The webinar this month was on Autism.  Dr. Samuelson and Maria Corral (leader and contributor to several organizations in the Autism communities and mother of three autistic children) offer their knowledge and experience with Autistic Children and how redox signaling can factor into this complex issue.  Hope you enjoy it, it runs about 1hr 24min and is packed with information.

https://youtu.be/u2zG60YcyOw

Due to the demand I have posted a recording of a call that was done to explain, in part, the results of the Affymetrix Genetic Testing done on 60 individuals to determine genetic expression when ingesting a redox supplement.  Please click on the link below to play the video recording.

Redox Genetic Results Call

What are in the Final Chapters of human development?
I believe and hope that due to the importance of adaptation, we will eventually find a way to thrive with an evolving system that has the power to adapt the new and emerging technologies to our benefit. The realization of this vision is already in the air. We hear conversations all the time among informed people that involve sustainable green environment, diet, recycling, organic, health solutions, etc., and the need for answers to global problems. We are all are inherently concerned and feel the need for solutions as the problems come closer and closer to home. Products that offer even just the slightest perception of health, like vitamin waters, are growing into multi-billion dollar industries overnight while there are sharp declines in consumption of sugary, carbonated beverages. There is a real shift towards healthy sustainable solutions.
As a whole, we are ready for the technologies that offer real solutions. The fuse is lit. And the truth of it is that many of these solutions already exist and have been shown to work but are not yet widely available or accepted on the market (for reasons we have already discussed). We are primed for a literal explosion of health and agricultural technologies. As soon as we have adapted an open reliable way to prove out emerging technologies so that we can compare results and advertise available options, there will be a literal explosion of health solutions, similar to the personal computing markets of a generation ago. I imagine industries emerging overnight to answer the demand for necessary technologies and systems. Unlike the information technology explosion, though, there is a psychological element involved in motivating people to change lifestyles that will need to be addressed, as well as local agricultural solutions for organic foods, possibly even produce grown in the home. These things are doable and certainly more alluring than the consequences we face if we cannot find solutions.
The technologies that offer this type of advancements to the world will be based on the laws of health, exercise, nutrition, restorative rest, and hydration. They also will be built on our knowledge of how natural, safe solutions function in cellular biology. Imagine that after you have been diagnosed with a health problem, you could go to the Internet and have access to data for millions of people, comparing different solutions they have used for similar problems, like we can do when shopping for a computer or cell phone today. Suppose we could compare prices, safety, and efficiency for these different solutions. Active competition between them gives you the best price and increases the efficiency of these solutions so that they are effective and affordable. Imagine viewing advertisements from health care organizations constantly claiming better success rates, prices, and service for their customers. Imagine that an explosion of solutions was available for almost all health problems that exist. There are quite a few things that we could have with a little imagination. Imagine what all of this would mean for the quality of your life.
Imagine a world where you wake up after a great sleep to fresh, clean air and walk down to your little personal greenhouse, filling your lungs with oxygen. You sprinkle some nanonutrients into the fish tank, check your solar panels, check the pump that circulates the fish water through your garden trays, and reach over to pick a few of the fresh veggies and fruits growing there to juice for breakfast. You drink your Redox water and nanonutrients and smile knowing that cancer and infectious and degenerative diseases are a thing of the past as your body heals so quickly now that none of these have a chance to take hold. Your family gathers around. “Happy 95th birthday”, grandchildren and great-grandchildren say as they call you. You pick up some tennis rackets and go out to exercise with your spouse and friends. You have the luxury of taking off work as you have small grocery bills and your environment, power, and heat, is self-sustainable. What will you do with your free time? Maybe write a book or go skydiving? If this is not the future you imagine for yourself, then what is?

