Ancestral Health, Paleo Diet and Primal Blueprint

...are some of the names given to a very broad movement of people interested in avoiding the diseases of civilization.  It's a big movement with disparate subsets that do not agree with each other totally.  I commend the following article to you (from GreenMed)   click here 

The jist of the article (I think) is simply that what our ancestors ate before the advent of agriculture was varied and dependant on where they lived.  We cannot know exactly what they ate, though real anthropology, nitrogen and carbon dating techniques can tell us a lot.  The evidence is clear that pre agricultural humans did not get cancer, diabetes, heart disease or the many other diseases of civilization.  Yes, they ran risks that we do not.  Their world was fraught with potential perils.  But those who survived the physical dangers lived functional lives without alzheimers and depression and osteoporosis and autism and irritable bowel syndrome and polycyctic disease.  And all the others.

So perhaps it's not quite so important that we nail down exactly what's in a historical paleolithic diet as it's important to understand what was NOT in it.  Such as:

Grass seeds probably never had a part of a paleo diet.  Grass seeds are too labor intensive.  Biologically speaking, grass seeds (grains) are little bundles of huge amounts of energy (sugar) for starting new plants.  Early humans didn't eat grains.

Industrial sludge, commonly called vegetable oil, (high in inflammatory Omega 6 oils) did not exist.

Sugar was not part of anything.  Early humans ate a diet that was very low in sugars and the things that become sugar in digestion.  The entire blood sugar/insulin system served a completely different purpose--to shuttle nutrients into cells, not to lower blood sugar.  The insulin system's function to lower blood sugar was only meant for the emergency situation when they found a bee tree and honey or a big crop of ripe berries.

The vegetative matter they gathered was organic and not fertilized with petrochemicals, but with the natural fertilizer of animal waste and the breakdown of  other plants and animals.

Fruits were less common, were in season, and relatively hard to come by, not hybridized nor stored on shelves for weeks.

There was nothing prepackaged.  They ate real food and there were no phoney colors, preservatives or pesticides in it.

No factory farmed livestock that ate grass seeds, got fat and needed antibiotics. 

No sweetened drinks.  No deserts.  No bread, no ceareal, no flouride in their water, no antibacterial soap. 

Yet, with all the trappings of civilization missing, early humans thrived and raised families and had well developed social groups, rituals and development.  And they proliferated--filling the globe.  That's biological success.

Now, humans die by millions--of degenerative diseases, often after years of gazillion-dollar medical intervention (proceedures and pharmaceuticals).  While I'm truly delighted that I do not have to run away from a hungry predator, I also do not want to live my declining years in hospitals and doctor's offices. 

My aunt died recently of cancer.  She was 90 years old.  What I heard from relatives was that wasn't so bad, afterall she was 90.  I say that cancer is not inevitable, nor is heart disease or many of the other things that kill--whether it's at 20 or at 90.  We know that cancer grows on its preferred fuel (glucose).  You cannot eat a diet high in sugar and sugars for a lifetime without paying a price in pathology--sooner or later.  High sugars and the resulting high insulin are inflammatory.  Eventually every cell in the body is responding with the immune response--inflammation--the body's response to insult.  And when the inflammation cannot work it's healing job because it is forever being initiated, never shutting down, it begins to damage some of those cells and allows pathology to get a foothold.

I read something recently (have forgotten the source, unfortunately.)  "Cancer doesn't make a person sick, cancer results when a person is sick."   And today I leave you with a couple other sound bites.

Buring fuel (food) causes the production of free radicals which age us and cause inflammation (they do physical damage to cells.)  More food, equals more free radical damage.  But the interesting part is this:  While protein and animal fat do cause some free radical production, carbohydrates cause many, many times more.

Your are what you eat--or, "We dig our graves with our teeth!"

Catching up...

