Reader Summary
- When you hear the CW Mantra, everything in moderation, what do you think about?
- Does mother nature settle for moderation?
- What happens when we do settle for moderation in our health decisions?
- If your healthcare plan prescribes moderation, are you okay with okay?
- Another patient video showing ‘moderation’ is just not as good as optimal can be.
Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life. If you continue to believe as you have always believed, you will continue to act as you have always acted. If you continue to act as you have always acted, you will continue to get what you have always gotten. If you want different results in your life or your work, all you have to do is change your mind. We do not need an intelligent mind that speaks, but a patient heart that listens. Make your choices and you create your life.
It has been often said that the best lifestyle is the one based upon moderation. Do you really believe that? How do you define moderation? I think each person has their own idea of what moderation really means. I do not agree with this cliche at all. Why? Too many people use moderation as an excuse not to do their best for others. Why? Because it is safe for them to do so. Conventional medical advice often advocates the mantra, “everything in moderation” as its safety net. Even as a kid that cliche bothered me deeply inside.
Should a 350 pound man that eats 4 dozen chocolates at night believe this is “moderately” better than eating 6 dozen a night? Is it OK for a drug addict to be pleased when they only take 5 oxycontin instead of the usual dozen? Is it OK for the person with mental illness to only take their medications 5 days a week over 7 days a week? Is it OK for an alcoholic to drink five shots on a Friday night instead of the usual ten?
I think the standards we need to have need to be a lot higher than moderation or just OK. I don’t think an optimal energized life is possible when we settle for small achievements. I realized at an early age that life is not based upon average assumptions of moderation either. As I walked around the Museum of Natural History and saw examples throughout history and biology where moderation just got you mediocre results, and often, times extinguished things permanently.
Many times people will have a rough day at work and wish that that day would be over. I do not think like that. Each day counts. That point recently was made for me in real life when a member of my team decided to take her own life at work. Each day is a valuable day and I value each and every one I have. When someone asks me what is the best experience of my life, my answer is always the same. The best time in my life is the one I am about to have next.
That is precisely how evolution rolls as well. She always plays for the next action, the next challenge that she has to face. She never settles and she does not like moderation much either. The lesson I learned from the rounds I made at the Museum of Natural History is that in life and in biology, it is never too late to revitalize your life if you follow Mother Nature’s lead.
What separates the best from the rest is how they manage the gift of their time. If you settle for moderation, you’re settling for a mediocre life. Too many people live the same year 80 times over, and call it a life.
One of my friends is a medical school professor, and he said it best, “If you accept mediocre, you have no room to complain when the consequences of the decision become apparent.” He told me that those ‘who espouse‘ for things in moderation are often the beneficiaries of this action in some major way. If you are the consumer or patient of this service, accepting something less than ideal. You’re making a trade whether you know it or not. He went on in his ‘history lecture’ for me, to use examples in life and in biology of how life always accepts major challenges and makes sense from the chaos it was dealt. He used evolution as his main example. He said Mother Nature never accepts moderation in her response to life’s challenges, so why should you?
Evolution is life’s crucible. No crucible is set to medium low!
She always appears to reach for the ultimate survival mechanism to get to the next generation and to ensure reproductive fitness. He gave examples like how the Mount St. Helen’s gophers reseeded the entire destroyed face of the volcano in less than three years to sustain new plant life. He used the the examples of the volcanoes on Hawaii that have created numerous lava flows all over the Big Island of Hawaii becoming able to support moss and small vegetation within a few years of cooling. He talked about how how life bounced back from that oil spills and atomic blasts in the Pacific. He also used other ancient examples of how life over came devastation.
The Permian–Triassic event was the most devastating event ever, to life on earth that we know about today. 57{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6} of all families and 83{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6} of all genera (53{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6}) of marine families, (84{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6}) of marine genera, about (96{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6}) of all marine species and an estimated (70{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6}) of land species including insects were wiped free because of a raised CO2 level. The evidence of plants is less clear, but new taxa became dominant after the event because CO2 is the fuel they use to grow. The “Great Dying event” had enormous evolutionary significance.
On land, it ended the primacy of mammal-like reptiles. The recovery of vertebrates took 30 million years, but the vacant niches created the opportunity for archosaurs to become ascendant. In the earth’s seas, the percentage of animals that were sessile dropped from 67{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6} to 50{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6}. Life wobbled…but sustained itself. Life did not choose moderation when faced with total annihilation; it choose ultimate survival based upon the fossil data we have today from China. It navigated the massive increase of CO2 by using plant photosynthesis to take full advantage of the CO2. It did not settle for a low O2 existence. It took the long run and used what the environment dealt out. Moderation lost, yet again.
At some point between 195,000 and 123,000 years ago, the population size of Homo sapiens plummeted, thanks to cold, dry climate conditions that left much of our ancestors’ African homeland uninhabitable. So what did our ancient ancestors do? They went back to the sea to save themselves. Life just finds a way when it is challenged. But it is clear that surviving life forms do not settle for moderation in these decisions. This raises the point what should a modern human consider to survive the modern world? In my view we need to default to the same decision making process. It requires the same decision trees to survive the emergency situations today we face.
When a mountain climber was stuck in a crevice and knew he was going to die if he did not act soon, what did he do? He cut off his own arm and he lived? Moderation or extreme? What was the result? 70,000 years ago there was massive volcanic eruption that changed most of life exposed to its effects. Yet, we are here today as proof that Mother Nature found a way around chaos again. She never chooses safety over survival.
To gain survival requires the first decision be your best. All survival classes teach this principle today. It also appears evolution uses the same plan. Her decisions always lead to survivor-ship as well. If that was not true life would not be here today. It does appear that decision is fluid and based upon what environment dishes out to her.
About 10,000 years ago, modern man made what many consider was a great decision to move from a Hunter Gatherer lifestyle of life to a modern agricultural one. I told you in my Paleo Summit talk, that I felt this decision was the single greatest error that modern man has made because it created a species of mediocre modern neolithic hominids.
We went in to some detail about how that ripple decision 10,000 years ago is hitting our children health like a Tsunami in today’s modern world due to the affect of a sped up epigenetics. It is why ten year olds are dying of heart attacks and why I recently saw a 9 year old with 80{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6} carotid artery occlusion. This is not supposed to happen according to the books in the medical school library, but they are happening today. Moreover, this is becoming very common. A moderate approach would just say they are outliers, the result, due to their personal bad genetics. This is where modern medicine stands right now today. How many of these cases do we have to see before we begin to ask some more foundational questions?
One of my forum members made this astute statement recently, “That ‘wheat civilization’ got us to the Moon, but it cost us humanity in the process. We are like evolutionary terrorists surviving in the grain strangled MAD world” today. I do not think I have heard a better statement regarding modern agricultural practices in the last 40 years of my life.
The paleosphere seems to get that sense intuitively, but still applauds some among us, who choose moderation in their practices, over practices that are best for the survival of their own patients. I think all our decisions should be tied to ultimate survival and optimal health, just as evolution chooses for life, when she is tested. We must be congruent with her message, and not in our neolithic beliefs or practices, dedicated to advocating for ‘everything in moderation’. We might be making a great trade off that we may regret at some point later in our lives. When we do it, we might even know why we don’t know it.
Evolution does not shoot for moderation. It appears to shoot for an “A” when it is possible. If you want to feed your kids cake, do it. But you must realize the consequences of it as well. Some people will tell you that cheats are OK (moderation). They are OK, if you think they are OK. I don’t think this way because evolution taught me to question that belief. After all, we did not have “treats” until recently. We are socialized to believe cheats are OK. This is a modern neolithic thought, I can do without now.
Just because we can eat a banana in winter, does not mean it is without a biologic toll. We must begin to question those who advocate for everything in moderation. Most humans today assume it is a risk free decision, because they don’t feel any worse for it when they do it. This is a decision, you have to make as a modern human today, based upon what we now know about epigenetic signaling and circadian signaling in the brain. You can’t let someone else think for you using CW dogma they learned via a broken system.
I can’t legislate that decision for you, nor, would I want to. I just want you to hear it, so you can think about it now, and decide for yourself. I can show you what I know today to be true. I can tell you what I do, because of what I know today, but you have to decide what works for you presently. When things do go awry, do not ask why they went awry, until you correct for these errors in thinking first. Most humans think these ‘cheats’ are OK in moderation.
We heard this mantra often on the stage in Austin, TX. Yet, I have seen no proof of that moderation is the standards used anywhere in evolutionary biology. Telomere biology and mitochondrial signaling changed my mind on this 5 years ago. Evolutionary history is pretty clear that moderation is a recipe for disaster. I think our diet directly affects our epigenetic switches faster than any other thing we can do to ourselves today. I think it is paramount to get it right all the time…and not “moderately” correct as some espouse. Maybe we need to consider that the mantra of ‘everything in moderation’ is really a serious danger to us?
Why extreme is the currency of biology
The irony of modern society is that we are now the best informed society that has ever walked this planet, but yet we also carry greatest risk of dying from our own ignorance. At its core, I think ‘moderation’ eventually leads to extinction in biology. At Paleo FX a friend added this truth to that statement, “And the mantra of this neolithic ignorance is “Everything in Moderation” attitude of the modern healthcare Rx to treat.” I think when you hear the word “moderation” from a politician, a lawyer, an engineer, an architect, or a modern physician they might have just uttered the most dangerous thing to your existence and to your health.
They just told you that it is better for you to settle for the safety of middle ground, because they are likely to benefit in some way. ‘Covering your ass’ (CYA) is pretty popular these days in medicine, and in all businesses today. But this being good for business practice for today, does not imply it is good for our optimal health, longer term. On this blog, I strive to use an evolutionary lens to look at life and health.
When I hear a physician call for ‘moderation’ in the paleosphere it smacks of incongruity to me. When we decide to ‘go Paleo’, is it not an anti-moderation position today? Paleo is far from mainstream and it is looked at as extreme by the masses. Paleo is an outlier today. Nothing about this lifestyle is about moderation when you think about it, and yet, we all embrace it. I think the decision to become paleo personally, must spill into our professional life as well, if we are to make a real difference. We can’t settle for less in anything we do in my opinion. It may not be comfortable at first to do this, but leadership is all about getting comfortable with the uncomfortable.
Movements often begin and go against the grain before an inflection point is reached that facilitates real change. Choosing a paleolithic template give modern man the best chance at health in our modern world. So, why would we then want to advocate for moderation then? This is a very serious question for this community.
Paleo is an aggressive lifestyle, compared to modern SAD lifestyle that garners mediocre results. The lifestyle allows us to obtain, and maintain, personal healthcare dominance in this sea of mediocrity. Paleo strives for “excess health” in control. It is mandated by evolutionary biology. So tell me, why do some still advocate moderation? I think we need to ask physicians who advocate for paleo to embrace their ‘discomfort’ for sake of their own comfort?
Modern healthcare and physicians try to be all things to all people, and the result winds up being nothing to anyone. That is where the road to moderation leads today, in my view. I believe we need to stand up for something. I believe we need to play ferociously for our patients, to get them to world class, or don’t play at all. Evolution is a brutal teacher, and not one who uses moderation to guide her. We need to advocate for aggressiveness in control.
I think modern humans need to realize that mediocre is at the core of ‘moderate approach’ or as a Rx for health. After all, if moderation was good why did the Saber tooth tiger and Megaladon go away? They were both apex predators that enjoyed a position of strength for a long time, before the environment changed, and made their ‘common’ middle ground existence untenable.
Adaptation does not use moderation. Epigenetic modifications requires quick aggressive adaptation for survival. Moderation failed to lead to ultimate survival for either species. In fact, I can’t find any example where moderation is good for survival. It certainly did not appear in these personal decisions in I, caveman
.
The decisions made in Robb Wolf’s life, those few days seemed awfully important, as we all watched it unfold on TV.
If she took a “moderate approach” to her food predicament, it would have lead to her death too. Evolution tells life to extend to its limits when faced with survival. Her survival instinct was to move and swim to look for the things to further her longevity. She could always have another cub, if she could just extend her own life. We also recently saw this in a modern human. In Argentina, a child thought to be still born due to a premature birth was pronounced dead by five modern physicians, recently.
Read again what the doctor said in this article. Dr. Greenburg said, “Presumably, the whole physiology is tough to understand. There is nothing about description of the baby’s existence that can explain survival, based on current understanding of cellular physiology.”
Then this: Another commenter Coriolana Magna – disagreed.
“It’s not a miracle at all – it is science and the doctors’ incredible incompetence,” Magna wrote. “She’s a lucky child [that] she wasn’t buried alive by these so-called ‘healers!’”
Moderation or Extreme? Life seems to find a way when we get out of the way with a “moderation response.”
Her body was put into a freezer without any food. All humans are born into the world in ketosis, thankfully. Infants are better able to handle cold environments because they are born with a lot of brown fat to stabilize their temperatures with thermogenesis by burning their fat stores. They are not born with muscles loaded with glucose to do what adults can do and shiver.
Do you ever wonder why Mother Nature does this by design in infants?
Ironically, putting the infant in the freezer likely saved this child’s life. This is counter-intuitive to us today, but yet, the correct choice made by evolution. Her mother coming back to want to see the child was the real serendipity in this case in my view. They found the child alive after 10 hours, and no worse for wear either. That should have made the doctors and scientists think how could this biologically happen? Instead, they focus on suspending the doctors and fixing the breakdowns that allowed this to happen in the first place.
They chose to see the common and not the uncommon in the situation, while life just finds a way to survive. Everyone seemed to miss the part where Mother Nature reached into her bag of “extremes” and preserved a human life in ketosis and the cold, yet again. That ability was built into her by Mother Nature, and is in each one of us. This is laid at in CT -6. Evolution does not settle for moderation, ever! Most life on this planet lives at at extremes because evolution shoots for optimal, when life is at stake. It appears to me that modern healthcare, however, does settle for moderation because it is the short term safe choice. Safe does not yield optimal in evolutionary biology.
In my view, if it was not good enough for Mother Nature, why is good for you now? Why is eating a banana in the dead of winter OK for you today when Mother Nature says it should not happen? Is it because you feel ‘OK’ doing it? Does that ‘OK feeling’ make it the correct choice, in evolutionary biology? A vote for moderation says, sure it won’t hurt you, or will it?
