READERS SUMMARY:
1. To discover the unknown we must use the known to guide our thoughts to see the future.
2. How should we think about evolution and health now? Counterintuitive is an axiomatic cognitive ability required for neurosurgical residency training and that is why I chose to tackle this problem in this fashion.
3. If we want to explore the mystery of our clade we need to go back to the things that separate us from them that we know to be true today. The knowns are that our EQ (encephalization quotient) exploded rapidly. WHY?
4. Is our past really our new prologue?
Todays blog is to show you how Factor X was made actionable in bring man from ape. Most of you know, I believe it was due to a faster epigenetic plan that altered the mammalian body plan. What most do not know it was the result of viral marketing. This is not the viral marketing of today’s social media platform. This is where viral marketing was truly invented. First created in our oceans, and eventually incorporated into the DNA of life. Do you think this hyperbole? One drop of sea water has a million bacteria and 10 million viruses. Link
When it hit the primate group in the East Africa Rift Zone, the world of biology changed suddenly. Moreover, when the world the apes found themselves in changed, it seems the primates were ready to take full advantage of it. Their previous circumstances of acquiring the ability to absorb viruses into their DNA without getting sick was the prerequisite for making a human. It appears Lucy and Ardi (transitional apes) did not triumph over their adversity then when they lived, but their ancestors found adversity turned into opportunity when the world finally adapted to them with climate change that happened in the East African Rift Zone 2.5 million years ago.
Hominids used a virus to leave Africa. Hyperlink
WHAT ARE THE BIOLOGIC KNOWNS OR VIRAL MARKETING IN SPECIATION AS OF TODAY: (SLIGHT GEEK ALERT)
Embrace the paradox that what at first glance looks like a disease…..a viral infection, might also an essential method of communication. It is the human version of UPS or the postal service for genes, in my view. Here are the ten concepts of how to make a human brain from a primate brain.
VIRAL MARKETING MADE A HUMAN BRAIN FROM A LEAKY GUT USING THESE 10 THINGS:
1. With the completion of the human genome project now behind us we can really examine the real differences in our molecular biology. At our gene level there is no clarity of what separates us because we share 99.5{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6} of the same coding DNA between primates and humans. This implied that our differences would not be found in our DNA.
2. There is radical changes in the X and Y chromosomes of humans. The Y chromosome genes code for few new things yet have a massive expansion of retroposons on it, and there is one in particular, that made the primate clade more susceptible to latent or persistent infections that were innocuous to our immune systems. This was called the HERV K virus. The acronym HERV, stands for human endogenous retrovirus. Make sure you really look at those highlighted links just posted. It maybe the most important links in this entire series. You might be asking, what do HERV do for us?
Why did Mother Nature conserve them to stay in our genome? HERV was related to modern day HIV. HIV seems like a bad disease to have these days doesn’t it? Since evolution made the decision to tote this virus in primate and human genome now for 30 million years ask yourself this instead, how might HERV be actually good for us?
This is where thinking like a neurosurgeon paid off for me. I began to accept their presence and explain it. So I went to the library back then because google was not so good back then, and I found out some remarkable things about HERV K. HERV K remnants in humans are expressed in bold amounts in pregnant women! They are specifically tied to the placenta’s energy production and leptin. They seem to allow women to produce defective viral particles apparently incapable of passing to another human host for some reason. This implied they did not cause any disease but were ‘taxi’d’ through time in our genome for some reason. I thought this was an odd trick of evolution, so I dug deeper. HERV seemed to be something queer, something that was awfully slick and completely counter-intuitive, yet it was somehow connected with HIV, a species-crossing retrovirus that had become one of the major health scourges on the planet in my training period as a resident.
I found out some more information that connected some bigger dots that challenged Darwin’s Theories on how we evolved. His big ideas like natural selection and random variation are intact, but the neo-Darwinian dogma of random mutation as a cause of all variation, without exception, has been proven dead wrong by the molecular gymnastics found in HERV elements in primates and humans genomes. The funny thing is few people know this even today. I decided to examine that further.
Then I found that HERV K is particularly conserved in all OldWorld primates that eventually became the forefathers of hominids and not in New World primates who stayed true to their primate lineage. In fact, a genome-wide comparison of the human mouse and marsupial mammalian genomes establishes that these non-genetic sequences not only are more distinguishing amongst these organisms, but, paradoxically, are also more conserved than are the coding sequences. You have to love paradox in biology to really understand her. We must welcome this paradox, because now we have some hope of making progress in evolutionary dogma destruction.
3. Viruses such as HIV and influenza A can evolve so quickly, evolutionary genetic changes are observed during the short duration of individual infections. Viruses clearly represent the leading edge of all evolving biological entities. It would stand to reason than since the fossil record established our presence from ape in record time, that maybe we co-apted this leading edge technology from these retrovirus’s and we used the gut microbiota as our agent in the cause. After all in life, a baby co apts its life form two organisms doesn’t it? Bacteria gain antibiotic resistants very quickly from epigenetic data and bacteriophage reconstruction of their own genome, so why couldn’t apes do the same? They had the capability because New World monkeys were chronically infected with HERV K, I thought.
4. Virus are highly related biologically to their host. This is by definition in all of biology. No radicalism here.
5. Viruses of bacteria, archaea, algae, fungi, aquatic invertebrates, insects, plants, amphibians, and mammals all have distinct patterns and relationships with their host. For example, in bacteria, the great majority of viruses are large double stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses. Similar dsDNA viruses are also found in algae, but absent from fungi and plants. Instead, fungi harbor dsRNA viruses, whereas flowering plants mostly harbor ssRNA viruses. In contrast, mammals show a strong tendency to infection with endogenous retroviruses as well. This difference really intrigued me because evolutionary biologists still have never figured out how flowering plants came to life. It appears they too are the result of viral marketing.
6. Hosts that are species diverse tend also to support diverse viruses, whereas hosts that are not diverse, but successful, tend to support few viruses. However, as will be developed below, viruses that are highly species-specific tend to be persistent viruses. Humans happen to favor species VERY specific viruses. This is why HIV has been particularly dominant in infecting humans world wide.
7. A selfish gene simply seeks its own maintenance. ‘Selfish genes’ have no phenotype or strategy associated with them and hence no direct consequence to host competition or evolution. Our genome does not operate this way from a molecular biologic standpoint. Dawkins is not a molecular biologist by the way either. We know this now, and did not know it when Dawkins proposed his selfish gene hypothesis years ago. (Yes, I believe Dawkins is wrong too!)
8. An assimilated retroviral viral gene requires the need to establish a strategy to assure its own maintenance. The best way to do it is to lose its virulence and become incorporated into the life cycle of the host in some innocuous way. It has to defend its King of the Hill dominance in the genome at all times. This feature is the crucial difference between the concept of persistence and the concept of selfish genes, which Dawkins has previously proposed to explain defective genetic parasites in the literature (transposons).
