Bossed by bacteria

With thanks to Axel Kock for the image

A post arising from recent research suggesting that our bacteria may manage our brains.

Do I recall this correctly? At one stage it was contended that there was a gut-brain barrier – by which the brain was isolated from the gut, and protected from its dynamic participant, the gut microbiome.

Well now you can forget that ‘scientific truth’. A new study (22.12.2023) that you can read about here suggests that the gut biome not only connects with the brain, but can influence it – both indirectly by stimulating the enteric nervous and immune systems, and directly through molecules that enter circulation and cross the blood-brain barrier. ‘Emerging evidence suggests that the timing and duration of (brain) development occurs in discrete windows called sensitive periods (SPs) which may be driven in part by cues from the developing gut microbiome.’

The study goes on to conclude, ‘Through a combination of classical statistical analysis and machine learning (ML), we find that the development of the gut microbiome, children’s cognitive abilities, and brain structure are intimately linked, with both microbial taxa and gene functions able to predict cognitive performance and brain structure.’

This recent study inevitably moves the argument against us and our fixed genetic markers as managers of our development, in favour of our controlling resident micro-organisms. Irrespective of human intention, it is our gut bacteria that forms us into what our bacteria want us to be, and make us what we are. They appear to help manage our development, including that of our brain, which is probably (if we subscribe to evolutionary theory) for their own purposes rather than ours.

Back in May 2022 I raised the importance of the gut biome in relation to our identity. I asked whether homo sapiens was the zenith of evolution, or might we simply be one of the vehicles elaborated by our clever gut microbiome to perpetuate their species? In other words, are we actually in charge, or is it out gut flora, passed from generation to generation that calls the shots?

Microbiota has been one of life’s great survivors. Flexible, adaptable, opportunistic, and seemingly ‘intelligent’, it has probably paved its own pathway through the life-forms that surround it. As intelligent life, we carry it further, and indeed everywhere we go. Perhaps we have evolved for its purpose?

Next time you consider your freedoms, opportunities, rights and entitlements, may be it would be wise to think about what is really driving your choices?

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Tiny homes revisited

A further post concerning the social and economic benefits of tiny homes, and the legislative changes required in the UK.

Housing and the provision of new homes appears to be a hot electoral issue. For many, house prices are unaffordable, especially in rural areas, and making greenbelt available for homes comes at a social, environmental and electoral cost.

As we discussed here, social care for an ageing population is in crisis, and one of vanishingly few accommodation solutions to manage early cognitive decline is the removal of the elderly from their homes into costly care.

But might there be another possibility that answers all three of our pressing needs: those of housing, social care for the elderly, and environmental management?

New Zealand leads the way with legislation providing that tiny houses (35-80 sqm) built on a trailer are classified as vehicles and not buildings. They do not avoid planning laws totally; but the rules provide substantially more flexibility than our UK legislation. And they are becoming very popular to provide alternative independent accommodation for both young and old.

Here in the UK S.55(1) Town and Country Planning Act 1990 requires specific planning permission for the addition or alteration of structures on land, and this captures almost all tiny homes. Schedule 1 Caravan Sites and Control of Development Act 1960 sets out the exceptions, but use of a tiny home ‘independent’ of the main residence on the land is not one of them. UK exemptions from planning permissions currently apply only in authorised locations and for ‘caravan’ construction not exceeding 20m length x 6.8m width x 3.05 height.

In 1960 the Caravan Sites Act may have been wise legislation. Following the blitz, WW2 prefabs seen as a temporary solution to a housing problem under Churchill’s Temporary Housing Programme, had not the best reputation. Construction methods, whilst efficient for their time, did not provide security, adequate insulation or the permanence that was seen as essential to address long term housing need. There was also the fear that derestriction would allow a proliferation of gypsy and traveller encampments. This was an ongoing concern as evident in this House of Commons fascinating debate in 2005.

Construction methods and insulation for tiny homes have massively improved. They are now entirely viable for permanent occupation in any temperature, in any country throughout the year. Moreover, the environmental benefits of a properly constructed tiny home can exceed that of bricks and mortar.

