Glycolysis and Mental Health Challenges

Lived Experience in Mental Health System

  • Interview with Lian Zeitz: Discusses incorporating lived experiences into mental health research and practice.

  • Early Experiences:

    • Entered therapy at 13.
    • Intensive treatments by 15 (e.g., wilderness programs, boarding school).
    • Experienced depression, substance-use challenges, and dyslexia.

  • Navigating Mental Health Systems:

    • Ongoing mental health challenges define personal experience.
    • Struggled with stigma in mental health treatment.
    • Experienced cycles of shame and fear regarding future.
    • Did not find healing in the system, which often left individuals stuck in unwellness cycles.

  • Importance of Collaboration:

    • Decided to collaborate as an expert due to the neglect of intersectional realities in research.
    • Aims to provide wisdom from lived experiences to improve mental health research.
    • Seeks to rectify legacies of harm in mental health research.

  • Improving Representation in Research:

    • Suggested goals:
    • Enhance inclusion of lived experiences.
    • Build trusting relationships in research practices.
    • Recommendations:
    • Focus on accommodating participant needs and fostering relational trust.
    • Educate researchers on power dynamics and decolonial methodologies.
    • Increase funding for lived experience segments in research.

  • Potential Harms in Research Participation:

    • Risks of tokenism, belittlement, and shame in engagement processes.
    • Emphasizes the need for ethical practices in research settings.

Metabolism and Glycolysis Overview

  • Regulation of Metabolism:

    • Metabolism must be regulated to adapt to changing conditions.
    • Not all steps in a pathway require regulation.
    • Some pathways can be reversible; direction and flow need controls based on supply and removal of substrates and enzyme activity.

  • Carbon Oxidation:

    • Cells must control oxidation; released electrons must be managed carefully.

  • Glycolysis:

    • An ancient, nearly universal metabolic pathway.
    • Quick ATP production from glucose, not requiring oxygen.
    • Used primarily by muscle cells under vigorous exercise and in some anaerobic organisms.

  • Glycolysis Process:

    • Converts 1 glucose molecule into 2 pyruvate molecules; net production of 2 ATP.
    • Glycolysis stages:
    • Preparatory Phase:
      • Energy investment of 2 ATP for phosphorylation.
      • Cleavage of the 6-carbon sugar into 2 three-carbon sugars.
    • Payoff Phase:
      • Production of 4 ATP and 2 NADH, culminating in 2 pyruvate molecules.

  • Key Reactions:

    • 2 Pyruvate, 2 NADH, 2 ATP net production.
    • Various enzyme-catalyzed steps are critical for conversion and energy transfer.
    • Glycolysis Equation:
      ext{1 Glucose} + 2 NAD^+ + 2 ADP + 2 Pi
      ightarrow ext{2 Pyruvate} + 2 NADH + 2 ATP + 2 H_2 O + 2 H^+

Steps in Glycolysis

  • Step 1 - Phosphorylation of Glucose:

    • Prevents glucose from leaving the cell.
    • Activates glucose for subsequent reactions.

  • Step 3 - Second Phosphorylation (PFK-1):

    • Highly exothermic and essentially irreversible.

  • Step 6 - Energy Payoff Begins:

    • Involves the oxidation of glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate.

  • Overall Glycolysis Results:

    • Net Gain: 2 ATP and 2 NADH from 1 glucose molecule.
    • Contribution to energy production: 3.5% of total available energy in glucose, highlighting glycolysis as not a complete oxidation process.