Friday, February 4, 2011
bsim-bccs - Project Hosting on Google Code
bsim-bccs - Project Hosting on Google Code: "The BSim framework is a cross platform Java based programming API that has been developed from scratch to model the stochastic interactions of bacteria and particles in a fluid based environment. This was developed as part of Bristol University entry in the iGEM 2008 competition in which the team won a bronze medal and overall best model prize. Since then it has also been used by the BCCS-Bristol in 2009 where a gold medal was won and overall best model prize retained. iGEM is an international student competition which aims to promote the use of synthetic biology in solving problems in a new way. The BSim system is designed to be highly extendible and available for Windows, Mac OS X and UNIX systems."
jolecule
jolecule
Sick of complicated protein viewers?
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Fwd: Multiple sclerosis and Methionine
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Isabelle Hakala <ismirth@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 7:27 AM
Subject: Re: Multiple sclerosis and Methionine
To: diybio@googlegroups.com
Methionine is used in every cell cycle of the body, is needed to regulate a wide range of functions, is needed to create cortisol/cortisone, estrogen, testosterone, regulate the immune system, make bile for digestion, control levels of histamines/histadines, etc. Since it plays a fairly major function in the regulation of the immune system, it was a strong focus for stress related issues of auto-immune dysfunction. I really wasn't focused on MS per se. I was focused on the wide range of illnesses that have trouble being diagnosed: IBS, lupus, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromialga, and certain symptoms that over time seem to 'come and go' from people (or sometimes just stick around), such as skin problems/rashes/psoriasis/eczema, insomnia, digestive problems, feeling like bugs crawling on the skin, low sex drive, restless leg syndrome, twitching of the eyes from side to side, metallic taste in the mouth, yeast issues throughout the body, extreme allergies or sensitivities to things that pop up and disappear, muscle spasms, shooting energy feeling through muscles, unable to think clearly. Not everyone that is methionine deficient has all of these symptoms, but if someone has a few of them, then I usually recommend they try the methionine treatment. Most people notice an improvement within the first 6 weeks. One of the first people that was on the treatment had had extremely LOW blood pressure previously, and suddenly their BP corrected to normal. Thankfully they were not on any medication for it, so nothing needed to be changed. But from then on I made sure to tell people to check their blood pressure frequently. All but one person who was on BP medication for high BP needed to stop taking it because their BP returned to normal. One person who was exceedingly ill and with high cholesterol reported that within 3 weeks of starting on the methionine treatment that their LDL came way down, and their HDL went way up, and were both suddenly within the norm. They had not been on medication for it, and so had simply been monitoring it.
The levels that were originally tried were the, then, recommended levels for copper chelation, which are considered to be high, but safe. That is 2000mg a day of methionine. A B complex is required with the methionine or one will become B deficient which causes all kinds of other issues. Any illness which is naturally coupled with B deficiency is likely to be strongly helped by methionine. A B deficiency would indicate that a massive amount of methionine is being used/converted in the body, thus making the B levels low. The difficulty with testing for methionine deficiency is that the body REALLY needs to maintain the methionine levels in the blood, so when one is deficient, the deficiency isn't in the blood... there is a lack of methionine everywhere else in the body that the body deems it safe to steal it from (such as the immune system, etc), which causes a treasure-trove of issues that are nearly impossible to track down the source of.
Part of what lead me to believe that methionine deficiency might actually contribute to MS is that methionine is needed in myoline sheath repair. And if the body can't use the building blocks it needs, then it will usually try something close, but not 'right'. That sounds like what might be happening with MS.
Now, usually someone starts on methionine and within 6 weeks is starting to feel extremely better, but with the person that had MS, his symptoms were slower to abate. We noticed that it takes about as long to repair the damage as it did to MAKE the damage. His down-hill battle had been over about a 1 years time, and his climb back up that hill took about that long before he was able to really be SURE that it was the methionine. All of his pain, and spasms had stopped, and he was able to walk and run again, but he still had some 'lack of feeling' and control.
I have experience with brain damage, memory loss, and etc, and one of the things that really helps with that is the lysine/arginine treatment. People have posited that the arginine helps to repair nerves and neurons when bound with lysine (lysine only stays bound to arginine in the absence of carbohydrates, because lysine is used to digest carbs, thus freeing the arginine, making it no longer usable for the repair process). After beginning the Lys/Arg treatment he began to suddenly experience feelings in his limbs as though they were 'waking up' with some pins and needles, flashes, etc. He said they were not unbearable, and not even close to as bad as the degeneration had been. He has now regained feeling, and use of them, to levels very near 'normal'.