Perhaps we should be looking to optimise the tiny home solution by:

• Changing the national planning requirements for the location of tiny homes, namely non-permanent structures fabricated within prescribed dimensions and to construction and insulation criteria;
• Engaging financial incentives for occupants of homes with gardens/land to provide accommodation for tiny home/s that are located within two metres of their boundary;
• Enabling councils to authorise 5, 10 and 20 year permissions for the location of tiny homes that comply with the above requirements;
• Altering capital gains and inheritance tax laws to incentivise communal living arrangements involving tiny homes, namely by zero-rating such transfers over the sliding scale of the permissions.

Many retired or recently bereaved seniors would be delighted to sell their (often larger) family homes to relocate and invest within the curtilage of their children and grandchildren’s home. Residing in proximity to a relative’s home may secure for them (and society) several extra years of supported independent living. Additionally, the arrangement may enable reinvestment from proceeds of sale of the former family home to a new property that offers the additional space to accommodate a tiny home.

In summary, the advantages of these arrangements could release back into the market place under-occupied homes of seniors, potentially reduce burdens on social care for the elderly, enable grandparents to provide localised childcare for working parents; provide environmental benefits from near-net-zero fabrication of tiny homes;  linked to the incentive of Inheritance tax exemption.

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D3 or crosswords?

A post about dementia and vitamin D3 – with thanks to Psychology Today for the picture.

On 1 March 2023 the Alzheimer’s Association published a peer-reviewed scientific paper centred on the relationship between vitamin D supplementation and dementia. To read it (which I recommend) simply click the link here or above.

In summary, a massive 12,388 individuals were involved over ten years in the Canadian study. The findings revealed that Vitamin D exposure was associated with 40% lower dementia incidence versus no exposure, meaning that those that received D3 supplements were significantly better protected from dementia than those that did not. Results were enhanced for males, and also those who entered the study dementia-free.

Many earlier studies have focused on the health benefits of vitamin D, in particular D3 (do read my previous post here). Vitamin D is naturally generated in the body through skin exposure to sunlight, and appears to be of significance for day-to-day health. Humans would historically have gained sufficient natural exposure in our more primitive lifestyle, but migration to Europe and the north where daylight is restricted during winter has resulted in a deficiency.

According to the Alzheimer’s Society, currently there are 900,000 people in the UK living with dementia. With an ageing population, the incidence is set to become a massive challenge to society, not least in the provision of safe later-life care.

Rather than relying on crosswords, perhaps now is the time to make your investment in a vitamin D3 supplement? It appears to have no down-side or side effects – see here and here. Vitamin D3 supplementation may actually be the answer to the question of how to ensure a longer, healthier and more productive life?

I should add that I have no financial interests in vitamin supplements of any kind. Advertisements appearing below this post are placed randomly by the platform, not the writer. They are neither endorsed nor monetarised.

Argentine tango under the microscope

A post dealing with the microbiology of Argentine tango (but do read on if you like trees).

My post ‘Learning something from trees‘ appears to have interested my dowsing colleagues that explore and exercise their personal energy; but surprisingly also, my friends who dance tango.

For those few that are not yet familiar with Argentine tango as danced in Buenos Aires (in contrast the the European pastiche), let me start by sharing a few truths.

More than the deadliest virus, once infected with Argentine tango, colonisation is rapid. Your social media fills with classes, events, milongas – your vocabulary embraces ochos, sacadas, boleos, colgadas – your wardrobe becomes populated by tango clothes and shoes – and frequently, non-dancing friends fall by the wayside as you become more and more fixated on your new obsession. Symptoms involve a craving that transcends normal preoccupation. It can be a lifelong dependence for which there is no known remedy.

The reason for such obsession is not what you might have thought. Alright, there may be romance – the late night milonga (the social event devoted to tango), gorgeous Golden Age tango music, a beautiful partner in your arms. Yet it is that which happens quite spontaneously within the tango embrace that really triggers this compulsive behaviour. ‘The magic’ emanates from the embrace in which you or your partner need be neither young nor beautiful. It all turns on energy, and how we deploy it in movement.

In dance, electrical events known as ‘action potentials‘ (rapid sequences of voltage differential across a membrane) cause neurons to release the pleasure inducing neurotransmitters of dopamine (movement), serotonin, norepinephrine (brain), and various endorphins (inhibitory neurotransmitters). What is it in dance that triggers that process? And what evolutionary advantages justify the release of such a pleasure hit?

