Whole-isticism, Knowing Enough about Everything

If you own a pet, or have read the front page of any American newspaper since mid-March, you know that there have been massive pet food recalls in the United States due to the use of imported grain proteins in the manufacture of pet food. At first conscientious pet guardians, like me, drew deep sighs of relief for shelling out the extra bucks on premium pet food. As the days and weeks went by, over 100 different brands were effected by the tainted wheat and rice glutens- many of these brands were premium or organic. Recent news articles indicate that adding chemicals to the grain proteins has been common practice for some time- as it is a cheap way to make the protein content appear more elevated than it actually is. In large amounts the added chemical, melamine, causes acute kidney failure in dogs and cats. I'm not sure what it does in smaller doses- but it is safe to say this practice deprives animals of the protein they need to live long, happy, healthy lives.

When several formulas in my premium brand landed on the recall list, I, like thousands of pet lovers, looked for home made options to feed my cat using food deemed safe for human consumption at my local grocery store. But a companion animal can't live on a diet of people food unless it is properly supplemented. I started to sweat- and look for solutions. Holistic pet care, waiting quietly in the corner for over twenty-five years- beckoned me to check it out. Apparently they'd known for years that junk lands in commercial pet food.

Wikipedia says the word "holistic" comes from the Greek root ὅλος- which, from my study of modern Greek, means "all". Holistic health care means looking at all the factors of our lives- the whole person, or the whole cat, as the case may be. Nutrition and environment play big roles in holistic health, as does spiritual and emotional well-being. Holistic health care is usually discussed in connection with homeopathy, chiropracy, yoga, acupuncture- alternative therapies I've used with good results in the past. Holistic health care can also be lumped in with crystal therapy, and people who talk to the dead- giving it, for the newbie uneducated like me, an air of unscientific mysticism.

I'm a science fiction writer. I love science and technology and am unlikely to solve my next headache with a smoky quartz. However, my brief foray into the world of holistic practice shows there is no reason to throw out centuries of wisdom and healthy practices gleaned from a variety of cultures simply because they aren't new, or don't come from the latest issue of Scientific American. I see no incompatibility in a modern lifestyle that takes the benefits of both cutting edge science and holism.

That doesn't mean there aren't drawbacks to holism.

As the word all implies, holism requires the practitioner to know all there is to know about everything. In the case of feeding my cat, I had to learn about bacteria found raw meat, lead accumulation in animal bones, calcium to phosphate ratios, what the heck nutritional yeast was, why kelp is something a sane person would feed to a feline, and how long cat poop has to sit in the litter box before toxoplasmosis becomes a risk.

Holism is more revolutionary that it sounds, because holism requires you to reverse the tide of civilization by becoming an expert in things unrelated to your profession. Since human society separated the hunters from the gatherers, specialization has been the cornerstone of civilization. See- I'm an expert in language and literature, and I normally leave calcium to phosphate ratios to people who make their living producing cat food. The simple act of figuring out what to feed my cat literally took weeks and weeks of study, research and decision making. That's a lot of work- so what do I get out of it?

I get to make my own decisions.

The power of holism is that the practitioner who knows it all can make the best decision for a particular individual. There is no one-size-fits-all treatment- everyone's diet, remedy, environment needs to be tweaked on an individual basis. At first I found this disappointing- I needed somebody to tell me what to feed my cat! The more I researched, the more I liked the idea of making more of my own decisions. When I'm in control of making decisions, I can take the needs of all my family members into account, and design a solution that's right for our special bunch.

For holism to catch on as a future American trend- and as a science fiction writer I see potential that it could- emphasis will have to be efficient, pain-free education of lay clients (like myself) so that they can know enough about everything to make their own decisions about how they live their lives, care for their pets and children, and treat their illnesses. Not only that, an attitude of independent decision making will need to be generated.

Independent thinking- isn't that a hallmark of the USA? Society, especially American society, is geared to accept the opinion of experts, people who have devoted their professional lives to knowing everything about one specific thing. It isn't until trust in those experts is broken (such as has happened with many pet owners and commercial pet food producers), that people exactly like me scramble to find the knowledge they need to know everything about everything- or at least enough about everything. Once that knowledge is obtained, we must find the wisdom needed to make important decisions. Then, once the decision has been carefully made, we need the courage to follow our determined path- with or without the expert's guaranteed seal of approval.

The holistic market today consists of educators and practitioners who have learned to put a leafy green stamp of approval on their treatments and products. What will the holistic educators and practitioners look like tomorrow?

Spiders and My Shampoo

When you think spiderweb, what do you picture? A gossamer web, a fragile weave sparkling with dewdrops? A spiderweb is actually an extremely tough, stretchy fiber made of a complex crystalline structure. Marvel Comics wasn't so far off the mark when they showed Spiderman swinging from building to building on strands of web.

My interest in spiders today began with finding an awesome shampoo. I'd finally discovered the brand that promised the shiny, gorgeous hair I've always wanted, so I began to read the fine print and braced for the bad news that it wasn't cruelty free. I scanned the ingredients- there were the words I was dreading- silk proteins. As you probably know, the larva used to produce silk are boiled alive, so I prefer not to buy silk. But what, exactly, were silk proteins? It was darn good shampoo, so I did some research.

Turns out the silk proteins used in cosmetics (like my nifty shampoo) come from spiders, not silk worms! This was momentary good news, because while silk worms get boiled alive to produce their silk, spiders spin their silk, and definitely don't die in the process.

Pretty, shiny hair here we come!

