READERS SUMMARY:

ARE YOU AWARE THAT YOU CAN EASILY CHANGE YOU METABOLISM BY YOURSELF AT HOME?

DO YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN CHANGE  YOUR CALORIE NEEDS TOO?

ARE YOU AMBIENTLY AWARE OF WHAT YOU DO NOT KNOW BECAUSE YOU HAVE NOT CONSIDERED IT?

CONSIDER THREE NEW RADICAL RULES THAT MIGHT INTRIGUE YOU TO KNOW MORE ABOUT CT

Now that you understand that I believe cold environments were how life first evolved what implications does this hold for all life and for humans today?  I think with this thought experiment we need to begin to talk about another aspect of evolution to fully conceptualize how cold works for biology.  Let’s talk about sleep for 4 short minutes.  I want you to watch this video first before you proceed on here.

Sleep

One of my readers pointed out recently he was confused by Dr. Gamble when she said the normal pattern of sleep in a natural environment had two cycles. He wanted to know why her version and my version for sleep as written in my post Rx for the Leptin Rx  were not congruent.  It was a great question that really opens the discussion to the idea of evolutionary mismatches.  These mismatches occur in many modern systems of biology and they are actually increasing in frequency and severity as time elapses.  The reason is quite simple.  Evolution is constantly getting faster as time goes on relative to the current state of our genome.  This is really how the “cellular theory of relativity” is currently effecting our own genome today.  The speed of evolutionary change has far out stripped the ability of our paleolithic genes to catch up.  This mismatch causes major problems for modern humans.  When they further exacerbate the system with choce not congruent with our biology the results are magnified in disease incidence and prevalence.

She also mentioned in passing early in her talk that people who went deep into the ground have been found to be “very productive” while in a cold dark environment.  She did not expand on this concept  at all,  but I would strongly suggest you remember this as the cold thermogenesis series progresses on.  There is a deep biologic reason this occurs.  As we use this pathway lots of things improve that we do not expect.

She assumed in her talk she told us that in native polar people without artificial light sleep differently than we do today she spoke about the effect of light cycles.  She said that she felt that light cycle were the most important affect on our biology.  Light cycles are important to all life but this bright reasearcher is apparently unaware the mammals have an innate ability to change their internal chemical clocks when their environment changes.  We stop using the photic light cycles to yoke metabolism to our sleep when it is cold.  There is an epigenetic switch in us that stops our suprachiasmatic nucleus from using light in cold environments. This is done by design by evolution because light cycles do not become important in freezing cold because carbohydrates can not grow in these environments on earth.  So evolution designed a plan to teach mammals who can not think as we can that the best way to yoke the season cycles at our poles is to use temperature instead.  That is precisely what happens.  I will explain the complex biochemistry later in the series and provide you with cites.  Right now I want you to be aware of this metabolic trap door.  Its mere presence is shocking enough.  But its implications are far greater for modern humans.

There is one larger problem with her assumptions in this TED talk.  She said light is the big deal.  And I know it is not true any longer incold.  This means that if evolutionary biology gave up on light and uses cold what else may happen to our metabolism in cold?  Evolution does not do these things for no reason. She was quick to point out that this ability has been lost in modern humans in her estimation because of our discovery and widespread use of artificial light has become a huge game changer.  We know Paris, France became the first city in our world that used fake light in 1924. I think most humans are not really ambiently aware of how how basic circadian mismatches destroy our biology slowly via the “slow erosion of metabolic function.”  We know that humans die most from heart disease and heart failure.  Heart failure is the number on cause of admission according to Medicare data.  After this blog is through you might know why this makes complete sense.  The reason has to with a slow erosion of the process of autophagy in humans due to the circadian mismatches created by our choices in life when they are married to the rapidity to the development of our neolithic brain.  In essence, we got so smart so fast we became able to control too much of our environment for our own epigenetic and genetic good.  The smarter we got the more mismatches we created for our biology and the less efficient autophagy became to fix and recyle proteins for repair.  Reduced autophagy leads to heart failure.  So this means that biologic mismatches are best measured in animals by looking at their rates of heart failure.  For humans the rates are staggering.  That is a big clue that what we all believe to be true could be what is actually killing us slowly.  Remember autophagy occurs when we sleep.

Moreover, when one looks at the biology and biochemistry of sleep and truly understands the power of autophagy for longevity,  it becomes apparent that we may want to consider that maybe sleep is our primordial condition and not wakefulness. Maybe, just maybe,  we evolved consciousness over time. This theory I have follows the thoughts I have developed in my cold thermogenesis theory because in extreme cold environments the process of autophagy becomes “super sensitized” to save energy while it increases our metabolic capabilities.  Remember when Jessa Gamble said that humans in dark deep holes become more energized and productive in her TED talk?  The reason why is that cold dark environments super sensitize the human process of autophagy without us actually having to sleep at all.  The cause is an increased efficiency of autophagy by cold and dark.  The metabolic trap door does something to us that we can not do in long light cycles.  To get suprasensitive autophagy in light we have to sleep well.  This is an example of how metabolism and biochemistry can rewire or become thermoplastic in cold and dark environments.

In fact, in cold sleep is heavily selected for in terms of how mammalian nervous systems are built by evolutionary design.  Cold stimulus changes the behavior or eutherian mammals. This is why mammals can sleep so long underground in sub zero conditions and survive. Sleep is heavily selected for in cold.

Radical Rule #3: Sleep and cold environments were our ancestors primordial condition and as such, this was evolutions starting point for life on our planet.

Sounds more radical does it not?  Lets consider these thoughts and facts today.

