Perspective

Now

Now, the veil is lifting.  At 69,  I am selfishly motivated to contribute from my senescent perspective.   

After the sperm meets the egg, programmed rewards spur human development, which is: fetal; infantile; reptilian; pubertal; young adult, full of epigenetic potential; mature adult with less epigenetic potential; and, if lucky, a senescent few get time to reflect before 'the long sleep.'   Now I think like Steve Jobs, "Death is very likely life's single greatest invention."

My brain thought like I was younger; recovery from killing my parasites and multiple surgeries would take 3-4 months, instead healing is incomplete and has taken 4 years.  I finally understand the strengthening and healing impact of hormesis but the benefits of epigenetic adaptation occur mostly during development, a little during maturity and hardly at all during senescence.  

Helping especially were my good friend Roberta (a light-eyed redhead, her surname Glick is Yiddish or Ashkenazic for the German glück, meaning luck or happiness), my son Jeremy and our two friends, Greg and Gary Eversole (from a light-eyed, blonde family who emigrated from England more than 100 years ago) and the love of many.  Physical functioning has taken grudging acceptance of my dark-eyed and heaven-sent helper, Mayte.  

I've learned to say repeated thanks for the energy that supplies my miraculous gift of awareness and motivation.   My own energy is now generated in shorter supplies by less of the seemingly-simple, but all controlling, mitochondria (the DNA world seems ruled by RNA transmuting a holographic electromagnetic field).

One's purpose remains to gain more reward, and that pleasurable feeling increases when sharing.  

What follows are big deep secrets.  These emotionally-important (though they be self-serving and creative) memories continue to shape me. 

Litvaks, the stubborn geniuses the mainstream joked about 

My father was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1916.  His father, a Greenberg, was motivated by the danger of recurring Russian pogroms to migrate from the Ukraine.  Russia and Europe have influenced Ukrainian politics for centuries. The very word, "Ukraine" means "Borderland."  

My mother came to the USA from Poland at age 5.  My mother, Anne, along with Shirley (her younger) and Mary (older sister) and Lena Kaplan, their mother left the comfortable Warsaw ghetto (with much status in its rich 1,000 year old Jewish culture) for Toledo, Ohio in 1923.  

Litvaks spoke Yiddish, a combination of Hebrew and German languages, with a unique accent. One Yiddish word especially stands out through the generations, "mensch."   Mensch literally means man.  But the connotation means so much more! A mensch is an empathetic person with strong radiant energy. The perceived energy (which radiates from the heart) is admired. Mensch does mean good person, but this Yiddish word goes much deeper. It is steeped with Jewish concepts of integrity.

Jews historically (the Hebrew lunar calendar is 5,774 years old) have suffered harassment and mass murder.  Only the more tenacious and clever are still here.  From biblical times of pharaohs and slaves, Mongolian tribal rule or times of kings and peasants, it has always been impossible (like 9/11) to disaggregate victims and perpetrators (hidden motives fan emotions).  

Since the World Wars, secret powers behind the military-industrial complex have subverted the American dream and have started a series of wars.  In 2008, efforts were still being made to shape Lithuanian public opinion by portraying Jews as primarily responsible for the crimes of the Soviet totalitarian regime. 

My families came from the "Jewish Pale" (after the Mongols, under varying control of Russians, Polish, Germans or Austrians) and were products of an established Lithuanian Jewish culture.  Values like tenacity and studiousness were instilled into me along with a willingness to be different.  The most famous Litvak was a studious genius.  He was a male role model, lost in thought (an 'absent-minded' professor).   

Since the 1700s, emancipated Jews looked upon themselves as a mediator between the old rigid orthodoxy and radical assimilationists. In Lithuania (with traditions of reason and study) it centered on language and the people rather than assimilation and disavowal. Poets, artists, scholars and politicians rapidly developed their interests. Lithuanian Jewry was open to new thought.

During childhood, intelligence (and many other traits) can be significantly influenced.  Brainy' children are not smarter solely because they have more or less grey matter. 

Meditating (or 'resting') for 20 minutes per day allows better performance on cognitive tests after just four days.  Those that meditate (focusing on the breath) do better on all timed tests (sometimes as much as 10X).  Improved are concentration, memory and visual attention.  Seniors who regularly meditate reduce age-related cognitive decline and memory loss, and can even increase brain gray matter. 

Meditation is not a substitute for restful sleep. Both sleep and meditation have their own benefits. When practiced regularly, meditation can enhance the quality of sleep.

Intelligence is dynamic.  Tenacity is just as important (and its development is very environmental).  Guiding mothers know how important never giving up is.  They never accepts “no” for an answer, always asking "why."  Habits continue (consequentially children of such dominant mothers never are treated as fully developed) and sometimes create perseverance's hyperbole (which can be humorously stereotyped).   

Although first-born and carefully attended, my earliest memories begin with entitled self-centered rage.  Even though I was raised and spoiled like a prince, I would try to not arouse my mother who would then irritate my mercurial and inflammable father.  

Guilt has long been used to control behavior and to protect status quo. “Wait until your father gets home!” I remember hearing over and over.  Guilt is useful because it gets us to regret wrongs done, and correct future behavior.

Civilized Genghis Khan plus passionate 'Virgin' Mary

In the 11th century, the fertile Ukraine was Europe's breadbasket and largest state.  Ukraine was called Ruthenia (Rus) after the Mongol invasion.   Most Western Jews descend from fierce Khazar tribes which roamed the steppes of southern Russia many centuries ago.  

The Mongoloid skull type is evolutionally recent.  Mongols have a larger brain (bigger brain case), broader skull and face, flat nose roof, inner eye fold, protuberant eyes, no brow ridges, greater delicacy, shallow mandibular fossa, smaller mastoids, stocky build, later thymus, persistence of juvenile form (light eyes signal more steroidal vitamin D), later eruption of full dentition, less hairy, fewer sweat glands and long torso. 

Being treated as a child for longer, shapes development more, even makes appearance morphologically childlike in adulthood.  Longer development allows more influence and epigenetic adaptation.  

As I developed, photos of me and my father could easily be substituted.  My father bears a striking resemblance to his father.  Many have remarked how much my son David and his son, Kieran look like me.  Jeremy thinks more like anti-establishment me and looks more like Joan's father, brilliant William.  Jeremy's progeny, develop bigger bodies and smaller mid-faces with larger mandibles (and are light) like Sue's family.  

Humans rarely value all parameters similarly, and most don't even agree on relative ranking.  Differences valued include darker/lighter or thinness/fatness.  

Local valuation may affect social standing, reproductive opportunity or even survival. Possession of above average abilities is valued by most societies: learning; musical aptitude; strength, endurance, agility; resilience.  One's distinctive differences, even negative, are considered essential to one's self-identity.

Keratin is the fibrous protein that adds toughness to skin, nails and hair so that one can weather more cold. Keratin production is linked to Neanderthals.  Neanderthals existed along side of modern man (and likely were sexual partners) and are closely related to today's humans.  The difference in the DNA between us and Neanderthals is only .15%. This difference is similar to the DNA gap that exists today. 

In higher vertebrates, from frogs to humans, epidermal (and ectodermal) maturation is a conserved developmental process.  The transition from the appearance of adult basal keratin to the appearance of supra-basal keratin in the developing epidermis can be defined as epidermal maturation.

One of the Neanderthal genes, BNC2, is involved in skin pigmentation.  Eurasians likely owe their paler skins partly to Neanderthals. Light skin is an advantage at higher latitudes because it is more efficient at generating vitamin D from sunlight, so Neanderthal DNA may have helped modern humans to adapt to life outside Africa.

Keratins (different from collagens) are a group of tough, fibrous proteins that form the framework of epithelial cells (which line surfaces and cavities).  Keratin retains up to 40% of its weight in water.  Keratin 3 is on the cornea (it is the outermost layer and is the clear front covering).  Corneal epithelium is an effective barrier.  Keratin 3 and keratin 12 together form intermediate filaments, which network for strength and resilience. 

Keratin is amazingly elastic.  Fibers are twisted like propellers, which enable them to extend like a spring, and then to easily regain their initial length.  Keratin fibers act as a shock-absorber. Keratin is also an isolating material that easily traps static electricity and like collagen, acts as a flexible piezoelectric crystal.

Keratin fragments also effectively zap pathogenic bacteria that can lead to flesh-eating disease and strep throat (Streptococcus pyogenes), diarrhea (Escherichia coli), staph infections (Staphylococcus aureus) and cystic fibrosis lung infections (Pseudomonas aeruginosa). 

There are two types of pigments in keratin: the granulous ones, brown or black, that regulate dark or ‘reddish’ color, and the diffuse pigments, from yellow to brown, that regulate blond tones.  It is the mix that determines hair color, and explains the infinite range.   In France, more than 50% have brown hair.  With new immigrants, that percentage has kept going up. The smallest group is red hair (5%). 

Cells (melanocytes) form the pigment melanin from tyrosine in response to sun exposure.  Melanin is black because its chemical structure allows no energy to escape. 

Melanin is easiest to see in hair and skin, but it also is in irises, the brain stem and the adrenals.  Melanin protects from sun damage. The more melanin, the more harmful radiation can be blocked.  Radiation not only can kill cells, but also can trigger abnormal growth (cancer).  

Melanin can rearrange its chemical structure to absorb all energy (sunlight, UVs, X-rays, music, sound, radar, radio waves) ­and can transmute and store this energy for later use.

With low  melanin, most blue light still reflects, and blue eyes are retained.  When higher, melanin obscures blue light, leading to brown or black eyes.  Green and hazel eyes are in the middle.  Also, depending on how melanin forms, patches can create multi-colors. 

Melanin absorbs UVs, which reduces the skin's ability to produce vitamin D.  Both dietary and sunlight vitamin D are converted by the liver and kidneys to the active form: 1,25 dihydroxy-vitamin D, to be most powerful in the body.  