Nothing in life can be attributed to just one thing alone, the same can be said for the genes. When we think of genes, the most common perception is that genes are responsible for eye and hair color, bone structure, body shape and the chance of having certain health issues. This is a very limited view. The genes are much more than just a static blueprint that is perhaps needed only during the formative years. In reality genes are expressed millions of times a minute inside each of our 10’s of trillions of cells. Genes in cells are very active all the time. What is gene expression and how are the genes expressed?
Genes in a cell are like apps on a cellular phone or a computer. When you want an app to start, you touch or click on an icon button, this starts up the app, or in genetic language starts the “expression” of the app. Each app is programmed to do something different just as each gene in your cells is programmed to do something unique. If you want to make a phone call on your smart phone, you press the phone app, for example, this brings up a dialer that lets you look up a name or dial a number. Inside your body’s cells, the genes (apps) have coding that makes specific molecules called proteins out of amino acids (lego-like building blocks). The proteins that are made can be used to build parts of the cell, like muscle fibers, or can be used to do something, like make antioxidants or hormones.
Every time you blink an eye, think a thought, feel a breeze, twitch a muscle, feel the sun, or take a breath, genes are being expressed to help it to happen. Genes are very active. And just like cell-phone-apps, these genes require something to press the buttons to start them or express them. A smart phone or computer has lots of buttons, keyboards full of them, each button “expresses” a different app to do something. If you do not press the buttons on your device, generally nothing will happen. The cells in your body are the same, if nothing presses the gene buttons, not much will happen. Thousands of the gene buttons are being pushed in your cells every second. Your cells have close to 20,000 genes and about as many “buttons” that start these genes to do their work. The question might come to mind, “How does a cell know which of all the gene buttons to press (express) to keep everything working correctly in our cells?” The answer might surprise you.
Almost everything in the environment of the cell pushes genetic buttons (expresses genes): molecules from the food we eat, the thoughts we think, the muscles we flex, the things we see and feel, the hormones, the nerves, the temperature, the water, the air, all body systems, the blood, cell signaling messengers, messages coming from surrounding cells, and so on. Just a few examples: sugar in the blood sends messages to express the “insulin producing” genes in pancreatic cells. The Insulin, in turn, pushes the buttons to burn more sugar, convert sugars to fats and store fats. Even visual stimulation expresses genes. When looking at something beautiful, our mind pushes the buttons to make “feel good” hormones in our brain, or when looking at something scary, it produces stress shock hormones in the brain. If we pay attention, we can certainly feel and experience the effects when these genetic pathways as they are activated, these experiences are very common in our daily life.
The study of what pushes the genetic buttons is called “epigenetics” (beyond genes) and it is a very hot topic in biology. Biotech companies, such as Affymetrix, have created little microchips that can measure the genetic buttons pushed in most all of our genes. From a blood sample, each microchip can monitor 10’s of thousands of the genetic expressions. This is a great tool that allows us to peek inside the cells of our body and monitor which gene buttons are being pushed. Since there are so many buttons, the analysis of these data can take some time and requires vast experience and large databases. Many genetic databases have been compiled over the years and we are using them to see how our genes respond to different foods, supplements and environmental factors.
Recently an Affimetrix panel was run by a credible genetics lab on 60 people to determine what happens to human genetic expression (which gene buttons are pushed) when people drink a certain safe formulation of redox signaling molecules. An experiment was designed to determine which genes are expressed when these signaling molecules are orally ingested. A group of people (25) drank only salt water (the placebo group), another group (25) drank the redox signaling molecules with salt water (the study group), and a third, smaller group (10), did not drink anything different than the usual (the control group). The people did this over a period of 8 weeks.
The results showed moderate but significant differences in genetic activity between the study group and the placebo and control groups over 8 weeks. Five gene expressions were identified as different, the results were significant and very interesting for a variety of reasons. It was found that the genetic buttons pushed by these redox signaling molecules express some of the most important signaling apps available inside the cells. Some types of genes are more important than others. The signaling genes (the ones that cause messages to be sent) are of utmost importance, just like the dialing and call transmission apps on your smart phone; they allow the cells to effectively talk to one another. The signaling channels (or pathways) in our cells can be very complex; signals are passed from cell to cell, from cells to nerve cells, from nerve cells to nerve cells, and back to cells all throughout the body. These signals in turn help express the genetic buttons that make everything in the body work the way it should. The five genes identified by the study have substantial applications to many of the most important signaling channels, they provide important components that are critical to the signaling pathways all throughout our body.
For example, the “ERG1” gene registered a highly significant response in the study. It produces an important transfer factor that connects several important cell signaling channels, including G-proteins that are critically involved in sending and receiving hormone messages between cells, such as reception of insulin to help control blood sugar, serotonin the “feel good” hormone that contributes to mental relaxation and balance, and the regulation of hormones that balance sleep and wake cycles. Among the hormonal pathways are also those which help regulate reproductive systems and metabolic balance through the ovarian and thyroid hormones. Additionally, EGR1 also connects to the NRF2 pathway that is involved in setting up the cell defense network by increasing antioxidant production. These processes help in reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, which in turn helps the cells better identify the “malfunctioning cells” to switch on the genes (apps) that eliminate dysfunctional cells and repair and replace healthy cells. The ERG1 gene can be thought of as a “router” app that helps keep important networks up and running. As computer and phone networks become more prevalent, it is easier for us to understand the role and importance of these “router” genes that help keep everything connected.
If we look at some of the other genes expressed in the study there are those that help repair blood vessels and that others that create important digestive enzymes needed to break down and digest the foods we eat. Isn’t it interesting that the expression of just one signaling gene can affect so many different genes and functions in our body? The signaling pathways are complex and interconnected networks. As we study it out, it becomes clear that if just one of the signaling “router” genes goes down in our body, it will disrupt multiple systems and communication pathways as well.  If just one of the “router” genes is restored, it helps to reconnect everything again to regain functionality of systems all across the body.
Many of the results from this recent genetic study support years of prior studies that have shown indications of reduction of oxidative stress, such as the reduction oxidized glutathione and reduction of oxidized LDL cholesterol from previous human studies . Some of the results, though, open new areas of understanding, such as activation of genes that improve the elasticity and tone of blood vessels and the expression of beneficial digestive enzymes in the stomach. These new results correlate with observations made by thousands of people that are drinking the redox cell signaling supplement who report regularly that vascular tone is improving, circulation is improving and digestion is improving. We now have the added benefit of being able to better identify the genetic pathways that help explain what makes this all happen. It certainly opens our mind to the understanding that technologies that improve cell signaling can be universally beneficial to the entire body.

