Circadian Biology determines health, not food! DHA, Blue light and nnEMF

Food Is Just One Input – Part 1

By Josh Lamaro, Jack Kruse and Yew-Wei Tan


Unavoidable in the Australian media of late has been Pete Evans’ relentless dietary tirade as our “Paleo High Priest”, touting the whole-foods-cure-all-ailments message to the masses (Autism included!) That’s right, the reason you have autism is because your (or your parents’) diet sucks (!?)
At its heart, the message that Pete Evans and his crew have told the Aussie public is that ‘Paleo’ is about taking a “balanced approach”, returning to eating whole, nutrient-dense foods, and living in a more sustainable and holistic way. The benefits of disease reversal apparently come as an added bonus to those who follow this approach.

Whilst moving towards whole foods and shunning processed junk is undeniably a move in the right direction, what he hasn’t told his fan-base is what happens to mitochondrial signalling when you adopt this lifestyle in the context of a modern world loaded with EMF-transmitting technology.
The human genome has been shaped by millions of years of evolution, during which it adapted to the conditions of existence. These conditions absolutely included the types of food that were available, but were undeniably affected by many other factors. With so many evolutionary pressures having shaped our genome, and so much having changed in the last 50 years, one has to ask why food became the main target?

Among the many lessons that emerge from the paleolithic record, perhaps the most sobering is that in life, as in the stock market, past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Eating the way we did 10,000 years ago does not guarantee good health in today’s modern world.
Food is a Product of the Environment; Your Environment is not a Product of Food

There is no mention from modern Paleo dogmatists of how food is handled differently in different people, given the drastically varied environments that we each live in. The dietary differences between the Inuit and the Kitavans confused many Paleo 1.0 subscribers for this very reason.

Pete does not seem to understand the science of how our modern environment negatively affects cellular signalling, and how food is just one of many inputs to a circadian sensing system.

What is “Circadian Signalling”?

Life is 100% about circadian biology and seasonal cycles. It is about the ways in which those cycles determine how food is grown, how it carries energies, and how and where these energies are fed into and used by our mitochondria.

The daily rotation of the Earth on its axis, and the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun, require that living organisms adapt to nyctohemeral and seasonal periodicity.
Terrestrial life-forms have developed endogenous molecular circadian clocks to synchronize their behavioral, biological, and metabolic rhythms to environmental cues, with the aim to perform at their best, regardless of these forever changing environmental pressures. The coordinated circadian regulation of sleep/wake, rest/activity, fasting/feeding, and catabolic/anabolic cycles is crucial for optimal health.

Circadian rhythms in gene expression synchronize biochemical processes and metabolic fluxes with the external environment, allowing the organism to function effectively in response to predictable physiological challenges.

What does this all mean in english?

It means the goal of the body is simply to match it’s internal signalling mechanisms to respond properly to any external signals. We can say that all systems of the body simply strive for metastability given a changing external environment. A circadian clock is simply something that measures these external environmental signals, and relays that information to internal components of the system (the body), so that those other components knows what is going on. These components can then ensure and allow the body to be as energy efficient as possible in its physiological functioning.

The Master Circadian Controller

In mammals, this daily time-keeping is driven by multiple biological clocks in the body. However, the master molecular time-keeping oscillators are found within the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus.
These SCN oscillators send neural and hormonal signals to self-sustained and cell-autonomous molecular oscillators in peripheral tissues all around the body, coordinating the body as a whole to respond appropriately to external changes.

Nutritional status is sensed by nuclear receptors and coreceptors, transcriptional regulatory proteins, and protein kinases. These receptors help sense the alternating light and dark cycles, and synchronize them with metabolic gene expression and epigenetic modification, as well as energy production and expenditure.

Physiological rhythmicity characterizes these biological processes and body functions, and multiple rhythms coexist in the system, presenting different phases which may determine different ways of coordination among the circadian patterns, at both the cellular and whole-body levels.
Move to the rhythm, step to the beat!

Any alteration of circadian rhythms leads to the onset of desynchronization of internal clocks. The end product is metabolic derangement and disease (chronopathology).

What happens when you stare into your TV at 10pm at night while munching on paleo sweet-potato chips after a long day at work?

