Bitter end for Pneumonia

Bitter End for Pneumonia
Andre Willers
7 Dec 2012
“More bitter is not better”
Synopsis:
Activation of Bitter Receptors in nasal , mouth and upper lung cavities lead to an immune system activation and response . An optimal exists . Hence Bitter Medicine .

Discussion :
1.See Appendices I , II , III
The immune response is in reaction to the identification of toxins either in the food , air or excreted by harmful bacteria . The reaction can be quite vehement , involving bronchial dilation , nitric oxide production to zap microbes (see “Journal of clinical Investigation” , doi.org/jj4)
2.The bronchial dilation due to bitter receptors in the upper tracheal tracts is quite useful . I have used it with some effect by adding Angostura bitters to water used for steaming during a flu episode
3. Easier is to put some bitters (ie Angostura) in soda water and sniff the fizz in a wine-glass .
4.The association between Bitter and Medicine is then easily seen . In small doses , bitter things activate the immune system (See Appendix I) . They actually work .
5.Think of Angostura Bitters (diarrhea) , hops (ie humulone for respiratory syncytial virus) , beer in general (ever wondered why humans self-medicate on bitter hops ?) , etc .
6.Better yet , think of red wine (Appendix IV) , bitter coffee , tea , yerba , chocolate , etc .
All pre-prepare the immune system or even activates it .
7. Good news ! The bitter receptor sites are activated even if masked by sweeteners . The systems are separate . As far as I know , plants have not evolved bitter poisons masked by sweeteners . But I might be wrong . Ask any divorcee .
8.Anything that screws up the sense of taste on a semi-permanent basis (like Zinc) must have a deleterious ripple effect on the immune system . Notice the prodromal effect in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s . Too little ? Too much ? More work needed .
9.Notice the prevalence of alcohol . This is because most of these compounds are not very soluble in water . The receptor sites evolved during the era when oxygen and alcohol were poisonous waste products of anaerobic bacteria (chemical weapons) . Mitochondria continually clears the alcohol (preferred fuel) , but the other systems have come to a commensal relationship . Receptor sites above the stomach are much more sensitive to water-alcohol solutions .
10. Sipping and Slurping .
Both form an aerosol of water and alcohol . Slurping is better .
11.Slurp your bitters .
At least your burp and fart can express you’re your opinion of this cockamamie state of affairs .
I have no idea what the Book of Etiquette says about slurping red wine .
“This presumptious little wine kept on speaking long after I finished talking .”

Life is a little Bitter . Even if slurped by the pint .
Andre

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Appendix I
A general discussion .
HyperTaste
Andre Willers
22 Sept 2008

See Appendix A for references .

Summary :

The genetic coding and physical structures of the five general tastes have been worked out after boundary-breaking work by Dr Charles Zuker of the University of California .

There is one receptor apiece for sweet , sour , salt , savoury(umami) ,
but 30 receptors for bitter (as to be expected for poisons) .

Furthermore , all receptors are found on each papilla . The concentration of tastes on various sectors of the tongue is plain wrong .

This is not theory .

There is also strong evidence of pre-synaptic cells between these receptor-cells .
Ie , there is a neural-network active . It would be extremely surprising if there was not one . Much later retinas have very sophisticated neural-networks .

Modulators:
This is an unexpected finding .
Each receptor is mediated (ie enhanced , slightly altered or decreased ) by some simple compounds . They do not activate the receptor , but alter the activation intensity of the receptor . Reminiscent of epigenetic switches .

Some make sugar taste sweeter , some block bitterness , some enhance salty , etc .

The company Senomyx has some 500 000+ of these on library .
Some are already in production (Nestle : savoury enhancers)

These enhancers need only be present in such low concentrations that they fall under the FDA Food Additive radar ( an industry self-policing policy called GRAS is used to judge safety . The foxes are guarding the chickens . This industry is worth billions)

What to expect:
Sweetness
Expect sugar-enhancers (one molecule of sucrose will taste like 5 or 10) .
Less sugar .
Also artificial sweetener enhancers (a sucralose-enhancer is already available)

Salt
Salt-enhancers (hopefully decreasing salt intake , by making a little salt taste much saltier . But , knowing the perversity of these systems , an enormous taste for very salty-tasting products will develop among some patients , which could have very bad consequences if the enhancer is not available .

Sour (acid)
Sour enhancers similar to salt-enhancers as far as tooth decay of children’s sweets .
Acidic drinks like Coke .

Savoury (umami)
Already in production .
Layers of sawdust glued together with the proper enhancers and a bit of flavourants will be indistinguishable from the finest steak .

Bitter
The biggest danger .
Things taste bitter for a reason : namely , they are poisonous
That is why there are 30 receptors for bitter .
Fine for medicines .

