How the Body Works (part 1)

In order to properly evaluate vitamins on health, it is first necessary to know some things about the body aging process, especially concerning cellular aging. It is fundamental to see if vitamins might have a positive impact at this basic level.

A. Cellular Age

1. Do cells age?
2. What happens as cells age?
3. Can the aging process be slowed down?
4. Is cell age related to telomere length?
5. What speeds aging up?
6. Do old cells cause or contribute to disease(s)? 
7. or just fail to survive challenges?
8. What are these challenges?
9. Will reducing challenges slow down cellular aging?
10. Can vitamin help cells survive these challenges?
11. Are there possible downsides to stopping or slowing down aging of cells?
12. How is cell replication involved in cell aging?

Science is getting pretty close to controlling cellular aging as well as limiting organ age. ref  But, then again, nature probably has a good reason for cellular aging processes such as cellular life-span to allow for the body to get rid of old cells so new young vibrant ones can replace. ref 

Of course, there is natural aging of body parts. It is the speed of aging that is of concern here, especially to find out if vitamins have a role to play in controlling the speed of this natural process. Some people age gracefully and retain health even while growing old. Good genes obviously can play a large role, as well as actions that offer protections to prevent gene mutations. Some things that speed up mutations are known and can be avoided. And items known to increase immune processes to remain alert to repair damaged genes reap major benefits for a healthy life.

Two processes that contribute to aging include oxidation and glycation. In oxidation, free radicals are formed during normal metabolism as well as from outside toxins, like pesticides. Antioxidants (such as B vitamins & A, C, D, E, K, certain minerals, and some phytonutrients from foods) help control these reactions to limit potential damage to cell DNA. In glycation, sugars react with proteins to create unnatural protein folding patterns leading to such signs as skin wrinkles. 

SKIN

Perhaps the skin is one of the best known areas where aging readily shows it effects. ref  Sunshine is an external modifier of skin age. Usually this influence is negative over time. One test of skin aging is the loss of elastin and collagen fibers, or elasticity. OPC's from grape seed extract and pine bark slow down the enzymes that breakdown skin elasticity. ref Carotenoids from vegetables and fruits help protect the skin against free radicals. Vitamin C as a collagen generator is also of importance. ref  Tiny amounts of copper are needed for producing elastin and collagen. ref

BONES

If bone building cells fail to develop at the same rate as bone tearing down cells, weak bones develop. Do bone building cells age faster or wear out more than bone tearing down cells? YES! ref  Bone building cells are called osteoblasts. Healthy collagen is vitally involved in many ways, structurally and in stem cell differentaiation into bone building cells. This next reference reveals quite a lot of information on bone development as one ages, and what factors contribute and are targets for manipulation by treatments with drugs or more to the point, proper diet, exercise, ref and some vitamins inadequate in typical diets. ref  Full version> ref

Benefit for Supplement Consumers

Scientists have discovered one general benefit for those who take a multi-vitamin supplement. Some of their body cell DNA molecules contain longer telomeres. What are telomeres? Telomeres are small elements at the ends of the DNA molecules that protect the DNA gene codes on chromosomes during replication, a cell dividing process to make an exact copy. The twisted DNA has to untwist before this replication, and then afterwards, they have to re-twist in each cell again. The telomeres give up a piece of themselves with each twist of DNA to prevent damaging the gene code material. Thus, after a certain number of divisions, the telomeres get so short they no longer are able to protect the DNA genes, and nature steps in and destroys these older DNA cells. 

DEVIOUS CANCER CELLS

A rather unfortunate occurrence regarding telomeres happens in cancer cells. The cancer cells produce or activate an enzyme that enables the telomeres to not shorten with each cancer cell division. Thus, the cancer cells do not die after a programmed number of divisions like healthy cells. Cancer cell telomeres can remain active seemingly forever. Scientists are looking for a method to destroy this enzyme so cancer cells will eventually die.

The above telomere reference gives some studies for slowing down telomere shortening. EXERCISE, STRESS REDUCTION, and DIET (some supplements may help here)

How the Body Works Part two talks about vitamin impacts.

Health Effects of Raw versus Cooked food

There is evidence that humans have existed for a very long time. Fire to cook food, not as long. This generates the following questions.

