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Part 2<<<
Assessment of the State of Absence of Health
What is the molecular basis for the state of absence of health? The answer:
oxidosis, acidosis, and dysoxygenosis. How can it be assessed? The most
effective way for doing that is direct examination of the slide of a drop of
blood of the person with a special type of microscope fitted with
high-resolution (x15,000) and phase-contrast optics. Indeed, my colleagues at
the Institute and I regularly study the blood smears of our patients with oxygen
disorders, such as Karen in the above case history, and readily observe direct
microscopic evidence of oxidosis, acidosis, and dysoxygenosis. Many red blood
cells in such slides are deformed, broken up, or clumped. Many hunter immune
cells (white blood cells) are found dying or dead. Many zones of congealed
plasma are encountered. In many cases, such areas of congealing advance into
microclot and microplaque formation. In 1997, my colleague, Omar Ali, and I
introduced the term oxidative coagulopathy to describe such abnormalities and
published several dozen photographs fully illustrating the many abnormalities we
observed.10 We also published clear evidence that many changes of oxidative
coagulopathy were reversible when antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E,
taurine, and glutathione, were added to the drops of blood on microscopic
slides.11
No body tissue is immune to oxidative damage caused by oxidative coagulopathy,
hence no symptom-complexes are known not to develop in human canaries.
The mischief of microclot formation, however, does not end with mere mechanical
blockage of tiny blood vessels. The process of oxidative coagulopathy triggers
many chemical reactions that cause spasms of blood vessels and further impede
circulation. Microclots have sticky surfaces. They enlarge as blood cells stick
to them. Bumping into the vessel wall, they are compacted to form what we termed
microplaques. Such plaques cause even more blockages than the soft microclots
and stick to the inner lining of the vessels, thus beginning the process of
hardening of arteries (arteriosclerosis). More importantly, oxidative
coagulopathy triggers many reactions that initiate, potentiate, and perpetuate
yet other oxidative phenomena. Thus, microclots and microplaques float in the
circulating blood as simmering coals, lighting up brush fires in tissues
wherever they reach. For an in-depth discussion of this subject, I refer the
reader to Canary Two: Oxygen and Fibromyalgia.
THE FOURTH INSIGHT:Oxygen, Anger, Guilt, and Spirituality
Healing is a spontaneous phenomena. This is the flip side of the coin of
spontaneity of oxidation. Injury-healing-injury is the eternal drama of living
beings. We have seen the central role of oxygen in oxidative injury. Amazingly,
oxygen plays a similar central role in healing. It is my clinical observation
that angry people do not heal well. A chronic sense of guilt has a similar
effect on healing. I see the hand of oxygen in both.
How does oxygen fit into the world of anger and guilt? Simply stated, both anger
and guilt are emotions solidly grounded in oxygen metabolism. The process of
sensory perception in the sensory organs involves electron transfer events, and
the hand of oxygen is visible everywhere. The physical signs of anger and guilt
also involve electron transfer events, hence are also oxygen-related. Thus,
oxygen mediates the physiological effects of anger and guilt that, in turn,
stress oxygen metabolism by causing adrenaline rushes (adrenergic hypervigilence).
Nature seems to have designed adrenaline to alert us to danger. An adrenaline
rush is nature's way of raising the oxygen metabolism to a higher gear for a
maximal effort for coping with threats. In the natural order of things,
adrenaline rushes end when the danger clears up. The problem with anger and
guilt is that those feelings do not let up. Unless banished with spiritual work,
both emotions continually feed the oxidative fires of adrenaline rushes.
Spirituality is a language without words.
Where there are words, there is a clutter.
In chronic illness, psychology keeps us trapped in old and obsolete models of
pain and suffering. Spirituality sets us free. The common notion of stress being
fight-or-flight response to a threatening situation is so inadequate as to be
clinically irrelevant. The mind-over-body healing is a silly notion of those who
never work with the sick. The mind does not even understand what healing is. How
can it ordain healing in injured tissues? The thinking mind— cortical monkey, in
my terminology—loves to recycle past misery. When that is not enough, it
precycles feared future misery.