All of us have played games at one point or another: soccer, tennis, football, basketball, monopoly, blackjack, foot races, checkers, volley ball, it seems like the varieties are endless. Each game we play is defined by a set of rules. The rules and boundaries are set at the start, all the players understand and accept the rules and boundaries. In truth, it would not make sense or be much fun to play a game without such rules and boundaries and it often invokes anger, frustration or disappointment when an “idiot” decides to ignore the rules and boundaries or attempts to change them during play.
Not all rules and boundaries in life are made up by us. Nature imposes rules and boundaries that must be there to allow life to exist. Each of the trillions of cells and bacteria in our body are governed by such rules and boundaries. The game of life played out in every one of us is defined by these rules and boundaries. Each cell has a membrane boundary that separates the inside of the cell from outside and it has rules (such as those imposed by the receptors on the boundaries) that determine which of the molecular players are allowed to go across the boundary into or out of the cells. The DNA and messenger molecules determine which molecular players are manufactured inside the cell. All these molecules play by the rules of physics that governs them. The sum total of all of these rules and boundaries make us what we physically are.
Supernal wisdom is evident in the rules and boundaries that make us who we are. How much more fun we can have if we learn to play our best within the rules and boundaries that nature has provided. We cannot change nature’s rules and boundaries anyway. If we pretend we can, it tends to work against us. We can learn many of these rules by just playing. My mother taught me that if I ate 10 candy bars all at once I would get “sick”. She was right, I learned from experience. I suppose I did not believe at that time that she could really have known. Later on, when I had learned the rules of cellular biology, I learned that eating so much digestible sugar violates the rules and boundaries for health set by the nature of my cells. On a much sadder note, I have lost good friends who at one time tried to convince me that psychosomatic drugs were harmless and later found that some of my friends were dependent and literally were not able to live without them. A few of them did not to stay in the game of life. Others lost much of the vitality of life when they attempted to redefine the rules nature to conform to their own beliefs and pleasures.
As I study and understand the rules and boundaries of life, all this makes a lot more sense to me. There are many things we can influence, especially in ourselves and our society as we strive to understand the rules that govern life and play well within them. The more we understand these, the better we can play and enjoy the game. I have also noted that those that learn how to play the game of life well can inspire others to live up to their full potential. We are not alone in this life, we all have almost infinite capacity within our natural bounds. Let us learn how to play life within the rules and bounds that are set by nature. Why not give our bodies the nutritious food, exercise, rest and a reason to work for the greater good that it requires. We may not understand the rules and boundaries very well at first, but we certainly find out quite a bit along the way. May we be wise and aware as we continue together on this incredible journey of discovery.