It's been a long time since I last "spoke" to you. A lot has happened in my world since then. It may be a long time till I write again, too, for lots is happening still! 
The decade I spent disabled with arthritis -- it turns out-- might have been a blessing in disguise. Modern medicine gave me (finally) four titanium joints that enable be to get around fairly well. My abiding goals have always been to feel good and to be able to raise livestock and garden. Function. But with my new joints, then I got busy with research. I started with a premise. Whether I subscribe to evolution or a creative deity, my premise is the same:  

It's not right to be disabled at such a 'young' age. It's neither divine nor adaptive to survival. What did I do wrong to get there!

That research has been the impetus for this blog, for the website and for the booklets I wrote. It turns out that I may be quite out in left field (though I have good company) because I do NOT think poor health, function and feeling crappy jumps out and gets me. I think I did things that got me there. The human birthright is feeling good and being disease free. Any deviation from that is self inflicted. My research set out to discover why I spent that decade as a virtual cripple.

Whether I believe in divine creation or in an evolving survival of species adapted to environment--or both, my conclusion is the same.  The human is a perfectly self healing, adaptive organism with mechanisms to stay healthy and functional—commonly called homeostasis.  But humans also have certain biological requirements.  Ignoring those results in departure from homeostasis and the body kicks in its one notr mechanism for righting things—the inflammatory response.  Philosophically, I think it would be more adaptive if there was more than one healing mechanism—but there is just one.  So, injury, toxins, deficiencies, all get treated the same and the body inflames in response. 

Cool.  Except that it turns out modern humans are insulting their biology 24/7, often without knowledge of it.  I learned to pay attention to the old adage, “follow the money" for the money interests are touting those insults as healthy and totally ignoring biology. 

What happens when the inflammatory response is initiated and never stops?  It ceases to heal and instead damages.  The fact that the damage takes decades to make an arthritic cripple, to initiate cancers or other diseases, indicates how really remarkable the human biology is.  But the bottom line is this.  Chronic inflammation starts the disease process—all of them.  Including things we’ve been told are just part of getting older.  Untrue.  Disease is not part of getting older.  It’s part of chronic inflammation.

So what I discovered for me is that even with new joints my skeleton was riddled with painful arthritis.  And I fixed it by getting very serious about stopping the chronic inflammation.  No more arthritis pain.  Along the way, my blood pressure got better.  I have more energy.  My brain got sharper.  My moods got universally up.  I just bought a small farm in the way outback of Oregon and am raising livestock and gardening and homesteading again.  At 68.  And I’m planning on another 30 years of it, too. 

I think any amount of effort on diet and nutrition is worth those results.  My experience in talking to people is that I must be very different than most folks because they don’t want to hear that their diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, heart disease, anxiety, schizophrenia etc has anything to do with what they put in their mouths.  There seems to be huge emotional attachment to eating for disease and death: "My doctor said…”  “The TV tells me…”  “How could what I eat have anything to do with my body?”

It tires me.  It discourages me.  It’s sad.  And I get it that most relish or at least tolerate feeling bad.  I don’t and the information is available to anyone with a library and a computer.  I have so much to do in the next 30 years!  And joy to experience.  I wish everyone that joy and function, but I recognize I can’t change others and must just take care of me. 

 By way of saying I’m opting out of the crusade to convince anyone to eliminate chronic inflammation and let it go back to its real job of healing insults once in a while.  Not to eat sugars and the things that convert to sugar (grains).  Not to use vegetable oils.  To eat enough cold water fish or take fish oil.  To take plenty of extra vitamins and minerals because unless they are growing their own, there is precious little nutrition in grocery stores.  To get plenty of sleep, eat plenty of animal products (preferably not factory farmed).  To exercise intensely once in a while and move a lot the rest of the time.  To hug the ones they love.  That’s what it takes. Basically to live like our hunter/gatherer ancestors who didn’t eat crap and got real food.   

It makes me weird to not participate in our cultural suicide by food.  I’m good with that.  My garden and goats and chickens are my reward.  At 68 and beyond. 

