Week 11 (make up)

I think this week we had talked about Fukushima spill, the first time around. Although I have a lot to say on this subject, I want to talk about what Hillary had to say regarding this, in her blog.

"But, on the bright side, I once heard a woman speak who said something along the lines of this: a caterpillar, when it is growing, consumes an unbelievable amount of food. It will eat everything around it, and some caterpillar's starve because they destroy their surroundings and, thus, cannot find enough to eat. However, after a little while of this, they make themselves a chrysalis, and in time emerge as butterflies, which go on to pollinate and live symbiotically with their surroundings. This woman postulated that this time in human history is our caterpillar phase, and that our inevitable course is that of the butterfly. I'll take it.

Ummmmmm, thank you so much for posting that! Because I think, sometimes, it's vital to talk about other outlooks besides how doomed we are. Humans and what they've done to each other and to the planet is so depressing. Sometimes, it can be too overwhelming when always looking at the down side. I can easily regard all the bad things that are happening as "the truth", when it fact, there is a dichotomy to everything... and in all reality, if we had no attachments, the state our world is in right now wouldn't be bad or good. It just is. BUT, going back to the quote above, we never know where our world is actually headed, or the karma we will burn in the meantime. I don't want to stand in this world with a blind ignorance, but I also don't want to only see the negative things. You can't treat a disease with hate. So always finding the bad in the state of things we want to see change can actually be quite devastating. Finding beauty in what we are right now, and in who we want to be, as a people, and as a world, may in fact, have a much more positive, uplifting, and exponential power to it.

BioChem Paper

                       A Look At Acupuncture Through a BioChemical Standpoint

Acupuncture has had known effects on the body since as early as 6,000 BC and became a full and proven theory in China by 500 BC. Although it is still seen primarily in America as an “alternative medicine”, more and more studies are being done on the biological and chemical effects on the body. There have been over 18,000 accessible scientific studies done on the effects of acupuncture through a Western eye, that go into great depth about how acupuncture is working on a molecular, chemical, and electrical way. These studies are leading to new theories about how acupuncture needles are helping to heal individuals.

The first theory has to do with the effects acupuncture has on the hypothalamus and pituitary glands. The hypothalamus is a portion of the brain that links the nervous system to the endocrine system. It is responsible for certain metabolic activities of the autonomic nervous system and secretes neurohormones that control body temperature, hunger, attachment behaviors, thirst, fatigue, and sleep. The pituitary gland rests right below the hypothalamus and regulates several physiological processes including stress, growth, reproduction, and lactation. It also creates nine hormones that regulate homeostasis. In modern day culture the hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal axis can easily get out of balance causing many problems. This balance is vital to our everyday life, not just physically but also emotionally.

In 1997 the National Institute of Health conducted a study on these two glands in regards to acupuncture and said, “"Studies have demonstrated that acupuncture can cause multiple biological responses mediated mainly by sensory neurons to many structures within the central nervous system. This can lead to activation of pathways effecting various physiological systems in the brain as well as in the periphery... also evidence of alterations in immune function [by causing] alterations in secretions of neurotransmitters and neurohormones and changes in the regulation of blood flow, both centrally and peripherally."

Other studies have been done on higher brain areas that secrete a variety of chemicals that modulate pain, endorphins, and encephalins. Encephalins are pentapeptides that have opiate qualities. In 2009 a study found that “acupuncture increases the binding ability of MU-opioid receptors in regions of the brain that process and weaken pain signals.” These opioid receptors effect the pain levels for a longer time period than just a few hours or even days and can help with permanent pain relief. Pain is processed in the brain, so increasing these receptors can help with pain anywhere in the body.

Harvard Medical School, in conjunction with Massachusetts General Hospital, conducted a study viewing changes in blood flow and fluctuation in blood oxygen flow through viewing Functional MRIs (fMRI) during acupuncture. They found “clear changes in the imaging in several areas of the brain. The changes indicated a decrease in blood flow and a quieting down of the regions of the brain associated with pain, mood, and cravings." In an fMRI, areas of the brain light up when people have pain. These same areas are very sensitive to dopamine. According to Dr. Rosen, one of the men conducting this particular study, “the resulting dopamine activity triggers the release of endorphins” which are pain relief chemicals that provide comfort.

