Investigationof a car accident

In August 2018, I fainted while driving a car. The night before, I had been to a club meeting an evening with my sailboat in the archipelago. When there was a prohibition of open fire because of severe drought, grilling of the usual served burgers could not be done. Instead, fried and sliced roast beef being preserved with E252,potassium nitrate, was offered. E252 means that it is a preservative approved by the European Union. I consumed a maximum of 120 grams of the roast beef by later checking such a package at a grocery shop.The next day I would drive home and started at noon. After about 50 minutes of driving, I fainted without warning. Fortunately, there was no frontal crash but I went off the road. Police and ambulance arrived and I was taken to the US (university hospital) in Linkoping,Sweden. I had no injuries.

In the emergency, a blood gas sample was taken showing a potassium of 5.7 mmol / L; however, the vessel crack just when taking the sample. A new test with arterial blood gas showed normal values. Not accepting the first measurement as US did, is premature. See below for the attraction of charged potassium ions to the argon gas. The Mayo Clinic in the US has in May 2017 published that K-levels between 3.6 and 5.2 mmol / L are normal. Values above 5.5 mmol / L are critically high and over 6 mmol / L can be life threatening. Mayo Clinic is a large hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. They also have hospitals in Florida and Arizona with a total of 63,000 employees and have their own research department. The current version of 1177 for Ostgotaregion (local area) describes that high potassium level can cause irregular heart beats and even be deadly.

As the vein cracked when inserting a needle, argon gas started to pull out and there is a risk that the measured potassium value is too low due to that charged potassium ions will attract to argon atoms.

The reason for the problem is that the discharge of the charge cell is disturbed. If the blood contains far more potassium ions than normal, the exchange of potassium ions in the charge cell becomes less efficient. It is necessary that most of the potassium ions, charged or uncharged, to be replaced in order for the reset to be effective. But if passing blood contains high amount of potassium ions, it is the osmotic pressure that determines the efficiency of the exchange.If passing blood contains few potassium ions, the K-ions present in the load cell are withdrawn into the blood to get the same density of K-ions throughout the bloodstream. But if passing blood has a high content of K- ions, the yield will be worse. If the reset of the charge cell is not total, then the conduction nerves in the heartmuscle will end up at this residual potential and the next voltage pulse to the conduction system will get a lower effective voltage.This causes the blood flow to weaken and the next reset of the loadcell to deteriorate further.

Ihave observed that it is apparently not uncommon for blood vessels toburst during sampling when potassium levels are high. But it may bebecause there is high amount of argon gas in the blood. If a bloodvessel is opened with a needle, the gas wants to penetrate. Bloodpressure is efficiently propagated in a gas and gas consists of smallatoms. The blood contains cells and large molecules and the bloodpressure is not carried forward so effectively. The fact that theargon content is high is due to the fact that argon is created foreach release of the Ca cannon, but the subsequent effective bloodflow becomes increasingly weak with higher share of charged potassiumions. That the measured potassium content is high when the vein isbroken, but also before, can be explained by the fact that thepotassium ions try to discharge against the argon gas as the amountof energy in each charged potassium ion fits for the argon atoms tobe charged. But argon is a stable noble gas and has a filled outerelectron shell and cannot be charged. The energy size of thepotassium ions charge can not easily find any atom that can acceptthe size of the charge. A weakened blood flow due the high content ofargon gas in the vein, increases the risk of even weaker blood flowin the next phase. Then the oxygenation becomes even worse and theheart rate increases with even greater argon gas formation. Thepotassium's attraction of interest to the argon gas already takesplace in the charge cell, which also receives the argon gas created.

