Archive for August 3rd, 2009
Endocannabinoids: Multi-scaled, Global Homeostatic Regulators of Cells and Society
Dr. Robert Melamede
Biology Department and Bioenergetics Institute
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, CO
Living systems are far from equilibrium open systems that exhibit many scales of emergent behavior. They may be abstractly viewed as a complex weave of dissipative structures that maintain organization by passing electrons from reduced hydrocarbons to oxygen. Free radicals are unavoidable byproducts of biological electron flow. Due to their highly reactive chemical properties, free radicals modify all classes of biological molecules (carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids, and proteins). As a result, free radicals are destructive. The generally disruptive nature of free radicals makes them the “friction of life”. As such, they are believed to be the etiological agents behind age related illnesses such as cardiovascular, immunological, and neurological diseases, cancer, and ageing itself.
Free radicals also play a critical constructive role in living systems. From a thermodynamic perspective, life can only exist if a living system takes in sufficient negative entropy from its environment to overcome the obligatory increase in entropy that would result if the system could not appropriately exchange mass, energy and information with its environment. Free radicals are generated in response to perturbations in the relationship between a living system and its environment. However, evolution has selected for biological response systems to free radicals so that the cellular biochemistry can adapt environmental perturbations by modifying cellular gene expression and biochemistry.
Endocannabinoids are marijuana-like compounds that have their origins hundreds of millions of years in the evolutionary past. They serve as fundamental modulators of energy homeostasis in many multi-cellular organisms including all vertebrates. They have widespread biological activities that may often be attributed to their ability to minimize the negative consequences of free radicals. In fact, since cannabinoids (endo and exo) possess many anti-aging properties, they may be viewed as the “oil of life”.
The biological effects of cannabinoids transcend many scales of organization. Cannabinoids regulate sub-cellular biochemistry, intercellular communication, and all body systems (cardiovascular, digestive, endocrine, immunological,nervous, musculo-skeletal, reproductive, respiratory, and tegumentary). It is proposed that their emergent properties extend to social, political, and economic phenomena. As a result of man’s unprecedented impact on his surroundings,the selective pressure on the evolutionary progression of man’s endocannabinoid system has novel time constraints that may be best met by behavioral modification. Presently, mankind is engaged in an evolutionary battle between more primitive members of a relatively cannabinoid deficient population and those relatively more endowed. The outcome of this genetic conflict may determine man’s survival.
Well Penn & Teller have done it again. Kudos gentlemen for your dedication to pointing out bullshit.
Here are some previews of the episodes. More to come Organic Food and The I.R.S.
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