"In an age when men can inscribe new worlds on a grain of sand, ancient perogatives have lost their significance --- people and ideas, not places and things make all the difference now."
--- Peter Binzen

"If you see a good fight, get in it."
--- Vernon Johns

      BioShields is an information framework that facilitates early adaptor responses to research in the life sciences, and to news events, in general.

      In areas of concern such as nutrition, exercise, mental stressors and enhancements, personal habitat, environmental and socio-political hazards, etc., waiting for official positions as guides to action often results in precious time or opportunities lost.

      The jump point for an adaptive response is the moment when information and evidence become compelling. Defining such moments isn't a science, but an art. I believe BioShields succeeds in eleucidating many of these springboads to personal well-being.


Genesis and 1st Year Goals

      I first used a "positive blitzkrieg" approach in 1983 (inspired by Robert Hass' "Eat To Win"), to overcome poor tennis match play. The application of the exercise and nutritional synergies was so successful, that I continued to amass data and expand the scope of the compilation.
      From 1993-1999 I sent these info synergies via a mailing list over the Net (ChemTao: Synergies In The Life Sciences). They were well-received.

      Recently, looking at two cardboard boxes full of newspaper clippings, and a huge amount of accumulated online files and abstracts, I realized it was time for an update (and a name change).
      The amount of work is, at times, daunting; I anticipate all areas to be on the web site and updated by the end of December, 2002.



Section Excerpts:

Overview:

            University of Alabama researchers (Raymond N. Hiramoto, prof. of microbiology; Vithal Ghanta, assc. prof. of biology and microbiology; H. Brent Solvasson, grad. student in microbiology dept.) have shown that at least in mice, the brain can be taught to control part of the immune system.
      Dr. Raymond N. Hiramoto:
      "Since smell is perceived in the brain, the mice that raised their immune system activity in response to the camphor odor had to be communicating between brain and immune system. What we're showing, is once the brain learns this response, it can direct the activity of the immune system and the natural killer cells. This 'talk' had to go on, or you wouldn't get an immune response. We've definitely established a link between immune functions and processes in the brain."

Nutrient Overview:
      Antioxidants neutralize free radicals, which oxidize lipids and damage cells.
      Dr. Mary N. Haan, director of the Center for Aging and Health at the U. of California-Davis School of Medicine:
      "If free radicals were human beings, they would be arrested. They are the gangs, the looters, in our bodies."

      Dr. Jeffery Blumberg, associate director and professor at the USDA Human Nutrition Center on Aging at Tufts University:
      "The evidence is now undisputed that diet and nutrition are directly linked to many of the chronic diseases afflicting older adults."

Nutrients: Garlic:
     Dr. Herbert Pierson, a toxicologist who (until recently) headed the National Cancer Institute's "Designer Foods" program:
      "Garlic is a veritable pharmacopeia. That's why garlic has been found in every medical book of every culture ever. For thousands of years, garlic has been used for the treatment and prevention of disease. So there has to be something there."
  "A huge data base exists documenting health benefits ranging from cardiovascular effects to cancer inhibition, from the slowing down of aging to the detoxification of heavy metals and other poisonous chemical susbstances."

Cabbage:
      Dr. Eric Scholar, from the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Disease in Omaha, Neb., has performed a study which indicates that cruciferae not only help prevent cancer, but also help prevent the SPREAD of cancer.
   Mice that had breast tumor cells injected into their tails were fed diets containing either 5 percent or 9 percent dried collards or savoy cabbage (that equals 3 to 5 cups of cooked collards or 2 to 4 cups of cooked cabbage per day for a human).
  The cruciferae-eating mice developed fewer lung tumors than mice that had been fed a vegetable-free diet with an equal amount of fiber.
      "Though its too early to extrapolate to humans, these studies agree with others that cruciferae have protective effect."

Fruit:
      Dr. Herbert Pierson, former director of the National Cancer Institute's designer Foods Program:
    "The juice of four oranges may contain 10 different major phytochemicals that are absorbed into the blood and can be measured. That these molecules have antimutagenic activity, anticarcinogenic activity, cholesterol-lowering activity and anti-inflammatory activity is well- known."

Negative Factors:
            Sheldon Krimsky, professor of urban and environmental policy at Tufts University; chairman of the Council for Responsible Genetics:
     "The FDA had the option of regulating genetically-engineered food by treating it as if it were a food additive, but chose a far less conservative path, one that introduces unnecessary risks into the food supply. The policy requires premarket testing only for gene products considered novel. If a bovine gene is introduced into tomatoes and apples, for exmaple, the resulting food product may be deemed safe because the protein product of that gene is already present in beef people eat."

  "But the foreign gene may not behave the same in the new crop as it does in the original species; the new gene may alter the functioning of other genes, or may be affected by its new environment."

     "The cases of genetically engineered bacteria used in a Japanese process of manufacturing L-Tryptophan, which resulted in a fatal blood disorder (EMS) and at least 27 deaths, and the genetically engineered growth hormone used in dairy cows in Wisconsin and Minnesota (bovine somatotropin) that has fueled heated debate over foreign by-products and effects on nutritional value, warn the nation that a fast track for evaluating biotechnology is not in the best interest of protecting the food supply."

    "The FDA's ruling does not respect the consumer's right to be informed that a product has been genetically altered, for it provides no labeling provisions."
    "It is a mistake to initiate genetic engineering by exempting large classes of products from a case-by-case review under the same laws that protect consumers from synthetic food additives."   

Mind/Body:
            Barbara Brown in "Beyond Biofeedback":
"...the body follows COMMAND VISUALIZATIONS. We need not program each nerve directly...instead, we visualize what we want to happen, and the body converts the command visualization into the individual neural processces for execution. The body knows what to do if the person involved knows what is desired; it does not care about the scientific accuracy of the commands, or about the results per se. Negative, destructive commands can be followed with the same success as positive commands. It is this very fact that gives rise to the peculiar physiological behaviors called psychosomatic diseases."

Habitat Enhancements:
      "Environmental factors appear to play a larger role than previously thought in precipitating mental disorders, especially those linked to genetic vulnerability. In most of these disorders, people are not born with an overt disease but with a genetic susceptibility to it. What triggers the vulnerability into manifesting disease may be the wear and tear of aging, toxic chemicals, social stress, or other environmental insults."

Conclusion:
      ...Altruism, or continual involvement in helping others, enhances the very brain chemistry responsible for effective immune system function...



Use of Amazon.com's Honor Payment System

       It takes me approximately four hours+ per day for a thorough scan of news events and research, including updating tasks. In other words, BioShields, fully realized, will be (at least) a part-time job.

            I save visitors to my web site precious browsing time, and provide access to quotes (via clippings) that are either not available on the Web or accessible only at cost for _full-text_ papers or articles.
      My observations and departure points are grounded in the mainstream, yet often lead (naturally) to the remarkable.
      The information, observations and conclusions in BioShields will stand the test of time.

      If you find BioShields (or sections) of particular use or interest, paying a small amount via the Amazon system (secure and easy to use) will eventually enable me to devote proper time to the site's maintenence, updates and enhancements.


Lance Sanders
August, 2001

"So far as we know we are the supreme bearers of thought in the universe. After five million centuries of evolution, we have emerged for only fifty centuries in a literate process of thought. It has all been an affair of the first hundred generations or so. If this perspective is true, a supreme trust is placed in us by the whole creation; and it is sacrilege even to contemplate actions which may lead to the extinction of humanity or even its relegation to earlier or more primitive states of culture. To avoid this is the particular calling of literate and scientific man in this universe."
--- W.H. Thorpe