Vitamin D is fat soluble and needs dietary fat to be absorbed (or to be made).  Folks with fat malabsorption are more likely to be low in all fat-soluble nutrients including vitamin D.   Those with liver or kidney problems may not be able to convert vitamin D to its most active form. 

The more melanin one produces, the skin converts less cholesterol to vitamin D.  Besides making stronger bones and preventing rickets and boosting immunity, higher vitamin D has steroidal activity and positively affects cognition, mood, motivation and strength as well as physical performance.

Melanins, rather than being only sunshades, act as semiconductors and we need them for hearing and sight.  Melanins are among the most stable, insoluble and resistant of biochemical materials.  Insight into melanin function is gained by comparing plant tannins, which have the structure of monomeric polyhydroxyphenols. Tannins are good reducing agents and free radical scavengers. 

Melanocytes, the brain, and the nerve cells all come from the neural crest. Melanocytes resemble nerve cells and are essential for conveying energy.  Melanin is the major organizing molecule in all living systems.  Melanin is an organizational "trigger" that uses photon-(electron)-photon conversions, free radical-redox mechanisms, ion exchanges and semi-conductive switching to direct energy. 

Melanocytes make the pigment melanin from tyrosine and it is designed to quench ROS (from sunlight). Melanin biosynthesis is from ortho-hydroquinone precursors which, when oxidized enzymatically to quinones, polymerize spontaneously to melanin.  Melanizing intermediates are cross-linking reagents; melanization stabilizes the external cell wall (against hydrolysis) and signals maturation.

Hormonal melatonin is made from tryptophan and also acts as an antioxidant.  It is satisfying serotonin converted to calming melatonin at night.   Melatonin is an important light/dark signal and the main pineal hormone.  Melatonon is a free radical scavenger while also antibacterial and analgesic. Although many studies show melatonin protective (on nerve pathologies), there are also some that report toxic effects.

Astaxanthin is one of a group of pigments called xanthophylls (of the carotenoids).  Carotenoids are survival plant chemicals that soak up ROS.  Astaxanthin decreases melanin making by 40% and even though it is red, it can have a whitening effect.  

This pigment, like all carotenoids, induces hormesis and is anti-inflammatory.  Oxidative stress induces hormesis, resulting in increased fitness.  However, since dietary antioxidants can reduce oxidative stress, the full role of oxidative stress in ecology and evolution remains elusive. 

Skin tanning is a protective response of epidermal cells involving more melanin.  Overexposure to sun can cause sunburn or skin cancer, primarily due to ROS and partly because of toxic side products of melanin (which together can overwhelm glutathione and other redox buffers).  

IFN-γ (a pro-inflammatory cytokine) regulates melanin biosynthesis via transcription factors.  Local immune response determines skin tanning or burning (which can lead to cancer).

Neurokeratin is the protein part of myelin.  The naked human eye can see differences in this pigmented protein.  The eye sees, but is also a visible part of the nervous system.  

Light eyes

Lighter eyes are prized (and may mean less brain myelination and/or limited toxicity and more steroidal vitamin D).  In humans, myelin production begins in the 14th fetal week, although little myelin exists in the brain at birth. During infancy, myelination occurs quickly and continues more slowly trough development, maturation and even in senescence.

Chronic stress generates more myelin-producing cells and fewer neurons (this tendency to anxiety and/or mood disorders can be seen as darker eyes).  Chronic stress results in an excess of myelin (more white matter) and faster communication in stress-responsive areas of the brain.  Decreased vitamin D results in less serotonin. 

The human eye normally produces enough pigment to color the iris blue, green or brown and lend opacity to the eye. However, sometimes the eyes of an albino appear red, pink or purple, depending on the amount of pigment, due to the red retina being visible.  

Eye color is a polygenic and phenotypic determined by two distinct factors: the pigmentation (brownish black due to melanin) of the iris and the frequency-dependence of the scattering of light.  Blue, green and hazel eyes, result from ambient light and its scattering, like blue sky.  

Most babies with European ancestry have light-colored eyes before the age of one. Sometimes eyes remain light until three.  As the child develops, melanocytes slowly begin to produce melanin.  

In Estonia 99% have blue eyes.  Blue eyes seem to have a single common ancestor.  Dark brown eyes are dominant and often, it is nearly the only iris color present.  Normally, there is a thick layer of melanin on the back of the iris. Even people with the lightest blue eyes, with no melanin on the front of the iris, have dark brown coloration on the back of it, to prevent light from scattering around inside the eye.

Most disease begins with toxic, weak, and congested cells. Iridology can help identify which functions are congested.  Visible changes occur as one cleanses and restores vitality so the eye (part of the brain), iris (colors, degrees and location of pigments reflect) and its sclera (visible arteries have an acupuncture pattern) can monitor progress.

Some are born with a predisposition to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (even those without domineering mothers).  We are born with different strengths and weakness which are subject in varying degrees to development.

All OCDs have thin myelin.  OCD sufferers are usually intelligent, highly ethical and dependable.  Other conditions linked with low serotonin:  Gamblers, Eaters, Sugar Addicts and Alcoholics, Anorexia Nervosa, Self- mutilation, Tourette's Syndrome and Body Dysmorphia, Pulling out one's hair and Hypochondria.

Those regions which were conquered by the Vikings, and made most susceptible to Viking influence, contain peoples who have distinctly Mongolian features, such as the Sami (Lapps) people of Norway, Sweden, Finland and the northwest corner of Russia. A considerable portion of Iceland and Greenland's population also exhibit North-East Asian features.  

Abundant colorful mushrooms

The mushroom amanita muscaria was widely used as a food.  Its mind altering parts were concentrated by many Siberians (who ate what wandering reindeer ate) or Mongolians (who ate what the fearless mountain goats ate).  

This hallucinogen with a crimson to yellow cap grows on all continents except South America and Australia. It has over 50 different species with the ability to pass through the body almost completely unmetabolised, leading to very potent urine. 

Native Siberians, who had spiritual rituals around the fungus, had a very good excuse for drinking urine, a process which was repeatable five times before it lost potency. The reindeer also enjoyed the intoxicating urine and could be attracted from far away. Historically, the Siberians boiled fly agaric and then drank the pot liquor. 

As food, fly agaric needs special handling.  Most eat only the caps or the very young buttons. They are boiled in a large volume of water for a period of time, and then that water is tossed out (it contains hallucinogens). After that, most either fry them like normal mushrooms, or pickle them or preserve them in oil. 

Vikings ritualistically did these hallucinogens before battle to eliminate fear (from the amygdalae) and make them fierce warriors.  The same reduction of fear led to much sexual sharing of fluids (rape) after battle.

The fly agaric mushroom was described long ago in the Rg Veda.  It is called the fly agaric because little pieces were placed in milk to attract flies. The flies became inebriated and crashed into walls and died.  Other tales about fly agaric include Alice's trip to Wonderland and Napoleon on drugs in Siberia along with the myth of Santa Claus and his flying reindeer.

By 8000 BC, the retreat of the glaciers left most of Scandinavia open for settlement  This allowed movement that included horses and cultural traditions, from Central Asia to Scandinavia, before the Vikings 

The high plateau of Mongolia, east of the Altai mountains, is rivaled only by Scandinavia in that successive waves of tribesmen emerged to prey upon more sedentary neighbors.  Mongolia is the original homeland of both Turks and Mongols, two groups much intermingled in history and loosely related in their languages.

The Mongol expansion was astonishing, spanning Asia.  It can be precisely dated (to the early 13th century) and can be attributed to the military genius of one man - Genghis Kahn.  This conquest, unmatched in its speed and extent since Alexander the Great, is based on brilliant psychology. 

He used psychological weapons ruthlessly (as did his classic dominant mother), loyalty and fear.  Genghis Khan made a cunning distinction in his treatment of nomadic tribesmen and settled inhabitants.  A rival warrior, who battles bravely against Genghis Khan, but loses, is rewarded for his valor and encouraged to join.  Only cowardice or treachery is punished.  For sedentary folk, such rules are usually reversed. 

After her ruling husband's death, the tribe abandoned Hoelun and her sons. She raised them as displaced royalty in the harsh Mongolian steppes (by herself with little support from others).  Hoelun taught Genghis and his brothers unity and support.

Hoelun (Genghis Kahn's mother) was one of his most trusted advisors.  She also took care of war orphans (supposedly on his orders), adopting them and bringing them into the family as a part of an inclusionist policy aimed at creating loyalty. 

Genghis Khan left a legacy shared by millions today.  The Mongol emperor may be the most successful human alpha male.   Genghis Khan lived from 1162-1227 and raped and pillaged from Mongolia to the gates of Vienna.  Once he captured a village, he would essentially kill all the men and rape the women.  

Narcotics were used ranging from tobacco and opium or morphine to Siberian fly-agaric mushrooms by the courts of Genghis Khan and his successors. 

Mongols in Britain demonstrate continuity of genetic marker patterns from the Shetland Islands and other Norse colonies to groups like the Altai of Central Asia, and the Azeri of Azerbaijan (and show lack of similarity to Scandinavians or other local Eastern Europeans).

The Hebrews commonly bless bread, but not wheat.  Barley, rice and wheat were often fermented into blessed beer or grapes into blessed wine.  Other seeds and beans have their own traditional preparation techniques which remove or reduce anti-nutrients.  Baker's yeast is a convenient hybrid that is too fast and does not lower pH as much as yeasts derived from the air (so less harmful lectins are removed).

I am a B blood type and that genetic marker has Mongolian (Kahn means emperor) as well as Jewish links to one of the seven original tribes of Israel, the Kohanim (priests) and mother was a Kaplan.   Newer than the farming A, the first blood type modification of primitive O, B characterized the Mongol tribes of the steppe.  Of the ABO types, B is the most defined geographically.  