The SCN says it’s daytime because of all the light getting into the eye. Your liver on the other hand, is exhausted from all that stress from your office-job, but it now needs to rev up again to deal with the incoming food ….. Your liver can only take so much beating before it starts to fail.

One recent study pointed out rather clearly that desynchronization between the central and peripheral clocks by altered timing of food intake can lead to uncoupling of peripheral clocks from the central pacemaker and is, in humans, related to the development of metabolic disorders, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. For further reading on these papers, please check out @calories proper’s excellent commentaries here and here.

There’s been so much recent talk and media hype about the role of diet in obesity and diabetes, and Pete’s PR machine is at the helm. There has yet to be any speak of the timing when food is eaten, nor any mention of the most drastic change in our environment since the Paleolithic era — fake light and the introduction of non native electromagnetic frequencies (EMF.) There has been no discussion on how this might disrupt our molecular clock system, despite the evidence mounting in the literature.

Artificial Light Inputs

Chronic and indiscriminant use of artificial blue light is the metabolic equivalent to chronic excessive carbohydrate consumption, because both contain high-powered photoelectric energies.

Reminder: we need to stop thinking about food as simply carbs / fats / proteins / alcohol. When carbohydrate is consumed, the substrate is broken down into high-powered electrons, and those high-powered electrons are fed into mitochondrial Complex I. Electrons carry energy and information.

Our mitochondria evolved expecting a seasonal variation of energies in both photons and electrons. Summer-time photons are high-powered, and winter time photons are lower-powered.

What happens when you give your mitochondrial high-powered photons and electrons all-year round?
Unrelenting high-energy photons and electrons destroy the brain’s ability to properly signal environmental cues to our cellular machinery. It affects this molecular machinery quickly by fast-forwarding our circadian chemical clocks. These clocks are all biologically tied to the cell cycle that controls growth.

It seems clear that it is more than just our food that needs to get more “paleo” if we are to truly combat Neolithic disease.

Visualising High-Powered Electrons

In 2011, Nora Volkow et. al. published a paper entitled “Effects of Cell Phone Radiofrequency Signal Exposure on Brain Glucose Metabolism”, which showed that when a cellphone is placed next to a human head, the brain sends a ton of blood to the cellphone-exposed region, and upregulates Glucose metabolism in this area.

This is essentially the brain saying, “I need more fast-metabolising high-powered energy RIGHT NOW to deal with this threat.”

Volkow isn’t the first to find this result, and we’ve actually developed lots of ways to visualise this sort of effect.
Blood-Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD) functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) data shows us directly how blood flow is regionalized and controlled by the brain using the cues of light and the fluctuations in the electromagnetic field of the environment on earth, via water chemistry on the surface of the neocortex (CSF).
Environmental electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are directly linked to neurotransmitter responses found in the brain. This includes the EMFs emitted from cellphones.

The brain senses the local, seasonal, and environmental electromagnetic frequencies to make decisions on which neural networks should be filled with electrons first.
These interpreted signals are then used to determine how we recycle and maintain the proteins that make up all of our tissues, determining what life you’ll have, how long you live, and how ill or well you will be as your lifetime evolves.

Introduction to Circadian Protein Maintenance

Proteins form the backbones of all cells. It should be made clear that DNA and RNA code only for proteins, and the function of these proteins is determined by its local environment. Like any supporting structure, these proteins require care and maintenance over time to ensure that they continue to function well. A protein that is too damaged may even have to be replaced.

Such protein maintenance is controlled by Ubiquination rates, and regulated by a protein called Ubiquitin.

As it turns out, ubiquination rates are a critical component of cellular communication that are fundamentally linked to proper SCN function and proper clock controlled cell signaling.

In part two of this series on Circadian Inputs, we will delve into the intricacies of Ubiquitin, its roles in cellular repair and maintenance, and its reliance on proper circadian signalling.

Link

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Keyhole said:

Ok, so I have been doing a load of reading over the past month or so. The research has led me to the very definite conclusion that no amount of dietary changes can fix disease. Working on the gut without attempting to alter the environment is basically a big waste of money and time! Why? Because the permeability of gut is regulated via our circadian biological cycles. Probiotics won't fix a messed up circadian clock.