If we assume this to be true, this thought explains why epigenetics has become to be found as the dominant player in how genetics operate in biology.  Why? Anything that promotes survival and reproductive fitness has to be passed to the next generations. This is evolutions main directive.  I think evolution found that epigenetic modifications to be quite effective way to pass on environemental information to succeeding generations.  So successful that it became a backbone law of genomic functioning. Evolution follows fractal patterning.  So it is also highly conserved in all species. Today that appears to be true too.  Life at its genesis,  was likely static, and to get the nutrients it needed, it used passive diffusion because of proximity.  This made food scarce to life at all times.  to survive it had to overcome this impedance.  This manner of nutrient collection is highly inefficient, but the suprasensitivity of autphagy in cold made the process biologically plausible for great part of our evolutionary history.  It appears that evolution naturally adapted to improve access to nutrients and to do so it had to evolve wakefulness to obtain them. Yes, you read that correctly.  To complete this it yoked metabolism to sleep early on in evolutionary biology so it could account best for nutrients and autophagic repair to lead to optimal survival. I believe the use of timing became an easy evolutionary solution because of the rhythmicity of the sun and the freezing cold that these cells found them in could account for these cycles.

I believe this fractal organization of sleep and metabolism remains in every organism studied even today.  If you ask sleep researchers, (I have) they have told me this is a correct assumption.   Because of this,  I believe that sleep and autophagic efficiencies are extremely highly conserved across all species on our planet. We still have yet to find a species who does not sleep some. I think as life evolved wakefulness and not sleep, because it had to account for its environment,  and as such evolution then moved from a static model to a dynamic one and then a whole new set of environmental problems had to be navigated to make life persist. Now you see why autophagy sit at position 15 on the Quilt.  It is a critical component of optimal living in all species not just our own.

This also signals where movement was first coupled to memory or actions in life. Even today all learning in higher order animals is directly coupled to movement in their environment. The more one moves the more intelligent one becomes. I just explained that to you in a recent blog on here.

We can prove this today because if we just get an Alzheimer’s patient with a demolished brain, when we introduce exercise we can increase their cognitive function in a completely broken organ. In fact in any neurodegenerative condition this happens by evolutionary design.  That tells me a lot of how “evolution thinks”.   The more I learn how she thinks the more I learn.  I hope this helps you understand how I think about life and how it all began. It is a foundational concept behind my QUILT document. When you see my point of reference you begin to see a new reality that you might have not anticipated before you thought about what I just explained to you.

Lets continue on now to metabolism from the light and temperature story.  There was a recent paper done that showed mammals may have another unique ability that is thermoplastic that we are also not aware of.  It is currently assumed by researchers and scientists that the only way a mammal can change its fatty acid concentration is by its diet.  This article showed us that assumption might also not be true.  In “changes in ‘Good’ Fatty Acid Concentration of Inner Organs Might Be Largely Independent of Diet”  In this article they state the following, “it is generally believed that mammals are unable to alter the proportions of essential fatty acids in their cell membranes except by changing their diets.

Amazingly, the amount of so-called “n-6″ polyunsaturated fatty acids (those with the final double bond at the sixth position) in the membranes was found to increase dramatically before the start of hibernation, apparently to prepare the body, and particularly the heart, for operation at very low temperatures. Consistent with this idea, the transition to a higher content of n-6 fatty acids in membranes takes place extremely rapidly just before the animals enter their hibernation chambers. The changes are reversed, again over a short time, around the termination of hibernation in spring, when the animals return to a life at high body temperatures.

The fatty acids incorporated in the membranes probably stem from the marmots’ white adipose tissue. Surprisingly, however, fatty acids are not simply taken from the fat stores at random but n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids are transported preferentially, although the mechanism remains a mystery.

These new and unexpected findings show that mammals can make highly significant and rapid seasonal changes to the lipid composition of their cell membranes. But the results go far beyond this. During and immediately after hibernation marmots are unable to eat anything — their food is under a thick layer of snow — so the changes cannot be related to immediate dietary influences.

And because the animals hibernate underground, isolated from any external signals, the changes are probably controlled by an endogenous clock as part of an annual cycle.”

This article implies some more evidence for my theory on thermoplastic change is really not a theory but an evolutionary dictum in all eutherian mammals.  Lets examine why evolution may allow mammals to do this.

The critical points for us to consider in this article are  two fold:  1. the stimulus for hibernation in eutherian mammals and their descendants are tied to high dietary carbohydrate intake (proven fact already in science and not controversial) and high placement of omega six intake into their cell membrane prior to hiberantion begins. This was not known until this article came out.  It did not escape my view because it makes total sense of why mammals in particular would do this.  The dietary stimulus of plentiful carbohydrate availability is a metabolic sign that they should soon den (fat and happy) and this seems to change what happens to the fatty acid synthetase enzyme in the mammalian gut lining.  In this new research, scientists studied mice that are unable to make fatty acid synthase (FAS) in the intestine. FAS, an enzyme crucial for the production of lipids, is regulated by insulin, and people with diabetes or insulin resistance have defects in FAS. Mice without the enzyme in the intestines develop chronic inflammation in the gut, which is a powerful predictor of insulin resistance. This is how mammals used to signal their body that it was time to lay down under ground and avoid the harsh arctic winters.  This biology  is now coming to light  in humans and you can read about it in my second cite.  It appears all the biology is lining up quite well with my theory.

This signal is likely tied to signaling that the mammal should begin to replace its own cell membranes with PUFA’s.  Why would evolution do that?. Why should we pay attention to it? We should pay attention to it because it has major implications for modern humans who are direct descendents of these animals.  Moreover, this evolutionary design feature allows for an interesting conudrum to potentially develop for us.  It appears incorporation of PUFA’s into cell membranes are a “normal signal” in mammalian hibernation for them to den.  I also found out from organic chemistry that high cell membrane concentrations of PUFA’s make the cell membrane of our cells very fluid in cold environments.  This explains why mammals need this adaptation to sleep and not freeze their cells.  It is a cellular anti freeze.  I also found out from canadian frog biology that high glucose levels also act as an antifreeze fro animals in extreme environments.  This information was nothing short of shocking.  Maybe diabetes is an ancient epigenetic program for survival and not a disease at all?  When I found this out I realized immediately why evolution needed to plan for this.  In cold environments,  if our cell membranes are filled with MUFA’s and saturated fats they become to stiff to work.  All cellular functioning in organ systems depend upon proper cellular signaling.  Mother Nature knew it,  so it designed a system to incorporate PUFA’s normally into all mammals cell membranes to get optimal functioning in cold environments.  Any organic chemistist can verify that this is a complete and factual statement.  Here is another example of how biologic thermoplasticity occurs in nature.