• How did the new cooked foods influence body dynamics compared to raw foods? 
• Were the effects the same, or were there differences? 
• Assuming some differences, were these changes beneficial, neutral, or detrimental?  
• Plus, have these effects caused the body to generate any adaptive mechanisms over time?

Surprisingly, while the early Natural Hygiene movement did discuss these aspects and as a result advocated more raw, very little scientific research gains the light of day in nutrition and dietary circles to explain any differences. But, there is one significant hard to find study that does look at immune function and one very visible research study often referred to in text books, but gains little respect and impact on health parameters. Plus, there is one classic, Weston Price's Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, that will never be duplicated showing the influence of diet on facial dental features from different dietary patterns.  See what you think after learning what they discovered.

THREE STUDIES with BODY DYNAMICS

The first study by Doctor Kouchakoff in 1930, "The Influence of Cooking Food on the Blood Formula of Man," looked at how different states of food, between raw or cooked, processed, processed and refined, or combinations of those food types together, influenced the immune white blood cell counts and activity levels. He found out that raw foods in their natural state had no effect on white blood cells (WBC). After foods were cooked, the WBC counts often increased. This would indicate that the immune system sensed an attack and was preparing for battle. Adding some raw food with a cooked food stopped this change in WBC count and activity. Some processed and refined foods did not even need to be cooked to elevate WBCs. Thoroughly chewing foods could slightly mitigate some of these WBC effects.

Next, the Doctor checked to see at what cooking temperature this change from raw to cooked food effects occurred. Usually most foods changed immune reactions around 115 degrees, but there was a slightly different temperature for each food. Foods that would not easily fit in raw or cooked categories, like spices, were tested separately.

This increase in WBC count from cooked foods was only temporary and any long term effects were not mentioned. Thus, this study only provided a grain of sand for health aspects, other than it may be wise to include some raw food at every meal. This research lacks follow up studies to verify results.

There are two other factors that do get play time. First, how cooking influences vitamin activity, whether they survive alive or not, some don't, and second, how cooking can aid digestion by releasing nutrients bound up with indigestible plant fibers or locked up in cells. ref

THE DIETARY CAT STUDY

The next Study, Prottenger's Cat Studies, looked at how different amounts of raw and/or cooked milk and meat influenced the health of cats. There were four different eating patterns studied;  2/3 raw milk and 1/3 raw meat, raw milk and cooked meat, cooked milk and raw meat, and cooked milk and cooked meat. The study only lasted three generations. By the forth generation, the cats on all cooked foods became very unhealthy and their offspring did not survive or they were sterile. The animals on all raw were very healthy and much larger than the other groups. After the study was stopped, the pens were left up and weeds grew in the dirt and wastes of the test animals. The weeds were larger and healthier under the all raw, and smaller in next two and finally, under the all cooked food group, they barely grew and survived at all. The main study was just on cats, but later work used dogs as well. Cat diets have progressed over time into healthier foods often springing from the dietary defects discovered in these study trials.

Yes, it is difficult to compare cat and human diets, and it must be acknowledged that the cat diet used was missing some necessary nutrients. But so are many human diets when evaluated. There are few human studies on this topic. Here is a recent one. ref While meat did not change the microbiome, vegetables did. A lot more to discover.

ALL TIME CLASSIC FACIAL DENTAL OBSERVATIONS

Weston Price was a Dentist that around 1930, visited and documented dental features of many newly discovered native groups around the world while they were still on their historical natural diets. He waited 20 years and revisited the same groups of people to again document dental features in the next generation. What he discovered shocked the Professional World. After modern foods were introduced into the diets of the native people, there was a dramatic change in facial dental features to the detriment of health. Jaws bones shrank in size and teeth became crowded together. These classic studies will stand the test of time as a testament to the impact a proper diet has on generating and maintaining health.

