Oxidative stress itself may be causal in insulin resistance - as a self-defense mechanism during overfeeding.

Which came 1st? stress? or the overweight? stress over-eating can also be a factor - emotional cues can lead us to comforting carbs, chocolate, or salty crunchy snacks. Try: Dark cocoa, veggies/humus

Important not to overeat:

The gist - when we overeat the fat cells can become over-worked trying to cope with the incoming load. Insulin resistance may be a protective mechanism to prevent the fat cells from being overwhelmed by the excess. Then we have fatty liver risks - so the take home point is to really work on not over-eating - and that is me too. As an educator, I try to learn what may help and who specifically may be in need of what type of help and cautions about who might need to avoid certain types of ‘help’/supplements or a nutrient or lifestyle practice - individualizing is important for promoting better benefits and promoting acceptance - a habit the person likes well enough to stick with.

(Ceriello, Motz, 2004) Ceriello, A., Motz, E., (2004). Is Oxidative Stress the Pathogenic Mechanism Underlying Insulin Resistance, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Disease? The Common Soil Hypothesis Revisited. Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2004;24:816–823, Published: 19 Feb 2004 https://doi.org/10.1161/01.ATV.0000122852.22604.78  https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/01.atv.0000122852.22604.78  

Notes - the article is focused on meds but contains a lot of info too.

Motivation - Life expectancy vs. health expenditure, from 1970 to 2018:

This is like the Bubble Tea graph except even more obvious - US, you have some splainin’ to do. If we move away will we live longer? If we avoid US healthcare, will we live longer? Does correlation suggest causation? Yes. But for whatever reason, being a US citizen appears to be a health hazard compared to living in other developed nations.

Compared to living in many developed countries, living in Bubble Tea drinking (Asian) countries was correlated with less severe Covid19 during the initial 2020 outbreak (pre-vaks).

The Bubble Tea meme / COVID19 graph:

Meme by unknown meme-ster, CoV graph is from a published paper, I am not sure of the link offhand. Resistant Starch/Butyrate, jenniferdepew.com.

I suggested then that butyrate was the likely benefit and it has been proven to be helpful along with a healthy microbiome against CoV and spike issues. Butyrate and niacin activate the GP109 receptors which are anti-inflammatory and help mitochondria. Mitochondrial support is also necessary and Nrf2 promoting foods.

This Substack by Brian Mowry shares research suggesting lack of mitochondrial regulation within lung cells is leading to the poor oxygenation problem of blood cells (hypoxemia) associated with Covid and ‘Covid pneumonia’ - spike effects directly rather than inflammation caused by infection and cytokine response. Tolerance and severe disease, pt. 2 - by Brian Mowrey (substack.com)

My comment on his article - regarding the jabs having shown some benefit against infection severe enough to lead to ‘Covid pneumonia’:

He [Brian Mowrey] made it very clear it is short term protection followed by the Price is Right cliff of doom [of repeat jabs leading to immune disfunction]. The point was that "Covid pneumonia" didn't seem to be as bad a problem when anti-viral of some sort was used - suggesting that in this case it is a spike effect since it also wasn't as bad a problem for Omicron. I had an Omicron maybe illness from a nursing home exposure and it was different. Extreme fatigue for days and migraines, but not much respiratory symptoms. What helps spike CoV lung issues a lot is citrus peel or hesperidin as an extract probably also would help in early stages. Once the damage is too great, that itself is a problem. And of course, pomegranate peel blocks spike in many ways. The citrus peel is a direct anti-asthmatic though, so has more symptom immediate relief for the lung symptoms. It opens airways, thins mucus, helps move it up and out - within 20 minutes the effect is noticeable. Cheap, available, and I have been pitching it since March 2020. People don't want treatment though; they want a magic pill - from someone in a white coat or on a talk show circuit. 1 hr ago

Ventilators cannot help cells that are not accepting oxygen or provide oxygen to alveoli that are full of fluid. Vitamin C can help and thiamine is needed in larger than food amounts during infection also, and magnesium and other B vitamins - all used up in greater quantities during inflammation of any sort. Spike tends to to be worse.