Pain causes anger. Anger interferes with healing. How does one cope with the
demons of anger? Not by feeding them with the Why me? question. Not by unending
and punishing analysis. That simply does not work.
Spirituality, Not Psychology,
Is the Answer to the Problem of Stress
How does one save oneself from oneself? By spiritual surrender. But, then, what
is the spiritual? It is a language without words. To learn that language, first
we need to unlearn the suffocating habits of the thinking mind. A tall order!
Yes, it is. The demons of anger in chronic suffering cannot be banished with
anything less. It is a linkage with the Presence that permeates and surrounds
each of us at all times, without being troubled by the nature of that linkage. I
devote What Do Lions Know About Stress? to an in-depth discussion of this
subject.
THE FIFTH INSIGHT:Oxygen and Microecologic Cellular and Macroecologic
Tissue-Organ Ecosystems
We physicians, by and large, are not ecologic thinkers. Gastroenterologists
seldom, if ever, look at the stomach for answers to the problems of the colon.
Cardiologists rarely, if ever, search for clues to heart palpitations in
hormonal fluctuations (sugar-insulin roller coasters, in my terminology).
Neurologists never seem to be interested in the bowel ecology. Pediatricians
frequently refuse to listen when mothers describe how sugar affects the mood of
their children. Dermatologists fail to see the obvious: Eruptions and rashes in
chronic skin conditions worsen with prolonged antibiotic therapy.
Rheumatologists do not study smears of their patients' blood with
high-resolution microscopy to find out if the changes in the blood might yield
some clues to muscle pain and fatigue in fibromyalgia and
chronic fatigue syndrome. Why are we physicians not interested to see the obvious
interrelatedness of everything in the body to everything else in it?
The possibilities of such relationships go unexplored in physicians' offices not
because patients never bring those subject up, but because medical schools do
not teach them and medical textbooks do not include them. Could it be because
many doctors are so focused within the narrow confines of their respective
specialties that they are blinded to even the most obvious realities surrounding
them? Are we a nation of specialists that no longer can see the proverbial
forest for the trees? Consider the following questions asked from me by some of
my patients.
"Dr. Ali, it's very strange, but whenever I apply my frequency massage unit to
my fissure my sinuses clear up. Can you believe that?" a young man with Crohn's
colitis and a rectal fistula and fissure asked me.
"I believe that because you tell me, though I can't explain such a direct
relationship between a rectal fissure and sinus congestion on the basis of known
knowledge of human anatomy or physiology."
*****
"Whenever my chronic anal fissure hurts me after a bowel movement, my heels
begin to hurt me. Weird! Isn't it? Has anyone else also told you something like
that?" a man once asked me.
"That's a first for me," I replied.
"So you believe me," he went on with a grin. "My primary doctor didn't believe
me. He told me that couldn't happen. It was just my imagination."
"I cannot explain how that might happen. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't
believe you," I said.
***
"I swear to you, Dr. Ali, I get a severe headache every time I have sex with my
wife unless I take three tablets of aspirin half an hour earlier. I have seen
many, many doctors but none of them could explain that. Can you?"
"I can't with any degree of certainty," I replied, then added, "But I have heard
of such an association. It seems to me such reactions are allergic in nature," I
replied.
"So, I'm allergic to my wife. Is that it?" he asked with a grin.
"Not to all of her, but perhaps to some of her fluids." I replied, half in jest.
We physicians often dismiss descriptions such as those given above as figments
of patients' imaginations. Why do we do so? The obvious answer is because we
cannot explain them. Something inexplicable happens to us during our medical
training. We become uncomfortable when we think our knowledge or authority is
challenged with questions that go beyond our models of diseases.
How often is the menstrual syndrome in young girls controlled with the right
choices in the kitchen? How often do I see headaches clear up when the bowel
issues are addressed? How often do their eczema rashes clear up when the bowel
ecosystems are restored? How often do persons with chronic fatigue syndrome and
fibromyalgia regain their health when all the issues of the bowel, blood, and
liver ecosystems are effectively addressed with nutrient and herbal therapies?
How often is the air hunger experienced by human canaries relieved when all of
the tissue-organ ecosystems of their bodies are nurtured and restored with
oxygenative and antioxidant protocols? Most mainstream physicians will find
those questions irksome. Most holistic physicians will nod knowingly. None of
those relationships can be understood except with ecologic thinking.
