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Biological rhythms and their significance for osteopathy

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Biological rhythms and their significance for osteopathy

BY TORSTEN LIEM & MAXIMILIAN MOSER

 

Summary

Rhythm is a universal organising principle in nature. It has not been possible to identify a central clock, but a dominance of central oscillators has. The spectrum and characteristics of biological rhythms and timers are presented and the effects of endogenous and exogenous rhythms are discussed. The changing interplay of biological rhythms plays a significant role in healing and regeneration processes in the organism.

Keywords

Biological rhythms, biological oscillations, exogenous timers, endo- and exogenous rhythms, oscillatory processes, pulse-breath quotients, microvibration, alpha waves of the EEG, structure-function relationship

Abstract

Rhythm is a universal principle of natures' organisation. A central timer could not be established, but a dominance of central oscillation was found. The spectrum and Characteristics of the biological rhythms and timers is described and the endogenetic and exogenetic rhythms are discussed. The dynamic interaction of the biological rhythms play an important role in initiation of healing and regenerative processes of the human body.

Keywords

Biological rhythm, biological oscillation, exogenetic timer, endogenetic and exogenetic rhythm, oscillatory processes, pulse-respiratory quotient, microvibration, alpha wave (EEG), structure-functional relationship

Introduction

Our entire life is characterised by biological rhythms and our organism has not only a spatial but also a temporal structure. New findings show the great importance of biological rhythms for health and also offer implications for approaches within osteopathic treatment. These go far beyond the manual synchronisation with - sometimes speculative - rhythmic phenomena in the organism practised in osteopathy to date and deepen our understanding of the unity of the organism, the human temporal structure and its functional interactions. 

Rhythm is a universal organising principle in nature. However, it has not been possible to identify a central clock, but a dominance of central oscillators. For this reason, the focus is no longer on the question of a central clock, but on the question of the coordination dynamics between more environmentally related and integrating rhythms.

Rhythm - a basic characteristic of life

Rhythmicity, regulation and spatio-temporal coordination characterise the basic properties of life with the aim of creating order and preventing energy depletion. Rhythmicity is a universal organisational principle of geno- and phenotypic expression and metabolic regulation. As a self-organising force of the organism, it includes all processes from the beginning of fertilisation through growth, homeostasis and adaptive functions to death.

Rhythm, structure and function

The model of a rigid structure-function relationship is extended by a dialectical structure-function relationship, which is organised by multiple interrelated oscillatory processes. One example is the intercellular oscillatory process described by Jaeger and Goodwin, which is thought to be regulated by cell-autonomous and non-autonomous processes and is capable, among other things, of reproducing the dynamics of periodic gene trait patterns in embryogenesis [1].

Understanding and knowledge of the dynamically synergistic and rhythmically organised regulatory balance processes in humans can increase the diagnostic and therapeutic potential in the practice of osteopathy. The following section provides an overview of rhythmic processes and the organisation of regulation in order to understand the organic order in humans. 

The phylogenetic as well as the ontogenetic development of structure and function can be seen as a uniform process of reciprocal interactions. Rhythm has an order-generating effect. Every increase in spatial order is accompanied by an increase in functional order. This is true at the molecular, cellular and macroorganismic level as well as at the population level. For example, cognitive order is linked to the oscillation dynamics, coordination and self-adaptation of brain tissue. 

Time structures acting in the organism are formed by the regulatory properties of certain macromolecules (enzymes). Diffusion processes can lead to the development of local or global oscillations, resulting in the formation of structures.

The system of biological rhythms

Biological rhythms, like every oscillation, presuppose a polarity in the organism, between whose poles the oscillation can take place. This basic polarity can be found, for example, in the autonomic nervous system in the form of the antagonists sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system (referred to below as the vagus), which stand for readiness to perform and readiness to recover respectively. The daily rhythm, already mentioned by Hufeland [2] as the basic unit of biological temporality, actually represents a large oscillation between the sympathetically emphasised day and the vagally emphasised night. Within this oscillation, practically all physiological and even some anatomical parameters are altered with varying degrees of amplitude. Examples of the physiological parameters are the heart rate, body temperature, all body hormones, the parameters of the immune system as well as those of digestion. 

