Dr Frassetto: Unique Opportunity to Drive Paleo Diet Study v. ADA Whole Wheat/Gluten 'Healthy Diet' for PCOS

Crowd-Sourced n=4

Thank you all Gentle Readers for participating earlier in one of the first gut microbiome QS study when I posted on Crowd-Sourced N=4: A Family Science Project of Resistant Starch on Gut Biome

Allan and his family reported their self monitored blood glucoses here. AmGut results soon as it takes about half a year.




UCSF Paleo Diet v ADA Whole Wheat Healthy Diet for PCOS

At UCSF Dr Lynda Frassetto et al are requesting help to prove the value and merit of the paleo diet for insulin resistant states such as PCOS. She is working collaboratively with other researchers to obtain funding for the next landmark study. What they collect via Crowdfund can be retained even if they do not reach the $40,000 goal. Dr Frassetto and I believe the paleo diet offers many hormonal and cognitive/behavioral benefits for those with insulin resistant states. I've spoken with Dr Frassetto to promote the diet at an EBT conference for emotional behavior therapy (Wired for Joy) because their participants see great mental and brain changes that complement the program.

What is needed is well designed and articulated studies like her earlier, seminal Paleo study that showed dramatic normalization of blood pressures in pre-hypertensive adults. This was not a low carb study but a basic, no grains, no legumes, no dairy paleo diet including some tubers (carrots, yams, etc). Her goal is to prove health benefits again for a group of patients that have few medical options (metformin, starvation weight loss diets, IVF, fertility treatment, etc). As you are aware in the paleosphere, many cases of spontaneous fertility and resolution of PCOS are commonplace.

A few days ago, they opened their UCSF-Crowdfund account and received $2855 already. Government funding has become scarcer of late. Many of the medical personnel for this study are in fact all volunteering their time according to Dr Frassetto. Unlike the prior study, outpatient food is not provided. Nutri Sci students (like I used to be LOL) from UC Berkeley will be volunteering to counsel diet information to trial participants. Costs for Free-testosterone, insulin, and other lab hormone measurements will be covered by funds collected.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a syndrome which includes elevated androgen levels, irregular menstrual cycles and insulin resistance. Standard treatments, which include weight loss and medications to improve insulin secretion are only partly successful, and may require that young women take medications for decades.
The study investigators have been evaluating the effects of specific diets on insulin resistance in healthy volunteers and subjects with type 2 diabetes, and have found that subjects with insulin resistance seem to respond particularly well to these diet regimens.
Volunteers with PCOS are being asked to participate to see if following these diets can help regularize your menstrual cycles. The results of this study may help improve fertility treatments for women with PCOS.

An incentive from UCSF has thrown in:

Special early-bird incentive: Meet us at the Ancestral Health Symposium

Dr. Lynda Frassetto and Dr. Ashley Mason will be attending the Ancestral Health Symposium in Berkeley, CA August 7-9. We'd be happy to meet with you and talk about the study -- or if you donate at the $250 level, we'll take you to lunch and talk about anything you want!

Project Details ~~  http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02190097

How we'll spend the money

All $40,000 will go to costs for the study – the study personnel are all volunteering their time! Here's our approximate budget:

$20,000: Laboratory tests of insulin resistance and other biological outcomes.
$12,000: Research supplies and lab space.
$4000: Payments to participants for providing questionnaires, urine and blood samples, and uterine images.
$4000: Tracking and staying in touch with participants, data entry and administrative support.

Stephan G. at Whole Health also shares his thoughts: HERE

Thank you for your support!

Legumes and Potatoes are Certainly P-A-L-E-O

Tubers are as Ancient as Bipedalism

The Paleolithic Age started ~2.6 mya and extended to only 12,000 years ago. The last Homo neanderthalensis existed up to ~25,000 years ago, and in fact their DNA exists in nearly all of us. One of our ancient human ancestors, Australopithecine boisei (formerly known as Paranthropus boisei), did not eat the stiff and hard textured nuts that their tough jaws and mean bite alluded to, but instead appeared to consume a diet rich in soft sedge tubers (including tigernuts) that grew buried in the soft land near waterways and shorelines. He had nickname, Nutcracker man. And lived with great longevity from 2.4 mya to 1.4 mya, impressively longer (that I'm aware of) than any other hominin ancestor that humans have had. Nutcracker man indeed started our human evolution with increasingly larger brain sizes during his 1 million year reign and likely planted the seeds for yet even larger brain sizes in 'subsequent prototypes' in Homo.

The moors, peatlands, and marshlands of Scotland and northern Europe were very similiar to the Paleo 'nutriscape' and terrain during the transition from Ice Ages to mega C4 sedge and grasslands. I suspect our ancestors consumed a pretty heady diet of plant fiber and starch because sedge tubers/corms/rhizomes (including tiger nuts), cattail bulbs, water chestnuts, wild carrots, yams, and other starchy roots were common underground storage organs (USOs).  Tubers like tigernuts and other underground sedge roots had a different, more evolved form of photosynthesis that required less molecules of water and selected during the shift in weather from moist and aquatic to dry grasslands. The final electron donor switched from water which had become intermittently scarce to sugar/starch molecules. During intermittent freezing and warm periods, sugar and starch additionally served another role as a buffer from cold trauma and frost.

Tigernuts and sedges were offspring of the new C4 photosynthetic plants and grew plentifully. Papyrus is also an example of a sedge. C4 plants and roots produced a radiation signal that was found in great amounts in C13/C14 isotope density studies from enamel and Nutcracker remains from 1-2 mya. Being sweet, starchy and high in protein, it was no wonder that our ancient ancestor found sedge tubers and tigernuts so delightful to exploit.

In the Paleolithic Age, both Homo and Australopithecine fed themselves well enough to not only survive the Ice Ages, predators, pathogens and newly discovered bipedalism, but also to grow a higher capacity cranium. One of the leading theories for this is digestible carbohydrates. Without complex carbohydrates and high fiber starches from USOs it is unlikely that fruit and honey alone would have exploded the process of encephalization. For tens of millions of years our primate cousins had failed to forge larger brains as frugivores. What changed? Researchers Brown et al reviewed the diet of our primal forefathers and noted they likely consumed "high carbohydrate sources including plants particularly those with underground storage organs (USOs) such as reed mace (Typha), common reed (Phragmites), water chestnut (Trapa natans) and yellow water lily (Nuphar lutea). USOs have repeatedly been implicated in hominin evolution and particularly encephalisation and bipedalism in the Africa [83], [72], [84]–[85] although this has been challenged [86]."

