Cell Signaling 101 Mini Course

This comprehensive mini course by Dr. Tyler Panzner explains how your body actually responds to food, supplements, and lifestyle choices at the cellular level. By understanding cell signaling pathways—the "strings" that control your cellular "puppets"—you can move beyond generic health advice and make precise, personalized decisions to address the root causes of your symptoms rather than just masking them.

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1. Introduction to Cells: The Building Blocks of You 🧬

Dr. Tyler Panzner kicks off this course with genuine excitement, promising that once you see health from this angle, you'll never be able to unsee it.

So what exactly is a cell? A cell is the basic building block of all living things. Inside each cell is a jelly-like substance called cytoplasm that holds various structures called organelles. You might remember mitochondria from biology class—famously known as the "powerhouse of the cell" because it produces energy. These organelles are made up of proteins, DNA, RNA, lipids (fats from our food), and carbohydrates (sugars that fuel our cells).

Dr. Panzner describes the body as a perfectly orchestrated symphony. He finds it remarkable that our bodies even exist given how much is happening at any given moment. Here's something fascinating: all the different cell types in your body—brain cells, skin cells, bone cells, blood cells—contain the exact same DNA, yet they look and function completely differently.

"Epithelial skin cells, they make up our skin. Bone cells make up our bones. Skeletal muscle cells make our muscles."

Think of each cell type as a different instrument in the symphony. Epithelial cells are the trombones, neurons are the trumpets—and they all need to work together in harmony for you to not just survive, but to actually feel your best.

Here's the crucial point: every single health issue, disease, symptom, or ailment boils down to cellular issues. When your cells aren't happy, your tissues aren't happy, your organs aren't happy, and then you experience symptoms. That's why Dr. Panzner loves educating about health from the cellular level upward.

The Mind-Blowing Numbers

You're made up of between 30 and 40 trillion cells—that's trillion with a T! To put that in perspective, that's over 400 times more cells in your body than stars in our entire galaxy. 🌌

Different cell types vary dramatically in size and number. Fat cells (adipocytes) can grow bigger as we gain weight, while platelets and stem cells are much smaller. By sheer number, most of your cells are red blood cells. But by weight or mass, you're mostly made up of fat cells and muscle cells—which makes sense when you think about it.

Cell Turnover: Nothing Lasts Forever

Cells need to replace themselves because they get tired and don't work as well as they age. The rate of replacement varies wildly by cell type:

• Immune cells (monocytes): Every 2 days
• Colon and rectum cells: Every 3.5 days
• Heart cells, brain cells, skeletal muscle cells: Much, much longer

As we age, this turnover slows down significantly. Skin cells, for example, take longer to replace as we get older. This is a fundamental component of aging—we're not replacing old cells with fresh new ones as quickly, which can lead to potential issues.

Stem Cells: The Immortal Exception 🌟

Stem cells are unique because they can self-renew virtually forever and can transform into any other cell type in the body. They're made in and reside in the bone marrow, and here's what's remarkable: when needed, they know exactly where to go and what type of cell to become.

"If you need stem cells in your shoulder, your stem cells will know to leave the bone marrow and know exactly where to go. And not just where to go, but what type of cell to turn into."

How Do Cells Know What to Do?

This brings us to a fascinating question: How do cells know how to behave? Consider these examples:

• How do stem cells know when to leave the bone marrow and where to go?
• How do skin cells know to make vitamin D from sunlight?
• How do bone cells know to grow in the right direction and when to stop?
• When you break your arm, how do bone cells know to heal without adding an extra arm?
• How does an immune cell in your foot know there's bacteria in your finger?

The answer to all these complex cellular behaviors? Cell signaling pathways.

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2. Cell Signaling: The Puppet Strings of Your Body 🎭

Cell signaling is the broad set of pathways involved in how cells communicate with each other and within themselves. It's how cells tell other cells what to do, how to behave, and how they receive those messages in return.

Scientists have identified several dozen cell signaling pathways, with new ones being discovered all the time. Depending on how you classify them, there could be over a hundred different pathways. But here's the encouraging news:

"You may only need to tweak and learn to control one or two pathways to resolve and get answers to a lot of your chronic nagging health issues."