What I've found out is what I put in the e-books at http://mindingthemiddleagedmiddle.com/  That's about the most I can do to condense several years of research into an explanation and overview on what we REALLY know about human health.  The health information you hear on TV and even from doctors and nutritionists is about money and misinformation.  Sometimes with the best of intentions.  Be careful who you believe (including me) and see what is actually real in research and nutrition.

What kind of exercise makes sense past 50?

The old wisdom said exercise should taper off in intensity as a person gets older.  We now know that's bunk!  When you hear terms like sarcopenia (decreasing muscle mass) it is almost exclusively applied to older people.  The science has proven pretty conclusively it has nothing to do with age.  It's about how much a muscle gets used.

So why should you care?  What's so great about muscle, anyway?

Muscle is is important past middle age for at least two reasons.  First of all, it moves you.  Muscle is what makes you able to pick up a grandchild or move a bale of hay or participate in a sport or carry a bag of groceries.  It equals how functional your body is. 



I've been pushing the idea that function is our natural birthright.  Frail, sick and limited is not our birthright.  There is a marathon runner who is 100 years old.  There are centenarians who live alone, drive, garden, participate in sports and hobbies they love.  There is an award winning body builder who is over 70.  Muscle is what makes all that possible.

The other purpose of muscle is about vanity.  It looks better.  For women, that swinging flapping upper arm syndrome happens when the triceps muscle no longer keeps the area taut.  Cellulite happens when fat overtakes muscle that's declining.  And it will without exercise.

Look at these pictures.  The woman weighs the same in both pictures.  Which would you rather look like?

Muscle loss is a result of not using it.  Muscle development is a result of using it.  Simple.  That's where exercise comes in.

Let me mention a pet peeve of mine.  There is lots of talk about what good exercise walking is.  It's certainly better than sitting on a couch.  It is not going to do anything for your muscles unless your walking is up hills and mountains, and lasts for many hours.  If you want function and to look good.  lift and move heavy stuff with some real intensity.  It does not have to be in a gym.  But intensity is the key, and if your exercise does not get your heart beat up and make you breathe hard--if you don't feel it in your muscles, it's not doing much.

Here is a link to an article that has some very interesting pictures.  http://theurbanathleteblog.com/2012/01/11/lifelong-exercise-and-strength-training-in-older-adults/

Which upper leg do you think looks good?  Which person do you think can still carry bags of potting soil and grandchildren and have fun? 

Now, those pics of upper leg muscle were from people who used their legs in high intensity.  But the kicker is that we didn't see a cross section of the arm muscles and if they're not getting used, they won't show such great aging.  Exercise only preserves the muscles you use.  There’s no “whole body neuroprotective effect,” So if you want to look good and be able to do lots of 'stuff' you must exercise all the muscles of your body.  Weight training can do that in the shortest amount of time.  It is perfectly safe for older adults.  When I was a personal trainer, I had clients--a husband and wife--he was 90 and she was 87.  Both made huge gains in strength, weight loss and appearance.  It's never too late!  Don't have a gym close by?  Get a few dumbbells, or some bands.  There are many exercises that can be done with no equipment at all. 

Here are some youtube videos of bodyweight exercises

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UayvOd0xlAU&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76HjVOoUX6U&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNRiFnyqTxQ&feature=relmfu

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrHG7m4m4-A

Besides all the nutrition information I've talked about, exercise is the other biggie for looking better and feeling better well into your ninth or tenth decade!

How Doctors Die

 If you have already invited disease into your life and your end looks immenent, what do you want your last days, weeks and months to be?  You know me, my first choice is prevent disease.  Heal what's already going on and live to your full human potential.  But if it's beyond healing, the end of life can go many ways.  

I commend this article for your consideration.
http://zocalopublicsquare.org/thepublicsquare/2011/11/30/how-doctors-die/read/nexus/

Food for thought.

So what IS a healthy diet, really that prevents disease (and cures it?)