Driving50 minutes while sitting upright has probably made the situationworse. Argon gas is light and will move upwards in the body. It couldbe that the argon gas itself also creates obstacles for the flow of blood to and from the head by sitting upright a longer time. After I fainted I must have had a very rough journey passing a deep ditch and coming out on an area with a lot of stones. During that rough journey the head could move and the blood circulation to the head could start again. The journey stopped when my left front wheel hit a large stone and the wheel was totally demolished. The first life sign afterstarting to get awake, I remember that I heard a noise; most likely when the wheel hit the stone. I had my safety belt on but my head could move rather freely. It took rather long time before I realizedI was sitting in my car. First after that I opened the car door and stepped out, I started to realize what has happened. Had I not been driving but behaving more normally with different body postures, maybe the outcome would have been different.

Atvidaberg,Sweden 2019-10-13

Author:Olof Nirs

Nuclearenergy controls the human heart.

Thedescription of “Sinoatrial node” (Sinus node) function can befound in Wikipedia. The part describing how electric charge is builtup is as follows:

“This phase is also known as the pacemaker potential.Immediately following an action potential, when the membrane potential is very negative (it is hyperpolarised) the voltage slowly begins to increase. This is initially due to the closing of potassium channels, which reduces the flow of potassium ions (I ) out of the cell. Alongside the deactivation of the potassium channels, channels known as hyperventilation-activated cyclic nucleotide–gated (HCN) channels,are activated. Activation of these channels at very negative membrane potential is an unusual property for ion channels, therefore the flowof sodium(Na⁺) and some potassium(K⁺) through the activated HCN channel is referred to as a (I_f).This funny current causes the membrane potential of the cell togradually increase, as the positive charge (Na⁺and K⁺) is flowing into the cell. Another mechanism involved in pacemaker potential is known as the calcium clock. Here, calcium is released spontaneously from the sarcoplasmicreticulum(a calcium store) into the cell, this is known as a spontaneous Ca²⁺spark.This increase in calcium within the cell then activates asodium-calciumexchanger (NCX),which removes one Ca²⁺from the cell, and exchanges it for 3 Na⁺into the cell (therefore removing a charge of +2 from the cell, butallowing a charge of +3 to enter the cell) therefore in-creasing themembrane potential. The calcium is later pumped back into the cellvia calcium channels located on the cell membrane and SRmembrane.The increase in membrane potential produced by these mechanisms,activates T-typecalcium channelsand then L-typecalcium channels(which open very slowly). These channels allow a flow of calciumions (Ca²⁺)into the cell, making the membrane potential more positive.”

ThisWikipedia description is lacking where the energy for building up acharge is coming from. Just by moving around ions no electrical energy is created. A short description of a charge cell in the SinusNode is now in place.

Acharge cell is filled with K-ions. It has a cell wall only allowingK-ions to pass into the cell. The wall is open when the blood passeswhen the heart is contracting. The charge cell will loose its chargeby replacing the K-ions with new ones from the blood. Also the heartmuscle will loose its charge from the impulse starting the heartcontraction. After the discharge of the charge cell, the cell wall isclosed. The K-ions are now renewed and locked in. Another cell wallopening is the Ca-clock, also known as a Ca-canon, which is a verydescribing name to underline the importance to build up the chargevery fast. The Ca-canon shoots in Ca-ions into the charge cell. Thecharge cell stands permanently in direct connection with the nerveson the muscles of the ventricles. Therefor it is important that boththe charge cell and the ventricle muscles are discharged before a newheart cycle is started. There is no electric return line except thebody. What are the alternatives for quick charging and creatingenergy needed? Kalium (Latin name of potassium) has one isotope whichis very interesting. It is Kalium-40 (K-40), which has a half live of1 251 000 000 years. But this isotope has also a daughter isotopewith the name 40 Ar. The existence of this isotope 40 Ar is also ofinterest to explain how the K-Ca dating method functions.

Itis well known that the two-worth Oxygen atom will combine withanother Oxygen atom and become O₂ in common air to findthe most stable existence. The same also applies to Calcium whichalso is two-worth.

