Category: Digestion / Gut Health

New Coalition to Push For Low-carb Diet to Be Added to U.S. Nutrition Guidelines

Written by Rob on . Posted in Anti-aging, Blood Sugar, Brain Health / Conditions, Cardiovascular Health, Diet, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Female Conditions / Issues, Health News, Male Conditions / Issues, Pain / Inflammation. Leave a Comment

Both the U.S. and Canadian governments have been reluctant to include the LCHF (low carb, high fat)/Keto diet as an acceptable option for the populations in both countries.

We recently experienced this here in Canada when the Canadian government revised the Canada food guidelines and despite a significant lobbying effort by researchers, clinicians and the general public they chose to not include the LCHF/Keto diet.

Now in the U.S. a coalition of stakeholders has formed to lobby the U.S. government to include the LCHF/Keto diet in its recommendations.

This group of stakeholders includes researchers, clinicians and members of the general public.

It is only a matter of time before both governments incorporate the LCHF/Keto diet into their recommendations.

There is no one diet that works for everyone but there is no denying the considerable research that has been published on the health benefits of the LCHF/Keto diets, including weight management, potential reversal of Type 2 Diabetes, dementia and Alzheimer’s and many more.

Here is an article from the Natural Practitioner magazine on this topic.

A new group called the Low-Carb Action Network (LCAN), a coalition of doctors, academics, and average Americans with personal success stories using low-carb diets, has launched to urge U.S. nutrition leaders to include a true low-carb diet as part of the 2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA).

LCAN members point to a large and rapidly growing body of strong scientific research showing carbohydrate restriction to be a safe and effective strategy to prevent and even reverse chronic, diet-related conditions such as pre-diabetes/type 2 diabetes, overweight/obesity and high blood pressure along with a broad array of other cardiovascular risk factors.

The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recently endorsed low-carb/keto diets as a standard of care for the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes, stating that the diet lowers blood pressure, controls blood sugar, lowers triglycerides (fatty acids in the blood), raises the “good” cholesterol (HDL-C), and reduces the need for medication use.

However, the DGA does not include a low-carb diet. For the 2015 DGA, USDA-HHS ignored some 70 clinical trials demonstrating the effectiveness of low-carb diets. LCAN does not want important scientific evidence to again be ignored.

LCAN members are also concerned that USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture), in its current scientific reviews, is using an inaccurate definition of the diet that is not up-to-date with current science and will lead to misleading, untrustworthy results. Specifically, USDA is defining “low-carb” as 45 percent of total calories or less, when leaders in the field agree this number should be 25 percent.

Dr. Eric Westman, associate professor of medicine at Duke University emphasized that the current dietary guidelines do not apply to most Americans and that a variety of dietary options should be presented to the American people, including a low-carbohydrate diet.“One size does not fit all. If there is anything we’ve learned over the last four years, it’s that the low-carb approach should be a viable option,” he stated.

Dr. Mark Cucuzzella, professor of Family Medicine at West Virginia University added that a a majority of the patients he treats daily have obesity and “metabolic syndrome,” a combination of conditions driven by hyperinsulinemia that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

“If the government has any responsibility to give advice on nutrition it should be focused on those who have a medical condition which is impacted by nutrition and provide evidence-based nutrition solutions, one being a low-carb diet. This diet is highly effective to prevent and treat diet-related illnesses and has decades of evidence to support it.

A study conducted last year by the University of North Carolina at Chapel concluded that only 12 percent of American adults are metabolically healthy, while 88 percent are on the way to developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease or another chronic, diet-related condition.

Dr. Nadir Ali, chairman, department of cardiology, Clear Lake Regional Medical Center, and research professor, Department of Nutrition and Applied Science, University of Houston in Texas, has significant experience in the science and practice of low-carb diets.

“As a cardiologist, I regularly prescribe a low-carb diet to treat patients with type 2 diabetes and other heart-related diseases to better their health and improve their quality of life,” said Dr. Ali. “Given the significant amount of scientific research and evidence supporting this diet, it’s time for U.S. nutrition policy leaders to prescribe a low-carb option for those who are tipping into obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and more.”