It is difficult to describe the emotional terrain of my heart right now. I moved to Charlottesville, VA only a year ago. It felt like home. I was greeted with a diverse variety of people, mostly peaceable and happy, many had dreams, influenced by the University atmosphere and Thomas Jefferson’s vision, many are well educated and somewhat opinionated. It is fertile ground for positive growth in all areas; it invited me in, it was hopeful and upbeat, promising, a great place for my family.

As I was traveling internationally the last few weeks, I saw quite the opposite as events happening in my hometown were flooding the national and international news. Faces inflamed with hate, carrying torches, driven by mob mentality, stories of mass violence that might have been written 160 years ago during the US Civil War, were coming from my town, published for all to see. Embers of hate that should have long gone out were fueled and fanned into frenzied flames. In the world eye, the small college town of Charlottesville was made synonymous with civil unrest and hatred. How did this happen?

Was this staged, was it done on purpose? The faces of the mobsters on the news were not those of the people found on the streets of Charlottesville. Was it the intention of the leaders of Charlottesville to transform our town into a showplace of racial controversy and bigotry?  If so, they did a great job; if not so then they must be ready to carefully examine the factors that allowed this to happen.  The statue of a respected confederate general that has stood in Charlottesville for generations, a simple monument to local history, not even remotely offensive to the vast majority of the local citizens, was somehow allowed to be turned overnight into a symbol of subjection and racial supremacy. Who allowed this to happen?

Last month a handful of people dressed up in sheets and pointy hats walked through the historic downtown mall of Charlottesville to protest of the plans to remove the statue. Instead of the pointing fingers, chuckles, and a few angry shouts that I would think this kind of a “protest” deserves, it was met with a large-scale mobilization of police force and crowd control that of itself is worthy of media attention. If only a few people with the embers of hate burning in their heart can gain such a stranglehold on a community by walking down a street, this only serves as an open invitation to embolden those who still carry these embers of hatred to fan the embers into a flame. Those who do not understand history are doomed to repeat it.  Listen to this counsel.

With such an attractive invitation, hate groups came from afar in greater numbers, murder in their heart, the fuel was ignited, blood has been spilt. It will be hard to clean up the ashes. My heart is saddened. Why did we have to sacrifice our Charlottesville of all places at this time to such an awful cause.  Please, let us learn from our mistakes.

After the mobsters boarded their buses and left Charlottesville, from all exterior appearances, it is still the vibrant community it was before they came.  Let us strive to keep it that way, along with all the great communities we have built across our country.  Time to read up on history…

     Since my youth, I have always marveled at how fast science and industry are moving.  I was born in the age where massive powerful cars with “horsepower” had grown more popular than horses from the generation before, highway systems were being built, rocket ships were going to the moon, big jet airplanes were all the rave, and scientists were still figuring out fundamental theories behind matter and space.  Black and white TV’s with heavy glass picture tubes and vacuum tubes were considered almost magical with more than five channels to pick from during the day.  There was a wide scope of progress seen all around and an awesome feeling that nothing is impossible.  For perspective, this was all happening in an age when I would be typing this book on a mechanical typewriter on type paper and would have to go to the library and search through shelves of books to do my research.  Medical science was just starting to explore the mysterious things found inside living cells; the function of DNA and mitochondria were not well understood.  Discoveries were featured in the news as important new science and medical technologies were being developed.

