The Science of Health and Wellness

by John Carberry

In 1981 my first child, a son. was born. Becoming a parent can fill one with a sudden realization of destiny and obligation and responsibility. And so I began to wonder as I contemplated my responsibilities, what is the best way to live and eat. I realized through I was very well educated in several topics, no one had taught me rational lessons in these regards, and so I started to study. Sitting here nearly four decades later I realize that when I started these studies, the knowledge that has been developed, especially since the early 90s, was required to answer these questions and was not available.

Even back then we were being told that a good balance between incoming Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, and an emphasis on DHA were important, but I could not discover so easily why this was true. So I started a long, four decade, development process populating my vocabulary and library with the building blocks. Some of the building blocks include terms and concepts which are critical to telling our story and have only been discovered in the past few decades. Here are the points to study today:

What are the main regulatory systems below the endocrinal systems? Especially the Eicosanoid system.
What is the nature of energy production, oxidation, Reactive Oxidative Species, (ROS) and the effects of oxidation on aging and diseases?
Why is a balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6 important?
Why is CBD good for us? How does CBD work for the Eicosanoid system?
An introduction to antioxidants and astaxanthin.

Eicosanoids: I learned that these active elements are very ancient regulatory agents in virtually all our biological systems. They have 20 carbons, hence the Greek route Eico, and there are pairs of them, opposing each other, half made from Omega 3 and half from Omega 6 fatty acids. So balance is good, need both, so now I understood why a good balance between the two fatty acids is a good thing.
How is energy generated and managed, and what is the role of sugars and their proper pace in diet?
What things should we include in our diet in what proper amounts, as can be seen in our evolutionary diet?

Eicosanoids are made and used instantly at the place they are needed. We now understand they play a role in virtually all biological systems and processes.

Inflammatory and Anti-inflammatory actions:

MedlinePlus defines inflammation thus: The immune system protects the body from possibly harmful substances by recognizing and responding to antigens. Antigens are substances (usually proteins) on the surface of cells, viruses, fungi, or bacteria. Nonliving substances such as toxins, chemicals, drugs, and foreign particles (such as a splinter) can also be antigens. The immune system recognizes and destroys, or tries to destroy, substances that contain antigens.
Oxidative stress and inflammation: There is debate as to which one comes first, sometimes one, sometimes the other, but always when you find one you find the other.

Reactive Oxidative Species:

These are the bad actors: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are: chemically reactive chemical species containing oxygen. Examples include peroxides, superoxide, hydroxyl radical, and singlet oxygen.

Anti-oxidants: these are the police who control the ROS. They are often complex molecules with limited bio availability and often don’t like water, called hydrophobia which make them difficult to get to the right places.

Astaxanthin: this molecule is what makes salmon so colorful. It is one of the most powerful, stable and long-lasting antioxidants known to man. And it has to be treated right to make it bio available. It is highly hydrophobic, does not like water, (blood) and love oil.
Most all of the ROS rise from the processes of the mitochondria, the body’s energy powerhouse. These ROS if unmitigated destroy the mitochondria’s energy making capacity and interfere with most all regulatory functions and lead to aging, loss of energy and disease.
Highly bio available astaxanthin is the natural and most powerful mitigator of ROS in the mitochondria and the regulatory systems.

The endocannabinoid system (ECS)

Then there is the Endocannabinoid System (ECB) Wikipedia give us this helpful essay:

The ECS is a biological system composed of endocannabinoids, which are endogenous lipid-based retrograde neurotransmitters that bind to cannabinoid receptors, and cannabinoid receptor proteins that are expressed throughout the mammalian central nervous system (including the brain) and peripheral nervous system. The endocannabinoid system is involved in regulating a variety of physiological and cognitive processes including fertility, pregnancy, during pre- and postnatal development^]appetite, pain-sensation, mood, and memory, and in mediating the pharmacological effects of cannabis. The ECS is also involved in mediating some of the physiological and cognitive effects of voluntary physical exercise in humans and other animals, such as contributing to exercise-induced euphoria as well as modulating locomotor activity and motivational salience for rewards. In humans, the plasma concentration of certain endocannabinoids (i.e., anandamide) have been found to rise during physical activity since endocannabinoids can effectively penetrate the blood–brain barrier, it has been suggested that anandamide, along with other euphoriant neurochemicals, contributes to the development of exercise-induced euphoria in humans, a state colloquially referred to as a runner's high.