LCAN plans to launch a grassroots campaign in the coming months to urge leaders at USDA and HHS to ensure that a properly defined low-carb diet is included in the DGA to provide a dietary option for the majority of Americans who suffer from diet-related, chronic diseases. The next meeting of the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee will be held next month in Houston.

For more information, visit https://lowcarbaction.org.

Eating more ketones may fight against Alzheimer’s disease

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Dietary intervention restores protective protein and decreases death rate in mice

Date: December 9, 2019
Source: Society for Neuroscience Summary:

A ketone-supplemented diet may protect neurons from death during the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to research in mice.

I am a big proponent of LCHF (low carb, high fat)/ketogenic diets – this diet has worked well for myself and I have seen it provide many significant benefits in clients I work with.

No one diet will work for everyone however LCHF diets can be extremely beneficial – if not followed continuously then periodically almost like one would do a detox program.

Following is an article which appeared in Science Daily based upon a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

This study suggests that consumption of ketones may be protective against the progression of Alzheimer’s.

A ketone-supplemented diet may protect neurons from death during the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to research in mice recently published in JNeurosci.

Early in the development of Alzheimer’s disease, the brain becomes over excited, potentially through the loss of inhibitory, or GABAergic, interneurons that keep other neurons from signaling too much. Because interneurons require more energy compared to other neurons, they may be more susceptible to dying when they encounter the Alzheimer’s disease protein amyloid beta. Amyloid beta has been shown to damage mitochondria — the metabolic engine for cells — by interfering with SIRT3, a protein that preserves mitochondrial functions and protects neurons.

Cheng et al. genetically reduced levels of SIRT3 in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease. Mice with low levels of SIRT3 experienced a much higher mortality rate, more violent seizures, and increased interneuron death compared to the mice from the standard Alzheimer’s disease model and control mice. However, the mice with reduced levels of SIRT3 experienced fewer seizures and were less likely to die when they ate a diet rich in ketones, a specific type of fatty acid. The diet also increased levels of SIRT3 in the mice.

Increasing SIRT3 levels via ketone consumption may be a way to protect interneurons and delay the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Story Source:

Materials provided by Society for Neuroscience. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

  1. Aiwu Cheng, Jing Wang, Nathaniel Ghena, Qijin Zhao, Isabella Perone, M. Todd King, Richard L. Veech, Myriam Gorospe, Ruiqian Wan, Mark P. Mattson. SIRT3 Haploinsufficiency Aggravates Loss of GABAergic Interneurons and Neuronal Network Hyperexcitability in an Alzheimer’s Disease Model. The Journal of Neuroscience, 2019; 1446-19 DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1446-19.2019

Having Trouble Losing Weight? It’s The Chemicals – of Course!

Written by Rob on . Posted in Anti-aging, Blood Sugar, Brain Health / Conditions, Cardiovascular Health, Diet, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Female Conditions / Issues, Health News, Male Conditions / Issues, Pain / Inflammation, Sexual Health, Toxins. Leave a Comment

One of the major issues causing problems with losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight is due to the presence of chemicals in the body – environmental toxins.

Some of these chemicals are called “obesogens” – because they cause obesity and it is almost impossible for an individual to lose weight until these compounds are removed.

A key compound in this category is phthalates, often referred to as plasticizers.

Weight issues for individuals have reached epidemic proportions across the world – in the U.S. alone, 39.8% of adults aged 20 and over are obese.

Historically, the suggested solution to this significant issue was to eat less and exercise more – in fact this is the advice that most MDs will currently suggest to their patients who are struggling with weight issues.

Losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight is certainly not as simple as eating less and exercising more, although these factors can provide benefits.

Other factors may include, and this is certainly not an exhaustive list the following – hormonal imbalance, including elevated cortisol levels, inflammation, genetic mutations, a diet which includes poor quality food sources, lack of sleep, stress and many more.

The way to rid the body of these chemicals is through a supervised detox program.

This should be done under the supervision of a health care practitioner knowledgeable in this area as freeing up these chemicals can cause significant problems if the body has not been prepared properly to excrete these chemicals.