Nope. Spiders aren't social creatures- if they're kept in large groups they eat each other (PETA and Wikipedia agree on this). The golden orb spider is commonly used to produce the spider silk used in high-end consumer textiles. I was unable to determine the species used in cosmetic production.

Here's where the real-life science fiction comes in: In 2000 a Canadian company called Nexus came up with the ingenious bioengineering idea of injecting golden orb spider DNA into goat eggs. The female of these transgenic (genetically modified) goats lactated milk laden with spider silk proteins. I'm not kidding. You can read about their work on Wikipedia and in an article from the New York Times archived on animalvoices.com. Now, the folks at Nexus were less interested in shampoo than I am. They wanted to extract the proteins from the milk and spin super strong fibers (trademarked "BioSteel") for use as fishing line, tennis racket string, and textiles. PETA and the New York Times article claim the military are interested in the resulting fibers to create bullet proof vests and body armor.

Nexus had some technological problems with their fiber production that they couldn't overcome. First, they were only able to transmit one of up to seven spider silk proteins to the lactating goats. Second, the process of spinning the proteins into fibers didn't work. Nexus tried to imitate the spider squeezing out fibers through its spinneret by squirting the heavily processed goat milk through tiny holes to create strands that were then stretched on a spindle. The description of the apparatus in the New York Times article is an SF dream, but the machinery was not able to convert the milk into thread in a commercially viable manner.

The cool part about this failed attempt was the idea that started it. Nexus CEO/president and bioengineer Jeffrey Turner says:

"The mammary gland is a perfect natural factory for the synthesizing and production of proteins."

What other kinds of proteins could be made from transgenic modification? What would their applications be? How does inexpensive, life-saving medication, sound? Turner originally envisioned his "udder factory outlet" as a way to cheaply produce medication. For financial and practical reasons (such as getting approval from the F.D.A.), he began his experiments producing strong silk fiber, instead.

And what about the animals in all this transgenic tinkering? New York Times journalist, Lawrence Osborne, makes it clear that Turner and his staff had a genuine love and respect for the goats they raised. No harm came to the goats- they were living the good life in the ample pasture lands of Canada. Of course the golden orb spiders didn't make out nearly so well. The spiders were killed and crushed to obtain their DNA for injection. I wouldn't buy silk made using this process for a pretty scarf or shiny hair, but I could certainly come to terms with it should it produce inexpensive, life-saving medicine.

Now for the big question- my shampoo! Will I walk the streets of Brooklyn with hair that doesn't bounce? Well, until the day that huge bioengineered spiders produce silk proteins (using one large genetically engineered "super-spider" is one solution to the spider cannibalism silk production problem), I'll not buy the shampoo, and will search for a plant-based alternative.

The Goldfish Are Alive!

On Thursday I posted about the fate of the goldfish frozen in the pond next door. I thought they were goners. But, good news! Now that the ice has melted, the familiar orange bodies are darting around in the water again.

Miracle? Cryogenics?

No- when I stuck my head way over the fence to get a good look, I saw that a small section of the ceramic water container goes deep underground. Warm water is actually more dense than cold water, so the warmest water (and the fish) head as low as they can go.

Goldfish hibernate in the winter- lowering their metabolic rate and basically chilling out until the warm weather comes again. Wikipedia's article on goldfish in ponds says that as long as the entire pond isn't frozen (as I feared it had), the goldfish survive unharmed. In fact, goldfish are one of the few species known to survive anoxia, or the absence of oxygen. They survive by lowering their metabolic rate. As with our cryogenic frog friends, regulation of glucose plays a major role during anoxia and reoxygenation (waking up from anoxia).

Ironically the organs undergo the worst stress not during anoxia, but during the period of reoxygenation. The liver suffers the most, but the brain and kidneys are also affected. Goldlfish (and our friends the wood frogs) rely on the elevated presence of antioxidants in their body chemistry to ease the strain of warming up back to life again. (Source: Oxidative stress and antioxidant defenses in goldfish Carassius auratus during anoxia and reoxygenation).

Good-bye Goldfish, Hello Frog

It's sunny and a little warmer this first day of March, but the goldfish pond in the garden next door is still frozen. Every time I walk past the fish pond I stop to say hi, but I fear in the cold weather I've been saying hi to dead fish, frozen solid in the shallow ceramic basin.

For some reason my brain keeps insisting those fish are alive down there. I know the ice on top of a lake actually warms the water beneath, allowing the fish to survive, but this pond is far too shallow to behave that way. Maybe I believe the taxi driver in The Catcher in the Rye, who claimed that fish live frozen under the pond in Central Park while kids skate over the ice. Maybe the science fiction writer in me is plotting cryogenic fish survival. But by now I've read enough practical gardening posts to know those fish are dead.

To cheer myself up, I did a little research on frogs- turns out certain frogs can survive being frozen. The wood frog buries itself underground or undercover of leaves during cold spells. Its body temperature drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Ice crystals form in its blood, portions of its body begin to freeze, and if it keeps on getting colder and colder, the frog freezes solid. In an article from the Seattle Times, professor Ken Storey says the frog is frozen so solid it "makes a thud" when dropped. But hours after warming back up, the frog's heart begins to beat and it hops on its merry way, unharmed.

Sure enough, the wood frog has evolved with its own system of cryogenics, what the article calls "natural antifreeze" made of glucose (frogs go on a starch-eating binge when cold weather approaches). The scientists interviewed weren't ready to say the frogs held the key to freezing humans for future generations. What they did hope to learn was a method to cryogenicaly freeze human organs for use in organ transplant and organ donation. Studying these funny little frogs could take the nightmare out of organ waiting lists and save lives.