The Molecular Genetics of Behaviors, Emotions & Thoughts

As a research scientist for the past 25 years having published only 7 papers in my lifetime, I have come to the conclusion that all this hubbub about emotions and thoughts as it relates to mental health and wellness has lacked grounding in the realm of the real-time physical and science. Is there no DNA, RNA or protein to tell me that I am suffering from bipolar disorder II? As if it is my choice to suffer. My lows may be low, but my highs are stratospheric and that is not good either... I want "balance"! The Tantric concept of flow. The Seven African Powers of the Universal Balance, the cultural asili. Balance, equilibrium, Zen...

My research studies have suggested that "Nature" attempts to maintain balance. Chemistry has balance--or equilibrium. Physics has a balance--or force and energy. All things have a place, a time and a space. Call it the laws of thermodynamics. The irony is that entropy leads to balance from chaos. Well, that is getting into physics for me and I can only discuss maybe a tiny bit about the calculations used to Balance all these numbers, but let me get you to the genetics--functional genomics--molecular biology...

It is thought that inheritance is hard-wired into genes or alleles, which are thought to be a piece of DNA--the genetic material... And in Mendelian genetics each allele is independently assorted and segregated into various haplotypes to form individuals. Hardwired DNA--making RNAs--making proteins. That is the dogma of molecular biology, that is how it works. In a non-Mendelian inheritance and epigentic phenomena, certain attributes occur uniquely to that individual. Some lead to evolution, some do not. I do not understand fully, but it has to do with selection and mutation.

However, with advances in technology, we can examine these odd phenotypes out there and we have found that the "genetic soup" that we are all a part of, which is truly unique. Especially in neuropsychiatric conditions ranging from clinical depression, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, autism and Alzheimer's. Apparently, just like cancer cells build up too much genetic material and divides multiple times to form a tumor, so does some neurons, unable to divide and the tumor symptoms may appear as thoughts... In cancer, the genetic material is DNA... In neurons the genetic material that drives erratic thought may be RNA (particularly micro RNAs) and possibly proteins or short-peptides... The problem comes back to BALANCE!!! You cannot have too much of a good (or bad) thing or the equilibrium or balance is perturbed...

Erroneous thoughts may occur in specific areas of the brain and neurons. By microarray and real-time PCR analyses, researchers have localized what kinds of genetic structures are affected in clinical depression and bipolar disorders. It is thought that calcium channels, which are proteins that particularly transporters and ionophores. Scientists are saying that the problem is not the stores of calcium that is a different cellular processes. The researchers never stated if there was a mutation, and there could be a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) or dysregulation of the processing of calcium in the brain which inherently affects other solutes, like glucose in the brain...

Why someone with ill-charged Calcium channels would have erroneous thoughts may reflect on the action potentials and/or hyperpolarization of neuronal functions. Calcium generally travels on an electric charge as a capacitor--so it holds the electric charge longer--as I understand it... Let's just say the neurons do not like doing that often. Also, calcium additions onto microRNAs or proteins fundamentally change the molecular charge, structure and isoelectric (pKa) values as well as dipole moments on macromolecules. Generally, you clog up your drains when you have calcium deposits. Apparently calcium lays down the foundation to start that clogging. For pulling out proteins we know are calcium sensitive, we use EGTA in the the laboratory, which is a calcium chelator (chemical claw). But I would NOT ever recommend taking that because it also allows toxins to enter the cell. There is also thapsigargin, a calcium blocker drug, but if you take that, your heart will explode (all this as an euphemism)...

When we talk about the brain though, we are talking about something else. It is NOT the heart or the liver or kidneys or the pancreas. The brain is where we say (or think) where higher thought, revelation and creative conceptualization occurs...