B (AB) blood is considered Asiaitic (oriental).  The Virgin Mary (the Kaplan sisters were named Mary, Anne and Shirley) and all her descendants are Mizrahi Jews (so was Jesus).  I feel like I share some of the same lineage as Moses (a biblically famous iconoclast) and his brother, Aaron.  Perhaps I am a mix of a philosophical Aristotle and tenacious oriental conquering Mongol like Genghis Khan with a energetically clever Jewish mongrel mother.  My Hebrew name is Shalom (peace). 

Genghis Kahn did a lot of raping.  About 1 in 5 are descendants (Mongoloid light eyes are his trait), plus all the murder, atrocities, tributes, and everything else that allows you to unite warring peoples and conquer the most territory of any leader in history.

Passover recalls biblical Jews escaping to and wandering in the desert without time to leaven the dough.  More than 5,000 years later, every spring, Jews eat unleavened wheat for a week to 'remember.'   Most early religions express gratitude frequently (which promotes positive chemistry) and also fast periodically (mild stress induces hormesis).  

Lectins are highly stable and multifunctional molecules designed to be toxic to predators.  The traditional separating, grinding and slowly fermenting of wheat removes harmful lectins.  Fast whole wheat processing (or sprouting) concentrates invisibly small lectins (a few lectins induce helpful hormesis and too many injure us while they stimulate storage of fat and toxins).

During the 19th and 20th centuries, tens of thousands of Lithuanian Jews emigrated to the USA.  Many also went to South Africa and some came to Palestine.  The rise of the Nazis and the ensuing Holocaust destroyed most Jews who had not managed to leave.  

Litvaks are today in leading roles around the world.  Some of our most famous politicians, scientists, businessmen, economists, actors, writers and singers are Litvaks.  Many of both sons' friends have Litvak derivation (a gathering could be a meeting of Russians).

With a few notable exceptions, Western alternative thinking about health resonated most with me from those of similar heritage. Around 2010, I sought the care of an older russian immigrant dentist (with a son in dental school) who was studious and a stubbornly thorough surgeon.  His Lithuanian father was a physician that carried many fecal samples so they could be searched for parasites  

The 'old  house' (mercury exposure came with our first house in Miami)

I (Steven) was born in 1944, Randy in 1947 and Debbie in 1950.

In 1947, my father bought the 'old house' next to the prolific Catholic Lyons family near Anthony Abraham Chevrolet. He moved the family away from the snow after he passed the famously difficult Florida boards (on a bet).  When he returned to Miami with the family, he found that he had been taken advantage of, the appliances had all been switched to junk. 

Hidden from the pharmacist, mesmerized by the pictures in comic books, at the nearby drugstore, at age 5, I demonstrated precocious ability to concentrate and imagine for hours, as my mother reported me 'lost' to the police. 

Father brought liquid mercury from his office for us to play with.  We played with the shiny droplets until they disappeared (probably into the couch or carpeting, both assiduously vacuumed).  He said the same thing when he was spreading organophosphates, "If this were really bad, the government would outlaw it." 

A small amount of poisoning surprisingly induces fitness and epigenetic adaptation.  Toxicity speeds reaction time, quickening reflexes and speeding responses. 

Since my mother refused to live on sinful Miami Beach, in 1952, we moved to the house on Anderson road (we were one of the first Jewish families in conservative Coral Gables) after I started 2nd grade.  

It was always a family project to paint, and father always had a drop of mercury added.  Father also cleverly found that the best control of ants was a powdered organophosphate.  Although there were many compromises, and both mercury and organophosphates continue to be a problem today, such use was later outlawed.

It wasn't until 3rd grade that it was discovered that I did not know how to read.  My mother and I made many trips to the library and by the end of 3rd grade, I was reading at a 5th grade level.  The first time a teacher expected much out of me was 5th grade, and thereafter, I excelled.

Death of a Sibling as a Hardening and Segregation as Normal

Around my age 10, my younger brother Randy died after being sick a long time.  His death aroused many emotions.  Grief was mixed with joy.  My brother's sickness had been so consuming that now perhaps my parents could show me more attention.  The hardship imposed by his long sickness and death shaped me and my family.

Similar to most other developing humans, I thought I was smarter than my fore bearers and could fix the insanity I saw, once I had some power.  I was motivated to spread altruistic and ethical behavior.  

My sixty year hobby of trying to understand the miraculous puzzle of life or 'how one cell works' began.  Although scientific conclusions kept confusingly changing and solutions became ever more intricate, answers were assiduously sought with a continuing attitude of "noblesse oblige," like Don Quixhote's jousting. 

At 11, I asked my mother's mother, my only living grandparent, Lena (the oldest person I knew) the meaning of life.  She replied, "It is mostly fate.  But, you must prepare for your fate."  

My grandmother was soon dead.  She was famous for complaining and took pills religiously as told until she died of prescribed overdose.   In the 1950s, it was editorialized that there were too many prescriptions.   From my perspective, I was over prescribed in rehab in 2013 and in 2014. one formerly excitable friend currently takes six prescriptions (he is now a zombie, those drugs have never been tested in combination).

Like brilliant and stubborn Einstein, also from a secular Jewish European family, I discovered, "Many whom I admired found inner freedom in answering questions.  The mental grasp of an extra-personal world within the frame of our capabilities seems a supreme goal.  Similarly motivated men, as well as their insights, are friends.  The road to this paradise is not as comfortable and alluring as religious paradise; but it is reliable." 

Ethnic Ashkenazi Jewish people definitely have a distinct look, but the same time, they look quite similar to Italians, Southern French, and Alpine German-speaking people and also to Greeks. Though some Jewish people have darker skin and tan well, some of the palest have been Ashkenazi Jews.  Some times red hair is linked to Jewishness. 

Wild Dominant Hebrews (the Mongols)

The king from Kiev who defeated and ruled the Khazar enforced Judaism as the only religion. Tribesmen were circumcised, learned Hebrew prayers and recognized Jewish rabbis as their spiritual leaders on pain of death.  Most European Jews are not descended from Biblical Hebrew semites, but from Tartar-Mongol nomad tribes, including the Khazars who were converted to Judaism en masse 1,000 years ago. 

Traditional Russian anti-Semitism probably stems from when Hebrew-speaking Khazars attacked Russian villages, killed the men, abducted women, forcibly converted them to Judaism and married them in full-fledged religious ceremonies.  Many European Jews are blond and blue-eyed, with a slight Mongol slant to their eyes and totally lack Semitic features.  

Today, Jews are taught that one can only effectively lead by example,  Proselytizing (and certainly force) does not work.  One can be smart and act grateful or lucky, but not act entitled or privileged.

There was so much anti-semitism in Miami in the 1940s that my father ditched the 'berg' and changed the family name to Green in 1947.  I remember one doorman refusing the family entry anyway.  When I first began dating, an attractive girl was forbidden to see me because I was identified as Jewish.  

Blacks and whites were segregated as I grew up (and Jews and Christians did not mingle socially).  My father's South Miami dental office had front and back water fountains.  My high school was all white (with run-down apartments inhabited by mostly blacks just two blocks away), and Cubans were the new immigrants.  USA segregation officially ended during my college years.  

When I finished my freshman year at University of Florida and went to a dance at Jewish Hillel House, I was surprised to see so many mixed religion couples (most of the religious barriers were gone).  Coral Gables High School with about 3,000 students now admitted 8 blacks.

The 4-5 year unexplained inflammation and dysfunction of my younger brother's kidneys was called nephrosis and it (and medical treatments for it) resulted in his heart failure at 8.  His sickness and death permanently changed family dynamics.  All my parent's progeny had various obvious birth defects (including me).  Back then, both parents were encouraged to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes.

My mother (according to pictures) never smiled as happily after Randy got sick.  She was further embittered when the 'professional' fundraiser absconded with substantial research money.  My father handled the financial stress (insurance 'ran out,' so he worked 'too much') and he mourned my brother's death differently.  She wanted more kids and he thought some freedom was in order.  

The story is much more complicated, but the result was that my father acted like a guilty dog around my mother.  He also defended her and their union fiercely for fifty years.  

At 79, ashen mom connived an operation with the doctors which resulted in her death.  At first I was outraged, but now I calmly call it a medically-assisted expensive (the $100,000 was paid by Medicare) suicide.  We all thought Dad would die first, but at 79, he finally found forgiving love from his first cousin.  

Randy's long illness taught me independence and competence.  

My sister Debbie was 2 when Randy first got sick and my parents took him to Boston for 2 months.  Distraught, she wouldn't even let my caring aunts brush her hair (the sisters were highly communicative).  When  Debbie was 12, mother would not provide a birthday cake because she was deemed 'too fat.'  Although speaking other reasons, Debbie moved 3,000 miles away from mother as soon as she could.

Mercurial developing iconoclast

In 8th grade vocabulary, my pubertal brain awakened with the word: iconoclast.  So strong was the feeling, I have told the story many times and still re-experience the amazement as my inner self identifies with the word.  An iconoclast opposes widely-accepted beliefs.  Einstein said, "scientific truth is temporal."  Facts depend on the times.  My favorite T-shirt (the one with the most holes) is printed with "Subvert the Dominant Paradigm."

Both father and me became Eagle Scouts.  Eagle Scouts exhibit higher levels of health and recreation, connection, service and leadership, environmental stewardship, goal orientation, planning and preparedness as well as character.  My old scout troop was led by a closet homosexual.  Scouting was not encouraged for my sons.

At 15, I joined a club and was given the nickname, 'laughing boy.'  I found my mates interpretation of family dynamics to be very funny.  So careful was my own family about any arousal that there was little humor.  

From my point of view, I thought my father was irritable because he was too old (not because of poisoning).  Consequently I had children earlier, although I was so self-centered and lost in my own thoughts that my sons said over and over, "Earth to dad."  