USOs provide valuable nutrients for brain fuel: zinc, magnesium, carbohydrates, sucrose, vitamin C (one serving, almost 50% of RDA), and protein. In terms of the brain-gut evolution, digging for tubers also tied our ancestors to the ground in more ways than the descent from the arboreal heavens to terra firma living and bipedalism. SBO probiotics (soil-based organisms) clung to every new bite of dirt-covered tubers. For tree hugging primates, the new terrain brought not only fresh and novel food, but also broad exposures to a whole new world of micro-organisms. Remember, diet (dirt lol) is the biggest driver of the microbiota and evolution of the gut. Transformation of gut and brain occurred simultaneously I believe. Our herbivore colon shrunk as our brains exponentially expanded... or even doubled: gut and cranium.

AG Brown et al, 2013
Site Distribution at the Edge of the Palaeolithic World: A Nutritional Niche Approach

This paper presents data from the English Channel area of Britain and Northern France on the spatial distribution of Lower to early Middle Palaeolithic pre-MIS5 interglacial sites which are used to test the contention that the pattern of the richest sites is a real archaeological distribution and not of taphonomic origin. These sites show a marked concentration in the middle-lower reaches of river valleys with most being upstream of, but close to, estimated interglacial tidal limits. A plant and animal database derived from Middle-Late Pleistocene sites in the region is used to estimate the potentially edible foods and their distribution in the typically undulating landscape of the region. This is then converted into the potential availability of macronutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, fats) and selected micronutrients. The floodplain is shown to be the optimum location in the nutritional landscape (nutriscape). In addition to both absolute and seasonal macronutrient advantages the floodplains could have provided foods rich in key micronutrients, which are linked to better health, the maintenance of fertility and minimization of infant mortality. Such places may have been seen as ‘good (or healthy) places’ explaining the high number of artefacts accumulated by repeated visitation over long periods of time and possible occupation. The distribution of these sites reflects the richest aquatic and wetland successional habitats along valley floors. Such locations would have provided foods rich in a wide range of nutrients, importantly including those in short supply at these latitudes. When combined with other benefits, the high nutrient diversity made these locations the optimal niche in northwest European mixed temperate woodland environments. It is argued here that the use of these nutritionally advantageous locations as nodal or central points facilitated a healthy variant of the Palaeolithic diet which permitted habitation at the edge of these hominins’ range.

Paleo People Loved Legumes

Neanderthals probably didn't do a fantastic job with legumes and small grain grasses because now they are extinct. It took a few dozen thousands of years...a slow demise, if that one of the reasons for their demise. During the latter portion of the Paleolithic, smarter hominids came along and figured out how to soak and cook legumes and SGGs. Food processing easily removes toxins and transforms them toxic, hard bumps of plant seeds into edible and delicious sources of starch, fiber, fat and protein.

Wrangtham et al in 'The Evolution of Hominin Diets' (2009) discusses the use of legumes in the end of Paleolithic Age, before the advent of agriculture. Plant evidence doesn't survive time well. What was unearthed was corroborated at a variety of sites widely distributed throughout Europe and Eurasia.

Legumes may be questionably Paleo® but they are unquestionably bionic for the gut microbiota and fuels the most important populations throughout the entire length of gut. The special fibers in legumes are unequaled when it comes to the combination of both RS3 and non-starch polysaccharides. Instead of raising blood sugars, legumes are low glycemic index meaning they impact insulin minimally or in fact lower it. Legumes have no dearth of clinical human trials that demonstrate its value for significantly lowering cancer, inflammation, insulin resistance, blood sugars, and gastrointestinal disorders.

Wrangtham et al in 'The Evolution of Hominin Diets' (2009)
"The richest food plant assemblage of Mousterian date, at
Kebara Cave in Israel, is dominated by a legume seeds of a
range of species, the form of some of which might suggest
collection while underripe (Lev et al., 2005). Towards the endof the Paleolithic, legume finds are scattered across Europe,
for example the pea and bitter vetch at Öküzini, Turkey; lentil
at Konispol cave, Albania; and vetches and other legumes at
Santa Maira, Alacant, Spain (Baales et al., 2002). Another
rich example of pre-agricultural legume foragers comes from
Hallam Cemi in Turkish Anatolia (Savard et al., 2006).



New Environments and New Plant
Strategies

Monocot stems and legume pods may have provided a significant mass of plant foods during the expansion into thel ower latitudes of Eurasia, where a vast array of yams and
legumes have emerged in the modern human food web as
domesticated plants. Moving further northwards still, these
kinds of resources diminish significantly, both in diversity
and in biomass availability. The quest for plant foods will
have presented an increasing challenge.
The cooler northern vegetation stands would have been
characterised by a range of open biomes including “arctic
steppe” (Cwynar and Ritchie, 1980; Zazula et al., 2003)
and closed vegetations characterised by woody dicots and
coniferous trees. Woody dicots are reasonably rich in edible
nuts, kernels, and fruits and, in certain families, edible roots
and tubers. As mentioned above, the lower the biological
productivity, the greater evolutionary pressure to protects eeds and storage organs from predation, and so it is generally
true that, especially as they move northwards, human
feeders are presented with a more complex “landscape of
toxicity” by dicots than tends to be the case with monocots,
particularly in the context of the seeds and tubers upon whicht he plant itself relies to cross the non-growing season. The  kind of transferable ecological 
knowledge that allowed feedersto move from one monocot to another in more southerly
biomes is not directly transferable to the dicots in northerly
biomes. 

Random Thoughts on Migraine Headaches, Oxytocin, and Mind-Reading

Migraine Headache Syndrome

Definition: 'A migraine is a throbbing, unilateral headache that is 
often associated with nausea, vomiting, photophobia, or an aura
~i.e., a transient disturbance of vision or of various aspects
of neurological function. More than 10% of Americans
suffer from migraines, with the prevalence in women
being about 3 times that in men. The cause of migraine is
not well understood, although it is thought to be due in
part to vasoconstriction followed by reactive vasodilatation.'

