Wysong Health Letter

^aThe servings presented here represent only a core plan (the Basic Four Food Group Plan) to provide adequate protein and supply most of the vitamins and minerals people need daily. It is useful as a foundation for adequacy around which to plan each day's meals. Most people need more energy than the core plan provides, and much of this energy should be obtained by adding nutrient-rich, complex carbohydrate foods, such as vegetables and fruits, and breads and whole-grain cereals. This basic plan provides about 50% of its energy as carbohydrate, 20% as protein, and 30% as fat.

^bThese plans provide 55 to 61% of total energy as carbohydrate, 17 to 22% as protein, and 21 to 25% as fat

^cThese are approximate values for medium-fat meat, but planners should try to choose mostly low-fat meats. One egg, or ½ to ¾ cup of dry beans or peas count as one ounce of meat, poultry, or fish.

Source: DeBruyne LK, Sizer FS, Whitney EN: The Fitness Triad: Motivation, Training, and Nutrition, St Paul, Minn., West Publishing Company; 1991.

Reference:

Nutritional Clinics, Volume 6, Number , January/ February 1991.

Free Radicals

Much like quantum mechanics and electron spins, orbitals and shells hove provided fundamental explanations of chemical reactions. So, too, may an understanding of the generation of free radicals in biological systems explain the fundamental mechanisms of disease.

Organisms which function in an oxygen free atmosphere obtain their energy from fermentation. They are able to break down chemical compounds, then capture and utilize the resulting energy without the use of oxygen. Other organisms, including us. of course, utilize atmospheric oxygen which is generated by plant photosynthesis to yield energy for metabolic needs. Energy derived from the oxidation of foods occurs through a cascade of electrons in respiration which places organisms who use oxygen at risk of being damaged by oxygen derived free radicals.

Free radicals are defined as molecules which have an unpaired electron in their outer orbital. Electrons in chemicals which are paired are happy, those which are unpaired are very unhappy and make the parent chemical very reactive as it seeks to satisfy the pairing of that unpaired electron.

When a single electron is added to 0₂,the result is super-oxide radical. If another electron is added and two hydrogen ions, hydrogen peroxide is formed. If hydrogen peroxide is combined with superoxide radical hydroxyl radical. OH ,the most active of all free radicals in biological systems is formed. Biological systems have protective machinery in place to attempt to prevent the formation of this dangerous hydroxyl free radical. Another reactive form of oxygen is singlet oxygen. Although technically not a free radical, it behaves as one.

Free radicals were verified as being present and being important in biological systems with the discovery of the enzyme superoxide dismutase (SOD). The presence of this enzyme and other free radical scavengers, which have since been discovered, demonstrates the importance of neutralizing these reactive free radical chemical species.

It is now believed that free radical activity has been specifically identified in the pathogenesis of such diseases as atherosclerosis, cancer, cataracts, ischemic injury, Parkinson's disease. rheumatoid arthritis, and the aging process itself.

It is interesting also that free radicals are also used by the body in an immune protective role. When neutrophils engulf bacteria they destroy the bacterium by a burst of free radicals. It 'has also been suggested that free radical damage may mark neoplastic cells for removal by the immune system.

The sources of free radicals within cells are both endogenous and exogenous. The mitochondrial electron transport chain and the microsomal electron transport chain, oxidated enzymes, phagocytic cells and auto-oxidation reactions all generate free radicals. Exogenously, various chemicals and drugs, cigarette smoke, ionizing radiation, sunlight, and heat can all generate free radicals as well.

Electron transfer to generate ATP’s done within the safety of mitochondrial membranes. As we have discussed before in the Review, these membranes reflect dietary patterns and can be either healthy and composed of the appropriate lipids and proteins to prevent free radicals from reaching other vital cytoplasmic structures, or diseased, which may permit the movement of free radicals out of mitochondria into the cytoplasm. Another source of free radicals is from oxidant enzymes, such as cyclo-oxygenases, which as we have mentioned in prior Reviews, is necessary for the synthesis of prostoglandins from arachidonic acid.

Reperfusion of ischemic tissue is another source of free radicals. For example, after balloon angioplasty, when cardiac tissue is reperfused, there can be significant free radical damage.