Anatomically, for example, body size, joint circumference and joint mobility change. Every morning at around 6 a.m. we are at our largest and joint swelling is at its most pronounced, which brings with it a simultaneous reduction in joint mobility and an increase in any joint pain. We are then at our smallest in the evening at 8 pm. Contrary to intuition, this cyclical change in size is not, or not only, due to the strain placed on our skeleton by our body weight during the course of the day. It can also be observed when test subjects are allowed to stand for 60 minutes and lie down for 60 minutes at 2-hour intervals and then the measurement is carried out over 24 hours.

Healthy interaction of the organ systems is characterised by good synchronisation with exogenous time generators/environmental factors in the long-wave range and good frequency and phase coordination of endogenous rhythms in the short and medium-wave range. Synchronisation disorders can be a sign of illness. Conversely, lifestyles that run counter to the natural order in the relationship between the internal rhythm biology and external zeitgebers can be a predisposition to illness, while a rhythm-orientated lifestyle provides the basis for health.

The rhythmic functions of the medium- and long-wave ranges tend to be kept constant due to synchronising influences in contrast to short-wave ranges. Long-wave rhythmicities tend to occur as pendulum oscillations. They represent complex processes that combine a large number of individual functions into an ordered interaction. Short-wave rhythmicities usually manifest themselves in impulsive forms of oscillation (tilting oscillations).

Table 1: Characteristics of biological rhythms. * The higher the frequencies in the ultradian (multi-hour) range, the more the rhythm can generally be modulated. (According to Hildebrandt et al. 1998)

Long-wave rhythms 

Medium-wave rhythms

Short-wave rhythms

Days to years

Minutes to hours

Milliseconds to seconds

Concerning the whole organism 

Affect entire organs

Concerning cells and tissue 

Metabolism (e.g. wake/sleep cycle)

Rhythmic transport and distribution system (respiration, circulation)

Information system (nervous system)

Pendulum oscillation

 

Impulsive forms of vibration (e.g. tilting vibrations)

Under load: frequency-stable, amplitude-variable

Under load: limited frequency and amplitude variability* 

Under load: frequency-variable, amplitude-stable

High molecular weight proteins

 

ions (Na+, K+Cl-)

Timer 

"Timers" are physical or social stimuli that enable the human organism to organise itself into external rhythms. Aschoff already recognised that the most important zeitgeber is light, especially daylight [3]. Every morning from around 4 a.m., the human organism prepares itself for the start of the day and awaits the sunrise. When the light of the dawning day appears, it triggers a whole cascade of physiological changes. 

For a long time, it was assumed that the visual cells of the eye, cones and rods, transmitted this stimulus to the rest of the organism. It was a minor sensation when new photoreceptors were discovered around the year 2000, in addition to cones and rods. In fact, not only new photoreceptors were found, but also a new visual pigment: melanopsin was identified in the ganglion cells of the inner retina, a light-sensitive pigment that had already been identified in primitive creatures and that is much older in evolutionary terms than the rhodopsins of the cones and rods. These newly discovered "circadian photoreceptors" (still described in old textbooks as ganglion cells, without their own visual function) complement the previously known photoreceptors and do not lead with their descending nerve axons to the visual cortex of the occipital cortex like cones and rods, but directly to the suprachiasmatic nucleus and on to the pineal gland (pineal gland). 

Even before the discovery of circadian photoreceptors, it was known that destruction of the suprachiasmatic nucleus, for example due to cancer, leads to severe circadian and sleep disorders. The suprachiasmatic nucleus can therefore be seen as the coordinator of the circadian rhythm, whereby each cell in our body also has its own circadian rhythm, which is controlled by its own genes. There is also news from molecular biology in this respect: it is now assumed that there are practically none gene that not circadian is controlled. Oscillation is therefore everywhere in the organism, coordinated by the timers, the suprachiasmatic nucleus and the interaction of the internal organs.

