Biohacking 101

PubMed. is a search engine accessing scientific research studies from around the world. PubMed. contains the abstracts (summaries) while P.M.C. contains the full-text versions.PubMed. Central (P.M.C.) is a free digital library/a research database by the NCBI (National Center for BiotechnologyInformation), a contributor to NIH (National Institute for Health). By national, I am referring to U.S.A. (United States of America) where I live. P.M.C. is an archive of studies and articles from thousands of journals that contain millions of studies and medical journal entries…

“Google scholar” is an easier way for non-health care persons to search.CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) is a U.S. federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services whose main goal is to protect public health by controlling and preventing disease, injury, and disability in the U.S. and internationally. I also attended many national and international meetings and conferences with doctors and research scientists from around the world who have conducted some of these studies and publications as well as enlightened me even further.

After decades of research, I still always like to get to the cause to find the solution to rid the problem. Many of our health problem share linked to free radical damage causing Oxidative Stress (O.S.), which in turn, causes inflammation. This inflammation causes problems like pain, breathing problems, memory, autoimmune andskin issues…

Here is how it works free radicals cause damage called Oxidative Stress, which causes inflammation. You see, a free radical is missing an electron, steals from the “neighbor,” then that neighbor steals an electron from the next neighbor…This chain reaction of chaos (“domino effect”)causes more free radicals which creates more Oxidative Stress and more inflammation. Oxidative Stress is what causes the apple to turn brown and the rust to form on an engine. This Oxidative Stress causes inflammation that has been linked to hundreds of health problems, including nine of the top ten leading causes of death in the U.S. (strokes, cancer, diabetes, flu/ pneumonia, kidney, depression/ suicides, kidney, respiratory, and heart problems).

This could easily be validated by going to P.M.C., typing in the search “Oxidative Stress” and “heart” or “Oxidative Stress diabetes” each of those two searches revealed over 150,000 studies and scientific/medical journal entries.

“If these problems are linked to O.S, why not try to reduce theO.S.?”

Various theories about aging include how this free radical damage (O.S./inflammation), like any other damage, i.e., browning of an apple or rusting of an engine, ages us. Another includes when we age, we not only accumulate O.S, but our mitochondria (energy sources of our cells that produce energy called ATP) die off prematurely and thus we have less ATP (energy). (ATP stands for Adenosine TriPhosphate and is stored energy in the cells.) Another idea involves our sirtuins (“garbage men” of our cells). Over time from being overworked, the sirtuins get “lazy” at ridding the waste/toxins, so this waste or toxins accumulate; accumulated toxins can become toxic. Thus, you may see that I interchange these two words (toxin and toxic). I believe that hundreds of our aging problems are linked to these factors: high levels of free radical damage/O.S. that creates inflammation, decline of mitochondria and ATP leading to less energy and “lazy” sirtuins that creates toxin accumulation and toxicity.

To simplify my research even further, activating certain pathways (roadways) in our body, may improve the above described cellular damage. Activation of these pathways is extremely important. Below are the three pathways that I try to activate and the beneficial cellular changes that may occur from activating those pathways. (Think of pathways in our body as roadways.)

Activating the:

NRF1 pathway may increase production of mitochondria which produce ATP (energy). Mitochondria are very important because they are in EVERY cell, in EVERY organ in your entire body, even more so in your heart, and are required toproduce energy.

NRF2 pathway may reduce free radical damage called the Oxidative Stress (O.S.) which causes the inflammation in all of your organs. NRF2 protein is so important that it is known as the “Master Regulator.”

NAD pathway may recycle sirtuins (“garbage men”) to “rid waste and toxins” before they become toxic. NAD is required for the sirtuins to function properly and remove this waste. Otherwise, the toxin accumulation causes toxicity andeven more inflammation.

I like to call this “ACTIVATION, not supplementation,” because the pathways are being activated, or stimulated, to accomplish certain vital cellular roles as described above. I ingest, activators, not supplements, because they activate my pathways to do what they should.

I always like to get at the root causes. Various theories of aging indicate that aging problems may be related to mitochondrial and ATP/energy decline, accumulation of free radical damage/O.S./inflammation and less active sirtuins/more toxin accumulation. We now know how to activate pathways that may increase the number of mitochondria that produce ATP/energy, neutralize free radicals that cause O.S./inflammation and improve sirtuin activity to rid toxins before they become toxic. Therefore, these are the factors I choose to attack.