The Puppet Analogy

Dr. Panzner presents a powerful analogy that's central to understanding this concept. Imagine a marionette puppet being controlled by strings pulled by a puppeteer:

• Your cells (30-40 trillion of them) = The puppets
• Cell signaling pathways = The strings
• Your environment (what you put in your body, what you expose yourself to) = The puppeteer

"Cell signaling dictates how our cells behave. Every single cellular change in our body is due to changes in cell signaling."

Dr. Panzner shows a video of a street performer making a puppet dance and moonwalk by pulling different strings at different times. Then he shows live cell images of actual cells moving, reaching out, doing different things. The connection? We can tell our cells what to do—not through mind control, but through what we put in our bodies. Instead of strings, we use cell pathways.

What Changes Cell Signaling?

Virtually anything can affect your cell signaling:

• Genetics (can hardwire certain pathways to be overactive or underactive throughout your life)
• Foods you eat
• Exercise
• Sleep
• Drugs and medications
• Supplements
• Lifestyle habits
• Infections
• Toxins
• Inflammation
• Even your thoughts!

"You eat McDonald's, you feel like crap. That's a change in cell signaling. You eat a steak, you feel great. That's a change in cell signaling. You get a bad night's sleep, you feel like crap. That's a change in cell signaling. You're listening to your favorite song, your mood goes up. That's a change in cell signaling."

Even thinking about needing to pay rent and feeling anxious? That's a change in cell signaling. While you can't control your genetics, you absolutely can control what foods you eat, what supplements you take, and what lifestyle habits you practice.

Types of Cell Signaling

There are two main types:

1. Intercellular: Communication between different cells (inter = between)
2. Intracellular: Communication within a single cell (intra = within)

Dr. Panzner shares a memory trick: the "A" in intracellular is bigger than the "E" in intercellular—think of that big "A" as the inside of a cell.

Cells can communicate in several ways:

• Autocrine signaling: Cells talking to themselves
• Paracrine signaling: Cells talking to nearby cells
• Endocrine signaling: Sending messages through the bloodstream (this is how a cell in your toe can talk to a cell in your finger)
• Direct contact: Cells that are physically touching can deliver messages

Examples of Cell Signaling Pathways

Here's an important point: no single symptom, ailment, or disease is ever linked to just one pathway. Just like making a puppet moonwalk requires pulling multiple strings, your body's functions involve multiple pathways working together.

Some examples:

• Insulin signaling pathway: Takes sugar from blood after a meal and helps it enter cells for energy
• TNF alpha (Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha): Wakes up immune cells to drive inflammation and fight intruders
• Vitamin D: The most powerful hormone in the body, with different functions based on cell type

Here's where it gets interesting: Type 2 diabetes is linked to disrupted insulin signaling, but it's also linked to TNF alpha and vitamin D issues. Heart disease connects to multiple pathways too.

"My point is it's not just 'I need to just fix my insulin to live my best life.' Multiple pathways are involved."

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3. Signal Transduction: The Relay Race Inside Your Cells 🏃

Signal transduction is the process by which cells transmit information from outside the cell to inside the cell. Think of it as a relay race—there's a relay race for each "string" or signaling pathway.

Each pathway has its own relay race that begins with receiving a message and ends with the cell actually changing how it behaves.

The Major Players in Signal Transduction

There are five major types of cellular proteins (the workhorses of our cells) responsible for signal transduction:

1. Enzymes ⚗️

Enzymes are proteins that conduct chemical reactions inside cells. They turn X into Y into Z. A substrate (the ingredient) binds to the enzyme, and through a chemical reaction, creates a product.

These enzymes often require cofactors—minerals like iron, zinc, magnesium, and copper—to function properly. The enzyme has a binding site that holds the substrate in place and a catalytic site that performs the reaction.

"Imagine if you want to weld these two together—you need to sit them tight and then this catalytic site needs to connect these two together."

This is where genetics becomes important: if you have a mutation in your enzyme, you may not make as much of a particular product throughout your entire life.

A great example is neurotransmitter production. Tryptophan, phenylalanine, and glutamine are amino acids from the proteins you eat. Different enzymes convert them into neurotransmitters like serotonin (makes us happy), GABA (calms us down), and melatonin (makes us sleepy). Each arrow in this conversion pathway represents a different enzyme, and many require specific cofactors like iron.

2. Signaling Molecules 📨

Once enzymes make the signaling molecules (also called ligands or primary messengers), the relay race begins. These molecules are produced by the sending cell and released into the extracellular space—think of it like a highway where molecules travel to reach their destination.