A persisting genetic parasite like a retroposon, must superimpose onto its host a new molecular genetic identity that compels persistence and precludes competition and displacement. How did we do this? I believe we did it by first transforming the endogenous gut bacteria genomes and then assimilating the non infectious genomic elements into our own DNA using our own gut immune system. This is why we have evolved a leaky gut and primates do not. I believe, developing this strategy is simply a molecular stroke of genius of precisely how a leaky gut and retrovirus work in human DNA today. As hard as this may be to swallow, viruses are precisely what made it easy for us to become human from ape!
9. Viral persistence is then often transmitted from old to young through the placenta, often during coitus or during childbirth. This explains why the human placenta is also loaded with retroviruses. Persistent genomic infections are usually life long events and generally show little if any disease in colonized host. This is commonly seen in humans today because they are colonized with Epstein Barr virus, Cytomegalovirus, And Herpes viruses one and two, like those that cause chicken pox. Other examples in our DNA are adenovirus, human polyomaviruses (JCV, BKV), human papillomaviruses, and the small TT virus. There is a very interesting part of this persistent viral marketing found in primates and humans. These viruses are all highly human-specific and often distributed in congruence with human racial and geographical patterns too. This explains why we see races and geographic differences in apes and humans. All of them also show some degree of co-evolution with human and other primate host as well.
10. Both viruses and transposable elements can be activated by stress-related chemistry, either in their capacity as selfish pathogens or as a stressed organism may be a weakened organism. These HERV’s may be as a beneficial regulator of gene expression as we see in epigenetics too. A stressed organism may often need to adapt its nature and behavior and HERV’s are it’s built in advantage to do so very well.
These ten points led me to this conclusion of how we become human, so fast, without using bone collectors data to slow me down and confuse the issues. Factor X was the driver to this viral marketing.
Viruses represent the ultimate genetic creators, inventing new genes in large numbers, some of which find their way into host lineages following stable viral colonization. Once they are assimilated into the genome they become jumping genes that affect the host hard DNA code to create better adaptations for survival. Dr. McClintock said in her Nobel Prize winning speech in 1983 that she believed that the jumping genes knew precisely where to go in the hosts genome to improve upon it as the environment changed. She had no idea how it worked but she observed that in times of stress of hormesis the jumping genes seemed to go to chromosomal loci that were not working well for the host organism. In other words, Mother Nature rolls the dice constantly until she rolls the winning combination. This is how natural selection works on a molecular basis. This is precisely what Werner Heisenberg predicted in his uncertainity principle in 1925, that I mentioned in Brain Gut 1. If you do not believe this is actually how molecular biology works in life, consider that one gene of the fruit fly is capable of producing 40,000 different proteins. Are you beginning to understand why modern medicine will never cure cancer given their current lines of thinking?
NON GEEK EXPLANANTION of the top 10 points above:
So what do all these ten keys to viral marketing mean to human evolution?
It means that means we have the same blueprint for the most part, in those mammals located close to use on our ‘phylogenetic tree of life’, but our genes are not that important at all as we have been led to believe! It means that what we do to those genes (epigenetics) is by far the most important factor in our evolution. In humans, nothing creates genes like a retrovirus. The proof is all over our genome when you look at it. The bone collectors spent too much time looking at bones and not enough on what really separates man from ape, their genome and epigenome.
That was my take home message from the human genome project and the chimp and gorilla genomes recently mapped. That viewpoint is very different from other view points in the blogosphere. Watson and Crick gave us genetic determinism theory. What I have shown you here blows that concept up completely.
The recent science of epigentics shows us that genes do not have discrete jobs at all as we have believed. Genes have the capability to make lots of diferent proteins by a “slick cutting and pasting” method to creates diversity. This diversity is precisely how humans can make millions of different antibodies to protect itself from all forms of pathogens. It is also precisly how we used our viral DNA to dramatically alter our skeletons to walk upright on two feet and change our pelvis to make headroom for our immature large brained infants. Our central nervous system genes were altered by this roll of the dice with an unusual and precise mix of dietary nutrients that caused the humans versions of brains to come to fruition. Looking at bones and social cultures all day long is not going to solve this puzzle. Looking at what we know to be true to today, and reconstructing things using this new perspective, however will paint you are far different picture than what Darwin or Raymond Dart had in mind for hominids. (humans)
The bone collectors were good people with bad data and the wrong perspective, and their methods hindered them in finding the real truth. Instead of using bones to reconstruct the history of life we needed to look at the difference in life using their own DNA today.
The retroposons in humans are like having our genome shuffled constantly by a casino dealer until we get the results we want. Once we have a winning hand based upon our current circumstance, we conserve it via natural selection and genomic permanence. This is why hemochromatosis, T1D, T2D, and perhaps obesity today are looked at as diseases when they may not be! Perhaps when we rolled the dice earlier in our evolution they were the answers to that days dilemas but our todays problems? Maybe they only became diseases when the situation in the environment changed?
I have mentioned elsewhere in the blog that in our modern world, humans are us losing black box radiation to the environment, meaning we are losing energy because of non native EMF. Using the science in this blog, this implies the epigenetic response would be obesity. Ironically, this is precisely the disease that is exploding in the world today, and no one seems to know why. I think I do. My belief’s are based upon Kleiber’s law, which evolution has used time and time again conserve energy, by fractal design, by becoming more energy efficient in an inefficient field. It does this by increasing our mass when energy drops for any reason at all. This is why an elephant has become so large living off nutrient poor grasses in Africa. It is also why a star gets larger when it begins to burn through all of its fuel. This is basic law of physics that biology also conserves using epigenetic modifications. Energy can change the structure of matter.
In my opinion, when the environment moves away from the factors that brought it on, modern humans look at the processes as a disease state. This is why I no longer look at diseases as many of my colleagues do. I also think about how to treat them a lot differently than I used to and how I was trained to think as well. That dealer, in this example, today is located on our Y chromosome. The large deck of cards we cut and splice is the retroposons of the viral RNA/DNA we stole from the oceanic environment via our gut flora. They easily become part of us because we are designed to have leaky guts to collect as many cards as we can because we evolved in a place that had ridiculously fast rapid changes epigenetically.
Are you with me now? Lets talk about the cradle of humanity now to bring it on home to your central nervous system to consider.
We evolved in the East African Rift Zone and it sits on three tectonic plates who have moved quite a bit since we first evolved. This rapid change has hidden our ascents secrets. The rapidity of the climate change also fueled the massive changes. Our guts became leaky because we began to assimilate virus’s from shellfish that were closely related to vibrio species who make a zonulin like toxin. The RNA from these genetic golden nuggets means that hominids are the result of “epigentic viral marketing“.