My peers also called me 'kinky.'  Zinc requirements are higher during puberty.  Relative lack of zinc (or competition) from other 'essential' minerals or heavy metals (like mercury) interferes with molecular bonding and causes kinky hair which often marks pubertal development. 

Keratin is a highly resistant fiber protein, made of long chains of amino acids, aligned with the hair’s vital axis and made of multiple layers of twists.  Those protein chains are kept together by sulphur molecules, thus building laterally laid bridge-like connections (disulphur bridges).  They bring stiffness and adhesion (formed by the sulphured amino acids).   Three amino acids: cystine, methionine and cysteine make keratin. They are channeled and require zinc and vitamin B6 to be straight, deficiency creates poor bonds and kinks in the hair.

My parents always had one more responsibility that I was 'ready' for (consequently this developing person would 'escape' whenever he could).  Dad was especially fond of projects and found that paint jobs lasted much longer in Florida's humidity if mercury was mixed with the paint.  He smiled smugly at his cleverness as he gave the clerk an extra dollar for that drop of poisonous mercury, gallon after gallon.

The night of high school graduation (and I had been painting in a mercury mist many hours every day for two weeks), I lost touch with reality and flew into an adrenalin rage, doing much damage to an aggravating and surprised fraternity brother.   Curiously, I was congratulated on my extreme reaction by many (even my victim, when I apologized).  However, that I could hallucinate and lose control (in retrospect, probably induced by mercury poisoning) changed me forever.

The female who aroused the most memorable crescendo of reproductive hormones in post pubertal me (identifiable at a distance, across a crowded room) seemed somehow inadequate compared to the stimulus of heavy metal, and I mercurially broke up with her and kept searching. 

In college, at age 17, I was made aware how adept I was at picking out what is important, while listening to the oohs and ahhs of the other students when coded standardized tests were posted.  

The Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King were assassinated while I was attending school in Gainesville and larger societal dreams died (modern day Camelot was finished), but I still looked for truth in pure science (I later found that greed has also compromised health research).

Fascism wrecked much of the world and has cost countless lives over the centuries.  Segregation is a form of fascism.  Fascism is in hiding and it is controlling us by secretly determining events and information.

Unwittingly, twice I acted 'put upon,' lied and misrepresented facts and that surprisingly led to favorable results.  I had accidentally discovered that body language speaks far more powerfully than words (even printed).  Perhaps 93% of communication is non-verbal.

Individuals often find their thoughts pursue wishful fantasies.  The primary fantasy is control (control is a fantasy necessary for health).  The American dream is a fantasy as is any 'ownership.'  Human ethics are a societal fantasy, different than the reality presented by Nature.

Dental school (more mercury)

I chose dental school after my father and the administrator of South Miami Hospital arranged for me to spend some time with seven medical doctors of the major specialties.  None were happy in the 1960s.  I did not want to model their frustration.   My father seemed relatively happy at work, where he was 'king of his own castle.'   I chose to be a 'big fish' in the pond of dentistry, rather than just another big fish in the ocean of medicine.  

Gross anatomy took most of my first year in dental school.  Not only did freshmen identifiably smell of cadaver formaldehyde, the dissections revealed that it usually takes many things going wrong (typically we found seven) to cause death.  

When I was 19, I realized that being a healer was going to be my life's work.  All drugs were stopped, including alcohol and became a very attentive student who also spent much time in the library studying and reading other perspectives.  I found that when time was not spent preparing for tests, so much more was learned.

A Chinese dental student was, surprisingly to me, imbued with similar 'traditional' values of defining success as a strong family built on academic achievement, what I thought was my 'special' cultural view point.

I kept looking for an appropriate mate, until Joan.  She was blonde and pretty.  I felt comfortable with her family and happy that her brother was brilliant.  Joan's mother had raised her as though she were an Jewish Austrian princess (and I liked that she stubbornly reacted oppositely).  

Family can be centered on me, or more openly and less selfishly as one's nuclear family or cousins so many times removed.  Altruistically, I emphasized my responsibly to the entire family of man (which now includes individual intelligent biofilm with even biofilm intertwined with the intelligence of planetary ecology).

In 1967 I remember the horrified look on my pharmacology's professor's face when I asked if acetaminophen was as good for pain as aspirin (which had paragraphs of side-effects).  His hands and arms waved as he said,"They will never put that on the market.  It's much too liver toxic."  (Glutathione is used up eliminating acetaminophen.)  Glutathione is the body's primary defense against free radicals, and its lack provokes symptoms as well as pathology.  That is why my professor was so emotional.

That summer I was taken to dinner in New York City by my cousin.  I still remember the plentiful alcohol.  He had the new advertising account for Tylenol (acetaminophen).  My cousin got all the free Tylenol he wanted.  Cousin Mike 'mysteriously' died of liver failure about ten years later.

Decades of practice taught this dentist that derivatives of plant-sourced codeine caused less nausea and were more effective for pain than synthetic hydrocodone.  

Drug companies gradually made it harder and harder to prescribe aspirin and codeine combinations and easier and easier to prescribe acetaminophen and hydrocodone combinations.  Today, it is fashionable to be regularly asked about pain by health-care providers and what they have on the ready is a (very profitable) acetaminophen and hydrocodone combination.

In preparing for clinic, it was a shared open secret that smoothing mercury-rich amalgams on typodonts with one's bare fingers improved both shape and appearance of the fillings.

A doctor at 21, I graduated from dental school in 1969 with many honors and was asked to teach summer periodontics by my professors.  My students asked many questions and searching for the answers taught me even more.  I've been motivated to teach ever since.  Recently, I have been called the 'old professor.'

Although I was a brilliant student and had learned much, what was lacking was perspective.  I sought the viewpoint of various role models in treating degenerative disease (and later, the military, in service to my country).

Navy Dentist, Mercury and Vaccinations with Mercury

The three 'deck' Navy clinic where I worked had a wonderful library and I read or shared reports on everything in it (every Friday afternoon was given to presentations and abstracts).  

I was a lieutenant from 1969-1971 (in the Viet Nam era) and after a year on the "amalgam line" and experiencing a two week rotation in surgery, I was asked to spend the next year in a prosthetics.  In this 30-man dental clinic, not only  was I the first young dentist to be 'chosen' to go to prosthetics, I was the ''expert' on TMJ (I showed my slide presentation) for my two years in Virginia.

So that my body would be 'ready' to go to Viet Nam if needed, I reported to the dispensary and got the six shots (at once) that would 'prepare me' for the far East.  My immune system reacted.  It was the sickest day of my life (until a long-standing parasite infestation finally waylaid me when I was 64).  

Shortly after the shots, routine carving of an amalgam became impossible for this young doctor; I became queasy and had to go home and there I had the chills, sweats and my temperature soared.  

I dutifully went to work the next day, shaken.  A few days later, my immune system developed allergies (skin hives) to latex gloves and a hypersensitive 'contact dermatitis' and as a result, I simply scrubbed (with betadine) before all kinds of surgeries.

Part of my training as a health-care provider 'with special knowledge' was the 'herd philosophy' of vaccination or 'the need to hurt a few to help many.'  As a result, as authorities, we did not report damage linked with vaccination and/or authoritatively blamed something else.

Years later, I asked a dentist who tracked through the Navy one year before me how he had been hurt by those vaccinations.  At first, he stared blankly and then smiled knowingly, he said, "I reported to the doc as ordered, but he was a friend and said there were a lot of side-effects from the shots and he offered to sign me off." 

In 'Gulf War Syndrome,' no French troops reported the illness.  No vaccines or protective drugs were forced on the French.  Only protective suits were supplied against possible biological attack.  Only 140 of the 25,000 French in the Gulf War reported any war-related illness (0.5%), compared to over 5,000 (10%) UK troops and 137,862 (19%) of US troops.  Mycoplasma was secretly tested on Texas Dept. of Corrections prisoners (and jumped to guards and their families) in the late '80s, before the Gulf War.

Vaccines can be dangerous and are to be feared.  Most authorities are rewarded to cover-up mishaps.  The adjuvants in vaccines are designed to increase response.  Explored once, adjuvants arouse immune cells to attack nerves.  Besides disregulating immune balance as well as apoptosis or necrosis, adjuvants also disturb sleep cycles.  Making vaccines is a big business monopoly (a part of Western medicine) that essentially regulates itself and hides and/or buries negative results. 

Because of suspected demyelinization, Hepatitis B immunizations were discontinued in France.

In 1998, French health authorities saw more than 600 cases after hepatitis B shots (many resembled MS).  In 1996 the French provided financial compensation for Hepatitis B vaccination victims.  Big Pharma's wanted to pay the many victims without going public.  Payment required waiving rights to a court hearing and/or going public.

Besides the mercury, aluminum or other poisonous adjuvants, contamination is a reality, and vaccine experiments can be hazardous.  AIDS, unknown two decades ago, along with viral hepatitis is now a worldwide epidemic with much disability and death.  Vaccines and other therapeutic potions contaminated with very small life forms could unleash new plagues (that would be blamed on something else by authorities). 

U.S. law, upheld by the Supreme Court in 2011, gives total immunity to pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. for any damages related to vaccines.  Negative news regarding vaccines is almost never reported. 

However, Sanofi, a French company is being sued.  Sanofi probably does not have the same influence that American and UK drug firms have.  The real news regarding Gardasil is very negative, while the U.S. media propagates the notion that Gardasil is one of the safest vaccines. 

Japan has stopped recommending Gardasil vaccines and has begun a full investigation into its safety, amid many reports of severe injuries from side effects. An investigation of the HPV vaccine is ongoing in India. Could we be looking at another Merck disaster similar to Vioxx, which reportedly killed more than 60,000 folk before it was removed from the market? 

Live attenuated influenza vaccines lead to the rapid and sustained overgrowth of pathogenic bacteria in the upper respiratory tract (streptococcus pneumonia and staphylococcus aureus) of mice at colonization densities up to 100-fold higher than non-vaccinated mice.  Vaccination with a live attenuated virus can dramatically alter the colonization behavior of bacterial pathogens like that following infection from 'wild-type" flu infections. 