Consider that when you hear doctors talk to you from this point forward in person, on the internet, or in a video presentation or from their blog. Really look at what they are asking you to do and make a deal for, when they tell you, ‘everything in moderation’ is best for you. I completely reject the notion of moderation, as the most dangerous thing we can accept in medicine. Why is that? Take a look at this clinical example from my clinic.
Another example of rejecting “moderation” using CT in my practice
Why should we question settling for moderation in modern medicine? What if I told you I could take a 4 cm tumor out of the infra-clavicular brachial plexus of a women’s armpit without any pain meds? Just so the ladies can clue the gentlemen in to the pain involved, tell them how it feels when you nick or cut your armpit when you are shaving your armpit.
Now think about having an incision made in your armpit to remove a 4 centimeter tumor, off a major nerve, that controls your biceps muscle? Got the picture now in your mind? What if I told you I could ice an armpit for 3 weeks pre operatively to allow me to remove this tumor without any local anesthesia or post operative pain medication, with the exception of extra strength tylenol, would you believe me? A moderation approach to medicine would call that notion moronic or idiotic today. After all, it is not in any textbook in the best medical schools, or the Ivory Towers of medicine, is it? And, because it is not in there, we should call it nonsense, right? Well, take a look at this image.
A patient with an armpit incision is one of the more painful incisions we make in humans. Any general surgeon or plastic surgeon can back me up in this statement of surgical fact. When it is localized on a major nerve of the brachial plexus it can be a very painful procedure for the patient. Generally, I would have to keep these patients on narcotics every four hours for 4-6 weeks. Here I did not need any pain medications at all.
I believed in Cold Thermogenesis before January 9, 2012. It told me that we might be capable to accomplish some even more amazing things for humanity, if we learn how to harness it. January 9th’s bio-hack proved me correct in my own assessment of how this works on pain. Here is another example of a believer in the CT who benefited from my bio hack. No, you wont find that answer in your biochemistry text in Ivory Tower’s library, but it occurred right here. Why is that? Maybe you are not aware of just how much you really don’t know?
Life has a habit of making us forget why we became physicians. We fall into a routine. We take things for granted. We stop taking risks because it is not safe for our lives. We forgot why we became healers. It was to help people. We stop aiming for the stars, for them because some in society says it may not be ‘safe enough’. We stop speaking the truth. We play small with the gifts of our life, that may actually help our patients lives. They deserve better than mediocre or a plan for moderation. Ordinary people can do extraordinary things by recalling who they truly are and living that way. That is what being paleo is to me.
It is an all in proposition and not one born on the middle of the road position. If this sensibility is different than yours than I suggest you just stop reading this blog and mock me as the paleo elitists have. I am standing up to be counted. I like embracing the discomfort of my position.. I do things my way, and I do them this way because I think I can do better for my patients today than I did in the last 15 years. Moreover, I am going to show you there is a better way to do things, than “moderation” calls for today. To me, this is very congruent to the paleo lifestyle and goes against the grain of what is espoused in those Ivory Towers. Ivy Towers ‘educate out’ the good ideas from our minds. Do not believe it?
Watch this video:
Cultivate your brilliant ideas and limit your bad education…
Never let someone who gave up on their dreams talk you out of going after your own. Sometimes in life a time comes when it’s time to rethink everything. That time is upon humanity today in my view.
I reject moderation in medicine now. I want optimal for me, and all of my patients now. I leave ‘moderate choices’ for those in the Ivory Towers. Leadership requires us to act fearlessly. Choose very wisely, people, because what you choose might just save or end your life early. Understand what the ‘Rx for moderation’ brings you over time. There are big decisions for us all ahead when it comes to optimal health.
If you want to live “80 ordinary years” relying on an “everything in moderation” approach, eat that banana on Dec 31, in the dead of winter, and don’t worry about it at all. Everything in moderation ‘might have‘ you well covered based upon the ‘old books’ in the Ivory Towers, after all, no?
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In defense of Jack Kruse…
“Great spirits often encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds.”
Sometimes in life we need to think radically in order to actually make progress. The problem with science is that it generally involves a more conservative approach to things. This conservative approach is there for a good reason; mainly to prevent harming people, but occasionally it wouldn’t hurt to take a leap of faith in order to make rapid progress. Jack Kruse’s approach to weight loss and “optimal” health is radical. His guidelines for cold thermogenesis (CT) therapy go above and beyond what is generally recommended. Additionally, he seems to be against vigorous exercise. (For the purpose of this argument his dietary recommendations are something that fall in line with low carb advocates and aren’t generally deemed radical so they will be left out).
Dr. Kruse has some solid guidelines to progress though his CT recommendations. They are there for a reason! What critics seem to forget is that the body is highly adaptive and that with anything one will start to see diminishing returns when one sticks with more conservative programs for long enough. Should one conservatively progress through Dr. Kruse’s CT program? Maybe, but again some will be able to move faster than others and would stand to benefit by taking an accelerated approach. The speed of progression is up to the individual.
As for the exercise program… This is something else that exercise enthusiasts need to calm down a bit on. We all need to remember that each of us has our own paradigm through which we view things. Personally, I’ve never been overweight so it’s hard for someone like me not to think exercise is important. However, for an overweight individual to start exercising it might be something to hold off on until their weight comes down quite a bit. Researchers have shown that risk for individuals embarking on a fitness routine for having an orthopedic injury within the first 3-6 months are quite high (I can’t cite the study, but Alwyn Cosgrove has tossed it around in the past if you want to go searching for it; I believe the numbers are between 30-80%). Just think of Dr. Kruse’s own anecdote about tearing his meniscus from just standing up from a chair! Now multiply that times the hundreds of steps someone takes while running. If an overweight individual attempted to go running the risk for an injury would go up exponentially!
I’m not totally sold on avoiding high intensity exercise altogether, but I do believe it has a time and place in any weight loss program. If I haven’t made my point clear it should probably be saved for the last few pounds, not the first 100! I have my own reasons for including high intensity exercise, but I will hold off on going into them for now (I could write a book on it).
The thing we all need to remember is: consider the source. Dr. Kruse has helped plenty of people that follow his programs not just himself. It works for people that can stand to lose quite a bit of weight. Maybe protocols need to be tweaked when the individual gets down closer to being “optimal”, but we will only know once more people are there. Until then I’m sure the bashing of radical ideas will continue (until they are no longer deemed radical). Thanks Dr. Kruse! Keep the ideas flowing!
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Even when you do reach your ideal weight and hormones are nicely in place, then you still use 'hard core' CT for the opposite direction, for performance gains! It's always a win win! Again, a lot of people figure that once you 'look' OK, then why bother being so strict (according to their terms) with diet and bother use CT. I really hate that ignorant mentality, and it's just something I'll have to wait for 30+ years for them to come back to me with tail between legs and go "O, I guess you had a point back then…never mind"…
@gladina Change happens slow for those who choose not to think or regurgitate CW advice.
@ Hugh Thanks for the nice words and summary of thoughts.
The cardinal virture isn't "moderation", it is Temperance which inclines man to that which is good according to right reason – knowledge of the objective reality. It applies the right dose, WHATEVER that could be to bring about the good. . And Temperance is subject to the "first" among the cardinal virtues – Prudence, which is the ability to make sound judgments based on right reason. So Jack, I think the Dumb Ox is behind you.
@Cgk you are simply a rockstar starfish!!!
Hugh, Great Einstein quote and spot on!
Hey Jack, The video was unreal I couldn't wait to get home and read it. Pre-op went well, the only concern I have now is the Anesthesiologist wants to do a Sub clavicle or scapula block? This is the first I have heard of it. What are your thoughts on this? I have been icing and CT for about five weeks not sure if it was up to your pre surgical standards.
@Riversedge I like local blocks because it decreases needs for narcotics……….I like the use of ice pre op and post op.
Thanks Jack, I was very unsure and concerned but I will get it for sure.
Sorry for the double post i thought I lost the first.
I had to have a shoulder replacement 12 years ago because my humerol head was dead due to AVN. The surgeon brought in the anestheologist to discuss using a nerve block in my neck versus the standard general anesthesia I was somewhat reluctant as I did not want to be awake and have to watch/witness the entire process but did understand it was a much safer alternative so went ahead. Let me tell you the recovery and actual pain medication usage was drastically reduced in comparison to the previous rt & left knee replacements I had to under go previously.
I only wish there was CT protocol for all of my surgeries since I now know the benefits of using it. I have always had pain in my shoulder since the replacement despite doing all the PT etc. now I spot CT it 3 to 4 times a week and it is a miracle. Heck, I also wish I was paleo & doing CT all my life too but hindsight is always better and now is all we have so I opt for optimal choices today.
I wish you well and a speedy recovery.
Dr. K, you are absolutely correct that we shouldn’t settle for mediocrity in medicine. Most of us are taught to blindly follow whatever our doctor says, they are the ones that know best. Those that follow your blogs and read your forum will not settle for mediocrity, but I am afraid that the vast majority of people do not want to have to think for themselves, but want to rely upon the advice of their doctor.
How sad!
@Shilohman I agree but you will hear soon when the Paleo fx videos are released a call for moderation.
Really love this, we need to keep the perspective that we had when we were very young
Hugh, Great Einstein quote and spot on!
Hey Jack, great stuff once again. The video was great and amazing to think of the implications this brings to the world. I did have my Pre- Op today and it all went well. The only concern is the Anesthesiologist wants to do a Sub Clavicle or Scapula block? I would like your thoughts on that? After reading CT10 and watching the Video I'm not sure my CT is up to your Pre surgical standards. Thanks for any thoughts you have on this. Moderation has not been in my Vocabulary since starting the Leptin RX and CT and will never be. I have done the Moderation more times then I like to remember. I'm all in Jack, and down 28#s six weeks, that alone with make surgery that much easier. I can never Thank you enough!
Everytime I read a CT, I am ready to stand up and cheer.
AWESOME! Just awesome.
@Jeremiah Sometimes we have to stand by our convictions no matter how unpopular they seem to to the unknowing……I take arrows because of what is happening in my clinic. There is so much more we can do to help people it is not funny. We must do……..now.
@Kevin Take a look here for more proof of CT 6……. .http://www.ted.com/talks/lewis_pugh_swims_the_north_pole.html See what he says at 16:39 of the video……three years before I published CT 6 for the world……
@jack – pretty insightful regarding pain management and definitely ties down what you experienced post surgery in January as well as the video above. – Kevin
@Kevin thanks and this clearly is a great case furthering my findings. Both the clinical examples are extremes in surgery where this works. Loius Pugh Ted video also shows it briefly at 16:39. He made the comment there that we was numb for 4 months after his swim. It makes perfect sense now why. It also shows you there is a "gradient for CT' that we need explored for modern humans. I think Wim and my self are doing just that now. There are more stories coming. Several plastic surgeons are now contacting me wanting to try this on flap reconstructions and on cosmetic surgery of the face. I think these are ideal applications of CT for modern humans. Lymph dissections in the axilla of women are very painful. This video seems to have opened their eyes that they might be able to do more to help those poor women.
I have a friend who is 67 years old who has recently been diagnosed with Post Polio syndrome which appeared soon after getting the H1N1 vaccine shot. When he was a child he had polio that he overcame by training other muscles to compensate and he was doing well physically all his life until he got this shot. His wife related that he is now undergoing tremendous leg muscle fatigue. He is a doctor of pathology so I know he would understand the science behind the protocol. Do you think CT would help his particular situation? I just sent him the link to this blog. I also sent him the link to Terry Whals talk just as an introduction to alternative therapy related to nutrition and loss of muscle function, as he is starting to see diminished strength in his legs. I thought her information as well as yours might help in opening his mind to alternative treatment. I want to “pay it forward” to a dear friend. I would like to know which blog post would be the best one to start to link him to as an introduction to your protocol relating to his particular situation. Is there a way to reverse his symptoms at this point?
Thanks so much for all you share.
@Skinny Tell him to read my 2/11/2012 blog and then listen to Terry Wahl's Undergroundwellness.com radio podcast with Sean Croxton.
@Dr. Q Watch this video…….pay attn to 8:50 and pay attn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embed…
Really love this, we need to keep the perspective that we had when we were very young
"we reward the ability to vomit someone else's information and we leave out creativity"
in this light, it's easy to see how so many people are quick to dismiss new realms (CT for example)
good stuff, I need to remind myself of this everyday…
Mark take a look here……CBS is getting it. The Paleo elitest however do want to get it. Because they think it is all about the diet. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57407017/can-…
It will be beautifully & sadly ironic if the mainstream "gets it" before the PEs do. Ivory towers apparently are not very nimble.
Larry I actually think the chance are now 50/50 this is precisely what will happen. We actually talked about this in the operating room yesterday. CBS and TEDx interviews have not even hit the shores yet……and neither has the Paleo fx videos……..the ripple is going to grow.
I thank you Jack for your immediate reply. I have forwarded your response and I'll let you know how he accepts it and if he makes physical progress. The one snag is that he lives in the south, but there are bathtubs and there is always ice! 🙂
All truth passes through three stages.
* First, it is ridiculed.
* Second, it is violently opposed.
* Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.
Arthur Schopenhauer (22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860)
@Atl Everyone has a way of being where they are at their best, a place from where anything is possible, and they are totally in step with the universe. This way of being can be elicited, amplified, and ultimately set as the default 'state' for moving through the world.
Dr. Jack,
Thought provoking stuff. Here's what it provoked in me: I agree that Mother Nature doesn't care for moderation and mediocre but I would venture that She probably finds them useful occassionally for testing for the optimal. Sort of like lab animals, the mediocre are handy but disposable. Also, in my view, the neolithic world is programmed to mass produce the mediocre. If we did not tamper with our environment for example (like artificially boosting food production, resulting in huge output of inferior food), we would never be able to produce mediocricity on such a giant scale. But I can see some self-limiting mechanisms installed there by Mother Nature are already in operation, so hopefully we are not doomed just yet
@Ruby not sure if you ever listened or downloaded my Paleo Summit talk with Sean Croxton but I made the same argument that we have mass produced mediocre……and it is true. We hear so many regurgitate others vomit as their own it just allows for repetition of the same existence. A leader calls for the stop of moderation of thinking and demands for a grasping or extraordinary. That is how Mother Nature rolls and it is how we should begin to think.