So it appears that dietary carbohydrates, which are only present in long light cycles in the summer in cold places,  induce mammals to add PUFA’s to our cells to become fluid so we can function as we hibernate.  Makes complete logical sense when viewed from an evolutionary stand point.  I asked several mammalian vertebrate physiologist if this is how carbohydrates work for hibernating mammals and their answer was yes.

This implied to me that  maybe if this is how mammalian physiology was designed to work to begin with.  After all they evolved in the polar environments on earth.  This implied something even bigger to me……why would we need diabetes to survive.  Then the answer occurred to me.  I called it Factor X.  I checked my facts and continued to connect more dots.  Diabetes is required in mammals who are designed to work for optimal adaptation in cold environments.

Maybe, just maybe,  it has become thought of as a neolithic disease in humans because we we have simultaneously lost the ability to hibernate because we evolved the ability to control our environment completely?  After all we know evolution is moving today faster than our genome can adapt Cordain and LaLonde have pointed out many times.

Remember,  we still have our mammalian paleolithic genes that control our use of dietary carbohydrates and  the up-regulation of PUFA’s in our cell membranes in us today. These biochemical pathways remain in us.  This is another well known fact in the paleosphere.  What is not so obvious to most however, is that the rapidity of our brains evolution created the ultimate mismatch in this system.  I believe some perceive this mismatch but no one has explained this as yet.  So it then follows that when we create a biologic mismatch with our neolithic thoughts………we get something we have been socialized to believe is a disease. When after all it is not at all……it is an evolutionary novelty created by our own rapid evolution secondary to our brain amazing development in the same time period?

This is how I view it from a 30,000 foot level today.  The skeptics will immediately jump down my throat and point out that type one diabetics and use CW that says it is a genetic disease!  I don’t and never have.  I think Type 1 and 1.5 diabetes are decidely  epigenetic phenomena of this mismatch that has been passed from every eutherian mammal to us today, and we remain unaware of this possibility either! Epigenetics has also speed up if evolution has.  This is why humans have no ability to stop diabetes once it stops…….unless they get in a cold environment.  And this is why we assume that these two conditions are diseases,  rather than consequences of a “relative time frame shift” in evolutionary time,  due to how fast our brains developed.  This also explains why we have a paucity of hominid skeletons in the fossil record. This time disruption is part of levee one which I called the “cellular theory of relativity.”  Time is something we failed to consider in how our species maybe its own missing link to this puzzle!

Several of my friends have asked me,  if this is not a disease then how does nature cure diabetes on its own?  The answer should be intuitive now to you.  When you began this post you might have thought where I was headed was counter intuitive and frankly insane.  Well, now you see how I think about it from a new perspective.  The biology we know to be true today lines up completely with this theory.  But how is IR and DM cured?  Well,  can you really cure a disease that is not a disease to begin with?

In IR,  we get expansion of the fat mass to increase storage from carbohydrates we ate during long light cycles.  So that implies to reverse this process there has to be a system.  There is…….its called hibernation in freezing cold.  It means the cure is to live by your descendants biologic directs and in congruency with our evolved biology.  Since we no longer hibernate……..maybe you need to consider how you eat carbohydrates within the circadian controls?  Maybe what you thought was safe………really is not?

Final point in part two of this series….…..Doc, how does evolution eliminate these fat cells normally. What is the biologic process?  The reason diabetic researchers can’t find a cure is because their manner of looking at the problem is skewed and dead wrong.  When you put on your evolutionary glasses you see a different view of a perplexing issue.  Cold environments are found as mammals hibernate in normal circadian biology…….this completely reverses IR in mammals and wakes them up when conditions are better for life. Humans extinguished this ability rapidly in our evolutionary history because we are fully capable of controlling our environment. There is no need to den any longer because we control our environment regardless of the temperature but we still have the machinery that acts within us. If we eat outside that directive we get modern day diabetes.  We can forage and succeed all the time. We can obtain Chilean banana’s on Dec 31 in the Arctic circle.  Do you think evolution has a plan for this set of circumstances yet?  Nope.

The modern result is that we have created a world where carbohydrates and PUFA’s are available 24/7 while we no longer can access to evolutions solution for Insulin resistance.  It also makes sense why we have no built in hard wired metabolic pathways for fat removal.  But Cold thermogenesis does it and dies it remarkably well.  That implies that our ancestors paleo genes remain dominant as we evolved out of the Savana……..or it could even mean that maybe other assumptions we have made are also wrong?……..Realize that because our brains development was so rapid it allowed evolution to extinguish the ability to hibernate.  But there is a lot more to this story yet to be told…………as added biologic plausibility and maybe ultimate proof as to what is the optimal diet and what is just good enough

RADICAL RULE #4: Evolution speeds up as time progresses on. This is a known biologic fact. The faster this evolution occurs the greater the dietary mismatch becomes and then we begin to see the real causes of why diabetes might happen.

RADICAL RULE #5: Epidemics are not caused by genetics. This is also a medical clinical fact that gets lost in the scientific literature but you would never get that from reading the literature on diabetes.

Are you connecting any dots yet?

Are you beginning to see how the QUILT was built……….we are just getting started

Next up………the mind bending biochemistry that backs up all I have said here.

Prepare for some cranial work out.