Nutritional Medicine textbook, Ch 136, Dr. Alan Gaby MD

Disclosure -- I'm not afflicted by headaches often (unless my child flunks a math quiz) and, never, migraines, yet I've met a ton of people with migraines. Many of my friends experience migraines or used to (half of my favorite gal pals and guy friends). Certain phenotypic characteristics and 'gifts' are inescapable IMHO that I have observed in these individuals: extreme intuition, sometimes clairvoyance, approachability, and super-powered senses (smell, sound, sight, sensory stimuli, barometric pressure, mind-reading).  Additionally, migraineur patients, acquaintances and friends have told me that random people just enjoy blindly going up to them and spilling their entire life stories.  (No one does that to me) I think that is notable.  What do you think of your migraineur family or friends?  I'd like to hear other perspectives on this...

These pals who suffer headaches are special to me. They read my mind and I don't need to talk or articulate...wish I could marry them (...just kidding).  Some I speak to rarely like Patrik V. who runs Paleohacks.com, yet before he has said things and I'll think 'wtf exit my head.'  When some paleo friends first convened, he reported that he had once suffered incapacitating migraine headaches since age six (hiding under tables whilst his mother couldn't find him for hours) until he serendipitously discovered the headache-banishing benefits of the grain-free and dairy-free paleo diet. That's a common story in paleo-land.

Migraine headaches are a P-A-I-N and that is a distinct understatement if you talk to any patient who suffers from migraines which are described as debilitating to the point of impairing function leading to lost quality of life and days of work, family, and leisure time. 

Takano and Nedergaard (see above photo) describe a migraine headache as a sweeping change in electrical depolarization across the brain which is followed by an extended period of neural torpor or suppression. They call it cortical spreading depression (CSD), stating 'Written accounts of migraine are nearly as old as writing itself. Descriptions of headaches, dating to roughly 3000 BCE, have been found in the ruins of the ancient Sumerian civilization.' Perhaps like narrow jaws, occclusions, and tight dental arches (per Weston A. Price), mass migraines and brain pain initiated with the advent of agriculture and the ubiquitous introduction of refined grain carbohydrates into the prehistoric human hunter-gatherer diet?  Perhaps migraineurs have indeed a set of gifts that were naturally selected for despite the outstanding pain and discomfort? 



Evolutionary Advantage of Migraine Headaches?

Harvard neurology professor Loder wrote a Cephalalgia review and presentation 'Migraineur in the Interictus' suggesting evolutionary benefits of the development of the characteristics seen in migraineurs.  Highly responsive nervous systems that detect sensory stimuli at low inputs definitely would be traits worthy of evolutionary selection and retention in the progress of human civilization.  'Hearing the approach of enemies, being eaten by a saber-tooth tiger or detecting or avoiding spoiled or adulterated food' might have been compelling pressures that were affected by the communication of low or nearly negligible levels of sensory information in the environment, plants, people, animals and other living creatures. 



Ancient Treatment for Migraine Headaches: Hole(s) in the Head, Trepanation

In ancient times, it is hypothesized that headaches and migraines were treated with trepanation (boring a hole or holes into skull to release the pressure and pulsation). If I had severe head pain I'd seriously consider but, yeah, I need a hole in my head like a new Jimmy Choo fake purse!  Several lines of evidence relating to archaeological remains report that clinical outcomes and survival were astonishingly decent:  HERE.



Photo credit: Asylum Science



Our Brains are Still Evolving

I'd wildly speculate that the ancestors of individuals with migraines had unique abilities which allowed them to thrive in certain conditions requiring sensitivity to environmental changes and influence in group cooperation, gaining trust, tight social networks and perhaps weather/storm predictions.  In is not a coincidence that the individuals with migraines (if not completely unfunctional) are frequently leaders in their little (or big) so-called tribal units, in my shallow awareness.  NY Times science writer Nicholas Wade wrote in The Twists and the Turns of History, Our DNA, 'The political scientist Francis Fukuyama has distinguished between high-trust and low-trust societies, arguing that trust is a basis for prosperity. Since his 1995 book on the subject, researchers have found that oxytocin, a chemical active in the brain, increases the level of trust, at least in psychological experiments. Oxytocin levels are known to be under genetic control in other mammals like voles.' He has written quite a bit more extensively that our sapien brains grew in size for the machinery necessary to handle intricate, complicated and peaceful social complexity.



Super Perception, e.g. Mind Reading

Many new studies highlight the salient features of oxytocin for perception, feedback, empathetic accuracy and affiliation reward reinforcement. Two recent human controlled trials showed a demonstrated increased gaze focus and the ability to visually read and interpret facial emotional cues after oxytocin administration (some authors called it mind reading). From  sciencedaily.com one of the researchers Lerknes explained "We found that oxytocin intensified test subjects' awareness of the emotions present in the photos. Faces expressing anger stood out as angrier and less happy, and correspondingly, faces expressing happiness were happier."  Graded results occurred -- "It turns out that those with the lowest aptitude for judging emotional expression properly -- that is, those with the poorest scores during the saltwater round -- were the ones who showed the greatest improvement using oxytocin."

Author Nancy Casey hypothesizes in a post 'Oxytocin Gaze' that human hunters emulated carnivorous predators in their meticulous gaze and visual assimilation of the terrain. She posits that the same gaze that is possibly related to oxytocin which maybe employed by mothers in surveying and tracking their newborn babies, meeting their needs, and ensuring their survival in the face of vast helplessness and under-maturity.





Modern Conventionally-Schooled Medical Treatment of Migraines:  Overwhelmingly Uneffective

One out of every six women experiences migraine headaches of some form in America. The population prevalence is 11.7% and comparatively higher than the insane diabetes epidemic in adult Americans (11.3%, 2011 data). Migraine headaches are no small statistic.  With a wide gender divide, women have triple (17.1%) the incidence as men (5.6%).  It's also no coincidence women have more oxytocin than men as well; for us it can regulate love, lust, labor, lactation, and maternal caregiving.  

