The Biology of Smart Cell Signals

Graeme Ward
Managing Director, ActiveSignal Ltd

The human body is constructed from many hundreds of different kinds of cells. In any adult human there are between 50 and 75 trillion cells. Cells are very small and five thousand of them together will be no larger than a single grain of sand. Individual cell groups have different functions and they can be regarded as the building blocks of the body. An individual cell is amazingly complex each having a central brain or nucleus, pumps, energy stores, engines and gateways.

Cells are covered in oily membranes consisting of cholesterol and they exist in intercellular structures that are comprised mainly of water. Cells replicate, multiply, move and react in response to messages that are transmitted between them through electrical signalling. They have voltage gated ion channels that facilitate and enable the passage of selected inorganic ions through the cell membrane. Each gated channel will only accept one type of ion. Thus, in any cell, individual channels may exist for potassium, sodium, calcium, carbon, magnesium and zinc. Each of these metals plays an important role in creating energy and building cells. These minerals, when dissolved in water, disassociate into ions; this is the definition of electrolytes. The presence of ions in water makes it conductive; pure water is an insulator. The homeostasis (or balance) of the electrolytes in our bodies is essential for normal function of our cells and our organs. 'Homeostasis', from the Greek words for 'same' and 'steady', refers to ways in which the body will always act to maintain a stable internal environment despite disturbance or damage. Cells change the concentration (osmolality) of ions within the cell by actively importing or exporting them via ion channels. The body will seek to maintain osmosis, as a priority, until the end of life. The proper functioning and management of all electrolytes is vital and, if an electrolyte is at an extremely low or high concentration, it can be fatal.

In considering this process, it is important to understand the role of water. Water makes up just less than 60% of an adult human being's body weight. A new born baby will be closer to 75% water and this proportion decreases progressively as we age. Body weight and fat ratios also impact the amount of water with more weight equalling less water. An obese person may only have 45% water content. Around two-thirds of body water is held within the cells and one-third is around them. An adult human body has around 40 litres of water of which just under 11 litres is interstitial and 3 litres within plasma. Water within cells has a high concentration of potassium and water around them has a high concentration of sodium. There is a very high concentration of water within the skin.

Water is a chemical substance containing two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen bonded together by shared electrons in each molecule. However, it is not stable and oxygen atoms will constantly rebind with alternate hydrogen atoms. This constant movement is referred to as excitement. Excitement increases with temperature so the progress from ice to steam is an indication of the level of excitement. Electrolytes dissolve in water to become free ions and, in the water molecules immediately touching these free ions, the water atoms will become stable and align themselves in a specific formation. This has been described by the Nobel Laureate Roderick MacKinnon as the water coat and every element in the known universe has a water coat. This identifies each element to every other element and can be described as the atomic basis of life's electrical forces.

The presence of electrolytes in extracellular water is detected by individual cells who respond by opening ion conduction pathways. Normally, the electrolytes could not get through the oily wall of the cell so ion channels or gates open to admit them. This process is controlled by proteins and by osmotic pressure. Although sodium and potassium, for instance, have discreet channels they inter-react so that for every three ions of potassium taken into a cell two sodium ions are forced out. This gating happens at very fast speeds, for example, potassium ions pass through the gate at 107 to 108 ions per second (one hundred million to one billion!).

This is the process by which the body functions. Part of it is devoted to cell signalling. This is an essential and widespread biological phenomenon by which hormones, neurotransmitters, and other agents regulate cellular function. As well as innate action nearly all drugs work by interacting with specific cells or processes. Smart Cell Signals are induced processes that provoke ion channel gating without providing access to the relevant active electrolyte. To understand this it is helpful to consider the human perspiration system. The way it works is unique to only humans and members of the Equus genus; horses, donkeys and zebras are the only other mammals that share this fundamental characteristic with man.