CITES:

1.  Walter Arnold, Thomas Ruf, Fredy Frey-Roos, Ute Bruns.Diet-Independent Remodeling of Cellular Membranes Precedes Seasonally Changing Body Temperature in a Hibernator. PLoS ONE, 2011; 6 (4): e18641 DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.00186412.

2.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120215123352.htm

3. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110413171323.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%293

READERS SUMMARY:

1. HOW DO WE PERCEIVE ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE?

2.  DOES EVOLUTION USE CLIMATE AS THE CURRENCY FOR EPIGENETICS?

3.  DOES THE FUNCTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF THE BRAIN TIE QUANTUM MECHANIC THEORY TO BIOLOGY?

4. HOW MIGHT ASTROPHYSICS GIVE US INSIGHT WE DO NOT CURRENTLY CONSIDER?

5.  IF THE BRAIN UNDERGOES NEUROPLASTIC CHANGE DOES IT FOLLOW THAT BIOCHEMISTRY USES THERMOPLASTIC CHANGE?

Today we are going to bend your mind a bit by explaining to you that many of the things you might be believe as biologic truths published in biochemistry books today……are in fact truths when certain environmental truths are held within a constant range but change tremendously when certain factors are altered.  Often the biophysical changes do not even have to effect the thermal coefficients of the biochemistry in the hypothalamus…….just the perception of the environmental change from the brain is enough to alter the chemistry as is the enzyme and proteins existed on the top of Mount Everest of on the ocean floor in the coldest environments on earth.  When biochemistry was  observed in living cells and described the scientists rarely considered these effects on our biochemistry and how it may alter the cellular terroir.  Our hypothalamus rewires to many stimuli and it appears that temperature is a major factor in the rewiring protocol of our brain.  Evolution has clearly needed to use this in the past for some reason.  Our job as enquiring primal bio-hackers is to figure out why and how this might have happened.

In essence, they looked at the complex biologic machinery from a standard Newtonian platform.  Most scientists know that Newtonian physics explain much of what we observe in the physical sciences here on earth and that quantum mechanics best describes the physics of subatomic matter and of matter in space on a universal scale. When QM theory is adapted to many biologic systems some puzzling things emerge that are hard to explain.  Complicating matters, we have few ways to measure the quantum effects within biologic systems to test how they may affect living cells.  This does not imply in any way that quantum mechanics does not apply to biologic systems, because it clearly does.  It is often buried in the biochemisty equations that biochemists use to describe how living cells make order from the complete chaos that rules matter.  This implies the effects might be difficult to discern or measure with current techniques we have and this is why we have yet to uncover them in biologic systems.  The brain clearly uses quantum mechanics to operate.  This is not a controversial point at all in the scientific world.

When biochemistry laws and equations were laid down in human history, it occurred in a time where our understanding of the nervous system was rudimentary and felt to be static and unchanging.  The current laws of biochemistry have never able to explain how the human brain functions totally on a biochemical level or a functional level.  Moreover,  have yet to hear a complete thesis on how it is able to perform all the things it is capable of even today.  To this day we still have no idea how sleep occurs, why anesthesia works, or how the brain wakes us up every day.  We understand many parts of it…….but we do not understand the biochemical processes of the micromachinery in our cells and how the make order of the chaos of the matter in our cells.   This belief that the brain was static,  remained medical and scientific dogma until the last 15 to 20 years in modern science.  When brain researchers began to unlock new mechanisms of neuroplasticity and brain circuitry, everything changed for us in the neural sciences.

When it dawned on us that the brain could rewire,  and it was proven in humans to occur,  we had no biochemistry to tell us how it all worked.  In fact, we still do not.  But here is where some very smart biochemistists and physicists began to collaborate together and share ideas of how biology may be impacted by quantum mechanics to explain “queer reactions” in biologic systems where modern biochemistry theory just stops.   The organisms that sparked these theoretical experiments were extremophile organisms that live deep in the sea in the coldest darkest environments possible, and thermophiles who also live near boiling vents or deep in cenotes in scalding hot sulfuric acid.  How can life exist in these wildly diverse environments is no longer just a biologic question, it is a question for physics too these days.  It has brought many bio-astrophysicist to the same table to solve the mystery.  Today most of these bio-astrophysicists think that the best chance for extraterrestial life may lie on the moon of Titan.  Titan is a moon of Saturn and is a giant frozen ocean that has volcanic jet streams erupting from its surface in radiant displays of light that have been seen by the Hubble telescope and by the Cassini spacecraft recently (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm).  These enigmas maybe solved when we first relook at how the human brain rewires to environmental pressures that climatic change brings to bear upon it.  Neuroscience has taught us over the last 25 years the neuroplasticity in the nervous system is ubiquitous.  Explaining the functioning of the human brain comes in to play because it remains the one human organ,  who’s function continually stumps modern science but readily adapts its own biochemistry.  What are the links that here that we might consider important?

How might we experiments reconcile these issues?

The key to understanding these perplexing questions and paradoxical reactions requires us to rule out the impossible first.  This implication is not meant to mean that the laws of biochemistry or organic chemistry are wrong.  Quite the contrary, it means that humans today remain in the dark of how biochemistry reacts when extremes occur because we have not faced them and we rarely study them in current human studies. With extremes,  what we believe to be true today in printed textbooks may just be mere folly because all of the pathways were studied in modern day climates.  The research on evolutionary biochemistry today is in its infancy.

With that all being said……If the brain is capable of rewiring this implies that the cells it is made from, the micro-machines within those cells, the proteins and enzymes they are made from, the space-time windows they exist in, and the atomic and subatomic particles they are all made from must also have the inherit capabilities to be “plastic” as well.  Einstein hypothesized this early in the 20^th century and so far to date no theory that has been mathematically proven by quantum mechanics has been experimentally proven to be false.  This implies the theory is pretty solid.  Assuming Einstein was correct,  we must conceptualize what it may mean for biologic micro-machines in our cells.