When I recommended that he try the Lys/Arg treatment I warned him that I had no idea if it would help him, but that it wouldn't hurt his body to allow it to heal some stuff that may or may not be related to his MS.
The levels of the Lys/Arg treatment had been told to me by someone else in the past, and I used their recommendations and treatment schedule (3 months on, 3 off, repeat). This has seemed to be a solid recommendation, and so have simply stuck with it.
The reason that I chose to wait a year before starting the Lys/Arg treatment was because if one does too many things at the same time, one cannot tell what is doing what. I have a good history of knowing how the methionine treatment makes people feel, and how things react to it, so that if that is the only change we have made, then if something strange happens (like withdrawal symptoms from stopping muscle relaxers that had been taken for more than a year straight) then it is easier to identify. Once the patient stabilized, then we moved on to trying the Lys/Arg treatment.
About the brand recommendation. I VERY STRONGLY recommend only using the Country Life Brand of Methionine for these levels of methionine consumption. Many people have tried other brands (because of price, or availability) and ALL of the other brands that people have tried have been reported to cause strange side effects (such as a weird feeling in the abdomen, foggy feeling in the head, etc). No side effects have ever been reported about the Country Life Brand. And the other warning is: never take methionine without a B complex! B-deficiency can cause all kinds of problems, including depression, and suicidal thoughts. It is just FINE to take the B without the methionine, but never take methionine alone.
We also found, through trial and error, that taking it just before you eat seems to help with keeping the levels more stable. People who are severely deficient can actually feel it when the methionine runs out. I suspect that taking it right before eating means that it is better absorbed into the body due to the pills being broken down better in the intestines/stomach. But this is simply supposition on my part. Anecdotal evidence does point to it being best to taking it right before your first bite of food.
Please feel free to ask me more questions, as I would love to help anyone out there that feels this might help them:)
I have not proofed this for typos or spelling, so please forgive any of such:)
-Isabelle
617-416-4142
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Isabelle Hakala
"Any person who says 'it can't be done' shouldn't be interrupting the people getting it done."
"Do every single thing in life with love in your heart."
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From: Isabelle Hakala <ismirth@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 7:27 AM
Subject: Re: Multiple sclerosis and Methionine
To: diybio@googlegroups.com
Methionine is used in every cell cycle of the body, is needed to regulate a wide range of functions, is needed to create cortisol/cortisone, estrogen, testosterone, regulate the immune system, make bile for digestion, control levels of histamines/histadines, etc. Since it plays a fairly major function in the regulation of the immune system, it was a strong focus for stress related issues of auto-immune dysfunction. I really wasn't focused on MS per se. I was focused on the wide range of illnesses that have trouble being diagnosed: IBS, lupus, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromialga, and certain symptoms that over time seem to 'come and go' from people (or sometimes just stick around), such as skin problems/rashes/psoriasis/eczema, insomnia, digestive problems, feeling like bugs crawling on the skin, low sex drive, restless leg syndrome, twitching of the eyes from side to side, metallic taste in the mouth, yeast issues throughout the body, extreme allergies or sensitivities to things that pop up and disappear, muscle spasms, shooting energy feeling through muscles, unable to think clearly. Not everyone that is methionine deficient has all of these symptoms, but if someone has a few of them, then I usually recommend they try the methionine treatment. Most people notice an improvement within the first 6 weeks. One of the first people that was on the treatment had had extremely LOW blood pressure previously, and suddenly their BP corrected to normal. Thankfully they were not on any medication for it, so nothing needed to be changed. But from then on I made sure to tell people to check their blood pressure frequently. All but one person who was on BP medication for high BP needed to stop taking it because their BP returned to normal. One person who was exceedingly ill and with high cholesterol reported that within 3 weeks of starting on the methionine treatment that their LDL came way down, and their HDL went way up, and were both suddenly within the norm. They had not been on medication for it, and so had simply been monitoring it.