Well now, let's look at our current concepts of emotions and thoughts... Emotions or emotive force as a scientific molecular term has been avoided because they are too complex to comprehend in our DNA/RNA/Protein-disneylandia... But with these recent advances in understanding mental health disorders, it seems that the organic concept of emotions are based on ancient practices. Emotions are good for survival of the species. Without them, humans would not survive. We have to know when we are hot, cold, hungry, wounded, incontinent and we need to taste it, hear it, smell it, touch it, and see it. We process each of those feelings that helps us to learn the value of good or bad and the differences we make about it. For all the senses, it has been shown scientifically that there are receptors that are used to send along the nervous system from the various brain centers to our organs to help us know good from bad--for smell, fragrant vs. putrid; for touch, hot vs cold; for sound, soft vs. loud; for sight, dark vs. light. Our senses as babies are keen because we are learning what to associate good vs. bad as learning. Midwifes have known this for years. However, we are just beginning to unlock the molecular genetic mechanisms associated with each concept of the senses...

The one sense that older babies have difficulty with (and possibly parents) is anger. Anger is a survival tactic for many species on Earth and is used to provide an amount short lived energy or power to either enact the fight or flight response. Physiologists and biobehavioral stress scientists have long known that when angry there is an increase in blood pressure, an immediate release of neuropsychiatric hormones and chemicals so that the organism takes an action without thinking. Automatically, we do something, no time to think about it. Fear plays a role in anger, but IMHO, fear is not a sole source of anger. Anger can cause the process of elimination by rapid reductionist conclusions, often unwarranted or unreal. Anger is triggered by words, sounds, smells, tastes and sights that evoke a negative feeling or connotation in memory. Anger is the innate source of emotional triggers so that it can be used as a survival tactic in the fight or flight response. However, humans are no longer being hunted by "bears", but we still have the genetic mechanisms in place to become angry, however without much social, behavioral, psychological, physiological control in American society.

We think that G-protein coupled receptors system, including GAPs, cGMP, Rgs proteins are involved in at least increasing blood pressure, sending the neuropsychiatric hormones to various parts of the body, including that of the adrenals and kidneys, to the skeletal muscles... That anaerobic conditions increase the potentiation of the neuropsychiatric system--literally turning off the high brain thought processes for the autonomic nervous system to act. Emotion gives thrust and lift to Anger. What goes wrong is when the anger response is unmerited--such as a moral judgment or code or frustration with a higher level thought process or that the sensory emotions are disconnected--such as we misinterpret hot and cold substances...

Thought has always been interpreted as an "ingram" that travels around in the brain. But it appears that the molecular nature of thought is possibly microRNAs... There is DNA in neurons, but rarely is there full newly transcribed RNAs that are made in neurons from old studies using nuclear run-on assays. It was well known that neurons has micro RNAs--or microsatellite genetic markers--that scientists thought was junk. However, it has been determined that this pool is essential for healthy neuronal function. When the brain needs more proteins to go to the synapse, it gets them from the microRNA processing reserves and cores. I think there are about hundreds of thousands microRNAs ready for each neuron. There are about 1 billion neurons in the human brain. But remember, we have to operate in BALANCE, there is an equilibrium drawn here... The microRNA population varies from one neuron to the next, but there is a prevalence for one species of microRNA to be processed versus another. It is NOT an all or nothing deal... The right microRNA is made at the right time.

This periodic shift, related to circadian rhythms, may have to do with the innate system of emotions and survival skills and the ability to learn civility, social conditioning, and etiquette incurred on all humans living in cities. We need these skills such as speech communication, localizing food sources, proper disposal of waste, etc. to function in a social living groups. All humans have been socially conditioned. We cannot survive if we are not taught by our predecessors. We learn by example, such as choosing not to go outside naked when it is 20 below, etc because it is a survival tactic. This comment goes to say some of our emotions are learned behaviors based on our societal values, the environment, or nurture...

And that is what is known about the molecular genetics of emotions and thoughts from a 9 month old baby... Adults have ranges of emotions and thoughts due to their life experiences that shape them. Without the experience of "tying your own shoes", how will you every know that is what you do?