There are two problems with the hypoxia - reduced hemoglobin in red blood cells which can’t accept oxygen; and as described in the Substack and following two articles - if mitochondria are damaged in the lungs, then alveoli that can’t accept oxygen aren’t blocked properly from blood flow, as would occur in a more normal situation of reduced oxygen capacity of the lungs “hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV)”. Spike is affecting the mitochondria in epithelial cells lining the lungs, increasing fission, division of the mitochondria into smaller dysfunctional ones. Sars-CoV-2 is a bacteriophage but the team found that spike alone caused the mitochondrial fission too. (Archer, et al, preprint 2023)

So spike effects epithelial cells, like Epstein Barr virus, as well as endothelial cells. Addition: suggesting Retinoid Toxicity may potentially be a causal factor for ME/CFS type symptoms following EBV and possibly spike LongIllness/LonCovid. Retinoid Toxicity is a long series of posts on this Substack.

Melatonin supplementation may help promote improved mitochondrial fission/fusion. And avoiding hyperglycemia - nutrient excess - is also important as it promotes mitochondrial fission. (Chang, et al., 2019) Intermittent fasting followed by a large carb load led to mitochondrial fission in humans and animals; a 16 hour fast was followed by a 75-gram glucose load for the humans (that would be stress a body anyway). (Castro-Sepúlveda, et al., 2021) A 75-gram load of glucose might qualify as hyperglycemia and a fast followed by a recommended lighter meal might have different effects on mitochondria.

Addition: 75-gram carb load would be equivalent to 5 slices of white bread or 2 and 1/2 cups of mashed potatoes without the skin (no fiber in a glucose load). For shock/comfort when serotonin is low, three bread equivalents of carbs 45 grams with no fat or protein to slow digestion, can help increase serotonin levels and provide a sense of comfort. BUT to prevent a high blood sugar peak, follow the comfort snack with a mixed mini meal that has protein and fats to slow digestion about a half hour later. Dietitian recommendation - NO ONE would benefit from eating the equivalent of 75 grams of sugar in one sitting, especially following a fast.

Fasting is thought to support mitochondria in part by promoting Nrf2. See: Fasting and Mitochondrial Health | The Institute for Functional Medicine, (ifm.org).

Tolerance and severe disease, pt. 2

These articles:

1. Archer, SL. et al. “SARS-CoV-2 mitochondriopathy in COVID-19 pneumonia exacerbates hypoxemia.” Redox Biology, online ahead of press at sciencedirect.com. “Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causes COVID-19 pneumonia. We hypothesize that SARS-CoV-2 causes alveolar injury and hypoxemia by damaging mitochondria in airway epithelial cells (AEC) and pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells (PASMC), triggering apoptosis and bioenergetic impairment, and impairing hypoxic pulmonary vasoconstriction (HPV), respectively.”

2. Archer, Stephen L. “How COVID-19 damages lungs: The virus attacks mitochondria, continuing an ancient battle that began in the primordial soup.” (October 30, 2022.) The Conversation.

Disclaimer: This information is being provided for educational purposes within the guidelines of Fair Use and is not intended to provide individual health care guidance.

(Castro-Sepúlveda, et al., 2021) Castro-Sepúlveda M, Morio B, Tuñón-Suárez M, Jannas-Vela S, Díaz-Castro F, Rieusset J, Zbinden-Foncea H. The fasting-feeding metabolic transition regulates mitochondrial dynamics. FASEB J. 2021 Oct;35(10):e21891. doi: 10.1096/fj.202100929R. PMID: 34569666. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34569666/

(Chang, et al., 2019) Chang JY, Yu F, Shi L, Ko ML, Ko GY. Melatonin Affects Mitochondrial Fission/Fusion Dynamics in the Diabetic Retina. J Diabetes Res. 2019 Apr 11;2019:8463125. doi: 10.1155/2019/8463125. PMID: 31098384; PMCID: PMC6487082. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6487082/

Additionally - my power is flickering out/on in part of my dad’s house, and I tend to just post early rather than risking losing a draft. Good morning. Miraculously though, while the water heater is off, the fully loaded refrigerator is still on, my work areas are both still lit and I have my dad’s electric bed on an extension cord to the bathroom which is still lit. And I have my mini refrigerator on an extension cord in the basement, also pretty full. I had just been the store and stocked up. aarrrgh

I am really not prepared for an extensive emergency. <thinking face emoji>