Whenever a fibromyalgia canary complains of severe brain fog, my mind turns to
the state of dysfunctional oxygen metabolism in his circulating blood. When a
young man reports disabling fatigue, I think of oxidized, toxic, and stagnant
lymph in his tissues that interferes with cellular oxygen metabolism. When a
teenager describes her cold hands and feet, in my mind's eye I see deformed and
clumped red blood cells, microclots, and microplaques in her circulating blood
that cause spasms in arteries and clog tiny capillaries. (Those are the changes
I regularly see in the blood smears of such patients.) Patients with chronic
fatigue, fibromyalgia, and severe immune disorders often have dry skin, dry
mouths, and dry eyes. That is also caused by the same changes. All those
symptoms are related to dysfunctional oxygen metabolism. When a young woman
describes her abdominal pain and bloating, I see excessive fermentation in her
colon caused by primordial microbes. That, of course, is also fundamentally an
oxygen problem. In health, it is oxygen that keeps a lid on the overgrowth of
primordial microbes in the bowel and blood. I discuss this critical issue in the
chapter, "Oxygen and Primordial Life Forms."
In the chapter "Guidelines for Healthful Aging," I describe a simple ecologic
model which I call The Pyramid of Trios of Human Ecosystems and which evolved in
my mind several years ago. This simple model helps me think ecologically about
the health/dis- ease/disease continuum and to establish my clinical priorities
for managing patients with cancer, immune disorders, and the so-called mystery
maladies such as chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia. I also find this
model helpful for explaining to my patients my ecologic concepts about their
illnesses. With time, I realized that my pyramid of trios is just as relevant to
my concept of aging healthfully as it is for reversing chronic disease.
A schema of that model is included here. The readers will note that I consider
the base trio of the bowel, blood, and liver ecosystems as the foundation of
health. I regard it imperative that I vigorously address all issues concerning
that first trio for the sick, unwell, and those who enjoy good health and are
eager to follow sound strategies for healthful aging.
THE SIXTH INSIGHT:Oxidative Regression to Primordial Cellular Ecology (ORPEC)
During my boyhood, I saw that some weeks our lawn was like a green velvet.
During other weeks, weeds raised their ugly heads everywhere. I recognized then
that our lawn contained seeds of both the grass and the weed. The condition of
the soil determined whether the grass grew well or weeds overgrew the grass.
Many years later, in medical school I learned that the use of antibiotics in
young women was sometimes followed by symptoms of vaginal irritation, discharge,
and yeast infections. I knew that antibiotic pills do not carry yeast microbes.
So where did the yeast microbes come from? Was that not the story of grass and
weeds? Ecologic conditions must determine when the yeast microbes overgrew and
when they didn't.
Many years later, my work with fatigue and fibromyalgia canaries led me to the
study of their blood smears with a high- resolution microscope. I quickly
confirmed what many holistic physicians were saying: The blood of such patients
contained large numbers of white budding bodies which they designated as Candida
organisms. Furthermore, such bodies diminished in number when patients were
treated successfully with antifungal therapies. In 1994, Drs. Robert Bradford,
Madhava Ramanarayanan, and Omar Ali, and I were able to stain some of those
white bodies with anti-Candida antibodies and so established their identity with
certainty.12
During my studies of the white bodies in the blood smears I discovered dark
bodies that also occurred in large numbers, looked somewhat like blood
platelets, and multiplied rapidly whenever acidity increased and oxygen levels
fell under the coverslip on the slide.
I recognized then that those white and dark bodies represented many large
families of microbes that hated oxygen, loved acid, and flourished on dead and
dying organic matter.6
I introduced the term primordial life forms (PLFs) for such microbes because of
their metabolic similarity to single-celled microbes that lived during the
primordial era when there was no free oxygen on the planet Earth.
Next came the sixth insight. At about the time I struggled with the magnitude of
the problem of PLF overgrowth in the blood of patients with serious chronic
disorders, I chanced upon an important paper published in Science13 that
described the full genetic code of baker'' yeast. It was reported that forty
percent of yeast genes are identical to mammalian genes. For me, that was an
eureka moment. So, the seeds of yeast do not always have to come from without!