Funny thing is that if migraineurs have mega mindfulness and their oxytocin is messed up by being either super fluctuating high/low or inappropriately inconsistent or unstable levels  (like blood glucoses in the reactive hypoglycemia model), then it may explain why oxytocin given as a I.V. drug it was 100% successful in halting immediately two cases of refractory migraines seen in an ER unit and in a prospective human study where oxytocin was provided (intranasally, ya know, like cocaine) by Yeomans and Jacobs, Stanford pain researchers, to refractory patients was associated with halting 50% of migraines and reducing 27% (total, 77% better) compared with 11% of placebo. 

My observations are that migraine prevalence and occurrence are unchanged despite great 'advances' in pharmacology (abortive triptans and preventive pharmaceuticals), diagnostic science and understanding of the physiology of this condition.  Like essential hypertension and the great majority of textbook medical conditions, the underlying pathophysiology are still elusive and undetermined, despite wonderful and fantastic fMRI and genetic sequencing techniques. A recent review confirms these considerations, the prevalence of migraines is still the same as 15 years; absolutely no improvements despite the triptan class of medications (which can abort a migraine in 20-60 min 50-70s%, versus placebo 17-40%), preventive therapy (modification of neurotransmitters and vasculature; BP drugs, antidepressants, anti-epileptic drugs), and the standard 'migraine trigger avoidance diet' of avoiding the 5 C's (cheese chocolate coffee coke citrus).  Pharmaceuticals and ridiculous wheat-based diets fail long-term.


What Does Work Long-Term for Migraines: Paleo/Oligo-Antigenic Diet (OAD)

Some of oxytocin's target organ sites include the brain, the gut and thymus. All are organs responsible for the enormous function of homeostasis, immunity and controlling inflammation. It is no wonder that the brain cannot function optimally in isolation from the gut, and no wonder at all that all things that promote healing of the gut can improve migraine headache prevention and amelioration.  

The medical literature from the last 30-80 years in fact identifies wheat (78% Grant, Lancet 1979), cow milk (37%), other cereals, cane sugar, yeast, corn, citrus, and eggs as top migraine-inducing factors.  Identification and elimination of food antigens is key to healing the gut. Sealing of the damage and microperforations by altering intestinal permeability is secondary and vital.  The paleo/ancestral diet and oligo-antigenic diets maybe best with focus on individual susceptibilities and immuno-endocrine optimization. Similar to the results obtained by Frasetto et al in their 10-day paleo experiment for reversal of pre-clinical hypertension in overweight patients, the researcher Grant (Lancet, 1979) in a seminal study looked 60 migraineurs with food antigen immunoreactivity. After only 5-days of an elimination diet (pseudo paleo) she reported 'When an average of ten common foods were avoided there was a dramatic fall in the number of headaches per month, 85% of patients becoming headache-free. The 25% of patients with hypertension became normotensive.'

Dealing with circulating antigen-antibody and immune complexes that are formed in the body when food antigens and microbial peptides (cell walls, DNA, cellular contents, junk) interact with immune system may help permanently to achieve and to maintain disease resolution, I believe. Two recently published human RCTs (Aplay et al and Mitchell et al) showed that by eliminating foods linked to high food-antigen related immune globulin IgG titers, an association for statistically significant reductions in migraine headaches occurred at 6 weeks and 4 weeks, respectively.  Heal...Seal...Deal...


References

Deciphering migraine

Takahiro Takano, Maiken Nedergaard

J Clin Invest. 2009 January 5; 119(1): 16–19. 

What is the evolutionary advantage of migraine?  [Free PDF CLICK]

Loder E.

Cephalalgia. 2002 Oct;22(8):624-32. Review.

http://www.hcop.com/PDF/Migraineur%20in%20the%20Interictus%20-%20Loder.pdf [Elizabeth Loder MD]

Resilience in migraine brains: decrease of coherence after photic stimulation

Marcelo C. A. Rodrigues et al.

Front Hum Neurosci. 2012; 6: 207. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/12/weekinreview/12wade.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print [Nicholas Wade]

http://www.lancasterlawoffice.com/Media/Wade,%20Before%20the%20Dawn.pdf [Nicholas Wade, cliff notes]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/conversation-eo-wilson.html 

http://www.authornancycasey.com/oxytocin-gaze/

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120730094909.htm [Siri Leknes interview]

Oxytocin enhances pupil dilation and sensitivity to 'hidden' emotional expressions.

Leknes S, Wessberg J, Ellingsen DM, Chelnokova O, Olausson H, Laeng B.

Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Jun 29.

Oxytocin improves "mind-reading" in humans.  [Free PDF CLICK]

Domes G, Heinrichs M, Michel A, Berger C, Herpertz SC.

Biol Psychiatry. 2007 Mar 15;61(6):731-3. 

Associations between the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) and "mind-reading" in humans-An exploratory study.

Lucht MJ, Barnow S, Sonnenfeld C, Ulrich I, Grabe HJ, Schroeder W, Völzke H, Freyberger HJ, John U, Herrmann FH, Kroemer H, Rosskopf D.

Nord J Psychiatry. 2012 Jul 19. 

Migraine prevalence, disease burden, and the need for preventive therapy.

Lipton RB, Bigal ME, Diamond M, Freitag F, Reed ML, Stewart WF; AMPP Advisory Group.

Neurology. 2007 Jan 30;68(5):343-9.

Relief of acute migraine headache with intravenous oxytocin: report of two cases.

Phillips WJ, Ostrovsky O, Galli RL, Dickey S.

J Pain Palliat Care Pharmacother. 2006;20(3):25-8.

Yeomans DC, Manering N, Pascual C, Angst MS, Jacobs D, Mechanic J, Jacobs A, 

Qiao Y, Winkle C, Frey W. Nasal Oxytocin for Head Pain. 13th World Congress on 

Pain, 2010.

Yeomans DC, Pascual CR, Jacobs A, Angst MS, Jacobs D, Winkle CC, Frey WH. 

Intranasal Oxytocin for Craniofacial Pain. Annual Meeting of the Society for 

Neuroscience, 2009.

An Integrative Model of Migraine Based on Intestinal Etiology
David McMillin, MA
http://www.meridianinstitute.com/reports/headache/Appendix%20D.pdf

http://www.drcordas.com/education/Headaches/1doc.pdf  [Oligo-Antigenic Diet abstracts]

http://www.nutramed.com/kidney/nephritis_foodallergy.htm  [Benefits of binding immune complexes or OAD abstracts]

Food allergies and migraine.
Grant EC.