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Food is Only One Input – Part Two

Imagine you were a simple organism born out of this world today, and found yourself in the environment pictured above. Your task is to become familiar with your surroundings to be able to navigate your way around, and yoke your metabolism for optimal survival in these conditions.
Like being dropped in any new place, the first thing one must do is familiarise themselves with the landmarks and events which will become reliable beacons for reference in spatial navigation. Brooklyn Bridge. Big Ben. The Eiffel Tower.

In a primitive environment, devoid of man made structures, the common reliable feature of every day was, and remains to be, a sinusoidal cycle of light and dark, illustrated beautifully in the above image.
Environmental and circadian signals are sensed by all cells to determine how and when we recycle and maintain the proteins that make up our tissues, determining what life we have, how long we will live it, and how ill or well we will be along the way.

The micropulsations of native and non-native electromagnetic forces control all major biocycles, including the timing of mitotic rhythm and the entire cell cycle. Any major change in their frequency would be catastrophic for cells. In fact, experiments already have been done that have shown that vibrational rates near normal and slightly above the Schumann resonance, from 30-100 Hz, cause dramatic changes in the cell cycle timing. This can be extremely deleterious for the management and repair of the protein structures that make up our tissues.

Such protein maintenance and repair is controlled by ubiquination rates, a process chiefly organised by a protein called Ubiquitin. Ubiquination rates are a critical component of cellular communication and are fundamentally linked to proper SCN function and proper clock controlled cell signaling. Every cancer on this planet has been linked to defects in ubiquination rates. All ubiquination defects are associated with altered melatonin and sulfated Vitamin D levels, which are fundamentally set and controlled by light, not food.

The concentration of a protein within a cell is determined by the balance between a protein’s degradation and its synthesis. Studies of protein turnover rates have shown that some proteins are short-lived while others are long-lived.
Long-lived proteins constitute the majority of proteins in the cell. Short-lived proteins are typically key regulatory proteins and abnormal proteins (abnormal proteins are often partially unfolded, and such proteins are prone to degradation).

What might happen when the proteins that are supposed to be long-lived are forced to turnover very quickly? Or if short lived proteins are left a long time?

Protein turnover is one of the most energy consuming processes to be undertaken by a cell. This means that intricate control of this process is critical for optimal health and energy conservation.

Ubiquitin performs this critical function of controlling protein turnover in a cell by closely regulating the degradation of specific proteins. By regulating protein degradation using cell signalling information, cells can quickly eliminate a protein that in turn regulates another function (like a transcription factor that is needed to express a particular gene). This form of control is very effective, as the elimination of a particular regulatory protein ensures that the process expressed by the regulatory protein is shut-down.
Of course, while Ubiquitin-linked regulation is effective at controlling processes, it is also energetically expensive. If a regulatory protein is needed again, it has to be re-synthesized.

(An alternative regulatory strategy used by cells is to simply de-activate proteins (by changing their conformation). However, unlike the Ubiquitin-linked regulation, such inactivated proteins can be mistakenly reactivated.)

Ubiquitin performs it’s duties in an ATP-dependent fashion. This is where Gilbert Ling’s ideas become very important. Ubiquitin function couples directly to mitochondrial signaling.
Mitochondria are organelles within the cells whereby food is broken down to electrons, and water to protons. Protons are pumped out at a rapid rate under normal conditions.

Within these protons is stored potential energy, and this potential energy is eventually transferred to water hydration shells surrounding cellular proteins and mitochondria, and existing throughout the entire cell. This potential energy is stored in the hydronium ion of the exclusion zone of water (EZ). The EZ is critical to cellular signaling in all life forms. When mitochondria discharge protons, water must be available in close quarters to accept this potential energy package.

If it is not, and mitochondria make too many protons, a positive charge builds up in and around the mitochondria, which lowers the redox potential and creates oxidative damage to the surrounding proteins.

Definition: The redox potential is a measure of the electrical potential across your cell membranes. The bigger the gradient is, or becomes, the more alive and well you remain.
Redox chemistry in and around the cell membranes is the key to precise cell regulation.