The lipid by-layers, surrounding organelles as well as the cell itself, are susceptible to free radical peroxidative insult. As you may recall, the lipid membrane is comprised of phospholipids, and many unsaturated fatty acids. Once these are oxidized a chain reaction can occur, resulting in widespread membrane damage, loss of membrane fluidity, receptor site malalignment, and even eventually lead to the lysis of organelles, and even the cell itself. (Add membrane oxidative damage diagram in lipids book.) This damage is diagramed on the back of the Summary.

It should also be noted that genetic material can be damaged by free radicals. The sugars can be damaged, resulting in altered base sequence. There are genetic repair mechanisms in place to help correct such damage, but with sufficient insult, genetic damage can be irreversible.

The cell is dependent upon genetic mechanisms that have developed over time to protect against free radical damage and repair that which occurs. The cell is also dependent upon the input of certain nutrients in order to maintain such protective mechanisms.

Super oxide dismutase is a manganese based product found within mitochondria designed to neutralize the superoxide radical. There is also a super oxide dismutase found in the cytoplasm, which is based on copper and zinc, and it neutralizes superoxide radicals there.

Superoxide dismutase (SOD) converts the superoxide radical to hydrogen peroxide, which is further reduced by the enzyme glutathione peroxidase. Additionally, catalase can convert hydrogen peroxide to water and oxygen.

Ascorbic acid, vitamin C, is the most important aqueous based scavenger of free radicals. It is the first line of defense against peroxidation damage to lipids in membranes.

In the lipid phase of the cell the most important antioxidant appears to be alpha-tocopherol, or vitamin E. Vitamin E is structured similarly to the ring structures found in synthetics antioxidants or, I should say the synthetic ring structures have copied vitamin E. Characteristic of these antioxidants is an eterael oxygen, which is able to neutralize the free radical. It might also be mentioned here that vitamin C regenerates vitamin E after it has reacted with a free radical. So there is complimentary action between vitamin C and vitamin E.

Beta-caroteneis the most powerful quencher of singlet oxygen. It is likely most active at the organelle level where oxygen tension slower.

It is interesting that the very substances that we depend upon for life and health are also potential toxins. Oxygen is certainly an excellent example of this. Our biochemistry lives within a delicate balance with, in most instances, extreme capabilities to withstand stresses and insult. But if those capabilities are stretched beyond the biochemical reserve of the organism, widespread damage can occur, and disease result.

The bottom line is to try to protect and foster the natural balances the body needs in order to protect and repair itself. A more natural environment and foods rich in natural nutrients will go a long way in helping us to do that.

The evidence in behalf of supplemental antioxidants, particularly vitamins C and E, as we have mentioned before, is quite convincing both as a preventive, and as a therapeutic tool, and will likely only be shown to be more and more useful as our environment further degrades to become ever more free radical generating.

Synorgon Defined

I've mentioned this word before in the Review and I wish to here more formally define it. In an attempt to describe our place in the universe and its relationship to how I've found the existing terminology insufficient or presently inappropriate. Wholeism, vitalism, naturalism, Gaiaism, and other like terms touch aspects of the concept but seem either too narrow or have become distorted over time by popular misinterpretation or prejudice. For example, if we use the word "natural" that can conjure up images of natural fruit juice with only 5% fruit juice in it. That kind of conjures up ideas of fraud and fadism, and that sort of thing. Vitalism is viewed like refuse, cast aside by the scientific mechanistic era. Wholeism might smack of snake venom, or crystal therapy, or other supposedly quackish medical practice.

In other words, as we talk about the different themes that we do in the Review and I try to weave those around some sort of central concept trying to describe exactly what that concept is, or define it, has become difficult for me. Words that exist have failed me so I've made up a new one and synorgon is that new word. It's new, and it's fresh, and it relieves me of having to defend a particular definition of someone else's word, or attempting to redefine it, and permits me to make the word what I want it to be without argument. Health and environmental problems need a fresh and more fundamental approach, and what better way to begin than with a new word. So here's the word. It's called synorgon. It comes from two roots: synergy, which means inter-relatedness and cooperation, and organism, which means life and complexity. So syn-org-on.

These are different definitions, or how we can look at that.

1. It's the larger, inter-connected thing of which everything is a part.

2. The universe resulting from the inter-relatedness of all cosmic things known, unknown, understood, incomprehended, and incomprehensible.