Parallel to the discovery of circadian photoreceptors, it was recognised in other medical fields that the explicit circadian genes, such as PER2 and 3 or CLOCK, are of great importance for the preservation of youthfulness as well as for protection against cancer. Epidemiological studies and meta-analyses have shown that night and shift workers have increased breast cancer rates by around 50%, while night and shift workers have increased prostate cancer rates by up to 400%. Studies on laboratory animals have shown that the molecular biological deletion of a single (of eight known) of the genes controlling the circadian rhythm (PER2) causes the affected animals to age and die dramatically faster than the comparison group of genetically identical rats with intact rhythm genes [4, 5]. In contrast to the genetically intact animals, the animals still alive at the end of the experiment already had 100 % cancer. 

These new findings on the youth-preserving and cancer-protecting effect of intact circadian rhythms, published in a special issue of the renowned journal Cancer Causes Control [6], led to a statement by the WHO (IARC, International Agency for Research on Cancer) in 2007, in which night and shift work, if it disturbs biological rhythms, is to be regarded as a "disrupting factor". probably carcinogenic was classified.

Endogenous and exogenous rhythms 

For a long time, neurohormonal central nervous structures, such as the pineal organ or the hypothalamus, were thought to be the location of a central rhythm generator. However, this does not appear to exist. However, a dominance of central oscillators can be determined. These are characterised by the fact that they adapt the organism to environmental rhythms by synchronising with them. For example, a modification of the light-dark periodicity leads to pronounced oscillations in the function of the pineal organ. However, a few days after the change in light-dark periodicity, independent oscillations of many functions as well as an unchanged adaptability of rhythms can also be registered. Sinz concludes from this that there is a dynamic functional order that is mediated by mechanisms of non-linear coordination ([7], p. 75).

The question of the coordination dynamics between more environment-related and integrating rhythms thus comes to the fore. This is not an active-passive relationship, but a coordination of self-excited cellular rhythms (tissue-, organ- or organ system-synchronised). Despite the different significance of the rhythms, depending on the magnitude of the frequency, this can also be derived from the interaction between organismic and environmental periodicities ([7], p. 114).

Geophysical, ecological and social environmental periodicities synchronise the biological rhythms of cellular genesis. In addition, there is also an endogenous synchronisation and coordination of multiple cellular, tissue, organic, organismic and interorganismic oscillators. There is a tendency towards frequency synchronisation between these systems (Fig. 1 and 2). 

 

Fig. 1: Timer. [16]

Liem Fig 1

Fig. 2: Spectrum of biological and geophysical rhythms. [16]

Liem Fig 2

An external synchronisation tendency in the 10 Hz range has been detected several times. There is an accumulation of biological oscillations in this range (microvibration, α-The behaviour of minute-periodic pulsations of the EEG, pupil restlessness, ciliated epithelial and eye tremor movements, action potentials) and geophysical periodicities (seismic restlessness, variation of the earth's magnetic field, infralang waves). There are also striking analogies in the temporal and amplitude behaviour of minute-periodic pulsations of the earth's magnetic field and the circaminute rhythms of organisms. However, it has not yet been possible to establish a causal relationship.

Temporal fluctuations in the environment are supposed to be registered simultaneously via different sensory structures in the organism. Anochin assumes that in the development of life, temporal sequences of the external world as macro-time are reflected in the structures and organisation of organisms in the form of rapid chemical processes as micro-time [8]. These internal temporal structuring patterns enable the organism - by creating probability predictions about the outside world - to behave in a targeted manner. 

In humans, the psyche appears to be able to use biotic clocks or oscillatory processes to make probability forecasts of the needs of one's own inner world and the conditions of the outer world, thus enabling successful regulation of the organism's energy requirements [9]. These could enable hypotheses about the world "as an anticipatory reflection" and serve to control behaviour.

Interplay of body rhythms

A key systemic characteristic of biological rhythms is their reciprocal interaction, which can be observed particularly during periods of rest. Over the course of 24 hours, it can be observed in a group of test subjects that the ratio of pulse rate to respiration, for example, assumes a value between 2:1 and 7:1.

