The Rudolf Steiner Archive

9. The Role of Protein in the Human Body and Albuminuria

[ 1 ] The protein is that substance of the living body which can be transformed by its formative powers in the most varied manner, so that what results from the transformed protein substance appears in the forms of the organs and of the whole organism. In order to be used in such a way, the protein must have the ability to lose any form resulting from the nature of its material parts at the moment it is called upon in the organism to serve a form required by it.

[ 2 ] It can be seen from this that in the protein the forces resulting from the nature of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon and their mutual relationships disintegrate. The inorganic material bonds cease and the organic formative forces begin to take effect in the protein decomposition.

[ 3 ] These formative forces are bound to the etheric body. The protein is always on the verge of either being absorbed into the activity of the etheric body or falling out of it. Protein that has been taken out of the organism to which it belonged tends to become a compound substance that submits to the inorganic forces of hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon. Protein, which remains a component of the living organism, displaces this tendency and assimilates itself to the formative forces of the etheric body.

[ 4 ] Man absorbs protein with food. The pepsin in the stomach transforms the protein ingested from the outside into peptones, which are initially soluble protein substances. This transformation is continued by the pancreatic juice.

[ 5 ] The ingested protein, when ingested as food, is initially a foreign body to the human organism. It contains the after-effects of the ether processes of the living organism from which it is taken. These must be completely removed from it. It must be absorbed into the etheric effects of the human organism.

[ 6 ] There are therefore two kinds of protein substances involved in the course of the human digestive process. At the beginning of this process, the protein is something foreign to the human organism. At the end, it is something that belongs to the organism. In between lies a state in which the ingested food protein has not yet completely released the previous etheric effects and has not yet completely absorbed the new ones. It has become almost completely inorganic. It is there solely under the influence of the human physical body. This, which in its form is a result of the human ego-organization, carries within itself inorganic active forces. It thus has a killing effect on the living. Everything that enters the realm of the ego organization dies. This is why the ego organization incorporates purely inorganic substances into the physical body. These do not have the same effect in the human physical organism as they do in lifeless nature outside the human being; but they do have an inorganic effect, i.e. a killing effect. This killing effect is exerted on the protein where trypsin, a component of pancreatic juice, is active in the digestive region. -

[ 7 ] The fact that inorganic substances are involved in the mode of action of trypsin can also be inferred from the fact that this substance develops its activity with the aid of alkaline substances.

[ 8 ] Until the encounter with the trypsin of the pancreas, the protein food lives in a foreign way; in the way of the organism from which it is taken. When it meets the trypsin, the protein becomes lifeless. One might say that it only becomes lifeless for a moment in the human organism. Then it is absorbed into the physical body according to the ego organization. This must now have the power to transfer what has become of the protein substance into the realm of the human etheric body. The food protein thus becomes a material for the human organism. The etheric foreign effects that were previously attached to it leave the human being.

[ 9 ] It is now necessary for the human being to have such a strong ego organization in order to digest the food protein healthily that all the protein necessary for the human organism can pass into the realm of the human etheric body. If this is not the case, there is an excess of activity in this etheric body. It does not receive enough protein substance prepared by the ego organization for its activity. The consequence of this is that the activity oriented towards the vitalization of the protein absorbed by the ego-organization takes possession of the protein that still contains foreign etheric effects. The human being receives in his own etheric body a sum of effects that do not belong in it. These must be excreted in an irregular manner. The result is a pathological excretion. This pathological excretion comes to light in albuminuria. Protein is excreted that should be absorbed into the etheric body. It is such protein that, due to the weakness of the ego organization, has not been able to assume the transit state of the almost lifeless.

[ 10 ] Now the forces that bring about excretion in the human being are bound to the realm of the astral body. In albuminuria, the astral body is forced to carry out an activity to which it is not oriented, so its activity atrophies in those parts of the human organism where it should develop. This is in the renal epithelia. The damage to the renal epithelia is a symptom of the distraction of the activity of the astral body intended for them.

[ 11 ] You can see from this context where the healing of albuminuria must begin. It is the power of the ego organization in the pancreas gland, which is too weak, that must be strengthened.