Lancet. 1979 May 5;1(8123):966-9.

IgG-mediated allergy: a new mechanism for migraine attacks?  [Free PDF CLICK]

Pascual J, Oterino A.

Cephalalgia. 2010 Jul;30(7):777-9.  

Role of circulating immune complexes in renal diseases.

Levinsky RJ.

J Clin Pathol. 1981 Nov;34(11):1214-22.

Diet restriction in migraine, based on IgG against foods: a clinical double-blind, randomised, cross-over trial.

Alpay K, Ertas M, Orhan EK, Ustay DK, Lieners C, Baykan B.

Cephalalgia. 2010 Jul;30(7):829-37. 

Randomised controlled trial of food elimination diet based on IgG antibodies for the prevention ofmigraine like headaches.

Mitchell N, Hewitt CE, Jayakody S, Islam M, Adamson J, Watt I, Torgerson DJ.

Nutr J. 2011 Aug 11;10:85.

Insulin and The Paleo-Ancestral Diet: Frassetto et al 10-Day Study

This site is all about evolutionary changes, health from the ancient/paleo perspective, and how our genes are imprinted to adapt and survive (whether we want to or not).




Role of Hyperinsulinemia = ENERGY DIES

Chronically high insulin (from high refined carbs, from gluten/food-stressors, hypothyroidism, low progesterone, adrenal dysfunction, metal toxicity, endocrine disruptors, etc) raises insulin resistance in our organs which can lead to increased small dense LDL, high TG and low HDLs. A cascade of further hormone changes and vascular adjustments occurs. Vascular blood pressure may increase. Pre-clinical hypertension can develop and eventually atherosclerosis ('scarring' in affected vessels) and diabetes (inappropriate and chronically elevated blood glucoses). Later, the natural progression of this hormonal storm of insulin dysfunction includes diabetes complications or target organs (kidney, eye, nerve damage), heart failure and heart events (revascularization surgery, heart attack, angina, sudden death, bypass and/or stent placements).





Keep The Insulin Low

Lamarche B et al wrote an editorial in 1996 (see Ref 1) and NEJM (N Engl J Med. 1996 Apr 11;334(15):952-7.) and wrote that the higher quintiles of insulin were highly associated with higher rates of atherosclerosis and heart events in the Quebec Cardiovascular trial. 67 pmol/L (= 9.3 mIU/L) was used as odds ratio = 1.0 (it's still high IMHO; goal = 4 mIU/L in other words less than ~28 pmol/L). See above bar graph (Ref 1).

Convert pmol/L by dividing 7.175 for mIU/L. More about 'normal' fasting insulin HERE.

The Lamarche B et al state "For example, an 11-fold increase in ischaemic heart disease [IHD] risk was noted among men with both hyperinsulinaemia and elevated apo B levels, these two metabolic abnormalities being common among individuals with abdominal obesity, especially when associated with high levels of visceral (intra-abdominal) adipose tissue.




Visceral (Intra-Abdominal) Adipose Tissue

What is Visceral Adipose Tissue? Do you have any? I do. On my belly. In my head... from the ravages of the high carb S.A.D., high omega-6 intoxification, high trans-fat/F*CK-TOSE intake from my childhood/teens/early-20s-30s (OK. a long time, most of my life), sedentary lifestyle, undiagnosed Hashimoto's autoimmune hypothyroidism, stress of LIFE, et cetera.



Fatty calcified livers (e.g. NASH, fatty liver, NAFLD, foie gras) ?

Fatty calcified atherosclerotic plaque?

Fatty calcified atherosclerotic plaque in arteries: Renal, Carotid, Coronary, Peripheral, PENILE (e.g. ***Erectile Dysfunction BABY -- you do not have a Viagra-deficiency) ?

Fatty calcified thyroids ?

Fatty calcified adrenal glands ?

Fatty calcified pineal glands (e.g. insomnia) ?

Fatty calcified pancreas glands (e.g. metabolic syndrome, diabetes) ?

Fatty calcified gallbladders (e.g. GERD, dyspepsia, heartburn, gas/bloating)?

Fatty calcified ovaries/ fallopian tubes/ fibroids/endometriosis/ PCOS?








Keep The Insulin Relatively LOW

Many benefits improve on lower carb Paleo/ancestral diets. Why? It works and best matches our DNA genetic expression.

Lamarche B et al in Quebec, Canada have elucidated a few things about insulin, e.g. chronically high insulin and insulin resistance (IR).

Insulin and IR are related to high TG, low HDL, and high dense LDL and high visceral fat and high belly circumferences.

MOREOVER... More morbidity. More mortality.



From their JAMA publication (see Ref 2 and below Table 2) they showed in the Quebec Cardiovascular trial that 3 factors are highly associated with death and cardiovascular events:

(1) elevated fasting INSULIN

(2) elevated TRIGLYCERIDES (because these reflect HIGH dietary carbohydrates and LOW essential saturated dietary and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids)

(3) apoB, any amount sdLDL, high sdLDL (refers to 'small dense LDL' not total LDL -- total LDL is total CR*P and though the authors talk about total LDL here they correct and clarify themselves in Ref #3, 5, and 8; these French Canadian investigators are not full of cr*p)




Lamarche B et al Also Showed That...

Associated with coronary plaque in the French-Canadian Quebec Cardiovascular trial (see reference list):

--Ref 3: presence of sdLDL

--Ref 4: low HDL2, the 'good' large HDL particles which are highly associated with regression of disease (the higher, the better in normal bell-shaped curves)

--Ref 5: Beyond LDL... total-LDL is meaningless, only sdLDL really matters. Conventional cholesterol panels and LDL are CR*P. The lipoproteins need to be fractionated by size and buoyancy for a progressive,  accurate and sensitive reliable metric.

--Ref 6: visceral fat, it'll kill ya if exceeds a threshold

--Ref 7: high fibrinogen (which reflects high carbs, low n-3, low sat fat) + Lp(a) associated with DEATH and cardiovascular events

--Ref 8: 13 years later after the Quebec Cardiovascular STUDY... only thing that matters is sdLDL... the small dense LDL subfraction... related to death and cardiovascular events. Large LDL do not matter, the authors concluded. In fact many experts believe large buoyant LDL are anti-atherogenic and antioxidants. I highly agree. The larger, the PHATTER, the merrier.








