The Bioelectric Field of Life

evolving into our space

 

I practiced “Chiropractic” for about 15 years, but rarely adjusted a patient. In fact, I’ve adjusted my 21 year old son once after his friend accidentally hit him in the back of his head when he was five. From the moment I started practicing, I began seeing patients suffering from chronic and life-threatening diseases. Most were coming to me because they had run out of options and places to turn. So, I felt a responsibility to do what I could to help. I couldn't just turn them away. I utilized acupuncture, homeopathy and every form of nutritional support that was available. I researched and applied every sensible dietary and cleansing protocol I felt might benefit my patients.

Live Cell Analysis	A few years into practice, I started utilizing Live Cell Analysis, a high-resolution darkfield technique that demonstrates metabolic and certain nutritional stresses by observing cell membrane integrity, WBC and RBC activity, bacteria, various biochemical crystals, and much more.
Healthy Blood Slide	After a few weeks, I decided to start collecting dry blood smears to see what, if any additional information, I could gather. It reminded me of stained glass. The red cells gave the blood smear a red appearance and the black strings of fibrin running throughout the smear gave it a tight cracked look.
Chronic Disease	However, I was shocked when I realized what I was finding was three categories or classifications of “health” or vitality. With a chronic or life threatening disease, the blood smear looked like water beading up on a wax surface with large plasma spaces throughout the smear. I was becoming very intrigued with it as an indicator of the severity of a disease...the more invasive the breakdown, the greater the impact the disease was having on the patient's health and vitality.
Facing Death	Unfortunately, regardless of our treatments or how good our results were symptomatically, the blood clot showed little, if any improvement. The patients that eventually succumbed to life threatening diseases would show a progressive weakening or breakdown of the dry cell. So much so that within two to three weeks from dying there would be a loss of coherency that would extend through the border of the blood smear.

During this time, I was working on a developmental model of health and disease that addressed the neurologic and conscious developmental processes seen in early childhood as an evolutionary progression with specific metabolic and biochemical relationships. It showed the sensory or “neurologic” part of the cell to be directly related to the cellular membrane and its polarization. Cell membrane polarization is involved in cellular communication (information/sensory), membrane permeability (metabolic health), immune function, DNA expression, and on and on...and on. With that in mind, I directed my attention to that which most influences membrane polarity, namely electrolytes, respiratory gases and sensory aspects of the nervous system for reasons I'll cover later. Keep in mind, our electrolyte balance is primarily controlled by our metabolic processes.

 

 

Note: The mitochondria take substrates from the cytoplasm to provide cellular energy (ATP) and initiate biosynthetic processes. The TCA/Krebs cycle provides substrates necessary for macromolecules like nucleotides, lipids, amino acids and cholesterol. They produce ATP, NADPH, as well as the electron donors in OXPHOS (NADH and FADH2). As such, mitochondria have a primary influence on the polarization of cellular membranes, as well as other cellular structures. By far, the primary influence on our biochemical environment is our food choices. Macronutrients with a high macronutrient to micronutrient ratio pushes cellular metabolism in compromised directions (see Metabolic Relationships). Additionally, the metabolic processes directly affect membrane health and permeability.

 

The developmental model shows the CNS and the liver to be polar or metabolic opposites, and the membranes play a major role in their defining characteristics. The CNS is highly specialized, which equates to being highly differentiated. It has a Blood Brain Barrier. If neurons come in contact with blood, they die. It has very poor repair and regenerative capacity. The liver, on the other hand, is not specialized. It has its hand in anything and everything related to fat metabolism, which is quite encompassing. It has the richest blood supply of any tissue. It is easy to feed. If you cut part of it off, it grows back. So, a possible conclusion was, if cells are “malnourished” they de-differentiate in order to make nutrients more available, and it starts with the cellular membrane’s health and polarity. The primary “actors” for maintaining membrane polarity are respiratory gases and the electrolytes K, Na, Cl, Mg, P, S in relation to calcium, and a healthy bipolar membrane (polar lipids). I was finding the cell membrane’s response to its internal and external environments probably carried more weight than the DNA in maintaining health and homeostasis. From that, I realized a biologic truth:

 

The cell always responds to its environment.

The cell always responds appropriately.

If you don’t like the response, change the environment.

 

I decided to first focus on respiratory gases and breath patterns, of which there are four, and the primary electrolytes. I quickly found I could temporarily improve the clot dramatically with various types of breath. For example, panting increases C02, and deeper breathing decreases C02 while increasing 02.

 

Note: Robert Becker, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon, along with Gary Selden, found that when bone is fractured, there is a flow of electrons into the injury site. He called this the “injury potential”. From there cells de-differentiate to form a blastema (a collection of undifferentiated embryonic cells). This is the only tissue in humans that repairs by true regeneration, as in reproduction (zygote to blastema). Additionally, Dr. Becker found that regenerative species like the salamander, regenerate its tail and extremities by the exact same process. Dr. Becker took his research one step further by grafting frog cancer just proximal to cutting off the salamander’s leg. Not only did the leg grow back, but the cancer differentiated into healthy frog tissue. Becker felt the reason human regeneration is limited was because most of the nervous system is in the head vs the salamander who has most of its nervous system in the body. Thus, allowing for a greater injury potential. With that in mind, the biomechanics of spinal movement with breath and it’s effect on neurologic function became even more of a focus. (Note: bone is piezoelectric, meaning that it is capable of producing and amplifying electrical signals from various stimuli. Thus, bone can be supplying the increase in injury potential needed for true regeneration).

