Mike asked:
> Ah, that must be my problem. For years I've consistently run a full
> degree below normal body temp (my temp the other day donating blood:
> 97.6 degrees F). Does this contribute to my expected heritable
> longevity as well?
Difficult to say. If you just have specific gene variants that
make the uncoupling proteins inefficient or don't produce enough
of them then certainly you would have a low temperature. It
would be bad if the mitochondrial gradient was kept high due
to the free radical damage that would result. But its probably
more likely (particularly given indications for longevity) that
the polymorphisms are further upstream, perhaps in the
electron transport chain or even further back in the more
basic metabolism of glucose. You may not have enough of
a gradient across the mitochondrial membranes to generate
enough heat even if the uncoupling proteins are running
full tilt. In that case you don't really have to worry
about free radical damage as much.
> I've also noticed that when I take significant measures to raise my
> metabolism (no, not any drugs), my anxiety levels also increase. What
> would be the connection?
Hard to say. Obviously down through time, Nature has selected
genetic polymorphisms that work "well" together. Often this
can be because the genes sit next to each other on a chromosome
and are unlikely to get shuffled from one generation to the next.
(Recombination rates vary with chromosome distance -- larger
inter-gene distances ~= larger recombination frequency).
So whatever the sensing mechanisms are for "anxiety", they
may be tied to things like blood glucose levels, thyroid
hormone levels, etc. and you have gene sets where low
metabolic rate = low anxiety. I suspect however that you
might be able to "train" the anxiety response using some
biofeedback techniques.
Robert
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:16 MDT