Secrets of Your Cells: Discovering Your Body's Inner Intelligence (20 page)

EXPLORATION

Take a few minutes to discover qi energy for yourself.

Sit or stand in a relaxed position.

Touch your fingers into the palms of your hand. Where your middle finger touches the center of your palm is the laogong point. Touch the energy centers of your hands and then relax your hand.

Now bring the palms of your hands together and rub briskly to stimulate warmth, circulation, and qi.

Next, extend your arms out in front of your chest, shoulder distance apart. One palm faces up, the other faces down. Elbows are slightly bent. Shoulders, arms, and hands are relaxed. Remember to breathe.

Open and close your hands about twenty times, like you are gently pumping them. With your arms still extended in front of you, reverse the direction of your palms so that the one facing up now faces down. Once more squeeze your hands twenty times. When you are finished, keep your hands closed.

Lower your arms, bringing your elbows close to your waist. Your closed hands face toward each other. Now, with palms facing, slowly open your hands. Gradually bring them closer together until you notice a sensation, a tingling, or a feeling of density between your hands. What do you feel?

Slowly move your hands away from each other until you no longer feel any sensation between them. Move them back and forth as if playing with an invisible ball.

This is qi.

People describe their experience of qi in a variety of ways: as heat, a pressure or force, tingling, “magnetism,” pulsation, or warmth. You may feel nothing at all, and this could mean that you were tense during the exploration. Try it again after you’ve done some exercise or when you feel more relaxed. Even if you don’t feel anything now, once you become aware of this quality in your hands, you may begin to notice an additional sensation or force from your palms when you exercise vigorously or practice the gentle movements of tai chi.

Skeptics say that qi and the other esoteric, immeasurable forms of energy do not exist, and healing modalities that employ them are nothing more than quackery. I always counter this assertion with one irrefutable scientific reality: until we had the technology to be able to
see
viruses, they, too, were hypothetical constructs. It took the development of the highly powerful electron microscope to prove that they existed. Until then, some “undetectable force” or “germ” was responsible for many diseases. Remember, science depends on objective measurements to declare something real. Once we are able to measure qi—which I believe one day we will learn how to do—perhaps the skeptics will be as convinced of its reality as they now are of the existence of invisible viruses.

In the meantime, if you are willing to continue to engage in direct experience as you did in the preceding exercise, you can receive the benefits of this invisible force through practices such as qigong and tai chi. You can also learn more about the growing body of Western scientific evidence of the effects of qi by visiting the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine’s website: nccam.nih.gov. One of its first studies showed that the acupuncture treatments used to relieve pain increased the body’s endorphins: the pain-relieving molecules we touched on in the last chapter.

Universal Energy

All living things require energy to survive. And going back to E = mc
²
, the first law of thermodynamics follows that energy cannot be created nor destroyed; it can only be transformed from one form to another.

Plants do a far better job at energy transformation than we do, converting solar energy into molecular energy. They use this energy to change simple chemicals in their environment—nitrogen, water, and carbon dioxide—into complex organic molecules needed to sustain life. This process is called photosynthesis. Plants are self-sustaining solar collectors that also provide nourishment for others.

We humans can use solar energy in only limited ways—to help our cells make vitamin D, perhaps to get a tan, and to improve our mood. Neither we nor other animals can use solar energy to convert simple molecules into food; those of us who walk, fly, and slither are wholly dependent on plants to do this for us. This is a tangible reminder of the interdependence of life on this planet and of how important it is for us to sustain the rainforests, farms, and other areas that burst with green energy. Our lives depend on it.

Our Cellular Energy—Unusual Origins

Today as we look at cells from the standpoint of molecular energy, our cytonaut self steps inside the cell and moves past its membrane and receptors. Secured within the cell matrix we see strange objects that, to my eye at least, look like flying sausages or perhaps creatures from outer space. These are the
mitochondria,
the energy generators of the cell (see
figure 5.1
). Every cell in our bodies except red blood cells contains mitochondria. Startling discoveries have indicated that these unique cellular “power plants” have different origins than the rest of the cell.

In fact, the mitochondria that are now our cells’ powerhouses didn’t start out that way.
³
Billions of years ago they were a kind of early bacteria, with the ability to convert the toxic oxygen in the environment of that time into something useful. Then these “pre-bacteria” merged with early versions of living cells. The result of this new cohabitating scheme was that ancient organisms thrived, since each brought something new to the table of life; together they could do what neither could do alone, and they ultimately evolved into the cells we know today. The job of the mitochondria is to make the fuel our cells use to power everything they do. Once our cellular ancestors acquired mitochondria, they were able to produce so much fuel that they could get very big, much larger than bacteria.