The levels that were originally tried were the, then, recommended levels for copper chelation, which are considered to be high, but safe. That is 2000mg a day of methionine. A B complex is required with the methionine or one will become B deficient which causes all kinds of other issues. Any illness which is naturally coupled with B deficiency is likely to be strongly helped by methionine. A B deficiency would indicate that a massive amount of methionine is being used/converted in the body, thus making the B levels low. The difficulty with testing for methionine deficiency is that the body REALLY needs to maintain the methionine levels in the blood, so when one is deficient, the deficiency isn't in the blood... there is a lack of methionine everywhere else in the body that the body deems it safe to steal it from (such as the immune system, etc), which causes a treasure-trove of issues that are nearly impossible to track down the source of.
Part of what lead me to believe that methionine deficiency might actually contribute to MS is that methionine is needed in myoline sheath repair. And if the body can't use the building blocks it needs, then it will usually try something close, but not 'right'. That sounds like what might be happening with MS.
Now, usually someone starts on methionine and within 6 weeks is starting to feel extremely better, but with the person that had MS, his symptoms were slower to abate. We noticed that it takes about as long to repair the damage as it did to MAKE the damage. His down-hill battle had been over about a 1 years time, and his climb back up that hill took about that long before he was able to really be SURE that it was the methionine. All of his pain, and spasms had stopped, and he was able to walk and run again, but he still had some 'lack of feeling' and control.
I have experience with brain damage, memory loss, and etc, and one of the things that really helps with that is the lysine/arginine treatment. People have posited that the arginine helps to repair nerves and neurons when bound with lysine (lysine only stays bound to arginine in the absence of carbohydrates, because lysine is used to digest carbs, thus freeing the arginine, making it no longer usable for the repair process). After beginning the Lys/Arg treatment he began to suddenly experience feelings in his limbs as though they were 'waking up' with some pins and needles, flashes, etc. He said they were not unbearable, and not even close to as bad as the degeneration had been. He has now regained feeling, and use of them, to levels very near 'normal'.
When I recommended that he try the Lys/Arg treatment I warned him that I had no idea if it would help him, but that it wouldn't hurt his body to allow it to heal some stuff that may or may not be related to his MS.
The levels of the Lys/Arg treatment had been told to me by someone else in the past, and I used their recommendations and treatment schedule (3 months on, 3 off, repeat). This has seemed to be a solid recommendation, and so have simply stuck with it.
The reason that I chose to wait a year before starting the Lys/Arg treatment was because if one does too many things at the same time, one cannot tell what is doing what. I have a good history of knowing how the methionine treatment makes people feel, and how things react to it, so that if that is the only change we have made, then if something strange happens (like withdrawal symptoms from stopping muscle relaxers that had been taken for more than a year straight) then it is easier to identify. Once the patient stabilized, then we moved on to trying the Lys/Arg treatment.
About the brand recommendation. I VERY STRONGLY recommend only using the Country Life Brand of Methionine for these levels of methionine consumption. Many people have tried other brands (because of price, or availability) and ALL of the other brands that people have tried have been reported to cause strange side effects (such as a weird feeling in the abdomen, foggy feeling in the head, etc). No side effects have ever been reported about the Country Life Brand. And the other warning is: never take methionine without a B complex! B-deficiency can cause all kinds of problems, including depression, and suicidal thoughts. It is just FINE to take the B without the methionine, but never take methionine alone.
We also found, through trial and error, that taking it just before you eat seems to help with keeping the levels more stable. People who are severely deficient can actually feel it when the methionine runs out. I suspect that taking it right before eating means that it is better absorbed into the body due to the pills being broken down better in the intestines/stomach. But this is simply supposition on my part. Anecdotal evidence does point to it being best to taking it right before your first bite of food.
Please feel free to ask me more questions, as I would love to help anyone out there that feels this might help them:)
I have not proofed this for typos or spelling, so please forgive any of such:)
-Isabelle
617-416-4142
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Isabelle Hakala
"Any person who says 'it can't be done' shouldn't be interrupting the people getting it done."
"Do every single thing in life with love in your heart."
On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 2:16 AM, jlund256 <jlund256@gmail.com> wrote:
-- How did you come up with this complex series of treatments? Were many
tests with combinations and doses tried on different patients before
you found a series that was effective? Or did you hit on a good
treatment the first try?
Do you have a theory that directed you to these particular chemicals?
How did you pick the order and duration of treatments?
What sort of complications led you to discover that blood pressure and
cholesterol levels need to be monitored?
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "DIYbio" group.
To post to this group, send email to diybio@googlegroups.com.
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--
http://www.google.com/profiles/technologiclee
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