Infection with influenza viruses increases susceptibility to severe lower and upper respiratory tract bacterial infections resulting in complications, such as pneumonia, bacteremia, sinusitis, and acute otitis media. Bacterial infections may be a primary cause of mortality associated with influenza virus infection. 

Bacteria can trigger inflammation and also activate cancer growth genes (along with the signals required for angiogenesis).  Normally, F. nucleatum is not prevalent in the gut, but if microbial balance is off, then it can invade and colonize. F. nucleatum is in gut mucosa that is inflamed and in colorectal tumors.

Reproductive steroids take over the young couple

In 1967, Joan, the pretty Austrian Jewish blonde marries Steven, the blonde, brilliant and promising Ashkenazi Jew.  In both families, the male (and his sex drive) was disdained by the female and used as a tool to create desired performance.  The Virgin Mary (a distant Jewish progenitor) must have used this manipulative technique.

The prince found his princess.  Joan was a stereotypical Jewish princess in many ways.  She demonstrated an extraordinary ability to make quick valuations of quality.  She was compliant, but distant sexually.  Joan did experience two orgasms with me that led to David and Jeremy.  

Body language and airborne compounds (pheromones) send signals about moods, sexual orientation and even genetic makeup.  Fertile women can smell testosterone in men.  Words however, are subject to interpretation.  Although pheromones are considered by many as vestigal in humans, Joan felt like she could read my mind.

Pheromones (often odorless) promote hypothalamic behaviors that perpetuate species (reproductive behavior is rationalized by the cortex).  Chemical messengers outside of the body affect other neuro-circuits, including the autonomic nervous system with hormone or cytokine-mediated physiological changes (inflammatory signaling, immune system alteration and/or desired behavior).  Four classes are:

1.    1.  Human sex-attractant pheromones. 
2.    2.  Mother-infant recognition pheromones - identifies (suckling) mother, or remaining offspring.
3.    3.  Menstrual synchrony pheromones - causing nearby women to cycle together, menstruating at the same time.
4.    4.  Territorial marking animal pheromones - a keep away from 'my females' signal.

Although she was dutiful, Joan did not find passionate sex with me.  Her opportunity for explosive steroid reward from sex arose when youth was leaving (in her late 30s) and was heightened even more because the experience was 'forbidden.' 

Aristotle said, "Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well." and "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."  Joan personified courage, tenacity and cleverness.

The mercurial and passionate young dentist father

In 1971, I joined my father's dental practice in Miami.  From a poor immigrant family, financially broken by he great depression, he had been trained in the late 1930s and early 1940s (thanks to the financial largess of my spinster great aunt Bertha, a Hitler survivor and Zionist).   However, atrocities continue today around the world as degrees of selfish and altruistic behavior are tested socially.  

After dental training in Detroit, Michigan. 60 miles away in Flint, in the early 1940s, Dad made many immediate dentures and removed even more teeth, believing in 'the focal infection' theory; and in Miami in the later 1940s, instead he 'saved' teeth. 

Both theories economically ignored parasite infestation with toxicity as underlying cause (even though many have warned about parasitic biofilm).  Focal infection theory thinks all root canals are bad, leading to many extractions and much prosthetics, whereas saving teeth leads to root canals and crowns.

My father's earlier perspective on doctoring was less selfish (and more accepting) on similar scientific "facts."   In 1972, I started my own dental practice, and soon found frustratingly that real world money constraints made perfection unachievable, even for me.

All of the men in my family had died of heart attacks. At age 50, Dad had 10 centimeters of his carotid replaced because of atherosclerosis, an operation with a ten-year 90% mortality.  At age 60, Dad had to retire from practice because he was senile.  

Besides strong family predilection, a check-up chest x-ray of this young, dutiful dentist revealed an enlarged heart (another significant risk factor).  My honest and very schooled medical doctor (his ignorance was frustrating) had no advice to give and could only wait.

Over and over, when he was 60, Dad began telling old stories like they were new.  Atherosclerosis was the diagnosis and cholesterol was its cause.  Although endothelial inflammatory response to parasitic biofilm as cause or inducing hormesis as cure was not even considered, a 'radical' vegetarian diet brought back his brain in a few months.  

Fatty cholesterol is part of arterial plaque (today seen as an inflammatory endothelial bandage) and calcium makes it harder (a lot like calculus that often inflammatorily forms between the teeth and gums).  Saturated fat (instead of addictive sugar) became a convenient enemy.  Low fat foods (often flavored with more sugar) sold better and were more profitable.  

Big Pharma has used this old false theory to sell inhibitors of this basic process.  Prescribing statin drugs to reduce cholesterol is big business (even though cholesterol is needed for memory).  If defective membranes make you unhappy, big Pharma proffers popular pills for depression.  Cognitive problems increase the more we vilify coconut and palm oils or fats derived from sun-drenched and grass-fed animals, and use substitutes. 

Statins increase risk to diabetes different ways.  Statins mess up membranes and increase insulin resistance. Insulin resistance contributes to chronic inflammation, which causes much damage (including heart disease, which is the primary reason for taking a cholesterol-reducing drug).  Statins also promote belly fat, high blood pressure, heart attacks, chronic fatigue, thyroid disruption, as well as Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and cancer.

I remember a lot of consternation as detectives tried to disprove father's disability.  Dad slowly became less strict and ate more eggs, fish, chicken and meat (as well as sugar).  His brain seemed to work until he chose peaceful death at 84 (hallucinating on chemicals normally removed by the kidneys) rather than the indefinite predictable pain of dialysis.

As a young dentist, I read several books on child psychology.  As father, one of my responsibilities was getting my sons, then three and five, asleep.  After reading the books, these developing children (until they graduated high school), heard as they fell asleep:,"You are such a good helper." I was sharing my cleverness at yoga and somebody replied, "Oh, that's an affirmation, they teach that at all the ashrams."  

Joan was very happy when Jeremy was born a boy.  Ultrasounds (which have never been tested for safety)  were not done back then.  Joan believed that boys were much easier to raise than girls.  Her mother's repeated curse was that Joan would have a daughter 'just like' her. 

The curse ended up being fulfilled 20 years later when Henriette (after a trip to Africa, without parasites ever being considered) was helplessly diagnosed with terminal cancer and subsequently acted child-like.

Our sons were both born unique and have very different perspectives on their mirrors of the universe,  David was first (1970) and he is very smart (as well as clever).  David is more comfortable with the majority fantasy.  Jeremy was born second (1972) and has been trying to catch up (to his smug older brother) ever since.  Jeremy is very clever (as well as smart) and anti-establishment.  

Both sons have their mother's energy and are tenacious and very good helpers.  Each boy has found a mate, and each union produced a boy and girl.  Both are successes by their own measure and have helpful friends.  

Jeremy and Sue (a dark southern Italian who went off birth control pills) let alcohol disinhibit each other and began with Carly in 2003 and James in 2005.  David and Shaunna (a albino mongolian), motivated by experiencing the wrath of a tsunami, produced Kieran in 2005 and Ilyanna in 2007.  

All four grandchildren have inner desire to excel.  Shaunna is more controlling, and her kids are more tenacious but dependent; Sue is 'laizzez-faire" and creates more independence and self-reliance. 

The idea of a modular intelligence contrasts with the older more-limited view of the genius's brain as a super general-purpose computer. Brain power was once assessed by a single number (IQ). 

When we pamper plants, they produce a lot of biomass but don't make as many hormetins and hence aren’t as nutritious.  Rearing children offers similar paradoxical choices.  

Bursts of light (intermittent ROS) or harsh conditions (drought and/or pathogens) also produce more zeaxanthin.  The way zeaxanthin absorbs light makes it essential in the human eye to absorb sunlight safety. The macula, the little circle in the center of the retina, is orangey-yellow because of all the zeaxanthin, with light focused on that one small spot.

General intelligence remains important.  Its role is like an orchestra conductor where the brass, percussion, strings, and woodwinds are special-purpose modules. Like a conductor, the computer-intelligence knows all of the parts but cannot play the individual pieces as well;  the conductor evaluates and coordinates. 

All four grandchildren are eager to grow.  In the genetic lottery, all turned out energetic, blonde, light eyed and precocious in some way.  Over 96% of people don't have blonde hair and blue eyes,  All have 'lost in thought' fathers' and are treated as princes and princesses.   

I remember feeling invincible as metal shavings repeatably hit my unshielded face while I righteously (on the best current information) equilibrated many teeth and 'polished' many amalgams (removing surface corrosion releases even more mercury) in thousands of patients over the years.  The resultant unsuspected multi metal poisoning hormetically created irritability in me with a quicker ability to respond and more fierce resolve.  

My wife Joan suffered the mood swings from this silent work-related toxicity which I medicated (I thought successfully) with smoking marijuana.  Her many criticisms were ignored.

After 20 years, lost love disintegrated my marriage.  My princess (who was not Sancho Panza) did not forgive me for acting like an irritable and mercurial entitled prince.  I stubbornly searched (with my irritability and mood swings) for healing truth rather than ways to make more money ("like all the other doctors").   

Generational and cultural perspectives made our behavior predictable, perhaps summed up in comedian Rodney Dangerfieid's humor, "I don't get no respect." I fantasized that my my wife would treat me with more respect than her mother showed her father (who was the most clever card player I ever met).

My divorce taught me that material possessions matter little and that you only posses what you pay attention to.  I directed more attention to my sons and was free to pursue truth in alternative scientific conferences.  

As  a result of my reaction to the dissolution of my marriage, my brown (formerly dirty-blonde) hair turned white.  Hair color comes from two types of melanin. Stress or shock cause an immune secretion of hydrogen peroxide that bleaches the pigment. 