     During my life, I lived through the time where personal computing devices were first developed and marketed. I owned one of the first Radio Shack TRS80’s and Apple 2e’s with 80×124 pixel screens and with more than 4K of memory.  Rotary phones were replaced with touch-tone, satellite and cell phones emerged (the stuff of science fiction), different types of color TV’s became popular, and data storage devices were becoming smaller every year.  I can say today that I have seen more technological development in my lifetime, so far, than has been seen in all of history before me, and this is just the beginning.  As I have witnessed the amazing panorama and emergence of knowledge, I have often paused to wonder what might have been the cause of it all. Where did it all come from?  Why have we seen such an overwhelming advance in the last 50 years that has not even been thought possible before?  What does this all really mean for my future and to our systems and society?

     In an analogy to living organisms, I could also ask what makes living organisms grow and thrive under certain conditions.  The fundamental laws of nature and such principles as discussed above seem to have an air of familiarity to corporate structures and may hold some of the answers that will help us shape our future.  I wonder why the corporations that have led the technological advancements (Apple, IBM, Intel, and many others) are respected and venerated as living entities.  They seem to possess a life of their own; their own culture, mission, personality, etc., even though they are comprised of a bunch of individual people working together.  Corporations are thought to possess many of the traits of living organisms.  They have set up systems that govern and define them. These systems, if they are inspirational and viable, seem to take on a life of their own.  If I were to work for such a corporation, I would need to “fit” into this system and perform a role that would promote the mission of the company, or I would eventually be “fired”, having proven useless or even counterproductive to the corporation.

     Doesn’t this sound to you a little like some of the processes of life that we have been exploring so far?  When considering our bodies, we are composed of trillions of cells that work together toward the mission of sustaining our life.  If a cell is to form part of our body, it must “fit” into the system and perform a role that promotes the life of the body, or eventually it will be proven damaged, even counterproductive, and will be eliminated from the body.  We have seen that this system is absolutely essential to preserving the health and vitality of the organism as a whole.  Possibly the only real difference between corporations (coming from the Latin root corpus or “body”) and the organization (organs and systems) of our body is that we can make conscious decisions about the organizations and systems we place in force inside our corporations, but we are pretty much stuck with the systems nature has placed inside our body.  Biological systems, however, are truly wonderful, functional, and instructional.

     We know that if we are successful in setting up viable corporations, with all of their component organizations, we can create systems that can sustain themselves and even thrive.  It is very obvious, however, that if a corporation starts to violate the laws of life, then it will soon lose the ability to sustain itself and eventually it must die.  The analogies between corporations and living organisms are much too strong to ignore and are of interest to study.  Recall that we considered homeostatic balance between supply and demand to be one of the principal laws of life.  The importance of this law can easily be seen in business.  A corporation must systematically take in the supplies it needs to perform its mission (no more, no less), and expend resources and energy (money) judiciously for vital activities necessary to carry out the mission.  Then when the mission is fulfilled, it must generate a profit (excess energy), that in turn fuels the ability to obtain the supplies needed to sustain it through the next cycle (with perhaps a little left over to put aside for contingencies).  It is easy to see that if a corporation violates any of these principles for long, it cannot thrive.  In this way, corporations are very much like living entities.  They are comprised of systems that work together to accomplish a mission that thereby assures the survival of the whole.

     One of the most crucial systems we have set up for the benefit and survival of society is that of the medical or healthcare system.  The mission of this system is clearly to acquire medical knowledge through science and apply this knowledge in order to sustain the health and well-being of individuals.  The real benefit to human society is obvious.  A good medical system generates healthy, strong, capable individuals that have the ability to contribute to society.  The initial establishment of this system, by the Ancient Greek states, is inspirational.  The Greek physician Hippocrates, attributed as being the father of western medicine, established and promoted a mission statement for the medical system that is widely adopted, in principle, today.  Physicians who have learned the art of medicine– when they gain a license to practice medicine– take an oath to follow this mission, which is known as the Hippocratic Oath. It includes the following:

I will…respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow…apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required [regardless of social or economic status]…remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon’s knife or the chemist’s drug…I will not be ashamed to say “I know not,” nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient’s recovery…remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person’s family and economic stability…my responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick…prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure…remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings…If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

Excerpts from the Hippocratic Oath adapted in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University, and used in many medical schools today.