Those seeds are already there, as parts of the seeds of human cells. The real
issue is whether the prevailing ecologic conditions permit such seeds to grow.
That possibility flashed before me and led me to conduct an exhaustive search
for evidence against such a possibility. Failing that, several months later I
published my theory of oxidative regression to primordial cellular ecology (ORPEC).6
Essentially, the ORPEC theory was another version of the grass-weed story of my
boyhood. Briefly, the ORPEC theory holds that uncontrolled oxidative injury (oxidosis)
causes dysfunctional oxygen metabolism (dysoxygenosis) that leads to the
creation of primordial cellular ecologic conditions in which oxygen-hating and
acid-loving primordial microbes thrive on dead and dying organic matter. That
represents a sharp departure from the healthful cellular conditions of normal
oxygen metabolism in which PLFs cannot multiply and in which oxygen-loving,
acid-hating hunter immune cells flourish and rapidly kill the primordial
microbes. In other words, the human body works the same way. It also has seeds
of healthy cells as well as those of disease-causing primordial life forms (PLFs).
This simple fact is of enormous importance to fibro canaries as I demonstrate
later in the chapter, "Oxygen and Primordial Life Forms." PLF is my term for
early single-celled life forms that appeared during the primordial period in the
history of the planet Earth. PLFs hate oxygen, love acids, and thrive on dead
organic matter. By contrast, our healthy hunter immune cells love oxygen, hate
organic acids, and are suffocated by dead and dying organic matter.
THE SEVENTH INSIGHT:Oxidative-Dysoxygenative Dysfunction (ODD)
On hot days, my peaches spoil much more rapidly. Thus, heat speeds up the
process of oxidation. Sometimes when an apple slips through my hands, I pick it
up and look for bruises. I know the bruised skin will turn brown before the
other parts of the apple's skin turn color. Bruising (the oxidative process
triggered by the crushing injury) speeds up the process of rotting of that
apple. The injury to the apple's skin quickens decay of its innards. The
decaying innards quicken the rate of decomposition of the rest of the skin.
The human body also works the same way. Oxidosis triggers dysoxygenosis.
Oxidosis also causes acidosis. Dysoxygenosis and acidosis, in turn, speed up the
process of oxidosis. Oxidosis (accelerated oxidative molecular injury) is the
primary cause of the failure of the digestive-absorptive, energy, detox, and
neurotransmitter enzymes. The above simple statements permit me to state the
basic concept of the ODD state in simple words: The three fibro furies (oxidosis,
dysoxygenosis, and acidosis) create primordial conditions in the cells. Since
human cells share many genes with primordial life forms, those genes can move in
one direction under one set of conditions and in another direction under others.
What separates cellular oxygen metabolism in health and in a primordial state,
of course, is oxygen.
In the context of the ORPEC state, three simple facts are of great importance to
all persons with serious chronic oxidative- dysoxygenative disorders, including
cancer. First, primordial life forms multiply rapidly when excessive oxidative
injury causes dysoxygenosis and creates primordial conditions. Second, PLFs
cause microclot formation in the blood, just as adding culture to milk causes it
to form curdles. Third, microclots cause dysfunctional oxygen metabolism in many
ways. For the professional readers, I discuss this subject at length in
Integrative Medicine: The Principles and Practice.
THE OXYGEN THEORY OF AGING
The basic idea of the oxygen theory of aging presented in this book is simple:
The primary aging process involves dysfunctional
oxygen metabolism (dysoxygenosis) so that cells, tissues, and body organs age
because they cannot maintain normal oxygen metabolism. In this book, I introduce
the terms oxygen theory of aging for the general readers and dysoxygenosis
theory of aging for advanced and professional readers. The second term is more
specific—and hence preferable—since it directly points to the fundamental
abnormality of oxygen metabolism that is the centerpiece of my theory. However,
the term oxygen theory is simpler for use by the general reader. The important
point here is that the two terms are used interchangeably in this volume.