This area was very active during our evolution and cause massive environmental changes that Australopithecus afarensis would have had to deal with. 150 million years of mammalian spine evolution was given up in a couple of hundred thousand years so we could walk up right. There has to be a damn good evolutionary reason for this. To date, this question is avoided in most theories with one exception. That exception is the aquatic ape theory. Much of the morphologic changes espoused in this aquatic ape theory, I think are hogwash, but the major point it brings to the table is that water was a vital part of our evolution. Our foramen magnum (hole where our spinal cord leaves the brain to enter the spine) moved a massive amount from the posterior occipital bone of the skull to the undercarriage of our skull to facilitate bipedalism. Moroever, we know without a doubt from the fossil record, that bipedalism occurred before our massive encephalization occurred. In other words, bipedalism was a signal of what was to come because of the epigenetic signals the apes were facing in the Rift Zone 2.5-2 million years ago. What signaled that change? In my view it was the Epi-Paleo diet that became these apes main source of protein and fats. We will cover that aspect of this theory in future brain gut blogs as the series progresses.
Another one of my thought experiments comes into focus:
This begs the question, why are we all focusing in on the paleolithic template when the pot of gold maybe before this era when our guts first were naturally selected for leakiness? This made me wonder, was the current version of the paleo diet really the most Optimal diet for humans or do we just merely function better on it when we compare it to a post agricultural diet of today?. In my view, there is an Epi Paleo solution for modern humans where we may even do better than subsisting on a modern paleolithic diet? The reason for this is that we can never heal a leaky gut because a leaky gut is a human trait built in by evolution. This is why the paleo diet works because it limits its leakiness to reasonable levels but I don’t think it does for Optimal levels of functioning. Why? Our brain has been shrinking since the late paleolithic. This tells me we are moving away from optimal.
I look at this issue as an astrophysicist looks at the red and blue shift of a far away star. It is a major clue that what nutrient mix formed our brains is moving further from us. I mentioned this during my talks at Paleo-Fx in Austin, but no one asked me about it there. There are sometimes new foods lead to an expansion of a species dominance, but I think it is clear from Cordain’s work, we have been a species in decline for the last 13,000 years since the Younger Dryas. Many scientist believe the Young Dryas caused humans to innovate mastery over plants and usher in agriculture. Maybe eating an Epi-paleo template could offer us some benefits that today’s modern paleo diet is missing?
Are we a species of mediocrity now? The short answer I gave in the Paleo Summit was, yes we are. This series will expand on why I believe this is the case.
I think the current paleo diet is a great option for modern humans when you compare it to today’s standard western diet, but I do not think it is the best current option for hominids with a brain like ours. Why is that? It is because the epigenetic forces that carved our DNA and genome used specific nutrients at a specific time in ape evolution to sculpt some amazing changes to their biology that were forged from viral changes in the primate DNA template. To find out what the Epi Paleo Rx might be for modern man I looked at all the major difference that distinguished our species (homo) from the primates. When I did this thought exercise, I was left with several conclusions that I could not explain by the knowledge we knew in 2005.
The first big difference on my list was that hominids all had a leaky guts and not one other primate does. I learned about this in 1995 when Dr. Barry Marshall could not use primates to study H. pylori because the ultra stucture of the human gut and the primate gut is radically different. I wondered for ten years why this was the case since they were closely related to us on the tree of life.
HOW WE BECAME HUMAN IN LAYMAN ENGLISH:
The answer dawned on me one day, when I was reading about the immunology of autoimmune diseases. The difference was that the leaky gut was an adaptation that sculpted us from primates, by using rapid gene transfer from our gut flora to our own genome to cause a massive genetic assimilation of these retroviruses, while the food source became very nutrient dense simultaneously. It is my contention that the leaky gut set the table to get us from great ape to a bipedal mammal first, because of how the mammalian body blueprint is constructed by evolution. We went rapidly from Australopithecus afarensis (Lucy) to the encephalized Homo Habilis. From there the encephalization quotient rose based upon energy requirements of the brain, and this was provided by this new found ‘leaky gut’ and our deep source of nutrients in the Rift Zone. Initially, what limited our species was the narrow width of the pelvic girdle and the birth canal of females. Evolutionary development continued in the homo species by selecting for progeny born in a more primitive form compared to primates.
Chimps are born cognitively more mature but looking like starving anorexics, while human babies require maximum infant care and have rolls of abundant fat. The reason is simple. Humans need that subcutaneous fat to finish the myelin covering of brain tracts developing in the toddler using ketosis as its currency to do so. This also put selection bias on us to become even more social than our chimp ancestors because our offspring required more parenting because they infantile a lot longer postnatally. Our brain grows far more after we are born than any other mammal known and it also comes packaged with several unique adaptations to facilitate that brain growth from birth to maturity.
Our brain does not stop maturing until the 25th postnatal year when our orbital frontal bases become fully myelinated. This is the real reason why a 25 year old is not able to rent a car or hotel room until their 26th year. Prior to this year the orbital frontal lobes are immature and subject young humans to impulsive behavior. Once the area myelinates the young mammal’s behavior usually moderates.
How this process occurred is going to be fun to explore and the point of some conflict, I am sure. Optimal human brain energy dynamics is best in a ketogenic state in a cooler environment because of the unique characteristics of human cerebral metabolic oxygen demands in neurons. This is an area that neurosurgeons are experts in treating current humans. We use cold and ketosis to repair human brains every day.
Another Radical Idea: COLD AND KETOSIS ARE PRIMORDIAL FOR HOMINIDS. Neither one is hormetic…….they are primordial to Humans. this includes all humans because of how we evolved!
What we live in today, I believe is an hormetic environment of warmth caused by our own ability to control our environment, and it has caused our de-evolution so to speak over the last 13,000 years. Think that is radical? Consider that Cro-magnon man (also considered a homo sapien like us, for you bone collectors), our nearest homo ancestor had 130 grams more brain tissue than us! This marked the first, and only time, the brain got smaller in homo. Why? You need to ask yourself that now.
Now you can step into the Paleolithic. WHERE THE PALEO SOLUTION WAS BORN: Was it really a solution, or a survival strategy?
MY ANSWER IS WAS A SURVIVAL MOVE!!!!
WE LEFT OUR FORMATIVE ERA, AND OUR BEST EVOLUTIONARY SOLUTION, CALLED “EPI PALEO” DURING MASSIVE ENCEPHALIZATION BECAUSE OF CLIMATE CHANGE LIMITED OUR NUTRIENT RESOURCES TO RUN A BRAIN.