But this is about the molecular genetics of emotions and thoughts, I digress... In mental health conditions, we go back to those innate emotions out of fear, which leads to anger and gets us into a vicious cycle. With powerful intentions, we can process our mental illnesses with a higher level of thought training to avoid that cyclical thinking. It can be a powerful ally in our arsenal in fighting against our genetic inheritance. Just because an environmental stressor exacerbated your mental health system, does not mean you cannot overcome it, you may just need extra assistance to help you overcome--and that is okay. What you choose can be "forcing your thoughts" to dictate your emotions, but you must understand physically, our brain was not wired that way... Only you know all your responses to various "stimuli"... Sometimes, you need a "boost" to overcome your wiring. And if you do, then work from that vantage point. You are not better or less because you need that boost. There is no value to the boost. You wouldn't say to a cancer or heart patient, don't get treatment for your condition, only pray to God to heal you? Why would you say that to yourself if you suffer from a mental health condition, inherently in your brain that may be genetic?

If treatment was found to remove all the negative thought memories you ever had, would you take it? What would you become? What would be the side effects? If a treatment was found to decrease the physical pain associated with a mental trauma in a negative thought memory (microRNA) to get you out of your bed and become productive to your level of happiness, would you take it? What would you become? What would be the side effects?

IMHO, resolving your mental health care in that manner can be your approach to mental health when you speak to your provider...

The Backstory so that we are on the same page

Read my "Crazy Black Woman's" blog to learn more about me.

Backstory: I am very smart, I am accomplished, I have achieved much in my life. I have wonderful parents, who were stern sometimes, but that was because I needed it. But, my family has always achieved great things. That is my heritage and I am its legacy in this "post-racial" world. I hold a PhD in molecular genetics and have published and presented several scientific papers all over the world. NONE of that matters because I suffer from bipolar disorder II (hypomania). All I wanted to do is to take my own life and I did attempt 3 times as a teen for reasons so inane... I cry when I think of those times. But I know, my story is unleashed to protect others like me: Black women who suffer from mental angst--you are NOT alone, there are many of us and we have found our voice!

While selfishly focusing on my own issues, I realized many other women, Black women, suffered from similar mental health issues and posting their issues on unsafe, cyberbullying, and racist social networks. There was an absence of cultural competency and younger women were paying a hefty mental health price leaving them disillusioned and depressed. So, I started an "Isle in a Torrential Ocean in Cyberspace"--The Ariafya Universe, the Americanization of 2 KiSwahili words combined to mean the following: Zeal, Enthusiasm, Eagerness, Initiative, Spirit, Keenness, Inventiveness, Health, Well-Being, Strength, Vigor, and Power!

The Ariafya Universe is an "Isle Sanctuary", a place of solace or place of refuge to find one's peace and regroup, rejuvenate and re-tool. A place that will listen, with compassionate presence and appreciative inquiry, motivational introspection with encouraging questions, reflective listening. The goal is to empower participants to seek real-time licensed mental health and wellness professionals.

At The Ariafya Universe women of color can be heard, supported and allowed to express themselves in a nonjudgmental environment where they can grow to be their best selves. Soon, health and wellness coaching will be brought to the foray where there can be a realistic forward motion toward mentally healthy actions. I am devoted to this one area because of my pain of suffering from suicidal ideation as a teenager to poor interpersonal relationships to blossoming into being a positive force for all awkward women, such as myself. I have reinvented myself many times, and grieve for the loss of my scientific career. But, the skills I have gained were meant to be an owner of a social networking mental health and wellness support and resource groups, and then, a Wellcoaches certified health and wellness coach business.

The image of the Black woman & mental health politics.

This video:



Is disturbing to say the least. I had wild and out there hair like the little girl. My mom knew very little about a little girl's hair, and I was born with a lot of it. With the technology improving from strict lye-based straighteners to non-lye-based to hot combs to ceramics what makes this video disturbing is the mother knew little of it, while her older child filmed and ridiculed the baby for her hair.