Linking Redox Chemistry to Protein Turnover

Gilbert Ling’s research showed that ATP was not the high-energy intermediate that Peter Mitchell’s chemiosmotic theory advocates. Ling instead countered that ATP withdraws electrons from proteins. When this happens, Ling showed, the thermodynamics and the quantum possibilities of the protein in question are altered.

In essence, the cell is tagging the protein with a new thermodynamic information, so that it’s redox possibilities can either make it exist for long periods of time, or mark it for replacement quickly.

Once the redox tagging is complete, the cellular redox repair machinery will take over using resonant energy transfers from the local electromagnetic oscillations or waves in and around a cell.
This is essentially how a cell evolves in real time to suits its environment.

Why is this important? Greg Engel showed in plant biophysics experiments that all subatomic particles (electrons and protons) move within living cells as waves or oscillations. When electrons are withdrawn from proteins, it changes their tune, so to speak. This is the manner in which proteins are tagged differently, and is the reason protein turnover is linked intimately to circadian and annual cycles.

Note: Ubiquitin itself does not degrade proteins. It serves only as a tag that marks proteins for degradation. The degradation itself is carried out by the 26S proteasome. In short, proteins that are to be degraded are first tagged by conjugating them with Ubiquitin and these tagged proteins are then recognized and shuttled to the proteasome for degradation.

What are the Major Protein Degradation Signals?

What determines if a protein gets tagged by Ubiquitin and thus marked for degradation? This question is open for debate, but Ling’s work shows us it is likely the Redox potential of the protein in question.
Redox chemistry is the key to cell regulation and it is subject to proper timing, specifically circadian timing.

Light is an electromagnetic oscillation or wave, and is detected by the SCN in the brain.

If the SCN clock cannot perform time-keeping accurately, then the ubiquination tagging mechanism does not work effectively. Short-lived partially unfolded proteins may be left longer than desired, hindering cellular actions and resulting in cellular “junk” floating around, or, on the other hand, proteins could be tagged prematurely, leading to energetically-expensive protein turnover.

Almost every disease known to modern medicine is tied to alterations in ubiquination processing. This is why circadian timing is the most critical aspect of wellness, not the food we eat. Health and wellness starts with cyclical and structural rhythms, not with food.

One simply needs to try and grow a tomato in the depths of winter to understand that the food itself cannot even exist if the conditions for its existence are not present.

Dr. Luis De LeCea’s work, and the work of many others has shown us that we release our pituitary hormones optogenetically – by cellular communication via light. This means light signalling and timing are fundamentally linked to proper hormone signaling in the human brain.

There is One Food that is Critically Important to this System

There is one nutrient that you need to get from food, and that is the Docosahexanoic (DHA,) found in the marine food chain. DHA is required to turn these light signals into a usable electrical signal for the brain. This lipid is critical for taking light from the Sun, or from our Gut Bacteria, and then turning that light into an electrical signal that can be captured by our mitochondria.
The human retina has more DHA than does the brain, as it is the interface between external light signals and the brain. It gives the primary signal to the SCN to run the central pacemaking clock, so that life can manifest properly, and the system can make sense of its environmental pressures, and how to use food electrons.

Blue light is what destroys DHA quickest, and in turn, lowers melatonin, and alters Vitamin D sulfation in the skin and gut.

Serotonin is a neurotransmitter made from dietary breakdown of carbohydrates, particularly foods high in phenylalanine, leucine and tryptophan. These chemicals are found in fruits that grow in long light conditions. In the gut, serotonin regulates intestinal movements, whilst in the brain it is involved in regulation of mood, appetite and sleep (once converted to melatonin.)
Serotonin balance in the brain is just that…..a balance between light frequency and DHA tissue concentration. If that relationship is not tightly regulated by ubiquination rates, the connection to uncouple signaling in the brain gut axis is lost.

Serotonin is synthesized from tryptophan, which is transcriptionally activated by vitamin D3 sulfate.
EPA from marine lipids increases serotonin release from presynaptic neurons, whilst DHA has a massive influence on the serotonin receptor action.