Examine the Younger Dryas where many scientists believe man moved away from the Hunter Gathering life style and to agriculture based system of food production. It was an environmental event that occurred that forced rapid climate change (extremely cold) and caused the extinction of all the great megafauna present on our continent in a snap of the fingers in geologic time and wpied out the Clovis. With a return to a sudden cold environment this would have selected for low appetite and low calorie consumption very similar to what we saw described in the CT -6 blog on the Ancient Pathway. How did humans survive it if their main source of food left them suddenly? They relied on the cold to destroy their hunger and leptin levels and they started eating plants and grasses like wheat. I believe this is when we began our de-evolution from Optimal, as we embraced an agrarian existence. We have continued that march to oblivion ever since. In other words, overnight, they became farmers over Hunter Gathers because they had too for survival. The Ancient Pathway allowed for them to survive because it is highly conserved in all eutherian mammals due to the K-T event that selected for placental based mammals.
They went to the most stable food source just not the best one they were adapted to. The megafauna never recovered either based upon the fossil records. Because of this, I think animal and ruminant meat is very good for humans, but seafood is far more nutritious for a large brained mammal. In fact this is precisely why our brain formed to begin with! Our brains, however, led us away from coastal plains to explore our world because of another viral mutation related to a retrovirus. This mutation seems to be tied to people with modern day ADHD! Here is another example of a good adaptation then gone bad today because the environment that selected for it has changed. I believe our species best food source still remains on the coastal plains of the East African Rift we left behind when we migrated out of Africa and away from the oceans.
Eventually when the story plays out, you might start realizing why cold thermogenesis is a lot more than just hormetic adaptation in the homo species as some have claimed it is. The presence of cold and marine seafood simultaneously was the major epigenetic signals that helped sculpt encephalization. The factors transmitted the biologic ability to our cranial cavities to facilitate growth, by way of the diets and temperatures, that altered our gut flora to induce genetic changes to facilitate epigenomic changes that favored the use a a group of nutrients and a large amount of one mineral to drive the “unintelligent design” of viral sculpting of our genome. It was the proverbial perfect storm to form a Hominid in Earth’s history at the precise right time in geologic terms.
That might be a neolithic thought that could subjugate your paleolithic genes since you are part of that species.
Thoughts to Ponder: The task of a genetic regulator (retrovirus) is to eliminate “environmental variation” as it comes at life to regain life’s stability, but this variation is the ultimate source of information that sustains life and determines that species survival. Therefore, the better the job a genetic regulator does, the less information it gets about how to improve itself further, and as such, it creates its own demise as change occurs again. This is precisely how an adaptation becomes a disease, in my opinion.
This is how aging also occurs in a biologic system. Planned obsolescence is built into the system of evolution. It seems to me, the next step is to evolve to find a regulator that operates in total environmental chaos and self selects its future based upon what is most likely to happen……..could diabetes, cancer, or HIV be that regulator for Homo? I’ll let you ponder that now.
I believe viruses may well be the unseen creator that most likely contributed greatly to making us human from transitional ape. Radical idea, you bet it is. But the science is there if you choose to look under the rock. The bone collectors and Darwin decided not to look here, and where has that gotten us? They still argue about bones and theories of who we are, when the answers have been sitting on our chromosomes now for 2.5 million years.
Our past, and homo’s prologue is fossilized in our modern genome…….not in our bones.
CITES:
1. http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1558228?uid=3739912&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=47699088818767
2. L.N Van de Lagemaat et al. 2005 Impact of transposable elements on the evolution of mammalian gene regulation. Cytogeneics genome Res. 110(1-4):342-52
3. Ryan, F. 2002. Darwin’s blind spot: evolution beyond natural selection. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
4. Griffiths, D. J. 2001. Endogenous retroviruses in the human genome sequence. Genome Biology 2001, 2(6):reviews1017.1–1017.5.
5. Katsanis, N., K. C. Worley, and J. R. Lupski. 2001. An evaluation of the draft human genome sequence. Nat. Genet. 29:88–91.
6. Bromham, L. 2002. The human zoo: Endogenous retroviruses in the human genome. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 17:91–97.
7.http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22989504 (leaky placenta)
This is like going from Newtonian physics to quantum field theory, only in a biochemical domain. Refreshing to see an embrace of complexity versus the mediocrity of determinism. Nice work, Jack. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
@Randy that really is a great way of looking at it……for too long we have not used evolutionary lens in medicine. Once we understand where we came from and why…….we can radically transform modern humans in our clinics. It is happening daily in my clinic these days. I just saw a spine fusion walk out door who was a T2D 6 months ago and is now cruising around with with aFBG at 84 and a HbA1C of 5.4.
Jack,
Thanks for the again very insightful blog post – definitely have some new things to ponder. If all humans have a leaky gut to some degree that can never be healed, I am assuming those of us having leaky gut issues (i.e autoimmune) have leakier guts than those without these issues. Obviously, an epi-paleo diet following the guidelines of your leaky gut protocol with an emphasis on seafood would be optimal. I assume that in someone with autoimmune issues, “forbidden” foods (such as eggs, nightshades, dairy,…) will never be able to be added back to the diet even after the leakiness is better controlled (reduction of symptoms, better lab values) – if one wants to be optimal. Is this correct?
@Melrito……not totally true. Some people in my clinic with AI have been able to go back on them once their labs have normalized……most are afraid to go back……but I believe the excessive permeability that modern life causes to our evolutionary designed leaky gut is possible.
Who knew that Hertz Rent A Car was on the leading edge of science!?
Oh my. I’m immersed in the Wikipedia article on endogenous retroviruses. I am … overwhelmed. Amylase, bile, autophagy, leptin receptors, phospholipase? Holy cow!
I don’t know which article to finish first, the WP or Jack’s blog!
@NonChalant…….you all wanted to know how Factor X is actionable…….Are you seeing the immensity it has for us now in modern healthcare? I have now for 7 years and it is what has caused me to change my thoughts on how and what I do to help humans
some deep stuff here! — read it twice and need to read it again!
but I was wondering Dr. Kruse, do you use Oxytocin as part of your BHRT treatment? (and whether it’s yes or no, would you offer your thoughts as to your position?)
I ask, because they’re using Oxytocin on the west coast (Dr. Hall said she’s been using it for 10 years in her practice) with astonishly good results — and when I went over to Pub Med to look at what was there — there are studies showing oxytocin supplementation works for aniety and also per one study induced weightloss in “leptin-receptor deficient rats…” and I wondered if you use this as a component of BHRT
thanks for your thoughts!
Christy
@Chris This blog post is so important I can not stress it enough. It is a game changer moment to biology and to medicine. It is how Factor X changed primate to man…….and how it accomplished it determines how healthcare should consider treating the modern neolithic diseases of man.