Each of the cells in our body are contained in what is called the cell plasma membrane, or plasma membrane. In the cell there are things like endosomes and lysosomes that play an important regulatory role in the cell. The plasma membrane is 3-10 nm thick and is made of lipids. They can contain any number of lipophilic compounds important to our health, if we can get them there.

In her 2015 article in Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Sumner Burstein titled Cannabidiol (CBD) and its analogs: a review of their effects on inﬂammation. Dr. Burstein teaches us in section 4.1: 4.1. Eicosanoids.

4.1.1. Arachidonic acid release: The initiating event in all eicosanoid biosynthesis is the release of free arachidonic acid from phospholipid storage sites where it exists in an esteriﬁed form. Thus, drugs affecting this process, presumably involving PLA2, can have a profound effect on the physiological status of a variety of systems. Both CBD and THC produce a signiﬁcant stimulation of arachidonic acid release in intact human platelets.22 Interestingly, CBD is roughly 1.5 times more potent than THC suggesting that this action may not be involved in the psychotropic activity of THC. It was also found that a product shift from cyclooxygenase to lipoxygenase products occurs as a result of cannabinoid exposure. This probably involves action(s) on downstream events in the arachidonic acid cascade. Stimulated arachidonic acid release was also observed in neuroblastoma cells (NBA2). The arachidonic acid release effect was extended to a series of six primary phyto cannabinoids to produce the following rank order of hydrolytic activity: CBD to CBCy to THC=CBCR= CBN to CBG.23 The model used to obtain these data was the WI38 human lung ﬁbro blast that had been radio labelled by equilibration with free arachidonic acid. Again, CBD was more active than THC in stimulating phosphor lipid hydrolysis. By way of comparison, the anti inﬂammatory actions of cannabinoid analogs such as NAgly24 and ajulemic acid(Fig.2)25 have been attributed to their ability to promote the release of free arachidonic acid. In these examples, a result of this action was the elevation of pro resolving substances such as lipoxin A4 and 15d-PGJ2.26 A similar mechanism may explain some of the anti inﬂammatory actions of CBD.

Astaxanthin:

These processes are all very vulnerable to ROS and oxidative stress. Having a strong antioxidant in place will optimize these processes. Making astaxanthin bio available and resident in the plasma membranes is a great way to successfully manage the ROS.

Sugar, the Pancreas, Insulin and Glucagon:

A great portion of our health problems stem and rise from too much sugar in our diet. Too much sugar in our diet, mostly from soft drinks, juices, candy, cake and pastery, bread, pasta and potatoes, to name some of the worst offender’s lead to several damaging effects:

Too much sugar leads to too much insulin;
Too much sugar leads to overloading the mitochondria and leads to increased ROS production;
Too much insulin leads to a large portion of lipids becoming LDL and hydrophobic one of two major factors leading to cardiovascular disease
Too much sugar leads to obesity
Too much sugar leads to Type 2 Diabetes

Vitamin C;

All animals, but for groundhogs and primates, make vitamin C. Vitamin C is the water-soluble antioxidant that caries ROS out of the body through the blood through the liver. Vitamin C is a necessary precursor for making collagen. We cannot be healthy without an adequate daily intake of vitamin C. Since we do not make Vitamin C, we need to consume it daily.

Conclusions:

The Eicosanoid system is a regulatory system involved in both anti-inflammatory and inflammatory responses, both are required for good health, but in balance; it is the major signaling and regulatory system in our biology.

Because the Eicosanoids are made and used instantly, a health balance of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids in our diet and body is important, but we also need the ready and quickly available arachidonic acid which rises from CBD, both made de novo and intake from our diet, in the cell plasma membrane;

The Endocannabinoid System (ECB System) is part of the eicosanoid system and pathway as is the opioid peptide system and they play an important role in optimizing the performance of the Eicosanoid system. It does this by stimulating the release of arachidonic acid, a precursor in all eicosanoid biosynthesis.

Protecting these processes from ROS and oxidative stress will optimize these processes and a highly bioavailable astaxanthin is the natural and most powerful tool in this regard.

CBD made in our body, which is why it is called an “Endo” system and is essential to our health, supplementing CBD enhances the body’s function in these regards.

A healthy intake and residence of powerful antioxidants can be very important.
A healthy intake of Vitamin C is necessary as well as astaxanthin.
A healthy diet requires a limited intake of sugars;