With age, practice, experience and skill, tangueros appear to develop an electrical charge. Atoms and their pairs of electrons line up to create an energy field that is manifest within the embrace, sometimes subtle and occasionally dynamic. Studies show that, irrespective of steps (for Argentine tango is systematically unstructured) or experience, dancers’ breathing and heart rates synchronise.

Sharing of energy through symbiotic synchronicity seems essential for both trees and humans, perhaps because of a long-lost shared heritage where 50% of our DNA is in common with trees. But more staggeringly, our genes and DNA structure more closely associate us with the mycelium that envelops their roots and occupies our gut.

Might it be our shared match with mushrooms that causes us to dance?

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Learning something from trees

A post about humans, trees, anthropomorphism, mycorrhizal mycelium and quorum sensing.

As a young Prince, King Charles III famously hugged a tree. It is not recorded what was said by either Prince or tree, or whether his act was met with arboreal approval or dismissal. However, according to his aides, he continues the practice publicly every time he plants a commemorative sapling.

We now know that trees enjoy two-way communication (if not with Kings) certainly with the symbiotic mycorrhizal mycelium (fungus threads) that envelop and enrich their roots. Here they exchange water, nitrogen, carbon and other minerals, with each other and with the tree’s progeny. Additionally, chemical messages pass via the fungus to communicate information of threats or abundance, suggesting that the process is heuristically reactive rather than mechanical.

Within the human body, indigenous bacteria (of which we have trillions outnumbering human cells 10-1) do very similar things. Cell to cell communication is facilitated by both prokaryotes and eukaryotes (single cell and multi-cell organisms), the former clubbing together using quorum-sensing circuits to enable them simultaneously to secrete signaling chemical molecules that communicate precise information – just as do murmurations of birds in the air, warrior ants on the march or bioluminescent plankton in the sea.

Go to any football, rugby or tennis match and you will see the same phenomenon acted out by a human audience, resulting in synchronized signals that convey pleasure or dismay. If at that very moment you were to take a microscope to the human body you would see why – the same bacterial microorganisms are busy synthesising autoinducing proteins that communicate their collective feelings and intention.

All I can say is that tonight when I took dousing rods to my eighty year old thirty three leafed Aspidistra, there was an immediate energetic resonance between the two. I did not enquire further of the plant, but I do recall, according to Feng Shui experts, that placing an Aspidistra in the main entryway of one’s home can collect an abundance of positive energy.

Maybe, rather than seeking to anthropomorphise trees by talking to them, or worse by felling them in their prime for profit, we should observe and revere them for the energy that they clearly share both with us and the world on which we depend?

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Why not retire to a tiny home? Here are five reasons why you should.

A post concerning tiny homes and their advantages for the recently retired

Followers of this blog will be familiar with my preoccupation with tiny homes, having first written about them here in November 2017, here in February 2019 and in March 2021 here. With climate change and resource management coming to the fore, I sense that now might be the perfect time to revisit the topic, especially for those recently retired who seek to liberate themselves from their portfolio of possessions and a barrage of bills.

Did you know that 40% of tiny home owners are over 50 years of age? Of those 68% have no credit card debt as a result. I know not what might be their stress levels relative to their house-owning peers, but I sense they will be significantly lower.

Reason 1 – Capitalise now rather than after you have died

Many over 50s have most of their capital tied up in one asset – their home. After a working lifetime of paying a mortgage they have reached the stage where they nearly own their home outright, or at least have a manageable debt. What better time than to liberate their investment, not by way of mortgage release, but by mortgage dissolution.

There are many options for which to use the capital that is tied up in a family home – early retirement from work, travelling or spending time abroad, start-up capital for the children or grandchildren, or launching a new project – whilst buying a more luxurious or manageable downsize. Bear in mind that the standard inheritance tax rate is 40% over the £325,000 threshold. That means that nearly half your estate over this limit will go, not to your family, but straight to HMRC in taxation.

Reason 2 – Why upkeep a large space?

Heating a home is to become one of the largest annual expenses that many will face this winter. We are currently unsure what government support for energy bills will be available to families or pensioners, but we can expect little or none will be targeted to those that have chosen to retire early.

Vacuum insulated panels provide a high level of insulation when coupled with other insulation materials, meaning that winterised tiny homes are very different from seasonal static caravans of yesteryear. Whilst an energy-passive tiny home is a huge ask, the fact that you are heating a tiny space means that thermostatic controlled electric, Bio-LPG or solar storage heating, will run at a minimal cost.