Another study reported in the British Medical Journal very similar concepts when looking directly at the effects of acupuncture on headaches.

Acupuncture has also been proven to calm the autonomic nervous system by stimulating norepinephrine and acetylcholine; also effecting the turnover rate of brain activity. When under stress or fearful emotions the body goes into a sympathetic state. In this “fight or flight” state, one cannot heal properly. Through certain relaxation techniques, the body can go back into the parasympathetic mode, where the body can take care of important homeostatic processes and heal naturally. Often times, it takes a long time to get to this state of relaxation, if at all, and it can take as little as 100^th of a second to get out of it and back into the stressful “fight or flight” response. 

 Acupuncture helps to aid the body into a parasympathetic state. In this time period, the body is no longer producing stress hormones, such as epinephrine and cortisol and can easily go into a mode of healing through relaxation, cellular repair, and even organ repair. 

Dr. Peng Lee, at UC Irvine found that many of the main acupuncture points are GABA agonists as well. The substance gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a neurotransmitter, used by the human nervous system to send messages and modulate its own function. GABA acts in an inhibitory manner, tending to cause nerves to calm down. Some people are in such a high rate of stress that even having a 30 minute acupuncture session can give their body great relief and allows the body to heal.

We can also look at the effects needling has on the vascular interstitial fluid, which is also directly related to extracellular fluid movement. Acupuncture can effect the flow of these fluids between tissues, which encourages healing by the transfer of fluids between the blood, extracellular material, and urea. Scientists have measured the electrical communication between cells, and how it's effected by needling. Because we are made up of mostly empty space, most communication within our body is done through electrical stimulus. If electrical stimulus is blocked, there is pain. Acupoints have the least resistance to flow, and by applying needles to multiple acupoints in the body, electrons flow more easily. This measured electrical current may have been what the original doctors of acupuncture and the acupuncturists of today are feeling when they touch certain points and notice they are either soft (deficient) or harder (in excess). Some people use different types of needles to evoke certain electron flows. An example would be to put a gold needle in one point and a stainless steel needle in another. By doing this, the acupuncturist can control what way the current of electrons flow.

Acupuncture also effects the blood chemistry. Many studies have been done, including one at the Integrative Health Institute, testing levels of nitric acid around some of the main acupuncture channels. Biopsies of the channel were taken before and after acupuncture. The results showed that up to a 1/4 inch around the channel, nitric acid was dramatically increased after acupuncture. They state that “Nitric acid has been the most widely studied signaling molecule for more than a decade. It regulates blood pressure, contributes to the immune responses, controls neurotransmission and participates in cell differentiation and in many more physiological functions.” But acupuncture effects more than just nitric acid. Based on many other Western biochemistry studies, acupuncture has been shown to enhance the flow of many signaling molecules. John Nieters also mentions a study on adenosine, saying that adenosine levels increased as much as 2400 times around specific needled acupuncture points. Adenosine is not only known to block pain but also, plays an important role in biochemical processes, such as energy transfer such as ATP and ADP as well as in signal transductions. ATP levels at local points undergoing acupuncture can increase up to 400%, decreasing healing time significantly.

A study was done at the School of Basic Medical Sciences, Southern Medical University in China on the role of connective tissue in the mechanical signal transduction of acupuncture. They stated “Non-specific connective tissue (fascia connective tissue) plays an important role in the mechanical signal transduction of acupuncture. Acupuncture needle manipulation-induced mechanical stress has a certain effect on the fibroblasts and cytoskeleton in the nonspecific connective tissue (including loose connective tissue and fat tissue) in morphology, histochemistry and biochemistry. For example, acupuncture-needle manipulation can make the fibroblast deformed, the cytoskeleton remodeled and result in the release of biochemical materials from the connective tissue. The present review summarizes new results of studies on the effect of acupuncture needle manipulation from cytobiology, imageology and physiology; and holds that making clear the transduction pathways of acupuncture mechanical stress signals in the connective tissue and its impact on the organism possesses an important significance in revealing the mechanism of acupuncture underlying clinical therapeutic effects. “

More and more studies are being done to test the effects of acupuncture through a biochemical view. It's no longer a question for the Westerner of whether it works, but rather, how it works. 

