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Editor,
The Journal of Integrative Medicine
Formerly, Associate Professor of Pathology (adj.), College
of Physicians
and Surgeons of Columbia University, NY
Formerly, President of Staff and Chief Pathologist,
Holy Name Hospital, Teaneck, NJ
Fellow, Royal
College of Surgeons of England -
Diplomate,
American Board of Anatomic and Clinical Pathology
Diplomate, American Boards of Environmental Medicine
Past President Capital University of Integrative
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DARWIN, DYSOX, AND OUR FERMENTING PLANET-ESSAY 3:
OXYGEN, CARBON,AND NITROGEN ECONOMIESAND CLIMATIC CHAOS:
Times are desperate for most forms of life on the planet Earth. In the
man-microbe conflicts, microbes are winning. That also is the case for
butterflies, bees, and bats. In my view, the reason is the changing "oxygen
conditions" of planetary life. In this series of essays on the fermenting
planet, I present my hypothesis that the primary result of the changing oxygen
conditions is impairment of oxygen-driven energy systems of humans, animals, and
plants. The oxygen-shunning species are thriving at the expense of the
oxygen-loving species. This trend has far-reaching significance for all
planetary life.
There are two predominant groups of life forms on our planet: oxyphils that
thrive in oxygen-rich environments and oxyphobes that flourish in oxygen-poor
conditions. Oxyphils include humans, all animals, and most plants while
oxyphobes comprise fungi and anaerobic bacteria. The changing oxygen conditions
are altering the balance between these groups by favoring oxyphobes over
oxyphils.
Evolution created two primary modes of cellular energetics: low-efficiency
non-oxygen-driven metabolism designated as fermentation and a high-efficiency
oxygen-driven metabolism called respiratory mode of energy generation. The
oxygen deficit over land masses and in planetary waters fosters the growth of
the fermenters as it threatens the oxygen-utilizing species.
Darwin, Dysox, and Our Fermenting Planet -
Essay 3
Oxygen deficit is the primary threat to life on the planet Earth. Carbon excess
is a secondary threat to planetary life. I expect these words to surprise most,
if not nearly all, readers. Succinctly stated, carbon creates a mess and oxygen
cleans up that mess. This statement is also likely to raise many eyebrows,
because it might be seen as too broad and sweeping to be considered seriously.
Scientists diligently document global warming caused by carbon emissions from
fossil fuel, incremental global chemicalization, devastation of human habitat,
mass mortalities of aquatic life, and extinction of species. They tell us about
melting of polar ice caps, and cooling of oceanic conveyer belts.
Environmentalists vigorously debate issues of greenhouse gases and climatic
changes. Policy makers heatedly argue about the significance of these changes.
Politicians brazenly distort scientific facts to promote themselves. People all
over the world now recognize these looming threats and want to know what they
can do to counter those threats. These subjects have been presented at length in
several recent volumes, most notably in Blatt's America's Environmental Score
Card (2004),1 Gelnspan's Boiling Point (2004),2 Flannery's The Weather Makers
(2005),3 Gore's An Inconvenient Truth (2006),4 Kerry's This Moment on Earth
(2007),5 and Frumhoff's Confronting Climate Change in the U.S. Northeast
(2007).6 Notably absent in all those deliberations and efforts are any
considerations of the primacy of oxygen-related problems (the "oxygen concerns"
over the carbon-related issues [the "carbon concerns"]).
For decades, some scientists, environmentalists, and policy makers have sought
to protect human habitat by focusing on carbon emission and global warming.
These efforts are commendable. However, their focus on carbonin my viewmisses
the essential point: Oxygen deficit is a much more immediate and dangerous
threat to planetary life than carbon excess. In past publications, I have
systematically related derangements of oxygen signaling and oxygen-driven
cellular energetics to the pathogenesis of aging,7 obesity,8 inflammation,9
diabetes,10-12 cardiovascular disorders,13-17 asthma and atopy,18-20 renal
failure,21 pseudomenopause and related menstrual disorders,22-24 arrested growth
in children,25 liver disorders,26
fibromyalgia.27 pain,28osteoporosis,29
parasitic infestation,30 war-related chronic illness,31 malignant
disorders,32-36 Here, I address issues of climatic chaos, global warming, and
earth chemicalization issues that adversely affect global oxygen homeotasiscrucial
issues that have not been considered in the context of human disease.