The mission of the western medical system is implied in this oath; it is to obtain, respect, and pass on medical knowledge, and to use this knowledge to prevent and relieve human suffering and sickness in all of its forms, and to practice this art on all who need it regardless of status.

     Many generations have benefited from this medical system, including the generation in which we live.  As part of the law of homeostatic balance, it is understood that the fulfillment of this mission will bring honor and economic benefit to its practitioners.  We have seen that the laws of life require that energy (money) be expended to provide the supplies needed to fulfill this mission.  If the physicians are to selflessly serve society, then society must look after the needs of the physicians and provide the supplies they require in order to sustain a viable medical system.  Please note that the laws of life require that in order to have a living viable system, fulfillment of the mission must necessarily be aligned with the ability to provide the supplies and energy needed to continue the cycle.  If this alignment and balance is not maintained, then the system inevitably will die as it runs out of supplies and energy or loses the ability to fulfill its critical mission and purpose.  The system must be able to maintain homeostatic balance.

     It is surprising how in tune we are to the laws of life, often without even recognizing it.  I have asked several people lately (some of them with high social status), “What is the mission and purpose of our medical system?”  Almost all of them have responded without delay, “To make money” or “To sell drugs”.  This, in my opinion, is a somewhat sad evaluation of the mission and purpose of the medical system.  As a result, many are of the opinion that the medical system is failing its true mission and purpose; it is becoming far too costly.  It is becoming ever more obvious that the medical system is set up so that the energy spent in maintaining the system is not aligned with the true mission of eradicating disease and healing individuals.  The current medical system prospers most when people are partially sick; not well enough to stop going to the doctor and buying medications, but are still well enough to pay the bills.  So, if this perception is true, then by the laws of life, the medical system is no longer viable or sustainable, nor is it fulfilling its purpose. 

If these trends persist, the system will turn toward making more money, even at the expense of the individual’s health, and will shun new technologies just because they are disruptive or unprofitable, regardless of how promising they are.

I have been traveling extensively to conferences and labs these last few weeks and have not had the time to post on my blog.  There were several requests, however, to make available on the blog an interview I did this week with Alan Noble, a leader from the ASEA company, that outlines some of the reasons that I became involved in redox signaling technology in the first place.  As an atomic physicist, I was an independent consultant for the ASEA company for a number of years and became interested in stable redox signaling through my work with this company.  I have no holdings in the company, I do not work for them now nor do I have any conflicts of interest.  I did this interview with Alan as a friend.

I hope, during the next week that we will be able to continue our journey of discovery into redox signaling and get back to the meat.  This blog was meant to document this journey into the science of redox signaling in an understandable way so that we all could see the views along the way.  If you have a few minutes, it would be beneficial to start on the very early posts, made years ago, where the science was first being revealed and read this blog in reverse (chronological) order to view the journey.  My best wishes to you all.

   An old spindly farmer, with the love of the land written on his face, slowly walked out of the land owner’s house.  He had just been told that, because of financial troubles, there was not enough money to pay his wages.  He was able keep the house that he had built on the land.  Times were bad, though, and many people in the town were out of work.  The land values had plummeted and the prospect of selling was bleak.  The old farmer had been working the same land for decades.  He knew nothing else.

In the following days, when he passed the familiar fields on his way to town, he saw that they lay vacant, the spring weeds were starting to claim the land.  In the center of town, he saw the once busy farmer’s market almost empty.  A few stalls were still open, he picked up a few old potatoes and some wilting lettuce for dinner.  Everybody was hurting in the town.  Some were thinking of moving out.  Many were wondering how they were going to make it, food reserves were running short after the long winter.

“Why must we starve?”, thought the old farmer, “There is still enough seed from last year and it is early enough in the spring to plant.”  He reasoned, “I could hitch up the old plow to a horse, turn the land, and plant enough to take care of the families in town.”  The land owner said that he was open to the idea, but could not pay the farmer or help him out.  So the old farmer hitched up the horse and plowed, planted, and ran some water from the ditch onto the land.  Several of his friends that were out of work also agreed to help out.  Soon rows of green spring vegetables filled the field.  The farmer noticed that other farms around him had followed his lead and started to plow and plant also.