Just look at this post today…….post 6/21/2012:
http://www.lef.org/news/LefDailyNews.htm?NewsID=13975&Section=DISEASE&utm_source=DailyHealthBulletin&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Disease&utm_content=Body+ContinueReading&utm_campaign=DHB_120622&fb_source=message
I have been saying this stuff for 7 years and I have been treating people in this fashion for 7 years. Medicine needs to use evolutionary biology as its epistemologic foundational principle!!!! This post brings it on home.
Oxytocin is part of it but it needs to be used rarely because once the other hormones are brought to allostasis oxytocin jumps into line most often without any cajoling needed.
Feel like Alice in Wonderland. Now cancer is no longer a disease and I am a fish. And God is a retrovirus.
This is really the foundation for a new science of health. I will spend this weekend thinking it over.
You changed my entire perspective on health and I am exited about it.
This site will be the homepage in my browser 😉
@Andre This is how I felt 7 years ago when I stumbled into this paradigm curing my own obesity. But Andre I said in CT 1 or 2 that cancer was not a disease…….now I just showing you why!
I found this while I was searching re Bonobos for Brain Gut 1. Brain Gut 2 prompted me to look it up again:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natasha_(monkey)
In 2004 Natasha, a maqaque, began walking upright all the time after a stomach flu almost killed her. Her doctors think it’s due to brain damage. The story got me to wondering if something similar happened to our ancestors.
It’s the why part that is so important to me. So much BS going around on the internet. I can only accept new ideas when it makes sense in a logical way. That’s why I love this site so much; you give the full explanation.
@ Andre. If you go back and read my genesis post in this blog it talks about the WHY. https://jackkruse.com/optimized-life-cenegenics-weight-loss-bioidentical-hormone-replacement-growth-hormone/
To fix man in healthcare we need to understand who we are. (Brain Gut 1). The miracle of life is that it happens all around us but it is given labels and words by scientists and doctors. These words are diseases and illness and medicines and treatments. In those words and labels we develop the thoughts this is how life is defined. We may gain knowledge this way, but we also lose the wisdom of what life really consists of. That wisdom remains in the blind spot between perception and interpretation. We must not become jailed by these, but modern medicine and beliefs have done just that to us. Those illusory concepts of what health and disease are become an optical illusion for our conscious reality. What follows is that our reality become a reflection of the original illusion and not of evolutions true reality. We must strive for what we really are no matter where it takes us. If you recognize the illusion as an illusion then it disappears from your mind. That is why happened to me 7 years ago. The problem is that that illusion remained the public’s reality and healthcare’s current mindset. To navigate these waters required extraordinary navigation skills. When you know who we really are it allows you to recognize our reality and destroy that illusion. The illusions survival depends upon society mistaking it for evolutionary reality. This must stop, otherwise remain healers lost in entropy.
When we see who we are and precisely who we are not, the reality of who we really are emerges and from that tipping point……..I can treat you successfully as a physician who uses evolutionary biology as my epistemologic foundation of understanding to keep you healthy.
If a ketogenic diet and CT are the only options for overcoming our mediocrity as a species, then to me this is not real hopeful. Since we all have leaky guts to some extent,
it seems as though its a constant up hill battle and that ‘optimal’ is only possible with a life long ketogenic diet and CT. Were is the pot of leptin gold at the end of the rainbow?
Our culture is not conducive to a ketogenic diet, just try eating out. Optimal seems rather illusive for the long haul.
@shilohman you have missed it…….that is not what I am saying. You need to look at what forces created us from apes and seek to optimize them to remain as you were optimally designed.
GODSMACKED. WOW.
The perfect storm: Leaky Guts + Virus/bacteria DNA/RNA + Seafood (naturally high in O3s)+ cold/wet climate = genomic/epigenomic modifications, that brought us here today.
so simple, yet complex at the same time. This has serious ramifications in the treatment of disease.
So, Optimal health requires an abundance of seafood, ketosis, and cold.
Additionally, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Asthma, hemochrotosis, and all other “neolithic diseases” are former adaptations needed for survival, that haven’t received the “upgrade” in the genetic code thus their perception as a disease. potentially HIV is the upgrade to the genetic code… WOW…
@Gretchen You got it….shilohman missed it. You two need to talk…….LOL
@ Jack, just last week one of the finest documentaries that I have seen popped up on tv. Its the third and last in the series. Its subject is how smart plants are and some evolutionary milestones. He might be a great person to do a documentary with on your observations! http://www.abc.net.au/iview/#/view/23272
Dr Kruse, that Life Extension article proves yet again, you’re way ahead of the curve! — making us the very fortunate beneficiaries here 🙂
and thanks for your thoughts on oxytocin – because I’d wondered if perhaps in something like Fibromyalgia, due to HPA axis issues and leptin receptor defect/LR, if oxytocin supplementation would be advantageous by giving an additional push towards healing and weightloss, while the body was coming into allostasis.
Christy
Doh, I did totally miss it. Gotta go back re-read.
Jack, Amazing stuff. After my third read of this blog posting today, I continue to pick up insights and hints. Near the end of the blog you mention “…use a a group of nutrients and a large amount of one mineral to drive the “unintelligent design” …”
Just to be clear, I think you are referring to seafood as the group of nutrients, and I am less sure about the one mineral. There are over 4,000 minerals, so which one specifically was crucial to the jump from primate to big-brained hominids? Probably intuitively obvious to the most casual observer, but,…. This is really profound stuff and the de-evolution piece is really disturbing. Maybe that is why I can’t think of the correct mineral. LOL. I’m sure MJ and Gretchen know!!!
I hope you have all of this in your forthcoming book(s).
@Randy I promise you when we get to how evolution actually builds a brain you will see how it altered the mammalian body plan using fractal geometry
Assimilation of viruses directly into the collective body. Wow! We are the BORG! You couldn’t write a better sci-fi story! And because we have by nature a leaky gut, resistance is futile! You couldn’t make this stuff up even if you tried! The dimensions to this are astronomical. Just considering the total number of possible proteins combined with the tens of thousands, if not more ways to fold them, you get really, really big numbers on the possible combinations and interactions. Mindboggling! And we have barely scratched the surface on comprehending the implications. This century may have started out as the information technology century but it will end as the century of biological revolution, dragging medicine along with it. The power of evolution is truly spectacular. Thanks, Jack, for bringing clarity to the mosaic (or, as some would say, connecting the dots).
@Randy It amazes me how this paleo community can claim evolution as their own and get sucked into the bone collectors nonsense for a long time……the answers to the puzle of us is on our genome compared to the primate genome. When that came out in 2009…….the implications were immediate to me. If you look at what we know and follow it back to them………how it happened was pretty clear.
Oops. Apparently I ascribed the acquatic ape hypothysis to the wrong scientist in the Brain Gut 1 thread. It’s Elaine Morgan.
….Brilliant theory.
