John Hemming's Web Log

We know Vitamin D exists. We know that people suffer if they don't have enough of it. However, it raises an interesting question as to why we evolved to create a vitamin in the summer which gets stored and then gradually fades away during the winter. I have an idea. Historically food was more plentiful in the summer and less available in the winter. The genes that rely on vitamin D don't function without it. Hence the body requires less energy. There are a number of things which operate to adjust metabolism to fit food availability. I think Vitamin D evolved to provide an annual metabolic cycle so things which could wait which required energy did not operate. That gives an idea as to what functions we would expect to depend on vitamin D. It would be those functions which are useful, but not essential all year round.

Role of autophagy in aging: The good, the bad, and the ugly is a really good review into the function of autophagy (eating yourself) which is how cells tidy themselves up by getting rid of dysfunctional mitochondria and creating new ones. Autophagy is a good thing because it makes cells work better. That almost certainly ups the Acetyl-CoA levels in the nucleus which readers of this blog will know is a *Good Thing . [Incidentally if you have the time its worth reading all of the review] I will extract part of the review: Unfortunately, the protection afforded by autophagy is progressively erased with age. For instance, Atg5, Atg7, and Beclin 1 are down-regulated in the normal aging brain, whereas, in osteoarthritis, the levels of ULK1, Beclin 1, and LC3 fall (Rubinsztein et al., 2011). In hepatocytes of aged rats, alongside the increase in cytosolic Hsc70, and coordinate with decreased binding and lysosomal uptake of cargo, there is a significant rise in degradation and hence red

People who read my blog will be aware that I have for some time argued that most (if not all) diseases of aging are caused by cells not being able to produce enough of the right proteins. What happens is that certain genes stop functioning because of a metabolic imbalance. I was, however, mystified as to why it was always particular genes that stopped working. Recently, however, there have been three papers produced: Aging is associated with a systemic length-associated transcriptome imbalance Age- or lifestyle-induced accumulation of genotoxicity is associated with a generalized shutdown of long gene transcription and Gene Size Matters: An Analysis of Gene Length in the Human Genome From these it is obvious to see that the genes that stop working are the longer ones. To me it is therefore obvious that if there is a shortage of nuclear Acetyl-CoA then it would mean that the probability of longer Genes being transcribed would be reduced to a greater extent than shorter ones.

The last few days have been quite interesting in the supplements space. We had the FDA banning NMN and the reports that NR may encourage some forms of cancer. FDA says ingredient studied as drug—β-NMN—is excluded from supplements is one of a number of stories which explain how the FDA have concluded that NMN is actually excluded. It wasn't really so much a decision of the FDA actually to ban NMN as a supplement as a reinterpretation of the regulations that found that NMN should not be allowed as a dietary supplement. At the same time we have had Study: Popular dietary supplement causes cancer risk, brain metastasis which is based upon A bioluminescent-based probe for in vivo non-invasive monitoring of nicotinamide riboside uptake reveals a link between metastasis and NAD+ metabolism . The first one was not really something intentional, and may be changed by discussion and/or legal action. It also only has effect in the USA. The second one, however, is more serious and i

I have been working on improving the health of the cells in my body, with some success, for a while now. This year, however, I have decided to monitor the situation with what are essentially weekly blood tests. I started out the year with blood tests every 4 weeks, but in May I moved to weekly tests. Apart from a short period when on holiday I have had at least one blood test each week since May 5th 2022. I have found this a particularly useful process, but in doing this I have learnt some things that are I think important for others to know. Hence I thought I would write this blog post. I have used a number of different Laboratories. Most Laboratories offer a form of general health screen which covers basic biochemistry and the health of various organs such as the kidneys, liver and heart. The selection of tests often varies in detail, but certain tests such a Creatinine and Haemoglobin tend always to be done. I was concerned, however, that I did not think some of the result

On Wednesday 13th July there was a hearing in my case against Sonia Poulton. There have been a lot of technical hearings and it has been back and forth with costs going each way. So far, everyone has made a net loss. For example, as MHN points out , there have been a number of mixed costs orders. The difficulty is Sonia only reports the ones that go her way, but fails to mention things that do not support her account. Indeed, that is how this started. My issue with her so called, "reporting" is that she only reports one side of the argument. This then results in putting my family at risk and causing distress for my family and myself. In 2015, Esther Baker accused me and several others of rape. But since then, things have moved on - her allegations have been found, "untrue" in the High Court and she has been restrained for life from repeating them. The allegations are now deemed so lacking in credibility they have been removed from my ECRB - meaning I could apply