...or what one of my readers asked yesterday, "So what DO you eat when you don't eat grains?"

The question is illustrative of how prevalent is grass seed in our diet--yes, all grains and cereals are grass seeds.  Most Americans eat so much grain--cereal, bread, rice, pasta, corn, etc--that they cannot imagine eliminating it.  It forms the backbone of the American diet.  And it shows!

So let's talk about how we got here--from hunter/gatherer ancestors of which there are only a few scattered tribes left...They had no grocery stores.  They had nature.  They hunted and fished and gathered eggs and frogs and insects and shellfish if they were near the sea.  They found leaves and twigs and roots that were tasty.  They picked berries and other fruit and nuts when they found them.  Grass seeds were too labor intensive to eat.  The roots they found were full of fiber and often very colorful (not like a potato that is just chains of glucose with almost no nutrients.)  The leaves and greens our ancestors ate were organic (of course) and fruit was seasonal. 

The animals they ate roamed free eating natural stuff too.  No cramming them into feed lots, no cramming corn and oats down their gullets and then shooting them full of antibiotics when they got sick.  Those animals didn't have marbled meat.  They were lean.  But the humans from whom we decended ate the whole animal--fat, brain, heart, tongue, liver, kidneys, bones and meat--so they got the fattest parts of the animals besides the lean meat.  That's our heritage.  The BS we've been told (saturated fat causes heart disease, cholesterol is dangerous, whole grains are healthy) comes out of the agricultural complex, not our biology.  Read my booklet (50 pages) "Inflammation Run Amok" for more details of why that BS is so wrong, or read
"Good Calorie Bad Calorie" by Gary Taubes, or read "The Great Cholesterol Con".

There was a big hoopla about "The China Study" a book written by a vegetarian named Campbell that looked at diseases in China.  He concluded that animal products were the cause of disease in China.  The data was revisited by a reseacher (also a vegan at the time) but she demonstrated how Campbell fudged to get his conclusions and that more correctly, wheat was highly correlated with heart disease, and those that ate more animal fat actually had lower disease. Read her blog here for a lot more detail.  http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/09/02/the-china-study-wheat-and-heart-disease-oh-my/#more-532

So what do I eat now that I'm off grains?  Well, it was touch and go for a while while I figured this out, but now I eat eggs and bacon, salads, vegetables and fruit, meat at most every meal, and full fat dairy and dairy products to my heart's content.  I make a lot of soup.  It's an easy way to get meat and veggies in one bowl and I can make a big pot of soup and eat it several days in a row.  No sandwiches though.  Taking a lunch is a little different now.  I make beef jerky for travel sometimes.  I have been known to take a carton of cottage cheese and fruit when I am away from home.  I hope it goes without saying that I drink no sodas, juice or alcohol and about one pound of sugar a year--only incidentally, as in my homemade mango chutney.

I drink milk--but I'm not sensitive or allergic to milk.  If you are, avoid it.  Don't know?  Try ten days with none and see if anything changes.  I avoid vegetable fats.  I use macadamia nut oil in salad dressing I make (oil and vinegar) butter and coconut oil for cooking now and then. 

Meat and good animal fat and vegetables is very filling.  Yes, it puts you out of step with America.  But frankly, since all America is pretty sick and aging badly, being out of step is a good thing.

Read the book "The Primal Blueprint" by Mark Sisson.  I think it is the best of the books about eating like our ancestors did and like we're designed for.  The Primal/Paleo/Ancestral movement is huge and growing--and healthy!!

One more suggestion.  Watch this 17 minute youtube video.  If this doesn't convince you, I'll be very surprised.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KLjgBLwH3Wc  It's a TED talk by a doctor who cured herself of Multiple Sclerosis (an incurable disease) and gives good info about mitochondria and nutrients.