“Abundance of seafood” is just what we don’t have these days. Most major fishery stocks are either threatened or collapsed. The Atlantic cod will probably not return in our lifetimes, since its econiche has been taken over by other sealife such as jellyfish. The top-of-the-foodchain fish such as tuna and swordfish are not only threatened but polluted with mercury.
Farmed seafood including shrimp (most shrimp is farmed these days) are treated with antibiotics that are not even considered safe for human consumption. And they are fed on grains if possible, and on smaller fish for carnivorous farmed fish.
Does anyone else here think this is a problem? What humans could eat when there were a few thousand, or even a few million of them in the world, isn’t the same when there are 7 billion people with factory ships vacuuming up the ocean. The ocean is not inexhaustible.
@LynnetLocal It is a problem……but what if I told you polluted seafood maybe still better than grass fed meat? The only grass fed meat that can give “bad seafood” a run is offal for nutrient density. There is still enough seafood to sustain a smart human on the epi paleo template especially if you’re trying to reverse a disease process.
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Gretchen- “cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Asthma, hemochrotosis, and all other “neolithic diseases” are former adaptations needed for survival, that haven’t received the “upgrade” in the genetic code thus their perception as a disease. potentially HIV is the upgrade to the genetic code… WOW…”
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Wow is right.
Okay, this requires somebody to be the bad guy and discuss what embarrasses most people. If this sort of thing has happened several times before in human evolution, it would explain a longstanding paradox: How does a preference for homosexual sex pass itself down our bloodlines if it produces no offspring? If viruses are transcribed onto our DNA through male homosexual sex, and this transcription method represents the fastest method of making wholesale environmental adaptations, then homosexuality and bisexuality represent a fast way for humans to manifest rapid, wholesale adaptation to new environments. Homosexuals represent a population which mutates and incubates diseases and transcription methods. Then bisexuals among the homosexual group propagate the changes to their offspring.
This says things to individuals about protecting themselves and their families which reach far beyond diet.
Homosexuality and bisexuality are incrementally higher among people who are *born* in high population density. The higher the population density, the greater the homosexual percentage. This says that homosexuals aren’t “born that way”, at least through genetics. But it does say that homosexuality naturally presents itself more as disease transmission rates increase.
I forget the scientist’s name. He is much maligned among the mainstream homosexual community. He claims that homosexuality is actually caused by diseases ……the cliched “catching the gay”. He may deserve a second look.
http://www.helium.com/items/314512-what-is-peripheral-neuropathy?page=1
@Bob that is a post for down the road…..the implication of this inherent biologic sensitivity to all retroviruses by primates is going to be real tough for many to swallow. Not only does it blow creationism of man out the water, but its implications for “current religious sexual taboo’s” goes places this blogger does not want to go, just yet…….but I am glad to see my readers minds are working through this data implications and now we have an explanation why evolution conserves the things it does that on the surface seem counter intuitive……..Great comment.
@Bob Here is a bigger twist for you to chew on this weekend………..in one of your earlier comments we talked about the speed of evolution and how it wipes our the present species as it shuffles the deck to get to a new answer……Think about HIV for a minute. In the 1980’s in the US it did just that…….but then we found great drugs that have allowed humans here to live with the virus in an indolent fashion……no one dies any longer of AIDS these days in the states. But in Africa they have a different strain and they are poor and do not have access to the drugs……so the disease has progressed how evolution says it should…….even in Africa there are now reports of humans now immune to HIV 1 and 2 naturally……..This means they have assimilated the HIV genome and can add it to their chromosomes to speed up their epigenetic programs…….to solve other problems they face today…….it implies that our species may now have a break point from our tree that could take us to a new species. In the USA the survivors of HIW with drugs might break off and form another version of homo sapien species…….and those without HIV at all may remain homo sapien going forward…….we are seeing live evolution of our own family tree occurring right in front of us………and we are not aware of it. Just think back to the blog of the new world and old world monkeys…….what delinates them? HERV K being present or not. Those that had it became us…….those did not remain tree dwellers…………Now think about what HIV might mean to the Homo Sapien species in that light? How are those thoughts for implications now…….?
@Jack- Okay, subject dropped ….even if this whole premise is a funnel into the subject.
Clarification: The “homosexuality as a disease” scientist I referred to might be Simon LeVay.
http://home.planet.nl/~gkorthof/backup/An_Evolutionary_Look_at_Human_Homosexuality.htm
@Bob it maybe from a virus…….but the greater point is that is serves a major purpose of preserving genomic transposons……so that when the world changes in the future…..as it did in the East African Rift…….and say it favors those with HIV reshuffling, how ironic would it be if the new speciation follows that tree……..and then that clade has to revert back to heterosexuality to propagate? It sounds nuts until you actually think about the massive implications……It is mind boggling really
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Jack- “Just think back to the blog of the new world and old world monkeys…….what delinates them? HERV K being present or not. Those that had it became us…….those did not remain tree dwellers…………Now think about what HIV might mean to the Homo Sapien species in that light? How are those thoughts for implications now…….?”
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I believe continents drifting apart and forming separate environmental zones played a big part in isolating new world monkeys from old world monkeys. If our continents drifted apart, that might take human evolution along the same separation pathways. Warming climates and commingling tend to funnel evolution into narrow pathways. Mamoths, mastadons and Neanderthals are extinct. But elephants and people live on.
@Bob On the back of swimming elephants we made it to far away places to thrive…..Iberia and Asia for one and two. And as for Primates……I think HERV K is the major factor, not continental movements…..Africa was in one piece for our evolution and we know that to be solid info…….but something happened at the juncture of three tectonic plates and that something is coming live to you in BG3 with massive amount of proof.
Show me a land mammal from the front, and I’ll show you two gaping nostrils. Show me a mammal with any other nose format, and I’ll show you a marine/aquatic mammal.
Can one fish from an elephant? Where can I contact a mahout about chartering a party elephant?
What are the implications in the genome with the widespread use of viral vaccines, especially the one for young girls to innoculate against HPV?
@Terry……no one knows…..but once you understand this science it makes you think deeply about this specific vaccine……..Right now I have a young daughter and I have not decided yet if she will get it.
@Missy Thanks for the email and I certainly will address it here. I disagree with your claim. This is not my position that we are made by viruses. It is now a known biologic fact far removed from me discovering it……it’s just not well known by the masses. When I became aware of it I knew it had to mean something bigger than I had ever thought. This shocked me and my own ego when I found out about it in 2005, because it made me self aware that I was the product of viral randomness from Africa. I do not think the main panel of the Sistine Chapel reflects this awareness at all.
I would say it awoken me to a new self awareness for our species. In that self awareness, and not through my own thoughts, I began to be able to differentiate the evolutionary facts from the fiction I was taught by the bone collectors as a child. That was the only way I think it was visible to me……and it was damn shocking because I never saw it coming. When the primate genomes were also sequenced and matched this awareness……well, I was floored. Everything I was taught in med school, religion, and philosophy was blown up in 5 minutes. It took me weeks to realize the magnitude. My human ego almost made me defend the illusions I was taught as a child and in all my schooling.