Following is an article published by Functional Medicine University which discusses this topic.

Difficulty Losing Fat? This May Be the Cause

Ronald Grisanti D.C., D.A.B.C.O., DACBN, MS, CFMP

Obesity has hit epidemic proportions and the world is desperate to do anything to lose their unwanted fat.

Although eating a healthy diet and exercise is paramount to losing fat, there is one little unknown fact that will prevent millions of people from ever losing fat.

According to the US government this one thing is the considered the number one pollutant in the human body and will put a quick halt to ever reaching your desired level of fitness and fat loss.

One of the major causes of the obesity epidemic is the unprecedented level of phthalates or plasticizers.

The problem with these toxic environmental toxins is the fact that they are difficult to impossible to avoid. In fact they are found in every species even in the most pristine wild.

In fact we have so damaged the chemistry of even animals in the wild that the polar bears in the Arctic have human diseases such as hypothyroidism and osteoporosis.

Phthalates are the highest pollutant in the body being over 10,000 times higher than any of the thousands of other environmental toxins.

In fact they are so pervasive that now children six years of age have levels that used to take adults until the age of 40 to accumulate.

Phthalates are the highest pollutant in the body being over 10,000 times higher than any of the thousands of other environmental toxins.

Phthalates are the highest pollutant in the body being over 10,000 times higher than any of the thousands of other environmental toxins. –

The government agencies, scientific and medical literature have clearly documented that a huge amount of these environment toxins (phthalates) come from our water, soda and infant formula bottles, food packaging, cosmetics, nail polish, mattresses, couches, carpets, clothing, medications, styrofoam cups, IVs, vinyl flooring, construction materials, home wiring, computers, industrial and auto exhausts, etc.,

The sad point is the fact that these toxins stockpile in the body and overwhelm our ability to detoxify them.

We routinely measure them with a wonderful test called Phthalates & Parabens Profile (https://www.gdx.net/product/phthalates-parabens-test-urine)

In addition to the damage these environmental toxins do to the biochemistry of losing fat they have also been known to be associated with difficult to treat chronic fatigue syndrome,fibromyalgia, ADD,  syndrome X, diabetes, arteriosclerosis, allergies, and much more.

In fact the label that a disease has is now unimportant. All we care about is what caused the disease and what biochemical corrections are necessary to get rid of it and actually bring about a true solution, a word you rarely hear in drug-oriented medicine.

What is even worse is the fact a pregnant mother’s phthalate levels (look at how many are continually drinking from plastic water bottles, etc., thinking that it’s something healthful) hugely influence not only the development of the child’s brain and glands, but even future fertility and cancers in their unborn children, not to mention, of course, obesity.

What you need to understand and something the researchers have forgot to mention is the fact that fat stores a huge amount of our chemicals, so the fatter you are the more the difficult it is to lose fat. Interesting and at the same time depressing.

The bottom line is many people will never lose weight or solve their medical problems because they have not gotten rid of the phthalates and other environmental pollutants that have damaged their chemistry and genetics.

One of the key ingredients to ridding the body of these harmful toxins is first to do what you can to avoid it (STOP DRINKING OUT OF STYROFORM CUPS and PLASTIC BOTTLES) and invest in a far infrared sauna

References:

Heindal JJ, Endocrine disruptors and the obesity epidemic, Toxicol Sci 76; 2:247-49, 2003

Baillie-Hamilton PF, Chemical toxins: a hypothesis to explain the global obesity epidemic, JAIt Complement Med 8;2:185-92, 2002

Alonso-Magdalena P, et al, The estrogenic effect of bisphenol A disrupts pancreatic B-cell function in vivo and induces insulin resistance, Environ Health Perspect 114:106-12, 2006

The Hundred Year Diet in the Wall Street (May 10, 2010, A I5)

Vom Saal FS, Welshons WV, Large effects from small exposures. II. The importance of positive controls in low-dose research on bisphenol A, Environ Res, 100;1:50-76, Jan. 2006

