What is Cryptobiosis? How to Live Longer by Simulating Cryptobiosis?

What is cryptobiosis? Why you must know about cryptobiosis today? Can we rise from the dead? How bacterias can wake up after thousands of years with cryptobiosis? What is the effect of melting glaciers and time-traveling old pathogens coming to life again with Cryptobiosis? How to use the knowledge of Cryptobiosis in your day-to-day life to live a longer life.

Table of Contents

A. Cryptobiosis

Cryptobiosis is referred to as a process by means which a biological being can get into a deep hibernation under unfavorable living conditions to wake up from deep sleep when the environment becomes favorable again. This is a process by means of which the body lowers the metabolism and another biochemical process to such a bare minimum level that the overall electrochemical activities in the body are similar to that of a dead being, but the body’s processes are continued at an exceedingly slow rate that keeps it alive.

Cryptobiosis is referred to as hybernations that outlast the lifespan of a biological species.

B. A 46,000-year-old worm found in Siberian permafrost was brought back to life and started having babies

In all our space movies where the heroes travel to deep interstellar space, they are put to sleep till the ship reaches its destination. Obviously, deep space interstellar travel takes years if not light years, even through the hypothetical concept of the Wormhole.

That is Cryptobiosis.

Humans do not have the natural ability to outlive the maximum expected lifespan of 125 years(or no such evidence has been discovered yet). We need to invent processes and mechanisms to achieve such a feat if we ever intend to achieve this beyond science fiction movies.

Not many species are known to hibernate beyond their expected average lifespan. However, with the recent discovery of a worm species that got back to life after 46,000 years¹, scientists are excited to witness the elusive cryptobiosis process.

Spectacular examples of long-term cryptobiosis include a Bacillus spore that was preserved in the abdomen of bees buried in amber for 25 to 40 million years ², and a 1000 to 1500 years-old Lotus seed, found in an ancient lake, that was subsequently able to germinate³.

For humans, we also commonly use a word called suspended animation. A human being can remain alive with a stopped heart for about four hours.

C. The significance of Cryptobiosis in Immunological Surveillance

With the recent increase in the temperature at several places on the planet leading to the melting of several glaciers, scientists suspect that several pathogenic species, particularly viruses may space-travel and come back to the present from a very distant past.

With the worm species waking up after 46,000 years, such theories can not be debunked completely. With Covid-19 Virus already causing havoc worldwide, more stringent surveillance of the possibility of such pathogens waking up from the past and infecting the human population needs to be implemented.

On a lighter note, do you think the climate change movements could be pushed by the pharma industry on the back of Cryptobiosis research to create a continuous narrative for pushing their vaccine?

Irrespective of the speculation, there is no denial of the fact that scientists are observing the traces of such ancient pathogens in cryptobiosis coming to life as reported by this climate change article.

D. How to improve the knowledge of Cryptobiosis in improving your life?

Lyfas is all about giving you the power to understand life better, unlocking the true meaning of different life situations and challenges, and giving you the power to take back control of your life. We are not concerned about some 46,000 old bacteria getting back to life and producing babies as long as we can not use this information in our day-to-day life.

We already know that humans can rise from “death” within four hours. We also know that humans can live for years in brain-dead coma conditions. We all evolved from a single genome. We have 60% genetic similarity with that of a corn plant. So if the microbes and lotus seeds can be preserved for ages, and the human body can preserve life for four hours without any external support, then humans too have the genes for Cryptobiosis. Due to our complex genetic and mixed-biological structure and due to the fact that our body contains about 90% microbe cells and only 10% human cells, there are obviously the genes of Cryptobiosis hidden in us.

I am sure no one would have wanted to go to sleep at the time of Kamasutra and wake up at the time of porn of today. However, from Cryptobiosis, what we understand is that our body lives longer if the metabolic rate is slowed down, and it ages faster when the metabolic rate is increased.

We can obviously control our metabolism to a large extent. Our brain contains only 3% of the body mass but consumes about 30% of the energy. If we can reduce the energy need of the brain by making it more efficient, then of course even a 20% reduction over a sustained period of time may increase your age by about 16 years(considering the current average life expectancy globally is about 80 years).

Here are some of the immediate actions you can take that the cryptobiosis process follows to increase your lifespan:

Whenever you are free, try to take rest and sleep rather than wasting time on things like social media scrolling, and chatting. The more you sleep, the fresher you wake up and the longer you live.
Reduce eating. You can minimize the number of times you intake food, reduce Carb, protein, glucose, or any such pure macronutrient intake and rather prefer whole food that the body metabolizes slowly.
Do not invest your brain into matters that are beyond your control, and where you do not have to invest your brain.
Our metabolism is accelerated every time we become angry. Keep control over your anger and aggression to keep your metabolic rate slower.
Note down your ideas, thoughts, and feelings so that your brain doesn’t have to remember them, and invest its energy in remembering the threads.
Find an intimate partner and invest time in intimacy. An intimate partner heals you. Without healing, you age fast and die fast.
Walk rather than run. Doing anything slowly would not push your body to use excess energy and you will be able to preserve your rate of metabolism.
Avoid using things that make you anxious like watching a lot of news.
Very importantly, find a purpose in life. Our brain has to push very hard when you do something without a strong purpose, and the same brain works with energy and enthusiasm when you do something that you really love and that is helping you to reach closer to the purpose of your life.
Reduce the number of unnecessary people like your relatives from life, and focus on fewer meaningful relationships. Irrelevant people consume a lot of your energy and you need to have a high metabolic rate.
Do something creative like singing, painting, or writing. Creative energy gives you satisfaction at the end which helps you to become happy at the end of the day.
Avoid people who ask a lot of questions, and avoid giving justification to people. Answering wastes a lot of your energy.

E. Conclusion

Calm, cool, and slow, keeps you healthy, makes you live longer and makes you grow

References

1
Shatilovich, A., Gade, V.R., Pippel, M., Hoffmeyer, T.T., Tchesunov, A.V., Stevens, L., Winkler, S., Hughes, G.M., Traikov, S., Hiller, M. and Rivkina, E., 2023. A novel nematode species from the Siberian permafrost shares adaptive mechanisms for cryptobiotic survival with C. elegans dauer larva. PLoS genetics, 19(7), p.e1010798.
2
Cano RJ, Borucki MK. Revival and identification of bacterial spores in 25-to 40-million-year-old Dominican amber. Science. 1995 May 19;268(5213):1060-4.
3
Shen‐Miller J, Schopf JW, Harbottle G, Cao RJ, Ouyang S, Zhou KS, Southon JR, Liu GH. Long‐living lotus: germination and soil γ‐irradiation of centuries‐old fruits, and cultivation, growth, and phenotypic abnormalities of offspring. American Journal of Botany. 2002 Feb;89(2):236-47.

Rupam Das

Passionate, Accountable Student for Life

Lyfas Life Care