By Jake Towner
This article is an attempt at reverse engineering philosophy to apply to medical marijuana patients in need of relief from the symptoms of affliction and in hope for ultimately recovery. I will begin with a quote from a thinker of our time who touches a truth that will apply to every one of us. By Jake Towner “In conclusion the human body is entirely made up of cells. In order for them to maintain homeostasis everyone needs to replenish the nutrients in their body, activating the bodies self-healing mechanism. The cell is immortal and as long as you replenish the fluid around the cell you can maintain cellular nutrition.” Dr Linus Pauling, 2-time Noble Peace Prize winner. Excerpt from “The importance of Cellular Nutrition.” At this moment of modern history there 118 elements known to be in existence according to the periodic table, which was most recently released on June 5th, 2018 by IUPAC (The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry). All molecules are a combination of these basic 118 elements and every class of molecule also stems from these elements. Knowing this fact is crucial as it is the foundation upon which the following framework about nutritional information becomes pertinent to every person’s life. In this article we will discuss dietary nutrition, lifestyle choices, and some of the important details about the biochemical events that qualify conditions like health and sickness. This article will teach a strategy to break down how to view food and implement a healthier perspective about nutrition conscientiously as you engage with your chemical input and output. The reason for this is simple and explained well by another quote; “You can trace every sickness, every disease, every illness to a mineral deficiency.” Scientists have known for years that everyone requires at least 90 specific nutrients to maintain optimal health. These nutrients include 17 Vitamins, 59 Minerals, 3 essential Fatty Acids, and 12 Amino Acids. This count may already be slightly outdated due to new research emerging often in this field, but as a general statement these nutrition essentials are true. All nutrients are in fact combinations of the 118 elements that we know of in existence. All the vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, and amino acids are composed of either pure elements or elemental compounds. Of the 118 elements identified nutrition is are only concerned with some of them, and this simplifies analysis significantly. Any new elements that are discovered in time will not be relevant to nutrition because they will be by essence completely synthetic elements located at the very large, far end of the periodic table. Such elements on the periodic table with largest number of electrons, neutrons, and protons have been only been discovered after being created artificially by methods like particle acceleration, for example at the CERN facility near Geneva. Ignoring the largest artificial elements means the question and focus narrows down to which of the elements are crucial for human health and function. The clear majority of the human body is composed from just four of the elements; Carbon, Nitrogen, Oxygen, and Hydrogen (96.2% to be exact). Looking at the list of body composition elements in order on the periodic table you will see that by the time you get down to Chlorine the percentage of Chlorine’s contribution to body composition is only .15%. In addition to the big 4 elements listed above, the other elements found in the body in descending order are Calcium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sulfur and Sodium with Chlorine at 10th place. Beyond that are many other elements definitively necessary for our body to function like Magnesium, Iron, Fluorine and Zinc. Continuing to go down the list in the order of composition percentage even smaller percentages of different elements appear and are relatively so small you might think they were unimportant. However, there is evidence that the body can’t live without them. The example often used is Vanadium; only present in percentages smaller than a billionth of a percent (<0.000000001%) Vanadium is required for a bone growth factor enzyme. The conclusion necessarily drawn from this information is that analytic science in nutrition still has more to learn and building from the ground floor up is not practical at this time because the science needs more information. So, let’s change our personal strategy. To change the perspective, consider DNA and a more “inside-to-out tactic” of analysis. DNA contains the information, a blueprint, that is used to create the body, but how? The answer is through the mystical and magical powers of proteins. It’s common knowledge that the human body is approximately 70% water, but did you know the body is also about 20% protein? Protein makes up the 2nd largest component of our bodies composition and proteins are responsible for every metabolic function that maintains homeostasis. In many circumstances it is a protein malfunction that leads to disorder; protein malfunction is often caused by nutritional deficiency or sometimes genetic malfunction. Diving deeper, the mechanism behind protein function is in essence the shape of the protein being in a geometric domain. A protein is a tool as well as the structure of the body and all proteins are created from the code embedded within DNA. Proteins are synthesized by ribosomes in the inside of cells by using the codes ‘transcribed’ from DNA 3 base-pair codons at a time. These 3-piece codons are the building blocks of proteins and themselves composed of a variety of amino acids which in order to form molecules “chain” proteins together “tail to head,” making everything from very short to very long molecules. This is where the magic begins. The magic is dependent on the functional group attached to the amino acid. There is an inter-molecular force that occurs along the chain with another segment of the chain down the line. What this looks like is a string that has been folded in on its self. The inter-molecular force can be an attraction pulling the string together to “touch” at a specific place or it can also be a repulsive force as well. You can use this string concept and its touching points to make every possible shape in existence by folding the string in structural places. Additionally, the functional groups can create areas of partial electrical charge which when active are essential for life and for metabolic processes to occur in the body at a cellular level. Many of the receptors in the body have in their structure a feature which is much like a bowl, a hole, or a cavity. These features are often called ‘activation sites’ and more