rather than solid fat, obviating the need for active emulsfication by the gut's muscles.The modern gut has little to do when comapared to a hunter-gatherers gut.

Finally sphincters! Reflux and incontinence are common afflictions of age. These imperfectly closed and easily overhwelmed valves also need conditioning to retain their power in old age.

3) Lungs. Lungs have delicate envelopes of smooth muscle, they are inflated as a result of the lifting of the rib cage causing a reduction in pressure allowing air to enter the lungs. Positive pressures will damage the lung. Normal breathing is what is called 'tidal'. Only a small amount of air is ventilated when sedentary or even walking. The point is, deep breathing is reserved to hard exercsie or deliberate full inhalation. Sedentary workers do not make demands on the lungs smooth muscle.

4) Arteries. Arteries have muscular walls to their vessels. Major arteries such as the aorta have thick powerful layers of smooth muscle. Heavy work such as lifting objects increase blood pressure. It does so transiently but for instance it is not uncommon fo weightlifters to develop arterial pressures in excess of 400mmHg. Modern medicine and lifestyle works hard to maintain a near constant ideal blood pressure of 120/80mmHg ( systolic/diastolic) or even lower. NIR (near infra red light) causes apoptosis of vascular smooth muscle cells. This appears to be a good and a bad thing. Remodelling of blood vessels littered with quiescent ( unused ) smooth muscle cells benefit from a clear-out and remodelling. However for diseased vessels and atherosclerotic vessels there can be adverse effects including plaque rupture. 

Discussion

I think that the assertion that smooth muscle in modern urban man/woman is given a lot less work to do as a result of a carefully controlled environment and life style.

The question is does it matter? To answer this question we can look at some of the age-related woes that beset the examples above. All examples given will be multi-factorial, that is they cannot be attributed to smooth muscle alone even so it's worth a quick canter through some common disorders.

Night-vision acomodation slows with age; time to focus at distance increases; constipation or IBS increases with age; sphincters lose effectiveness as in acid reflux and incontinence;lung capacity, and shortness of breath are typical as we age; arteries bulge with aneurisms and even rupture.

On the flip side is there any suggestion that placing demands on smooth muscle ( in the Goldilocks zone) has a beneficial effect?

For eyes, I can only think of advice given to heavy screen time users to get away from screen and re-focus every twenty minutes; for guts we have the proposed benefits of fibrous food, whole foods and good fecal-biome; for lungs deep breathing exercises are highly recommended and finally for arteries resistance training is very popular.

Of course in the above list of 'good for you' we do not expect to see 'good for your smooth muscles' but indeed all of them would exercise just those muscles.

It's time for a new set of health guidlines, 'Look after your smooth muscle' Below is a program of 'exercise'forsmooth muscle health.

1) Daylight for eyes

2) Fibrous and raw food ( eg vegetables, mushrooms, whole meat, beans, pulses) for guts

3) Resistance work ( weights ) for arteries and sphincters.

4) Aerobic exercise for lungs

5) NIR light ( dawn and dusk light ) for vascular health

 

*As an aside it is important to point out that such stressors as exercise need to be 'not too much and not too little' ie they are in the Goldilocks Zone.

Mitochondrial Rejuvenation and NIR

Rejuvenation of Mitochondria using Near Infra Red Light

Maybe I am just behind the times, but when my optician mails me with red-light treatment for my aging eyes (which will ‘stimulate and rejuvenate my mitochondria ) and in the same week a friend is having some one shining a red torch onto the backside of her horse, it is obviously time to do some internet searching.

What I found pretty quickly is that:

a) photobiomodulation therapy (PBM)  is everywhere and

b)  640nm LEDs are the cheap and easy reason for the ‘torches’ and variants on that theme

However, as my optician is no charlatan,  a bit more research was demanded which, after a long story, has resulted in me purchasing a 810nm high-powered LED complete with heat sink. Experiments will follow.

Below is ‘the story’ behind PBM and it’s very interesting.