After this happened I began to question every single aspect of my beliefs and my life to see if there was an awareness that was blinding me about other things in biology and I found there were…….this is when I realized epigenetic mismatches are what really are killing us as a species. I was not offended by question at all.
Unimpeachable rule: The vehicle for needed adaptation must not kill the women who pass the adaptations along to their children. Women are required for birthing and raising the inheriting children.
There are a few pathways for behavior, diet and disease to transform our epigenetic makeup, and pass it along via Lamarckian inheritance. The pathways differ between men and women. Women’s epigenetic conveyance is determined prior to ova maturation at ages 11 to 14. Men’s epigenetic conveyance changes throughout life. More time over the target provides more chances for transposition, mutation and conveyance.
…….and more chances to die. But in the overall species outcome men dying means little. Epigenetic conveyance only takes a few minutes for men. After that men are no longer needed.
@Bob this is true because anytime there is an epigenetic stressor we see more females born…..no one knows why. I have a few thoughts about it. After 9/11 there were more spontaneous abortions of males fetus in California……..not in NYC. That is some major epigenetic mojo there due to cortisol……it appears wired into the DNA and we need to understand it if we are to understand transgenerational epigenetics in totality.
“Some people in my clinic with AI have been able to go back on them once their labs have normalized……most are afraid to go back……but I believe the excessive permeability that modern life causes to our evolutionary designed leaky gut is possible.”
I’ve wondered this, too, with my M.S. So which labs would show ‘normalized?’
(MS diagnosis 22 years ago)
@LinD re myelination of the white matter tracts over time of your serial MRI’s No neuronal/myelin breakdown products in your CSF, and improvement of visual evoked potentials from baselines. Improvement in all neuro-cognitive batteries given by the neurologist who treat these conditions would be some of the top of my head.
Off topic question:
In regards to fat deposition in the appropriate places for a female, I wonder about that extra bit of fat around the knee/side or back of lower thigh and hip. It’s not the ‘normal’ area for fat deposition like upper hips and thighs, so was wondering what is that about?
Do you recommend being more aggressive with spot CT in that area? (Again, it’s more around the knee joint area and the part that’s SUPPOSED to be more sinew-y, but is not b/c of that last bit of fat layer that never shrinks).
Thanks. O, and if this is related to any oddities inside the body or if it’s normal.
@Zorica You can spot deep CT it. I talked about that in my Deep CT webinar that you can listen to on my site if you are a member. Or you look into hormone sensitive lipase or lipoprotein lipase and how it interacts with low Pg/E2 ratios because this is why ladies get it…….This will be a hot topic I am sure on my June 30th Webinar coming up. During the adolescent growth spurt, the rate of fat increase in girls almost doubles that of boys. It is marked by more and larger fat cells, and it is seen mostly in the gluteal-femoral area–pelvis, buttocks and thighs–and, to a much lesser extent, in the breasts. This general acceleration in body fat accumulation, particularly sex-specific fat, is attributed mostly to changes in female hormone levels. After adolescence, the accumulation of sex-specific fat more or less stops, or decreases dramatically, in healthy-weight women, and there is usually no further increase in the number of fat cells. Fat cells in males also do not tend to multiply after adolescence.
As most women know, it is more difficult to shed fat from the pelvis, buttocks and thighs than it is to trim down other areas of the body. During lactation, however, sex-specific fat cells are not so stubborn. They increase their fat-releasing activity and decrease their storage capacity, while at the same time fat storage increases in the mammary adipose tissue. This suggests that there is a physiological advantage to sex-specific fat. The fat stored around the pelvis, buttocks and thighs of women appears to act as reserve storage for the energy demands of lactation. This would seem to be particularly true for habitually undernourished females. Many ladies report this stubborn fat goes away when they use HCG as well. I have no experience with this at all but this is what they have told me.
Great series Jack, I am on the edge of my keyboard!
Back in February, a blogger wrote an interesting post reviewing the book Why Women Need Fat
In there, the authors contend that the main reason for the female gluteal-femoral area fat storage is not just energy, but as a reserve of omega 3 DHA – that fat contains more stored DHA than any other body fat. During late pregnancy and breastfeeding, this fat is then used to supply DHA to the baby. Male fat does not have nearly as much DHA, as it is not needed for this purpose. The research paper is
here.
When women go on what I call “rabbit food diets” (vegan or ultra low fat), they seem to lose fat from anywhere *but* the hips/butt/thighs, which are exactly the places that their body stores the most essential nutrients. When they got extreme enough to start losing the fat from these places, some of them stop menstruating – their body is now in survival mode. A former anorexic told her story of that on Mark’s Daily Apple a few weeks ago.
Low fat dieting is war on our own bodies – male or female – it is tragic that this is still encouraged by governments, and society in general.
Those of us that have embraced the healthy fats (not the seed oils) are the better off for it – it has always been thus.
@Paul N I promise I have lots more answers to your questions. This series is massive. I believe evolution of the human brain is really shows why humans all need fat. Some bloggers love the “bone collectors” and the scientists that live in “theories about primate and human morphology”……..soon you will see why I dont any longer. In the first two blogs I have already shown you much of what the bone collectors have said is just illusion of their own perceptions. My words are pointing at what the science says. We are a product of viral marketing and the story is going to stir up a lot more than you think.
I am not sure if there is some confusion regarding my question above. I read your response, and indeed I will use deep CT for those specific spots.
I need to clarify that I’m not talking about the natural female fat depots. For me I feel like I have cleared up any excess E2 which is evidenced by my breasts reducing from a swollen C to a comfortable B. My butt and upper hips have reduced as well, yet still maintain a nice female shape. My bottom is like ‘apple bottom’, which means it’s firm and lifted. My inner thighs are good too, and they don’t seem to be excessively too small.
My specific area of concern was the very bottom of the thigh where it is meeting up with the knee joint. Normally this area is supposed to be sinewy (even on over weight people, I can see that their knee areas are actually BONEY and much thinner than mine, even if their upper thighs, hips, butt, belly etc. are clearly overweight.)
Sorry for any confusion. Yes, indeed I love retaining a feminine curve. Also, I’m not too thin at all, but I am wondering why my period is not coming since May 7th. Even when I was unwell last year and lost weight (from body rejecting food to then gaining, I always had a ‘somewhat’ normal cycle if albeit quite long.) I don’t want to be harming myself here. I’ll wait until July before I get ‘too’ worried.
Thanks.
p.s. I am signing up as a member in the Fall when I’m working. I am living proof that you can’t make excuses to get healthy b/c of ‘it’s too expensive’. It just means it’s a bit harder, and a bit more ‘shooting in the dark’.
