Chapter 41: The Cell to the Placebo Effect

 

It is clear that the placebo effect is an effect of the mind, but the mind is linked to the rest of the body, so, in this chapter, I will approach the subject by looking primarily at the cell. ‘Single-celled organisms were the first life forms on this planet. Fossil evidence reveals they were here within 600 million years after the earth was first formed. For the next 2.75 billion years of the earth’s history, only free-living, single-celled organisms – bacteria, algae, amoeba-like protozoans – populated the world.’ (The Biology of Belief, Bruce H. Lipton, p 9)

 

This is a very long time for development, but these organisms needed time because from the Rule of life, they grew in complexity whilst simplifying logically, without being able to go back logically. Mitochondria were ‘absorbed’ as mentioned previously and the organelles developed over time. ‘So what stopped their growth? ‘Through evolution, the cell membrane’s surface expanded, but there was a physical limit to that expansion. There was a point at which the thin cell membrane was not strong enough to contain a larger mass of cytoplasm. (p 58) The answer had to be multi-cellular organisms if they were to become larger.

 

The question is, why do the cellular organisms want to become larger? Over a very long period of time the cellular organisms became efficient at measuring the environment in which they lived, and developed simple, but efficient means of diversifying their genetic base and that is ‘swapping’ DNA. So efficient is this system of combining (mathematical) integration and iteration that they have (practically) wiped out the effects of the discovery of antibiotics by our mind/brain. We used Survival of the Best on antibiotics and Survival of the Fittest wiped out the concept in just over 50 years. Thus, it could be said that they have evolved a wonderful ‘reality’, but this reality is limited in some respects.

 

As mentioned in chapter 12, Why the Brain has Two Hemispheres, the earliest fish used two nostrils to determine the direction of a food source by smell. ‘The point is that single-celled organisms actually live in a community when they share their “awareness” and coordinate their behaviours by releasing “signal” molecules into the environment. Cyclic AMP was one of evolution’s earliest forms of secreted regulatory signals that controls cell behaviour. The fundamental human signal molecules (e.g., hormones, neuropeptides, cytokines, growth factors) that regulate our own cellular communities were once thought to have arisen with the appearance of complex multi-cellular life forms. However, recent research has revealed that primitive single-celled organisms were already using these “human” signal molecules in the earliest stages of evolution.’ (p 99) Thus, it is no great step to using these in a multi-celled organism.

 

One of the points from the above paragraph is the mechanistic method of decision making and the importance of ‘smell’ in guiding organisms to sexual partners, food as well as awareness of temperature gradients, toxicity etc. These signal molecules guided the organism within their reality, and that was as far as they could go within that reality. As mentioned before, ‘they got along with everyone else’, but their size was limited by the strength of the cell membrane, so they formed multicellular organisms and cells differentiated and communication evolved with the use of nerves.

 

The notochord was the means of ‘segments’ to join together with nerves running along the backbone to a simple brain in the head. Nerves carry action potentials that can interact with other nerves and generate ‘spurious’ signals through quantum mechanical effects. Quantum mechanics is an indeterminacy that cannot be handled within a reality, because every organism must operate within that reality. The body puts myelin sheath on nerves that transmit precise information (white matter) and leaves it off if imprecision (or creativity/consciousness) is required.

 

Imprecision and the generation of spurious (but related) signals invites choice, and our universe, which is a probability space allows logic to be used (along with entanglement), and that has been dealt with previously. However, as seem in the case of fish and higher animals, a cerebrum arose, but, due to the Rule of Life and the requirements of reality, the hindbrain continued to be used and that contains both white and grey matter, so the hindbrain was a ‘creating/conscious’ brain that developed from the notochord. Needless to say, all of this is my opinion.

 

‘I taught my students that the biochemical mechanisms employed by cellular organelle systems are essentially the same mechanisms employed by our human organ systems. Even though humans are made up of trillions of cells, I stressed that there is not one “new” function in our bodies that is not already expressed in the single cell. Each eukaryote (nucleus-containing cell) possesses the functional equivalent of our nervous system, digestive system, respiratory system, excretory system, endocrine system, muscle and skeletal systems, circulatory system, integument (skin), reproductive system, and even a primitive immune system, which utilizes a family of antibody-like “ubiquitin” proteins.’ (p 7)

 

This is not unsurprising, because the Rule of Life dictates that bacteria and humans must have the most logically simple mechanism, so it is hardly surprising that they have the same components. This is a good time to reaffirm that a ‘component’ is the lightest weight, smallest object that can be expanded, as needed, to do the job, when required. This is also a good time to reaffirm that we are composed of components that will do any job that is required of it, and we, as individuals are components of a group.