One more comment, then I'm finished for now.  If you have health issues now, all this information is far more important than if you do not.  A primal/ancestral diet can cure what ails you--including the biggies (see video) and keep you healthy.  What I'm pretty sure tho, is that the sicker you are, the more important it is to stick to it 100%.  Every time you cheat (and I no longer even want to) you invite in damaging processes again.   You can't heal damage while inflicting it!!!

Best wishes!  And have a healthy and happy holiday season!

http://mindingthemiddleagedmiddle.com/ for e-books about this stuff!

Preventing Cancer and other Noxious Stuff...

Remember last time in talking about cancer screenings I said I opt for preventing cancer rather than screening for it (as tho it were inevitable).  That's because cancer (and a lot of other health disasters) are diseases of civilization.  By that I mean we know that a "civilized" diet causes them.  Our Paleolitic ancestors did not get cancer or heart disease or arthritis or alzheimers or get depressed or a million other things.  Granted, they may have been eated by lions, tigers and bears, but they didn't get the diseases of civilization because their diet wasn't civilized. 

Generally anyone with a brain, the time to look into this stuff and no agenda from agriculture, pharmaceuticals or other monied interests, has figured this out.  That's why there is such a strong (non-mainstream but vocal and persuasive) movement toward Paleo, Primal or Ancestral diet. 

Still, the powers that be must do studies and justify their existence and budgets.  So here's a new one in Nutrition & Metabolism 2011, 8:75, by Klement RJ, et al, titled " Is there a role for carbohydrate restriction in the treatment and prevention of cancer?"

Well, duh! 

Ok, my temper tantrum is over.

Here's what they conclude (the abstract of the paper):

Over the last years, evidence has accumulated suggesting that by systematically reducing the amount of dietary carbohydrates (CHOs) one could suppress, or at least delay, the emergence of cancer, and that proliferation of already existing tumor cells could be slowed down. This hypothesis is supported by the association between modern chronic diseases like the metabolic syndrome and the risk of developing or dying from cancer. CHOs or glucose, to which more complex carbohydrates are ultimately digested, can have direct and indirect effects on tumor cell proliferation: first, contrary to normal cells, most malignant cells depend on steady glucose availability in the blood for their energy and biomass generating demands and are not able to metabolize significant amounts of fatty acids or ketone bodies due to mitochondrial dysfunction.

Second, high insulin and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-1 levels resulting from chronic ingestion of CHO-rich Western diet meals can directly promote tumor cell proliferation via the insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway. Third, ketone bodies that are elevated when insulin and blood glucose levels are low, have been found to negatively affect proliferation of different malignant cells in vitro or not to be usable by tumor cells for metabolic demands, and a multitude of mouse models have shown anti-tumorigenic properties of very low-CHO ketogenic diets. In addition, many cancer patients exhibit an altered glucose metabolim characterized by insulin resistance and may profit from an increased protein and fat intake. In this review, we address the possible beneficial effects of low CHO diets on cancer prevention and treatment. Emphasis will be placed on the role of insulin and IGF-1 signaling in tumorigenesis as well as altered dietary needs of cancer patients.

If that's hard to understand, what they've said in a nutshell is that carbohydrates makes us sick.  As I've said here and elsewhere, blood sugar and insulin cause most of the chronic inflammation that causes all disease.  The body is a self healing, self regulating system that WILL stay healthy and functional if you give it what it needs and do not screw it up with anti-nutrients and toxins. 

Our ancestors ate a low glycemic diet for thousands or perhaps millions of years.  That enabled them to survive.  Chances are high that your diet today (if you're a typical American) is a VERY high glycemic diet.  That raises blood sugar to toxic levels and then raises insulin to toxic levels.  THAT CAUSES DISEASE.
Ok, I know, I'm shouting, sorry, forgive me.  If you want to figure out your chances of being sick, non functional and complaining about the aging process, look up the glycemic load of everything you put in your mouth for about three days. There's a handy site for looking up foods.  http://nutritiondata.self.com/

Here's the thing.  Glycemic load of 10 or below will not raise blood sugar into the red zone.  Anything over 10 is progressively more and more toxic.  Glycemic load is additive.  If you eat a cup of chopped broccoli with a glycemic load of 4 you're good.  But if you add a cup of brown rice with a glycemic load of 22, not only is your load not low but it's now into the high zone (over 20) at 26, and highly toxic. 