often than not there is an electrical charge inside that space that will attract a molecule of the opposite charge to it. The degree of the charge magnitude has an effect on constants like a molecules receptor affinity and consequently affects the probability of a molecule to bind to the site, lending to attributes like a molecules’ potency. Proteins have so many roles in the body because of the freedom and flexibility of applications in its’ fundamental design. Proteins form the basis of muscle fibers allowing muscles to contract, and indeed many other functions. The receptors found on the surface of cells can control the intake of potassium and proteins influence the amount of fluid allowed inside of a cell. Yet another example of proteins at work are the enzymes that help metabolize food and pollutants that have been consumed, for example alcohol dehydrogenase. Seeing that proteins perform a variety of functions, and the nature of the proteins’ function is suggested by the shape of the protein, we can conclude disease will occur in the body whenever the maintenance of protein synthesis is disturbed. This can happen is many ways. This topic will be discussed in the paragraph following the next paragraph, but first it is important to know a little more about Amino Acids. Amino Acids form the building blocks of ‘the primary protein peptide.’ A peptide is a chain of smaller functional sub-units; a protein is a full peptide while an amino acid is the sub-unit, which is referred to as a ‘residue.’ Amino acids are needed for the body’s proteins to form and function and that is why amino acids are a critical dietary requirement. You can’t build a house without the building materials like lumber, concrete and steel. Beyond that is something else that would be wise to learn. One must have the proper proportion of amino acid intake relative to the biochemical demand created by cellular conditions, specifically the homeostatic balances related to the cell’s activity prior to the analysis someone is concerned with. For example, the process through which an athlete, student, or artist perform a function will create a need for specific types of materials depending on what that action is. A running athlete will stress muscle fibers. The amino acids that are used specifically in the maintenance of muscle tissue in the thighs will be different from the amino acids that would be required, for example, by a theoretical physicist deep in thought due to the different protein types performing intensely in the brain. The action in question is different and the proteins in your thigh muscles have a different shape from the proteins used by neurons located on the synaptic cleft of your ‘dendrite’s’ connections. Where proteins in the thighs are like very long spiraled fibers that can shorten their length like a bed spring and cause the limb to contract the proteins in the synaptic cleft are more like complex key holes which break apart when they receive their “key” and send a chunk of the protein to another receptor site, acting as another key after the protein ‘complex dissociates.’ Proteins all have very different shapes and thus each require a different amino acid chain to make the shape complete. This creates finite amino acid requirements that depend on the biochemical and genetic conditions within and without the cell. The dietary requirements of an individual depend on what that individual likes to do with their time, and overall makes a broad daily value for something like amino acids difficult to define, especially with shifts in activity and any change in intensity of the action performed. The point to drive home here is the need to monitor the proportion of amino acids being taken in and to calibrate effort output to work in conjunction with the biochemical demands being created in your body. I often like to think of the body and the mind as a reflection of civilization and that each biochemical demand is analogous to the supply and demand curves that economists generate when they are talking about goods and services offered and used by society. The key here is that those “demands” communicated by individual cells can be perceived as a feeling. It is literally possible to feel what the body needs if the time is taken to pay attention and listen to what the body is saying. A healthy person is most certainly a person who has a strong mind, body, and spirit connection. On the other side of the spectrum are people who are unhealthy or even diseased. It is valuable to identify the culprit(s) that lead to disease and unhealthy conditions. One way this can happen is that the supply of the necessary building blocks and processing prerequisites is deficient. Nutrient deficiency is dangerous, for example a deficiency in vitamin D can lead to symptoms like depression. There is another way that the protein synthesis process can be halted or deterred. Malfunctions in the processes that pack and unpack DNA for replication and transcription and the execution of each respectively can also lead to disorder. The order of the amino acid chain is crucial because any change in protein chain order would change its “folding” pattern. The organizational confirmations and structures of proteins can have many levels and any mistake in the primary folding pattern will ultimately have consequences of the folding pattern for all the following levels. This would result in the protein not having the right shape to function properly. Malfunctions like this would ultimately be contributed to environmental factors like exposure to radiation or toxins which can do damage to the DNA double helix base order its-self or one of the mechanisms related to the copying or transcribing of DNA. Lastly a consideration must be made for the lifespan of ‘Telomeres’ which encode in bodies a planned obsolescence date, or an intentional cell death through genetic transcription’s natural breakdown. A telomere is a portion of the chromosome which acts analogously to the plastic cap on the ends of a shoelace. Its’ purpose is to hold your chromosomes together. Each time cells divide the telomere shortens and eventually this functional trait of DNA leads to a pre-programmed cell death. This is a frightening reality for us organisms because it means that no matter what we do without intervention we will eventually get older and perish. When Dr Linus Pauling stated that the cell is immortal at the beginning of this article, he was considering the possibility that though we all are going to die eventually the cells in a body could theoretically live for all eternity through the mechanisms of sexual reproduction. The very origination of life stems from a cell or cells which operated