Once the serotonin is absorbed, it is collected in the enterochromaffin cells of the gut. There it is transported in the brain’s vagal and serotonergic nerve tracts. Serotonin is closely regulated in the gut and brain by the presence or absence of light.
It is the absence of light, and reduction of H2 from the gut, that stimulates the production of melatonin from serotonin. This can only happen when light is absent on our skin, in our eye and from our gut for at least 3-4 hrs. This is another reason why late night eating is detrimental, particularly starches and sugars. Eating food at night stimulates such light release from the microbiome. Just as blue light in the eye blunts melatonin production and destroys sleep, so too does blue light release in the gut.

Circadian mismatches disconnect light entrained circadian cycles from the cell cycle, by uncoupling and disconnecting ubiquination from melatonin.

When we marry a microwaved environment replete in blue light, with the lack of DHA in cell membranes in the eye and SCN, we create the perfect storm.
This combination leads to a complete uncoupling of ubquination from melatonin cycles in the brain and gut. The interaction of ubiquitin and melatonin is of paramount importance in the activation of the transcription factor NF-κappa Beta. NF-κappa Beta is the emergency system of the cell that ties inflammatory cascades to circadian clock genes.

NF-κappa Beta modulates the global cellular levels of communication, by modulating numerous signal transducing factors such as the tumor suppressor p53.

Blue light frequencies rapidly destroy any remaining DHA in the retina, further slowing the SCN clock in relation to the organ clocks. We can see here how the advice given by modern Australian ob/gyn practitioners to expecting mothers – to avoid fish consumption – creates an epigenetic disaster for any child born into such a blue light toxic environment. This is one reason metabolic disease is showing up in younger populations in epidemic numbers.

The average modern human looks at their cellphone 150 times a day, delivering a constant toxic dose of blue light to the SCN, destroying melatonin production rapidly. This is only one source.

Uncoupling fundamental forces of nature uncouples our biologic cycles, and this directly alters how nucleic acids, mitochondria and ubiquination can function. The more non-native oscillations one faces in one’s chosen environment, the higher the ubiquination rates become, and the more chronic disease one is likely to face.

Eating Wholesome, natural Food is a great start, and absolutely has its benefits. It is a tool in the toolbox for building optimal health, but it simply isn’t enough to cure a sick body or ensure longevity in a toxic environment.
Pete Evans might tout an “Optimal Paleo Lifestyle,” but clinicians who understand circadian biology know that there are far greater environmental concerns that determine the health outcomes of their patients.

If, like Pete, you believe that altering your diet can fix everything, you may end up investing all of your time and money into doing things that, at best, serve to add only a little energy into your system. What will you do about the 10 different energy-draining stressors that are left unchecked?

This blog presents some science about some of the fundamental forces that govern our health and wellness. These forces go well beyond diet. With a new perspective, we can start re-examining some of the core tenets of our daily practice.

When you know better, you do better.

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Laura said:

Here's what you do: put your theory into action and report back. That's what we do with everything else. And frankly, I've made so much improvement with my disease that I don't doubt that dietary changes are a BIG part of the answer.

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Keyhole said:

Laura said:

Here's what you do: put your theory into action and report back. That's what we do with everything else. And frankly, I've made so much improvement with my disease that I don't doubt that dietary changes are a BIG part of the answer.

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I currently am, but the problem is that I don't actually have any disease. This is for those people who do...

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Laura said:

Keyhole said:

Laura said:

Here's what you do: put your theory into action and report back. That's what we do with everything else. And frankly, I've made so much improvement with my disease that I don't doubt that dietary changes are a BIG part of the answer.

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I currently am, but the problem is that I don't actually have any disease. This is for those people who do...

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Then you really aren't in a position to certify that this is THE answer, are you?

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Keyhole said:

I can't say with 100% certainty, no. But then again, I don't think that is necessary because there is a wealth of biochemistry to back this up. I'm just trying to be objective about it. If this is correct, then the implications are staggering. It would mean that everyone's attempts at reversing their illness by diet alone are essentially futile. IMO this is important, even if it is only a possibility

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Laura said:

More than that, in my historical reading, I see cases of autoimmune dysfunction in ancient persons including Caesar, Augustus, Cicero. I don't think they had any blue light problems. Archaeologists and paleontologists remark regularly about the difference in the health of the paleo eaters vs the agricultural types. I'm pretty sure that most of them were in tune with the circadian rhythms.