No, I haven't listened – gonna find it now. Staffan Lindberg in his "Food and western disease" argues how the norms and standards of modern medicine, all regarded by run-of-the-mill doctors as normal biology, are out of whack with Mother Nature because they are all established based on mediocre, sick Neolithic populations, and how Western aging should not be synonymous with normal aging.
@Ruby I know this because I have personally heard him say it. But yet we still hear this from some in the paleosphere even today. It amazed me when I heard it honestly.
I have been doing CT full immersion for 4 weeks in a 45 deg pond. Last weekend I went to the south shore of long Island where I went bodysurfing in mid fifties deg water without a wetsuit. Did it Sat. and Sun. Had a blast. The cold ocean is really special. I wish I had known my whole life that i could swim in cold water and enjoy it. After the swim i did sprints on the beach. I was literally laughing at the sky. Thanks, Jack.
@Dali Dula……..just love this.
Looks like Lewis Pugh did some adapting between his first and second swim, on that trip to the north pole. His fingers swelled the first time; they just became numb the second time.
Jack the #1 treatment at the Boston Marathon today, Ice bath's! Go figure
@Riversedge I got 14 emails from Boston readers with pics of the ice baths. LOL
"Everything in moderation" is only a good strategy when we have no information or prior knowledge. It's usually the equivalent of saying "We have no idea."
Additionally, moderation doesn't increase our knowledge. Extreme approaches generate useful data no matter whether they're right or wrong. Yes, there is the accompanying risk of being wrong…but there is risk in moderation, too: it's called actuarial tables, which are what you get for being "average".
We humans living in "civilization" are living farther outside our evolutionary context than animals in a zoo exhibit. At least the zookeepers try to make the exhibits look natural: cubicles and skyscrapers and freeways and condominiums don't even try to mimic our real homes. And at least the zookeepers try to feed the animals something approximating their natural diet: frozen turkeys are closer to a lion's or hyena's natural diet than grass seeds ("heart-healthy whole grains") are to ours. I'm not going quite the same direction you're going — but I agree with you as to what happens if we stay where we are.
JS – gnolls.org
When I checked my temperature a few times after 15 min in 67 degrees bath, it's between 94.5 and 95.5. I came out shivering and was shivering for the next hour or so. while being in the bath I'm not that cold. I come out when I start shivering. My skin looks fine and I'm fine once I stop shivering. I know from googling that 95 is the cut off temperature for mild hypothermia. How do I know that I'm not damaging my body? thanks.
@Anna K Reason, Inspection, looking, for damage should be obvious. I told you in the protocol to monitor your skin color. Shivering alone is just a sign your adapting very lowly. When you at cold adapted you wont shiver nearly as much. Also at the temp you are using it is physically impossible to get tissue damage. So you have zero worries. The fact that your temp drops that much tells me your thyroid and leptin status must be awful. Just slow your adaptation down.
Anna, I was also concerned about my body temp post ct. I was using oral thermometer which I now know is not accurate. I was getting temps as low as 91 post CT which as Jack pointed out to me means you're dead. So I checked rectal temp. Not only was my pre CT temp almost normal, but my post CT was 1 deg higher. This is a sign of cold adaptation. I still shiver, but it gets better everyday. So try a more accurate method for temp.
Dali hits it out of the park……as the crowd cheers
Dr K, no mediocre moderate words there! A great speech. 'Re-evolutionary'.
"For this task of organization, as for all revolutionary tasks, fundamentally it is the individual who is needed. The revolution does not, as some claim, standardize the collective will and the collective initiative. On the contrary, it liberates one's individual talent."
@Localad I agree totally……
Jack
Did you look into sled dogs?
Many live/work in extremely low temperatures and are fed zero carb diets. And some of them are able to show crazy endurance during races while eating 8-10 000 kcal a day.
I would love to know if cold plays any significant role in what they are able to achieve.
Paul
@Paul Sled dogs are amazing CT athletes……they are in an upcoming blog.
Dr. Kruse,
Could you please ask your "marketing monkeys" to remove this rating system of thumbs up and -down. I thought you were not going to dumb things down….? Thanks.
Aldert we are trying to find a comment plug in that allows for conversations but yet works well with what we are running. So far this one looks like a fit. I am not sure the rating thing will matter because I do not plan on using it…….and I doubt most others will either. I think we are interested to get comments to questions in order and conversations stacked correctly. If this one does not work they will change it. We have already tried 4 others. Give this one a chance.
Ok, I get the reply thing, seems to work. Sometimes I come across these rating things and there are people who will say anything just to get high ratings, positive or negative. I do not want this to happen here.
Thanks
Aldert not to worry……I will be moderating this forum pretty tightly. I was changed by the words on a Paleo fx panel by Dean Dwyer, Robb Wolf and Mark Sisson during a panel we all sat in on.
If I may,
Nested comments add ons just like the one on MDA and such will do just fine. Many use Wordpress like you do. The fancy Javascript one that your web master is trying to work will always give trouble across since it is never works correctly across all browsers and platforms.
Why not get the one with out any fancy stuff. They are solid and tested since they have been in use by so many already?
The less fancy the more we will use it. the more we will use it.
It is important not to have your replies to comments hidden until we click "replies". It is not productive to have to click on every comment just to see if there is a reply worth reading. Scanning comments by just scrolling is very useful and optimal.
I do user experience research in m y other life. I just would like to contribute in any small way II can to the mission.
Best Regards, 🙂
Cooling
cooling add this response to the comments on the forum……the MM pay attn to this stuff. We are trying to get this right for our audience. Most appear to want it in conversational forum……We are adaptable because we like change like evolution does. We like getting outside of our comfort zone.
Dr. Kruse, just a quick question: is it standard procedure to always use a local anesthesia in conjunction with general anesthesia during every type of surgery? I love the CT 10 blog because not enough people in today's society are willing to stand up for what they believe & know to be true. It takes courage & character to do so. Thank you for being a person of character.
Dr. Kruse that video shows what a caring doctor you are, thanks for sharing that – (barf to the tumor pic LoL). I understand how moderation is a slippery slope, one drink to an alcoholic may seem harmless enough but it's not at all…yet it's the mindset that is most dangerous, and allows for many small infractions or many drinks when an alcoholic is under pressure. The toll bad food takes is as insidious and cumulative in effect, as it is the sum of many bad choices that add up to ill health…if we all take a hard look, moderation is a poor excuse. This is an area for me to work on. Thanks…
Dr. Kruse,
I'm kinda new to the party and have a pending surgery that is "supposed to be painful" I would love to try your CT and see how it affects my recovery and pain threshold. Which one of your posts summarizes that protocol. My surgery is in 2 weeks but I can push it back if need be… Thx!
Sumner the protocol is listed on my 2/11/2012 blog. And you can find more info about how I use ice for surgery on forum. Look for the Mike Martazzano thread……I dropped some knowledge bombs in there. i still have not posted my surgery CT recs. That will be a webinar for my members first.
Dr. Kruse Here in this blog post https://jackkruse.com/intermittent-fasting-and-lep… on fasting you talked about re-feeds for muscle growth and fat loss. Do you feel the same now….? Are large carb re-feeds with low fats and higher protein after fasted training still optimal for health, fat loss and muscle growth? After CT are low fat, higher protein/ carbs beneficial or healthy…. ? Perhaps summer time only or not at all? Thanks so much for all your postings and insights.
@Dan That blog post is spot on……but IFing in my view is after one is LS. Not before. Most people who should use IF are close……and eating normally as I prescibe here in this blog. https://jackkruse.com/so-you-completed-the-leptin-… If youre LR you should not be using IF in my opinion.
Dr Kruse, thought i would give a quick update. I last commented on the "post leptin rx" blog. I am 29 (was 165lb) with 8.9% bf, following the Optimum Performance Training protocol. I had asked about upping carbs as the days grew longer, keeping most carbs in the PWO window. Anyway, this was before the CT series, and I had been doing cold showers for recovery puposes since back in Oct 2011. Well, I decided to work on my strength, and give the metcons a rest. I have also lowered carbs significantly rather than upping and continue the cold showers. I have gained 5lb's lean muscle and am more ripped up, with more energy than ever before. Only change was less carbs and a little more time in the cold water. If anyone has any doubts, I would advise to stick with it. The results are just starting to come around for me, and they are pretty impressive. Thanks Dr Kruse.
@Nick awesome news and keep us updated. This will surely help others as we evolve on this blog over time. So many people love reading the comments because they often cement the points made in the blog.
Hi Dr. Kruse. Great blog. And this post was particularly interesting. I can certainly think of some moderation advocates in the paleo world (e.g., Mark and his 80/20 rule and "don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good" attitude). It seems, though, that the debate about "safe startches" isn't clearly about advocating moderation.
Other paleo experts completely exclude many toxins, such as gluten. The argument behind eating some starches appears to be more nuanced than just "moderation is good" or "moderation is bad". It involves a pretty complex debate about physiology, such as thyroid functioning, endothelial linings, optimal glycogen levels, etc.
@JaneO Mark Sisson is not who I had in mind at all. I was focusing in on the people who actually ‘treat people’ who believe moderation is the best course of action for all things. In my view that might be very dangerous for a person. I want people to begin to think for themselves and put their issues in the proper context. I have no problem with avoiding toxins (yes dose makes the poison)…….but I have a huge problem advocating eating foods that are eaten “out of proper circadian signaling and growing seasons” constantly and saying they are in fact safe just because you feel OK about them. Drinking a shot makes some feel OK too but it does not make it correct for our biology.
@Dr. Kruse – Ok, I think I just found a perfect way to CT. Luckily I ride by the beach everyday on my way to work and it didn't hit me until this morning that I could just use the ocean for CT instead of having to buy ice and a tub! I did some research on the water temps there and this is what I found: right now it runs around 50F in the morning and got up to the mid-50s by mid-day yesterday when the air temp was in the mid-80s, back on December 10 it was right around upper-30s to lower-40s, and back on August 10 it was around 70F. So I'm thinking of starting in June (around this time last year the temp was in the low-to-mid 60s) and taking a few swims after work on the way home. Then over the course of the summer and the fall, after taking 2-5 swims a week, I'm hoping that I'd be adapted to be able to withstand the winter temps of upper-30s to lower-40s. Do you think this is a realistic goal and a good plan? Given that there is annual "Polar Plunge" fund raising event in this area in early January, I'd think that with some training that I could swim instead of just taking a quick dip.
just want to be on the comment feed. Thanks
Don’t know if this analogy has been used before, but I just saw it on another site and thought it appropriate: GENETICS LOADS THE GUN; ENVIRONMEMT PULLS THE TRIGGER.
@The Kid I totally agree with this and have used that analogy many times myself.
Jack not sure if this was talked about in other blogs or forums. Is it ok to do multiple CT sessions in one day? I've done 2 sessions already but waited until my body was warm again. I left 4 hours in between. Just trying to get as many in as I can before Thursday morning.
I think it is fine to do as much as you want…..
@Jack – what do you know about chelation. Is it for real? Does it work? Is it safe to do on your own at home?
@The Kid It is real and if you have heavy metal toxicity by testing. Home chelation for serious toxicity is worthless. Some things in diet can help…..like Cilantro. But getting tested is best to see how bad it is with testing
@jackkruse – Hey Dr. Kruse, just wondering if you got a chance to look at my idea about CT'ing in the ocean that I left a little earlier. I'm pretty excited about it, but thought I'd run it by you to make sure that I'm not about to do something stupid. Thanks!
Ok, I think I just found a perfect way to CT. Luckily I ride by the beach everyday on my way to work and it didn't hit me until this morning that I could just use the ocean for CT instead of having to buy ice and a tub! I did some research on the water temps there and this is what I found: right now it runs around 50F in the morning and got up to the mid-50s by mid-day yesterday when the air temp was in the mid-80s, back on December 10 it was right around upper-30s to lower-40s, and back on August 10 it was around 70F. So I'm thinking of starting in June (around this time last year the temp was in the low-to-mid 60s) and taking a few swims after work on the way home. Then over the course of the summer and the fall, after taking 2-5 swims a week, I'm hoping that I'd be adapted to be able to withstand the winter temps of upper-30s to lower-40s. Do you think this is a realistic goal and a good plan? Given that there is annual "Polar Plunge" fund raising event in this area in early January, I'd think that with some training that I could swim instead of just taking a quick dip.
@Mark I like the Ocean for cheap CT. Just look at the surfers out in the Pacific.
They also have high vitamin D levels.
@jackkruse – Excellent, thanks. I look forward to starting this routine in June. I’m hoping that by the time the winter rolls around that the “Polar Plunge” will just be an everyday thing for me. Only I won’t plunge and get right out. I’ll go for a swim and hang out for awhile.
On a separate note, I know it’s not sexy, but I like this comment format the best. Easiest to keep up with your comments (yeah I have probably read all of your comments over the last couple of months).
Dr. K, ever thought about adding Laird Hamilton into your cold adapted mix? He does a LOT of low temp work and appears to be cold adapted..IMHO.
http://www.mensjournal.com/laird-hamiltons-high-performance-breathing
Dr. I’m confused on the fasting and refeeds. On a refeed day being LS is higher carbs, high protein and low fat, 50 grams or less optimal? Should this take into account the seasons? And on carb up days (lifting days), what type of carbs? Fruit, yams, sweet or white potatoes and would white rice be an issue?
Thanks for your reply above as well.
– Dan
@Dan https://jackkruse.com/intermittent-fasting-and-leptin/ IFing should use carbs that are seasonal appropriate. I never advocate for rice or potatoes as neither are part of a paleo template as laid out by Dr. Cordain. Those are adds by others who have written paleo diet books.
I hope Mitch Baird see this link here: http://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8265
“You need to overcome the tug of people against you as you reach for high goals.”
George S. Patton
Great! Thanks for the response Dr. You made it very clear for me.
– Dan
“From the unprecedented to the possible”! No middle of the road…no excuses! Thank for all you do Dr. Kruse!
