Metabolic Dysfunction Driving Chronic Disease

Modern medicine is largely based upon treatment of acute, immediate harm from physical injury to infections, broken bones and common colds, to asthma and heart attacks, progress treating chronic illness with unknown causes or those that may no longer be present has been lagging. Such chronic conditions as diabetes, cancer and CVD can defy explanation and remedy, estimated by the CDC are that more than half of adults and one third of children and teens within the USA live with at least one chronic illness. According the the National Institutes of Health chronic medical conditions cause more than half of all deaths around the globe.

University of California researchers posits chronic disease is a consequence of natural healing cycles becoming blocked by disruptions at metabolic and cellular levels; healing processes are dynamic circles starting with injury and ending with recovery, molecular features of the process are universal. Emerging mounting evidence shows most chronic illnesses are caused by biological reaction to injury not the initial injury or agent of the injury, illness occurs because the body is not able to complete the healing process. Progressive dysfunction with recurrent injury after incomplete healing occurs within all organ systems; chronic disease results when cells become caught in repeating loops of incomplete recovery and re-injury unable to fully heal, this biology is the root of virtually every chronic illness.

In a small randomized clinical trial of 10 autistic boys treatment with a single dose of ATP inhibiting adenosine triphosphate, when abnormal ATP signalling was silenced the treated subjects displayed dramatically improved communication and social behaviors being observed to make eye contact and cease repetitive motions; these benefits were transient and faded to disappear as the drug exited their systems. Longer trials is be held in 2019.

Robert K. Naviaux, MD, PhD says based in mounting evidence he believes metabolic dysfunction drives chronic disease, with progression through the healing cycle controlled by mitochondria and metabokines. Mitochondria are organelles within cells known for production of most energy cells needed to survive, and metabokines are signalling molecules derived from metabolism to regulate cellular receptors with more than 100 being linked to healing. Abnormalities in metabokine signalling that cause normal stages of cell danger response to persist creating blocks in healing cycles, Naviaux explains adding, CDR theory explains why some heal more quickly than others and why chronic diseases treated successfully can relapse being a form of metabolic addiction in which recovering cells become conditioned to impaired states.

Naviaux suggests new approaches to chronic disease may be to direct treatment at underlying processes blocking healing cycles that might be given for short periods of time to promote healing. Once triggers of chronic injury are identified and removed to treat on-going symptoms, fixing underlying issue of impaired healing can be thought about, shifting focus away from initial causes to metabolic factors and signaling pathways maintaining chronic illness will facilitate new ways to be found to end and prevent chronic illness.