What poisons plants also poisons animals and that which poisons animals also
poisons people. This is the basic chemistry of oneness that binds humans with
animal and plant kingdoms. The putative differences among species in their
responses to toxins are significant only on a small time scale. In the larger
global context, our shared vulnerability to a poisoned environment is far more
important. Anthropogenic influences are disrupting the elemental cycles of the
planet Earththe cycles of economies of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, iron,
and essential elementsto increasing degrees. Among those disruptions, the most
important involve the oxygen cycle.
In 1998, I introduced the term dysoxygenosis (dysox, for short) to refer to a
state of dysfunctional oxygen homeostasis characterized by deranged oxygen
signaling and impaired oxygen driven energetics.37-39 In subsequent
publications, I presented a large body of clinical, microscopic, and biochemical
data to show that all symptom complexes of chronic disorders are caused,
amplified, and perpetuated by oxygen-related factors.9-36
I support my view of primacy of the oxygen concerns over the carbon concerns by
reviewing a large body of observations of natural phenomena under the following
headings:
1. Oxygen issues and carbon issues;
2. Oxygen deficit is the primary threat to planetary life;
3. Carbon creates a mess and oxygen cleans up that mess;
4. Oxygen: an orphan element;
5. Oxygen and nitrogen economies;
6. Eutrophication;
7. Scorched lands and big thaws;
8. Hypoxic and anoxic waters;
9. Smog and oxygen deficit;
10. Clean energy, dirty energy;
11. Primacy of oxygen issues over carbon issues for aquatic species;
12. Primacy of oxygen issues over carbon issues for land animals;
13. Primacy of oxygen issues over carbon issues for plants;
14. Primacy of oxygen issues over carbon issues for humans;
15. The age of mystery maladies;
16. Oxygen and the edges of human life span;
17. Humans are not the apex predators; and
18. What next? A world order of ethics?
5. OXYGEN AND NITROGEN ECONOMIES
Carbon has been the darling of environmentalists and earth scientists. It has
drowned all voices about nitrogen issues. Oxygen has not had anyone to champion
its cause so far. The "oxygen economy"production matched by consumptionof the
planet Earth evolved over a period of more than three billion years. Oxygen is
mass-produced by phytoplankton and macroalgae in aquatic environments, primarily
by splitting water molecules. The development of this reaction by harnessing
solar energy was the defining event in the history of biology on the planet.
Oxygen is utlized by bacteria and all other organisms (zooplankton, algae, fish)
that consume oxygen by respiration. Ecologic balance between oxygen production
and consumption in different regions of the world is defined and preserved by
the prevailing geologic, ecologic, climatic, and predator-prey dynamics of
extant species.
Animal and plant species crawled from water to find their habitat on dry lands.
(Could this be the origin of human fascination with bodies of water around
them?) The move from the water to the land called for myriad adaptations, which
evolutionary pressures provided with stunning diversity. It is a most remarkable
fact of biology that the enormous range of speciation observed today was
energetically sustained by essentially two modes: oxygen-driven high-efficiency
human mitochondrial ATP generation and low-efficiency, largely
oxygen-independent fermentative ATP production. This is a crucial subject. In
previous publications,37-39,42 I demonstrated that the
respiratory-to-fermentative shift in ATP generation and deranged oxygen
signaling are the fundamental molecular lesions that produce myriad clinical
symptom-complexes.
Another important consideration is that of the fundamental oxygen economy of
large bodies of water and landmass that did not significantly change over the
past millions of yearsuntil modern times. Then began the era of dysox and
climatic chaos. A diligent study of the records of the oxygen conditions at the
micro levelsmitochondrial energy generation and related phenomenaas well as at
macro global levels clearly reveals an inexorable shift to the primordial,
low-efficiency, fermentative mode of metabolism (described at length in Darwin,
Dysox, and Disease, the eleventh volume of The Principles and Practice of
Integrative Medicine.43 Of course, the current shifts in carbon economy of the
planet Earth are compounding the problems of the oxygen economy.