Whether or not the color returns depends on the ability to replenish the pigments and manage the stress so that less hydrogen peroxide is produced. 

Near the end of my marriage, in Colorado for an April ski trip, I talked with my bus driver.  He considered himself lucky to have this part-time job and his land.  He used to raise chickens.  Most chicken producers he knew had lost their businesses and land when multinational corporations manipulated the market. 

I knew then that most American sustenance was 'factory-farmed' and had been sold to secretive entities more powerful than (and that manipulated) seemingly-protective government.

Years later, I was still emotionally bereft from my divorce.  Sitting on a Hopi mesa, listening to the laughter of a people that had lost much more than me (although they still had their verbal history), finally gave me a peaceful perspective.

Survival programs us for reproduction and to be happiest in that mode.  Instead of pursuing fecund women, I'm now creating and nurturing ideas.  Societal awareness of pecking order in the herd is our preferred reality.  One fantasy is that the herd protects its members from Nature and this fantasy of control boosts health.   We react emotionally according to practiced perception and later creatively find rational explanations for the action.  

Searching for truth made me happiest.  Gratitude fills me with the most love.  I felt greatest pride basking in the approval of my son's friends.   

Parasites are attracted to a weakened immune system (vacation, travel and/or heavy metals)

Around the year 2000, in the Dominican Republic (we surmise) I became infested by a particularly clever parasite with seven different life forms (schistosomiasis).  I went repeatably to the 'best' dermatologists at the University of Miami Medical School with no diagnosis but was offered symptomatic relief (with side-effects) and even had my baffling skin condition biopsied with non-specific inflammation as the microscopic description.  

Seeking answers from proven authorities (especially in academia) who all are schooled to think the same way was an obvious big mistake.  But a doctor diagnosing himself is also a big mistake (especially if iconoclastic).  

My medical diagnoses (descriptions which all did not look for the parasitic cause) which seemed authoritative (and pointed me wrongly) have been: ectopic dermatitis, contact dermatitis, hives, infected hives, itchy hives, herpetiform dermatitis, ichthyosis (fish-scale skin), wet and/or dry psoriasis, eczema, psoriatic arthritis, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, inguinal hernia, normal aging, acquired monocular vision, low testerone, ataxia, cerebellar syndrome, surgeon's back, spinal stenosis, hyper-reflexia, right vagus auto-immune destruction, carcinoid syndrome, non-Hodkin's lymphoma and Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Standard stool testing does not look for heavy metals and/or misses hidden systemic parasites.  Parasites are more common than practically anybody realizes.  Parasites are believed to be common in the third world, but in reality, parasites are everywhere.  And travel is so common that it escapes as an obvious risk factor. 

Dark skin is rich in melanin pigments that reduce steroidal vitamin D production, though melanin increases tolerance to sunlight, radiation and ROS as well as confers antibacterial protection against tropical diseases and/or parasites (parasite life-forms are actually attracted to pale skin). Melanization is part of innate immunity. Melanocytes, melanosomes and melanin inhibit bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections (of the dermis and epidermis).

Parasites are clever animals (with as many as seven different life-forms) that can spread easily via water, foods, pets and air.  Stool testing diagnoses some but misses those which trick the immune system and/or hide.  If parasites are even suspected, they can be combatted with prescription drugs and/or herbs (repeated treatments may be necessary, unlike a houseplant, one can't begin anew).

Most experts offer symptomatic relief.  There is little reward (and usually disbelief that one could be 'unclean') for diagnosing underlying cause.  Many diagnoses describe a symbiotic biofilm turned pathogenic (with parasites and/or toxicity as the underlying cause) which sound authoritative.  

Instinctively counter-intuitive to most parents and healers (including this one), pampering encourages dependence as well as storage of fat and toxins.  And surprisingly, intermittent mild stress teaches independence and triggers adaptive hormesis (metabolic and epigenetic strengthening) via stimulating differentiated cells to change genetic expression (and some to convert all the way to stem cells).  

In May, 2001, at a HDA meeting, I was analyzed by what was then new Bob Jones' ultrasound sonar technology (Cavitat™).  Although travel had messed up calibrations, the conclusion was that I would benefit from the extraction of most of my maxillary posterior teeth and all root canals.  Since such an unproven conclusion led to massive amounts of therapy and/or disability, I didn't philosophically agree with the large amount of 'self-serving' work and expense entailed by the diagnosis.   

In retrospect, I was wrong! It seems obvious now that root canals only work to temporarily lessen symptoms and cavitations (and some periodontal destruction) are often instigated by wandering parasites (that are not found), attracted by immune weakness (root canals or heavy metals) and/or biofilm imbalance.

When I was in a fog and weakened by my surgeries, the parasites took over; most of my back teeth had obvious problems and were removed.  A cavitation is a bone hole that is usually not detected ordinarily.  Such bone cysts are likely caused by parasites and/or root canal bacteria and both are linked with heavy metals.

Part of this dentist's journey was IV chelation for heavy metals (especially mercury).  The day after my second chelation, I hallucinated and rationalized the crazy decision to bash a fellow (very aggravating) condominium member on the head with smelly garbage.  I was surprised and resignedly calm as the police arrested me.  In the very cold cooler, I had a lot of time to think and was eventually given the nick-name "Pops."  

The jail psychiatrist asked me if I had ever done anything like this before.  I flattened my facial expression as I lied and said "no," but the feeling very strongly reminded me of my high school mercury hallucination forty years earlier.  Again, I was roundly praised for my extreme action and there was even a favorable newspaper article published about the incident.

Although my chelating alternative medical doctor was willing to testify that I had been temporarily insane, advisors feared that any criminal proceedings jeopardized my doctor's license.  The injured party (he was really not physically hurt) also went to his chiropractor daily (until I paid $25,000, although my lawyer said $10,000 should do).   I voluntarily sold my condominium and purchased another, almost as good, two blocks away.  My 'victim' eventually died (many thought appropriately) of a nasty infection from a routine colonoscopy.

Aristotelian Jewish Buddhist

The Buddha was born in the East about 2,500 years ago.  Buddha grew up living the protected extravagant life of a prince (hormonal rewards of caregivers cause many of us to feel like princes or princesses).   At 29, he realized that wealth and luxury did not guarantee happiness, so he explored different teachings, religions and philosophies. 

After six years of study and meditation, he found 'the middle path' and was enlightened.  The Buddha spent the rest of his life teaching the Dhamma (Truth), until his death at 80.  Buddhism is currently followed by hundreds of millions.  

During Joan's and my 1988 visit to Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia, I asked what the basic difference in philosophies (cultural ideas of "success" and "failure"), how I was raised in the West and what I eventually learned from the East.  The answer was, "me and we."  

Thai newspapers explained how even the theories about saturated versus non-saturated fats were driven by more self-centered Western thinking.  There is much validity in East and West perspectives, though both can be perverted.

