Atoms

I will not delve deep into the types of atoms and chemical processes; what is important to absorb from this information is the beginning process of how matter is formed and how organic life is created and maintained. In understanding the first steps to creating life, you will have the ability to maintain life by doing those things that will keep you healthy from the foundation up.

Imagine this scenario; you build a house of bricks, you pour a layer of cement into the ground to lay a foundation, next the bricks are placed on top of the foundation. You continue to add bricks building the walls and lastly you place on the roof. One day there is a major earth quake and it really shakes the house, moving the bricks from their original position on the foundation. The house doesn’t fall down, but the windows and roof need to be replaced as the movement caused them to crack.

You don’t inspect or repair the damage to the actual foundation as you can’t see the damage. However the foundation is unstable, there are cracks in some areas of the cement and other areas have collapsed completely, no longer providing a foundation for all the bricks above. How long will that house survive? The only way to really repair the house and ensure its survival is to repair the house from the foundation up. Would you want to live in a house that could collapse on top of you at any moment?

The atom is the fundamental building block of ALL stuff, what scientists refer to as “matter.” The universe and everything contained within it is composed of atoms. Atoms stick together to form larger stuff (molecules) which stick together to create larger stuff; for example cells.

Atoms are very small; at the center of the atom is the nucleus which is made up of particles called protons and neutrons. Circling around the atoms are electrons, the number of electrons determines the type of atom. Although there are a number of different types of atoms there is one defining principle with all atoms… their goal is to be a “happy” (or stable) atom!

A “happy” atom, or stable atom, has paired electrons circling around the nucleus, if an atom has an odd number of atoms in any of its shells (layers of circling electrons) , it becomes an unstable atom. In this unstable state the atom will constantly search out other atoms to take an electron, give an electron or join with the atom to share its electrons. It is this process of seeking stability that results in creation.

An unstable atom with an unpaired number of electrons is called a free radical and is very reactive. A simple conclusion to this question is if there were too many unhappy atoms and not enough electrons to produce enough stable atoms, life would cease to exist. Transversely, if all atoms were in a constant state of “happiness” there would not be any energy produced from the movement of electrons… resulting in “nothingness.”

So it's easy to make a simple deduction that life is about balance.

In later topics I discuss the role free radicals play in the human body, in addition to explaining how we can aid in accomplishing a balance, to maintain our physical bodies in their optimal state.