In my own family, doing the genealogy, there are a number of cases of pioneer ancestors who suffered from one or another autoimmune condition and I'm pretty sure they were not exposed to blue light.

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Laura said:

Yet, in your opening post you wrote: "The research has led me to the very definite conclusion..."

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Keyhole said:

FWIW, i am not saying that I think autoimmunity is merely a recent phenomena due to blue-light. However, I'm not convinced that the sheer numbers we witness with autoimmunity today can be explained by wheat, soy or GMO's alone. At a more fundamental level, the biggest change the human race has faced is one nnEMF and artificial blue light. These are the factors which directly affect our body's electrical capacity to generate DC electric current via semi-conduction. Clearly, physics dictates biology. If we understand this, then why is it so far fetched to consider the possibility that electricity/light are (by far) the most important factors in determining health? This is why I just don't believe that food is all that important anymore when compared.

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7Jan95 said:

A: ....Diana does not know
the real concept of "time."

Q: (D) Well, that is a concept that is very difficult for me.
(L) Well, for everybody. We can talk about it and play
with it... but there really is no time. It's an illusion,
it's a lie... (T) It's part of the 3rd density world we
have created... (D) I'm trying real hard... (F) Okay, let
me give you an example: Take yourself off the planet, take
yourself farther away so you can't see the sun anymore
except as a speck. (D) Okay, I'm there... (F) Now you
are floating out there in space... there is no direction,
everything is just out from you... there is no up or down
or sideways... nothing... You see stars every way you
look, but there is no point of orientation... Now, being
no longer on the planet, the sun doesn't rise and the sun
doesn't set... you have no watch or clock... how do you
know what was before and what was after... (T) Have you
ever heard of people who go down into caves to do research
experiments, and they come out thinking that only 45 days
have passed when it has really been 65 or a hundred...
because time slows down and virtually stops. Time is a
human concept. (F) I read the book about the Barbara
Mackle abduction. She was kidnapped by a guy who put her
into an underground coffin with gadgets to help her
survive, and she was buried... she thought, when she was
pulled out, 83 hours later, she thought she had only been
in there one night. (L) Let's ask this question: In a
state where there are no artificial considerations such as
the delineation of night and day, in such a state, what
would be the natural cycle of the human physical body in
terms of, say, sleeping or eating, and refer this back to
our concept of time. In other words, how long would we
naturally stay awake, and then how long would we naturally
sleep if we were not constrained by artificial time
references, in a general sense?

A: Your entire existence would be radically different and
would not cycle in the same ways at all.

Q: (L) Can you tell us how it would?

A: It depends on the environment.

Q: (L) So, we are so interactive with our environment that we
almost can't separate ourselves from it, is that what you
are saying?

A: Close.

Q: (L) If our solar system motion was such that, according to
our present time delineations, we had 48 hours of daylight
and 48 hours of night, would there be a concommitant
extension of lifetime in the same terms?

A: Maybe. ...

Q: (L) Look at the Mayans... they counted in base 20. (T)
Once you remove all references to time, it slows down and
eventually stops. (J) Yes, look at what happens to those
who are in sensory deprivation chambers. (T) Exactly.
(L) An imploding infinity, so to speak.

A: If you were out in space, you might sleep for thousands of
years or remain "awake" for millions of "years."

Q: (T) This refers back to Frank's explanation of floating
in space along with how time might be perceived without
reference points.

A: It really does not matter, because you would not be under
the same illusion that "Time" even exists.

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The research has led me to the very definite conclusion that no amount of dietary changes can fix disease.

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Laura said:

Keyhole said:

Laura said:

Here's what you do: put your theory into action and report back. That's what we do with everything else. And frankly, I've made so much improvement with my disease that I don't doubt that dietary changes are a BIG part of the answer.

Click to expand...

I currently am, but the problem is that I don't actually have any disease. This is for those people who do...

Click to expand...

Then you really aren't in a position to certify that this is THE answer, are you?

I lived for YEARS in an environment where there was a complete absence of blue light, and almost total adherence to the circadian rhythm. No electricity, no running water... no appliances, hard work, get up at daylight, go to bed soon after dark. Natural food. Never could eat late because there was no light to do so... And my condition got worse and worse and worse.

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