Sometimes, unfortunately, research barks up the wrong trees.   In June 2012, the Journal of Pharmacology published an article by Dr. Naviaux called “Oxidative Shielding or Oxidative Stress?”   Sounds complicated, so I will attempt to provide a layman’s view after the abstract.

In the abstract Dr. Naviaux states: “In this review I report evidence that the mainstream field of oxidative damage biology has been running fast in the wrong direction for more than 50 years. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) and chronic oxidative changes in membrane lipids and proteins found in many chronic diseases are not the result of accidental damage. Instead, these changes are the result of a highly evolved, stereotyped, and protein-catalyzed “oxidative shielding” response that all eukaryotes adopt when placed in a chemically or microbially hostile environment. The machinery of oxidative shielding evolved from pathways of innate immunity designed to protect the cell from attack and limit the spread of infection. Both oxidative and reductive stress trigger oxidative shielding. In the cases in which it has been studied explicitly, functional and metabolic defects occur in the cell before the increase in ROS and oxidative changes. ROS are the response to disease, not the cause. Therefore, it is not the oxidative changes that should be targeted for therapy, but rather the metabolic conditions that create them. This fresh perspective is relevant to diseases that range from autism, type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, cancer, heart disease, schizophrenia, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer disease. Research efforts need to be redirected. Oxidative shielding is protective and is a misguided target for therapy. Identification of the causal chemistry and environmental factors that trigger innate immunity and metabolic memory that initiate and sustain oxidative shielding is paramount for human health.”

The wrong tree analogy is not limited to this specific situation.  In fact, drug research has been attempting to find a way to prevent or remove amyloid plaques for more than ten years while the amyloid plaques are actually a protective reaction the body has to toxins and other “garbage” accumulated in the brain.  All this work, costing billions of dollars, has resulted in a zero percent positive return due to trying to remediate a body result as opposed to seeking out and addressing the cause!

In reality, these research areas have shown us that in the body there are expert defense systems built in. We need to look at what triggered the body to activate its defense systems.  Looking in the right places holds immense implications for Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s, ALS, and many more neurodegenerative diseases and even other diseases of the body.

I will attempt to simplify Dr. Naviaux’s “discovery”.

We get our energy from Mitochondria found in every cell of the body.  Think of mitochondria as very efficient tiny high octane engines.  When they work well, they produce lots of ATP (adenosine triphosphate) which releases one of its phosphate atoms to release energy and becomes ADT (adenosine diphosphate).  When a body is relatively healthy and we are eating a healthy choice of foods, the ADT has available the nutrients to change almost immediately back into ATP and this again can cycle to release more energy.  It is a simple cyclical system that works when the mitochondria are healthy and our nutritional supply is not compromised by toxins of various sorts.

Now the mitochondria are amazing components of our cells.  They can keep on firing energy and they can even be “stoked” to make even more energy production possible.  But they also have a serious defense system built in!  And they cannot both produce energy and defend us at the same time. Please accept that I am hugely simplifying here.

Researchers have been working to find ways to reduce oxidative stress and free radicals for years now. BUT this recent research proves that the free radicals and the oxidative “stress” that they can measure easily in the labs, are not the cause of the problem but is instead are a normal body reaction to try to protect against the chemical toxins and the viral and bacterial attacks, and the physical and psychological traumas.  That is, the things the researchers have been trying to fix are not the cause but the end result of the problems.

I apologize for my brief layman type summary but want you to understand that unfortunately researchers into dementia, while spending billions,  have been looking at damaged cells without looking at what caused the damage in the first place.  And those causes are staring us all in the face and their damages can be reversed naturally and non-invasively.  We can evict the toxins from the body in safe and natural ways; we can resolve the traumas and psychological aspects that have put the body into a dis-ease reaction; and we can naturally strengthen the body so it can rid itself of bacterial and viral infections.

You can connect with us at the Owl’s Nest Oasis to find out more about our program to interrupt these damaging toxins, viral and bacterial infections, and traumas and to help restore the mitochondria to an abundant and healthy state. And we can restore our bodies to their best healthiest state.

The reference for the article I so simply summarized above is:The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics  JPET 342.608-618, 2012Oxidative Shielding or Oxidative Stress?  By Robert K NaviauxTheMitochondrial and Metabolic Disease Center, Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, and Pathology, University of California San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California