Humans have about 3 to 4 million eccrine sweat glands spread throughout the skin. These are designed to work at two speeds; insensible, for normal irrigation and cleansing of the skin cells and copious for cooling at times of exertion. The balance of electrolytes within perspiration is vital in order that it can provide the right level of antiseptic and antibiotic protection. Copious sweating is seven times the volume of insensible perspiration. At the lower level, the volume of electrolytes in the perspiration is at the same concentration as extracellular water. However, if this concentration was maintained for copious sweating then the loss of electrolytes to the body would be too great. To counter this, the eccrine sweat glands operate to reabsorb the electrolytes into the extracellular water before they are lost. Consequently, copious sweat in a fit person contains almost no salts. However, when the body is badly habituated by being over-weight, or through lack of exercise or stress, reabsorption takes place but the copious flow is not present. Now the balance of electrolytes in the perspiration is no longer optimum and the sweat ducts are not protected against the entry of normal skin biota, typically bacteria, fungus, phage, etc., which are abundant on the surface of the skin. The immune reaction to the biota blocks the sweat duct. Then the perspiration, which is still being delivered under pressure, ruptures the duct. This results in sweat being forced out into the extracellular space where it encounters other cell types.

This forcing out of sweat creates different adverse reactions depending upon where in the skin the blockages occur. If the blockage, and therefore the duct rupture, is near to the surface of the skin then the spreading redundant sweat causes inflammation and aggravates nerve endings near the surface of the skin causing itching. This is the condition that creates eczema. The inflammation may then become infected, usually as a consequence of rubbing and scratching. This is known as the itch/scratch cycle and will tend to spread and prolong the condition.

If the normal skin biota manage to get past the blockage caused by the immune reaction, often as a result of rubbing of exposed areas (elbows, knees, etc.), sports trauma, vigorous hair brushing or other friction, then further infection arises deeper in the skin and this is psoriasis.

When the blockage is deeper in the skin, the spreading sweat hits the prickle sensors and this is prickly heat or miliaria.

In the case, of women, whose bodies are more elastic than that of men, sweat may pool rather than spreading. The pools of sweat from the ruptured ducts evaporate leaving vacuoles, like deflated balloons, in the lower border of the dermis. If an area of skin is then subjected to pressure, such as occurs on the sitting area of the rear thighs and the buttocks, then adipose or fatty tissue is forced through the connective tissue of the border to fill the vacuoles. This produces the characteristic dimpled effect known as cellulite.

Deeper still, there are no external symptoms but the sweat still spreads and, at this level, hits the capillary bed. Blood capillaries are extremely fragile, their walls being only one atom in thickness, and when they are pressurized by the forced sweat from blocked sweat ducts they collapse, a phenomenon known as rarefaction. Now the hydrostatic pressure of the arterial system trying to deliver blood to the lost capillaries has no outlet, because capillaries are not compliant and cannot stretch or take on blood destined for other capillaries and the direct and inevitable consequence is that overall arterial blood pressure rises. This is a description of the cause of nearly all cases of hypertension. Essential or primary hypertension is the cause of 95% of all cases of raised blood pressure and has been described by the World Health Organisation as "The Silent Killer".

Hospital acquired infections such as MRSA and C. diff typically occur in patients whose immune systems are weak, who are in an advanced stage of rarefaction of the capillaries and whose perspiration system has been inhibited. This allows the penetration of skin biota within the skin and beyond with catastrophic effect.

Another factor affecting the effect of the location of the sweat duct blockage is the thickness of the skin. So, in the thickest skin on the back, the two aspects of eczema, itching and inflammation, can be separate. If it is only itching, which is very common, a back scratcher may be the only therapy needed. If it is inflammation only then this is eczema. In contrast, the skin on the face is only 10% of the thickness of that on the back. This thin skin can have eczema and prickly heat together, because both the itch sensors and the prickle sensors are affected and this is called rosacea.

From this we conclude that a number of conditions that are classified as being distinct; eczema, psoriasis, miliaria, rosacea, cellulite and hypertension; are all the same problem but occurring at different depths of that complex organ, the skin.

In addition to inappropriately absorbed electrolytes, which have upset the essential balance or homeostasis of the body there are also other contributing factors. These include the sweating pattern, normally starting in the hair and working downwards and the impact of the level and frequency of stress or exercise. We also need to take into account blood glucose levels; even a small rise in glucose levels will displace sodium in the blood stream and cause imbalances.