Buddhism is a religion, but also is a philosophy (way of life).  Buddhism recognizes the duality of experience.   In the continuing human drama, one has the repeated opportunity to judge whether their actions (created by attitude-driven perception) resulted in selfish or altruistic impact on others.   Love creates oxytocin (differently in males and females), and oxytocin has a positive feedback loop.  Thus love creates more love (which other nervous systems instinctively mirror).  On the other hand, fear tends to promote more fear. The Buddhist path does not interfere.  Noninterference is a concept born from the idea that all things are impermanent (beyond human control).  Since history shows that all we can improve lastingly is our own attitude, one attempts to be mindful and aware of thoughts and actions with the goal of developing wisdom and understanding.   Buddhist adepts from the 2nd-9th centuries consumed psychedelic Amanita muscaria to achieve enlightenment.  Some symbols appeared in the Soma system of the Rg Veda, other symbols came from earlier shamanic use in Northern Eurasia, and others may be Buddhist. Congruity from Northern and Southern Asian traditions is reflected in the Germanic tradition of the Oldest God, Odin. Jews and Buddhists share a deep understanding of suffering.  Suffering resonates with Jews who have a rich history of persecution.  Applying a Buddhist perspective to atrocities offers a path to healing.  In contrast to other religions, it is unnecessary to formally convert to follow this spiritual path.  One can still identify as a Jew while embracing Buddhist beliefs.   Judaism leads to total involvement with this world.  The 613 Torah commandments engage one’s total body and every part of the physical world in consecrated action.  The goal of most religions is to transcend this world.  The purpose of Judaism is to elevate this world, and in so doing, perfect oneself. Experiencing the duality of Eastern and Western perspectives enhances rhythm capacity.  In the pH rhythm, we are most alkaline and Western (irritable, self-centered, accident prone) after a big meal, at 3-5AM or PM and most acidic and Eastern (imperturbable, tolerant, efficient) 9 AM to 1 PM or 9-11 PM. It is difficult to meditate (with its many benefits) and find silence and seclusion.  It is even harder to remain focused on creation and high ideals, constantly feeling amazement and expressing gratitude over and over, amidst many distractions.  Our universe provides continuing challenges.  Every person in every generation 'is blessed with' the opportunity to make difficult choices. The Buddha was very aware of the interconnectedness of mind-body-spirit,  He said, “To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear."   Jewish, Western and Eastern Aristotle (who had lots of curls like me) was an important classic Greek philosopher, about 2,400 years ago. He is one of the most important founding figures in Western Philosophy, and although philosophers of his day clearly stole from the Torah, Aristotle was first in the west to create a comprehensive philosophy, including Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics, Metaphysics, Logic and Science. Aristotle was born to an important family.  His father was the personal physician to a king and Aristotle was trained and educated as a member of the aristocracy. Aristotle's mother's family owned property.  Hardened at 10, Aristotle's father died (which meant that he could not now follow in his father's profession of doctor) and his mother seems also to have died young.  When Alexander the Great died (323 B.C)., anti-Macedonian sentiment flared and Aristotle fled.  A king at 20, Alexander spent most of his ruling years on an unprecedented military campaign through Asia and northeast Africa, until by the age of thirty he had created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, stretching from Greece to Egypt and into present-day Pakistan.  Around 2,400 ago, at the time of the Hanukkah story, the enlightened Hellenistic culture was spreading throughout civilization. It influenced many Jews, and led them to forsake faith for rationalism, exchanging the supernatural for the natural and the spiritual for the physical.  The story of Hanukkah is not only about a physical revolt of Jews against Greek oppressors; it tells of the revolt of faith from the place it was assigned.  It is about the triumph of the supernatural over the natural, and the spiritual over the physical. 2014 It is now 2014, and with my own 40+ years of perspective as doctor and patient (poor health forced me to retire from practice).  My unique perspective is now from a wheelchair, and that also gives me time to write and reflect.  The generations of history change in a regular cycle, just like the seasons of the year.  The ancients were correct with their cyclical or spiral view of time.   Each person evolves personally within their societal framework.   The author of Ecclesiastes wrote: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” A generation reaches most influence when it moves into midlife and begins to take leadership positions of power. Thus every 20 years a new generation takes over, and the generation that previously occupied that rung moves into less influential elder-hood, the mood shifts.  As each generation is born, matures, comes to influence, and then declines and dies, it propels society through a cycle of growth, maturation, entropy, destruction and then regrowth.  Just as in nature, this cycle of death and rebirth is necessary to maintain the health of the ecosystem (or society). Generationally similar, four archetypes repeat and are molded by four historical turnings that reoccur every 80-100 years. The four historical turnings are: High, Awakening, Unraveling and Crisis. Historical turnings and generational archetypes work together to power cycles.  Historical turnings shape the young; then, as parents and leaders in midlife and old age, generations in turn shape history. As a doctor, I looked at the sick person and their DNA for answers.  Now my view point first includes the DNA and RNA of one's evolved biofilms (which are frequently farmed by parasites that have their own life cycles [including egg deposits], each with typical biofilms).   I gave a few (and attended many) seminars with self-help as the primary perspective.   (Most promoted conventional courses justify patented pharmaceutical therapy.)  The view points of holistic, functional and orthomolecular medicine melded with my many computer-aided searches on the world-wide web (where my experience made many associations).   This former national president of holistic dentists has prepared his views on nutrition and toxicology.  Broken hip and rehab The combination of unpredictable spasticity, voluntary and occasionally spontaneous, hyper-reflexia, severed spinal nerves to my arms and legs and destroyed right vagus nerve in my neck makes me so uncoordinated and unsteady that I hold on with a 'death grip.'  Food (and its odors) makes me nauseous as if I were seasick. In April 2013, I fell (due to lack of balance and overcompensating reflexes) transferring from wheelchair to bed and broke my left hip.  Instead of repairing the break, Medicare paid a surgeon to provide a total hip implant.  Month-long rehab did help my recovery but was mostly about protecting one's job and giving lots of prescriptions so that Medicare could be billed.  The Mayo Clinic reports that medical experts have done 146 “reversals” in the past decades,  These are course changes on specific practices; reversals are common across all medical specialties (40-78% of testing, treatments and procedures are of no benefit, and many are harmful). However, the USA leads in medical waste. America’s health care system compares unfavorably in coordination, prevention of chronic disease, medical errors, accessibility and affordability as well as satisfaction.   I remember much consternation (and some real creativity in the dental laboratory) as tooth implants were routinely placed by certain oral surgeons at strange angles.  A shared 'secret' was the implants so misplaced 'that they had to be put to sleep.'  I got a misplaced hip implant from my orthopedic surgeon.   As awareness returned, I experienced difficulty with the unnatural angle of my left leg.  The nurses had me hide it with a pillow at the rehab center.   In interpreting the horrified looks of many caregivers (and as a retired doctor, I know), my smug orthopedic surgeon carelessly misplaced my hip implant (20-30 degrees).  My left leg continues to tilt and be unsteadily painful a year after my broken hip was 'replaced' with a metal implant. Whether it an endodontist or surgeon (supported by science), "the fox is guarding the hen house." The standard efforts of surgery and rehabilitation are met with positive expectations and outcomes by most.  This positive placebo effect accounts for roughly half of medical success (accidentally inducing hormesis accounts for most other success).  For this psyche, which understands how doctors (and most health care providers) are manipulated, instead proffered pills promoted troublesome side-effects. Pot and/or Sex and/or the Sun significantly boost fatty membrane pleasurable steroids. Other than an occasional herbal parasite cleanse, I take no medicines, but those around me (and me) are happier and I am not nauseous if I smoke marijuana.  Surprisingly, occasional smoke or breath holding (like exercise or sunshine) induces hormesis, a metabolic and epigenetic strengthening. A small amount of mercury (or any toxicity) leads to speedier cognition, faster reflexes and explosive orgasms, but intoxication with just a little bit more tends to cause premature ejaculation.  A fatty diet, marijuana (blue sky, sunshine or sex) stabilizes membranes and calms irritability while it makes us happier.  Also temporarily effective, serotonin-boosting sugar (like cocaine) is however, highly addictive. If marijuana is smoked, one's focus increases and one tends to increase mass (it acts somewhat like an anabolic steroid). Although other mind-altering drugs like morphine, nicotine, cocaine or alcohol increase steroidal pregnenolone 2-3X in the cell membrane, marijuana increases pregnenolone 15X.  THC markedly increases pregnenolone making via cannabinoid receptors.   Like alcohol, one also loses inhibitions (THC inhibits GABA, the inhibitor).  One has better appetite as well as a general sense of well being (with less rigid gait and more laughter).   Steroids and cholesterol help maintain membrane integrity.  Steroids have different properties at different temperatures so that they can fulfill this function.  Cholesterol molecules are the backbones of steroids, but cholesterol is not a steroid.   Active vitamin D is a form of vitamin D called calcitriol, which acts as a steroid hormone regulating phosphorous and calcium.  Most cells have receptors for vitamin D, showing how we connect with sunlight.  Sunlight's vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), is created in the skin from 7-dehydrocholesterol using radiant energy.  Cell membranes display a tremendous complexity of lipids and proteins that receive information and perform cellular functions of intent (outer membranes are the sensory apparatus and brain of the cell).  To coordinate functions, the membrane laterally segregates parts.  Rafting is based on dynamic liquid-liquid immiscibility and underlies compartmentalization.  Lipid rafts are fluctuating nanoscale assemblies of sphingolipid, cholesterol and proteins that coalesce and function in membrane signaling and trafficking (400,000-500,000 glycoproteins propped up by lipid rafts mark each cell with 'blood type').  Different types of lateral interactions among membrane parts takes place, giving rise to many levels of lateral order that lead to highly organized structures.  Lipid rafts are more ordered and tightly packed than the surrounding bilayer, but float freely.  Although more common in plasma membrane, lipid rafts have also been seen in other parts of the cell (Golgi and lysosomes). Cholesterol is especially abundant in outer membranes and is important in signaling (the ability of cells to communicate with each other so one functions as a unit).  Molecule for molecule, cholesterol can make up nearly half of the cell membrane.  Since cholesterol is smaller and weighs less than the phospholipids, it makes up less of the cell membrane's mass, usually about 20%. Cholesterol is also in organelle membranes, although usually less.  The mitochondrion is 3% cholesterol by mass, and the endoplasmic reticulum is 6% cholesterol by mass. Lipid rafts correspond to membrane areas stabilized by the presence of cholesterol within a liquid-ordered phase.  Cholesterol helps the entry of various nutrients into the cell and the excretion of waste molecules.  Cholesterol is important to animal cell membranes, but the lipids are polarized and do not allow cholesterols to become embedded. Pregnenolone forms the female sex hormones (estrogens and progesterone) as well as the male sex hormone (testosterone).  A common reason given for no longer smoking marijuana is that one experiences fewer sexual encounters (the 'act' is not pursed as strongly).   Pregnenolone is the precursor of all steroid hormones, and its own functional effects have not been defined.  Supplements are primarily marketed for memory, energy and stress support.  