Feige JN, et al, The endocrine disruptor monoethyl-hexyl phthalate is a selective peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma modulator that promotes adipogenesis, JBiol Chem 282:19152-66, 2007

Hatch EE, et al., Association of urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations with a body mass index and waist circumference: a cross-sectional study of NHANES data, 1999-2002, Environ Health 7:27, 2008

Clark K, et al, Observed concentrations in the environment. In: The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry. Vol 3, Part Q. Phthalate Ester (Staples CA, ed). New York: Springer, 125-177, 2003

Feige JN, et al, The pollutant diethylhexyl phthalate regulates hepatic energy metabolism via species-specific PPARa-dependent mechanisms, Environ Health Persp, 118; 2:234-41, Feb 2010

Jaakkola JJK, et al, The role of exposure to phthalates from polyvinyl chloride products in the development of asthma and allergies: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Environ Health Perspect 116:845-53, 2008


Debunking the Game Changers Documentary

Written by Rob on . Posted in Anti-aging, Blood Sugar, Brain Health / Conditions, Cardiovascular Health, Diet, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Exercise, Female Conditions / Issues, Health News, Male Conditions / Issues, Pain / Inflammation, Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs. Leave a Comment

A recent documentary viewed by many suggested that a plant based – vegan diet is the optimal diet for athletes.

What Is The Game Changers?

The Game Changers is an agenda-driven film, not an objective analysis of an optimal diet for athletes. The purpose of this film is to advocate for a plant-based diet. It hasn’t been peer-reviewed, and it plays very fast and loose with the science. It’s propaganda for veganism, pure and simple. 

This is a very slick, well-done film, and it has the potential to mislead a lot of people. But it’s full of misleading statements, half-truths, flat-out falsehoods, flawed logic, and absurdities.

Chris Kresser of ChrisKresser.com did a great rebuttal of this documentary – both live on two podcasts on the Joe Rogan show as well as in writing.

Below is a portion of his written comments.

The documentation is quite extensive so if you want to review it in detail here is the link.

As a health care practitioner dealing with clients to help them with their health issues I will suggest that a vegan diet typically ends up over time in causing negative health issues, typically due to vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

My experience is similar to most health care practitioners whom I ask about this topic.

No one diet is optimal for everyone!

Determining an optimal diet is best done by working with a knowledgeable health care practitioner such as an integrative/Functional Medicine MD, ND, DC, RD, nutritionist etc.

Here is the initial part of Chris’s written rebuttal to The Game Changers documentary.

What is the optimal diet for athletes? While I don’t believe there is one optimal diet for every person, I do think there are characteristics that all healthy diets share. Namely, they’re ancestral—based on the types of foods that our bodies evolved to thrive on—and they include a mix of nutrient-dense plant and animal foods.

A recent documentary called The Game Changers claims otherwise. The experts and celebrities featured in the film argue that a plant-based, vegan diet is optimal for athletes and that animal foods are harmful for athletic performance and overall health.

There are a lot of myths and misconceptions on this topic, so I wanted to take this opportunity to debunk some of the biggest claims made in The Game Changers. For a full breakdown of what this movie gets wrong, download my Show Notes, and listen to my appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience.


I’ve conducted extensive research on the real impact of a plant-based diet over an omnivorous, ancestral diet. I’m sharing that research with you now in hopes that it helps clear up some of the misconceptions on vegan diets.

What Is The Game Changers?

The Game Changers is an agenda-driven film, not an objective analysis of an optimal diet for athletes. The purpose of this film is to advocate for a plant-based diet. It hasn’t been peer-reviewed, and it plays very fast and loose with the science. It’s propaganda for veganism, pure and simple. 

This is a very slick, well-done film, and it has the potential to mislead a lot of people. But it’s full of misleading statements, half-truths, flat-out falsehoods, flawed logic, and absurdities. I found problems with a number of claims made in the movie, including:

  • The gorilla analogy
  • The idea that peanut butter has as much protein as beef or eggs
  • The gladiator diet
  • The impact of protein on strength and health
  • Where B12 comes from

These are examples of some very misleading and disingenuous uses of science.