Test subjects with a high pulse-respiratory quotient lower it at night, while those with a low pulse-respiratory quotient raise it at night. Sleep therefore has a remarkable normalisation effect, which tends to aim for a pulse-respiratory quotient of 4:1. In the morning, the groups separate again and each subject returns to where they came from the day before. In the course of the day and night, we therefore oscillate between an individual and a universal ratio of heartbeat to respiration [10].

Further studies have shown that healing and regeneration processes, such as cures or rehabilitation, systematically reinforce this normalisation tendency and create a particularly economical way for the organism to work. Such effects can also be expected in osteopathic treatment and could also be used systematically to document success.

From the research conducted by Hildebrandt and his team, we know that resting sleep phases not only strengthen correlations between heartbeat and breathing, but also involve other rhythms in the coordination. For example, the frequencies of blood pressure and peripheral circulatory rhythms coordinate with those of heartbeat and respiration. The aim is to achieve a ratio of 4:1 - in musical terms a double octave - between the successive rhythms [11]. 

So while our organs make music in confusion during the day, they sing in unison at night. This harmony of the night is very likely of crucial importance for well-being and health. Disturbances caused by night and shift work lead to serious health problems - from metabolic disorders [12] and heart disease [13, 14] to a considerable increase in the incidence of cancer [6, 15]. The therapeutic goal of any natural treatment should therefore also be to restore rhythms and coordination, which can also be documented using today's measurement methods.

Literature

[1] Jaeger J, Goodwin BC. Cellular oscillators in animal segmentation. Silico Biol 2002;2(2):111-123

[2] Hufeland CW. Macrobiotics - or The art of prolonging human life. A. F. Macklot, Stuttgart 1799

[3] Aschoff J. Circadian Rhythms in Man. Science 1965;148(3676):1427–1432

[4] Lee CC. Tumour suppression by the mammalian Period genes. Cancer Causes Control 2006;17(4):525-530

[5] Fu L, Lee CC. The circadian clock: pacemaker and tumour suppressor. Nat Rev Cancer 2003;3(5):350-361

[6] Moser M, Schaumberger K, Schernhammer E, Stevens RG. Cancer and rhythm. Cancer Causes Control 2006;17(4):483-487

[7] Sinz R. Time structures and organismic regulation. Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1978

[8] Anochin PK. Contributions to the general theory of the functional system. Fischer, Jena 1978

[9] Jantzen W. Transempirical spaces - meaning and significance in life contexts. http://members.aol.comfba¬saglialmuhlh97.html ((The link does not work. Where did this appear? In: Fischbeck H-J (ed.) Life in danger? From the cognition of life to a new ethics of the living. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen Vluyn 1999, pp. 123-144?))

[10] Hildebrandt G, Moser M, Lehofer M. Chronobiology and chronomedicine. Weiz: Health Management System; 1998, 2013

[11] Raschke F. Chronobiological viewpoints of respiratory regulation. Wien Med Wochenschr 1995;145(17-18):435-439

[12] Holmback U, Forslund A, Lowden A, Forslund J, Akerstedt T, Lennernas M, Hambraeus L, Stridsberg M. Endocrine responses to nocturnal eating - possible implications for night work. Eur J Nutr 2003;42(2):75-83

[13] Knutsson A. Health disorders of shift workers. Occup Med (London) 2003;53(2):103-108

[14] Karlsson BH, Knutsson AK, Lindahl BO, Alfredsson LS. Metabolic disturbances in male workers with rotating three-shift work. Results of the WOLF study. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 2003;76(6):424-430

[15] Moser M, Fruehwirth M, Kenner T. The symphony of life - importance, interaction and visualisation of biological rhythms. IEEE Eng Med Biol Mag 2008;27(1):29-37

[16] Liem T. Van den Heede P. Foundations of Morphodynamics in Osteopathy: An Integrative Approach to Cranium, Nervous System, and Emotions, 2017; 1st ed. Handspring Publishing Limited, Pencaitland.



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