Week 14 Cognition: Bringing Forth A World

My favorite article this week was about cuddling and the release of Oxytocin. I loved this article because I think it's easy to forget how healing the simple act of touch can be. I know, from personal experience, that being touched and surrounded by love helps tremendously to heal. Something that Western medicine might be missing is using the sense of touch more as a means of healing. I think the more studies that come out, the more Western doctors will start paying attention. Although, I think most of us already know that love and touch can really help to bring about not only more of "the feel good feeling" but also can allow us to reach a parasympathetic state easier and faster. Yay for touch!

Week 13 Biodiversity

Well, I think it's safe to say that we (humans) act as if we have multiple planets to live on. Our class seems to be well aware of how much waste, pollution, and destruction we are causing, yet none of us know what to do about it. The damage being done to the planet is on such a large scale that it can feel hopeless at times. And even when we think we might be doing good for the world by living a particular lifestyle, we never really know. We don't know the consequences to certain actions we take and we don't know if the way we are living is actually offending or hurting another living thing. Sometimes it's hard for me to see the point in even talking about it when there seems to be no solution. Oy. But I do believe that we can offer some help by helping to heal other human beings. I think the healthier we become on a personal level, the easier it is to make other positive changes in our lives. And the easier it is to do good onto others and the planet. Sick people are currently running the world, and I think that healing on  a personal level can actually be very beneficial, indirectly, for even the planet itself.

I enjoyed this weeks discussions, and I'm happy I got exposed to the article put out by Coca-cola. I tend to stay pretty far away from articles on current events because of the extreme opinions of both the article itself, and the bias of how current events get chosen to get written about, so having the chance to read articles in class can be helpful. I have always known Coca-Cola was evil, but this article confirmed it, with its condescending tone towards the people of the world and its cover up lies about wanting to help the world left a sour taste in my mouth. I also found the other articles interesting and I like that our class is bigger now. It's good to hear some new voices.
I think Hillary and Namonia had great points concerning the article titled "Sustainable Use of Biological Diversity In Socio-Ecological Production Landscape". They both brought up the points that this way of living ie, naturally off the land, pre-industrial, has been around forever and now western people are trying to compartmentalize it into a western way of looking at it, when in fact, it's been here since humans have. By the way, I like the definition of compartmentalize and feel it really hits the nail on the head... "Compartmentalization is an unconscious psychological defense mechanism used to avoid cognitive dissonance, or the mental discomfort and anxiety caused by a person's having conflicting values, cognitions, emotions, beliefs, etc. within themselves."
It's only now, that westerner's are beginning to take the indigenous way of living seriously. But what makes it so frustrating is that they're trying to group it into parts, and act as if it's somehow a new western theory. GO HUMBLE YOURSELF PEOPLE! Sheesh. Also, you can't put this way of living into groups, it's a holistic way of living. Some people will never get it, I suppose.

Week 12 Cell Biology and Radioactivity

I enjoyed some of the discussions we had in class last week. Particularly the conversations based around Fukushima. It's very interesting how America chooses to portray the issues around the radioactive spill versus what happened to the people of Japan. Would we be focusing on even the radioactivity if we knew it wasn't going to hit "our" waters? I don't think so. This issue is focused on in the oddest ways. Yes, we all want to eat fish that healthy and from clean waters, but is this really the big issue here? What about the effects of our planet in general? I liked the comments from Sarah and Ayo too, in the way that we've chosen to ignore the direct effects this earthquake and tsunami had on the people.

Learning about cells can be very interesting because of the fact that they are micro looks into the world in general. All the parts up of a cell make up one living unit that's capable of reproduction, signaling, making proteins, excreting, etc. It's interesting to think that in a few hundred years we may find out there are even smaller examples of living units, and on the same note, finding out there are even bigger units (ie bigger than the universe). We always think we get to the bottom of our findings, but there's gotta be even smaller and larger examples. I'm currently learning about our own micro orbits that go on within our bodies and how that mirrors the universe we live in. The cell anatomy and physiology also relate to this. Just smaller versions of our world.