In high school, I was taught that nitrogen is an inert element. That is not
true. Nitrogen is leached into groundwater and so enters drinking water, often
reaching concentrations that are deleterious to human health. Nitrogen is
converted into nitrite, which has recognized toxic effects. For example, nitrite
reacts with hemoglobin to form methemoglobin, a form that cannot carry oxygen.
Under some clinical conditions, accumulation of methemoglobin can reach a point
when it literally suffocates the individual. Nitrite also is converted into
nitrates by the bowel microbiota. Nitrates have well-established toxic effects,
including carcinogenicity.
Human-related nitrogen shifts largely involve its movement from land to water,
both surface or ground water. Nitrogen travels with agricultural efflux, storm
drains, sewage pipes, and other types of surface runoff. Agribusinesses apply
large quantities of nitrogen to the soil for maximizing production, with strong
short-term and devastating long-term results. Such application generally far
exceeds the nutrient required by crops. Regrettably, regulators who are expected
to minimize nitrogen build-up are themselves regulatedpaid off, to be bluntby
the polluters.
The combustion of fossil fuels is major source of anthropogenic contributions to
atmospheric nitrogen pollution. Acid rains add to atmospheric deposition of
nitrogen on lands and water. This problem used to be attributed to highly
industrialized regions of the world. This view, in my opinion is not tenable
anymore considering the rapid globalization of environmental pollution. Nitrogen
is released into the air because of ammonia volatilization and nitrous oxide
production further adding to Earth's nitrogen load.
As for the nitrogen economy of the planet, it is a foundational component of
living organisms.44,45 However, in many Earth systems, it is in short supply in
readily assimilated forms for plants in both aquatic and land ecosystems. As a
consequence, it serves as a rate-limiting factor in restraining primary
production in the biosphere, and, therefore, a limiting factor for growing crops
for human use. Humans are significantly and negatively affecting the nitrogen
cycle. In some ways, the nitrogen cycle is intricately involved with the carbon
cycle of the planet, each feeding the other. The production and industrial use
of artificial nitrogen fertilizers worldwide have greatly increased food
production, but it has also caused serious environmental problems, including
eutrophication of terrestrial and aquatic systems (discussed below), global
acidification, and chemicalization.
In the 1990s, the anthropogenic nitrogen addition to the environment amounted to
more than 352 billion pounds (160 teragrams, Tg = 1012 gm) of nitrogen per year.
Globally, this amount is more than that supplied by natural biological nitrogen
fixation on land (110 Tg of nitrogen per year) or in the ocean (140 Tg of
nitrogen per year). Undoubtedly, such nitrogen burden will continue to grow due
to predicted increases in the world population, energy demands of people, and
consequent anthropogenic nitrogen fluxes. Indeed, it has been predicted that
humans will double the turnover rates of the terrestrial nitrogen cycle.
The manifold consequences of anthropogenic influences over the planetary
nitrogen cycle have been investigated by many regional and international
research groups. However, few efforts have been made to examine the interactions
of nitrogen with other major biological and geochemical cycles, especially the
effects on the carbon economy. Remarkably, there have been no studies of the
interactions of the nitrogen cycle on the oxygen cycle (economy) of the earth
system.
6. EUTROPHICATION
Eutrophication is the phenomenon of increased growth of vegetaion due to
nutrient build-up in ecosystems, both aquatic and land-based.46-49 In most
instances, it involves the accumulation of compounds containing nitrogen and
phosphorus. Excess of nutrients generally sets the stage for increased primary
productivity excessive growth and decay of vegetationof the ecosystem. Diverse
consequences of eutrophication include a lack of oxygen and diminished quality
of water. Not unexpectedly, eutrophication often severely affects the
populations of fish and other species.
During eutrophication, the patterns of growth of aquatic vegetation (plankton
and algae) are often markedly altered by an influx of large quantities of
nitrogen, phosphorus, and other nutrients, causing disruptions of the regional
ecologic conditions and increasing the supply of normally growth-limiting
nutrients. These changes cause major shifts in the species composition of
ecosystems by influencing the competitive struggle for resources among extant
species. For example, an increase in nitrogen availability can allow species
newly arriving in an ecosystem to invade, rival, and out compete original
inhabitant species. This has been documented in many regions of the world. In
discussions of eutrophication, oxygen is seldom, if ever, duly considered
because marine biologists generally do not view oxygen as a crucial nutrient.