It appears biology is beginning to find out why these new founded ideas and realities may hold for us a new world of possibilities and realities with regard to the biochemistry of life in general.

1. Radical new truth number one…….If our brain can rewire,  then Einstein’s theories predict our biochemistry might be able to as well.

Mind you, when I use the word rewire I am not saying this in the literal sense.  I am saying it is thermoplastic. I am telling you that the laws of chemistry exhibit some unusual properties at extremes, and that the laws of evolution seem to have used this in our past for adaptation for and natural selection to allow all life a chance to thrive in the natural extreme conditions on earth.  We have a model for this today in our own solar system that has transfixed modern bio-astrophysicists for the last few years because of the possibilities it holds for us and for the universe.

2. Radical new truth number two: Considering that 90% of the earth’s current biome lives in extreme conditions on our own planet today still,  we might need to consider that what we think is “our normal environment” is not so normal for most of life on our planet or our evolutionary history.  Life on Earth evolved in an environment much like we see on Titan today; in a deep ocean frozen solid at its surface with the capability of life buried deep with in it.  The only escape was due to ejectants of water vapor from super heated water from underwater volcano’s.  All these things are present today on Earth’s crust too.  There is one major difference now between the two.  We are warmer today than life began.  There are others,  but when one looks at Titan we see a frozen giant moon with a monsterous ocean beneath it.

All life on our planet came from the oceans first.  And because of this , maybe we should consider studying extremophile forms of life here on earth today might explain the complexities of how biochemistry allows for life to exist at all in a thermoplastic environment.  Based upon what is in our textbooks today understanding how life lives in 25,000 feet of freezing water is unknown.  Moreover, on those geothermal vents we have bacteria that lives in 750 degree water that can not boil because of the pressure and cold of the water causing us to wonder how life manages this perplexing set of circumstances.  What the bio-astrophysics found on Titan with the Cassini Solstice mission, (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm) may be a huge clue that life first adapted to extreme environments and then was naturally selected and adapted to a cyclic warming trend on our planets crust over time.

Our hominid species may have adapted during this warming trend, but the DNA we inherited came from animals that were cold adapted.  Evolution uses epigenetics to determine adaptation to environments.  We have discarded the strict definition of genetic determinism.  We know today that the power of epigenetics dictates a lot more about newer generations adaptations than we even knew ten years ago.  The implications of this information now has to make us look at some of our own long standing assumptions about how living cells work in cold and warm environments to see how our cells react to a thermoplastic environment.

It maybe that Titan represents today where the Earth was 3-4 billion years ago and offers us an opportunity to gain some insights on how life starts in extreme environments and how it slowly changes as the environment changes.  Evolutionary pressures are selected  for by the environments of our ancestors were exposed to and not for what we face today.  We remain unsure what the power of those epigenetic pressures can exert on our genome. They may not have even made a big impact when hominids evolved 2.5 million years ago,  because by all geologic accounts it was still warm.  But it remains possible that the impact could be a lot larger than we expect as well.  We may not fathom this possibility but it is clearly in the realm of possibility.  The modern science of epigenetics shows that who we came from and what they faced has a direct biologic effect upon subsequent generations DNA and phenotypes.  It is crystal clear today, but the biologic implications remain unexplored in all modern day literature.  What is happening on Titan maybe like opening up a blackhole back to a reality that used to be our own.  The ability to see Earth at life’s evolutionary beginning.

Sounds pretty radical doesn’t it?   As Dr. Spock said in Star Trek movie, “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,  correct?”

This is where the story of Factor X begins…………

CITES:

1. (http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/index.cfm)

READERS SUMMARY:

What might you consider pre and post op before your surgery?

These all need to be cleared with your surgeon before starting!

In an ideal situation, patients undergoing surgery will have adequate time before the operation to prepare themselves emotionally and physically. This preparation will likely include dietary supplementation, as well as mental and emotional preparation. The healthier patients are when they go into surgery, the healthier they are likely to be during the postoperative phase.  If they are a progressive patient  suggest some brain training pre op with biofeedback or transcendental meditation.  It has an amaazing effect of decreasing the need for post op narcotic pain meds for pain control.  The less pain meds one takes the less complications one will face too.

I also recommends that patients with poor glucose control discuss intensive insulin therapy with the surgeon before surgery. Specifically adding 500 mgs of reservatrol for 2 weeks prior to and after the surgery can cut insulin needs as well. Studies indicate that surgery-induced insulin resistance, leading to elevated glucose levels during surgery, raises the risk of complications and death. Intensive insulin therapy, a procedure in which glucose levels are closely monitored during surgery, can help reduce complications and lower the risk of death (van den Berghe et al 2001). The recommended glucose range is between 80 mg/dL and 120 mg/dL. However, this practice is not standard in hospitals and requires intensive administration from nurses and other members of the surgical team. Nevertheless, because of the benefits, patients may want to discuss intensive insulin therapy with their surgical team to see if it is warranted. Ironically, my own hospital wont follow through with my recommendations via the pharmacy so I have to do this for each one of my patients individually as we talk about peri operative care. I handle this best by trying to solve their diabetes before I operate on them if they are willing to do the things needed for success.

I also advocate bagging the body part that is going to be physically cut by the surgeon with ice packs for 45 min to an hour a day two weeks prior to surgery.  If this is a fusion operation the cold also induced BMP-7 and BMP-2 to form bone more easily.  Cold thermogenesis actually is a great treatment for osteoporosis.  It is hard to do this on frank osteopenic because they have high omega six tissue levels and most can not handle the cold acutely unless they listen to me pre op.  Sadly, few do in my experience.

I also think you need to turn off all lights in your environment as soon as the sun sets two weeks prior to surgery and not use LED or artificial light products at all. I asked them to consider using eye masks when they sleep. Extra steps are to consider cooling mattress pads to sleep on pre and post op are great ideas. I also advocate using sleep domes that produce calming sounds to bring upon the onset of sleep faster. I also want them to bring it to the hospital if they buy it to use. I tell them all that I want them out of the hospital fast because it is among the worst environments to sleep in because of the artificial lights, noises, and constant waking up from the staff to do vitals and other things that the hospital makes the nurses perform upon patients.