But some idiot is sure to splice some bitter-blocker genes into foods that are poisonous (eg soy , cassava , cocoa , coffee ,etc)

New receptors
The large number of receptors for bitter points to an extreme plasticity in taste receptors .

Remember , plants have been in state of war with herbivores for literally hundreds of millions of years . Plants are continually evolving new poisons and deterrents , and herbivores evolving counters and avoidances .

The genetic machinery of the taste-receptors must be
a) susceptible to genetic transfer (reproduction-line?) transmittable via licking from the mother .
b) have an immune system integration (!) . Really important .

Danielle Reed (and colleagues) at the Monell Chemical Senses Center
in Philadelphia , Pennsylvania , have engineered mice that has a receptor for calcium and magnesium .
What is worrisome is that she goes on to state : “ I can taste calcium chloride , but I don’t have a word for it .” (NewScientist , 30 Aug 2008 , p23)

She most probably got that from bio-contamination .

Gene-expression on her tongue from the gene-engineering process .

See (a) and (b) above . Does her kissing partners also have this ? Children ?
How contagious is this ?

This might be a completely alternate pathway for gene-engineering .

We might already be experiencing it through fusion-cooking .

Pathogenic paths will be especially noticed , like eating disorders .
If everything tastes like shit , but your brain has not developed the conscious recognition for it , would you feel like eating ?
It might be exactly an epidemic . Contagious .

But what about oenology ?
If the taste receptors to appreciate wines are actually transmitted via an oral-contact route , you have a typical self-referencing system that can get converts .
What a clique ! . They will be traceable back to the first wine .

It makes perfect evolutionary sense , since the taste-system is the origin of the smell system (flu ,etc) . This is the very first contact between the outside and the body at molecular level , happening trillions of times a day .

First Contact Protocols.
Notice that Taste and Smell can be described as an AI(1) system , using the immune system as an external memory .
I leave the interface , packing/unpacking to the reader .
Hint : the taste of blood always come first to anything that feeds .

HyperTaste
We will soon be able to make enhancers that create hypertastes : perfect tastes . The best that the receptor can possibly taste .

Like HyperImages .

Also , literally hundreds of thousands of tastes for which we have no names .
Completely new languages will have to be invented .
The immune system will have interesting times .

Scent-Modulators .
These is possible , as the receptors are similar as they derive from similar evolutionary roots .

HyperScent :
This has already happened .
It is called the vomenerosal organ . Pheromones . Still active , but became zombies because of an evolutionary overdose .

And so it goes .

Andre

Appendix A
Sources :
“Scientific American” , Aug 2008 , “Magnifying Taste” , p76
“New Scientist” . 30 Aug 2008 , “Taste tester cells discover intense flavour boosters” , p22

“The Receptors and Cells for Mammalian Taste” by C. Zuker et al , “Nature” ,
vol 444 , p284-294 , Nov 16 2006

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Appendix II
Bronchial dilation due to activation of bitter receptors in lungs.
Respiration .
Andre Willers
16 Jan 2011

Synopsis:
Electron sucking drives most life on Earth .

Discussion :
Oxygen sucks electrons into every direction where there is an oxygen molecule .
This is the driving energy system

But the whole system is subject to an electric field between ionosphere and ground of about one volt per meter at present time
The ionosphere being negative .
This means a powerful back-pressure to respiration . Your cells transfer electrons far easily sideways and even more easily downways . Why you lie down to sleep . Even required?

So , put a positive electrode on the head .
But what voltage ?
At one volts per meter , we would expect a reserve mechanism at 2/3 V for a 2 meter organism .
See http://andreswhy.blogspot.com "NewTools : reserves"

Anything over that will enhance performance until 4/3 Volts .

Be careful not to complete the battery circuit . Earthing is required .

All you are doing is super-respirating .
All that hoo-ha of yoga .

Be careful to keep voltage between 2/3 and 4/3 . More is not better here .

Effects:
Performance enhancement inside the boundaries of the organism .
Adaptive changes may take place , in which case increase voltage .

Sleep deprivation might ensue .

Note effects at KT boundary 65 MYA . Larger organisms died because of sudden catastrophic high-blood pressure . As the back-pressure of the 1 Volt/meter electric field was removed by short-circuiting by the asteroid and ancillary strikes .
They blew their tops !
Interesting .

Spacecraft :
They merely need a 1 volt per meter electric field differential vertical to maintain most physiological systems .
And give them lots of iron .
The spacecraft can't be earthed . Keep a neutral electric charge by ion ejectors .

Super respiration :
Inhale the steam from a bowl doped with bitters (to increase bronchial dilation) , salt (to increase electrical conductivity) and connected to the positive pole only of a 2/3-4/3 volt battery .

This should blow your alveoli away !

Not to mention your metabolic rate .

Don't lie down . Metabolic rates are not the same in all directions .

