INTERESTING TIMES

Fascinating new research uses masses of data from NHANES to find that current cannabis users have less insulin resistance, smaller waists, and higher HDL, than former or non-users.

( Notes from study and articles )

http://www.nature.com/news/a-trip-to-the-gym-alters-dna-1.10176

a trip to the gym alters DNA

Sodium bicarbonate in the form of baking soda: cheap medicine for maintaining a favorable acid-base balance in human metabolism. So many things can throw this balance off, that it's silly not to have some baking soda on hand--for any home or field hospital. The article recommends that we stock up with some 25-30 pounds of the stuff. There are some other good ideas in here too.

1. Vitamins: small, low molecular weight, organic mols required for normal function, most we don't synthesize, classified as fat or water soluble.

Which vitamins are derived from isopentenyl pyrophosphate? Vitamin A (terpene), D, E, K, cholesterol
( more )

What is arachidonic acid? It's a 20 carbon fatty acid that is unsaturated in four places. It is also known as eicosatetraenoic acid. 20:4 delta 4, 8, 11, 14. It's a precursor to local (autocrine & paracrine) signalling molecules known as Eicosanoids.
( procrastinating on microbiology )

This may be the first time I've had three hours to myself in ... a couple of months? More? I don't know. I think I needed it. I haven't taken a break yet, I've been deep into my studies, the research project, my philosophy paper (it has not taken true form yet), the biochemistry----all those metabolic pathways that I have skirted around and glossed over so many times. Never really covered in class, always avoided by the teachers. And also avoided by me. I thought they would be too complicated to remember, to peripheral to really affect my choices as an organism or as a healer. But now I am required to learn just certain landmarks on the landscape of metabolism. Knowing the whole map is not required, but now, having found a few landmarks, I can see that there IS a landscape. I am just beginning to see the crossroads and traffic patterns. I am beginning to grasp the workings of carbohydrate metabolism. This picture of how the body works is supposed to stick in my mind, to guide my choices from here on out....but will it? I need it to stick at least until I take the boards, summer after next. But for now, back to my research paper: I will finish it today. Then I will continue to branch out from glycolysis. I need to understand more about how fatty acids connect in, and about the pentose pathway.