What is even worse is we think we have advanced with securing ourselves and finding beauty. But the images of beautiful Black women remain unchanged in the last 40 years. Long bone straight hair or good hair not happy to be nappy kinks reflective of our true heritage.

It is the take of The Ariafya Universe that this oppression of the image of the Black woman is demeaning and that Youtube removes this video as objectionable content. It is NOT only painful because the baby girl is crying while getting her hair combed--in fact is done incorrectly--it is wrong because this little girl's self-image is obliterated because she does not have hair similar to that of Barbie's or other women who have straight hair. She will visualize herself as "ugly" because her hair is nappy or has kinks. And she will spend millions of dollars to have hair pleasurable to an oppressive society to diverse woman's beauty.

How come she cannot have braids or loqs? How come she cannot be allowed to have her hair nappy until she is old enough to get her hair done? Because, people judge these children as unkempt, nasty, impoverished and sickly. If the department of health and social services saw this video, the children would be removed. But if they saw the children with ungroomed hair, they will STILL remove the children. While I do not think the mother intentionally hurt the child and probably waited a long time before she got her children together because of their behavior, the baby still was in pain for how her hair was handled. She used a brush rack, rather than a pick or comb. The mother used some kind of water-based relax solution, rather than a gel or cream on the scalp. There are ways to comb thick hair like that little girl's hair, and what we see was NOT it.

Is our image of ourselves so poor that we have resorted to torturing ourselves and our children to reach beauty standard not made by us, not formed by us? Has technology truly reached us since Madame CJ Walker's straightening comb that uses heat to sear the hair's outer core, cortex and medulla? Our sebaceous cells that form our hair to make it kinky are short and wide. Is there not something we could take, without losing our hair that would straighten it over time, like "Rogaine" products. And only Redken's products make changes to our hair, healthy? Not glamours like the Pantene ProV hair commercials with color--products, not make for African American women...

I discuss these concepts with some of my stylists quite a bit. But, alas, there is nothing I can do to change concepts from the scientific end, because those concepts are rooted deep into racist beliefs, and how psychologically, an African American can still be a slave to its environment. 150 years has not changed a perception that pervaded in North American, particular the United States for over 500 years. Until then, the image of the Black woman and mental health politics will lose lives.




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The lack of doctors

We will have a lack of doctors within 2 years. Becoming a physician is difficult for many people. It is competitive, and the best of the best is desired. While no one wants an unsavory doctor, the training that goes into creating one cannot predict the success or failure of the physician. What makes a physician successful in school is not what makes him/her successful in a physician's life. Just as many physicians I have seen as "successful", I have seen many who are not, who have discord and disconnect from their craft. Exhausted by the systems use to enact healthcare. The depression seen when patients fail to adhere to their regimen. And the multiple, rapid filing of health records that do not follow the patient with any standard or logic. Then, are outcomes improved, and that doesn't take a physician training, but public health training. Some physicians want it, some don't. So, then the restriction is further.

I hold a PhD. My training involves asking probing questions, deeply examining them and finding their answers. A doctorate training is not simply, anyone can get one. That is NOT my case. As much grief as I got for my PhD does not merit the loss in income I incurred. In fact, if I knew any better, I probably would have gotten a MD before a PhD, because of the level of respect that physicians hold for one another. Whereas, there is a bit much disrespect toward PhD's by both professionals and publicly, until we show them our capabilities, then they are shocked. How we get further along to finding answers than they. How we pursue answers to questions deeply is different than what a physician brings. That does not mean we do not collaborate, what it means is that our relationship is deserving of respect.