And we have not even started on chicken fat .
Quantum tunneling in chicken fat means a significant increase in electron pressure .l

Have fun !

Andre

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Appendix III
Activation of immune system by Bitter Receptors .
See also NewScientist 27 Oct 2012 p15

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/10/09/people-better-at-tasting-bitter-may-have-stronger-immunity/

People better at tasting bitter may have stronger immunity
By Trevor Stokes
Published October 09, 2012
MyHealthNewsDaily
•
People who find Brussels sprouts unbearably bitter may also find a health upside to their keen sense of taste. The ability to taste such bitterness may be linked with an increased capacity to fight bacterial respiratory infections.
Bitter taste receptors were traditionally thought to be located only on the tongue; however, new research shows these receptors are also found in the linings of the nasal and sinus cavities . Additionally, the study showed these receptors are involved in activating the immune system's protection against common bacterial infections.
The receptors work as "an early detection system," which warns the immune system about bacterial invaders and activates the body's defenses, said study author Dr. Noam Cohen, director of rhinology research at the University of Pennsylvania.
But not everyone benefits from these receptors: nearly a third of people in Europe and the U.S. do not have the specific version of the bitter taste-receptor gene , called TAS2R38, that activates an immune response.
The results could lead to new ways to treat the nearly 1 in 10 people in the U.S. who have chronic rinosinusitis, a condition of constantly inflamed and swollen sinuses, the researchers said.
The findings appeared Oct. 8 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
A bittersweet finding
In their study, researchers grew cells in lab dishes, forming structures that resembled the multilayered lining of the nose and sinus, to test out how bitter receptors affect the initial stages of the infection process. Results showed that chemicals produced by common bacteria called Pseudomonas aeruginosa activated the TAS2R38 bitter receptor, and caused the hair-like cilia that line the sinuses to start sweeping away microbial intruders. The activation also resulted in the release into the sinuses of nitric oxide, which kills bacteria.
The researchers noted that they looked at just one of 25 bitter receptors. It remains unclear if the other receptors affect the immune system, or how many bacteria may tip off the warning system.
In the past, researchers have used the chemical phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) to identify people with functional bitter receptors. Those who can taste PTC are classified as supertasters, having functioning bitter receptors, while those who can't taste the chemical are non-tasters, lacking these receptors.
People who would say that Brussels sprouts taste bitter are likely to be supertasters, having responsive bitter receptors, the researchers said.
The new findings also suggest that supertasters may have a higher risk of chronic sinusitis , and that non-tasters have more upper respiratory infections. Upon testing nasal tissue samples from patients who had undergone surgery related to sinus problems, the researchers found that none of the 11 supertasters had Pseudomonas bacteria in their tissues, whereas seven out of 20 non-tasters had infections.
"If you are a supertaster, it’s going to be very rare that you're going to get… sinusitis," Cohen said. However, the bitter-tasting ability doesn’t protect against all infections, he added.
Could a taste test tell how often people get sick?
This research could lead to a nearly cost-free test that could distinguish supertasters from the more susceptible non-tasters, said Thomas Finger, co-director of the Rocky Mountain Taste & Smell Center, who was uninvolved in the research.
The new findings also suggest that certain bitter compounds could be used to activate the immune system . For example, a bitter nasal spray could be used to ward off an infection in the early stages, Finger said. However, such potential therapies are a long way off, he said.
Next, the researchers will look at whether genetics plays a role in people's responses to sinusitis treatments, Cohen said.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/10/09/people-better-at-tasting-bitter-may-have-stronger-immunity/#ixzz2EOOa3pKx

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Appendix IV
Swilling Red Wine
Andre Willers
30 Nov 2012
Synopsis:
Sniffing , then swilling red wine in the mouth even without swallowing it significantly enhances the absorption of Resveratrol and other anti-oxidants .
Discussion :
1.Sniffing it :
Alcohols and flavonoids pre-prepare the mouth cavity to absorb transient flavonoids .
A well-known neurological effect . Drooling , in effect .
2.Swilling it in the mouth .
This is where the tyre hits the tarmac . Delicate aromatic compounds that would be destroyed by the acidic meat-grinder of the stomach gets absorbed by the body at this stage .
Nitpickers will say that Resveratrol and other ephemerates are not very water soluble . But they are in a alcohol-water solution , as well as unknown enzymes stimulated by the sniffing preparation .
3.Gout :
Just swilling the red wine around in the mouth and then spitting it out will not raise uric acid levels (allergic responses might be triggered in a very small number of cases) .
I am going to try it . Cheaper and more enjoyable than expensive Reservatrol capsules . I can sneak up by swallowing the occasional mouthful . No distilation by cooking , though .
4.Coffee and Tea :
The same holds for the flavonoids in coffee and tea .
Cold Brewing for both is strongly recommended , with some sort of sniffing and swilling ceremony .
See Appendix II
5.Long-lived waiters .
Ancient , doddering waiters are stock in trade of period comedies . Like all clichés , they were based in fact .
You don’t think they threw the leftovers away , did you ?
The most fertile ground for a biologist is the expectorants by wine-tasters . Chock-full of enzymes that enhance smell , taste and the uptake of anti-oxidants .
6.An Interesting aside :
Old boozers can patent the enzymes and relevant genomes that they have developed over the years of Darwinnian Selection . Sell their Taste .