Eutrophication has many documented adverse ecological effects: amplified biomass
of toxic phytoplankton, increased blooms of gelatinous zooplankton, decreased
biomass of certain algae (benthic, epiphytic, and others), altered populations
of some species, reduced water transparency (increased turbidity) with
consequential changes in water characteristics, and increased incidences of fish
kills. All of these factors decrease, directly or indirectly, the amount of
dissolved oxygen in water, increasing the degree of Eutrophication. Among the
three most consequential changes of overstimulated growth of some species at the
expense of others are: (1) diminished biodiversity; (2) altered changes in
species composition and dominance; and (3) toxic effects.
In the basic oxygen order in aquatic ecosystems, oxygen is released during
daylight hours by photosynthesizing plants and algae. Oxygen is utilized by all
respiring plants and marine species.
Under eutrophic conditions, the amounts of oxygen dissolved in water increase
substantially during the day, and decrease substantially after dark as it is
picked up by the respiring algae and microorganisms that feed on the increasing
mass of dead algae. When the eutrophic balance is disturbed and dissolved oxygen
levels decline to hypoxic levels, fish and other marine animals sicken and die
of suffocation. All species are affected, albeit to varying degrees, most
prominently the immobile bottom dwellers. In extreme instances, hypoxia
progresses to anoxiaanaerobic conditions that foster growth of anaerobes, such
as Clostridium botulinum, which produces deadly toxins that kill birds and
animals. Zones affected by such extremes are designated as dead zones.
When an ecosystem accumulates excess nutrient load, the primary producers of
that system reap the benefits first. In marine systems, algae are commonly the
first species to overgrow, a phenomenon called an algal bloom. Such blooms can
reach proportions enough to significantly limit the sunlight available to the
bottom dwelling organisms, causing wide fluctuations in the amounts of dissolved
oxygen in the region.
In stable ecosystems, some nutrients serve as rate-limiting factors for some but
not all species. So, differential availability of various nutrients influence
the competitive struggle for resource allocation. Eutrophication alters such
competitive balance, favoring some aquatic species with an excess of choice
nutrients. This results in shifts in the species composition. For example, an
increase in nitrogen allows newly introduced species in an ecosystem to invade,
out compete, and overwhelm native species. This has been documented in certain
New England salt marshes.
Food for some is poison for others. This observation concerning humans and their
foods made by some physicians of antiquity is applicable also to various
ecosystems of the planet. Some algae produce specific compounds which, when in
excess during algal blooms, become toxic not only to aquatic species but also to
humans, animals, and plants.50,51 Colloquial terms used for such algal blooms
include nuisance algae and harmful algal blooms. Not unexpectedly, such toxic
substances travel up the food chain, causing disease and death among other
species. For example, freshwater algal blooms are known to have killed
livestock. Notable among such toxins for humans are neurotoxins and hepatotoxins.
Such biotoxins produced in excess during algal blooms are consumed by shellfish
(mussels, oysters, and others), resulting in human food poisoning, such as
paralytic, neurotoxic, and diarrhoetic shellfish poisoning. Other aquatic
vectors for such toxins ciguatera, for exampleare ingested by predator fish
that accumulate the toxin and later poison humans when the poisoned fish is
consumed.
7. SCORCHED LANDS AND BIG THAWS
Planetary oxygen homeostasis is put in jeopardy when some of the planet's lands
are scorched and when others are thawed. Scorching kills vegetation and so stops
the release of oxygen from plants. Thawing of frozen lands (permafrost)
initially makes more oxygen available through availibility of water. However,
the long-term consequences of the loss of permafrost result in markedly
diminished availibility of oxygen by diverse mechanisms, as I explain below.
