ProOpioMelanocortin

April 03, 2017

POMC: The God Protein 


 References: Wikipedia, Uniprot


 Proopiomelanocortin. Repeat after me. Pro.. opio.. melano.. cortin. Bet you never heard of that before. What is it? It's the protein that runs you. It's a large protein that is in your pituitary gland that is made from pre-pro-proopiomelanocortin, a 285 amino acid long peptide that is activated once the 44 amino acid activating fragment is removed. 


Then it is ready for activation. It's all in its name, at least part of it. Opio - it has opioid activity in part of it. Melano - it has melatonin activity. Cortin - it has cortisol activity. 


The devil is in the details. It is the prototype-hormone that can be split in many directions, depending on what enzymes attack it and chop it up into other pieces. It is those other pieces that become the hormones that run your body. ACTH heads off to the adrenal glands, giving you cortisol for energy and stress response. MSH has all sorts of appetite and sexual activity implications. The appetite part works through leptin. Generally it suppresses appetite as does leptin, when you aren't leptin resistant. Beta-endorphin manages pain perception and immune function. 


 POMC can be chopped up into at least 10 different hormones, depending on where it is chopped. All the regions are overlapping with each other so any one hormone that is created might nix the making of another. It all depends on which chopping enzyme gets activated, and the activation is managed by adding or subtracting marking sugars or acids attached on certain sites. 


 An example of how it works goes as follows. You go to the gym and exercise like crazy. Imagine a good Cross Fit workout, or a great tennis match, or a hard 5-mile run. Your body is demanding more fuel so you put out the call for more cortisol to mobilize more fuel. To make more cortisol, you need ACTH. First you chop the pre-pro-proopiomelanocortin into proopiomelanocortin. From that you then chop it into ACTH. When you make ACTH, you also, by chance make beta-endorphin. That's your natural opioid. 


Presto: you feel a warm glow of happy feelings. The runner's high. That's what happens when it works well. Guess what happens when it gets screwed up? The CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) as typified by black mold attacks you right at POMC. By downregulating the natural ebb and flow of POMC, you block beta-endorphin, ACTH and leptin which results in your being utterly unable to lose weight, not sleeping well, hurting all over and having no energy. Sound like anyone you know? We shy away from all those folks because it is too awfully overwhelming. We call people with that "Chronic Fatigue" or "Fibromyalgia" and give them pain pills and usher them out as fast as possible. It might be kinder to investigate why they are feeling so awful. 


Ritchie Shoemaker, the author of the web site www.survivingmold.com claims that 80% of folks with chronic fatigue actually have CIRS, and positive markers for mold. They represent as many as 25% of the population when you do genetic testing for those who are susceptible to mold toxins. All they need is repeated exposure. 2% of folks are exquisitely sensitive, and 5 minutes in a sick water-damaged building will set them off. If you can fix their POMC and get it back to normal function, their suffering will be over and they will claim you were the dispenser of a real miracle: the God Protein. 


 WWW.what will work for me. I'm totally fascinated with POMC and have started working on being certified as a Black Mold specialist. It's a couple hundred articles and pages of reading, but if I come out being able to fix those folks who have been blown off by 8 other physicians and given nothing but symptom relief, I'll be pleased. I am getting awfully hyper about any water leaks in my house. There are roofers up on our roof right now making sure our house stays dry. Mold will happen anytime you let water leak in your house, and don't fix it promptly.


 Pop Quiz


1. POMC is the prohormone that modulates your sex drive. T or F                 Answer:  Well, part of it does. There are implications for sexual function in MSH but more of it's components go to energy and pain control 

 ‪2. POMC can be chopped up to make how many hormones?                     Answer: At least 10 and maybe more ‪

3. Can they all be made at the same time?                      Answer:  No, any given combination will only make 2 or 3 depending on where you cleave the protein. This means there is lots of overlap. ‪

4. The toxins of mold do their dirty deed by disrupting POMC. T or F                         Answer: Bingo 

 ‪5. Mold illness is rare. T or F                    Answer:   Are you kidding? Probably as many as 25% of our population has the genetic tendency to be affected. Likely only 2% are exquisitely sensitized, but that is still a huge number. (6-7 million exquisitely sensitive, 90 million partially sensitive.)

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