This was more interesting than I thought .
“This is a modest little wine , more distinguished by it’s exit than it’s entrance .”
Andre .

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Appendix I
Buccal delivery is 250 times more effective than swallowing it .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resveratrol
One way of administering resveratrol in humans may be buccal delivery, that is without swallowing, by direct absorption through tissues on the inside of the mouth. When one milligram of resveratrol in 50 ml 50% alcohol/ water solution was retained in the mouth for one minute before swallowing, 37 ng/ml of free resveratrol were measured in plasma two minutes later. This level of unchanged resveratrol in blood can only be achieved with 250 mg of resveratrol taken in a pill form.[
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Appendix II
A Really good cup of coffee .
Andre Willers
26 Jul 2009

Synopsis :
Capture the volatile essences of coffee through cold-brewing and microwaving .
Even revitalize stale ground coffee .

Discussion :
The Theory :
The food-preparation stage of coffee is done during the peeling , fermentation and especially roasting stages .
The grinding and brewing is to prepare it for ingestion via drinking . In these processes , a large percentage of the volatiles are lost (of about 800 distinct compounds at least .)

As discussed before , some are of distinct medical advantage ( see http://andreswhy.blogspot.com "Aroma and Caffeine)"

Cold brewing .
This is a widely used cold-brewing method . See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toddy_coffee
This retains many volatiles lost by high temperature water brewing methods .

As discussed by many plain coffee-lovers , cold brewing gives the best tasting coffee of all . Because it retains many of the volatiles unnecessarily lost in the hot-water process .

But how to retain the volatiles when reheating the concentrate ?

The Microwave .
Put the coffee concentrate in cup , top up with cold water , cover with cling-wrap or splash/pressure guard and heat in the microwave until just below boiling (about 92-98 Centigrade)

How does it work ?
Shaken , but not stirred .
Like James Bond .

The cold brew is made by putting about 0.25 g of coffee grounds in one ml of water . This forms a coffee quicksand . Hence the shaken , not stirred . The volatiles are internally trapped by the coffee particles themselves , and dissolved in the water . This ratio is quite critical . Stirring it releases the volatiles , instead of trapping them .

This is left for about 12 hours . This can be hastened , but not without losing some of the tasty volatiles .
Boltzmann strikes again ! (Although covered pulsing is used by instant coffee manufacturers)

The Trick !
Put the resultant filtered concentrate in a cup and top up with cold , repeat cold water , cover with cling-wrap or splash/pressure guard and heat in the microwave until just below boiling (about 92-98 Centigrade)

The volatiles dissolve directly into the excited water molecules , without having much chance to escape .
Your coffee tastes like a freshly brewed cuppa .

Light sediment .
As you might have noticed , there is no heavy filtering . Light sediment still retains many molecules of flavour stuck to the walls (cf water molecules on dry sand) . The microwave process releases these , revitalizing even stale coffees .
I do not know what would happen with heavy sediment , but I suspect oily residues and tastes .

Sigh . I wish I could patent this . Even this little bit is worth a lot of money .

I tried this .
I took some very old ground coffee in the freezer (about 2 years old:stale) . Plonked them into a coffee plunger with cold water and left them for about 14 hours . Then simply decanted through a paper filter (not really necessary) .
Then about 6 tablespoons of concentrate per cup , microwaved as per above , gave a beautiful cup of coffee . The flavour and acidity came through perfectly , and there was no stomach acidity . The caffeine was noticeable , but not as heavy as with instant .

It Worked !
The stale coffee was revivivied !
A Dracula Special .

Speeding up the process .
You can try pulsing microwaves . About 5 seconds at a time .

Freezing has been done ad nauseam .
It is called instant coffee . The freezing process breaks some essential bonds on some of the more volatile chemicals .

Hint , hint :
By entangling the ends of some special molecules , during the freeze-drying process , a bias towards similar attachments can be formed during re-hydration . Simple lasers at special frequencies will suffice . Since the binding energies are low , even diode lasers will suffice . Cheap and tasty .

Sigh . This will be much easier with potato chips .
Hello Quantum Chips .
Especially with coffee , already proven to have easily-manipulated quantum characteristics .

And you thought I was joking .

Andre .

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