Examples include:

• Hormones: Testosterone, estrogen
• Cytokines: Interleukin-6, TNF alpha (released by immune cells)
• Neurotransmitters: Serotonin, dopamine, GABA
• Growth factors: Human growth factor

3. Receptors ⚾

Receptors are found mostly on the cell surface. Dr. Panzner compares them to a baseball mitt—the signaling molecules are like baseballs floating around, and your cell needs to catch them with the mitt to receive the chemical signal.

Different receptors exist for different molecules: a serotonin receptor won't detect melatonin, and a melatonin receptor won't detect adrenaline. They're highly specific, allowing cells to know exactly what's present in their environment.

The Catnip Example 🐱

Dr. Panzner uses a fascinating example to illustrate receptor specificity. Catnip contains a chemical called nepetalactone. When cats inhale or chew on it, they literally get high—acting weird and funny for about 5 minutes.

Why? Because nepetalactone binds to TRPV1 receptors in cats' nasal cavities.

Why don't humans get high from catnip? Simple: humans completely lack this type of receptor. No baseball mitt means no catching the baseball, which means no response.

"If there's no receptor, you're not going to sense it."

Interestingly, mosquitoes DO have this receptor, which is why catnip essential oil is an effective mosquito repellent!

4. Secondary Messengers 🔄

After the receptor catches the signal, the baton gets passed. Secondary messengers are molecules released into the cytoplasm after receptor activation. They relay the message toward the nucleus (where DNA is stored).

There can be multiple handoffs in this relay—handoff one, two, three, four—each involving specific proteins passing the message along.

5. Transcription Factors 🎬

Transcription factors are the anchors that finish the race. They interact with secondary messengers, enter the nucleus, and literally bind to DNA to alter gene expression.

"A gene is a specific part of DNA that makes our proteins. So you have a transcription factor—it got stimulated from the relay race. Now, to finish the race, it binds the DNA and it tells your cells, 'Make more of this gene. Turn this gene into a protein.'"

How do cells change their behavior? By making more of certain proteins and less of others. This is done by turning the "volume" up or down on specific genes.

Gene Expression: The Volume Knob

Every protein in your body is encoded by a gene. When transcription factors bind DNA, they initiate a process where DNA gets copied into RNA, which then gets turned into proteins.

Dr. Panzner prefers to think of gene expression as "more or less" rather than "on or off."

A beautiful example: Vitamin D and seasonal depression. Vitamin D tells your cells to make more enzymes that produce serotonin and dopamine.

"That's why you may feel great after a day at the beach. You made more of these proteins to make more feel-good neurotransmitters and improve how you feel."

When winter comes and vitamin D drops, your body turns down production of those proteins, leading to seasonal depression.

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4. The Big Picture: Why YOU Should Care About This 💡

Dr. Panzner now brings everything together to show why this matters for your everyday health.

Check Engine Lights: Your Body's Warning Signs 🚨

Think about your nagging health issues—headaches, anxiety, allergies, chronic fatigue, bloating, that "blah" feeling. Dr. Panzner calls these check engine lights.

"These are more minor symptoms that many of us sadly accept as normal in our world today. Let me tell you, these are not normal."

Just like a car's check engine light signals something's wrong under the hood, these symptoms mean your cells are crying out for help because your cell signaling pathways are imbalanced.

What does conventional medicine often do? It's like putting a piece of tape over the check engine light. Medication masks the symptom, but underneath, the light is still on—cellular dysfunction and disregulated pathways continue.

"You may feel good in the short term, but trust me, underneath the piece of tape, the light is still on."

What happens if you never address the check engine light? The car eventually breaks down. In health terms, minor symptoms progress into disease.

"You don't just wake up with Alzheimer's disease. The headaches, the brain fog when you're younger eventually turns into migraines, eventually turns into loss of memory, eventually turns into cognitive decline."

The Same Pathways Behind Many Problems

Dr. Panzner highlights four key pathways that he believes are major factors in many health issues and can be controlled through food, supplements, and lifestyle:

1. Histamine
2. Glutamate
3. Sulfur
4. Adrenaline

Looking at how these overlap reveals fascinating patterns. Headaches can be linked to histamine, glutamate, sulfur, AND adrenaline issues. ADHD is implicated in three of these pathways. Anxiety, autism-type symptoms, and many other conditions connect to multiple pathways.