Tiny homes can benefit from much reduced charges, especially for those who are able to accommodate their tiny home within the curtilage of a relative or friend’s home. If connected to existing utilities and when notionally mobile, tiny homes are free of council tax and utility standing charges, being classified as additional living space by members of that household. All that is then required is to set up a standing order to your host family to cover the cost of energy, water and any additional costs or charges.

Reason 3 – Rip up the ‘to do list’

In a home with a footprint of 200 square feet (the average size), household chores should take less than 60 minutes per week. Instead of time spent cleaning, tiny home owners are liberated to devote time to themselves, their grandchildren, their pets or their hobbies.

Reason 4 – downsize your possessions

Speak with anyone who has downsized their home and they will tell you that the most difficult task proved to be ultimately the most satisfying – divesting of possessions. Those with larger homes accumulate an unnecessary burden – the contents of a spare room that is rarely occupied; clothes that we will never wear, multiple televisions and kitchen knives, out-competed by one preferred; pictures and ornaments that we hardly notice. My favourite uncle travelled the world wearing his blazer and flannels, with a brief case containing a spare shirt and underwear, shaving kit, toothbrush and his yachting club tie for special occasions. The little extras that he needed, he bought; and when he came to return to his boat, he left them behind. His lesson was not his minimalism, but his life philosophy: what you do not need, you do not want.

To this end, the tiny house is perfect. And when your time comes to depart this life, your family may spend an hour looking at your digital photos, rather than a fraught fortnight with a removal van.

Reason 5 – accommodating the environment

Tiny homes afford an opportunity for shared living whilst retaining independent space. The UK has an aging population of between 12-13 million over 65, or 18.9% of the population – the largest proportion ever – set to increase at the annual rate of 1.5%. By 2043 this demographic will reach 17.4 million (24% of the population). The English Housing Survey reveals that 29% of households are led by someone over 65 years, 45% of those live alone, 79% of them are owner-occupiers, and 55% under-occupy their homes.

Judging by the cost of home ownership in the UK, by transposing just a part of this demographic into bespoke tiny homes, especially when situated within the curtilage of an existing home, would make a massive difference to the housing crisis.

Importantly, such ventures may future-proof the problems of assisted living, providing a safe, family-controlled environment for the ambulant elderly, many of whom can reciprocate by providing support for child care or contributing to energy and living costs.

When you next clean your house, or contemplate redecorating your home, why not question whether yours is the home that you need? Sit down and do a cost-time benefit. You may surprise yourself by what you discover!

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Write me a letter

A post about the lost art of letter writing, and its consequence

The crumpled note, the yellow-with-age letter discovered in the attic, a perfumed envelope in a box…

That is part of the magic of handwritten correspondence – texture and scent, just like that of old books as opposed to our Kindle. I doubt when we rediscover ‘a past email’ we will have the same thrill as when we chance on a letter, especially one written by hand, perhaps bearing a slightly torn edge due to the zealous use of a letter knife, or a trace of lipstick from a kiss. And of course letters can survive long after the email password has been forgotten!

There is also something about correspondence that allows us to articulate what we might never say face to face, providing a space for uninterrupted dialogue, affording the opportunity to explore, to pause and finish a thought before the conversation moves away to another topic.

It is especially the case with the love letter. Romantic correspondence can have an ethereal quality, almost timeless. Love letters express not the mind, but the heart and soul. The love letter digs deep into emotions, exposes and lays them bare. It is vulnerable – and maybe that is its power and attraction?

My concern about the loss of letter writing is not simply about glancing back in time through the correspondence of others, but the loss of the frisson that we derive from the letter that we receive. And with handwritten letters there is no ‘sent’ box to furnish full context, adding a particular focus to the words on the sheet, as well as the element of mystery concerning the absent pieces of the chain.

Maybe we owe it to our loved ones to write a letter from time to time? One in which we uncover our feelings, fears, hopes and aspirations. Where we may ask questions without fear of an instant reply, and write what we need to say without limitation of the text box or number of characters. Perhaps, if we did, we might rediscover the joy and excitement our forebears experienced when the postman came to the door and the letterbox clicked?

P.S. – if you have enjoyed this post, please write me a letter and tell me what you thought!

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