Dr K, after surgery for breast cancer 2 years ago (R mastectomy and reconstruction – which means a 20″ scar across my abdomen where they harvested an artery and the tissue), I ended up with a surgery-induced hernia where they took the artery. The surgeon told me I had to have hernia repair surgery and that this is ‘common.’ I asked if there were other alternatives and he said no. I left. I began the paleo diet, found you, and moved to keto/seasonal paleo etc. When CT was announced, I started. My cold adaptation process has been slow (I have a long way to go!) but consistent. I always ice my abdomen directly (except when I ocean swim). Now, a couple of months later, the hernia is gone. Another n of 1. But they do add up! THANK YOU.
@ Lauren the plastic surgeons who read this will pay attn for sure. Awesome
@Mark Check out my comment #21. You can do it right now. It is the best.
@ Lauren: Wow, congrats! That is truly remarkable for SURE!! The cool thing is, that’s just the beginning. You’re still going to see amazing results with any other things with your body!
Dr. K, I have a question, even if we’re pretty healthy now after Leptin Rx and CT, can we still do CT on into summer…it’s kind of addictive. (And btw, I think I can still see benefits since you did mention that it actually takes 12-36 months for FULL adaptation, despite feeling so good in the beginning)?
@ Gladina there is no reason not too…….I plan on pushing it from here on in…..I kinda set myself back with this bio hack…….but i will get back soon enough. I have done it before so I know I can get back t where I was……..
Your bio hack was pretty intense!! Good on you for going to that extreme!! It’s very inspiring to see people like Wim Hof and yourself doing these extreme hacks. Makes me want to do something like that…but I think I need more adaptation first. See I can’t say ‘Well I’m a wimp and afraid’, because there’s nothing to be afraid of actually since I know that with proper CT it can be done…on anyone.
Jack, is it ever ok to eat bananas up here in Canada? What about our native blueberries late summer and early fall? What quantities are sufficient???
@pete….When do banana’s grow in Canada? So my answer for me is simple…….but if you do eat them eat them in the strong light cycle in the summer June 21-August 21 and that would be it.
@Dali Dula – that’s awesome! I can’t wait to start swimming in the bay. Thanks for offering up your great experiences with ocean swimming
@Mark Want some more “cool” facts many Paleo TMZ MD bloggers are clueless about…….read this: http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/20_amazing_facts_you_probably_didn_t_know
@Dali I grew up on the south shore–in the hamptons! As teenagers, we’d get into the ocean just as soon as we could stand it–usually in May–the idea was to get in before Memorial Day. We come out numb but totally exhilarated. CT-ing has brought back a little of that feeling. In fact, the other night I dreamed I was ocean swimming in the cold. Aaah, good memories.
@Maggie my house in TN is built to look like a Hamptons house and it is called Hampton Lake! LOL, ironic no! That is why all my pics of the sunrise on my FB wall shows the lake from my pool everyday
@Jack Your home looks beautiful and the deck with the water view does look very Hamptons. I grew up there in the 1940’s and 50’s, before it all exploded into “The Hamptons.” At the time,it was idyllic, all the natural beauty was so accessible, even to us working class people. Would love to live on the water again.
@Jack – that’s some pretty cool stuff! But the point is that I’m now seeing that kind of stuff as attainable, instead of being impossible or a freak of nature. Ever since that article came out with the scientist that swims with the whales, I feel confident that I will one day be able to swim in the Atlantic in the dead of winter and feel great.
@Jack – Just wanted to say that I thought of you this morning when I saw on the news that prostate cancer is the second most common diagnosed cancer among men (CNBC was reporting on the news that Warren Buffet has been diagnosed with stage 1 prostate cancer). I remember that you said this on one of your early podcast interviews (I think it was with Jimmy Moore).
@Jack @Dali Dula – Ok, so I’m really ‘geeking out’ on this idea of using the ocean for CT. I found out that NOAA reports the water and the air temperature daily and I was able to get it going back to May of last year. As a quick summary, over the last year the water temp hit a low of about 37F in late January and a high of about 69F last August. So given the time of year, I think I’m starting at about the perfect time and should have enough CT’ing under my belt in order to endure the sub-40 temps of the winter.
I might be able to get out there tomorrow after work and according to today’s reading of 50F, which is just about the temp of my tap at home, I should be able to do alright. I probably won’t try to swim much at all and won’t stay in for more than 5 minutes at a time so that I can check my skin color, but I’m hopeful for a good experience. Especially considering that the temp is expected to be 70F!
@Mark easier said than done. Be very careful out there. I have been swimming in the Mediterranean for 6 weeks now. The cold water is not the issue.
Unless the water is safe do not venture in it. Rip tide and currents are a real concern. Have someone with you and stay close to shore. Wear an orange cap. Consider fins. 🙂
@Jack – When testing salivary cortisol, should we back off CT for a while beforehand? If so, how much? And do you have preferred times of day you like to do the samples? I’m doing 4 samples.
@TheKid no…..salivary cortisol levels give us a six month leeway into where you have lived. Blood testing is the one you need to worry more about with CT. I do not like people to test a lot during CTing.
@CoolingWeb – Thanks for the feedback. The area where I’m going is a bay, so I’m hoping that the undertow won’t be bad. I’ll keep an eye out though.
@Mark @Dali Dula @Cooling Web — could you guys cool it?
(Pun intended) You’re making this landlocked girl jealous. I can practically smell the salt spray, feel the sand between my toes, hear the seagulls…
@nonchalant The beach is also a great place to “ground” where the water meets the sandy beach.
@Nonchalant – It’s really a shame. I’ve lived near the coast all my life and can’t remember the last time that I went for a swim.
@Nonchalant Sorry. I know how you feel. I was landlocked for 7 years. I am sailor and I had nothing but sand to look across for 7 years. Now, I have been living by the sea for 4 years. Trying to get back into normal and then plow my way to optimal. God’s willing. 🙂
CT MORE. 😛
Cooling
@Mark, where on Long Island are you? I’m going to try swimming in Huntington Bay this weekend.
@Dr. K. Just got some labs done but had already started CT, so don’t know if that was not a good idea. Can you tell me if they are looking ok?
c-reactive protein is <0.3 (ref range <0.5mg/dL
Bilirubin, total, was flagged as high, at 1.5 (0.3-1.2 mg/dl)
Bilirubin, direct, also high at 0.3 (0.0-0.2 mg/dl)
25-hydroxy vit D, flagged as low, 28.8 (30-100)
DHEA, serum, 3.91 (1.30-9.80)
Lots of highs on Cholesterol profile (I imagine from my paleo meat diet)
Total LDL-C Direct 155 (<130)
Total Cholesterol 244 (<200 mg/dL)
Total non-hdl 169 (<160)
Lp(a) 17.0 (<10.0)
Real LDL Cholesterol 133 <100
Total LDL-C 155 <130
Triglycerides 52 <150
I was worried about thyroid but nothing was flagged.
Anti-thyroglobulin AB, <20 (0-40 IU/ml)
Thyroperoxidase AB (TPO) <10 (0.35)
Free T4, 1.45 (o.82-1.60)
TSH, ultrasensitive 2.530 (0.270-4.200)
t-3 Total, 0.81 (o.80-2.00 ng/mL)
And non-fasting glucose was 87 (65-125)
Thanks for any advice.
Does ‘grounding’ have something to do with Factor X?
@Mark no it does not.
Cool. I think I know what it is. I’ll PM you later tonight.
I’m in Smithtown (Saint James), Long Island. us Long Islanders should do a swim meet up !
@PaleoDentist…..if you all do it I want a pic……With a nice long island wine when you all emerge.
great idea!
all interested go to Cold Thermogenisesi: LI swim meet up thread
Sounds great PaleoDentist!
I love this blog post, my thought was that when you reach out to your highest destiny you help all of us reach our highest destiny. We all have several possible destiny paths. A suicide would be a low destiny path. I believe the highest possible destiny path sets no limits. No limits on anything. No limits on ourselves. No limits on the world. No limits on God.
I am wondering though about the part of the creative transformational process that we call the hurly burley stage. You have to be willing to get stuff wrong… no limits on that either. Joseph Campbell says on the heros path, the hero starts fails and then tries again.
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.yahoo.com%2Fbeyond-drowsy-too-little-sleep-ups-diabetes-risk-195240749.html&h=XAQHNxZ_nAQG_7eKTNnUNaxp6Zga5YdMisqkWPgdZNTSchg Here is a link in the mainstream news about the importance of sleep… even mentions cool and dark. Funny thing though… they “suggest” you might want to think about more sleep in the cool and dark. I guess they don’t get how not sleeping can be killing you!
@Krusing Great post…..and so true. If you don’t sleep you can’t be optimal.
Another self experimenter
Doctor Infects Himself For Experiment
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/244238.php
I was pretty disappointed with your response to Keith Norris.
I guess I identify with you too much because my late father was also a surgeon who made enemies easily.
But Norris’ post was more than reasonable and your response was paranoid and self-destructive. It was a litte bit of my childhood, brought back to life.
I think you have a lot to offer. Try to remember that not everyone is trying to destroy you.
@Al appreciate your take…….but you do not know all the facts. Lets just say I know a few things you don’t. There was nothing genuine about that post. I like I said to resurg above. I run my own race. I am not in this to be liked……I’m in it to be right and to help people who have been wronged for too long.
..Moderation is living halfheartedly. In moderation one cannot live with totality. In moderation one cannot even be sincere.
Confucius has been heard teaching: The golden mean. Confucius is more a social and political thinker: Never go to the extreme, he says, always remain in the middle. But remaining in the middle, one will never be able to live anything in its totality.
The insight of existential masters is the opposite of Confucious – They say: Even if you live your life of sin in totality, the sin will disappear. It is your moderation that causes it to go on lingering your whole life. It is your hypocrisy that does not allow it to be experienced, because the experience itself will be such you will not repeat it. But because you are halfhearted, the incomplete experience goes on urging you to complete it. Every incomplete experience has the tendency for completion.
It is not your sin, but your moderation that cries to heaven, your very meanness in sinning cries to heaven!
Zen Buddhists have compared orgasm to heaven. One cannot have an orgasm in moderation, it is an extreme physical phenomenon. But one have to learn orgasm from the physical; You have to ‘let go’ of your moderation to experience an orgasm, only then it will lead you to the spiritual.
It is those who are living in moderation, who want to jump straight to the spiritual, but know nothing about the physical, they have not yet learned even how to live in the body in the world, and they want to live in heaven.
But they will not be able to live in heaven either, it will be impossible. Just think for a moment, if a ‘moderate’ were by accident welcomed into heaven, what would he do there? – He would be as miserable as he was here – maybe more miserable, because there life would be extreme. There would more intensity in everything, nothing in moderation.
In heaven there are no limits; heaven knows no moderation – it is excess, it is ecstasy.
The ancient Zarathustra writes..
Man is a rope, fastened between animal and superman – a rope over an abyss.
A dangerous going-across, a dangerous wayfaring, a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and staying-still.
What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal; what can be loved in man is that he is a going-across and a down-going.
I love those who do not know how to live except their lives be a down-going, for they are those who are going across.
I love the great despisers, for they are the great venerators and arrows of longing for the other bank.
I love those who do not first seek beyond the stars for reasons to go down and be sacrifices: but who sacrifice themselves to the earth, that the earth may one day belong to them.
I love him who lives for knowledge and who wants knowledge that one day mankind may live. Even if it wills his own downfall….
I love him who loves his virtue: for virtue is will to downfall and an arrow of longing….
I love him who throws golden words in advance of his deeds and always performs more than he promised.
I love him who justifies the men of the future and redeems the men of the past: for he wants to perish by the men of the present.
I love him whose soul is deep even in its ability to be wounded, and whom even a little thing can destroy: thus he is glad to go over the bridge….
Thank you Jack..!
@Resurg I love and look forward to your comments. You are very insightful and that inspires me to dig deeper in myself to make the world better tomorrow the it was today. I run my own race and I do not conform to the norms. Norms breed mediocrity. I seek self mastery. I’d rather die aiming for Mastery than live clinging to mediocrity.
@Jack – Since your last couple of blogs were more philosophical in nature, I wanted to look at your proposition from the opposite angle.
Could one not argue that evolution often does favor less than the extreme? After all, Megladon no longer exists, but surely more “average” sharks made it through to today. The same would apply to the massive prehistoric reptiles; yet the more “average” ones made it through. This is of course looking at things from a size perspective.
But we could even look at it from a specialization perspective.
Koala bears are wonderful creatures. But you don’t want to be a Koala bear in a world without eucalyptus trees.
Polar bears are these wonderfully adapted apex predators, but they have problems overheating, and you don’t want to be a polar bear in a world without ice and cold climates.
What if we are now at another evolutionary bottleneck where those of us who have special needs in terms of diet and environment are getting squeezed out. After all, statistics point to an epidemic of metabolic derangement that may take many people out of the game before they have the chance to procreate. It’s not a pleasant thought, but I would imagine that if society keeps getting pressured by the SAD diet and stress and environmental toxins and all the other things that make us sick, you will start to be able to identify certain subsets of the population that can not only exist, but thrive on McDonalds, twinkles, car exhaust and cadmium.
What if modern life is the new extinction level event?
@The Kid I am not disagreeing with this line of thought at all…….because if you read into my Paleo Summit talk and really read the early cT parts of the series……I believe that modern life is quickly extinguishing us. Look at CT 3 and re read my best example of this……who did I use? Steve Jobs. He personifies the tech side of the paleo movement. A diet alone can’t out do bad decisions made in circadian biology. This community is completely not aware of that error in judgement. Some are beginning to get the implications of what I am saying. Others just mock it. Others are already sick because of it. It appears since we have spoken you are a lot more ambently aware of where I am headed. This is a good sign.
Per Steve Jobs, I definitely agree that circadian biologic mismatch had a major impact on his health (especially when he was CEO at both Apple and Pixar). But when you say ‘personifies the tech side of the paleo movement,’ are you implying he is an example of proper diet not being enough to beat poor circadian biology? While listening to the recent biography about him, it sounds like Steve Jobs lived his whole life eating very sub-optimally (i.e. mostly vegan, juice diets, weird fasting routines, etc.). After learning more about the combination of his diet and lifestyle, I’m not surprised the pancreas was where his cancer manifested.