3. It's all of existence as a dynamic, interconnected, cooperative, synergetic, balanced, living organism, of which we ore simply a part.

4. Our entire physical and biological greater context is the synorgon, as if it were essential to our existence, and health.

5. It's all of existence, the parts of which are seen as a continuum with all other parts, the qualities of which are emergent and unpredicted by the reductionistic analysis of the parts.

6. All of existence as it functions without artificial manipulation. Unmanipulated it is healthy, manipulated, since its balances and interconnections are disrupted, it is diseased. That is to say both biological and physical systems can be healthy or diseased.

Different forms of the word would be: synorgonic, synorgonistic, synorgonis (of the nature of synorgon), synorgonomy (the study of synorgon), synorganism (a noun; a deduction or principle derived from synorgonamy), microsynorgon (a smaller entity reflecting in a limited sense synorgonic principles), and macrosynorgon(a larger composite of microsynorgons, where a synorgon would be the whole of existence as this gigantic interconnected healthy thing, or at least hopefully healthy. Any that's our job, to try to make it continue to be healthy. So that's synorgon defined, and we'll try to use that repeatedly in the Review to describe this concept that we are trying to weave throughout all of the different themes and subjects we touch upon.

Interrelatedness

Understanding interrelatedness in nature creates respect for the natural order. it makes us realize we are simply a part of a synorgonic whole. It creates caution and fear of consequences if these balances are disrupted. Such synorgonic insight makes us think long term, makes us seek to preserve nature, the environment as it stands, and to protect a natural context for the body. It makes us rely on natural innate healing mechanisms and use invasive procedures with great caution.

Here are some things taken from my book on the Creation -Evolution Controversy which speak to the incredible interrelatedness of things and will help us seethe solitary importance of synorgonic balance.

One of the dangers of some popular notions of evolution is that it encourages thinking of parts. It can be quite mechanistic and although it's flow through time is the reverse of reductionism it encourages reductionistic thought.

In other words, if things exist due to the simple addition of parts over time, then examining parts pay explain the whole. If the heart is just the assemblage of parts, then what's to work if we need to replace one here and there. The mechanistic view encourages invasive actions, environmentally, and medically.

The problem is current mechanistic notions of origins are insufficient to explain the complexity and interrelatedness in our world. This is not to say some dominionistic views in religions don't encourage similar man as the center of universe to "go forth and subdue attitudes which can cause health and environmental harm. Following are more complexities to ponder. The following are taken from reference Creation -Evolution, pp.333-342)

Mites of the genus Antennophorus attach themselves to ants, steal food from the ant's mouth, reach out and steal food from passing ants, and stroke the and to make it regurgitate.

A spider lives within the pitcher plant of Malaya and eats the food caught by the plant. At the bottom of the pitcher is a pod of digestive enzymes which dissolve insects caught by the plant. The spider residing therein is able to immerse itself in this digestive soup when endangered, with no harm to itself. Wouldn't the ancestors to these spiders themselves have been digested by the enzymes in the pitcher plant until such time that the special protective organs would have been fully developed? If so, we must reason, the ancestors of these Malaya spiders did not survive, and so neither do the spiders today. But they do!

Many parasites have the ability to prevent the coagulation of blood obtained from their host, some have no means of locomotion and have only insignificant nervous and digestive systems. Life in the absence of their specific host is impossible for them.

The rabbit is essentially the only species able to ingest the death cup toadstool containing the poisonous substance phallin with no apparent harm to itself.

Insects would quickly over run the world if birds did not keep them in check. How, then, could insects have existed millions of years, evolutionarily speaking, prior to the birds?

Some parasites require two or more hosts. For example, the dog heart worm, Dirofilaria immitis, resides in the heart chambers and great vessels of the dog and there produces larval forms that are shed into the dog's blood stream. These larvae are unable to mature unless they enter a mosquito. When a mosquito feeds on the dog it sucks the larvae of the heart worm in with its blood meal. Within the mosquito the larvae mature. When the mosquito bites another dog, the matured forms enter the host along with the infected secretions from the mouth parts of the mosquito. The injected larvae then migrate through the tissues of the dog into the blood stream, travel to the heart and there grow to twelve or fourteen inches in length eventually killing their canine host. Here, as in numerous parasitic relationships; the host and means of sustenance of the parasite is killed: and the parasite depends upon the simultaneous existence of intermediate and find hosts that are widely separated in the evolutionary time-scale—here, the mosquito coming “millions” of years before the dog, and the parasite originating millions of years before either. (Figure 101 - Heartworm Cycle)

Some parasites exude a paralyzing substance that is offered to ants. The ants love it, eat it, are paralyzed, and subsequently consumed by the parasite.