The concept of dysoxygenosis—defined as dysfunctional oxygen metabolism—evolved
during my work with over 5,000 patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and
fibromyalgia over a period of several years. Extensive clinical and research
studies convinced me that the basic problem in those patients was abnormal
cellular oxygen metabolism. I marshaled evidence for my view in a series of
articles.1,6-11 I introduced the term dysoxygenosis for what I believe is a
serious dysfunction of cellular oxygen metabolism.8,9 Those articles are
reproduced in the companion volume, Canary Two: Oxygen and Fibromyalgia.
According to the proposed oxygen theory of aging, progressive dysoxygenosis
develops in the following three phases:
1. Oxidosis (too much oxidation);
2. Acidosis (too much acidity);
3. Dysoxygenosis (dysfunctional oxygen metabolism).
It is important to point out that oxidosis causes acidosis as well as
dysoxygenosis. Acidosis, in turn, increases the rate of oxidation and interferes
with oxygen metabolism, further increasing the degree of abnormal oxygen
metabolism. Dysoxygenosis, in turn, feeds upon itself as well as fans the flames
of both oxidosis and acidosis. Thus, each of the three elements feeds upon
itself as well as increases the degrees of the other two.
Dysoxygenosis is not merely a lack of oxygen, the medical term for which is
anoxia. The concept of dysfunctional oxygen metabolism is much broader and
includes the following:
1. Decreased availability of oxygen to cells due to impaired oxygen transport.
2. Failure of cells to metabolize oxygen properly due to improper function of
enzymes involved in oxygen metabolism.
3. Abnormal oxygen metabolism due to accumulation of toxic organic acids due to
factors included in the first two categories.
The number of individual factors included in each of the above three categories
is very large. All such issues are discussed at length in various chapters of
this book. In this context, I consider the chapter titled, "The History of
Oxygen and Dysfunctional Oxygen Metabolism," especially valuable.
GENES AND OXYGEN THEORY
Why do I neglect the issue of genes in my oxygen theory of aging?, some readers
are likely to ask. Is it not true that the human life span is genetically
determined? Shouldn't that mean that we must focus on genetic research both for
understanding the true nature of the aging process as well as for designing
plans for reversing the aging process? Or, as is more chic these days, for
anti-aging strategies? I addressed this subject in the first chapter, "The False
Promise." I can reiterate my point here succinctly: All attempts to take out
faulty genes (gene deletion), put in new ones to replace those that malfunction
(gene insertion), or change their structure or function (gene modulation) simply
will not work for long in the presence of dysfunctional oxygen metabolism.
ANTIOXIDANTS AND OXYGEN THEORY
Why do I neglect the issue of antioxidants in my oxygen theory of aging?, other
readers might ask. If excess oxidation is the centerpiece of my theory of aging,
why not focus on antioxidants? Is it not true that antioxidants can increase the
human life span? Shouldn't antioxidant therapies be the mainstay of all
anti-aging therapies? The answer to those questions is equally simple:
Antioxidants have limited efficacy in the presence of dysfunctional oxygen
metabolism.
Indeed, if that were not true, everyone suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome
and/or fibromyalgia would have been cured with antioxidants. As for the studies
demonstrating longevity advantage obtained with vitamin C and other
antioxidants, it is important to recognize that: (1) The observed benefits are
very limited in the reported studies; and (2) The subjects included in such
studies were generally healthy and without oxygen dysfunction.
The health/dis-ease/disease continuum is a spectrum of energetic-molecular
events. The enormous healing potential of spiritual surrender and certain
energetic phenomena is well known to all astute observers in medicine. That
statement will be questioned by only those who limit their work to mechanistic
aspects of illness and have little, if any, passion for the healing phenomena.
However, technology sufficiently sensitive to measure subtle energy fields — and
molecular and cellular resonance created in them — is not yet forthcoming. Thus,
as far as observable and reproducible phenomena are concerned, in clinical
medicine we are left with the molecular components of the energetic-molecular
healing phenomena. In this volume, I argue that all molecular events that
determine whether a person is healthy and ages healthfully or becomes ill and
undergoes premature aging are related to oxidosis and dysoxygenosis. Thus, the
molecular basis of both the state of absence of health and premature aging is
the same: dysfunctional oxygen metabolism or dysoxygenosis. Health, by contrast,
is optimal management of oxygen metabolism.