@Adam many in the paleosphere think that eating well protects them for “other sources of mismatches……not true. CT 11 is a real life case from Paleo fx that illustrates someone who took my advice there and you will see what they found and did to change things.
From the CT forum:
I practice Ki Aikido, a non-martial art – developed in the 20th century in Japan from the more brutal Aikikai – that uses mastery and connection through ki (chi, qi, energy, the Force, whatever you want to call it) instead of physical strength to meet and overcome, or redirect, your opponent (or any energy attacking or obstructing you).
My father (also my sensei) has been listening to me yammer on about cold thermogenesis for the past month, and something finally clicked. He pulled out an old book to show me traditional Aikido cold water training, which the Ki society in Japan does every January, where everybody, including kids, goes out into freezing temperatures and has a dip in the ocean. Apparently, if you are supervised by ki-trained people, it ain’t so bad. Sounds kind of familiar.
Tonight he said he found something else that said Tohei Sensei, the first teacher of our particular lineage, was a sickly boy until he began taking cold baths. He regained his health and then exceeded it, and, apparently, stumbled upon the Ancient Pathway. The dude was righteous in his day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J04JI…eature=related <– this is, I realize, a little ridiculous what with the music and the narration, and it looks like it's choreographed, but I swear it isn't! If you've ever been on the mat with someone even half that good – you don't know what's going on. You run at the person, know for sure you're gonna get them, and suddenly you're in the air, looking at their calm face as they watch you fly upside down. Tohei is the main demonstrator in the video.
Where am I going with this? I'm finding a connection between cold, the ancient pathway, and Aikido, which, I think, attempts to tap into this pathway as well.
The fact that it's common Japanese practice to get really cold is blowing my mind right now, also…
Introducing: Shenshin no gyo!! (If "Zakalyatsa" (???) was too hard to yell in the bath, maybe you'll find Japanese a little easier than Russian…)
Stole this from the blog of a Tohei student:
"Senshin no gyo is the practice of pouring water over oneself at Kagami-biraki (January) during very cold weather. People pour water over themselves in weather that is below the freezing point. Therefore, by most definitions, this should be a very difficult practice.
However, if you do this with oneness of mind and body, you will find it easier than you think. Everyone who practices this says, “Before doing Senshin no Gyo, I thought it would be very difficult. But after I set my mind and did it, I could do it easily.”
Therefore the first step of Senshin no gyo is to experience this state of mind. Once you understand this, you use this same state of mind when you face your problems in your daily life.
It does not make someone a great person just because one has poured cold water over oneself during the winter. There is no benefit in thinking this way. After Senshin no gyo, you may say, “Senshin no gyo is finished!”. However, the correct way is to say, “Senshin no gyo is beginning!”. It is important to practice this new state of mind in your daily life.
You might not yet be able to experience Senshin no gyo in your daily life. However when you are able to, this will be a wonderful experience. Therefore, I hope you will experience this sometime soon."
…..well I think that's just dandy. The cold is in my samurai/sad loinclothed millet peasant blood!!
@Mei just awesome stuff……
Thanks you Jack for your kind comments..!
Good science is always out of meditation, not from the mind. And whenever something comes from the mind, it is not science but only technology. Technology is a poor thing; it is not the insight, but the implementation of the insight. Technology is from the mind, because mind itself is a technological device, a biological technology.
All machines come from the mind, because mind itself is a machine. But no insight ever comes from the mind, because no computer can ever give an insight. Insights come from something deeper. Mind is just the surface of your being; insights come from the center of your being.
Science comes from no-mind. The source of science depends on breakthroughs, insights, intuitive flashes.
Have you observed these words: insight, intuition, instinct, intelligence? They all carry the word ‘in’. It is there, built-in, but much has gathered around it.
A wild rosebush has fragrant roses surrounded by thorns. Similarly we all have insights, but they are repressed under layers upon layers of repression. We have repressed our fear, we have repressed our anger, we have even repressed our love, we have repressed sex. We have repressed so many things! The insight is there, but these layers of repression have to be thrown out to get to the rose.
I call CT – ‘Cathartic Therapy’ 🙂 Your critics should try it. It may not produce any insights but it will definitely clear the way, remove some layers of repression, and they will finally see what is available within them.
@Resurg you are always a breath of fresh air here.
Jack: Is there a definitive test for leaky gut? If yes, could you give the name of the test and recommend a company that provides the test. Thanks Ron
@Ron it is listed in the leaky gut Rx blog and in the comments there.
Regenerative medicine repairs mice from top to toe
http://www.nature.com
Three separate studies in mice show normal function can be restored to hair, eye and heart cells.
I wonder if they were wussy old warm adapted rats?
@ Mei
The Aikido link does not work.
@Jack To clarify, I definitely agree that people in the paleo movement are misguided when they think they can eat well and avoid problems stemming from mismatches. I was only commenting on the ‘Steve Jobs personifying paleo.’ I think he was a far cry from paleo, and is a prime example of biological mismatch and sub-optimal eating (mostly vegan with some even more extreme practices sprinkled in throughout his life).
At least the misguided ones in paleo have the diet down — putting them one step closer to optimal than Jobs was or anyone else eating SAD, vegan, etc.
@Adam Steve personified the mismatch of diet and bad use of technology at the wrong hours of the day.
Hi Dr. Kruse,
i’ve been taking 7 minute baths in 44 degree tap water for a week now, with my hands and feet and head mostly out of water. a few days ago i started dunking my head at the end and holding my mouth under water because i have an issue with a root canaled tooth that i’m trying to save. this morning i tried to hold my head under as long as possible even though i was getting head freeze and did it several times after the 7 minutes of full body soaking. afterwards i got really light headed for and freezing for about 2 hours. i then saw a youtube video on preparation for cold water swims and this guy was saying that the vagus nerve when exposed to cold water will lower heart rate very quickly and can cause this. the remedy, he says, is to splash your face a bit first. i thought it was a fairly extreme reaction, considering the 7 minutes with head out and hat on has gotten significantly easier in this week of experimentation. just wondering if you have any comments on the head dunking thing, and if the CT will work fine without the head getting cold adapted. thanks in advance.
@Janet My protocol calls for face dunking as written on 2/11/2012. The vagus nerve is not the one that needs training first off the bat with face dunks. It is the trigemininal nerve and once you do this you do not have to worry about the cardiovascular affects of the cold on the heart generally. This is why the protocol is written the way it is.
Werner, try this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J04JI48GzPM&feature=related
Went for a swim in the Lake Ontario today! It was a balmy 50°F. I felt so good and the only thing that I would have loved if it was salt water. (Just b/c salt water is better for your skin). The density of the fresh water was good though for some actual swimming.
Dr. Jack,
I’m have a tonsillectomy in a couple weeks to deal with a several year long ordeal of having enlarged tonsils despite strict Paleo / GAPS diet restrictions and following much of your protocol.
I’ve been doing ice baths for several months after reading your blog, but have slowed down to a couple times a week and need to get back to daily.
Should I do CT after the surgery as well? I want to at least try holding ice water in my mouth and see if I can get away on less meds.
@Ben Ice to angles of the mandible and sides of neck just adjacent to the carotid artery for that surgery. It will help pre op and post op! Good Luck
Well yesterday evening I had my first CT bath in 48 degree tap water. I figured it was cold enough for the first time. I only managed it from the waist down but it did stay in for 10 minutes which I thought was a pretty good start. I felt great afterwards but my ankles were numb for awhile. However as the night wore on and today my knee has become quite sore, feeling bruised. Is that normal? I did get the same sort of soreness after the ice packs.
Eileen very normal My knee has hurt me since I began re CTing since my bio hack
@Jack – would you say this has to do with the body healing itself following CT sessions? I’d assume that this is the knee that you had a meniscus tear in?
@Mark it is……its been a bitch since Feb. I think because of how i gained the weight and ate so badly I must have accumulated toxins. I am actually running a BPA nd heavy metal panel now to see if I ate something with toxins in it……its possible with grains and oxidized PUFA’s I bought oil place in a window on purpose……to make sure I could add the pounds.
@Jack – it’s funny, this is exactly what Ivy and I were talking about on FB. How the toxin dump definitely makes you pay for your past transgressions (soreness, headaches, need for more sleep*, congestion…) but at the same time you keep on going back for more CT. It’s an odd addiction.
*I followed up my swim in the ocean yesterday (35 minutes at 60F, felt like bath water) with my AC on full blast on the ride home (~45 minutes) while wearing my wet compression gear (got some good shivering off that) and then slept so heavy that I had vivid dreams and slept through my alarms (yes, that’s plural). Thankfully my wife got me up so that I wasn’t late to work!
@Mark when I am CTing I feel so much better……infact I am in the water as I type this…..going on an hour now……no knee pain……we’ll see how it later. The pain has gotten better the last 6 weeks. But it is not where it was on October 31 before I began to food stuff for the bio hack
@Jack – I’m jealous! The best I can do at the moment is to have my desk fans going full blast lol. But I agree with you, yesterday while I was in the ocean, it was so peaceful that I didn’t want to get out. I look forward to going again and hope that this weekends rain will bring the water temp down some!
What’s the temp of your pool at? I’d imagine with the recent weather that you’re north of 50F now?
Jack, is it normal for core temp to drop and remain low for upto a few hours following CT, cold and super cold 5 – 10 minute shower???
@Pete no its not….and highly unlikely your core dropped……it means your ability to measure it was likely not good.
Apr 20 2012
National DNA Day
https://www.23andme.com/
http://www.genome.gov/10506367
@Jan where you been?
Thanks Jack. My next goal is full submersion and then to build up my time. Baby steps, I know, but I’m getting there. It’s good to know the knee will sort itself out.
Dr Kruse,
Have you seen this product:
http://daniale.com/icecycle/
I am a cyclist am wondering if training while wearing this product would help along with my daily CT. Thoughts?
@Mike I like it but the best place to put it would be over your clavical or neck as you cycle.
You are a trailblazer!! Thanks for your spirit, passion and bravery!
I am working on CT, slowly.
Scratching my head while studying and implementing what dr Patricia Kane is saying in her “The Detoxx Book”
Hopefully in couple days I will get this 150gal tank.
http://www.zorotools.com/g/00058140/k-G3125175/
$182.47, no shipping costs.
@JanSz – I was looking at this one (http://www.plastic-mart.com/item.aspx?id=102) not sure what shipping is but I think it’d be a little better because it’s narrower and longer (at least for me, the Rubbermaid might be fine depending on your height. I think the one in your link is what Richard Nikoley uses. It looks very similar to the one in his post.
Hi Dr Kruse,
I made a recipe for you. It is a very small thank you for sharing your discoveries. I hope you enjoy it:
http://www.eatkamloops.org/dr-kruses-creamy-coconut-candy/
@ Caroline thanks…….
Dr. Kruse,
I am a junior majoring in Computer Science at Columbia University. I am a regular reader of your blog. I am currently looking for work this summer, and the idea came to me that I could offer my services to you in managing your blog. I honestly couldn’t think of a better way to spend my time. I could help you to completely redo the layout of your site (which perhaps you would want given the huge increases in web-traffic that I have heard you mention), or could simply work on the day-to-day upkeep.
I am also a Literature major with good editing skills, so could simultaneously offer that skill set.
If you are interested, please email me, and I can tell you more about my background.
Most importantly, thank you for all the work you’ve done and your willingness to share it with the public.
All the best,
Alex
@Alex F. go on the forum and post this in the marketing monkey thread…..they will contact you I bet.
If you are working slowly toward cold adapting…I had to slow down twice because I got cold urticaria. Lately I have only had time for a few cold baths per week, 30-35 minutes, but plan on moving to swimming in the bay. If I only do 2 baths per week, am I going to lose the progress I made? What if I had to skip an entire week? Just wondering about this. Thanks so much for your wonderful blogs and the forum, too. Very helpful to have support while doing this.
@Claudia you will likely be OK
I was diirected to your blog by J Stanton and I have to say this was a fantastic post. Moderation is a cop out IMO. Just another concept held in the mind to rationalize skipping a workout or cheating on our diets. Besides, we never learn anything if we dont push the proverbial envelope. We must always be pushing our limits and breaking down our boundaries and comfort zones.
No, Mother Nature doesn’t accept moderation bc Mother Nature doesn’t have a mind and will. It just is. Teleology is just as easy a trap to fall into as mediocrity. And we humans love to superimpose our consciousness onto well, everything whether it applies or not. Kinda sad really that we are so lonely a species that we can’t find comfort in our place in the world so we spend all this time trying to prove that the “lower” animals and/or the universe somehow have an intelligence comparable to our own. Evolution doesn’t accept anything as far as I can tell; dont think it would be evolution if it did. Change is the only real constant.
Thanks for putting this out there.
@Daniel JS has a wonder blog because his ideas are fresh and thought provoking. Thanks for coming and glad you found this interesting.
Hi, I was reading the theory to practice thread where some were saying that keith’s post was so open minded and objective. yet he was giving examples in his post of rip-off fads with hucksters pushing them. why do that unless he was implying that CT had the possibility of being a rip-off fad? never mind that you don’t need to spend tons of money to CT unless you are buying lots of ice every day. and even then, it’s not like putting money into dr. k’s pocket.
also i was interested in doug mcguff piping up in direct opposition to your philosophy to test. mcguff says to not test unless you have symptoms of a disease. i don’t understand this point because a person might not know what good health feels like anymore if they have been slowly sliding into bad health. most people don’t know what it feels like to be vitamin d sufficient, so based on what mcguff said they would never think to test for it. also, there are lots of diffuse symptoms that people just chalk up to aging and never talk to their doctor about. i do understand that some blood work might be misleading in that lots of peop[e have heart attacks with nothing looking suspicious on their bloodwork. i wonder if mcguff would think it sensible to use one’s own bloodwork from years ago
(when a person was younger and more energetic) as an individual baseline reference point to compare all future blood work. that way you compare your older self with your supposdly younger healthier self (if in fact you were healthier and more energetic at that time).