I also asked them to double their use of Vitamin D3 and DHEA two weeks prior to surgery, if they are on these meds. The same is true for progesterone or pregnenolone.  If they are going to be an in patient in the hospital more than one night, I want them to bring their DHEA, Vitamin D3, pregnenolone, progesterone and estrogen with them in case I decide to dose it post op. We do not need testosterone because we can dose that IM for men. For women with patches we ask them to bring them to the hospital. IF there are other regimens they are on I tell them to bring their supplements to the hospital. I also tell the family to bring good food from home and avoid the hospital food like the plague!!! If you eat it you will have more pain post operatively and your will be more likely to come back to the hospital for some other neolithic disease in the future.

Patients may also want to discuss aspirin therapy before surgery. Aspirin is a well-known antiplatelet that is used for prevention of heart attack and to mitigate the damage of ongoing heart attacks. Me, I like the combo of fish oils and reservatol better because most of the surgeries I do use bone and grafts and aspirin inhibits the formation of bone post op. So I don’t recommend any NSAIDs or aspirin for that reason. If however I am not doing bone grafting or brain surgery I am OK with aspirin. Some studies have suggested that aspirin therapy may benefit certain patients before surgery, especially heart patients and those undergoing carotid endarterectomy (Mangano DT 2002). However, because aspirin affects the blood’s ability to clot, no surgery patients should begin aspirin therapy unless under the direct supervision of their surgical team.

Other nutrients might also be helpful before and after surgery that I use often depending upon the case:

■EPA/DHA—1400 milligrams (mg) EPA and 1000 mg DHA daily (for DDD/DJD I add 500 mgs of Krill oil too for some)

■Arginine—3000 to 12,000 mg daily (in three divided doses for one month post op)

■Glutamine—1000 to 3000 mg daily depending upon surgical wound

■Vitamin C—2000 to 3000 mg daily (start before surgery 7 days and end 14 days later)

■Vitamin E—400 international units (IU) daily (with at least 200 mg gamma tocopherol)

■Vitamin A—25,000 IU daily  (7 days post only)

■ Alpha-Lipoic acid—150 to 300 mg daily (start 2 weeks prior to surgery and go one month after)

■CoQ10—300 mg daily (older patients and bigger cases I use a higher dose)

■Zinc—30 mg daily

■Melatonin—300 mcg to 10 mg, usually taken before bedtime; begin with the smallest possible dose (only meant for 7 days post op)

■Curcumin—800 to 1600 mg daily,  500 mgs of trans resveratrol a day for one month post surgery

■Protein (derived from unprocessed grass fed whey )—up to 60 grams (g) daily

Importantly, the surgeon should be aware of any dietary supplements that are consumed. Some supplements, such as vitamin E, Krill and Fish oil, Ginkgo biloba, increase the risk of bleeding during surgery. Many physicians will recommend that patients discontinue these supplements up to 14 days before surgery. Some surgeons will not because of their experience with the supplements is deep in surgical patients.  I have this experience so I look at this a lot differently than most surgeons.

READERS SUMMARY:

WHY SHOULD WE QUESTION EVERYTHING?

WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF ALL CHOICE?

WHERE MIGHT THE REWARD IN SAFE STARCHES TRULY LIE?

HOW GOOD IS YOUR NEOLITHIC BRAIN AT SENSING YOUR PALEOLITHIC BRAIN?

DOES QUANTUM MECHANICS PROVIDE AN EXPLANATION FOR THE PARADOX OF CHOICE?

I took a stroll through some of my favorite sites last night because I just could not sleep well (added back a safe starch ironically yesterday too) because I have some big things on my mind and it seems some of the doubters are beginning to see the magic in my Quilt document.  I remember when I posted it and how I was ridiculed in some places.  I just sat back and took it all in because I fully expected that response.  In fact, I told one of my internet friends, Dexter Yard that I did this by design for a reason.  I went as far as emailing a copy of the document to him to look over before it ever was posted on the internet.  His reply was much more kind and subdued than what I faced publicly when I launched the document.  He asked told me he felt that this was not going to help people that it may in fact, confuse them even more.  He told me it was all too complex for most people.  I remember reading his reply and just smiling.  He was trying to help a friend out and not allow me make a fool of myself.  I smiled because I anticipated his response and I knew Dex was the kind of person who I want on my team because of the compassion and sincerity in his reply for my feelings.

What Dexter and many others did not know was precisely what was the method of my madness.   What I have stumbled upon is incredibly important not only to me, but for my patients and mainly for you the readers of these words.  It is also some really complex and deep stuff.  Our neolithic modern world desires everything in sound bites and 140 character tweets these days.  I can not and do not believe  that I can convey what I think I have found with modern neolithic methods of communications.  I have been told by countless people like Dex, PH Patrik, and even Mark Sisson, recently that we have to tell the world what we know in a way they will best understand.  In fact, many Paleohackers told and scolded me the same warnings.  They took my responses as aloof and arrogant.  Typical of a CW doc, they said.  Never once did they think about the paradox of choice or of doubt…….Maybe using your own doubt and paradox of choice is precisely what I had in mind…….Maybe just maybe I decided to show some of us why we should remain consciously aware of how doubt can be the currency for the changes I seek in my world.   It might seem like insanity initially, until you understand why things happen.  When it came to my Quilt…….I made it tough by design to optimally teach all of you how to become the change we all seek.