with the same principle of protein synthesis that life does today. At the central core of life DNA is, was, and will always be the method through which information about life is stored and passed on. Every cell in the body can follow a line back to the beginning and all are derived from the primordial cells. This is suggestive of the potential immortality of the cell itself. The death of an individual body is merely a necessary reality for the current paradigm and mutations in life, but the components that make up every individual will never actually cease to exist. They might change as in the case of genetic mutation however the causal connection is continuous from the beginning to the present. What is important is learning how individuals can connect in the moment to environmental inputs in order to optimize experience and enjoy it as much as is possible. I’d like to follow up that last statement with a brief mention of a Marijuana related group of compounds without which life would not be possible. They are the endocannabinoids. The latest research on the compounds Anandamide and 2-Arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) reveal a reality everyone should be grounded in. The scientific community still does not have a complete understanding of human biology, neurochemistry or DNA expression patterns and that is largely due to scientific prohibition. With cannabis particularly being illegal and scheduled as a schedule I drug not only has possession been punishable by incarceration but so too was any legitimate scientific exploration and research into the plant and its’ related ideas. This included research into the endocannabinoid system. In the future it will be clear ‘modern’ understanding of neurotransmission is riddled with more holes than swiss cheese. An understanding of the human mind still has a long journey to go through before a “complete” understanding of our selves can be fulfilled. Since human health is intricately interconnected with our perceptions of self and self-worth the endocannabinoid system and compounds like anandamide, 2-AG, and the spectrum of compounds that activate the same receptors (cannabinoids like THC) are crucial to the formulation of a complete self if simply because of how these compounds are implicated in the mechanisms through which memories form, movement is coordinated, and various other biological phenomenon like the control of feeding patterns and motivational originations. In short, without properly administering the endocannabinoid system its nutrition how can our genes and proteins fully or properly express themselves? Finally, our understanding of nutrition has the opportunity to evolve beyond the constraints of the “Just Say No” era. We can accept that every molecule in existence has value with regulation for the energies of our lives. There isn’t really any substance in existence that has no purpose, so there should be no prohibition on the research of anything by anyone if we ever aim to live in a truly enlightened era of thought. Our genetic expression of proteins is molded by environmental triggers like the introduction of novel and necessary substances and this means at the center of all life is an adaptive mechanism which also happens to be the same mechanism that controls life. We call it DNA. With this DNA perspective in mind, its essential to have a vocabulary to help define the language of nutrition more clearly. We will start with “Nutrients,” which is “a substance that provides nourishment essential for growth and the maintenance of life.” Nutrients is sub-divided into “Micronutrients” and “Macronutrients.” Micronutrients include vitamins and minerals, while macronutrients include proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. “Vitamins” are defined as “animal and plant sourced organic compounds subject to degradation by heat, acid, or air.” We can further subdivide the vitamin category into waterand fat-soluble types. The difference is water soluble vitamins dissolve in water and thus must be replaced as the body sweats and urinates. Fat soluble vitamins can be stored in your liver and fatty tissues and some caution must be taken concerning the dosage of your intake of fat-soluble vitamins because their levels can be elevated to dangerous degrees more easily. There are 2 groups of Minerals; the “macrominerals” and “Trace Minerals” groupings. Macrominerals only differ from trace minerals in their proportional dietary requirements, or in other words you need a lot more macronutrients than trace minerals. The table below will help build understanding around which nutrients fall into which categories and subcategories, and how to obtain them for your diet and health. Now armed with the information needed to move forward, it is worth discussing energy expenditure. The law of conservation of mass states that “mass can neither be created nor destroyed” and the same goes for energy. It is important to pay equal attention to what is put into the body as to what is leaving the body. Homeostasis says that there is no net gain or loss in the system and thus it is vital to be aware of biochemical balance. Expending less energy than being taken will leave a net gain in mass at the end of the day. There is a relationship that connects energy and mass described by the famous E=MC2, and the thermodynamic phenomena that bridge the gaps between the energy inside food and the activities performed throughout the day does impact the physical construct that a body assumes. Use of a particular tissue will strengthen that tissue. Lifting weights for example makes muscles stronger. Consider that on average the human brain consumes about 70% of all calorie intake. If persistent excess weight is not responding to exercise maybe a tweak in thinking and nutrition can unlock a more comfortable weight. Those suffering from anxiety or depression might find cause in a lack of sunlight from working indoors, which often leads to a Vitamin D deficiency. Whatever the cause an imbalance can leads to consequences… and so on… and so on. The most important thing again is connecting and listening to the body. Ceaselessly pursue self-education concerning individual biochemistry and stay mentally open to trying new ideas. Remember a true master is forever a student. This means keep yourself hungry for more knowledge and nutrients, live life to the very fullest, and recognize divinity in even the very smallest of things. There will be no circumstances that confronts you in life that doesn’t hold a lesson you can learn from and pass on. Keep on keeping on Kurplelite! Even in sickness people can find the opportunity to create strength beyond what could ever be imagined possible.