@V everyone has opinions…….but I want my readers to think. The best way to think it to have a foundational rational….This is why I am constantly telling my members and forum readers to question everyone and everything because when you do it, it forces you think. A perfect example of this occured recently in the fatburningman podcast with Robb Wolf regarding AF and cold. Robb made adogmatic statement about CT and AF. It was dead wrong. How can I say this and mean no disrespect to Robb? Because what Robb has observed is true in a warm adapted humans. But guess what when you observe those humans who use cold…….correctly your observation changes 180 degrees to what Robb has seen. See I test those people and I Rx cold for those people and see them improve remarkably. I have a few patient video’s coming up later this year on these people. Never assume and never make statements like Always or Never. These terms are terms of dogmatic thinking. I will take it further, when I hear these words I have trained myself to immediately assume the person who said them is dead wrong and it forces me to question them and think why they are. Why do I do this? REASON, OBSERVE, EXPERIMENT are the Holy Trinity of all Science. The three cornerstones of science, and even the best of us can make an error when we remain unaware of just what we dont know or even contemplate what might exist outside our own understanding. We have not even scratched the surface on just how much we do not know about cold biochemistry. I can tell you I am fully aware of how much I we dont know because when I test my own dogma about what is and what is not possible………the boundaries continue to expand……..it is amazing.
doug mcguff is an ER doctor, but i don’t believe he has been able to see the benefits of testing and different protocols as you have because he doesn’t see an individual patient for a long period of time. I would assume ER work is just a short term fix of helping the patient either go home or go to the ICU. He isn’t pre and post testing to see the efficacy of different interventions. am i correct in my assumptions?
PS what is AF? Ancenstral Fitness?
@ V Adrenal Fatigue =AF
Dr. Kruse. I think Robb & Dr. McGuff may re-think some of their dogma when CT11 comes out and the discussion turns to how fast and dramatically things can be changed with CT – all in an individual who didn’t show any visible signs of ‘distress’ or symptoms of AF, etc. Should be interesting relative to the thoughts on testing/no testing, etc.
@Kevin I was hoping you were gonna jump in here…….I think CT 11 may open some eyes.
Dr. K, do you think it’s possible that chronic, low-level depression might be caused by chronic, low-level inflammation? Just a hunch.
@jerry I dont think…..i know that is the case.
Hi Dr. Jack & Mike,
Regarding posts 154 & 157, thanks for the interest and nice words on the IceCycle.
As an FYI, the reason the IceCycle is designed as such is so that we can provide sufficient cooling without limiting mobility or interfering with a cyclist’s helmet. We also want to make sure the product can be worn under a jersey unlike most other products that are too bulky to do so.
Thanks for spreading the word on cooling!
Regards,
Fernando Migliassi
Founder of Daniale & the IceCycle
Weila, great point about people not knowing what it’s like to feel good. I don’t remember feeling this good ever in my 51 yr life. And it really does get better everyday. It has gotten better every day for the last 10 mo. tomorrow I will wake up and be even better. This is living.
@Weila and Bob I have this little epiphany every morning. After I get up and go downstairs, I kind of shake myself and say, I actually feel good. It’s still a little surprising to me after years of feeling like cr*p. Thanks for reminding me; it’s good not to be taking this stuff for granted.
Dr Kruse;
Without direct supplementation with pregnenolone or progesterone
how to restore good pregnenolone levels in someone who have good lipid panel (either sex)?
In some of your past posts there was enough hints to make me think about this, (then I got distracted with another interesting material and lost track).
@janSz for my older folks I like sublingual dosing or cream dosing but it is based upon testing. You can try either and see which works better for you. It varies. Me personally I use SL dosing.
Great webinar today!
@Randall I am glad you enjoyed it…..
Dr Kruse,
I do use pregnenolone supplementation and it works as expected, blood tests and the rest.
What I think may be possible is a restart of natural pregnenolone production.
Any clues?
@jansz I will tell you what I have found…..with age we lose pregnenolone and DHEA fast…….but since I have done Deep CT…….that has slowed tremendously in my own N-1 labs. I wish you would have heard the webinar today. I talked in depth about what I do in Deep CT. In my view the critical issue si destruction of inflammation at cytochrome one and adipocyte apoptosis…….it is a must and CT is the only way I know to reproduce it.
Dr Kruse,
Just noticed the following (around 12 weeks LR, 8 weeks CT)…on nights when I eat dinner around 5-6pm, I go to bed around 10-11pm and in the morning I wake up sweaty on my neck, behind ears. (I sleep with the a/c set at 70f blasting on my face). A few times I ate late do to difficult circumstances around 8-830pm, and I didn’t wake up sweaty in the morning. Am I correct in assuming UCP1 & UCP3 is turning on and muscles are no longer LR, and also, the eating too late is causing the insulin to block Leptin from entering the hypothalamus? Just want to verify seeing the theory put into practice. Thanks a bunch.
@BenG yes you are. You need to sleep on top of the covers nude and watch what happens next…….
Dr Kruse, I eat lots of shrimp, scallops, cod, wild game, greens, nuts and a couple of sweet potatoes every other day, but how do I get my my fat levels up ?? Is it ok to add oils like flax, hemp, olive and pumpkin seed to my greens???
Pete from Canada
@ Pete I add animal fats to my broths. sauces, and veggies. its pretty easy to do.
Hi Dr Kruse,
I have to ask you about telomeres. You have stated that you have lengthened you telomeres.
Current wisdom would said that this is impossible. My imperfect understanding is that telomeres shortening is like losing part of your computer’s programming to corruption and the data could never come back.
Telomerease is supposed to stop the “natural” shortening of telomerease with each cell division but as far as I know it doesn’t work clinical.
How in heaven did you increase you telomeres? Do our cells have some sort of “memory” of what has been lost and can repair with the right environment?
Please educate me on this point. I have been in shock about this point since I first read it.
@Caroline…..current wisdom does not say that at all. You do. It is believed by most in anti-aging physicians you can make your telomeres longer…….what is argued now is that the test has limitations……and I agree whole heartedly with that. In fact, Dr. blackburn has said it herself and she is trying to come up with an organ specific test to monitor our organ chemical clocks. there is a +/- of 5-7 yrs witht he curretn iteration fo the test…….so it is directionally accurate. How I use the test fits those limitations. Once you understand the test only shows you if what you are doing is help or hurting then you move your beliefs and actions to oppose the current diet, training, or lifestyle plan you currently employ. it is nothing more than a DOGMA checker……..and it scares the hell out of the paleo community. CT 11 is going to be on a plaeo leader who took me up on the challenge and we will see what he found and what he did based upon those findings. Then you decide.
I’m very encouraged about the results of CT on my DM2, especially since I just experienced this little n=1 proof, which I posted about on the forum:
Just had some more proof of CT working for blood sugar. I’ve had a water abatement company working in my house for a week due to a long standing leak from some old pipes that I discovered last week. On Friday they asked me to turn on the heat in the house for the weekend because things were just not drying out fast enough (been keeping things pretty cold here!). Anyway on waking this morning my FBG was 97, even though I CT’d before bed last night, and an hour later, when I started to eat breakfast, it was 118. In the past few weeks, even if I got an FBG in the 90’s it would go down into the 80’s by itself, whether I ate or not. This is just like the bad old days.
I’m going to be spending a lot of time in that tub today, but in a way it’s very motivating to get this proof and it makes quite happy to keep on going for as long as it takes to lick my neolithic ailments.
@Pete a strategy I use to ingest more fat is to reheat or cook foods in lots of fat (bacon,co,butter) and then i will pour the fat on top of lacto fermented veggies which makes them super delicious. I also started using a lot of mushrooms because they absorb a lot of fat and also taste great drenched in fat. Oh and I just started with butter in the coffee. Really good. When your body becomes keto it is a bit of a challenge to consume enough fat. It’s really kind of funny, but I find myself laughing at a lot these days.
@Dali I do the same…..mushrooms are a Kruse staple and ironically according to Cordain are the only modern food still in its paleolithic form untouched by modern man.
Hey Jack, any progress on getting me access to the webcast? thanks in advance.
@Janet I poste dto you that they MM were sending email out to all the people who bought tickets. Did you not get yours? If not head to the suggestion thread and let them know. They all went out yesterday PM
hi Jack, just read #145 about pain after doing CT. You stated that yours still hurts, and I know you had meniscus surgery. I too, have had meniscus surgery almost 9 weeks ago and thought that CT’ing would help eliminate some of the pain. Every day I am still in pain. When I ask my Ortho about it, they give me another injection of some sort of concoction and new anti inflammation meds. I can only imagine what sort of toxins are running rampant thru my body. I thought this surgery was going to turn my life around and instead it has created severe pain on a daily basis with needs for useless meds. Going for a second opinion this week, but do you recommend CT for my knee or have any other recommendations?
@Dannielle That is not what I said. I knee surgery in 2008. I had no pain……but after this latest bio hack my pain returned to my knee. This was die to toxin dump from the new weight I added…..and not the original knee pain. this tell syou that future LR issues will cause you pain in areas where you had previous surgery. It has nothing to do with new pain. It has to do with toxins from new fat.
sorry about that… i misunderstood
Hi Dr Kruse,
I do appreciate that the telomere test you are recommending is “directional” and will help the individual find out if they are “directionally accurate” with lifestyle changes.
My confusion is that my understanding is that telomeres shortening is like losing part of your computer’s programming to corruption and the data could never come back. Telomerease can stop the “natural” shortening due to cell division, but it doesn’t work clinically.
Maybe I need to restate my question. How can the telomere be lengthened if the genetic material(coding) is gone?
Nope, didn’t get it and i sent an email to support yesterday and this morning.
Question:
Been doing CT now for just under 2 weeks now. I have been applying ice and ice bags directly against the skin. I eat a lot of fish, fish oil, seafood and krill oil. Been doing the Leptin reset as well.
Any today I noticed the red spots and some bumps on my skin. Small like mole’s. Is this normal, what are they and will they go away. I may have been going at the CT a bit aggressively but it is just addictive and I want to just jump right in.
I am very lean around 5% bf and in good health and shape. Been doing Paleo though at times higher carbs (Keto now) in the past.
– Dan
Perhaps the red spots where already there and they just show up after I do CT therapy…?
Hi Dan, I think you should have some thin cloth between you and the ice. I’ve been CT’ing for over 2 months, and I always keep something between me and the ice, or I immerse in icewater. Hope this helps.
I seriously need a skin caliper of some sort. I would LOVE to know my bf %. Being female, it’s probably higher than what I think, despite a pretty lean look. (Thanks to CT and keto seafood paleo). I do have some ‘fat’ on derriere and lower back, but I mean it’s very small and so much reduced compared to before my changes. So what I mean is that it’s not ALL muscle. As stated many times before my breasts and behind are so much better now and a small size. So the fat on the upper behind and lower back is very small like maybe a ‘pinch a not quite inch’… I wonder what a good bf % is for females who have never had kids before, and under the age of 30? 10%?
@Gladina women should be 20-24% Lean women go to 16%……below that they run the risk of infertility. Not all will have infertility but it is more commonly seen. Women need more BF for childbearing.
Hi Jack,
Might have an example of a ‘cold-adapted’ mammal vexing a researcher used to ‘warm-adapted’ textbooks.
Recently purchased a VO2 tester for my business, and my buddy that runs a university sports lab came into town to share his protocols with me.
Unsurprisingly (to me at least), my RER was significantly lower than my friends throughout the test. My buddy that’s a researcher was ‘stumped’ by my results.
The results displayed the type of fuel being burned during each zone: Aerobic Base, Anaerobic Threshold, and Peak VO2. My two friends that tested with me had more ‘normal’ results: (as % Fat) 79, 49, 17, 12 and 83, 68, 53, 35.
Mine: 100, 100, 86, 77 and 100, 100, 100, 58.
Now, do you have experience with VO2 numbers? Are my numbers to be expected, since I’ve embraced cold therapy and keto paleo pretty strictly the last two months?
What about the actual VO2 number? Mine was just about average (40), but below what I’ve measured in the past. Is this expected? A lower baseline when switching metabolic pathways? Is progress something that may take awhile (the whole 24-36 months), but will increase exponentially when full optimized?
Can you elaborate more on your experience with VO2 number during the adaptation process.
Questions aside, it was amusing to completely stump my Phd friend.
Hey Doctor,
I was re-reading your old leptin reset articles and you state that if one cheats (i.e. a meal) the reset is set back clinically by often up to 1-2 weeks. You only mentioned that it happens but why do you think the effect is so lingering?
I was researching about how the ratio of firmicutes/bacteroidetes (gut flora) is altered in obese (LR) individuals compared to lean. Do you think it has something to do with the wrong food creating an altered gut flora that creates inflammation that lasts/sets back your leptin protocol? I just feel that cheating causes alot more damage than meets the eye and there must be something to it.
@DanH We know that the change in diet cause a change in the beacteria flora which favors LR development…..but the real issue is how the incretin system signals are delivered to the brain. The diet is how we modify that signal. That is why my Leptin Rx reset is pretty effective in limiting cravings. I think when you read the comments you will see that. The gut flora co evolved with us…….and it is vitally important in humans…….mor eimportant in us than our nearest ancestors……because encephalazation is not possible without the alterations in our gut that made it more “leaky”, shorter, and made the immune system and flora co evolve so that we became predominately protein and fat eaters over predominant herbivores/fruititarians as the majority of primates were.
ps. researchers mention your gut flora is easily dictated by your current diet (often the previous several meals) and that gut bacteria can multiply under the right (or wrong) conditions rather rapidly. Do you think altered gut flora and its effect on gut inflammation is what causes the subsequent systemic inflammatory resistances?
Ok, thanks. I am probably ~15-20% bf, so looks like I’m OK. (Would obviously better if I could measure). Thanks again!
@gladina http://www.calculator.net/army-body-fat-calculator.html if you have a tape measure this will give you a good estimate of bf.
@James and Gladina Cheapest way is a body pod or a BIA assessment but the most accurate way is a body comp DEXA.
Thanks, James!
@Jack – I don’t know if this is a good sign or not but my face is burning up today (ears and cheeks are red). Maybe it has something to do with last night (took a cold shower, did some pull-ups after the shower, and then slept on top of the covers without a shirt (feet were cold but it was cool to feel my body get goosebumps and warm-up, plus I was able to get up on time for a change)). All I want to do is jump in a cold bath!