Background:

1. Electrochemistry in mitochondria

The generation of chemical free energy by mitochondria is, broadly, in the form of the molecule ATP. ATP production depends on generating an electrochemical potential across a membrane and is mediated within that membrane by  a series of connected electron transporting proteins known as cytochromes.  The process is ultimately oxidative (hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water) and the cytochrome flash between oxidised and reduced forms as they play pass the parcel with an endless supply of electrons obtained from hydrogen.

2. Photochemistry of cytochromes

The clue as to their photo-sensitivity is in the ‘chrome’ part of their name. Light absorption is inevitable, as at their heart is the molecular ‘cage’ of a porphyrin ring which  embraces  a metal ion. This ion’s (usually copper) day job is to accept and release electrons thus becoming ‘reduced’ and ‘oxidised’ in turn. The ring’s structure though, being analogous to those molecules in plants which trap light for a living as part of the photosynthetic process means that light trapping is always ‘on the cards’/

It’s reasonable to assume then, that mitochondria’s photosensitivity is an atavistic legacy from a distant photosynthetic past inherited by their cytochrome structures. Even so, biology never lets an opportunity pass it by if it can be leveraged and scientists never let an opportunity pass that can be exploited!

Humans like most non-photosynthetic organisms are impermeable to light, but not all light.

The near infra-red penetrates skin well, it feels warm on the skin and carries on deeper into the tissues. This light can be seen as visible red light at the 600-700nm range becoming ‘dark’ by 800nm.

‘Bottom Line’

It has been long known and shown over and over, that mitochondria can and do absorb NIR light and that NIR can affect their activity either stimulating or inhibiting ATP production. And so onto its application and significance.

Red Light Therapy

‘Torches’ that emit red light at safe low levels at around 640nm ( the peak from standard IR LEDs) are routinely used as therapy to treat skin ailments and eyes. The theory goes that the mitochondria are stimulated, producing more ATP which promotes healing and performance ( rejuvenation). 

Naturally enough given their bogey-man status, the concomitant  increase in free radical production (ROS) is not mentioned, nor awkwardly, is the fact that some NIR wavelengths stimulate and other inhibit. 

Harder Science for practical application of NIR

NIR enhances mitochondrial activity by stimulating cytochrome c oxidase (COX) at 810nm. BUT it inhibits COX at 750nm and 950nm. 

I can find no such detailed data at red led’s 640nm. The absorption spectrum of COX shows that the stimulated oxidised form of its copper ion is at 670nm and 810nm. As a result I suspect  visible red light treatments may be less effective than ideal at when the main light source is at 640nm.

In any case, the conclusion is that the wavelength of NIR matters and that broad spectrum of wavelengths may cause inhibition as well as stimulation of mitochondria.

My interest rests at the 810nm absorbtion for which fortunately there is a powerful LED readily available. I have not carried out any experiments yet but the diode has arrived and works. 

What is the point of stimulating the mitochondria within say skin or eye tissue?

Retrograde signalling? 

In a previous blog I went into detail about mitochondrial control of ‘nuclear’ genes relevant to its own integrity. The mitochondrial response to NIR is another potential mechanism for signalling to the transcription factors in the nucleus. Firstly there are noted variations in the inner membrane’s electrical potential, secondly there is an associated production of nitric oxide and thirdly increased ROS production gas, all three are capable of communication with the nucleus. But what? if anything, they are talking about is a mystery.

Various theories exist as to environmental, natural responses to red light. Sunrise and sunset being cited as red-light rich cues. Dawn is proposed as a signal that a high UV session is coming. This seems fanciful and not persuasive. Another is that NIR stimulates  repair mechanisms. This is not so fanciful. The increased ROS production will cause mild inflammation signalling repair processes to increase. In this case ‘deep heat’ would be well served by sitting close to an open fire!.

The whole area of red-light therapy is fascinating and I am looking forward to trying it out. I am pretty sure that NIR at 810nm will stimulate mitochondria but what effect it will have and how deep is a question. Luckily I have my own sore muscles, joints and even an old horse to work on.