A physician is trained, licensed and boarded to work on human beings. We, PhD's know that, we actively choose NOT to seek a medical degree so that all we have to do is be at the bench, and test concepts to help find answers. Physicians are trained how without any questions, and do not ever question the intent of their experiments. While overtime, anyone can learn anything given enough training, a PhD develops protocols to get at the answer much faster, quicker and with consistency because that is a part of our training to do that. The difference is, when you ask a physician to do hardcore complex biochemical experiments, you will be lucky to get the concentrations accurate. Whereas, if you ask a PhD to draw blood, finding a vein would be interesting with recumbency.

Either way, we highly trained individuals must stop fighting! Why? Are we for the same goals? We are the best and the brightest and we were excepted to doctorate level educations, to be told by mere bachelor's level policy/business people what to do... Rather than gunning for each other, we have some serious health issues that remain unaddressed, swine flu, chronic disease, yes, health care reform which is mainly based on lack of public health options, and great influence on what is a "healthy human being". Will cancer rates change if we reform health care? Will we make a dent in obesity? Can chemical modifications of foodstuffs really effect changes in one's health outcome? Are these studies being done so that we know?

It takes ALL OF US to find answers than to play politics.

The Psychological Damage to the Arrest of Prof. Henry Louis (Skip) Gates

The Ariafya Universe's first official position on the matter to later be turned into a "Sepia Paper"

Arrests are a constant occurrence in the African American community. It is the biggest fear that many have, especially by those who have been afforded the opportunity and luxury of an esteemed education. Moreover, African American involvement with a municipal law enforcement is always perceived and viewed as a threat, coercive, divisive and subjugating, regardless of the act. Whether that has been proven to be true through a crime in progress or a perceived illegal action. With the whisperings of a nearly 50 year old segregation Jim Crow laws and how law enforcement enacted it as witnessed by countless African Americans, and "the overseer" vestiges once from a bygone era of involuntary enslavement that reparations will NEVER fix, it is The Ariafya Universe's position that the severe psychological trauma inflicted and never healed in the cultural consciousness of African Americans is perpetual from generation to generation.

Some groups of people demand us to forget that horrid past. Well, that is neglecting our ancestors reality and history. If one fails to know one's past, s/he is doomed to repeat it. Humanity has little use for slavery. It is barbarian, antiquated and a relic. Psychologically it is the position of The Ariafya Universe that is a form of psychosis similar to that of a "serial killer". Much like vicious great white sharks hunt for their prey, the small fish that attaches to sharks do so that they are not consumed. Slavery and all the accoutrements does not advance or grow human intelligence. With our human sights to the stars, how do we expect to get there when the mentality of our officials who impose the law behave no better than "the overseers" of yesteryear?

Dr. Henry Louis Gates' behavior represented a man in distress. He got home from China, jet-lagged and had to maneuver his door to access his rented residence. A nebulous neighbor called police making a false accusation of two "Black Men carrying backpacks", who then investigated the "alleged active burgerlary". Dr. Gates was in his house speaking to his landlord until the police, using the new rules of "probable cause", spoke to him with a strong forceful tone. Now, how many Cambridge, Massachusett's police officers actually catch a "suspect" in the act? It comes to police training and experience.

Unfortunately, the exhausted, stressed Dr. Gates responded angrily and rightfully so. But that is what got him arrested. As everyone in the African American community knows, yelling at the police gets you nowhere and you do get arrested for it. So one of the greatest historians at Harvard was arrested because he had to get into his house?

Later, the charges were dropped by the Cambridge, Massachusett's police department. Because once they determined who they just arrested, the long hot summer would commence. It was likened to a Rosa Parks in Montgomery, Alabama.

But what this really does is indicate to those of us who are highly educated, that is does not matter if we obtain the pinnicle of high academia, if we are Black we are no more than servants quarters. Then, to our young people, it further instills, why get an education?

As for Dr. Gates, why should he have held his tongue after an exhausting 20 hours flight from a foreign country? Why should he justify his actions in his own house?

Finally who is this subhuman ignoramous neighbor that had the audacity to lie to the police with false accusations reminiscent of a white woman being raped by a black man? What was her interaction with Dr. Gates' and should it matter?

