BioChemistry Final - The Microbiome & TCM

The Microbiome and TCM

Tiana McGuire

The total destruction of bacteria that antibiotics cause could become a thing of the past.  For every single human cell in the body there are 10 more microbes living on the surfaces of and within the body.  It’s time to accept that the experience of being human is a symbiotic experience. The question is how long a human devoid of all microbial life would survive?  If one goes so far as to consider that each of our cells hosts a mitochondria with its own DNA, which is not human DNA, than human life would be impossible without our symbiotes.

Which brings us to consider the human microbiome as a ecosystem whose health is directly tied to the health of the individual. The more that biochemists understand and map out the what’s and why’s of the major bacterial players in the microbiome, the more specific treatments can become. In the article The Body’s Ecosystem the author states that “anything we can do to restore more balance or more appropriate microbe composition in the skin, as in all the tissues, is extremely important.” In order to know how to bring balance back into the organism we must first understand what that individuals microbiome should look like.  Companies such as the South San Francisco’s UBiome offer microbiome mapping of multiple locations on the body, such as internal organs, oral cavity, skin, nasal mucosa, and genital. This can allow an individual to have a reference of their baseline microbiome when they are healthy. (I have taken part of a study for Crohn's Disease and have been tracking my gut flora over the last three years. Being able to watch what does and what does not change over time is fascinating.)  Then if they fall ill a comparison of their biome can be made, and an individualized plan of action to reinstate balance created. This is night and day compared to the scorched earth approach of antibiotics that have helped to create exceptionally hard to kill bacteria such as MRSA and CDAD.

Diversity is also key to a healthy microbiome. In the chapter on ‘Trillions of Mouths to Feed’ (The Good Gut, 2014) Sonnenburg discusses how the Western gut has come to be lacking diversity. They discuss that the combination of lacking exposure to food-borne microbes such as those found in fermented foods and lack of plant material, fiber, in the Western diet has led to our microbe diversity suffering. I find that there is an opportunity to draw a connection to the Chinese thought of the human body as a microcosm of the universal macrocosm here. As the Western diet has shifted to eating from the industrialized food industry, farmers have shifted to monoculture crops, foods are pasteurized and sterilized. So too we see has gut microbiome shifted towards its own monoculture/lack of diversity.  And the same weakness that exist with monoculture crops can happen with our guts. Just as Panama Disease is killing off the world’s monoculture bananas, so too can C-difficile take over the microbiome of a individual after a heavy course of antibiotics. As above, so below.

One of the core theories in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is Yin Yang Theory. The unity of the body is based upon the balance of two opposing and complementary relationships.  Pathology appears when the bodies systems are out of balance and TCM seeks to return the body to health via returning the body’s systems into a balanced state. This seems to be congruent with the idea of nurturing a healthy microbiome instead of eradicating all bacteria as though they all are pathogenic.  There is hope that as western medicine begins to shift, we as humans may start to appreciate that promoting balance in our symbiotic human condition is a effective treatment that so too will the medicine open up to an integrated approach to wellness in cooperation with TCM.

References

Staff, The Scientist (August 2014) The Body’s Ecosystem

Justin Sonnenburg & Erica Sonnenburg (2015) The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-Term Health.

BioPhysics Final - Our Biophysical Future

Our Biophysical Future

Tiana McGuire

The Zabjek and Kehler article on joining AI with prosthetics in order to create a ‘smart’ bionic limb, had a striking statement that, “the seamless communication, the interaction between humans and machines to solve problems together.”, would be the key to not just using technology to help disabled bodies perform as able bodies but to create a “super-abled” body.  The comment has an unspoken assumption that the human body is lacking, that there is a need for technology to use it’s advances to further human biology.

This is a very interesting assumption and one that Cyprus born artist Stelarc has been exploring through his performance art for the last 30 years.  I first became aware of Stelac while researching body suspension, via piercings through the flesh, that took place outside of cultural practice. Stelarc had done a series of suspension in the 1980’s. The foundation of Stelarc’s vision is that the body is obsolete and in part that “The body's LACK OF MODULAR DESIGN and its overactive immunological system make it difficult to replace malfunctioning organs. It might be the height of technological folly to consider the body obsolete in form and function, yet it might be the height of human realisations. For it is only when the body becomes aware of its present position that it can map its post-evolutionary strategies.” (Stelarc.org/?catID=20317) Stelarc’s artwork creates an opportunity to pose the logic question of ‘has the human race reached the point where it is evolving faster than nature, and in order to allow for humanity to continue to thrive and grow that it must take technology into the flesh itself in order to thrive in the future?’ to the public.  

In the 2008 piece ‘Ear on Arm’ Stelarc teamed up with a group of surgeons and stem cell consultants in order to implant a functional ear into his arm.  The ear had a microphone implanted along with it that would transmit what was heard to external speakers. With further plans to plant a bluetooth enabled speaker into Stelarc’s mouth, so that people could use their mobile phones to call Stelarc who could then speak to them via the ear on arm and could then hear the caller inside his cranium.  Additionally if the a third party stood close to Stelarc and he opened his mouth, that person too would be able to hear the caller. This would enable an acoustic presence from another location, and the ear on arm would become an internet accessible organ for the body.