Certain wasps hunt caterpillars to serve as food for larval wasps. The wasp hunts in hot weather and if it killed the caterpillars they would soon putrefy when brought back to the wasp nest, thus endangering the wasp young. The wasp has the ability to sting the caterpillar so that it is paralyzed. yet still alive. In some cases the wasp demonstrates a tremendous understanding of caterpillar anatomy by stinging several specific ganglia in the various segments of the caterpillar, yet not killing it. The caterpillar is still able to eat, but unable to escape the larvae in the nest of the wasp which eat the caterpillar avoiding vital organs so that the caterpillar remains alive as long as possible, in some cases as long as nine months. (Figure 102 - Wasp Parasitism)

In some cases the wasp is limited in its knowledge of anatomy and only able to paralyze certain species of insects. When wasps attack the preying mantis, they “know’ to paralyze the treacherous mantis arms first.

The Microstoma, a fluke-like worm, has stinging cells similar to those found on hydroids. The Microstoma does not produce these stinging cells itself, but rather gets them from eating polyps. The stinging cells of the polyp discharge easily when touched, but the Microstoma is able to eat the polyp without bursting the stinging organs. The digestive tract of the Microstoma is structured so that the stinging cells are swept via channels to the surface of the Microstoma where they serve as a protective device. The Microstoma evidently does not eat the polyps for food, as it only consumes enough to furnish itself with enough stinging cells, then, even if hungry, it will no longer eat polyps.

Termites depend upon the infusoria within their digestive tract to enable them to digest cellulose. Man depends upon certain lowly bacteria within his digestive tract for the manufacturing of vitamin K, so necessary in blood clotting. Herbivorous animals, like the cow and horse have specially constructed digestive tracts to allow the digestion of food stuffs by microorganisms. How could termites, man and ruminants have survived without the co-existence of the lowly microorganisms?

The clownfish lives within the tentacles of the sea anemone. The anemone's tentacles paralyze other fish and thus the clownfish receives protection. The clownfish, in turn, feeds both itself and the sea anemone. The question becomes, as with the spider in the Malayan pitcher plant, how did the clownfish's ancestors survive the attempts to reside amongst the tentacles of the deadly sea anemone?

Lichen are a combination of algae and fungus. Both are absolutely dependent upon each other for survival but widely separated in evolutionary time.

Pollen masses picked up by insects from certain flowers will sometimes change position on the insect's body so as to be in the appropriate position for fertilization of the next flower on which the insect lands.

The yucca plant in the southwestern United States is dependent upon the pronuba moth for reproduction. At the appropriate time the pronuba moth emerges from its cocoon, flies to yucca flowers, and gathers pollen in specially constructed mouth parts. The moth then pierces the ovary of a yucca flower with its ovipositer and deposits its moth eggs therein. The moth then climbs to the opening of the female part of the flower and ejects the pollen carried in its mouth. The moth thus fertilizes the flower and uses the flower as a nest for her eggs. The eggs of the moth hatch and the larvae feed on the yucca seeds, but leave just enough so that the plant can reproduce itself. The yucca plant is unable to reproduce in any other way because of the structure of its reproductive organs, and the moth only reproduces in the presence of the yucca flower.

The Pseudomyrma ant lives in acacia trees and feeds on special fruits on the leaves of the plant. These fruits are not reproductive bodies and apparently serve no other function for the plant than to attract the Pseudomyrma, which in turn benefits the plant by running off predators that would defoliate the tree in a matter of days.

How could spiders develop the web spinning organs and the instinct to build webs. The spinneret organs of the spider have hundreds of apertures through which silk and glue are extruded. The spider also needs special oil secreting glands on its feet so it does not get stuck in its own web. Spiders are known to spin webs as large as nineteen feet in circumference and the silk can be as thin as a single molecule and surpassed in tensile strength only by fused quartz.