@Mark all good signs.
In addition, still waiting for my hands and feet to warm-up in the cold. My goal is to have warm hands and feet this winter. I usually have ‘ice hands’ and ‘ice feet’ in the winter.
@Mark they may not…..if your hormones or 06/3 are off.
@Jack – Can you define ‘deep CT’? I’m going to sign-up to listen to the webinar soon, but I’m just not sure what differentiates ‘deep CT’ from regular CT (where the water is 50-55F). Thanks
@Mark Listen to the Webinar. It is 2 hours of nothing but deep CT.
Dr. Kruse,
What are your thoughts on cryogenic chamber therapy?
@paul Adams you should have joined my webinar because we talked about this at length there
I thought brain freeze had something to do with O6/O3 ratios being too high?
Does O6 and O3 play a role in vasodilation and constriction?
@The Kid…..they are tied to 06/3 ratios and bad EFA’s in Cell Membranes and in poor eNOS function in blood vessels…….all tied together.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/04/23/cause-brain-freeze-revealed/
@ Mark, I too am still hoping for the day where my hands are actually warm. The rest of my body is always fine, but my hands are still cold.
@Caroline Cooper- I’ve been wanting to learn more about telomeres and it looks like Dr. Blackburn is the acknowledged expert. I am going to try to see what interviews she has given that a layman would understand. i don’t know if there are any books for the general public about telomeres, but i’m going to look around.
ok Jack, I’m holding you responsible for my 5-year-old son’s public stripping habits! every day for the last coupla months i’ve been swimming at my local surf beach where the antarctic waters wash up at a refreshing 10degC. lately my two boys, 3 and 5 have begged to jump in with me. the 3 year old jumps out after 5 or 10 mins. my 5yo, however, needs to be forcibly removed when his shivering gets out of hand (25mins and healthy deep pink skin). it is mid autumn here, and the 5yo is a slim and leptin sensitive kid who has been paleo for a couple of years. now that he is getting in on the cold swims, his old toddler habits of stripping naked have reared their heads again. i’m cool with him doing that around the house, but the trouble is that he has started school now and he’s stripping in the playground. fortunately, he is keeping his pants on at school. he is burning up and radiating heat all the time (still bouncing off the walls – not sick). the other day at the park all the parents were dressed in jackets (because one of the first frosts of the year was still evident), he ran up to two chatting mothers, told them he was hot, and began to strip. Jack, i’m fearful the same might happen to me. can i suggest you put a warning and disclaimer on your site?
@Tim Your Kids are going to be healthy……society might not like the nakedness but it is quite natural I assure you
oh, and one other thing – whenever i take him to the forest for a walk, i now lose him because he’s begun to outrun all the cardio junky adults. you really have a lot to answer for, Doc
Dr. K, is there any harm in switching from hot to cold in CT? I usually start with a hot shower, wash, shampoo, then I turn off the hot water and turn up the cold (about 55 deg.) and stand under it for maybe 3 minutes, then I go outside and soak in the cold tub (usually 55 to 58 deg.) for 10 to 15 minutes. Thanks.
To anyone out there on the fence about buying the webinar, it’s totally worth it. Lots of really useful info.
Yes I second it. It was great listening to it live as well.
an interesting review on the incretin system signals that Jack mentioned in post #211
http://www.glucagon.com/pdfs/er.2011-1052.Ussher.pdf
Any chance the webinar comes later on the site as a podcast? Subscribing to the karnivores club would definitely NOT be good for my health (if my girl finds out! ;-))
@Aldert No they wont. 98% of the things on my site are free. The deeper stuff and the things that may be ‘more aggressive’ will be for members.
I understand why our guts are shorter now but why did our guts become “leakier” as humans evolved to become meat eaters?
@Dan H because as they shortened they needed to have more interactions with the gut microbiota and the immune system to make sure we got all the nutrients we needed as the gut got shorter. Look at Parker Jr work from duke university Dept. of Surgery. Great stuff.
@Daniel Han Maybe since our diet was mostly ketogenic, there was less of a reason for using resources to fight the carb attacks on our system? Them plants sure can defend themselves.
HI Dr Kruse, I am writing for my friend. Her 17 year old boy fell out of a deer blind last fall. This is what she wrote:
had L2 burst fracture
incomplete spinal cord injury
left leg numbness
ED
urinary dribbling
supposedly these are all complications from burst fracture
TBI cognitively functioning 5-8 years old no short term memory
vision issues of light sensitivity headaches cannot play video games cannot use computer screens
What would be your suggestions. She is willing to travel if there are options for him. He does’t seem to be getting the help he needs where he is at. Thank you.
@Kami there is too much to say……and not enough info to go one without causing more confusion. This person needs to have access to good advice given that injury.
Hi Jack,
Per VO2 and RER testing, my buddy that runs a university sports lab came into town to share his protocols with me (just purchased an analyzer).
Unsurprisingly (to me at least), my RER was significantly lower than my friends throughout the test. My buddy that’s a researcher was ‘stumped’ by my results.
The results displayed the type of fuel being burned during each zone: Aerobic Base, Anaerobic Threshold, and Peak VO2. My two friends that tested with me had more ‘normal’ results: (as % Fat) 79, 49, 17, 12 and 83, 68, 53, 35.
Mine: 100, 100, 86, 77 and 100, 100, 100, 58.
Now, do you have experience with VO2 numbers? Are my numbers to be expected when someone’s cold/keto adapting?
What about the actual VO2 number? Mine was just about average (40), but below what I’ve measured in the past. Is this expected? A lower baseline when switching metabolic pathways? Is progress something that may take awhile (the whole 24-36 months), but will increase exponentially when full optimized?
Can you elaborate more on your experience with VO2 number during the adaptation process.
Thanks.
@Adam
VO2 Max assessment (cardiopulmonary findings lead to a work up if needed.) A VO2 max is now a very easy test to get from many gyms of from trainers. It does not require a physician to order but to get an optimal bio-hack of the data it might. People with cardiovascular disease should seriously consider getting this test done to know what their abilities will be given how much life are left in their lungs and heart. You can also use this bad boy to know how much HIIT you should start with. These are baselines one can use and not set in stone.
Classes: Worse to best directly from the test. Find your class and plug in your Primal exercise routine.
A. VO2 max < 20 ml/kg/min You should walk 15 min 5-7 days per only
B. VO2 max < 20-25 ml/kg/min You should perform 15 minutes of aerobic work 5-7 days a week with one anaerobic interval An anaerobic interval = 0-5 sec
C. VO2 max < 25-30 ml/kg/min You should perform 20 minutes of aerobic activity with 2 anaerobic Intervals 4-5 times a week. An Interval = 5-15 sec
D. VO2 max < 30-35 ml/kg/min You should perform 20 min of HIIT with 4 Intervals 4 times per week where each anaerobic Interval is 5-15 sec.
E. VO2 max < 35-40 ml/kg/min You should perform 20 minutes of HIIT 3 times a week with 4 Intervals where each Interval is 15-30 sec , where recovery is 3-5 sec. You can also add 30 minutes of steady state cardio (sprints) once a week
F. VO2 max 30 sec. Recovery can be 1-2 minutes.
G. VO2 max 45+ ml/kg/min You should perform 20 min of HIIT with 6 Intervals 3 days a week. The Interval is >45 sec and your recovery must be less than 1 minute.
Thank you. Would doing a consult with you be a place to start? I get the feeling that he is not getting the therapy he needs. He is in a warm bath on a tredmill for part of his therapy.
@Kami at this point putting all his data in one place and what the treatment plan is and what the problems are would be best. What they are doing to address is issues would also be be good. Then when you put it all together it tells you of the plan is cogent. Getting that all together and getting a local second opinion makes sense. if that visit shows an issue than asking a new set of eyes to look at the situation may help guide your decision making process.
Hi Dr Kruse,
What are your thoughts are thermogenesis from low protein intake or high vitamin A or high calcium?
Have you come across anything that would suggest people of different ancestries need different amounts of A or different vitamin D levels? …I am northern European with light skin and blue eyes for example. Thank you.
@John funny you should ask because I just did a consult with a patient where we talked about this very issue. It is a huge issue in gastric bypass patients and in some with bad SNP histories…….due to low energy levels and glutathione issues. They are predisposed to cancers and adrenal fatigue. So yes it makes a huge difference and I generally tell most of my patients interested in optimal it makes a ton of sense to know as much as possible about their genome
Thank you for your input.
Blueberries are in season here from July to September, how can I incorporate them into my diet??? Is there any benefit in doing a blueberry cleanse for a week?? Thanks, you ,have made such a POSITIVE impact in my life in only a couple of weeks, truly amazing!
@Pete I make blueberry everything as they are my ‘Safe starch’ in spring and summer. I make BBQ sauce and smoothies from them and many other treats. I put them in salad and my omalettes too!
Jack,
Interesting, I’ve heard that perhaps blue-eyed people need more vitamin A because they allow more blue light in, which degrades it. I don’t know if this affects or is related to D levels directly though. Have you found that light/dark skinned individuals need more/less vitamin A for night vision?
I once took vitamin E and experienced some light sensitivity. I don’t know if that is some inhibiting effect on vitamin A or if it increased vitamin A activity too much, or who knows.
@John all the fat soluble vitamins need to be gotten in balance. Vitamin A, D, K, E if they are not balanced many bad things happen. With someone eating a ancestral template i have never seen a need to supplement Vitamin A. Excessive Vitamin A has been associated with lung cancer incidence.
@ Weila Smith. I would appreciate any information about telomeres. Are you referring to Dr Elizabeth Blackburn co-founder of telomerease? Where are you planning on posting this information?
Here is one short video on telomeres, the problem of replication and how telomerease works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJNoTmWsE0s
I am still confused about how genetic material can “grow back” after it has been lost to telomere shortening. (???)
@Caroline She has written a book on telomeres too you can buy and read.
@Jack – In a previous blog you said that for GERD, taking a PPI isn’t the right course of action. Rather, addressing the underlying causes is the way to go, with the expectation that it could take 1-2 years to remedy.
However, I wanted to know if there is ever any benefit from taking a PPI short term along with following the proper dietary protocol?
I am asking because if one feels pain, I assume there is damage being done. So take away the stimulus (the aicd), reduce the pain, reduce the damage. Does that line of thinking work? And would it then make any sense to temporarily do a course of a PPI?
Thanks.
@The Kid There is if you have Barrett’s esophagitis. That is pre cancerous and tells you the inflammation is chronic
Love the blog & way you think.
Family has been on GAPS for 1.5 years to deal with a multitude of health issues(similar to paleo: high fat, moderate protein, low carb veggies and fruits, we do eat some fermented dairy from raw milk, cream & colostrum that I ferment myself).
Great results so far, but I want to go further. Kids are dealing with ADHD, dyslexia, acne. Do you think CT protocol would have any application in helping these conditions? Do you think it would be enough not to heat the house in the fall/winter past 50-55, though they spend many hours in school, or should I try to get them to do the CT water protocol? Am I right to understand that the protocol is best started in the fall, and should one stop or continue it through the spring/summer? Should we eat safe starches this summer to prepare (potatoes, summer fruit, maybe fresh corn) and then cut them out when we cold adapt in the fall?
Also, very concerned about insulin, my thinking on the ADHD is influenced by this article Is ADHD Caused by Insufficient Dietary Fat
Especially Seneff’s linking heart disease to ADHD, as my brother has an ascending aortic an., I had a ischemic stroke at 46 for no reason the neurologists could give me though I spent 2 weeks in hosp while they subjected me to every conceivable test (now I think it was low vitamin D, low cholesterol, too many carbs & too much exercise). My younger son also has an enlarged aorta and the other is being tested next month. Would these heart conditions mean we avoid CT?
My other question is — as we eat some fruit and honey, the kids have a piece or two of fruit or a tablespoon of honey a day (berries, apples, pears or grapefruits mostly, no bananas:)). — is just the sweet taste on the tongue enough to trigger a damaging insulin response even if the amount eaten isn’t excessive? Should we avoid these sweets in winter completely, or maybe all the time?
No one in family is overweight, husband & I had 10-20 lbs to lose and lost it no problem a year ago (interesting our weight loss corresponded to your description in the LR for men/women before I knew what leptin was). Younger son was tested recently and his omega 6/3 ratio was 2/1. Also testing showed an unusual lack of B vitamins given what he eats, fairly high mercury, MBTE and styrene, so while these tests may not be 100% reliable, I don’t think he can detox well. Can’t afford to have everyone tested right now. Thank you so much for reading.
@Caroline Your family history is a case study of SIBO including your brother’s Aorta. I think Vitamin K2,D,A, and E deficiencies are all likely part of the ADHD story that few seem to talk about. GAPS is good but it leaves out some major issues…..Like eukaryotic organisms who are part of our “shorten guts” ability to modulate and protect our brain and vessels from an oxidized portal circulation. Insulin gets pounded……because it is the easy answer…….but it is a surface problem that begins the microflora change…….once the nutritional deficiency is firmly entrenched and the microbiota forcibly altered…….that is where the action begins. People forget that Vitamin A is not only a main co factor for hormone synthesis but it is also a cofactor for activation of T regulator cells in the GALT.
CT helps restore the old friends in the gut…….and the ketogenic version of the diet forces the the bad stuff out……and SCFA and probiotics constantly steer the microbiota to health. But GAPS major gap is that is has no answer for eukaryotes and why so many people struggle longer term with it……….and those with ADHD are some of those people. This is not my area at all……and I dont deal much with it clinically but I have helped some adults with ADHD get off all meds and make pretty remarkable improvements in their ‘mental illness” with food, cold and circadian biology to eliminate inflammation. To me honey is a ridiculous part of GAPS. But that is my 2 cents. 2:1 is too low……that is like a water based mammal……he needs some good 06 from nuts. Honestly getting you kids a 23andme.com test will tell you about their their detox SNP’s too…….with those heavy metals and history I bet you find you’re a family of bad SNP carriers.
@ Caroline. I agree too: “To me honey is a ridiculous part of GAPS.” Also all of these nut and bean flours seem to cause problems for many. I found deep healing with a low carbohydrate version of the SCD/GAPS. I don’t eat any beans, legumes or grains, at all. The more I learn about ketogenic diets the more I like them. BUT do a natural animal fat ketogenic diet. Stay away from the industrial vegetable oils.