What does Chinese Medicine think of the implantation of technology into the body?  As I near the end of my first year of studies in TCM, I can gather that bionics would not be seen as positive.  From my understanding and from lecture by Jackie Sheck, scars on the body create blockages and stagnation. Qi cannot move freely by these blockages.  From this perspective the multiple surgeries on Stelarc’s arm to implant the ear will have disrupted flow of Qi from all three of the Yin arm channels.  This would impair the Lung channel, the Heart channel, and the Pericardium channel directly. Indirectly this would inhibit the flow of Qi through the circuit of the channels as well, leading to Qi vacuity in the Large Intestine, San Jiao, and Small Intestine channels.  I think it is also important to take note that not all of Stelarc’s surgeries were not successful. He initially had to remove the micro-speaker due to infection, and had issues with necrotising tissue at the initial site of intended ear implantation. When the nature balance of a healthy human body is compromised, even with the most careful intent, the body is susceptible to pathogenic attack.  I find this to be ironic as the lack of modular design of the body is part of the philosophy behind why Stelarc finds the body to be obsolete.

I believe that technology has not reached a place where it is stable enough to take on the nuances of the human body.  Each year we see huge gains in technology, what this also means is there is an equally huge wake of obsolescence in its path.  What will happen to humanity version1.5 when “super-abled” humanity 3.0 rolls out?

References

Stelarc.org

Alex Zabjek & Therese Kehler, May 9, 2018. Researchers create ‘smart’ bionic limbs. http//www.ulberta.ca/newtrail/featurestories/2018/may/researchers-create-smart-bionic-limbs

Biochemistry wk 14 - Our Biochemistry and Cognition

In class we spent a good amount of time discussing the use of LSD in the treatment of Schizophrenia.  The article that we read in class was looking at LSD's ability to bind and stay bound to serotonin receptors and how this effects an individuals perceived feeling of deep meaning. As Aldous Huxley described "solidarity with the Universe."

Part of the discussion that I found interesting was about Psychiatrists who would take LSD with their patients while they were in treatment.  One view point was that by the doctor also ingesting the drug, it made them more relatable to the patient.  If the patient had previously felt that there was no common ground for the doctor to understand, or empathize with the client that sense of othering and of authoritarianism would diminish as both parties participated equally in ingestion of the psychedelic.  I don't agree with this point of view. I do not see Psychiatrists taking any other drugs that they prescribe to their patients, and many of them could interfere with the doctor being able to properly do their work. I also saw this as tangential to the point of the article about using LSD for it's serotonin binding / solidarity with the Universe effects and not it's psychotropic effects.

Another point brought up in class was that by doctors taking LSD with their Schizophrenic patients that they would be able to better understand the delusional world of the patient.  I am curious why the assumption is made that the LSD would act as an entry into a very specific individuals break with reality?  And if someone who already had psychotically broken with reality, what effect would a further psychotropic experience do to their perceived reality?  Could it further deepen the break from reality?  Would the sense of "solidarity with the Universe" perhaps cause them to form a deep bond with their delusions? Is the experience of taking LSD similar enough across individuals that it would create a common reality that both the doctor and the patient could relate to, and in that way anchor the client away from their schizoid delusion?

The article ended with a plea that Psychiatry desperately needs new drugs.  This added a sense of urgency to the research as well as setting the scope that anything that is better than what is currently in use is acceptable.  This isn't a search for a cure, this is a search for a better drug treatment.  Living in a community where there is almost daily rhetoric about finding the cure for disease, it is curious to read about this situation where a better treatment is the goal.

BioPhysics wk 14 - Bionics and our Biophysical Future

Using conversation in class as a spring board, I've got a couple of fringe ideas to bring forward and am interested on what people may think.

So, check out Stelarc - he is an artist that has been performing works based on the body being obsolete since the 1970's.  I realize this is art and not science, but I feel that as humans are inspired to discover technology that artists and storytellers guide the way in creating an avenue for the everyman glimpse into what is becoming or what could be.  This quote is from the end of a interview that Stelarc did with Stanford University about what he perceives is next for the human body:

Stelarc: It is time to recolonise the body with microminaturised robots to augment out bacterial population, to assist our immunological system, and to monitor the capillary and internal tracts of the body. We need to build an internal surveillance system for the body. We have to develop microbots whose behavior is not pre-programmed, but activated by temperature, blood chemistry, the softness or hardness of tissue and the presence of obstacles in tracts. These robots can then work autonomously on the body. The biocompatibility of technology is not due to its substance, but to its scale. Speck-sized robots are easily swallowed and may not even be sensed. At a nanotech level, machines will navigate and inhabit cellular spaces and manipulate molecular structures to extend the body from within.

