INTERESTING TIMES

Or in other words, they are a natural part of our immune defense! New science suggests that mucus in our body is full of viruses that attack bacteria! Those viruses don't hurt us, in fact, they protect us. Commensal viruses....
( the article from Life )

http://www.jarrow.com/product/188/Neuro_Optimizer consider this product via Vitacost



MY QUESTIONS
what are food sources of citicholine? can we get it from eating brains?
there is choline in eggs and liver. is there citicholine?? how much??
how easily does choline convert to citicholine?
can we support the conversion?
can we by pass this supp using diet???

CHOLINE DEFICIENCY is common (not citicholine, mind you!)
suspect if: fatty liver, hemorrhagic kidney necrosis, infertility, growth impairment, bone abnormalities, hypertension, cancer, atherosclerosis, glaucoma, neuro dz: Alzheimer's,. bipolar. LABS: incr ALT, incr HCYS

( notes, some background, links )

FASCINATING FACTOID:
12% of caucasians (Zwickey) are immune to HIV because they are descended from bubonic plague survivors. The Black Death had a 90% death rate and killed 147 million people. It swept Europe 3 times, in the 6th, 14th and 17th centuries. Those who survived (natural selection) don't have a certain chemokine receptor (CCR5) which is necessary for HIV to get into host macrophages. This may explain why some partners of HIV positive people never get the disease even though they do not practice "safe" sex.
( lots of info here )

The cells that don't age are cancer cells.
--Dr Flick

( summarizing what I need to know )

Mercola offers this article:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/11/25/why-sunlight-is-your-best-source-of-vitamin-d.aspx

He says that a study on people with repeated respiratory infections found that cod liver oil also contains vitamin A, and that vitamin D and A compete with each other metabolically, so if you have too much vitamin A in your vitamin D supplement, you are not getting as much use out of the D. "Vitamin A and vitamin D compete for each other’s function. For example, even the vitamin A in a single serving of liver can impair vitamin D’s rapid intestinal calcium response." Mercola calls the amounts of vitamin A in the supplements "detrimental".

A separate study from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene suggests that one form of vitamin D (calcitriol, aka 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D) may be one of your body's main protections against damage from low levels of radiation. Calcitriol is the active form of vitamin D might be an appropriate protective agent before or after a low-level nuclear incident!! Calcitriol is involved in cell cycle regulation, hence affects proliferation, differentiation, encourages apoptosis and autophagy, and inhibits angiogenesis.

I'm beginning to understand what I must do in order to understand a Brons lecture or powerpoint. If I don't already know the material, the lectures and powerpoints are nigh unintelligible to me. It is necessary for me to seek other sources. When I do, Lo and Behold! It's simple. It just seems insanely complex in the lecture.
( smooth muscle notes )

Test yourself, multiple guess style:

Metabotropic transmission involves:
I. Lipophilic transmitters binding to receptors on the extracellular side of a cell membrane
II. Lipophobic transmitters binding to receptors on the extracellular side of a cell membrane
III. Lipophilic transmitters binding to receptors on the intracellular side of a cell membrane
IV. Lipophobic transmitters binding to receptors on the intracellular side of a cell membrane.

A. I.
B. II.
C. II & III.
D. III & IV
E. All of the above

Enzyme subtypes
Match the enzyme type with the description:

1. PROTEASE
2. OXYGENASE
3. ISOMERASE
4. PHOSPHATASE
5. DEHYDROGENASE
6. KINASE
7. SYNTHETASE
8. SYNTHASE
9. TRANSFERASE

A. uses ATP to form a bond between substrates
B. removes the phosphate from the substrate
C. binds two substrates without using ATP
D. incorporates oxygen into substrate, mono- or di- oxygenase
E. cleaves peptide bonds by addition of water
F. interconverts isomers
G. moves group between substrates
H. transfer hydrogen from substrate to coenzyme
I. transfer phosphate from ATP to another molecule
( The answers )

I remember the lecture that Brons did on this material. He covered the sodium potassium pump, which I had thought i somewhat understood, but he was able to completely muddy the waters. He took a simple mechanism and spent 1.5 hours confusing it. So here I will summarize my notes and previous knowledge, and see if I can get it to make sense again.

( basics of Sodium Potassium Pump, membrane potentials and ion channels )

Part 1a: Cell Functions
( Cell differentiation, gastrulation, signaling, homeobox genes, transcription factors, DNA looping, second messengers and notch receptors )