To restore skin health in all of these conditions it is necessary to restore the constituents of perspiration to their normal antibiotic - that is to say, able to exclude biota - levels. This can be achieved, in part by increasing exercise, reducing stress, changing diets and other positive life style changes. However, the restoration of optimum balance can also be stimulated by Smart Cell Signals. Blocked sweat ducts can be cleared and returned to normal so that sweat reaches the surface of the skin rather than spreading within the skin.

Smart Cell Signals facilitate this unblocking by stimulating ion channel gating. In this case, a package of electrolyte atoms surrounded by interstitial water are encapsulated in a module that permits the water to pass through its surface in gas form but does not allow the release of the electrolyte atoms themselves. These capsules are then swallowed and, as they pass the surfaces of structures throughout the body, they signal the presence of electrolytes and trigger ion gating. As the gates then operate, one way traffic is stimulated because the cell will seek to exchange actual atoms with the phantom atoms that are not being released by the signal capsule. Each individual cell within the signal capsule will react millions of times each second with every cell that it passes. This stimulation acts to restore electrolyte balance. Thus, Smart Cell Signal biology can only be beneficial and no side effects can arise as the body will only react to an apparent excess of electrolytes by initiating normal bodily reactions. At the end of its journey through the body, the capsule will be excreted in precisely the form in which it was ingested and a new capsule is taken to repeat the process.

In the case of classic skin diseases, these will start to clear quite quickly once homeostasis is restored. It is important to ensure that blood glucose levels are also normalised at the same time. If the pressure of forced sweat on capillaries can be removed, then they will regenerate through a process known as angiogenesis. In most cases, full angiogenesis can be achieved in around 30 days and blood pressure should return to normal levels.

Smart Cell Signals can also be utilized to address other cases of electrolyte imbalance, particularly for conditions caused or exacerbated by inflammations, and for delivering signal drugs that are body clock dependent or might otherwise cause toxicity. Smart Cell Signal is a wonderful new technology which is likely to have extensive uses in addition to those already discovered. In the future, Smart Cell Signal will provide greatly improved ways of safely delivering effective supplements and drugs.

To learn more please see Smart Cell Signal™ and Essential Hypertension

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Vital for Life — Why We Need Electrolytes

Sodium is a major positive ion that exists in the fluid that is external to individual cells. It regulates the total amount of water within the body and the movement of sodium into and out of individual cells plays a very important part in many of the body's critical functions. This process not only signals messages to and between cells but it also is the process by which energy is created. In particular the brain, the nervous system and the muscles all require sodium exchange in order to function. Too much or too little sodium can cause our cells to malfunction and sodium is managed by a process called osmosis which strives to keep all of the water in the body at the same level of salinity. This is one of our most important defence mechanisms and the body will protect and maintain osmosis in advance of all other functions.

Potassium is the main positive ion found inside of cells. Maintaining the correct level of potassium within the cell is vital to its functioning. Cells have a relatively high concentration of potassium and a low concentration of sodium within them and intercellular fluid has a high concentration of sodium and lower potassium.

Chloride is the major negatively charged ion occurring in the fluid outside of cells and in the blood. It is the negatively charged element of table salt (sodium chloride) when it is dissolved in a liquid. Prehistoric sea water had the same concentration of chloride ions as human body fluids supporting the contention that we evolved from simpler sea bound organisms. Chloride plays a role in the management of energy and in helping the body maintain a normal balance of fluids.

Bicarbonate is a negatively charged alkaline that acts as a buffer that maintains the normal levels of acidity in blood and other fluids in the body. The acidity is affected by foods or medications that we ingest and the function of the kidneys and respiratory processes. Bicarbonate maintains the homeostasis or balance between acids and base to ensure that excessive changes do not damage the nervous and messaging systems of the body.

Magnesium is a positively charged ion that is involved in many processes in the body including the nervous system, inter-cellular signalling, the building of healthy bones and sinews and energising the contraction of the muscles. Magnesium ions play a major role in manipulating important biological polyphosphate compounds like ATP (the source of energy), DNA and RNA.

Zinc is a positively charged ion that plays a vital role in the metabolism of all enzymes that the body uses, the management of DNA and RNA within the cells and the process by which skin cells constantly die and replace themselves (apoptosis).

All of these electrolytes are vital to life and the body will fight to conserve them. In their crystalline form they can be regarded as salts. Some salts will combine when crystallized such as sodium chloride or potassium chloride.