It’s All About The Environment

In my last blog I discussed the fluid body and the vital role our inner ocean (aka – our cellular environment ) plays in our health and wellbeing.

To expand on this subject I would like to share with you the fascinating and inspiring story of Alexis Carrel – a French physiologist whose pioneering work in maintaining cell life outside of its host organism served as a precursor for organ transplants.

Experimenting with live chicken cells in the late 19th century, Carrell placed chicken cells in a Petri dish and observed that the metabolic waste shed by the individual cells depleted the oxygen, thus suffocating the cells in their own toxic waste. He determined that the change in the hydro culture medium from a healthy pH alkaline-acid balance to one of greater acidity had produced an environment totally unsupportive of cell life.

By adding a filtration system which kept fluids circulating and providing oxygen, the repeat of his earlier experiment of placing individual cardiac cells (extracted from the embryo of a chicken) in a Petri dish with a pH saline hydro-culture medium succeeded. These cells survived over a period of 11 years – more than twice the normal life span of a chicken was proof of the ability to sustain life outside of the body.

For his findings, Alexis Carrell was awarded the Nobel Prize 1912 for Medicine. However, he did not dispose of his experimental cells. In fact, twenty three years later, In his 1935 book “Man, The Unknown” Carrell referred to his “Immortal cells.”

Carrell’s empirical conclusion was simple: life is dependent upon the environment in which it abides.

Each one of our trillions of cells rely on the environment in which it lives. One of the keys to a happy, healthy life is a healthy cellular environment and in my next blog I will explore some steps we can take to naturally care for our inner environment.

Best,

Anne