Paleo Works. In Only Ten Days: Lynda Frassetto MD et al

Why is eating a (semi) unrefined, ancient-styled diet the way to go for reversal of chronic diseases and longevity? No simple answers but Paleo lowers chronic hyperinsulinemia. Frassetto et al at the University of California, San Francisco recently published a 10-day trial comparing metabolic changes and hypertension improvements on the paleolithic diet.

Paleo controls insulin better than Zone 40/30/30 and of course WAY way better than the S.A.D.

HOMA is a measurement of insulin resistance. Paleo (despite being high carb and low sat fat) achieved a 72% reduction in insulin resistance, HOMA (p=0.07). This was a high carb, low glycemic index with carbohydrates at ~~ 200 g/day diet. It was matched to the SAD diet. What an ingenius diet trial! Lower carb of course may be preferred for those with significant insulin resistance and fat-burning challenges. Higher sat fat, IDEAL in my opinion.

In this trial (see below Table 3), in terms of lipoproteins, Trigs were still high (e.g. excessive dietary carbs in the form of honey, pineapple, carrot juice, melon and excessive n-6 mayo) and HDLs still marginally suboptimal (e.g. saturated fat deficiency). HDLs often mirror the LDL particle size.


Lower carb high sat fat Paleo would have improved these parameters. See prior animal pharm posts:
Benefits of High Saturated Fat Diets: My Paleo PEEPS With High HDLs


The premise is to alter the neolithic, post-agriculture diet macronutrients and micronutrients (glycemic load, glycemic index, gluten, lectins/phytic acid, legumes and dairy). Amazing insulin changes happen.

Is this what our genes were designed for 2.5 million years to do? We don't live in a land of honey, sweets and fruit. We are meant to starve sporadically, lift heavy things occasionally, move intensely intermittently, relax daily, play, hug, make babies (umm.. do I need to elaborate?) and eat foods that our ancestors thrived on. Complying to the genetic programming and optimizing where the genes and genetic expression are screwed up will provide a reprieve in these neolithic times IMHO.

"CONCLUSIONS: Even short-term consumption [10 days worth] of a paleolithic type diet [no grains, no legumes, no dairy, low glycemic index, ALBEIT HIGH CARB matching the s.a.d. diet] improves BP and glucose tolerance, decreases insulin secretion, increases insulin sensitivity and improves lipid profiles without weight loss in healthy sedentary humans." [some were overweight UCSF medical school students]




UCSF Frassetto et al Shows Paleo Controls IR and Insulin

Compared with the 'usual diet' (e.g. standard American diet), the Paleolithic Hunter-Gatherer diets controlled insulin, HOMA (insulin resistance) better than the usual S.A.D. in overweight men and women ages 18+ years old. These results are nothing short of phenomenal in a Big Pharma-dominated medicine tradition. No drug replicates these results, especially in only 7-10 days. No drugs (except glandular, hormonal or omega-3 fish oil pharmaceuticals) are disease reversing; they serve only to band-aid and hide in my experience. In modern, conventionally-schooled medicine, no cause or pathophysiology is assigned to the disease known as hypertension. Apparently the role of insulin and refined dietary carbohydrates (or other endocrine disrupting factors) are not considered. Conventional weight loss, diet ('low fat') and exercise are always prescribed yet rarely in my observations is hypertension stopped or reversed by these means successfully and long-term. Why?


Previous blogosphere hits on Frassetto's seminal study:

--Dr. Mike Eades MD discussed HERE.

--Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple HERE 

--Matt Metzgar recently discussed as well HERE.

--Even Lyle discussed briefly HERE.

--My bud master Chris @conditionresearch.com which is one website that lead to my rapid health reveral discusses naturally of course HERE.

--Dr. Briffa discussed HERE.

--My bud O Primitivo discusses HERE in Portuguese.

--And even Dr. Davis discusses HERE linking back to the inimitable, matchless Protein Power Dr. Mike Eades.




Aging and Insulin: EORS (Epigenetic Oxidative Redox Shift)

Aging and oncogenesis are related to insulin.

Brewer (Ref #10) has explained how aging is related to insulin and insulin resistance. What degrades mitochondrial efficiency?

In the modern Western diet (now currently imported globally to Europe and China along with Western diseases), high refined carbs, refined fructose, industrial pesticides, toxic heavy metals, and refined vegetable oils brimming with omega-6 PUFAs are the typical culprits adding to the insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia burden. Chronically elevated blood insulin leads to an overall fattening effect which can calcify and harden the liver, the arteries, and many other organs (thyroid, adrenals, arteries, endothelium, vasculature, pancreas, gallbladder, brain etc).

Brewer describes "This metabolic shift is epigenetically enforced, as is insulin resistance to reduce mitochondrial turnover. The low mitochondrial capacity for efficient production of energy reinforces a downward spiral of more sedentary behavior leading to accelerated aging, increased organ failure with stress, impaired immune and vascular failures and brain aging. Several steps in the pathway are amenable to reversal for exit from the vicious cycle of EORS. Examples from our work in the aging rodent brain as well as other aging models are provided."

Low carbohydrate diet (15%) in rodents extends longevity and minimizes tumour growth compared with S.A.D. low fat, high carb diet. See Ref #12.

Resistance training reverses aging. See Ref #13. Burn baby burn.




References


1. Risk factors for ischaemic heart disease: is it time to measure insulin?
Després JP, Lamarche B, Mauriège P, Cantin B, Lupien PJ, Dagenais GR.
Eur Heart J. 1996 Oct;17(10):1453-4.

2. Fasting insulin and apolipoprotein B levels and low-density lipoprotein particle size as risk factors for ischemic heart disease.
Lamarche B, Tchernof A, Mauriège P, Cantin B, Dagenais GR, Lupien PJ, Després JP.
JAMA. 1998 Jun 24;279(24):1955-61.

3. Small, dense low-density lipoprotein particles as a predictor of the risk of ischemic heart disease in men. Prospective results from the Québec Cardiovascular Study.
Lamarche B, Tchernof A, Moorjani S, Cantin B, Dagenais GR, Lupien PJ, Després JP.
Circulation. 1997 Jan 7;95(1):69-75.