Some spiders lasso their prey by swinging a ball of glue attached to a strand of silk around in the air, sometimes for fifteen minutes, throwing it at passing insects. Other spiders build a postage stamp size net and catch their prey by throwing the net over their victims. The Dolometes fimbriatus spider sews leaves together with silk, making a raft. He then rides the raft in the water in search of insects.

The Evolution Protest Movement of Britain, confident that the web spinning organs of the spider cannot be explained through gradual transitions, has offered a $500 reward to anyone that can explain the evolution of the spider through gradual stages. (CREATION OR EVOLUTION (Great Britain: Evolution Protest Movement), Pamphlet Number 89.)

The carnivorous plants, like the Venus fly trap and the pitcher plant, show intricate design. These plants have the ability to not only attract but also capture and digest animal victims, concerning the piecemeal evolution of the carnivorous plants, F. E. Lloyd in the introduction to The Carnivorous P' ants, conceded that the evolution of the specialized organs of capture defy explanation. (Figure 103 - Venus Fly Trap)

How did human mothers develop mammary glands in a convenient location to nurse their young (on the chest as opposed to the back of the legs or neck), simultaneously evolving the alveolar and duct system of the glands, the appropriate hormonal control to stimulate milk production post-partum and milk ejection upon sucking stimulus. Furthermore, how did babies simultaneously develop the sucking instinct and lips that enable suction?

How did humans develop the involuntary ability to chew food. avoiding the tongue? Can you imagine having to think your tongue into the correct places in your mouth to manipulate food and avoid biting it prior to this involuntary ability? Surely, if this ability was developed gradually, macerated tongues would have been a definite problem while the transitional stages were evolving between voluntary tongue manipulations and involuntary control.

The enzymes and acids in the human stomach are sufficiently strong to digest an animal stomach when ingested. How did the stomach develop slowly the ability to digest stomachs, which not digesting itself? Furthermore, how did the digestive tract develop the ability to neutralize gastric acids entering the small intestine from the stomach, so the small intestine, which is not protected from these stomach juices, would not be digested?

The human body has the ability to control the acidity of blood with great precision. Through the blood's buffer systems, respiration and kidney excretion, pH (hydrogen ion concentration-acidity) is maintained between 7.35 and 7.45. The highest level of hydrogen ions is only 1/100,000,000 of a gram more than the lowest level!

Fish are said to have evolved into land creatures, yet the fish eye is absolutely useless outside of the medium of water.

How could the sexes develop coincidingly complementary sexual organs and instincts?

The human eye has the ability to see light coming through an aperture of only 3 microns (3/25,000 inch) and discern 10,000,000 different shades of colors (a designed machine can only discern about 40% as many colors). The intricacy of the human eye defies evolutionary description, by using one's evolutionary imagination or by attempting to find evidence for transitional stages in the fossil record.

The human brain weights about three pounds, contains ten billion neurons with approximately 25,000 synapses (connections) per neuron. Each neuron is made up of 10,000,000,000 macro-molecules. The human mind can store almost limitless amounts of information, (a potential millions of times greater than the 1015 bits of information gathered in a lifetime--I. Asimov), compare facts, weight information against memory, judgement and conscience and formulate a decision in a fraction of a second. The nervous system has numerous life saving reflexes, automatic controls of vital functions such as blood pressure and heart beat, connections with the endocrine system, and tremendous sensory abilities such as the ability of sensory nerve endings in the finger to detect a vibration of 0.02 microns (.08/100,000 inch). Creationists feel that to assert the gradual spontaneous development of the nervous system (setting aside the awful evolutionary enigma of a brain in excess of that which will ever be used) is to betray an ignorance of the tremendous complexity of that system.

The human heart beats faithfully about 100,000 times daily. Without our having to think about it the heart ejects the vital liquid of life at the rate of 10 tons per day and 80,000,000 gallons in a life time. The blood flows into a capillary network so extensive that the combined capillaries of four persons if placed end to end could reach all the way to the moon. My part of our body not supplied with blood of the right composition and under the correct pressure is doomed. How could the cardiovascular system be less than perfect and produce fit human precursors? How could the complexities of that system arise spontaneously?

