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- Ben Fuchs
On the TV show Star Trek, when the starship Enterprise makes the jump from regular cruising to warp speed, there’s a momentary jolt as the spaceship leaps to the higher, faster-than-light velocity. This type of bumpy ride is a boundary phenomenon and is always experienced as changes occur from one condition to another. Changes, after all, are never easy! This bumpy boundary “change” that occurs as one speed is changing to the next can be thought of as a type of membrane which is in essence an adjustment from one type of substance to another. Scientists call these substances “phases” and they refer to the change that occurs from one phase to another as a “phase shift”. Phase shifts can be thought of as transformations and anytime there is a transformation there is going to be a period of adjustment, hence the bump. And, that phase shift period of adjustment is chemically represented by what is referred to as the membrane.
This transition from the watery milieu inside a cell through the oily cell covering and into the outer cellular environment is regulated and facilitated by the chemical components of the membrane. And, of these chemical components, which include fats and proteins, none is more important than choline, a molecule that can have BOTH watery and fatty properties. This ambi-dextrous nature makes choline an ideal molecule for the membrane transition area.
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- Ben Fuchs
One of the healthiest lifestyle strategies is easy and won’t cost you anything. In fact you’ll probably end up making money in the long run. I’m talking about intermittent fasting (IF), a healthy idea that’s been practiced for thousands of years. Intermittent fasting turns on genes that stimulate growth and repair and anti-aging, especially in combination with exercise. If done correctly it can help keep the body in fat burning mode. And it’s got important effects on stimulating motivation and drive and brain power. After all when someone is young and ambitious we often say that they are…”hungry”
In a famous experiment in the 1940’s scientists from the University of Chicago showed that they could increase the lifespans of animals by up to 20 percent simply by denying them food every 3rd day. And in a review by that was published in 2007 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers from U C Berkeley found that alternate day fasting could save lives by decreasing risks for heart disease and cancer, and diabetes, the three leading causes of death in the United States, Moreover they found that they're important for the nervous system and the brain, improving cognitive function and providing protection from Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease.
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- Ben Fuchs
Anti- hypertensive drugs are one of craziest of all medical pharmacological health strategies. Here’s why:
If your blood pressure is high enough that you need a drug then that means either:
1) a lot of blood-clogging, sludgy gook is impeding flow, resulting in a build-up of pressure OR
2) blood vessels have narrowed restricting flow and resulting in pressure elevation. The blood vessels narrow from damage (that’s called “stenosis”) or as a manifestation of the stress response; it’s the body’s way of making sure the muscles and nerves have enough oxygen and nutrients to get us out of them jam (it thinks) we’re in.
The body is a pressurized system. Nutriated and oxygenated blood flows through the circulatory system forcefully pushed (pressured) by the rhythmic pumping action of the heart. From the heart, it enters into the large arteries, then travels into smaller and smaller vessels until it reaches the tiniest capillaries which are in close contact with cells. This is the ultimate goal of the “Journey of the Blood”: to reach a cell with nutrients and oxygen and then as it leaves on its return trip back to the heart, to drain away it’s wastes.