"So if you have headaches and you take a medication, which pathway is it acting on? This is why some people don't respond to a migraine or headache medication. It's not the right pathway."

Same Molecule, Different Effects by Cell Type

Here's something crucial: different cell types respond differently to the same molecule. Think of different cell types (brain, gut, blood, liver, bone) as different puppets, but they're all controlled by the same strings.

Take serotonin as an example. You've heard it's the "happy neurotransmitter," but that's just what it does for brain cells. When you stimulate the serotonin pathway:

• Brain cells: Improved mood
• Gut cells: Contracts smooth muscle, regulates digestion
• Blood cells: Promotes blood clotting
• Blood vessels: Helps constrict vessels
• Bone cells: Promotes bone formation
• Liver cells: Helps regeneration after injury

"This is why people on serotonin reuptake inhibitor medications, SSRIs, can get gut-related issues because it's not just raising serotonin in the brain, it's also raising serotonin in the gut."

When you pull one string, all the puppets respond—which explains why supplements or medications can help one area while causing issues in another.

Health vs. Disease: Same Pathways, Different Balance

What's the difference between a healthy cell and a diseased cell? There are no new pathways—it's simply the same pathways turned up or down over time.

Dr. Panzner introduces the concept of "symphony-ception": individual cells have their own symphony of pathways that need to be balanced, AND all the different cell types must also be in balance with each other.

Labels vs. Pathways: A Different Approach

Conventional, holistic, and functional medicine all tend to focus on labels or diagnoses. Dr. Panzner prefers thinking in terms of pathways.

"This is not right or wrong. I'm not better than everyone else that thinks differently. This is simply a different angle to view things that I believe can really simplify things for a lot of people."

He describes this as a bottom-up approach versus the typical top-down approach:

• Top-down: "You have generalized anxiety disorder. Here's medication for anxiety."
• Bottom-up: "Which pathways are messed up? Let's address those specifically."

"You are more than the label that you were given. You simply have disregulated, disrupted cell signaling pathways that need to be put into balance."

Every Disease Has One Common Root Cause

Think of any health issue—yours, your patients', any human disease state. They all share one thing in common:

"They all come down to disrupted cell signaling. And learning how to alter the right cell signaling pathways for you allows you to connect the dots about your unique biology."

Consider mental health conditions (ADHD, depression, headaches, anxiety) and autoimmune conditions (Hashimoto's, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, IBS, lupus). What if all of these involve the same cell signaling pathways like methylation, vitamin D, histamine, and nitric oxide?

"Low vitamin D is linked to literally every single one of these issues. High histamine is linked to every single one of these labels."

This explains why people with ADHD are often prone to anxiety—both conditions can stem from high histamine affecting the brain.

"Instead of thinking, 'I'm the person with ADHD,' maybe you should think, 'I'm the person with high histamine and low vitamin D.' How much more empowering that feels!"

Anxiety Isn't Just One Thing

Anxiety is the culmination of many different cell signaling pathways: adrenaline, histamine, serotonin, vitamin D, glutamate, nitric oxide.

"Some people with anxiety have worse histamine issues. Some people with anxiety have more serotonin issues. Maybe you're more nitric oxide issues."

The same applies to depression, ADHD, and OCD—they all involve these same pathways. Dr. Panzner personally identifies as a "high histamine, high adrenaline person."

"Instead of 'I am someone with anxiety and ADHD,' I am someone that's prone to high histamine, high adrenaline, and low nitric oxide."

This is why people on anxiety or depression medications often hop between different drugs—they're guessing based on the label, not the pathway.

The Progression from Health to Disease 📉

Dr. Panzner explains how signaling issues lead to disease:

1. Optimal health: Pathways in proper range
2. Check engine lights: Minor symptoms as pathways become overactive (headaches, brain fog)
3. Threshold of disease: At some point, a healthy cell becomes a diseased cell
4. Diagnosis: Often happens WAY after disease actually began
5. Progression: Symptoms worsen, pathways become more imbalanced

"The vast majority of the time when you go to the doctor when you're sick enough for the doctor... you're diagnosed with a disease—that is nearly always way after when you initially got the disease."

This is why diseases are so hard to treat—they're often not caught until it may be too late. Diabetes is one of the few examples where we have good tracking tools (HbA1c, blood sugar, insulin levels). But for Alzheimer's, cancer, or Parkinson's? We lack good early detection methods.