 

It has been mentioned before that an organism, such as the tape-worm will ‘simplify’ its body if its niche does not require them. Contrast this assertion to the quotation; ‘I also made it clear to my students that each cell is an intelligent being that can survive on its own, as scientists demonstrate when they remove individual cells from the body and grow them in a culture.’ (p 7)

 

This could only happen if the cell was in its simplest state and couldn’t afford to lose any functions, or all the functions were being used. ‘There are lots of IMPs (Integral Membrane Proteins) with lots of different names, but they can be subdivided into two functional classes: receptor proteins and effector proteins. Receptor IMPs are the cell’s sense organs, the equivalent of our eyes, ears, nose, taste buds, etc. Receptors function as molecular “nano-antennas” tuned to respond to specific environmental signals Some receptors extend inward from the membrane surface to monitor the internal milieu of the cell. Other receptor proteins extend from the cells outer surface, monitoring external signals.’ (p 53)

 

Effector IMPs: ‘every revolution of sodium-potassium ATPase throws more positive charges out than it lets into the cell, and there are thousands of these proteins in each cell. As these proteins go through hundreds of cycles per second, the inside of the cell becomes negatively charged while the outside of the cell becomes positively charged. The negative charge below the membrane is referred to as the membrane potential.’ (p 55) This sets the scene for action potentials to be propagated along greatly elongated nerve cells.

 

‘Another variety of effector proteins, cytoskeletal proteins, regulates the shape and motility of cells. A third variety, called enzymes, breaks down or synthesizes molecules, which is why enzymes are sold in your local health food store as a digestive aid.’ (p 55)

 

The answer to the question posed above, that every cell is complete in all its ‘senses’ comes from the fact that every cell in the body is ‘identical’ because they grew out of one cell, which is a combination of the egg and sperm. The simplest differentiation of cells is minimum differentiation and ‘adult’ cells can revert back to ‘stem cells’ in the laboratory. This leads to the means of differentiation and cells use the simple expedient of covering up that part of the DNA that produces the proteins that it does not want produced in that organ.

 

From above, the cell simply uses its receptor IMPs, which monitor the environment and make changes to the cell in response to the environment by restricting the reading of DNA and thus the proteins encoded there. ‘In the chromosome, the DNA forms the core, and the proteins cover the DNA like a sleeve. When the genes are covered, their information cannot be “read”’. (p 37) This has the effect of providing a long-term genetic base and a short-term epigenetic base and this allows us to change and regulate our body as we please, within limits, and thus shows how to deal with the underlying problems in the population in modern times with respect to diet. This ‘broad’ statement is supported by the following experiment.

 

‘A landmark Duke University study published in the August 1, 2003 issue of Molecular and Cellular Biology found that an enriched environment can even override genetic mutations in mice. (Waterland and Jirtle 2003) In the study, scientists looked at the effect of dietary supplements on pregnant mice with the abnormal “agouti” gene. Agouti mice have yellow coats and are extremely obese, which predisposes them to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. In the experiment, one group of yellow, obese, agouti mothers received methyl-group-rich supplements available in health food stores: folic acid, vitamin B12, betaine, and choline. Methyl-rich supplements were chosen because a number of studies have shown that the methyl chemical group is involved with epigenetic modifications. (p 40)

 

The first comment must be ‘found that an enriched environment can even override genetic mutations in mice’ should read ‘epigenetic changes in mice’ because a true genetic mutation requires an operator such as Survival of the Fittest to ‘bring it back’. So, the “agouti” gene is epigenetic and ‘methyl-group-rich supplements returned the new generation of “agouti” mice into ‘normal’ mice. But, if methyl-group-rich supplements work, surely a diet rich in all supplements should work better.

 

This result is in line with previously quoted experiments that indicated that high quality food may work wonders with the “modern” diseases, such as in this experiment where agouti mice had epigenetic changes to their genes ‘which predisposes them to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer’.

 

However, people are loath to give up favoured foods and habits that they know that they should give up, such as smoking, ‘fast food’ etc., and so, in line with the expressed aim to make the situation so ‘plain’ that the reasons cannot be rejected, in the next chapter, I am going to define a ‘new’ type of ‘medicine’ that brings together other factors to go with the fact that the body and mind are ‘one’ that has been the subject of this and the last chapter.