4. Associations of HDL2 and HDL3 subfractions with ischemic heart disease in men. Prospective results from the Québec Cardiovascular Study.
Lamarche B, Moorjani S, Cantin B, Dagenais GR, Lupien PJ, Després JP.
Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 1997 Jun;17(6):1098-105.

5. Atherosclerosis prevention for the next decade: risk assessment beyond low density lipoprotein cholesterol.
Lamarche B, Lewis GF.
Can J Cardiol. 1998 Jun;14(6):841-51. Review.

6. Visceral obesity and the risk of ischaemic heart disease: insights from the Québec Cardiovascular Study.
Lamarche B, Lemieux S, Dagenais GR, Després JP.
Growth Horm IGF Res. 1998 Apr;8 Suppl B:1-8. Review.

7. Is lipoprotein(a) an independent risk factor for ischemic heart disease in men? The Quebec Cardiovascular Study.
Cantin B, Gagnon F, Moorjani S, Després JP, Lamarche B, Lupien PJ, Dagenais GR.
J Am Coll Cardiol. 1998 Mar 1;31(3):519-25.

8. Low-density lipoprotein subfractions and the long-term risk of ischemic heart disease in men: 13-year follow-up data from the Québec Cardiovascular Study.
St-Pierre AC, Cantin B, Dagenais GR, Mauriège P, Bernard PM, Després JP, Lamarche B.
Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2005 Mar;25(3):553-9.

9. Metabolic and physiologic improvements from consuming a paleolithic, hunter-gatherer type diet. [Free PDF CLICK]
Frassetto LA, Schloetter M, Mietus-Synder M, Morris RC Jr, Sebastian A.
Eur J Clin Nutr. 2009 Aug;63(8):947-55. Epub 2009 Feb 11.

10. Epigenetic oxidative redox shift (EORS) theory of aging unifies the free radical and insulin signaling theories.
Brewer GJ.
Exp Gerontol. 2009 Nov 26.

12. A low carbohydrate, high protein diet slows tumor growth and prevents cancer initiation.

Ho VW, Leung K, Hsu A, Luk B, Lai J, Shen SY, Minchinton AI, Waterhouse D, Bally MB, Lin W, Nelson BH, Sly LM, Krystal G.

Cancer Res. 2011 Jul 1;71(13):4484-93.

13.  Resistance exercise reverses aging in human skeletal muscle.
Melov S, Tarnopolsky MA, Beckman K, Felkey K, Hubbard A.
PLoS One. 2007 May 2;2(5):e465.

[Revised from my Nephropal blogpost]

Major Demything...

XerXes
'Cell Progression'
Photography from a hot-air ballon by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

"With Earth from above, I simply want people to see the Earth as it is today, as faithfully as possible. What motivates me is the impact a photograph can make within the framework of environmental preservation. The great novelty of our time is that mankind has the power to change its environment and I want my photos to testify to this fact so people can realise this."

--Yann Arthus-Bertrand



Demything Myths in My Mind

A couple of things I harass and harp on are now shaded in grey instead of the archetypical black-white which I tend to prefer for simplicity and reductionism. My kids eat gluten (at school and parties) and in choosing my battles, I've accepted certain facts of life. They're going to be exposed, they like it and we just all have to do our best. And our best is a template based on strictly relative terms (e.g. my mood). Gluten is definitely a struggle stillsince it permeates all restaurant food and sauces. On alibaba.com, one can purchase cheap bags of high-protein (high-toxicity) hybridized modern wheat or maize gluten (vital wheat gluten 75% of total protein wet content) in which a restaurant, supplier or large-scale cook can 'doctor up' their goodies. Gluten imparts many favorable food benefits: moisure, 'perfect viscoelasticity', taste, addiction, bounciness, baked good fluffiness, sauce thickening, dough extension, sausage filler, meatball tenderness (lionhead casseroles are infamous), petfood 'protein', etc.

With all that said, since moving to Shanghai, quite honestly I have been surprised by the number of people aware of gluten intolerance and progressive in that manner, and grateful that the volume of gluten is far less here in China than the USDA-Big Agra-permeated culture of the U.S.

Anyway. Call me skeptical today...



Seven (Paleo) Myths that I've Slowly Come to Highly Suspect

1. Gluten is 100% bad and toxic
--Demyth: Not for everyone (especially if no intestinal permeability), every moment, every minute, every dose

2. Dairy is non-paleo
--COME ON. Human variance, intestinal permeability, status of DPP-IV (casein enzymes) and gut flora determine this. Same with gluten...

3. Intermittent fasting is 100% safe
--See prior adrenal tagged posts. Martin Berkham fanboys [I'm jealous of y'lls kevlar-coated adrenal glands] may go please very gently f*ck yourselves...and continue cortisol-inducing yo-yo dieting and eating cheesecake. Sorry. #FAILEO if one has f*cked up adrenals.

4. VLC/ketosis is 100% safe
--Demyth: see above

5. High glycemic index safe starches are 100% safe
--Demyth: high GI carbs can induce inflammatory cascades of gene expression. For who? See the FUNGENUT study. I dunno...

6. Low carb (less than 200 grams/day) or VLC/ketosis induces 100% fat loss
--Demyth: it depends on hormones and insulin sensitivity(primarily adrenal/NE/EPI and anabolic ones, progesterone and testosterone and if there is excessive E or xenoestrogens). See Ebbeling Ludwig et al JAMA 2007; side figure those who exhibit decent insulin sensitivity (maintain low insulin after 75 grams of lines of glucose) can lose weight on any kind of diet (this study used hypocaloric, low GI, 170 g v. 220 g carbs). IR=insulin resistance

7. High glycemic index safe starches (white stuff -- lines of dextrose, white rice, white modern potatoes, table sugar, etc) induce 100% optimal health and fat loss
--I'm ambivalent because I cannot and I know a lot people who this is the case. Why? Hormone fluxes are sometimes OFF and subOPTIMAL. Who loses fat and gains optimal health with higher glycemic loads and higher GI foods? I've seen this work well in the athletic, the insulin sensitive and the ones who perform high or decent volume glycolytic activity. See Poliquin on Carb Intake to Meet Glycolytic Repetition Volume. Also gotta see Sloth and Astrup.




