Breathe Easy - Biohacking Series part 8

In this episode we look at how the the type of fats we eat, effects the efficiency of our breathing and how often we get chest infections. Imagine how much energy you save if all your cell membranes were fully functional. How accurately you would be sensing and efficiently you could be moving, how good that would feel. How good it would be "to" feel.

The membrane is the skin of the cell, it determines what enters and leaves it is also in communication with other cells and the"outside" world. Just like the skin of our bodies. Our connective tissues and even our nervous system can be viewed as extensions of this sensory, communication and even memory system. The way we resonate or contract, the way we allow and resist, is a function of the quality of the fats our membranes are made of, and they can only be obtained through our diet.

Our lungs perform gaseous exchange - we take in oxygen and we give up carbon. Excessive carbon is acidic, when we sprint, we have to stop due our muscles burning with lactic acid. Our rate of breathing increases, both to get more oxygen, but also to expel that carbon from the lactic acid build up. Lactic acid is comprised of oxygen, carbon and hydrogen. I could be shot for oversimplification, but remove the carbon and you have the components of water?

We exchange carbon for oxygen in our lungs, the reason our heart beats faster when we exercise appears to me to be largely a function of moving more carbon rich blood through our lungs to swap it for oxygen. This exchange of gasses requires truly massive surface area, some calculate that area to be roughly the size of a tennis court. How do we scrunch all of that into our lungs and move blood through it efficiently?

The same way nature performs all of its miracles. We divide and we keep dividing, branching out like a tree, and on the end of the tiniest twigs we have little grape like sacs called "alveolar" made of individual "alveoli". In a healthy creature, these little "sacs" are made from Saturated fats, (as found in high concentrations in coconut, avocado and macadamia nuts, but in much greater quantities in animal products such as ghee, butter, and fatty meats).

According to an article from the year 2,000, If your body is not receiving adequate saturated fat from its diet, then it will use polyunsaturated or worse, trans-fats. These have reduced function and collapse easily,(especially in the presence of oxygen) collapsed alveoli must be removed by our bodies immune system so it will send in white blood cells called macrophages to gobble up the mess.

In another example, macrophages are sent in to clean up cholesterol and damaged endothelial cells in our arteries, also damaged from oxidised Polyunsaturated fats. So you can see that the more seed oils you consume, the harder the macrophages of your immune system have to work. Macrophages also do not function properly when we have high blood sugar, that is a phenomena known as GAA - which I covered in this post. You really should research it on your own though as I am just a surfboard salesman and have zero qualifications to advise on such life altering matters.

A diet high in saturated fats and low in carbohydrates and Seed oils allows both functional membrane development and macrophage operation.

I hope you will be inspired to do your own research and try different nutritional and movement based approaches to enjoy greater health and energy levels.

Good Luck - there is a lot of very poor information out there. The Carbon business is largely driven by those who suck it out of the ground, convert it to plastics and low nutrient density foods, spray it all over useless crops and once living soils, and of course create "medicines". Then they tell us that eating plants is healthy - but thousands of people are discovering that they do not need to eat plants or fibre at all. Much like our ancestors, prior to the invention of agriculture they are thriving on a meat only diet. Of course this is far too extreme for most people who will do equally well on a Paleo or similar ancestral diet.

Psychobiology is word I invented to capture just how deeply our beliefs and memories effect our cellular functionality, and of course our happiness - its all about inter-relatedness.

=8-P

References:
https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/know-your-fats/saturated-fats-and-the-lungs/

https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/ask-the-doctor/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease-copd/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27693601

If you enjoyed this article, please do consider also reading others in the Bio-Hacking series:

Part 1 - Introduction
Part 2 - Mood
Part 3 - Move
Part 4 - Meat
Part 5 - Vit C and Lego
Part 6 - Blood Sugar and Mosquitoes
Part 7 - Plants and Seeds