Hi everyone. Today, we are going to be talking about the cell and building all of the important components of what makes a healthy cell and tying that into how we can promote Cell Health in mindfulness and yoga practice. So approximately 30 trillion cells or cell make up our bodies and not including all of the bacteria. There are hundreds of trillions of bacteria that also code and line all of our bodies. So when we talk about cells we have to build up to them. So whenever we talk about cells in life we're starting from an atomic level, building molecules like water and salts, building macro-molecules that we will talk about such as proteins and lipids and nucleic acids, and then build organelles which are really small almost organ like structures that help to facilitate all of the cell's functioning. Those cells are then going to be put together into tissues. The tissues will be put together into organs, those are going to make up the rest of the organ systems that we're going to talk about, and then we have of course our bodies. Integrating all of these at subatomic or atomic levels, or molecular levels all the way up to physiological levels sort of encompasses the great amount of work that our bodies do in keeping us healthy. Cells are the foundation to physiology because they make up all of the systems that we're going to be talking about later. When we talk about a cell we talk about the basic unit of life. Cell theory says of course that all cells come from preexisting cells that they are the smallest unit of life, and when we talk about life we have these seven things that everything that is alive has to actually be able to do or carry out. So things like homeostasis or keeping a steady-state, reacting to the environment. We've all experienced that. It's hot out and we start to sweat. We have to be able to grow, carry some genetic material which we'll talk about in the module on Genetics, be able to carry out cell metabolism such as making energy or breaking down sugar, ourselves and things that are alive have to be able to adapt and then evolve in subsequent generations. Homeostasis is a term that we are going to hear a lot and the reason is, is because one of the things our bodies work so hard out on a physiological level, on an organ system level and then on a cell level is maintaining a steady state. So steady-state refers to things like temperature, it refers to things like carbon dioxide and oxygen, blood pressure and water levels, cardiac output, the amount of food storage or glucose versus lipid storage, immune system reaction, pH, the bacterial environment and the microbiome and all of this requires so much energy, so much time and so many resources. So when we start to think about promoting cell health, we're really trying to aid ourselves and our physiological systems in having this homeostasis that's optimal, that's less stress and that's able to carry out all of the thousands of activities that cells have to do. So I mentioned before that all of ourselves and anything that is alive is built of four main macro-molecules. The first two are proteins and there is a picture of a helical structure of a protein and lipids. So proteins are made up of amino acids. We have 20 amino acids that make up all proteins, and lipids we might be familiar with in talking about things like fats but of course they're a much wider category. They include things like cholesterol which is the ball and stick figure you see on the screen, and the picture in the middle is actually a cell membrane. So one of the major components of all cells is they have these phospholipid bi-layer which is made up of coarse of lipids and it helps to allow certain things in and out of ourselves. So this ability for cells to keep their own internal environment is something that they also put a lot of work into. The third and fourth macro-molecules are going to be nucleotides, the nucleic acids and carbohydrates. Nucleic acids are going to include things that we are probably used to hearing about like DNA and RNA and the genetic material of all types of cells. But it also includes structures such as ATP which is what is going to provide the majority of energy for our cells to carry out all of their metabolic activity. In addition we have carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are used for energy. So energy storage we are used to hearing about them and things like glucose but they also have structural components. So we can build large chains of carbohydrates and store them for energy but we can also use them for structure. So for example, cellulose in plants is an example of a structural carbohydrate. So proteins is the most important of these bio macro-molecules only because that's what drives life. So proteins are made up of amino acids and we have essential amino acids and non-essential amino acids. So the essential amino acid means that humans cannot make them in great abundance or cannot make them at all. So you'll have to eat organisms that have these amino acids so that you can fortify yourself with these amino acids so they can build the proteins that drives life. So the other component is fat. So fat is very important not only it's because the body itself it's about 70% water so therefore we have to have two different environments, the internal environment and the external environment, and since they're both water-based we need fats to separate the two types of environments. So the fats, the lipids is very important to making cell membranes as well as very important to make cholesterol so that you can have proper differences between male and female function. So therefore you need to have the proper level of fat so that you can process and make testosterone and estrogen. So proteins are very important as we said before. The reason why they are important is because they give you most of the structures, they do cell signaling. So in other words one cells speaks to another cell using proteins or chemical messengers, and of course in order for chemical messengers to be understood you need receptors and so these receptors are all protein-based. On top of that, the most important of these proteins that makes and drives real life is something called enzymes. Enzymes will only make things go one direction. So if you were trying to build glucose you will only make glucose in the end or if you're trying to break down sucrose into glucose and fructose it will only form sucrose and fructose at the end. So now you're seeing a picture of the eukaryotic cell which is the cell that is found in our body. So the reason why it's called eukaryotic cell because eu means true and karyotic means the core so therefore our cells have a core or the nucleus, and it's surrounded by other functional bodies that are called organelles, that was mentioned before. All of these things will integrate with each other to make the cell properly function. Of course what is the one that makes all of these integration possible? It is proteins. So for all of the cell functions to occur you need energy and one of the ways that the body would make energy is using what's called aerobic respiration. So in order for that to happen of course you need red blood cells to transport the oxygen that you inhale in through your lungs and transport to the tissues that need it, especially muscles so that you can do all of this yoga poses. The red blood cell will deliver the oxygen to the rest of the tissues. So in doing so it will carry the oxygen through the red blood cells and it will deliver to the muscles and the muscles in turn will utilize the oxygen to make energy utilizing either carbohydrates, proteins or lipids and it will in turn output some waste like carbon dioxide. So this is a waste so the body needs to clear the waste. So how does the body clear the carbon dioxide? It utilizes the water to combine it to make carbonic acid because this is the same acid that you find in most soda cans. So the carbonic acid is not carried as an acid form but it is separated into its bicarb component and it adds a component by the enzymes of the red blood cell. So the acid is very dangerous for the body because when you have a lot of acids the proteins go from a natural state where it's usable to an unnatural state or we call it the denatured state and it's no longer usable. So therefore this is the reason why the cucumber can be placed into an acid bath and then when you leave it there for a while the cucumber will eventually die in that acid or denature and it will become a pickle something that you enjoy. So since the acid is very dangerous the red blood cell will carry just the acid component back to the lungs. Then where we make the carbonic acid and in the lungs it will separate itself from the carbonic acid to form the carbon dioxide and water again and it will then be expelled. So in doing so, this component is very important in what's called a pH regulation of the body. So the acid as I said was very dangerous but also the base component is also slightly dangerous. But if you have just the amount of base the body understands how to handle it but it will not allow any bacteria to grow in your blood. So this is the reason why our blood remain sterile. It is all from this equation. So this equation is incredibly important to the body. So proper breathing ensures this proper equation to exist in the blood. So again, you need to take in nice levels of oxygen and breathe out, and yoga gives you the best posture for this.