An increasing number of regions in the world face an ever-growing problem of
spreading deserts, called desertization (defined as increasing desert like
conditions in arid and semi arid lands).52-54 Desertification, sandification,
and desiccation are other terms sometimes used for the process. There are many
causes of this phenomenon but few, if any, solutions. The Sahara desert of
northern Africa is the largest desert in the world, and it is expanding at the
rate of 1km/yr. Some sense of the enormity of this problem may be gained by one
estimate that a 15-mile wide and 1370 miles long forest wall is needed to
prevent southern spread of the desert. Global warming unquestionably will deepen
the problem in African and many other regions in the world. Climatic changes,
humans, and livestock are considered as the main culprits.
As for big thaws, consider the following quotes from a 2008 report concerning
climatic changes in Mongolia published in Science55:
Global warming is not a uniform process. Mongolia, particularly at the high
altitudes around Lake Hovsgol, has been warming more than twice as fast as the
global average. Unique ecosystems are feeling the heat...Winter temperatures in
Mongolia have increased a staggering 3.6C on average during the past 60 years.
The mountains are losing their snowcaps, and the glaciers on the northern shore
are shrinking.
Higher average temperatures in summer are thawing the layer of permanently
frozen soil, or permafrost, and disturbing the soil structure around the shallow
tree roots...
Here at the transition between steppe grassland and taiga, plants and animals
are confronted with a changing environment and the outlook is not good for the
herders who are crowding up from the south...If land use patterns were the only
change, Mongolia's predicament would not be so dire. But now the land itself is
changing.
Increased a staggering 3.6 oC on average! Disturbing the soil structure around
the shallow tree roots! Nature perfected its balancing act over millions of
years. Now it is being disrupted within decades. Life simply cannot evolve fast
enough to survive such sweeping changes. Now consider another quote from that
report:
As permafrost retreats deeper or disappears, the ground becomes a giant sponge
that wicks water away from plant roots. That sets big changes in motion topside.
Taiga and permafrost always go together...You can't have one without the other.
Hovsgol's taiga forest is growing patchier. And without the insulating tree
cover soil warming accelerates.
The ground becomes a giant sponge! Two points need to be recognized here. First,
stagnation in the massive sponge suffocates life in the sponge. Second,
eventually all wet sponges dry up when the supply of fluids that saturates them
dries up.
References
42. Ali M. What is health? The South African of Natural Medicine. 2004;14:14-17.
43. Ali M. The Principles and Practice of Integrative Medicine Volume XI:
Darwin, Dysox, and Disease. 2000. 3rd. Edi. 2008. New York. Insitute of
Integrative Medicine Press.
44. Gruber N, Galloway JN, An Earth system perspective of the global nitrogen
cycle. Nature.2008;451:293 296.
45. Codispoti, L. A. An oceanic fixed nitrogen sink exceeding 400 Tg N a 1 vs
the concept of homeostasis in the fixed nitrogen inventory. Biogeosciences.
2206;3:12031246.
46. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. in Climate Change 2007: The
Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment
Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (eds Solomon, S. et al.)
118. 2007. Cambridge, UK. Cambridge University. Press.
47. Sterner RW, Elser JJ. Ecological stoichiometry: the Biology of Elements from
Molecules to the Biosphere . 2002. Princeton. Princeton Univ. Press.
48. Galloway J N. et al. Nitrogen cycles: past, present, future.
Biogeochemistry. 2004;70:153226.
49. Clark CM, Tilman D. Loss of plant species after chronic low level nitrogen
deposition to prairie grasslands. Nature.2008;451:712 715.
50. Schimel, D. S. et al. Recent patterns and mechanisms of carbon exchange by
terrestrial ecosystems. Nature . 2001;414:169172.
51. Riebesell, U. et al. Enhanced biological carbon consumption in a high CO2
ocean. Nature. 2007; 450:545548.
52. Coughlan R. Tropical Africa. 1962. New York: Time Incorporated
53. Farah Mounir, et al., eds. Global Insights: People and Cultures. 1994. New
York: Glencoe/McGraw Hill.
54. Gerster, George. Sahara: Desert of Destiny. New York: 1960. Coward McCann
Inc.
55. Bohannon. J. The Big Thaw Reaches Mongolia's Pristine North. Science.
2008;319:567 568.
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