After some weeks, the produce began to pour into the town market.  Much of it was given away to people who could not pay and would trade for it with eggs, farm animals, credit, painting, labor, services, etc.  Some people came with bottled fruits from their food stores and traded them for the fresh food and veggies.  Life seemed a bit better around the town market.  There began to be a good variety of food there every day.  People at the market always seemed hopeful and in good cheer.  Soon the market was thriving.  There was not much money, but there now seemed to be plenty of food to trade among the families at the market and around town and even some to sell at other markets in the surrounding towns and cities.

During that summer, a visiting banker came to the town with the intention to take advantage of the destitution and to buy up the land at a fraction of its value.  As he drove into town, he was surprised to see that despite the reported poverty there were well maintained fields and buildings.  Everyone in town seemed to be doing well, all were cheerful and greeted each other on the streets.  The center market was alive with activity.  The land owners no longer were so quick to sell the land at the miserable price he offered.  “How was all this done?”, the banker asked himself.

The banker did not understand that the old farmer had learned to generate the currency of the universe.  The old farmer, when he found himself in possession of this kind of currency, didn’t consider the paper bills with numbers on them to be very attractive at all.

The currency of the universe is really the only type of currency that exists in life.  The paper bills with numbers on them are only truly useful if they motivate us to ultimately generate the universal currency: goods and services that meet the needs of others, rendered willingly, and the working relationships needed to create them.  All life uses this type of currency.  As we have discussed while considering the vast communities of tens of trillions of cells in our body, they use this currency to transact the business of life.  And wouldn’t you know it, so do we all.

Along the journey of discovery, we undoubtedly carry concepts and ideas with us that we have long accepted as true.  As we look closer, we may discover that some of the concepts we previously thought to be true are in reality incomplete.  If this has happened to you, then welcome to the world of science and discovery.  Being open to new discoveries always changes the way we perceive things.  On this journey, we have seen that oxidants, traditionally thought to be bad for us, are not only good for us but they are fundamental signaling molecules in our cells and tissues.  All of the evidence indicates that we need oxidants in order to live healthy lives.  Let’s take a closer look at this concept and find a few examples of the things that oxidants do that make them essential to life.

According to geological records, after the formation of the earth our atmosphere did not have oxygen gas to speak of.  Most of the elemental oxygen on earth at that time was tied up in water, H2O.  The atmosphere was mostly composed of volcanic gasses (including carbon dioxide), water vapor and inert nitrogen.  As the water vapor condensed into oceans and the earth cooled, the conditions were finally favorable for life.  The earliest living organisms on earth were anaerobic (meaning that they did not require oxygen).  They harnessed energy from the sun or geothermal vents to live.  Some of the species of bacteria we have on earth today are still anaerobic, they do not require oxygen and also do not handle oxidants very well (oxidants are toxic to these types of bacteria).

All of the oxygen that is currently in the atmosphere has been generated by life forms on earth that break apart the water molecules and release oxygen as gas.  All plant cells that perform photosynthesis utilize light energy from the sun to break apart water molecules.  The sunlight captured by the plant cells provides the energy to separate two oxygen atoms from water molecules and transform them into a free radical called superoxide (O2*-), the hydrogen atoms from the water are stored for later use.  In an energy-releasing cascade, the superoxide is transformed into hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and then finally into an oxygen gas molecule (O2).  The energy released from this cascade is used by the plant cells to attach the hydrogen atoms onto carbon atoms to form carbohydrates (sugars), fats and oils.  These are stored and utilized as fuel.  Note that superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, and oxygen produced by photosynthesis are components of the reactive oxygen species (ROS) that we call redox signaling molecules.  Plants also utilize these redox signaling molecules, almost exclusively, to help detect repair and replace their own damaged cells and tissues and power their immune systems.  The resulting oxygen gas produced by plant cells is then released into the atmosphere.