Managing Expectations: Effect Size

Dr. Panzner is careful to be honest about what this approach can and cannot do:

"I am not sitting here telling you this way of addressing your pathway by pathway for food, supplements, and lifestyle is the magic bullet cure-all for everyone's diseases. I am not claiming that. I will never claim that."

What it CAN do:

• Reduce symptom severity in severe disease
• Sometimes result in disease remission (not always)
• Dramatically help people in the "check engine light stage"

"I was able to completely change my life because I was still in the check engine light stage... And now I can feel right away when I do something wrong and I get a symptom back."

You may need to address multiple pathways since different symptoms might stem from different pathway imbalances.

Real Evidence: The Asthma Study

Dr. Panzner shares a pilot study demonstrating this approach works. Children with asthma (which is associated with high histamine signaling) were studied:

• When they ate higher histamine foods (even healthy ones), their airways became more swollen and symptoms worsened
• When they ate low histamine foods, symptoms improved

"These children were able to stop pulling their histamine strings so hard. Stop instructing their cells to be more swollen just by changing some of the foods that they ate."

When You Set Fire to the String 🔥

Remember: when you mess up one pathway, all cells suffer because they're all controlled by the same pathways.

"When you set fire to the string, all the puppets get burnt."

When Dr. Panzner has too much histamine, he experiences brain fog, racing mind, erratic behavior, poor sleep, and headaches—all because high histamine affects his brain cells, gut cells, and more simultaneously.

Become the Puppeteer of Your Own Cellular Health 🎯

Drugs, lifestyle habits, foods, vitamins, supplements, mood, and environment all affect cell signaling. Many of these are within your control—you just need to know which foods and supplements turn a pathway up versus down.

Here's a critical insight:

"Based on your unique body, your own genetics and lifestyle, these 'healthy' changes in cell signaling may actually make you feel worse."

Two people with anxiety take the same supplement that has data supporting its effectiveness for anxiety. One feels better, the other feels worse. Why? Because they have different pathway imbalances.

"This is a big reason why so many people live a healthy life... eat clean, they exercise, they eat all organic, yet they still don't feel great."

Very healthy foods can overwhelm certain pathways for YOUR body and give you symptoms.

"There is no such thing as random brain fog or a random headache. There's honestly no such thing as waking up on the wrong side of the bed. There is always a cause and an effect. Nothing is random with our cells."

How to Know Which Pathway to Start With

Genetics can help identify which pathways to prioritize—whether it's more of a histamine, sulfur, or glutamate issue. However, Dr. Panzner emphasizes this doesn't require genetic testing; it's about developing self-awareness and self-experimentation.

The goal is to:

1. Log all foods and supplements you consume and when
2. Monitor how you feel throughout the day
3. Map the cause and effect
4. Reverse engineer your symptoms
5. See what works and what doesn't
6. Tweak the right pathways naturally based on your unique body

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5. Conclusion: Becoming Your Own Health Advocate

Dr. Panzner wraps up with a powerful summary of everything covered:

Imbalanced cell signaling pisses off your cells, leading to check engine light symptoms that progress over time into disease if left unaddressed. Every single cell in your body responds to the same cell signaling pathways—when you pull one string, all puppets respond.

"You can take something for your brain health, but your gut doesn't feel good. Because guess what? In order to get to your brain, it has to go through your gut. And then it gets distributed throughout your bloodstream throughout every cell in your body."

Every label, ailment, or diagnosis is made up of many pathways you can learn to control naturally. Every cellular issue stems from puppet strings being pulled the wrong way.

This isn't a magic cure-all, but depending on the person, disease, and severity, it can reduce symptoms and improve quality of life—sometimes even resulting in disease remission.

"If you're someone in the check engine light zone—you're not super sick, but you have these aches and pains, a little anxiety, this and that—you are someone that can really go from where you're at now to feeling like a whole new person."

The ultimate goal is to understand your body pathway by pathway and become your own health advocate:

"So you don't need to go to a nutritionist to say, 'I have a headache. What food is causing it?' So you don't need to go to your doctor and just blindly listen to what they say... You can know you better than any other doctor."

Dr. Panzner promises more courses diving into specific pathways so you can learn to control your cells and feel your best. 🎯