The rate-limiting step in steroid biosynthesis is the transport of cholesterol from intracellular stores into mitochondria where cholesterol is metabolized by the inner mitochondrial membrane enzyme CYP11A1 to pregnenolone, which is the precursor of adrenal, gonadal, placental and brain steroids.  In adrenals and gonads, cholesterol transfer into mitochondria is accelerated by hormones and cAMP, leading to high levels of steroids.  Steroids control many body functions during the lifespan.  In placenta and brain, steroid synthesis controls local tissue functions, although no systemic hormonal regulation has been identified.  Analysis of membrane proteins remains difficult.  Membrane proteins require a carefully balanced hydrophilic and lipophilic environment, and the optimum varies. Membrane-associated DNA has physical and chemical properties different from those of bulk chromosomal and mitochondrial DNAs.    RNA polymerase II (phosphorylation patterns) in the plasma membrane is in a different chemical state from its nuclear counterpart.  Some of the most abundant RNAs are non-coding.  Membranes miraculously separate water and interact. The plasma membrane (a continuous double-layer of phospholipids, interweaved with cholesterol and proteins) surrounds our cells.  Phospholipids are typically two fatty acids (like arachidonic acid [AA] or eicosa--penta-enoic acid [EPA]) attached to a phosphate head. The phosphate head likes water and the fatty-acid tails are water-insoluble.  Since outside is aqueous, and inside is also aqueous, the phosphate heads of the phospholipids face both the cell's inside and outside, while the fatty acids face each other, forming the inside of the membrane.  The membrane forms a fluid mosaic, and its molecules are always moving (even sometimes flipping). It has about the same consistency as olive oil. Circular cholesterol is amphipathic, like the tailed phospholipids, it has a hydrophilic (phosphate) and hydrophobic parts (fatty acids). Cholesterol's hydroxyl group aligns with the phosphate heads of the phospholipids. The remaining portion of it tucks into the fatty acid portion of the membrane, separating the tailed phospholipids. Because of cholesterol's shape, part of the steroid ring is closely attracted to part of the fatty acid chain on the nearest phospholipid. This helps slightly immobilize the outer membrane surface and make it less soluble to very small water-soluble molecules (ions and monosaccharides).   Without cholesterol, cell membranes would be too fluid, not firm enough, and too permeable.  The plasma membrane has many hundred of thousands of lipid rafts, where proteins are secured.  A lipid raft has much cholesterol plus sphingolipids (a phospholipid with longer and straighter, more saturated fatty acid tails).  Dynamic contacts exist between mitochondria, the plasma membrane, the endoplasmic reticulum and other sub-cellular organelles. Many cellular processes require cooperation between the plasma membrane, the nucleus and sub-cellular vesicular/tubular networks like mitochondria and the endoplasmic reticulum.  Such contacts are crucial for the synthesis and intracellular transport of phospholipids as well as for intracellular Ca++ homeostasis, controlling basic processes like motility and contraction, secretion, cell growth, proliferation and apoptosis.  Close contacts between smooth sub-domains of the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria are required also for maintaining mitochondrial structure. The overall distance between linking organelle membranes is small, allowing and regulating protein interactions. Mitochondria are a key regulator of longevity (they also make steroids and produce energy).  Increasing age correlates with more mitochondrial DNA mutations and compromised respiratory chain function.  Oxidative phosphorylation couples making ATP to respiratory electron transport. In eukaryotes, this coupling occurs in prokaryotic mitochondria, which carry 95% of their own DNA.  Mitochondria are multifunctional organelles that control many processes of the entire cell.  Mitochondria are energy factories that burn oxygen during oxidative phosphorylation to produce cellular ATP.  This process is so central that mitochondria consume most of the biological oxygen on earth to supply energy in aerobic organisms.  Besides oxidative phosphorylation, mitochondria are important in generating reducing equivalents via the tricarboxylic acid cycle, in fatty acid oxidation, amino acid metabolism and making ketone bodies.  Mitochondria also signal, they sense and shape Ca++ (which controls basic cellular functions).  Mitochondria take up and release Ca++, and this filtering of Ca++ ions has many effects.  By acting as a Ca++ buffer, mitochondria can activate or deactivate plasma membrane channels that are regulated by changes in Ca++, or restrict Ca++ signals to specific domains.  By acting as a “Ca++ relay,” mitochondria can propagate Ca++ signals and funnel Ca++ ions inside cells to reload intracellular Ca++ stores.  Mitochondria also interpret Ca++ signals (life or death). Cells can regulate the shape, mobility and connectivity of mitochondria.  Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that actively move, fuse and divide within cells.  Motility is of particular importance for neurons, because mitochondria must travel a great distance from the cell body to the periphery of long neurons.  Mitochondria use many ways to regulate Ca++ transporters, exemplified by the complex interactions between Ca++ entry channels and mitochondria.  Among the many tools that mitochondria use to modulate plasma membrane transporters, regulation by Ca++ comes first, followed closely by ATP.  Other ions, metabolites, or byproducts of the cellular respiration have minimal impact.  The location of mitochondria determines their ability to regulate the activity of membrane Ca++ transporters, and a picture of mitochondria emerges as silent propagators of Ca++ inside cells (not just buffers).  Respiratory electron transport in the presence of molecular oxygen generates free radicals, reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are mutagenic.  Mutational damage to mitochondrial DNA occurs and accumulates within lifespan.  Cells stay healthy as long as there is good coordination between eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes.  SIRT1 (triggered by resveratrol) keeps HIF-1 from blocking communication.  Without enough NAD, SIRT1 cannot control HIF-1.  HIF mediates hypoxia.  HIF-1 escalates and disturbs cross-genome talking.  This loss of communication reduces energy, and signs of aging and disease come.  ROS also signal fast-acting mechanisms for partial pressures of O2.  Many molecular responses to hypoxia are mediated via transcription.  Hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF), is a critical mediator, and its activation by hypoxia involves O2-dependent post-translational modifications and nuclear translocation.  HIF regulates tissue O2 supply and energetic metabolism via induction of target genes.  Other transcription factors, like inflammatory-boosting NF-kb are also redox sensitive to pro-oxidant and/or hypoxic conditions.  HIF is redox regulated by ROS.  Exogenous ROS (H2O2) impacts HIF biphasically.  Early, H2O2 induces HIF, but when prolonged, less HIF is made.  ROS, like superoxide anion (O2-) radicals and H2O2 are usually seen as undesirable by-products of the oxidative mitochondrial making of ATP.  Confusingly, small intermittent amounts of ROS may trigger beneficial metabolic and epigenetic adaptation to oxidative stress (hormesis).   Oxidative/reductive (redox) phosphorylation uses food's energy via a series of oxidations which remove hydrogen or electrons and pass them to oxidized NAD (which then becomes reduced NADH).   Reduced NADH starts a series of steps with electron carriers located in the inner mitochondrial membrane producing a proton gradient (across this membrane).  The proton gradient energy converts ADP and phosphate into ATP.  The food hydrogens (or electrons) reduce oxygen (O2) to water (H2O). Happiness and pleasure come from membranes.  Love begets more love. Dopamine conjugates are also pH sensors.  Dopamine has two redox states: formal potential at optimal reducing pH and oxidation of hydroquinone to quinone by O2 at alkaline or inflammatory pH.   Attitude, circadian rhythm, homeostasis dynamics, reaction rate constants, oxygen tension and sequestration determine the redox messaging between the free radical gas messenger NO (produced, but also in fresh vegetables) and dopamine (produced, but also in brown bananas).  Dopamine is the simple chemical that mostly mediates reward and is released with pleasure and its anticipation.  Food, sex, beauty, likable music and most drugs of abuse (including sugar) stimulate dopamine.   Vasopressin is simple, and like dopamine some of its receptors stimulate ACTH, prolactin and endorphins.  Oxytocin is a much more complex hormone which binds to similar receptors longer and is released relatively more in competitive males and in nurturing females.   With confusingly overlapping expressions, male, female and homosexual brains function differently and have similar but different rewards, causing words to have different meanings and communication between sexes to be eternally misleading.   Monogamous voles have more dopamine2-like and oxytocin receptor binding and less dopamine1-like and vasopressin1a receptor binding than do the promiscuous.  Sex also shows differences, females have more oxytocin receptor binding but less vasopressin1a receptor binding. Pleasure is nuanced. 'Oh God!,' signifies an exceptionally good mix.  Very motivating, pleasure's chemical crescendo contains varying amounts of dopamine, vasopressin, oxytocin, serotonin and melatonin, GABA and glutamate, opiods, steroids (stress or reproductive) and cannabinoids.  . Our nervous systems develop by mirroring actions that generate the best mix of pleasure chemicals in us and those around us (and we do this mostly by interpreting non-verbal body language).  Dopamine is also an oxidative neurotoxin and will induce Akt.  Akt (Protein Kinase B) is pivotable, signaling glucose metabolism, apoptosis, cell proliferation, transcription as well as migration.  Akt1 is involved in survival and can induce protein synthesis, and leads to skeletal muscle hypertrophy and general growth.  Intermittent Akt delivers a hormetic survival signal that inhibits apoptosis. However, chronic Akt activation (as with cocaine or prescription versions) leads to apoptosis.  Akt activation and increased Bad promotes cell death by binding survival proteins.   NAC (glutathione) protects against dopamine-induced apoptosis by inhibiting Akt activation.  Impaired Akt phosphorylation, dependent on ATP, participates in the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons triggered in Parkinson's. Water is separated by membranes; energy, intelligence and love is directed by membranes. One way to describe indescribable life (and even awareness) is as a side-effect of harnessing energy.   Humans burn 700 liters of oxygen daily, exhaling carbon dioxide.  Living requires vast energy.   Energy  is stored in ion gradients over membranes.  Planetary energy might have combined with rocks, water and carbon dioxide to make membranes and bioenergetics (as if cells have evolved).  By mass, oxygen is our most abundant element.  Most of the body is water (H2O), and oxygen makes up most of water.  Hydrogen is important in energy production.  The H+ ion is used by the proton pump to produce ATP. Molecular hydrogen comes from fermentation.  Oxidized hydrogen, plus a respiratory pathway produces energy.  Energy permits growth and maintains virulence of many pathogens.  Potential pathogens include Campylobacter jejuni, a spirochete like Helicobacter, as well as many enteric bacteria (Escherichia coli, Shigella and Yersenia).  Water is essential to life.  However water does not contribute energy.  Of all six essential nutrients, carbohydrates, protein, fats, vitamins, minerals and water, only the carbohydrates, protein and fats provide energy.   Osmotic (salinity gradient) power is the energy available from difference in salt concentrations.  Salt water is a good conductor of electricity, its sodium and chorine ions conduct electricity.  Electron transfers release energy that is used to pump protons (H, derived from the water that is ubiquitous in cells) across the bipolar prokaryotic mitochondrial membrane. Mitochondrial membranes communicate and cooperate with our complexly convoluted bipolar eukaryotic outer membrane. Body energy ultimately comes from the chemical energy provided by a cooperative biofilm.  Our food is converted to reducing agents (NADH and FADH2).  These reducers are then used to make ATP.  The bonds in ATP store energy, so that it is ready for enzyme control (almost spontaneous, in water). Living cells pulse and express emotion. The rhythm of peaks and valleys of phases of emitted vibrations (some of which are visual) from their outer membranes, which are sentient, communicative, flexible and fluidly changeable, reflect that.  Expressing gratitude makes us happy. I remember standing with a group of bright doctors at an Orthomolecular Meeting (in between sessions) and after an interesting interchange, one of them remarked, ''You're pretty smart for a dentist."  A recent comment after self-treatment with shared emphasis of knowledge, "I feel young again!"

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