ANALYSIS

By themselves, while very interesting, individually these studies prove less than their face results. There are many factors that play roles in overall health that these studies or observations did not address. Cats have a different digestive structure system than humans. But, when facts from the different studies are woven together, they do raise some pretty compelling points. The fact that cats on all raw diets were so much healthier than on part or all cooked foods could have many different factors. 1. Heat from cooking destroys some vitamins and this could have generated deficiencies. 2. Enzymes in raw foods would also be destroyed by cooking and might play some role in digestion. 3. Proteins can become denatured by cooking and this may alter their function to build necessary compounds and tissues, or build body enzymes. 4. The cooked foods may have changed the growth and mix of synergistic bacteria from one that keeps the animals healthy to different bacteria types that overtime could foster disease. This fact inspired by the later weed growth plus the current cattle research on grain feedlot versus pasture grass feeding on the bacteria mix and health of the cows further adds to this knowledge. article

The factors most likely generating the dental structure changes Dr. Price observed could also have some of these same four aspects but most likely were influenced by new refined foods with less fiber and greater sugar content. The early life native diets must have changed from chewing hard foods to one of softer foods that failed to stimulate the dental growth plates between teeth. This growth plate separates the teeth and creates a strong wide jaw bone for perfect alignment of teeth. Plus, on their native diets, Dr. Price discovered that dental cavities were very rare.  

While in human dietary patterns, a variety of foods would most likely make up for the cooking changes in one food type, is there a cost to the system from too many cooked foods? The findings by Dr Kouchakoff have yet to be duplicated and may reflect the crude lab tools available in the early 1930s. Seldom, if ever, are any of these facts mentioned today in nutritional settings. But together they help explain some unanswered questions as to why people on the typical American diet exhibit higher disease rates. When you also add in the inflammatory response of the Standard American Diet, the modern day rampant cancer and heart disease statistics appear all too logical of a conclusion.

TAKE AWAY 

1. Cooking destroys and / or alters some nutirents in food.

2. This cooking effect could be one factor for how diet influences health.

3. Some raw foods should be included in a healthy diet.

4. Processed and refined foods should be moderately restricted and not make up a dominate part of diet. 

5. Dental cavities are significantly diet related.

6. Cooking influences carbohydrate digestability as well as fiber states that influence microbiome.

7. Dietary patterns that maintain healthy body dynamics have to be discovered and promoted. 

• Like how chewing harder foods early in life stimulates growth plates between teeth.
• How foods influence intestinal bacteria types.
• How acid / alkaline balance could help generate dental caries.

Here are the results from an analysis of up to 28 studies on vegetables, both raw and cooked on cancer risk. ref

NATURE, the Recycler

Nature in her infinite wisdom is an avid recycler. First, body processes or elements that Science thinks are negative and might cause disease (Free Radicals, Oxidative Stress), Nature has over the years developed ways to harness some of this radical energy for vitally needed positive body functions. ref (ROS are radicals)  Very few if any body processes are only negative, especially LDL "the BAD" cholesterol. Well, maybe cell senescence (aging). NO, not even cell aging is negative, check out this one, too. ref To limit damage from these potentially destructive radical elements, Nature puts strict controls and limits in place to monitor their activity and concentrations, whether performing needed functions or unwanted consequences.  General >ref

One of the down falls of Mainstream Medicine is a failure to appreciate this natural wisdom in body functions using otherwise negative aspects for positive outcomes. EXAMPLE: During the common cold, the body uses cold symptoms as healing tools. Fever burns and kills the viruses while sneezing and coughing expel them out of the body. Many cold medicines are designed to block these healing activities, while they really need more control and direction.Of course these activities can get out of control and reach levels where they are damaging, so prudent monitoring and appropriate use of cold medicine is needed, BUT, a marriage of nature and medicine is needed to maximize healing processes.

EXAMPLE:  Vitamins C and E are avid anti-oxidants, meaning they sacrifice themselves by giving up part of their structure to neutralize free radicals. Nature knew these two nutrients were too valuable to loose so quickly, so along comes Alpha Lipoic Acid to regenerate the broken parts of vitamins C and E making them whole again able to perform more vital body functions. 

EXAMPLE:  Antioxidants in excess work too well in neutralizing radicals. Some radicals have positive functions to perform before they are destroyed. Free radicals such as Reactive Oxygen Species are used by the body to destroy unwanted cells, such as DNA damaged or pre-cancerous cells. These nasty Radicals are perfect for these functions but definitely have to be closely watched to keep them under control. There is also an insulin glucose cell uptake process that is initiated by free radicals.