Figure 5.1
Mitochondrion

Evidence for mitochondria’s remarkable origins includes:

• Mitochondria contain their own genes and DNA, different from those found in the cell’s nucleus.

• Their genes provide information dedicated solely to making energy.

• The membrane coating of the mitochondria contains unique lipid molecules found only in bacteria.

The nucleus is the primary and only other part of the cell that contains DNA—and its DNA differs significantly from the DNA in mitochondria. First of all, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) has a different shape; it’s circular—ring shaped—rather than the spiral form it takes in the nucleus. (Bacterial DNA is also typically circular.) The only genetic information mtDNA contains is for producing energy and making more mitochondria. Even more unusual, we inherit mitochondrial DNA only from our mothers. Why doesn’t Dad’s mtDNA get passed on? Because the male’s mitochondria are housed in the tail of the sperm, which doesn’t enter the egg during fertilization. Only the egg holds keys to our energy production: it is Mom who lights the spark of molecular energetic life by passing along these round DNA molecules. We might think of her as the “Lady of the Rings.” And we can thank those early creatures for being willing to form a collective, providing us with the means and energy to survive in our oxygen-rich environment.

Energy Production

Because of their unique origins and talents, mitochondria make it possible for our cells to transform the food we eat into high-energy fuel. All the work of our cells—to reproduce themselves; manufacture new parts and materials; move to confront a predator; transport molecules into and out of the cell; and keep our hearts beating, our eyes seeing, and our muscles contracting—requires energy. Every day, an astronomical number of mitochondria provide each of us with at least three pounds of molecular energy. About 1,000 molecules of ATP (see
figure 5.2
and
plate 10
) are used every second, which means more than 15,000 grams every hour (technical note: 1,000 grams = 1 kilogram = 2.2 pounds). Since our cells contain only about 3 ounces of stored ATP—enough to power a ten-second sprint, they have a very dynamic recycling system that produces millions of molecules of ATP each hour. Some scientists say that we actually make our weight in ATP every day. Of course, if we are running a marathon, our cells work even harder to
keep us “powered up.” In fact, it’s said that we have three times as many mitochondria as cells in our bodies. The cells that work the hardest, such as heart and muscle cells, require the most energy, and they house the most mitochondria—thousands of them in a single cell.

Our Energy Bank: ATP

Now we will get deeper into the chemistry of energy flow in our body’s tiny sanctuaries. This gets pretty dense, so feel free to bypass this section if it requires too much of your mental energy. I continue to present the science of the cells in some detail for those who are curious to understand more about our cells’ marvelous workings.

The energy that fuels our cells is stored in the chemical bonds of a high-energy molecule referred to earlier, called ATP or adenosine tri-phosphate (see
plate 10
in the color insert). There are three phosphates attached to the “A” (adenosine) of ATP. The last two on the chain are held together by high-energy bonds (see
figure 5.2
). When one of these bonds breaks, energy is released to fuel the activities of the cell. It’s not exactly clear what form of energy this is, yet this is where our cellular energy comes from.

The primary chemical source cells use to produce energy is sugar (glucose). Where the sugar comes from doesn’t matter here; whether from honey, corn syrup, pasta, table sugar, a candy bar, or fruit, our cells must have glucose. Fats and proteins are secondary resources, and this is why when there’s no sugar available to convert into energy, proteins or stored fat will be used for fuel. When people are starving, their cells begin to digest their muscle proteins, resulting in incredible weakness and risk of disease. Yet cells have “a sweet tooth” and prefer sugar. Through the process of oxidizing or “burning” sugar, energy is produced. Just as burning gasoline in a car’s engine fuels the car to move, glucose, converted to usable energy, is the “gasoline” for our human vehicle.

For our cells to burn sugar and mitochondria to generate ATP, they require adequate nutritional intake of simple or complex carbohydrates (or protein or fats), water, oxygen, B vitamins, and coenzyme Q10 (also known as ubiquinone).

Figure 5.2
ATP and its high-energy bonds

Basically, our cells have two ways of producing ATP: one in the absence of oxygen and one that requires oxygen. The very inefficient process that uses no oxygen is called anaerobic metabolism, or glycolysis. This occurs in the cytoplasm of the cell, not inside the mitochondria. Here, for every molecule of glucose, the cell produces two molecules of ATP. The glycolysis phase may also progress to the second, more efficient way of producing ATP that occurs in the mitochondria, the oxidative process called the Krebs cycle or oxidative phosphorylation. In the mitochondria, for every molecule of glucose, the cell now makes up to thirty-six molecules of ATP. What are the implications of this biochemical feature of our cells? When we are stressed, our cells take in less oxygen, and when that happens they can make only about one-tenth the amount of energy as when we are breathing deeply and relaxed.