If bionics refers to building a replacement or augmented piece of anatomy it's sibling would be cybernetics, where technology is used to add something that did not previously exist to a body A view of cybernetics available today is the concept of adding on extra sensory perceptions, such as a sense of magnetic north with Cyborg Nest's - North Sense :
Two specially designed titanium bars are inserted under the skin and act as the anchoring system. The North Sense attaches to the bars and vibrates whenever facing the magnetic north.

Biochemistry wk 13 - Living Diversity

".. the human species is living as if it had more than one planet to occupy ..."

I think this is a very ethnocentric view of the human species.  I think not all of human kind is living this way, I do however believe that enough humans are living beyond the means of the planet to have a dire effect.  I don't know the exact numbers, so I did a quick Google search on what percentage of the world resources does the US use.  What I found is that in 2007 while the US is 5% of the worlds population we use 24% of the worlds power.  The following image is a pretty good example of how much energy the US uses, comparing each state to other nations that have equal energy use.




The amount of consumption that happens every year by our nation alone is quite thoughtless of the amount of resources available for future generations.  The future better hope that there's resources that haven't been leveraged yet, because this rate of consumption is not sustainable.

Let's change gears and continue the conversation about restroom hand dryers for a moment.  The concern is that hand dryers recirculate contaminated air from the bathroom and that freshly washed hands will no longer be clean if they are blown air dried.  I think that everyone needs to step back a moment and stop trying to create a sterile living environment.  I hesitate to see the purpose of painstakingly creating a perfected clean hand drying system when our hands come into contact with dirty items constantly.  For example paper money.  Working for years as a cashier in a number of retail environments, I have seen bills speckled with dried blood, bills pulled from sweaty bra's and socks.  I used to have a significant other that worked at a porn shop making changes for Jack Off's (my term) to use in the video arcade, how many different bodily fluids do you think those dollars came into contact with?  And the money just gets circulated around and around.  It's common to lick the tip of your fingers to get a better grip when counting a number of bills at a time....

Just let that sink in.

I realize I have digressed.  To get back to the point of public bathrooms.  I've got a harm reductionist view.  I think it's best to have the greatest number of people wash their hands after using the bathroom, so I think having a quick and easily accessible sink and available hand drying option is key.  I think in environments where there is a higher chance of having diseases transmitted in a restroom, for example in a hospital or at airport, these locations should have restrooms where there is a higher degree of cleanliness maintained.  This could include HEPA filters over the toilet stall areas as well as built into the dries, hands free sinks, not having a handled door at the entrance, ect.  There are more than one best practice to put into place let's not just blame it all on the dries, ok.

Biophysics Wk 13 - Energy Medicine Energy Fields

Acupuncture as effective energy medicine -

This week we took a look at a diagram that outlined The Biofield, this hypothetical definition comes from viewing the organism as a self controlled cybernetic, thermodynamically open system.  (side note: I thin I could benefit from someone breaking that sentence down into layman terms for me).  In this table physiology and mid lay on either side of programs of development, maintenance, reproduction and death these two overlaying systems then join back together again and create a group of control subsystems.  One of these control subsystems are those manifested in acupuncture as defined as acupuncture meridians carrying impulses of x-interaction (Qi, prana).  I feel that this outlines how the system acupuncture acts on as an energy system exists within living organisms.

In our reading, we discussed a 1997 finding by the NIH Consensus Development Conference on Acupuncture that acupuncture is an effective treatment for nausea, surgical anesthesia and for pain resulting from surgery and a variety of musculoskeletal conditions.  BOOM!

What conclusions can you draw from Kirlian photography?
What I learned from the article from www.themysticica.com on Krilian photography is that it is capturing a corona discharge phenomenon, between an object that is electrically grounded (I am deducing that this grounded object is the the subject of the photograph) and metal plate that has been connected to a Tesla coil generating an electric field.  The coronal discharge is then captured on film.

I conclude that Kirlian photography is going to show the areas that have the greatest conduction as the brightest on the photograph, as the electric field will ground out through those areas quicker than others.  I think this is consistent with the idea of how qi flows through meridians and comes to the surface at acupuncture points.  This is also consistent with the Soviet scientist that found the brightest 700 points on the body concurs with Chinese acupuncture.

Krilian photography has yet to be leveraged in a way that has gained popularity, and because of this it has be relegated to the realm of entertainment.

Human intent as it affects health -

For the individual, if a person cares to be healthy then that intent will color all the decisions made.  In a moment of hunger, there could be a fast food/convenient option or perhaps an individual that has an intent to be healthy would have an healthy snack on hand in case of such an hunger emergency and they would not make the unhealthy choice.  It's a long game vs immediate type of mind set. One person may see a box of doughnuts and think, "Free tastes best!  I'll have two!" where as if a person who has an intent of health sees the same box of doughnuts the thought may be, "Oh dang, that looks like a box full of belly aches & feeling awful after a sugar crash.  No fun, no way!"

Intent also comes to play on the part of a practitioner.  If the intent is to see 3 patients every hour in a clinic setting, the practitioner could miss information that could be key in diagnosis a patient because they were in a hurry to 'help' the next person and were not able to be present in the moment.