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Skipping Breakfast Associated with Increased Cardiovascular Disease and Death

Written by Rob on . Posted in Anti-aging, Blood Sugar, Brain Health / Conditions, Cardiovascular Health, Diet, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Female Conditions / Issues, Health News, Male Conditions / Issues, Pain / Inflammation. Leave a Comment

The published research is quite definitive in that there are health benefits associated with intermittent fasting.

Most individuals who engage in intermittent fasting will typically skip breakfast and some will also skip lunch and eat later in the day.

For myself, I have found that skipping dinner – the evening meal seems to work better, so when I am intermittent fasting I will fast from lunch until breakfast the next morning.

There has been some discussion on this topic in our forum and it has been suggested by some that skipping breakfast may have negative effects on health.

I have reviewed some published research which supports this concept.

Following is an article written by Jacob Schor, ND, FABNO published in the Natural Medicine Journal which suggests that skipping breakfast may increase the risk of cardiovascular issues as well as all-cause mortality.

Perhaps it is time that we reconsider our personal protocols and patient recommendations regarding which meals to skip for intermittent fasting.

Results of a prospective cohort study

By Jacob Schor, ND, FABNO

Reference

Rong S, Snetselaar LG, Xu G, et al. Association of skipping breakfast with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2019;73(16):2025-2032.

Study Objective

The authors examined the association of skipping breakfast with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.

Design

This is a prospective cohort study. Frequency of eating breakfast was compared to cardiovascular and all-cause mortality risk using weighted Cox proportional hazards regression models.

Participants

The study followed a cohort of 6,550 US adults, 40 to 75 years of age, who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III 1988 to 1994. Frequency of breakfast eating was recorded during an in-house interview. Death and underlying causes of death were ascertained by linkage to death records through December 31, 2011.

Key Findings

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Of note with these types of studies:

Observational studies are of course problematic and despite the fact that the authors of the study took into consideration many potential confounders there are lots that were left out which could influence the outcomes and the list would be long: SNPs (polymorphisms), environmental toxins, hormone dysregulation, what kind of foods individuals were eating, circadian rhythm disturbances, exposure to blue light in the evening etc.

Issues such as this make nutrition/diet studies difficult to draw definitive conclusions from.

Chronic Marijuana Use: 35% Increase in Testicular Cancer

Written by Rob on . Posted in Brain Health / Conditions, Cardiovascular Health, Digestion / Gut Health, Disease Conditions, Female Conditions / Issues, Health News, Male Conditions / Issues, Pain / Inflammation, Sexual Health, Toxins, Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs. Leave a Comment

Well here we are in Canada over one year now since marijuana was legalized.

The potential medical benefits of marijuana consumption are significant however due to the historic U.S. government attitude towards drugs published research has not been very extensive.

Here are a couple of good resources which I use when discussing the potential medical benefits of marijuana:

Project CBD is an excellent research oriented resource on the science and application of CBD:

ProjectCBD

Here is a link to their Science page

NORML– National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Legislation

This is a U.S. based lobbying organization which has for over 40 years been working to change legislation relating to marijuana – both for recreational use as well as medical use.

There is one particular pageon this website which does a good job of outlining the potential medical applications of marijuana – copied below.

I am not consuming any marijuana compounds currently however I have personally used marijuana products at certain times  over the past 15 years to help to manage a chronic pain condition.

I don’t currently need it as I am able to manage this condition with my own developed pain/inflammation formulation.

When I was using it in recent years, I would use a CBD tincture which worked quite well without any psychoactive effects from THC.

Before CBD fractions became available, I tried using a THC/CBD tincture formulation for my pain condition.  I was hoping that by being able to titrate the dosage that I could manage the psychoactive effects while achieving the pain/inflammation benefits but I had to abandon this strategy as I found the psychoactive effects too profound when I was working (something about trying to work on complex spreadsheets while feeling “buzzed” did not work!)

Today I want to share with you an article and a new study that suggests that chronic smoking of marijuana over a protracted period of time can increase the potential of developing testicular cancer in men by some 36%.

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