Summary of The Introduction to Life in a Bottle

  • Oxidation (in a biological context) is the flow of electrons from elements like Hydrogen and Carbon to Oxygen
  • Oxygen is very reactive. Chlorophyll took its electrons away and it would very much like to get them back.
  • In metabolism – the oxidation of starch and fat – free radicals, notably superoxide, are produced from Oxygen. These free radicals are much stronger pro-oxidants than Oxygen. The family of pro-oxidants in biological systems are called Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS).
  • Reactive Oxygen Species are important biological signals.
  • Each human cell has a robust built-in antioxidant system to protect it from the damaging effects of ROS
  • Antioxidants are electron donors
  • pro-oxidants are electron acceptors (takers)
  • ROS can be demonstrated to extend the life of nematodes
  • Antioxidants can be used to shorten the life of those same worms
  • Antioxidants can eliminate the benefits of exercising!
  • ROS is the signal!

Thanks for checking out the intro series for Fire in a Bottle. Please check back! Here are the topics we’ll be covering as soon as possible:

  • The role of ROS in obesity and diabetes
  • The role of ROS in heart disease and cancer
  • The effect of consuming highly-prone-to-oxidative-damage vegetable oils, aka polyunsaturated fats aka PUFA aka linoleic acid in a metabolism that uses ROS (highly prone to causing oxidative damage) as a primary signalling molecule
  • The effects of consuming already oxidized PUFA
  • The changing PUFA content of our meat supply over the past century and a half
  • How to FIX the PUFA problem in our meat
  • The alternative theory of what caused heart disease rates to plummet in the US starting in 1960

Next up: The ROS Theory of Obesity.

By United Soybean Board - Vegetable Oil is Soybean Oil, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54523276
There will be a lot of discussion about vegetable oil….

Photo: By United Soybean Board – Vegetable Oil is Soybean Oil, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54523276