Your ancestors didn't eat grains (grass seeds).  You're not adapted for grains.  They make you sick.  The hype all over the media about WHOLE grains is the biggest lie ever perpetrated on the Ameirican public.  And don't get me started on sugar and vegetable oils that are just toxic as all get out!!!

So I suggest you read Dr. Briffa's post for yourself, here: http://www.drbriffa.com/2011/11/29/low-carbohydrate-diets-look-good-for-the-prevention-and-treatment-of-cancer/
but I will excerpt below his explanations for why (high glycemic) carbohydrates make you sick.  In case you want to know the mechanisms...

1. Cancer cells feed preferentially on sugar (glucose)
Glucose (from sugary and starchy foods) provides the prime fuel for cancer cells, so a diet lower in carbohydrate may therefore reduce tumour development or progression.

2. Insulin and IGF-1 can stimulate tumour cell growth
High carbohydrate diets increase levels of insulin and what is known as insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) which stimulate tumour cell growth. A lower carbohydrate diet may reduce tumour proliferation as a result.

3. Ketones suppress cancer
Very low carbohydrate diets can lead to the production of ‘ketones’ (mainly produced from fat) that suppress tumours.

4. Low-carbohydrate and ‘ketogenic’ diets ‘starve’ cancer
Low-carbohydrate diets mimic caloric restriction and ketogenic diets mimic starvation – and caloric restriction/starvation is linked to reduce tumour development and progression.

5. Low carbohydrate diets can reduce inflammation
Inflammation is believed to be a risk factor in the development of cancer, and high-carb diets encourage inflammation. Low-carbohydrate diets have been found to be more effective than low-fat ones in terms of reducing markers of inflammation.

Better Cancer Screening tool, if you must screen

In the last blog post I talked about the problem with typical cancer screening. namely mammograms.    Today I want to give you a solution--or two.

First of all, this quote from Dr. David Jockers:

Research has shown that the major mechanism involved with all degenerative disease is inflammation.  Most medical testing searches for disease processes that have already developed.  They are looking downstream to the effect rather than upstream at the underlying cause.  More advanced health care practitioners use instruments and technology that searches upstream for the cause of physiological abnormalities in the body.

So the best health strategy is to avoid inflammation and that, it turns out, is nearly 100% within your power.  That's what I talk about in this blog/newsletter.  BUT...if you've abused your body, have ignored the nutrition that it needs, then maybe testing for cancer is smart.  It makes sense, however to do so in ways that do not add to the risk.

Enter Thermography.  It is a screening that reads surface heat patterns in your body.  Extra heat indicates extra blood flow and that is an indication of inflammation, i.e. disease processes.  So here's what thermography shows in breast tissus.

Thermography is not invasive and does not expose you to ionizing ratiation, itself a cause of cancerous changes.  So my first choice is diet and supplements to eliminate chronic inflammation--the major mechanism of disease.  The human body is self-healing, self regulating and self correcting if given the raw materials to function correctly.  By impication, if it's not functioning correctly--if there is disease process going on--you can still self-correct.  Our culture has this erroneous assumption that diseases jump out and get us--especially when we are aging.  WRONG!!  Actually, we invite them in.  I choose to recind that invitation!  I hope that I'm encouraging you to do that too.

But, if you're worried about disease, choose screening that does not add to the body's toxic burden. Not so you will live forever, but so that whatever years you have ahead are great, fun, invigorating and thriving years!  More information about how to tackle the chronic inflammation that's making you tired, painful, and sick found at http://mindingthemiddleagedmiddle.com/e-books.shtml for the booklet, "Inflammation Run Amok"