A Holistic View of Carbon Dioxide Physiology

Is it at all important to understand the real role of CO2 in the human body?  Read on!

The common idea of the role of carbon dioxide in human physiology is that of a "waste gas".  That is, it is commonly thought of as solely a useless byproduct of metabolism and something that the body must continuously eliminate.  As Dr. Ray Peat illuminates, however, CO2 is actually a most important regulator and facilitator of oxygen usage at the cell and tissue level.

In Altitude & Mortality, he explains that "Carbon dioxide, produced in the cells, releases oxygen into the tissues, relaxes blood vessels, prevents edema, eliminates ammonia, and increases the efficiency of oxidative metabolism."  In effect, it opposes all the harmful consequences of increased lactic acid.

He notes that increased lactic acid contributes to many, and varied, chronic degenerative diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and cataracts.  This notion fits nicely with a holistic view of physiology in that anything, including lactic acid, that interferes with normal oxidative metabolism, whereby glucose is oxidized to produce CO2, interferes with efficient energy production leading to "stress physiology" via the many compensatory mechanisms available to temporarily fill an energy deficit.  These adaptive mechanisms all function at a tremendous cost to the resilience of the organism as a whole, ultimately depleting energy and leading to a chronic inflammatory state.

So, what causes increased lactic acid production?  According to Dr. Peat, hypothyroidism, or decreased thyroid function, is the primary cause of elevated lactate, via low blood sugar, high adrenaline, and finally hyper-ventilation, which further depletes CO2 in a vicious cycle.  In this context, decreased thyroid function potentially includes both the thyroid gland itself, as well as the thyroid hormone.

References

Altitude & Mortality - Ray Peat

Wound Healing and Regeneration

Wound healing is actually a very appropriate example of the regenerative process of the body.  A properly healed wound has lost little or none of the structure or function of the original tissue before it was damaged.  Unfortunately, with aging, as tissue damage occurs, there is a tendency toward more and more inflammation and scarring resulting in a loss of structure and function of the respective tissue.

The good news is that the ultimate determining or limiting factor in healing and regeneration appears to be primarily environmental, not genetic.  Environmental factors such as temperature and nutrition play a particularly important role in that regard.  The types of fats we eat, for example, have a profound effect on the types of signaling factors produced during wound repair.  Certain fats, such as specific polyunsaturated fatty acids, promote the production of inflammatory signaling factors, inhibiting the normal regenerative process.  These fats can also directly harm certain immune cells called macrophages that are necessary in the regeneration of tissue.

Thyroid hormone is another endogenous factor that plays a key role in regeneration, the production and function of which is profoundly influenced by the environment, including light exposure and nutrition.  Carbon dioxide and the youth associated hormones are yet other important factors in healing and regeneration, similarly influenced by the environment of the cell, tissue, and organism.

References

 Regeneration and degeneration:  Types of inflammation change with aging - Ray Peat

Nightmares

I was intrigued to learn, from Dr. Ray Peat, that nightmares are triggered by nerve stress caused by falling blood sugar levels.  Basically, if the liver function is not optimal, blood sugar will tend to drop during sleep as a result of not eating.  As Dr. Peat describes it, when the blood sugar drops, it's like suffocation to the nerves.  When that happens, the stress hormones, including cortisol, are released in order to increase the glucose level, which is not ideal, as that creates stress in and of itself.  The nerves become desperate, in a sense, and so create experiences that will wake you up, whether a nightmare or perhaps thoughts or aromas of food.  Either way, you wake up with hunger or a desire to take in nourishment, and the body gets what it needs. 

Another fine example of how the body functions as a coherent whole in order to adapt to some form of stress.  Low blood sugar may be the most frequent cause of physiological stress for the average person.  That being said, I find it helpful to have some juice before bed in order to stave off low blood sugar during the night.

The Vision of the Self Heal Centre Blog

With this, my very first blog, I'd like to share the vision and scope I see for the discussions herein.  I will be discussing all things Holistic, especially as it relates to how the human body functions, and, in particular, how it naturally heals itself.  This, in the context of environmental influences on that healing process, and how to promote and optimize the influences that support that process while minimizing those that detract from it.  This inquiry, in my experience, affords the opportunity to witness and encourage the magnificent resilience of body, and the innate drive it has to heal and be well.

To that end, let us take a look at the term Holism.  In a nutshell, the term describes a viewpoint that considers that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.  For example, a Holistic view of the human body sees the body not as a linear summation of many different parts that work more or less in isolation of one another, but rather a coherent, purposive, cooperative, intelligent whole, wherein every part functions with the consciousness or awareness of the whole in mind.  I find this viewpoint to be absolutely necessary if one is to begin to make sense of how the human body actually heals itself.

May this mark the beginning of many interesting, timely, pertinent, relevant, imaginative, and practical discussions of all things related to the Holism of Self Healing.

Thank you for reading.

Bat Man

Bat Man is the title of an article in this month's National Geographic magazine.  I can't think of a better example of the Holism of the human body.  The article describes the extraordinary sensory abilities of Daniel Kish, a 47 year old man whose eyes were removed when he was 13 months old.  He is nonetheless able to "see" well enough to ride a bike, via "echolocation", using his tongue to create sound waves, the echoes of which are processed by his brain into dynamic images!  "It's like having a conversation with the environment" he said.

Talk about a "team effort"!  His other senses have clearly "picked up the slack", especially the sound faculties, in order to compensate for the lack of "visual" input.  And yet, a visual image is in fact generated in his conscious awareness!  Amazing!  He sums it up nicely:  "Vision isn't in the eyes; it's in the mind".  And, he teaches other blind people to do it too!  Wonderful and inspiring!