The Tetracycline Antibiotics Inhibit Mitochondrial Respiration

[Regina]

I think it is difference of thyroid-driven vs. adrenal-driven metabolism. People with high adrenaline/cortisol also have high metabolism but of the wrong kind. Strenuous exercise also raises metabolism through this bad method. So, taking thyroid lowers the stress hormones, which increases progesterone/DHEA and restores the oxidative metabolism. It is better to have higher RMR and do fine on 2,500 calories daily then stress yourself to death and need 5,000 daily. It is not just high metabolism that matters, but high resting metabolism (RMR). People running on stress hormones have low RMR but higher daily average MR. Only RMR has been positively associated with health and protective against CVD, cancer, etc. High metabolic rate driven by adrenals is actually quite unhealthy and that has been confirmed in so many human studies. So I keep wondering if all the doctors recommending regular exercise even read medical journals any more. I guess, old myths (and industries) die hard...

Great explanation! My experience is exactly the same. I might've been discouraged by the weight gain--bemoaning the loss of my super high adrenal-driven metabolism. I was always the "she can eat ANYthing" that my female friends envied. Yeah, but at the expense of the organism's long term coherency. So, no thanks to that.

 

[Astolfo]

So, what are your final opinions about the antibiotics? Are they harmful to us or not? And can be used by childs too?

 

[ecstatichamster]

I find them incredibly useful. Small amounts. Dr. Peat said for instance 20mg of penicillin.

I take maybe 50mg of amoxycycline if I'm feeling like I'm getting sick, and with some extra A and D3 and K2, sometimes methylene blue, I don't get sick. So far I'm incredibly impressed.

 

[Peatogenic]

I find them incredibly useful. Small amounts. Dr. Peat said for instance 20mg of penicillin.

I take maybe 50mg of amoxycycline if I'm feeling like I'm getting sick, and with some extra A and D3 and K2, sometimes methylene blue, I don't get sick. So far I'm incredibly impressed.

My concern would be that you'd have to maintain antibiotic use the rest of your life, or that if you stop them your body would have some negative adaptation. If the main concern is endotoxin, I'm wondering why there are some that prefer antibiotics over activated charcoal or carrot? And a step further, Isn't the body's inability to manage the endotoxin the problem, not the endotoxin itself? Like there was a post here on Riboflavin being anti-endotoxin.

 

[Light]

despite the decrease in mitochondrial respiration organisms treated with a tetracycline antibiotic were more agile as they aged - i.e. they did not exhibit decline in physical/mental fitness with age.
So, what's going on here - tetracyclines cause lower respiration/metabolism but improved fitness??

Maybe this offers a clue:

" If I starved yeast— by removing all the nutrients available to them and giving them only water— they lived twice as long.
Sugar is one of the nutrients responsible for yeast aging fast and dying early. It activates two genes, RAS and PKA, that are known to accelerate aging, and it inactivates factors and enzymes that protect against oxidation and other types of damage.
In a short period in the biochemistry department, I had identified not only the first gene regulating the aging process but also the entire signaling pathway, all thanks to a very simple organism. The system was so simple and so new that the scientific community was in disbelief and
struggled to understand, let alone accept, the chronological aging system and the discovery of the pro-aging sugar pathway.

"... Knowing that “dwarf yeast” with longevity mutations in the growth genes (TOR-S6K) could live up to five times longer than normal yeast, and that “dwarf flies and mice” with similar genetic mutations could live up to twice as long as normal mice, in 2006 I started research on the human version of the growth gene known to correlate to record longevity in mice.
Through my colleague Pinchas Cohen, who is now dean of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, I learned of the work of Jaime Guevara-Aguirre, an endocrinologist who had spent decades studying a community of extremely short people in Ecuador who lacked the receptor for growth hormone, a disorder known as Laron syndrome. After five years of working together, we published our findings concluding that there was a major decrease in the incidence of cancer and diabetes in subjects with Laron syndrome (see fig. 2.4), despite poor diet (consuming large quantities of fried food) and unhealthy lifestyle choices (smoking, drinking, etc.). Our finding made this group of short individuals from remote villages in Ecuador famous around the world— everyone wanted to hear about this group of little people who appeared to hold the secret that could protect everyone from cancer, diabetes, and possibly other diseases. We were even invited to present our research to the Pope, accompanied by one of our Laron subjects.
Journalists described these people as being free from disease. “It doesn’t matter what we eat,” the Laron subjects told reporters, “because we are immune from diseases.” Of course, this is not the case; a few have developed both cancer and diabetes, but these diseases occur rarely, and much less frequently than they appear in their non-Laron relatives living in the same houses and consuming the same food.
Recently, we also published our studies on the brain function of this Laron group and concluded that they have cognitive function that is typical of younger individuals. In other words, their brains appear to be younger than they are, which is in agreement with the findings published by the Andrzej Bartke laboratory in mice with similar mutations.

Longo, Valter. The Longevity Diet: Discover the New Science Behind Stem Cell Activation and Regeneration to Slow Aging, Fight Disease, and Optimize Weight (Kindle Locations 506-514). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

 

[Light]

My point is - the benefits of tetracyclines might be from the mild stress they cause to cells.
mTOR is inhibited by an antibiotic - Rapamycin (and also by tetracyclines), and inhibiting it promotes longevity.
Resveratrol has antibiotic properties - and it promotes longevity in yeast.
Maybe tetracyclines work as part of the backup system - activated by fasting, endurence exercise and some drugs and nutrients, creating a cascade of adrenaline, cortisol, serotonin etc. which are neccessary in some moments and can be life savers in those moments, but are harmful in the long run.
To quote Ray from his article about Resveratrol:
"A little stress can make an organism more resistant to subsequent stresses. "

 

[TheBeard]

My point is - the benefits of tetracyclines might be from the mild stress they cause to cells.
mTOR is inhibited by an antibiotic - Rapamycin (and also by tetracyclines), and inhibiting it promotes longevity.
Resveratrol has antibiotic properties - and it promotes longevity in yeast.
Maybe tetracyclines work as part of the backup system - activated by fasting, endurence exercise and some drugs and nutrients, creating a cascade of adrenaline, cortisol, serotonin etc. which are neccessary in some moments and can be life savers in those moments, but are harmful in the long run.
To quote Ray from his article about Resveratrol:
"A little stress can make an organism more resistant to subsequent stresses. "

Still very much intrigued by this topic.
Do tetracyclines inhibit all cells' respiration?
Only diseased cell's respiration?

Do they provide a net positive by reducing endotoxins even though they decrease mitochondria respiration?

 

[Light]

Still very much intrigued by this topic.
Do tetracyclines inhibit all cells' respiration?
Only diseased cell's respiration?

Do they provide a net positive by reducing endotoxins even though they decrease mitochondria respiration?

I'm afraid I didn't dig any deeper,
I'm only recently renewing my interest in longevity,
and if I find something interesting I will post it here.
I would be happy to hear from anyone else who looked into it.