What I Do Know

1. Modern wheat is SUPER TOXIC, SUPER ADDICTIVE, SUPER FATTENING, SUPER INFLAMMATORY

2. Modern wheat contains an estimated SEVERAL HUNDREDS-FOLD more (toxic) proteins than heirloom or non-hybridized wheat

3. The USDA is playing a joke on us... I don't trust the pyramid or anything else they purport, especially if it involves Monsatan or their former executives who now frequently staff places like the FDA or EPA (Environmental 'Protection' Agency). BRILLIANT.

4. If intestinal permeability exists, you'll be guaranteed suboptimal health, chronic sublethal infections and significant levels of cellular inflammation which may or may not ever be detectable by standards of non-integrative medicine

5. Pharmaceuticals generally do not work and in fact worsen. The worse pharmaceuticals cause long-range adverse effects on intestinal permeability and endogenous hormone fluxes (broad spectrum antibiotics, Z-paks, proton pump inhibitors, acid blockers, oral birth control, synthetic hormones, glucocorticoids, prednisone, etc)

6. Too much sugar is toxic, addictive, fattening and inflammatory. When I'm not stressed out and working out a ton, I can do sugar with relative impugnity. YET. During certain times of my menstrual cycle or when I am not strenuously working out, I notice if I hit (some) sugar (e.g. organic palm, organic coconut sugar, white stuff, etc) then I will inevitably want to do lines of crack/sugar over and over and over and over infinitum again (e.g. candy cigarettes or almond flour pound cake or cookies).

7. Everything makes horrorific sense in light of evolution

8. Bell shaped curves -- I like these; these typically represent well

9. I don't need RCTs to tell me the sky is blue or that something makes sense
(sometimes the ridiculousness in Pubmed makes me throw my hands up)

10. We're omni-whores, consumers of everything and we still survive



References

Live probiotic Bifidobacterium lactis bacteria inhibit the toxic effects induced by wheat gliadin in epithelial cell culture. K Lindfors,* T Blomqvist,* K Juuti-Uusitalo,* S Stenman,* J Venäläinen,† M Mäki,* and K Kaukinen‡. Clin Exp Immunol. 2008 June; 152(3): 552–558.

INFECTIONS, TOXIC CHEMICALS AND DIETARY PEPTIDES BINDING TO LYMPHOCYTE RECEPTORS AND TISSUE ENZYMES ARE MAJOR INSTIGATORS OF AUTOIMMUNITY IN AUTISM. A. VOJDANI,J.B. PANGBORN; E. VOJDANI; E.L. COOPER. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF IMMUNOPATHOLOGY AND PHARMACOLOGY Vol. 16, no. 3, 189-199 (2003).

Low glycemic index diets and body weight. B Sloth and A Astrup. International Journal of Obesity (2006) 30, S47–S51.

Effects of a Low–Glycemic Load vs Low-Fat Diet in Obese Young Adults. Ebbeling, Ludwig, et al. JAMA. 2007;297(19):2092-2102. 297(19):2092-2102.

The 'Middle Finger' Movement...Paleo? Yes.

Courtesy Youtube.com
Chill Out Music- Mattina By V Dimension

Bloggers Are Disrupting the Fabric of Society, AGAIN *haa*

"I started Paleo because what I was doing (basically eating SAD, not thinking about diet, and never exercising any more) had turned me from a smokin’ hot, excellent athlete into a pumpkin-shaped bag of sand. There are some medical reasons as well, but those only amplified the problem.

Then one day I read a post somewhere in which Diana Hsieh mentioned
Paleo and FTA and MDA. So I came here (here first because you have the cooler blog title), read my first ever paleo article, and had that “middle finger” moment. (I’d had my “middle finger to religion” moment long before.) Apart from a detour where meds I had to be on fucked everything up for about 9 months (despite remaining Paleo), everything has been smooth sailing.

So Diana was the trigger, and you, Richard, are the smoking gun."

Quoted on Richard Nikoley's blog FTA by Michael P (@PizSez blog) on the pulsing, sublime post 'And why are you paleo?'.





'Middle Finger' Movement

It appears to me that amongst the most vocal individuals who have embraced Paleo/Ancestral/Primal lifestyles, there are a bunch middle-finger moments which may add up to h*ll of a lot of moments. Will it crescendo? Grow to be heard? Granted there are all different flavors and versions of 'paleo' so I have no idea which contortion will speak to mainstream. Personally I enjoy somewhere in the middle between the Lynda Frasetto version and Nora Gedgaudes translation. From my observations, 'middle finger' moments are not a common theme on every blog or every forum but the most ardent do not deny it. Following any version of 'paleo' wreaks havoc on people surrounding us who unquestioningly support and follow authorities with titles and engage in formalized associations (AMA, ADA, AHA, FDA, USDA, etc). Apparently it is sacrilege to omit an entire 'food group' (wheat/grains) and decline to engage in scavenging off by-products of grain subsidies (by eschewing grains/GMO/gluten, grain-fed livestock/pork/poultry, and processed junk food products) which put money from the pockets of tax-payers to the pockets government to subsidized farmers back to the deep pockets of Monsanto, pesticide producers and other parasites.

• Zoo Keeper Selection Day FTA


• Penis Enlargement: Lose Weight More classic FTA


• What Was Your Wakeup Call? J. Stanton Gnolls.org, 70+ comments and paleo stories


• Steve Cooksey's Blog: Diabetes Warrior [Taking the American Diabetes Association to task and how he reversed T2DM with paleo and HIIT]


• Nutrition and Metabolism Society


• Can't trust NPR... PH thread


• Can't trust Dr.Oz... PH thread but we already knew that from Robb Wolf 'Framework Matters'


• What has been the best unintended consequence of your paleo lifestyle? [One of my favorite threads of uncomparable paleo stories Paleohacks.com]


• Defining moment on Paleo? [Another fave]


• Litmus test...look in the mirror! No fancy modern med testing needed. PH thread, o-k-a-y it's penises again


• The Future of Our Food, movie

I have a middle finger too. I exercise it. EVERYDAY. *ahaa ha!*

Next post:
Meditation (middle-finger meditation)

Prior posts:
Bloggers Have Destroyed Fabric of SocietyBlog-asm II: More Bloggers Disrupting Fabric of Society