Letnow return to the charge cell. You have a cell full of Kalium-ions.Only 0,0117% of the Kalium-ions contain K-40. The suggested daughterisotope to K-40 has a Ca-atom available. When the Ca-canon is firedseveral Ca-ions are allowed to pass into the charge cell. Then theywill combine to Ca₂. The Ca-canon is open only a shorttime in the order of milliseconds. The daughter isotope can not existany longer when loosing the Ca-atom and also the isotope K-40 whenloosing the daughter isotope can exist any more. When K-40spontaneously is released, it will convert to the gas Argon andradioactive radiation. But as it is K-based and there are a lot ofK-ions in the charge cell, the energy levels will be accepted by theK-ions as the energy is delivered in sizes that are allowed. So theK-ions will be charged. Also Argon gas will be created which remainswhen K40 dissolves.

TheCa-canon has now got a more general name; “Calcium spark” as itis also found in all muscles (except heart muscles) and in the brain.Most likely the first hearts were builded up with normal musclesusing added Ca to contract. Later hearts used faster musclescontrolled by nuclear energy. The two Ca-ions which now are combinedin the charge cell, are not allowed to be inside the charge cell atnext charge cycle. The Ca-ions are swept away with the blood flowwhen discharging the charge cell but can not enter the charge cellagain as its wall only opens for input of K-ions.

Controlunit

Thereis a need of having a control unit. Its most important function is todecide when to release the Ca-canon. A new cycle starts with slowlybuilding up a voltage (energy) for releasing the Ca-canon. The slowgrowth will avoid too early new cycle starts. The trigger unit isalso controlled by “Junction gaps” that gives information thatthe foregoing contraction cycle is not finished. These gaps arebridged then the heart contraction is active and the trigger levelgets lower by discharging. The trigger unit will release the Ca-canonwhen the voltage level has grown higher than a reference level. Theconnection line to the heart has a limited conductivity and causes adelay. Bridges from this connection line are also used for closing ofauricles and valves in the ventricles. This timing method allows theheart to work faster when the blood from the lungs contains too lessoxygen. It remains to be investigated how the control unit of hartspeed has been designed by nature. In practice it works very wellespecially for sporting people. The control unit needs to have apower supply that is consistent all the time and with a fairlyconstant voltage. Some reference voltage levels are needed; the mostimportant one is a voltage that must be overridden to release theCa-canon. These reference voltages do not need to deliver electricenergy.

Theheart has built in spontaneous starting means and this points to thata “spare battery” is needed. It can be the same as the powersupply for control unit. It is very likely that such a battery cellis charged from the charge cell. But it can not be directly connectedto the charge cell. The battery cell must not be discharged via theconnection to the charge cell, as the charge cell will be by thepassing bloodstream. A possible solution is there is a cell membranebetween the charge cell with the Ca-canon and the battery cell. Itcould be that only charged potassium ions can pass the membrane inone way. But after the battery cell has been been delivering energyto the control unit some K-ions are discharged and must be thrown outand be replaced by charged ions. It may be that simple that wemembrane will allow uncharged K-ions to go back to the charge cell.So it remains to learn how the nature has solved this function. Moreinformation about membranes can be found in an article entitled“Electrical Changes in the Cell Membrane” from the Czechuniversity Carolinae.

Atvidaberg,Sweden 2019-09-20

Author:Olof Nirs

Ifyou want to get a deeper understanding, I recommend that you address https://ptable.com/?lang=en#Isotopes

inyour browser. Click on element 19 K. Then all isotopes will be shown.Select and right click on isotope 40K. To left on the screen you willfind a line Write-up Potassium-40 Wikipedia. Left click onPotassium-40. A description appears how the isotope 40K andits daughter isotope 40Ar are working. This daughter isotope explainshow potassium-argon dating is made possible. In the described heartfunction the isotope 40Ar is released by adding a Ca-ion by theCa-canon. The two Ca-ions join together to a molecule more stable andnon reactive than two Ca-atoms. Compare for instance oxygen where youget O2 in common air. In the dating application the time isdetermined by the spontaneous release frequency and is also leavingCa when released. The total amount of Ca is used for determining age.

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