@Caroline I did not want to pound on GAPS, but to me it is a partial fix and not an ideal fix. Bean flours and nut flours not good. Nuts by themselves, Outside of peanuts and cashews are OK.
This is way late, but the link for the Aikido video from comment #126 is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J04JI48GzPM&feature=related
Jack, with regards to your comments just above to Caroline, how long might it take to get o6:o3 ratio from 2:1 to 4:1 by adding nuts to the diet? Weeks, months, a year or longer? How would she know whether cutting o3 intake slightly might also help, since absolute levels of the fats are not known?
@Rodney it depends upon where you start and what your goals are. I went from 37 to 1 to 4 to 1 in 10 months but I changed my diet and used IV infusions to do it. There is a way to change your cell membranes using PKT therapy. We have a practitioner in Nashville who offers this.
Sorry I wasn’t too clear with my question. If you are currently at 2:1, how long would it take to get up to a healthier 4:1 simply by eating nuts?
hi everyone
wanted to do a little update since we are talking about cold
was doing pretty good with the ice packs on the tummy, my weight loss def increased – then I took a break for a week and thought – screw this – I’m going into the tub again! had previously done two ice baths in February and just stopped
so as of yesterday I have done 5 straight days with an ice bath, first day 33 minutes, next 4 days about an hour each day
lo behold – stomach fat going down – now I have a nice amount but my fiance was like holy crap!
just wanted to let anyone reading that the baths really are more ‘potent’ than just ice packs.
When I go on vacation next month in puerto vallarta, I will be sure to be doing a lot of open water swimming to keep CTing through my vacation
very inspired and thankful to you Dr. Kruse
Forgot to add that Seneff thinks ADHD people are in some ways the opposite of obese people, often thin and stunted in growth; insulin is way too efficient and there are not enough triglycerides released into the blood. Here is the link where Seneff discusses the heart’s coping with the high carb, low fat diet: http://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/obesity_epidemic.html#Heart_Copes
One strategy she says is that heart grows bigger. My son has an enlarged aorta and ADHD. What I am wondering is if the CT protocol can work on people who have a problem that is in some ways the opposite of obesity.
@caroline Cold increases Testosterone and IGF -1 which have both begun to be shown to increase heart function contrary to older data.
Just saw your answer to me, thank you, thank you!
Jack, what ingredients would you add to make a high fat, mod carb and mod protein blueberry smoothie?? Pete from Canada
@Pete I use Dave Asprey’s upgraded Whey or Mark Sisson’s primal fuel. I add Coconut oil and Manna by Nutiva and unsweetened coconut milk and add in my fruits……I even add in liquid bacon greese when I first start back drinking smoothies in late spring and summer……I did my first one this Saturday……but none since.
Is your Factor X going to be as easily accessible as the rest of the CT? As in, any additional information how to incorporate/make it more Factor X: it’s accessible?
The reason I ask is b/c of the La Paz thing you are going to do is (on the surface) not as accessible?
Thanks, again! Life is so good.
@Gladina you need to explain to me what your asking because I am not getting it
I have been doing a strict paleo diet for a 2 years now and I started CT about 4 weeks ago. I take showers at coldest setting in the morning for a 10 minutes. I also take cold baths occasionally. I’m pretty sure I’m leptin sensitive also because I can last until dinner one from just my breakfast if needed. The thing is, on CT, I feel ravenously HUNGRY rather than the opposite and consequently I eat TONS of protein (beef fish or chicken) and LOTS OF FAT (I like adding huge chunks of rendered tallow). I actually have gained a lot more fat as a result… The thing is, if I lower my protein or FAT intake at breakfast I feel hungry by midday… Not sure if this is a CT adaptation phase or I am doing the whole protocol wrong…
@Alacritas this sounds like toxin dump. You may want to stop CT and get tested if that is the case because it is not normal.
I have found my butter craving has gone up – but that is about all, I’m not worrying about it as the CT is working to slim down big time
A toxin dump? I thought the way to fix a toxin dump was to continue what you are doing in order to complete the clearing of toxins that are occurring? Also, what test should I have done?
@Alacritas without knowing much about you I can not say. Id tell you to talk to your doc about a heavy metal screen, BPA test, and and a urinary halide screen as a starting point.
Hey Jack, I had elevated bromide in my urine screen as part of a thyroid work-up. Does that mean I should clear this up before doing CT soaks or will the soaks help normalize my thyroid? I am taking iodine to help clear the bromide, but am told it can take months, or even a year or more. As noted earlier, my personal O6:O3 is 1.9:1, so that is an issue too, though I am not sure what effects this might be having.
@Rodney elevated Br means your getting exposed and it can cause some serious issues. I think testing is a must and treatment should follow. When Iodine detoxes bromide into the bloodstream symptoms of bromide toxicity may be experienced. If you are feeling crazy or having dark thoughts that seem very reasonable, consider that your bloodstream may be “drugged.” This is the reason to start slow with iodine and familiarize yourself with the “iprotocol.” See the citations below.
Poisoning & Drug Overdose, 5th Ed. (book)
http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2682961
Jack, I did not read all the comments. scrolled down here after I read about the trouble you are having with your knee. I have had 3 mensicectomies between the ages of 21 and 42. (I am now 54). I have had two incidents of knee flare ups since the last surgery. One occurred after the surgery; the other about 3 months ago. In each case I did extensive icing, kinesiotaping, went to physical therapy blah blah blah. In each case, I finally got fed up, took a good look at my own freakin knee and figured out that the dang thing was out of alignment. Adjusted it myself with the activator tool. In each case, I only had to adjust my knee once and the pain , swelling, everything vanished within 24 hrs. If you know a good D.C. with an activator, you might have them give it a look.
Jack I read your reply several times, everything makes sense but I don’t understand “Like eukaryotic organisms who are part of our “shorten guts” ability to modulate and protect our brain and vessels from an oxidized portal circulation.” Tried to research it myself but still came up short, can you point me in the right direction for more information?
SIBO makes a lot of sense, esp. as I neglected to tell you that my sister has had colitis since she was 18. Everyone in my family has a propensity to gain a large amount of visceral fat, I kept mine down to 10-15 lbs with what I thought was a good diet and exercise, then I had the stroke so I guess I was skinny fat, or maybe it was all due to the leaky gut. Now all visceral fat is gone. Son was tested for dysbiosis, looked good (plenty of good bacteria, no dysbiotic bacteria, a couple of questionable bacteria including mucosal ecoli and the strep that is associated with PANDAS (he is also a little OCD). Undergoing genetic testing for connective tissue disorder, don’t know if that will tell me about other SNP/detox status (genetic DR was very skeptical because the stool and blood test he had are not standard AMA).
Will try to give up honey, eat more nuts (previously I kept nuts to a minimum) and cold adapt in the fall. Thank you again for your help!
@Caroline GAPS does nothign to control eurkayotic gut infections like Candida and fungus……which usually are present after SIBO is established. With your history I would not wait til the fall. You need change right now.
Jack, thanks for the bromide link. I have not had dark or crazy thoughts at all, have identified the bromide source, and am doing fine with the iodine protocol.
Is it ok to do CT now, or should I wait for bromide levels to return to normal first? I have not had any fat loss and still get too cold after just 20 minutes in a 50 degree tub, with core temp dropping to 95ish degrees. I also have not had the feeling of radiating heat that successful CTers relate. Perhaps I need to elevate my O6 fats and get bromide to normal before CTing on a regular basis???
#267 Caroline Says:
Seneff thinks ADHD people are in some ways the opposite of obese people, often thin and stunted in growth;
http://www.bodybio.com/content.aspx?page=BodyBioWellnessVideoLibrary
time 2:12/6:33
high manganese & normal zinc , plants are shorter
normal manganese & high zinc, plants are tall
.
@/JanSz, Thanks for the link. Test showed that son did have normal manganese and low zinc.
@Jack, Thanks for the clarification, son had no candida present on stool test, not sure about the rest of us. If you can give me any more info or a link on the heart/SIBO connection that I could pass on to my brother, who generally thinks I’m from outer space when I talk about this stuff, I’d appreciate it. I’ll try CT and then see if I can get my boys to do it. Keep you posted on how we do.
Question.
I have been trying to eat earlier say 4-6 hours before bed but I seem to not sleep as well. I seem to sleep better if I eat 1-2 hours before bed. If done the keto leptin reset, farly lean, 5% BF and currently 3 weeks going into CT.
Do I just need to adjust and long term be better for me with early dinner or just eat later and sleep better?
@Dan it takes awhile for adenosine to adjust…..it will happen. You might consider trying 50 mgs of DHEA ( talk to your doc) with that meal too to help transition.
Thanks! Will keep at it.
Question…. sleep has changed. It seems that I get along with less sleep, 4-6 hours. Doesn’t matter if I go to bed early 9:00pm or later 10-11pm it’s 4-6 hours… I feel great energy, more than ever, all day. Some days I take a mid day power nap of 15-30 min. after a meal but other than that feel great. I am still eating Keto/ paleo and been doing CT for about 3 weeks now and am fit and trim…. Is this normal to get along with less sleep? The sleep I get seems deep, refreshing and I have dreams.
Thanks!
– Dan
@Dan If youre fit and trim and without disease it is very possible.
My health has always been very strong, very rarely if at all get sick. Been following the Paleo model (mostly Art D’s and Mark S. model) for years now.
Thanks for your reply, I just want to make sure I understand you correctly.
– Dan
Pulled either my left QL or erector (not sure which) 2.5 months ago doing some jump squats. After about a month of taking it easy, walking, and (unfortunately) very intense stretching it was getting worse and I was starting to get some light pain in my sciatic nerve. I went in to get adjusted by my chiropractor, which left my back feeling much better. However the next morning the sciatic pain was much worse and proceeded over the course of the next week to get totally unbearable in-spite of a steroid injection, additional oral steroids, and heavy dose muscle relaxers. I got an MRI which showed a L4/L5 herniation back and left, and a leaking L5/S1 disc (my guess is that it is the stretching that caused the herniation as it is completely consistent with how I was attempting to very aggressively stretch the pulled muscle). I ended up getting a set of 3 steroidal epidurals that helped significantly; leaving me with pretty much just muscle pain and to where I could at least be somewhat pain free as long as I was pretty strictly on bed rest and pretty aggressively massaged out my piriformis, glute med and min. Three weeks ago I started physical therapy and my muscle symptoms got worse and then better, and then worse, and the better, but I was still laying down all of the time and when the muscles got tight I would get pins and needles in my calf; if I was up and for more than 5 minutes or so it would start to hurt, and if up for more than 30 minutes normally would take the rest of the day or longer to subside back to “normal”.
I had ended up starting a primal diet about a month and a half ago (I had had extra time to read while convalescing, and was intrigued) and started IFing last week (I am a big 6′ guy with a fair bit of muscle, and have always been pretty active but am still 25-30 pounds overweight) and was surprised how easy it was. I also read some about cold therapy and started taking showers with lukewarm water and proceeding to straight cold for the last few minutes of the shower, where I would begin to shiver. The showers did provide some temporary pain relief.
My last doctor’s visit was a few days ago, where they suggested –as I am still effectively bedridden– that I get an IDET or a second opinion from a surgeon for a possible microdiscectomy.
I came home and started doing research on the procedures and found your site. I figured what the hell and started CT yesterday morning submerging myself in a straight cold tap water bath for 45 minutes, keeping the water on, and draining on and off to keep the water as cold as possible(shivering lightly through the entire 45 minutes), then did it again in the afternoon, and in the evening I added ice (still just shivering lightly, but I think my water supply is a little warmer in the evenings)
I woke up halfway through the night as usual this morning, but upon standing up to use the restroom the pain was a fair bit worse, and different, pins and needles all down the leg pretty immediately and more nerve like pain. Stretching out my hamstring and psoas and massaging my piriformis/glut-med-min helped some, but it is still a fair bit more painful than before, and isn’t going away when laying down most of the time.
I did feel better yesterday morning and afternoon, and still did this morning for about an hour after the CT bath, but now it is worse again.
Also, I have noticed over the past week that right when I wake up it doesn’t hurt, but say 30-60 seconds after that I feel things start to tighten up and the pain gets bad really fast. I don’t know if that is normal and I just started noticing or if it is something new.
So I guess my question is should I wait on CT until after my operation or just push through?
Oh and what is your opinion of IDETs vs microdiscectomys?
(Sorry for the outrageously long post and thanks a ton)
Randy
@Randy You need to consider starting 500 mgs of Krill oil three times a day and 5000 IU of Vitamin D a day and 900 mgs of curcumin three times a day and 500 mgs of resveratrol and discuss it all with your doctor. I think CT for several weeks is in order and you need to read my forum……
Jack,
This is fantastic stuff! How soon into the cold adaptation do i begin to see weight loss? Does it begin the night I start dunking my face into ice water or does start the day I start dunking my body into iced tub?
Thank you,
CCC
@carlos I cant answer specifics because I dont know your specifics…….lab testing helps as well as a history or you issues. I would suggest you come on my internet forum and explore the answers witht he community we have built there. Here you will find many many answer to many common questions that may arise.
Wanted to check back in and say thanks. I followed your suggestions and was able to take myself entirely off of my pain meds and muscle relaxers after two weeks, with a 90% reduction in pain.(It was at the end of the two weeks that I found that the muscle relaxers were now making things worse; even now I don’t understand why that was.)
I still had lots of pain if I was up and about for very long, and ended up needing a microdiscectomy/decompression, but I did it entirely without pain meds or muscle relaxers before or after the surgery. I was surprised how much the nurses tried to get me to take pain medication; I asked for ice packs instead. I think they thought I was just choosing to suffer horribly instead of taking the drugs, which wasn’t the case, I had a very deep ache in my back, unpleasant yes, but quite bearable. The nurses told me before the surgery that they had never seen someone go home the same day with my kind of surgery and that I could be pretty certain that I would be spending the night, but I left the hospital just two hours out of the OR. I am healing great; thanks again for your suggestions.
Randy
@Randy Awesome and I am glad it worked out for you!