 

After reading Dr. Becker's work, I had a physicist patient build a differential meter that I could monitor dc current between the CNS and areas of the body via EKG electrodes. I was explaining spinal anatomy and gait integration to him one day and his remark was, “The spinal column is like a small nuclear generator"...and then he lost me from that point on. He had briefly mentioned that he worked on "black projects" that could detect keystrokes on a computer back in the 90's. He was autistically brilliant and never made eye contact.

 

I eventually focused on the sensory system for a number of reasons with emphasis on the skin's "proprioceptors" (yes, they do exist) and spinal integration with the breath movement (spinal mechanics). Skin receptors are a combination of light, deep and sutained touch, and tension receptors that can be combined in a way to provide a spatial quality. Think of it as a "compassionate" hug vs a "grab" to hold you back. Importance of breath on spinal mechanics:

 

The spinal cord floats inside the spinal column with meningeal attachments at the upper two cervical vertebrae and into the cranium (cephalic), and the sacrum and coccyx (caudal), which create anchor points (of tension). Thus, the spine elongates slightly with the expansion of inhalation, causing a pull on the ends of the spine resulting in the occiput and sacrum slightly rolling toward the feet. With exhalation, the spine relaxes as the occiput and sacrum relax toward the head. As the spine elongates and relaxes with breath, the head, pelvis and extremities have a slight tension as seen when walking. It is "tonally" set, so-to-speak.

Is responsible for peripheral reflexes and sensory information of the skin (dermatomes).

Intimately connected to and influences the Autonomic Nervous System.

 

I was beginning to see my first real improvements with the blood clot by addressing various components of the sensory nervous system and utilizing different breath patterns (panting or fire breath; exercise or Groff/Hypertrophic; yawning or rebirthing; and, the normal breath).

 

The space we occupy affects our developement. Rat studies have shown that the uterine environment and position in the uterine horn can affect offspring. Females that were located between two males exhibited more masculine characteristics, mounting behavior, and morphology than females contiguous to a male or near no males. The shared spaces share information via the bioelectric field.

 

Any and all movement and potential movement (pressure) of the cell, in fact, any stimulus or input, whether mechanical, chemical, electromagnetic or even consciousness itself, causes movement of electrons. Dr. Michael Levin and others have done substantial work in morphogenesis and bioelectric fields by modulating ion channels on the cell membrane with various biochemical “cocktails”. Ion channels are protein pores that act as pathways for charged molecules of electrolytes, respiratory gases, neurotransmitters, etc. resulting in an electrical gradient (polarization) across the cell membrane. It’s like rubbing wool and getting static electricity. This results in microtubule and microfilament scaffolding and re-scaffolding, nutrient delivery, cellular communication, DNA expression, tissue repair and regeneration, and even embryogenesis...and yes, evolution. All of which constitute the bioelectric field. The bioelectric field has about as much or more influence on evolution as our DNA. The DNA does not control the cell. It does what the cell membrane and mitochondria tell it to do. In the case there is a genetic error, the response will contain that error. Our health is more about the space we occupy than it is genetics.

 

Getting the "conscious" experience of goosebumps from a sight or sound is a neurologic response to your conscious perception or awareness of your experience...consciousness just moved some electrons around. Your awareness of the experience caused pores in the membranes to open and electrolytes, respiratory gases and neurotransmitters squeezed through and activated microtubules, etc. and some impulses were diverted to your skin and voila...goosebumps. "Bioelectric" fields entail mush more than the movement of electrons. But what? There is so much more we have to learn.

 

Just one story...one morning, I was treating Katrina, my artist girlfriend of a few weeks, along with a new patient. Days earlier, Katrina had offered to make a sculpture-type of art that hangs on a wall for my office, but had yet to come up with any ideas or inspiration. Neither knew the other, nor knew the other was even in the office. I typically work on two patients simultaneously, in separate rooms. I work with the sensory system of one patient for a 10 or so minutes, then leave to work with the other. It usually takes 2-3 times per patient. When Katrina got up from the table she said, “I saw the artwork that I’m going to make you. It’s layers of black, purple, then gold and green. But, it was strange because I was having an argument with a guy that kept saying I had it upside-down. He kept telling me that it wasn’t artwork, it was a mountain.”

 

Then, I went to the other room with the new patient. When he got up from the table he said, “I had the weirdest experience. I was having an argument with a woman about a mountain that she kept telling me was artwork, but she had it upside-down. It was layered green, then gold, then purple, and then black.” The gentleman was supposed to be moving in a couple of days, but spent the next two weeks sitting at home in stillness, silence and peace.

 

I have demonstrated positive influence or reconstituting the bioelectric field by addressing the sensory system, breath and metabolic substrates pushing metabolism in compromising directions. Cells respond to their environment much more than we ever thought possible and in ways we never expected via the various membranes, microtubules and filaments, mitochondria, ribosomes, the DNA and more along with the other cells in the milieu. It is a complex and poorly understood process of bioelectric information that guides morphogenesis and genetic expression. As the body and its cells expand and contract, it glows with electrical potential from the movement of living. Evolution is as much about the space we occupy as it is genetics.

 

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