There is  thread on PaleoHacks commenting about my cold thermogenesis protocol and a long time poster and doubter named Marie, honestly posted this quote,  “I’ve been reading his blog with great skepticism for some time…however, each “patch” of the Quilt he adds explains more, and more, why my 72 y/o mother has a 6 pack and I do not. Yes, Mom swims in cold water 3x a week for an hour and has done for the last 35 years. There is a fine line between genius and insanity and only time will tell upon which side Dr. K walks… – Marie 5 hours ago”

HOW CAN CW BE SO CONVENTIONAL AND STILL BE WRONG:

AND WHY WE QUESTION EVERYTHING?

Elizabeth Miller wrote this on my FB wall (https://www.facebook.com/drjackkruse), “ I’ve been wandering down the path of the role climate plays — I once saw a documentary of an expedition to the arctic where all the members had to do was deal with the cold — no work. And even though they ate thousands of calories more than usual — especially meat and fat — every single one of them lost gobs of weight. So I wonder if the diet one should eat should reflect not only one’s DNA (cold weather alleles) but also the climate one currently experiences. Maybe in a warm weather place like where I live (Los Angeles) where one does not need to generate as much heat as one would in a cold weather place, that too much fat in the diet might not be warranted. Here’s an interesting article: http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.0040032.”

Dave Mayo made the following observations after reading the PH comments I made in response and I quote, “ Interesting point. I think that the great deal of plasticity our DNA gives us is why we thrive, but what happens when the change in environment is greater than that which our epigenome allows or it occurs over a shorter period of time than it appears that epigenetic plasticity allows the programming to change (mother to child as opposed to grandmother to grandchild).”

I think Dave’s version of reality generally jives with what most think and what is published in our scientific literature.  But I think my response to him opened a discussion on choice, the paradox of choice and how the human brain actually works compared to how most think it works.  Moreover, because of this misunderstanding of how our brains really work from an evolutionary functional standpoint, there can be a mismatch that is in our blind spot.  It is at the core why our neolithic brains allow us to make decisions that subjugate out paleolithic genes all too often.  I use the reward theory of obesity and the safe starches theories in the blogosphere as my analogies to visualize the points for you here in this blog.

He followed that one up this, “From the research I’m reading (I’m a strength coach), you have to provide the proper resistance training stimulus if you want any of the starches to be safe and you have an easy time putting on weight. If you look at the research, obese people/Type 2 Diabetics tend to carry more Type IIx muscle fibers. It makes perfect sense because they tend to be primarily glycolytic and are rarely used in our current environment. They atrophy which leaves less active sites for glucose metabolism. Even better, a nice way to hasten the process if you are this genotype is to perform high intensity aerobic training chronically.”

I told Dave and the other commenters that I was going to hit on this topic in my new Paleo Summit podcast that is due to air on February 27^th with Sean Croxton.  You can register for it right here on my site so you wont miss it.

Some one else brought up food reward and safe starches and that is when I chimed in……..(I added some blackberries to my diet yesterday and the immediate effect was no sleep last night so I wrote this blog……..So I’m back to my old plan today)

I said, “Dave, you do react to these things if what those studies are based upon are using biochemistry that we use today……….what if I told you biochemistry can rewire just like the leptin receptor?  Might that shock you?   Moreover what does it mean for all your studies that you currently believe to be true for your clients?   Might there is a better way?  A way evolution figured out how to use the laws of quantum mechanics more efficiently to make biochemistry appear to rewire? And show you an more Optimal way?   FACTOR X……….GET SOME!  Question everything and always ask why……always embrace paradox.”

Karen Vaughn quickly jumped in and reported,  “I’ve fallen off the low carb wagon and have been struggling to get back on. I’ve noticed that since eating more bad carbs I feel more cold than I did a few weeks ago. Is this a coincidence or some sort of bad carb side affect? HMMM.”

I told her that she could go to the PHD or the reward method of” feeling” her way toward optimal…….or she can use the Primal Rx to optimal as I will lay out. I am going to show you precisely why the ketogenic paleo diet is the optimal diet.

Long time reader, Daniel Han jumped in and said, “I’m excited for the Paleo Summit and hearing you lecture Dr. Kruse!  IMO the optimal diet for nutrition and a low reward diet are two totally separate things, each with their own importance. one can be thin but not healthy by eating a bland diet, or eating healthy ingredients but not thin. I think that if one is overweight while eating a full Paleo diet, they should reduce the food reward by cooking plainly.……..

My response was pretty cutting,  but I was after all rewarded by safe starches last night and replied, “Reward is a dead concept to me…….” And I felt I owed him an explanation for why I said it.

IS REWARD/SS DEAD?

Now that quantum mechanics has crashed into modern biologic theory,  we have finally found out why we think the way we do with our brain. The neo-cortex of humans is the most amazing micro machine evolution has ever created. With its creation comes the ability of being consciously aware of our unconscious self and of new realities available to us. Quantum mechanics actually predicted this mathematically in the 1920′s but no one thought until recently to apply it to how our brain functions.  Having these abilities allows us to change our direction in any environment. The real human miracle of our minds is not that we can see the world as it is……but that we can see it as it is not, and then change it.  We must however be mindful that the conscious, deliberative mind is not the author of our most important decisions,  such as what diet to eat or what exercise  should I do and who should I date.

Instead, our ancient paleolithic brain based in the basal ganglia (paleo-cortex) is part of our old neural networked circuits that consciousness cannot access at all!  It can however, pull the strings of all of our behaviors, and more importantly our thoughts!   This part of the paleolithic brain runs on dopamine. This is the true reward part of the real story that you were not told. This part of our brain predicts how rewarding a choice will be. The word predicts means something is being left up to chance.  This is where Heisenberg principle shows up in modern biology.  For example, if I pick this this vegan sandwich, how rewarded might I become?  (Not very)  Our neolithic brain, however,  evaluates the current state of what has been experienced and coded for in our entire cortex over a life time and informs the paleolithic brain about the best course of action or options we have. Here choice comes into our equation again.  This means all thinking is based upon probabilites based upon what is in our current understanding of reality.

