Many Mysteries – Reality, Health, Knowing, Living

Ivor Cummins: The Pathways and Implications of Insulin Resistance

Physicians for Ancestral Health: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qRCA08oblQ

Ivor Cummins, also known as “The Fat Emperor,” is a chemical engineer from Dublin, Ireland. His mission is to bring engineering problem-solving rigor and the scientific method to some of the more interesting issues in the world today, starting with Diabetes and Obesity Epidemic. See his website http://www.thefatemperor.com/ for blog posts, videos and podcasts. [Read more…]

Dr. Cate Shanahan: Vegetable Oil – The Silent Killer

Bulletproof Radio Podcast: https://youtu.be/5VEjArG5RG8

mbf_promo_headshot-279x300Dr. Cate Shanahan, co-author of Deep Nutrition with her husband, Luke Shanahan, is nutrition coach to the L.A. Lakers.

Dr Cate explains why vegetable oil is so terrible for your health, and the many benefits of a diet high in healthy fats (both saturated and unsaturated).

Things I learned:

  • How long did it take till her own brain “turned on” again after beginning a healthy-fat diet? (Hint: six months.)
  • Instead of constructing a “diet” why not just eliminate any foods not eaten 200 years ago (or 1,000 years ago!)
  • The four elements of all traditional diets throughout the world they surveyed are: Fresh  seasonal food; meat on the bone; fermented/sprouted foods; organ meats. Yum right?!! Bring on the monkey eyeballs.
  • Animals consume a 1:1 ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. Average American diet is 40:1 ratio. Most omega-6s in the American diet come from soil oil and canola oil, which together account for between 30–60% of calories.
  • Omega-6s are chemically unstable, and they promote the instability of our own body’s cell membranes via a free-radical cascade. !!? Wow, sounds horrible.
  • When our skin is built with low-quality fats, it is flimsier and has a dimpled appearance known as cellulite.
  • If your skin has more bad oils incorporated it, you are way more prone to sunburn.

Definition: Mitochondrial Heteroplasmy

Variations within mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence give rise to heteroplasmy, defined as the presence of multiple distinct mitochondrial sequences within an individual. Heteroplasmy is a clinically significant state, since the severity of many mitochondrial disorders is dependent upon the ratio between wild-type and mutant sequences, with progressively more severe symptoms emerging as the ratio of mutated to normal genomes rises (1). Indeed, human mitochondrial heteroplasmy was first identified in studies of mitochondrial disease genetics where variable levels of deletions (2) or mutations (3) were noted in affected patients. However, heteroplasmy is not necessarily a pathogenic state. Heteroplasmic variations without apparent functional consequence are observed in samples from populations without overt mitochondrial disease (4). The frequency of heteroplasmy has been estimated in two studies of the hypervariable regions of mtDNA that found that >10% of individuals were heteroplasmic within these regions (5,6). A recent study using deep sequencing of the complete mitochondrial genome found that ∼25% of individuals had a heteroplasmic site across the entire genome (7).

Why is it so hard to figure out what’s going on with my health?

So, why is it so hard to figure out what’s going on with my health?

  • The human body is an amazingly complex structure
  • We have limited access to the operations
  • The view we have is conditioned by belief systems
  • The more complex the situation, the more belief systems serve to help organize our perceptions
  • Everyone’s body is different, unique and complex

So of course it’s hard!

But I feel compelled to try. It’s a cruel joke on the part of reality – put me in charge of an empire of cells with no clue how to administer the realm.