WW2 Pilot
The father of a friend was a pilot in the Second World War and flew delivery aircraft from Canada to England without GPS or radar and at a low level. Any wonder he smoked 50 tailor-mades per day and washed down his food with considerable amounts of gin. He was great with two gins but best avoided after that until fully sedated.
He was exposed to extreme stress and many environmental toxins but lived a long disease-free life until his late 70s.
He really did everything wrong. He was bright, tough, argumentative, and in conflict with his environment most of the time.
I never had the chance to do his SNPs (Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms are frequently called SNPs and are pronounced “snips”; they are the most common type of genetic variation among people. Each SNP represents a difference in a single DNA building block, called a nucleotide), sadly. I am having an educated guess that his superoxide dismutase (an enzyme that constitutes a very important antioxidant defence against oxidative stress in the body) was strong, and his glutathione (antioxidant) pathway was robust.
I also am guessing that his methylation (gene expression regulator) pathway was a bit dodgy and his COMt gene (Catechol O-Methyltransferase: a gene that affects hormones, which in turn affect stress reactivity, mental and physical health) was a heterozygous or homozygous mutant variant.
As with any engine wear and tear, among other factors, is the importance of the design of the exhaust system – commencing with the extraction from the cylinder head to the movement through the catalytic converter and then the ease of escape into the atmosphere.
The human engine or the mitochondria is the organelle within which the fuel is combusted with oxygen. The same factors are operating here as in the human-made engine. Our mitochondria inherited from our mothers exist in most cells in our bodies. There are upwards of 1000 of these in the cells, and they oxidise glucose to produce ATP (Adenosine triphosphate); ATP is one of the prime energy sources we use to power cellular processes.
If we consider that we have somewhere around 1013 human cells and 1000 mitochondria per cell then we have 1016 mitochondria producing around a total of 2 kilowatts of energy per 24 hours. So, according to my calculations, which may be a bit dodgy, each mitochondrion is producing on average 5×10-14 watts.
If the fuel source is appropriate and clean, and the delivery of oxygen is efficient, and without pollutants, the exhaust that is produced will be less toxic to the cellular structure. Added to this, if the detox pathway has the best SNPs, then the cell will potentially have less damage.
Tobacco smoke, gin and stress obviously can be managed in part by good detox efficiency. It begs the question: how long would my friend’s dad have lasted if he had had a moderate lifestyle. It also begs the question: could the array of SNPs he was blessed with have benefited from the gin, the smoke and the stress?!