This implies if you you do not have a good foundation of experiences your decisions will be shoddy! This means that intelligence is a function of chance. It is not a function of genetics or anything else you have been told it was.  This is why Alzheimer;s patients improve cognition with exercise and movement.  Because the brain is experiencing new things to add to it new reality.  This is in complete alignment with Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics form 1925 that stumped Einstein. Even the master mind could not fathom it even though his magnificient organ was using it in  his head as he thought it.  That is the paradox of choice.  Our neolithic brain leaves many things up to chance but decides things based upon the best reality it can contemplate based upon what is has wired into it. When we become consciously aware of in our unconscious paleolithic brains existence can then be used to  transform our reality.   This is how transformation occurs.  This introduces another effect of quantum mechanics called a quantum leap or an alternative reality. Many do not appreciate how it applies to biology or thought but this is the spark of insight that people get before transforming events.  It occurs when the neolithic brain becomes aware of a new truth and it opens new rabbit holes in our imagination.  It creates the possibility of a new reality.  All these things are mathematically now worked out.  Biochemistry however has not worked any of it out.

It is precisely how the human brain is designed to work. But here is the paradox of the design most remain blind too all their life……..It is only later that people construct an explanation of their paleolithic brains snap choices using their neolithic brain ability to conceive of a new reality that may or may not be true.……..actually convincing themselves incorrectly that volition and logic were responsible for their beliefs or decisions when in reality……..they were not. They were always subject to the basic biology of the snap decision of their paleolithic brain and the rewards it was wired for.  Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book about this called Blink.

SO WHAT IS REWARD THEORY OF OBESITY?

The reward theory of obesity is the neolithic brain of a blogger trying to explain how the paleolithic chemistry of obesity operates. It is trying to make sense out of the multitudes of papers that are published.  All of them are based upon reductive thinking too.  The worse kind mind you.  The paleocortex includes the hypothalamus for those of you keeping score here.  My concept of obesity is a bit simplier…..it concerns itself with how we account for electrons from food at the leptin receptor. This is present in every eutherian mammal on this planet today.  That means evolution had a blueprint design for it.  End of report.  Now what is it is another story…….

In my clinical and personal experience,  obesity is an inflammatory disease of the brain……..the paleolithic brain called the hypothalamus that damages the leptin receptor. Once you become consciously aware that my reality might be true……..all things change. WHY?  Because this is how we account for electrons from food!  The reward tracts are fed afferent signal from the leptin receptor.  This is not a bidirectional neural circuit as some think it is.  It is a one way street.  This means that the reward tracts have zero influence on how we account for electrons from food.  Think of the implications of that when you ponder food reward theory.  Biology requires it and it is mandated by quantum mechanics and built into organic chemistries equations.  This also explains why people are getting better on my Leptin Rx reset and using cold thermogenesis. If you use food reward by itself it,  solves no clinical problems.  I know this because I have tried it several times.  This is how reductive thinking might lead to a miscalculation.   That is how I view it after deep reflection.

WHY SHOULD YOU QUESTION EVERYTHING YOU BELIEVE?

Thoughts form all our decisions……but our experiences hardwired into our neocortex determine our current reality of beliefs.  This can trip us up if those experiences turn out wrong.  Think statins, cholesterol, government spending…….you getting were I am headed now huh?  This is why CW is so common and yet so often wrong.  What we experience in our life socializes us to a belief system that is the jumping off point for how we view reality.  The coolest thing about how quantum physics impacts biology……..it mathematically showed that alternate realities were mathematically possible but no one quite fathomed it.  All one has to do is look at how the human brain works to see that evolution assimilated this into our brain by design.  Anything present in an organ level must be true on a subatomic level too.  So quantum mechanics theory wins another time.  We are just beginning to see how the application of quantum biology impacts human physiology.  The factor FACTOR X concept is tied to this phenomena too.

SO HOW CAN THINKING CHANGE OUR DNA?

Why can thinking change your DNA?  Consider the things I just wrote about and then consider this mental juxtaposition. What if we’re all dead wrong and our biochemistry is best adapted for cold environments but yet we live presently in a relatively warm world…….??? What if evolution to a cold thermogenic environment is our primordial condition? Cold-adapted, or psychrophilic organisms are able to thrive at low temperatures and in permanently cold environments.  What if we adapted to the warm of the modern world the last 2.5 million years but we are best adapted to live like the 90% of living things on this planet that live on it?   Yes 90% of life on our planet is cold adapted.  Let me be clear here.  I am not saying humans did not evolve out of Africa from Miocene Ape lineage (Dryopithecus ).  I believe they did.  But I think a case can be made that their best survival blueprint might be for a cold environment in spite of what the paleo hominid fossil records current report.  Why?    What if mother nature evolutionary blueprints plans differ from your thoughts as they exist today? To see a glimpse of why you might be off……consider that all scientists still believe modern day earth is in an ice age…..all be it at the end in the warming cycle that began 11,000 years ago. We know of many that have occurred since we evolved. What if I told you that your proteins and enzymes react completely 180 degrees opposite their current actions when you change a few things?  Might that change the picture of your understanding today?

Maybe modern day life is the ultimate biologic mismatch that we are currently unaware of? Yes a thought could change your DNA if you ponder a reality that is not currently in your conscious awareness.

My profession usually does not try to eliminate the impossible because we are trained to be logical and reductive thinkers……..but when I am stumped I think about the impossible and the links to the knowns I know……..then I deduce and I use connective thoughts……..when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth in my view. I think your neolithic brain could allow all of us to be making the same error……..a modern day Paleohacker error. I aim to show you why this might be case as I roll it out this year…………..Hey sign up for the Paleo Summit where I talk about this very issue with Sean Croxton on February 27^th!  The registration box is on my site on the top right!

CITES:

1.  http://sci.waikato.ac.nz/evolution/HumanEvolution.shtml

2.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1692995/pdf/12171655.pdf