Preface: the Yogi suffix

This site explores the capacity of WOB to handle hazard. Actually WOB can be trained to handle nearly any hazard. A person who  controls a specified hazard, like cancer is called Cancer-Yogi. While the Hindu-Yogi controls many unconscious processes in his body, Cancer-Yogi controls his cancer. 'Yogi' is a metaphor for the healing capacity of WOB, and is unrelated to Yoga. An individual who's WOB mastered a particular skill is marked by the Yogi suffix. Which can be  applied to any living creature, like the antibiotic resistant microbe which is called here Antibiotic-Yogi.

Further reading:
Cancer-Yogi
Cancer-Yogi-1
Cancer-Yogi-2

Introduction

After work I went to the pub. My friend Peter greeted me with an open bottle of wine. We sat down, sipping from our glasses, and summarizing the day. Soon he ordered another bottle.He offered me some wine yet I refused, since feeling dizzy  Despite Peter's heavy drinking I never saw him really drunk.  He won  all drinking competitions in the Pub, and passed 'lucidity tests ', like walking along a straight line and scoring the bull's-eye.

Despite his excessive drinking Peter was lucid and healthy. His liver tests were normal, and I felt that even his blood alcohol level was normal. Peter was an Alcohol-Yogi. Admiring his drinking competence I questioned him how he mastered drinking. "Practice" was his answer. "Train your body to consume more and more alcohol."

Thought experiment

Back home I pondered what would such a training require? And how to avoid the threat of alcohol intoxication like, liver and brain damage?  Training  involves an ongoing dialog with WOB. By listening to its messages I might avoid these stumbling blocks. First I ought to inform WOB about my intentions. I emptied a glass of a heavy Port wine. Soon WOB objected and made me dizzy, indicating that I reached my drinking limit. Ignoring its warning might endanger my liver and brain. Concomitantly WOB initiated an additional protective measure. It slowed down anti-diuretic hormone secretion, which let my kidney generate more urine, clearing my blood of alcohol. Twenty minutes later I watched my 'trainer molecule' disappear in the sink.

ADH and ALDH

As I daily repeated this challenge, I realized that WOB became more and more cooperative. Soon I emptied two glasses without getting dizzy. Now WOB mobilized other protective measures: Alcohol-dehydrogenase (ADH) which converts alcohol into acet-aldehyde, and Aldehyde-dehydrogenase (ALDH) which converts  acet-aldehyde into a harmless acetic acid. On top of this, WOB continued driving me to the bath room (polyuria). I wondered why is my progress so slow, and why it took WOB so long to mobilize these enzymes ?

Both enzymes are coded by two genes, ADH and ALDH. Enzyme assembly starts  at the gene where RNA molecules translate the code and produce enzymes.  As I intensified  drinking,  more enzyme molecules were  required to detoxify alcohol. First, each gene raised its production rate.  Upon reaching its maximal production capacity, WOB multiplied the number of the ADH and ALDH genes, creating additional assembly lines, which is known as gene amplification.  All this takes time. WOB needs time to support my new drinking habit.

Further reading
Streaming Proteins

Hangover

Eager to acquire Peter's expertise (Yogi-hood), I exaggerated and drank too much. Now WOB responded with an hangover, as if saying: "I cannot cope with the rising  acetaldehyde production, cut down the liquor!". ADH transforms alcohol into a toxic acet-aldehyde. When WOB lacks enough ALDH to detoxify it, it sends a message of hangover. This condition is defined here as a disease of the mind, since it was initiated by the mind and can be cured by convincing the mind (me) to stop this folly.

Weight lifting

Similar Mind-WOB 'dialogue' is maintained during weight lifting. You start training and WOB realizes that it has to strengthen the muscle. Now each muscle unit  produces more protein (gene amplification)  and thickens (hypertrophy).  Upon reaching  its maximal production capacity WOB creates  new muscle units (hyperplasia). If you exaggerate WOB responds with pain and other unpleasant sensations.

Similar  Mind-WOB dialogs are initiated whenever we want something. Without WOB cooperation we may never realize our will. Imagine a WOB which fails to mobilize enough ALDH, and falls to support your wish to become an Alcohol-Yogi. Which actually happens to some. Our will is translated by WOB into process reshuffling. Without being aware of it, our will manipulates processes in the body, which has important therapeutic implications.

Mind-WOB dialog

Mind sends WOB two kinds of messages (input) : 1. Action, and 2. Imagination. Action characterizes our daily life. It is automatic and unconscious. Once we change our habits or engage in new tasks  like drinking  or weight lifting  Mind-WOB dialog becomes conscious.

Imagination is another way to instruct WOB what we want or expect. Like  when expecting a tasty meal, which activates processes involved in digestion. Our image of a tasty meal is distributed by WOB to myriad cells in the digestive tract, and liver. Mind-WOB dialog has important therapeutic implication. Since imagination activates processes, medicine ought to find out  how to activate by imagination medically important processes. More precisely, we ought to create a mapping between input and process control. The same applies to WOB output which indicates disease . Here again, we ought  create a mapping between output and a loosening of process control. These mappings  form a language for interrogating WOB during therapy.

Further reading:
First Encounter with WOB
Cancer -Yogi

Cascading

As throughput of alcohol rises, WOB has to amplify all enzymes along the metabolic chain, otherwise molecules may accumulate and cause damage. Then come energy providing processes, like breathing and heart rate, which accelerate a little.  A sip of alcohol initiates a systemic response which only WOB understands.We can grasp its intricacy only after simplifying what is going on. Medicine focuses on the more significant processes, and ignores the rest.   Acet-aldehyde accumulation is the most risky. It accounts for the most conspicuous  manifestation of alcoholism, like fatty liver, cirrhosis, and dementia.

Each disease is recognized by a small number of 'deviating' processes, which ought to be regarded solely as disease indicators. Unfortunately medicine tends to regard them as causing diseases. Like hyperglycemia in diabetes, which  indicates a new reshuffling (amplification) of carbohydrate metabolism. Yet medicine regards  it as the main cause of diabetes, which requires treatment. Like in the case of alcohol, hyperglycemia indicates an increased glucose throughput along the carbohydrate chain. It is an indicator of this throughput, and not its cause. Diabetes involves myriad  other processes, while glucose may not be its major culprit.

Further reading:
Streaming Proteins
Diabetes: mellitus

Gut fermentation

One may wonder how did WOB learn to manage alcohol? Long before man invented fermentation and discovered wine, he carried in his gut, alcohol producing micro-organisms. This is when WOB leaned how to detoxify acet-aldehyde. Which might explain how our mood might be  modified by diet. Imagine a diet which encourages alcohol producing bacteria, or vice versa. In this sense diet is also a message which manipulates processes, not only in the gut but in the entire body.

Further reading:
Intestinal flora
Microbial resistance to antibiotics

Alcohol-Yogi

Is my quest realizable? I might lack a crucial ALDH gene, or carry a mutated ADH gene. Why bother? As long as WOB does not object and remains silent, I may gradually intensify my training. I may even become a Yogi, despite some faulty genes. Which is the essence of free will. We may be born imperfect, yet by mastering the dialog with WOB we can make wonders.

Further reading:
Beware of the Gene 
Iatrogenic Medicine. .