A NOTE ABOUT THE SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS
Some readers familiar with the Laws of Thermodynamics will readily see that my
theory of spontaneity of oxidation and the oxygen theory of aging are direct
applications of the Second Law of Thermodynamics to human health and aging. They
might wonder why I do not refer to that law in presenting my theories. The
answer is that I myself did not see that direct relevance when I wrote my
initial monograph and some earlier papers. Perhaps I missed the lecture about
the law when that was taught in college. Or, what seems more likely to me, I was
in one of my frequent and serious ADD drifts when that subject was covered.
Years later, when I finally recognized that my theories were founded on the
Second Law of Thermodynamics, I dug out some interesting aspects of that law. In
1824, Sadi Carnot, a French engineer, discovered the law which establishes that
energy tends to turn into its degraded forms with time. His book and idea had a
few takers. Not unlike most significant advances in science, his law was ignored
for decades. In the 1850s, Rudolph Clausius, the German physicist, introduced
the term entropy (derived from two Greek stems meaning "turning into") for heat
dissipating (turning into) degraded forms. He famously put the first two laws of
thermodynamics in two brief sentences: "The energy of the universe is constant.
The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum."
The story of the First Law of Thermodynamics, which actually was discovered
after the Second Law, is also of interest in this context. In 1842, Julius
Mayer, a German surgeon, wrote: "A force once in existence cannot be
annihilated." His paper was rejected by the physics journals. Disappointed but
not defeated, he published his theory in a self-published pamphlet. Five years
later, Hermann von Helmholtz, a German physicist and physician, propounded
Mayer's law in greater detail. Apparently he was unaware of Mayer's pamphlet.
His paper met the same fate as that of his predecessor. The physics journals
would have none of that. He also self-published his paper as a pamphlet. (Was
there a pattern?) Then followed a long period in which the credit for two of the
greatest laws of physics went to others. In the 1860s, the record was finally
set right by fair-minded John Tyndall, a history-conscious Irish physicist.14
References
1. Ali M. Spontaneity of Oxidation in Nature and Aging. Monograph. 1983.
Teaneck, New Jersey.
2. Ali M. The Cortical Money and Healing, 1991, p. 18. Life Span, Denville, New
Jersey.
3. Ali M. Rats, Drugs and Assumptions, 1995, pp. 281-302. Life Span, Denville,
New Jersey.
4. Ali M.
The Canary and Chronic Fatigue, Second Edition, 1994, Life Span,
Denville, New Jersey.
5. Ali M. The Altered States of Bowel Ecology and Health Preservation,
Monograph, 1993, Life Span, Denville, New Jersey.
6. Ali M. Oxidative regression to primordial cellular ecology (ORPEC): evidence
for the hypothesis and its clinical significance. J Integrative Medicine
1988;2:4-55.
7. Ali M. Spontaneity of Oxidation in Nature Is the True Cause of Aging in
Humans and Root Cause of All Disease. RDA: Rats, Drugs and Assumptions. 1995,
pages 199-304. Life Span Press, Denville, New Jersey.
8. Ali M. Darwin, oxidosis, dysoxygenosis, and integration. J Integrative
Medicine 1999;1:11-16.
9. Ali M. Ali O. Fibromyalgia: an oxidative-dysoxygenative disorder (ODD) J
Integrative Medicine 1999;1:17-37.
10. Ali M, Ali O. AA oxidopathy: the core pathogenetic mechanism of ischemic
heart disease. J Integrative Medicine 1997;1:1-112.
11. Ali M. Ascorbic acid reverses abnormal erythrocyte morphology in chronic
fatigue syndrome. Am J Clin Pathol 1990;94:515.
12. Ali M, Ali O, Bradford R. et al Immunostaining of candida organisms in
peripheral smears. (Abstract). American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy. Spring
Meeting, Palm Desert, CA.
13. Botstein D, Chervitz SA, Cherry JM. Yeast as a model organism. Science
1997;277:1259-1260.
14. Loewenstein WR. The Touchstone of Life: Molecular Information, Cell
Communication, and the Foundations of Life. 1998. Oxford University Press.
Oxford. page 338. |