The bat, Nictophilus geoffroyi can "see" fruit flies 100 feet away by echo location and catch as many as five in one second. The bat is able to hear frequencies of sound of 150,000 cycles/second, whereas man can only hear 15,000 cycles/second. The bat emits sounds of 70,000 cycles/second at a rate of 10 impulses/second at rest, and up to 100 impulses/second when in flight and approaching prey. He also has special muscles in his ears that close the ear to the bats own emitted sounds but opens them to receive the echo. How could such abilities and anatomical features develop piecemeal?

Whales have the ability to detect objects miles away through sonar, and determine if they are neutral, friend or foe.

It is presumed that the reptilian jaw hinge bones gave rise to the bones of the middle ear of mammals. A question: How did reptiles eat while the of wound when attacked. The singhalese grasshopper will expose ominous eyespots to an attacking mynah bird. Mimals such as the ptarmigan, arctic fox, chameleons, iguanas, flounders and reef fish change color to fit the environment background. The leaf butterfly, Kallima, is boldly colored until it lights on a leaf at which time it blends with the leaf background apparently disappearing. Flata plant bugs will cluster together on stems to look just like flowers: the green bugs will look like buds and the pink bugs will arrange themselves to look like the flower. There is a spider in Java that lies on its back on leaves to look just like bird droppings. The green hairstick butterfly lands and situates its wings in the sun so as to cast a minimal shadow. The hawkmouth looks like bark only if it settles on trees head up, whereas the geometrid tissue moth resembles bark only if it arranges itself horizontally. Ants have six legs, and spiders have eight legs: so when a spider mimics an ant it uses its front two legs to appear as antennae. The clearwing moth resembles wasps and will even fly during the day like wasps whereas moths are normally night fliers. Many insects will pretend to sting when attacked, and certain snakes as well as the wrynect bird will oscillate and hiss to mimic dreaded snakes. The Amazon leaf fish floats downstream like a leaf toward its prey. The pod of the plants species; Scorpiurus, resembles a centipede. When birds pick it up and fly away with it the body distributes its seeds. Near eastern lizards will but a stick sideways in their mouth to prevent being swallowed by snakes.

Nature is filled with such incredibilities from nest building to migration, the geometry of a spider's web, or comb of a honey bee in fact every organism, every aspect of nature the universe shows like interrelatedness.

Such incredible and delicate balance and interconnections between organisms within organism's physiology and anatomy and linking life with the physical world speak to the existence of synorgon of a gigantic intricately complex life-like organisms of which we are simply a part.

Part, or separate, or entity are words which should be stricken since they do not reflect reality. All is an enmeshed continuum from magnetic fields, to light, to subatomic particles to atoms, molecules, and biochemicals, then to organelles, cells, tissues, organs, and being. to plants, ground. earth ,water, sky, planets, and sun to galaxies, stars, systems, and black holes to energy, light, and magnetic fields. and then back through from the beginning again.

Like the strokes and color hues of a painting blend to create beauty, so, too, does our total context blend to create health a single pigment from the painting, or a strand of fabric from the canvas does not equal beauty or even suggest it.

Similarly, our health, our beauty, so to speak, is a composite of our context. Health is not a result of a vaccine, a PAP smear, a vitamin, a diet pill, or attempting to avoid certain described diseases. - It is achieving homeostasis within our broad context: the food we eat, the friends we keep, exercise, fragrances. work attitude, family, entertainment, air, water, light, magnetic fields,-everything... including all the stuff we don't know anything about-which is a lot, probably the majority.

Given all these variables which influence our health, how can we restrict health care to the treatment of symptoms. Health care must therefore be eclectic with value derived from all disciplines including allopathy, homeopathy, naturopathy, chiropracty, aromotherapy, reflexology, herbology, nutrition, economics, physics, kinesiology, humanities, psychology, every study that helps describe our world, our proper context, can shed light on how we can achieve health.

Understanding this, the second century physician Golen said a doctor must first be a philosopher. And I hope you can see this generalist approach to health we take in the Reviews is designed to provide a philosophic basis, a world-view, from which we can seek proper context and thus health, without being unduly distracted by any single preventive or remedial action.

The heuristic value of this all is one synorgonic concept is as a beginning point. A highly useful algorithm to solve virtually all important health problems. Ignore our place, and myopically simply exploit and ignore the rightful place of other things in synorgon and wreak havoc on our world and health, or live within and support our synorgonic context and build the foundation of paradise. We, the human world community, uniquely have that choice.