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Bioelectricity is a natural electrical current generated by cells and tissues of all living organisms. It turns out to be an electrical phenomenon of vital processes that can slow aging and other health and environmental benefits. Read more.

All living things, animals, plants, and even single-celled organisms, generate electrical currents to transmit information between their cells and organs. 

The so-called "excitable cells", such as neurons and muscle cells, possess electrical properties essential for functioning and maintaining homeostatic balance. Cardiac tissue conducts electrical current by providing electrical signals that activate the heartbeat. 

The electrical synapses (ionic currents) made by neurons pass directly through "communicating junctions" until they reach the cells. On the other hand, electrical currents from cells allow a free flow of ions in a much faster transmission than in the chemical synapses made by neurotransmitters.

Bioelectricity in the plant world: renewable and sustainable energy

Many plants generate their Bioelectricity, like fungi, wood waste, charcoal, rice husk, elephant grass, and sugar cane. Because sugarcane bagasse is full of fiber, it produces steam and electricity in sugar and ethanol production. 

History of Bioelectricity

The Egyptians and Greeks knew that certain fish could give powerful shocks to an organism in its watery environment. Because of this and other observations, static electricity was discovered by the Greeks, who produced it by rubbing resin (amber, or elektron in Greek) with cat skin or by rubbing glass with silk. 

Before inventing the electric battery (1800), Alessandro Volta demonstrated that the muscle contractions of the frog's leg were due to a generator of static electricity and different metals undergoing or catalyzing electrochemical reactions.

The English physician and researcher William Gilbert demonstrated that not only amber, but also glass, agate, diamond, sapphire, and many other materials, when rubbed provide electricity.  It was not until a century later that electrostatic repulsion was observed by Charles DuFay (1698-1739) in France.

The roots of Bioelectricity have their origins in the 17th century when several works were developed regarding the electrical stimulation of muscle contractions from the use of the "Leyden jar", culminating with the publication of classic studies by Luigi Galvani (1791), "De viribus electricians in motu musculari". In these studies, Galvani believed he had discovered the intrinsic ability to produce electricity in living tissues or "animal electricity."

It took decades for scientists to pick up Galvani's experimental threads and put the study of Bioelectricity back on track, reaffirming its importance to living beings and the environment. 

The Journal of Bioelectricity is a major promoter of Bioelectricity today, publishing research papers in various subject areas.

Bioelectricity nowadays

Ever since Bioelectricity was discovered and came to the attention of scientists, one has learned how much electricity orchestrates the lives of people and other living organisms. 

Humans are all made of about 40 trillion tiny rechargeable batteries.

The trend in a not-too-distant future seems to be the following: scientists may "sprinkle" your brain with neuro grains or some tiny electronic implants - on a nano-scale - to monitor brain activity

For example, in the control of robotic arms for the disabled, among other devices. These neuro grains will be the most suitable way to "marry" electronics with living tissue.  

The book "We Are Electric", written by award-winning science writer Sally Adee, shows readers what the beginnings of Bioelectricity were like, from Victorian doctors who were branded quacks because they used electricity to cure everything from paralysis to diarrhea, to the use of giant squid axons to cure disease, to brain implants and the so-called 'electric drugs' that await us, and the moral implications.

For the writer, in short, "Bioelectricity will not only improve or create new medical devices but will also reveal some (unexpected) truths about the electrical currents that run through the human body and all living things. Moreover, future discoveries will pinpoint other alternatives to circumvent antibiotic resistance, unclog arteries, discover new ways to fight cancer, and speed up the rejuvenation process."

5 benefits of Bioelectricity in epidermal regeneration: 

1. Optimizes cell communication and cell renewal.

2. Combines minerals + essential amino acids, ensuring a balanced pattern of biological electrical signals.

3. Accelerates the reduction of expression wrinkles.

4. Improves skin texture, alleviating skin stress.

5. Improves the energetic metabolism of skin tissue.

Practical applications of Bioelectricity, covering the following areas: 

• Bioengineering. 

• Biomedicine. 

• Biotechnology. 

• Bioelectronics.

• Electro-pharmaceutical or electrochemical biosensors.

• Nanotechnology.

• Regenerative medicine.

• Synthetic biology.

• Tissue engineering.

• Transplants.

• Optogenetics.

• Simulation software and mathematical models.

• Electroporation-electropermeabilization-electrotransfer with plants, in the food and renewable energy industry.

Conclusion

The fact is that every living being, including plants, is endowed with pure electricity, because each cell that forms the bones, skin, nerves, and muscles, has a specific voltage as if it were a small electro-biological battery.

Analogously, Bioelectricity works as a kind of "on-off" switch that can transform malignant cells into healthy ones, strengthening immunity, fundamental for the regeneration of organs and limbs, which, surely, will imply in the delaying of aging, so longed for by humanity.

Waves indicate that the next scientific frontier will be deciphering the bioelectric code, as it happened with the genetic code.