Don’t Be Phased By Your Cells – They’re Whispering To You
This week was a bit reductionist, honing down on a vital but normally unviewable part of us, the human cell and what it can tell us. We’re made up of quite a few of them apparently, each communicating with one another, come the cut, cometh the hour i.e. to: stem blood loss, provide the scab and close the gap. Less ‘mind the gap’ more ‘fill the gap’, while we sleep our way naturally to ‘cut free’ health. So, our cells while never seeking praise, really do matter.
At primary school we didn’t much like ‘tell tale’ types, but when delving carefully into the body it will tell us tales of a wholly different nature, if we ask. That rash, blemish, blister is likely confirmation of ‘dis-ease’ the start, or more likely, the eruption of an out of balance process or two. It’s often a short term signal of a longer term problem. The emerging science over the last decade confirms the growing use of ‘phase angle’ measurement for whole body diagnosis. Studying inter cellular activity, it defines system efficiency prior to the appearance of visible clinical manifestations. There’s no point in having your car all revved up in first gear with the handbrake still firmly on, is there? Cellular efficiency confirms how our: consumption, respiration and elimination systems are working, hopefully in unison.
In extreme cases ‘phase angle’ is a prognostic indicator of survival, used in hospitals as a mortality risk identifier. As a nutritional status assessment it can improve feeding regimes, while acting as a marker of malnutrition, to identify the elderly population most at risk. Used at admission, it is an accurate predictor of 28 day mortality in Intensive Care Units.
Taken from Computational Physiology at the Spring Symposium 2011: Henry C Lukaski and Michaeal G Singer of the University of North Dakota defined ‘phase angle’ as the ‘arc tangent of the ratio of reactance to resistance’ and as a non-invasive measurement of tissue bioelectrical properties. It offers novel information and value to the clinical decision making matrix and supports the assessment of ‘benefit versus burden’ in discussions related to end of life decisions with patients and families dealing with cancer. As a prognostic indicator for assessing treatment staging of carcinoma in breast cancer patients that can only be a good thing.