The redox signaling molecules produced in plant cells also help regulate the speed of production of sugars and fats inside these plant cells.  Too much hydrogen peroxide, for example, is produced when the plants are in full sunlight.  This excess hydrogen peroxide is designed to deactivate machinery and slow down photosynthesis, as to not overwhelm the plant.  In shade, when the hydrogen peroxide level goes down, photosynthesis is sped back up.  Thus redox signaling molecules are also used to regulate photosynthesis in plants.

When we eat and digest plants our body utilizes the sugars and fats we get from them as fuel.  The metabolism of sugar inside our cells, combined with the oxygen we breathe, runs the same chemical process in reverse to produce energy (ATP) and also to produce redox signaling molecules (ROS) such as superoxide and hydrogen peroxide.  These molecules recombine and the end products are water molecules and carbon dioxide (what the plants start with) and the grand cycle is complete.  In our cells, these redox signaling molecules also help us to regulate our metabolism and help us to detect, repair, and replace our damaged cells.  The advent of redox signaling molecules being produced in living cells is as old as oxygen in earth’s atmosphere.  Our bodies require the oxygen, sugars and fats produced by plants.

In the field of medicine, therapies that utilize oxygen or other types of oxidants and oxidative processes are now emerging.  Oxidative therapies include hyper-saturation of oxygen in the body with hyperbaric chambers, ozone therapies, hydrogen peroxide, chlorine dioxide, or therapies that stimulate oxidant (ROS) production in the cells, like pulsed electromagnetic therapies, infrared light therapies.  All of these therapies have the end effect of increasing the amount of ROS produced inside living cells.  Practitioners are reporting high rates of success from these therapies, especially in wound healing, tissue regeneration, and fighting infections.  Exercising muscle tissue also has the effect of increasing the amount of ROS created by the muscle cells, with largely beneficial healing effects.  James Watson, Ph.D. (who won a Nobel Prize for his work in the discovery of the structure of DNA) has now dedicated his life to finding ways to stimulate the production of ROS in cells, he calls ROS “the elixir of life against stressed cells” and touts that cellular ROS holds the cure for diabetes, many cancers, and dementia.

The question has been asked, is ROS an absolute requirement for the regeneration of tissue?  In order to find out, researchers took a look at the regeneration of tadpole tails.  Tadpoles have the ability to regenerate their tails if they happen to be cut off.  Tadpoles are also partially transparent so that ROS can be seen inside the tadpole when revealed with special fluorescent dyes.  It was observed that ROS is super concentrated along the growing edges of the regenerating tail.  When the ROS was artificially removed by putting a strong antioxidant on the tail (vitamin C), the tail would not regrow.

We might also ask the question, is ROS an absolute requirement inside living cells?  It is now understood that in the place where proteins are manufactured inside the cell (the endoplasmic reticulum) ROS is utilized to help fold and construct the proteins correctly.  Lack of ROS inside the cell has been proven to cause the proteins to be poorly constructed, ultimately resulting in disease.  Proteins are the micromachines that make the cell work, they contain bonds (disulfide bonds) that can only be broken and reattached with the action of ROS.  Without ROS these micromachines cannot work.  The famous master antioxidant in the cell, glutathione (GSH) contains a sulfur-hydrogen thiol (SH) that is sensitive to ROS.  ROS can pull off the hydrogen and causes the sticky sulfur bonds in two GSH molecules to combine to form oxidized glutathione (GSSG, the SS indicates the disulfide bond).  The oxidation of glutathione when it is in its super suit (called glutathione peroxidase) requires ROS.  This is true for other major actors in the cell, like thioredoxin.  Without ROS, these super machines cannot operate.  So it turns out that ROS, when in homeostatic balance, is absolutely essential to the correct operation of the cell in many areas and in many occasions, especially in the machinery that repair and regenerate cells and tissues.  It was surprising to discover how important ROS is important in all aspects of cell life, from photosynthesis to metabolism of sugars, detection, repair and replacement of damaged cells, regeneration of tissue, immune activation, and the production of proteins.

My own work in the last 10 years has been to find a way to put a safe form of balanced, stabilized ROS (containing many of these redox signaling molecules) into a bottle, observe the results in studies and to educate the world on the science.  This has been to date the most satisfying work of my career.  The possibilities for these redox signaling molecules seem to be endless.