What it does in the professional opinion of The Ariafya Universe is ask people of African descent in America to suppress their legitimate welling up of feelings, humiliation and frustrations, force them down to parts that no longer hurt--much like a physically/sexually abuse victim does--which that pain later turns into a severe chronic health condition, like hypertension, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer--key chronic diseases that particularly affect large swaths of African Americans and is the largest health disparity seen between African Americans and caucasians.

The issue does not dwell solely on how a person undergoing this issue "handles it". This issue is about institutionalized bigotry and racism. Serial killer rapists who seek power over humans attempt to fabricated, fanatically fanaticize, and outright lie to get their "thrill ride" of subjugating and perverting a human being. What hurts from the victims standpoint is not only the offending horrendous act-rightfully so--but all the all the wonderings, of "why me", "did I ask for it", "how do I move forward". Moving forward positively takes a long time to recover after the offensive act-which usually is perceived in the brain as severe trauma, such that like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)--and the handling of the incident is unique from one individual to another. What makes racism toward African Americans so horrendous that recent genetic data clearly shows that non-synomynous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have evolved in key chronic diseases that enable survivability upon full adulthood, but no longer effective during aging. As time goes on and racist acts fail to change, behavioral genetics, especially those systems involved in anger, will be further selected.

It is the formulating professional opinion The Ariafya Universe that anyone enacting, promoting and promulgating their abusive delusions are no more than serial killer rapists and deserve to be placed under tribunal and grand jury violations, arrested and placed into terrorist supermax prisions. Once there, they need single confinement. Treatment will not change these perversions. Only imprisionment or possibly capital punishment.

ETA: Y'all think I'm full of it, check this out: "Can Brains Be Saved? Benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy"

What is The Ari | af | ya Universe?

The Ari | af | ya Universe is the premier online mental health and wellness resource support group for diverse women. The word Ariafya is the Americanization of 2 KiSwahili words combined to mean: Zeal, Enthusiasm, Eagerness, Initiative, Spirit, Keenness, Inventiveness, Health, Well-Being, Strength, Vigor, and Power!

I created this safe-free-zone for women who suffer or recovery from mental angst or are caregivers to those who suffer from mental illness. In diverse communities, more often than not, most who suffer from mental illness are alienated until there is crisis. By the time crisis has occurred law enforcement is involved, or worse. And suppressed untreated mental illness often leads to chronic diseases, such as stroke, diabetes, heart disease, hypertension, cancer, etc.

It is imperative, that diverse cultures attempt to stave off and seek recovery from key mental illnesses, such as depression, bipolar, anxieties and PTSD. I don't say schizophrenia, while a hard disease, people who suffer are unable to care for themselves completely without treatment, so they are already involved in some form of treatment. I am NOT saying the treatment is stellar, but the bulk of the one's I listed are untreated and observed at a higher rates in diverse communities. The other mental illnesses, such as borderline personality disorder, DID, et al. will be discussed on the private side of the Ariafya Universe. Moreover, substance abuse will be discussed also.

So The Ariafya Universe essentially a social network. Since some of the participants are diagnosed with a mental illness, they have been burned by the current array of mental health public message boards out there. Moreover, there is no assurance of cultural competency, so when explaining difficulties in mental illness and say being a woman of color, the participants often are further demeaned by ignorant comments, some by licensed professionals-further stigmatizing an individual from their communties. So, everyone who is admitted to the "Isle"--an online sanctuary--has to be screened for liability of NOT being in crisis. Because The Ariafya Universe assumes all participants are working with a licensed mental health care provider.

Then for the security, confidentiality and privacy, there is an annual fee charged.

The fee structure is explained on the website: Sistah Mental Health

At this time, gentlemen are asked to fill out a survey as to their preferences for The Ariafya Universe. Due to the notable differences between men and women in mental health treatment options, there are some unique developments we must engage in before creating a space for them.