@Zorica I think I understood you well……distal knee fat is tied to hormones…….and you just told us that your period is irregular…….I did not know that until now. Guess what that means? It means you have a PG/E 2 issue that will affect your knee/thigh fat. It all fits. CT will help but you need your hormones checked for sure cause something is off.
Thanks so much!! I will for sure get my hormones checked. No excuses. I did as much as I can by doing keto/paleo + seafood and the CT since late February. I really feel accomplished because I have corrected a lot of things already. I also stopped a HUGE hormonal cascade from exploding. I didn’t realize that I could still be off though 4 months later with the results I have achieved.
Testing, testing, testing.
Thanks again!
@Zorica As this series goes on you will see just how important a few things are to a human.
Jack, a couple of questions. First, can some of these assimilated viruses result in adaptations that lengthen telomeres. Seems that viruses are typically viewed as shortening life (making one sick), but could the assimilation result in a biochemistry that results in lengthening telomeres (making one not sick, but actually resistant to “aging.”)
Second, why don’t we just assimilate the cold and flu viruses and get rid of that nuisance, or is that process already in play, or are those viruses just different enough not to be good candidates for assimilation?
This stuff is mind-blowing.
@Randall
1. I think we can because of Tanaka’s work on the Okinawans. He showed ten to 15 yrs ago their longevity is 100% tied to having a less leaky cytochrome 1 on their mitochondria and not their diet as we all believed. This makes them less leaky to ROS and it protects their mitochondrial DNA better than any other human. In fact every centenarian from this area of Japan who as been tested has this allele. I think they got it from a retrovirus form their raw seafood consumption, because this ability is tied to a retrotransposon they have and no other humans do. No other geographic region of humans has been found to have it as of 2012. I mentioned this at my Paleo fx talk and it should be in the DVD set. It was also reported in The Lancet in ’99 I think and I think Nick Lane wrote about it in one of his books in 2003 or 04 Edit: Read this blog I put it in here a year ago: https://jackkruse.com/why-we-die-and-why-we-live/
2. Ever think that maybe they are being used for something good and maybe that is why we still have not cured them? I believe that we use simple rotovirus to cleanse the virulence from new retroviruses we assimilate. There is some evidence that this is how some humans developed immunity to HIV, but that is being worked upon. They may scrub the transposable viral elements of their disease causing properties to reshuffle the deck and allow us to use them in proactive way eventually……. The jury is out but who would have thought 15 yrs ago there was no significant genetic difference between us chimps outside of retroviral DNA on our sex chromosomes? This information has turned molecular evolutionary biology upside down in the last 3 years.
Randy go back to the Quilt and read levee one…….the surrounding cellular terroir = epigenetics………feeling me yet?
Wow, your response to Randall is awesome! I was starting to think regarding the Okinawans about less toxins in their diet (their higher carb diet)…but the allele you speak of I think is a much better explanation. …and…they eat seafood.
@Zorica I mentioned this at Paleo fx and it was like no one got it………I wrote that blog about it a year ago but it only got like ten comments……but it is a critical part of the story. Mitochondria are foundational to brain function. You cant have a brain working well with bad mitochondria.
…following up on Missy’s post, do you believe in God, and Jesus? I don’t actually see any of this conflicting with the Bible personally, but have always been interested in your philosophy here…if this isn’t too personal.
@Coldbren yes I believe in God but not a lot of the other nonsense that comes with it.
“You cant have a brain working well with bad mitochondria.”
Indeed, and Dr Terry Wahls in her great TED talk showed how getting the mitochondria working, can get a defective brain working again too.
She has been ignored by most of the “experts” of course….
Her diet, while a maybe bit veggie heavy, clearly improved things dramatically. No grains, no sugar, minimal omega-6, and lots of meats, organ meats and fish.
This may not be exactly the optimal diet, but its gotta be pretty close – maybe just add eggs (to which she was intolerant) and the occasional red wine?
Thanks for linking back to your old post – it is all starting to make sense now!
@Paul N you’ll be happy to know Terry has been reading the blogs and we have been communicating back and fro on them.
@coldbren
Jack has mentioned that the Vatican may not like this series or blog but he still goes to church in the last blog post.
@Tom I cant imagine Rome is too happy if I am right.
I saw that…..but that is a different answer than my question.
@Cold Bren I dont think it really is a different question. Somebody had to put it here…….and then do it in a way to confuse us. Singularity or not…..
After months of immersion I am back to taking cold showers and have been noticing that the cold water feels different as it flows over different parts of my body. Then I remembered dermatomes. It’s almost like I can map dermatomes from the differing sensations on my skin. Fun. Is this useful in any way or just an interesting phenomena?
@Dali I have found the same thing myself and I actually mention it in a passage in my book. I am not sure precisely why but it is something I am watching for and studying.
Confuse us, or leave us clues….in amazing ways..everything you reveal makes me more thankful for a path to health and to who we are. I love it!
Fascinating stuff, Dr. Kruse.
I’m concerned about the direction the data is leading us in regards to seafood. We as a species are painting ourselves into a corner by allowing the oceans to be trashed in many different ways. The more of us realize how vital seafood is, therefore eating more of it, the more urgent this problem of sustainable supply becomes.
* there are too many of us taking from a finite resource already, so the fisheries are collapsing one after another.
* our ways of fishing, like our ways of farming, have more to do with immediate profit than with sustainability.
* we burn trainloads of coal day after day, dumping mercury in our environment. We really could move on from this dirty and obsolete technology, if we made it a higher priority.
* global warming, pH changes, untold metric tons of plastic in the Pacific Gyre (everything goes downhill long-term, so more and more ends up in the ocean), dead zones at the ends of rivers from the feedlots upstream, agrichemicals in the water.
Anyway, we are up against another trap similar to the trap of early farming cultures — much worse off than they were as hunter-gatherers, but they needed the increased amount of food so they couldn’t go back.
It seems to me that we should be working a lot harder on managing the oceans better, and also on determining how to best get the benefits of seafood while making the smallest impact on the life of the oceans — or we may find at some point that we have eaten our own future by enjoying as much seafood as our epi-paleo hands can get get hold of.
Low impact marine resource? Krill oil?
P.S. The sweet potato experiment had to be put on hold, unfortunately. My stamina was better, my mood was good, and my weight seemed stable to slowly decreasing — till the daily starch got my irritable bowels and leaky gut going, just in time for hay fever season. I’m going to try again later, using less per day, and lots and lots of fermented food and probiotics. So, I have not yet mastered the art of getting along with “healthy high fiber vegetables.” I have tried for decades, but met with failure over and over again. The SCD diet truly cured my hay fever three years ago — sweet potatoes forbidden. I’m SCD compliant for now.
@Susan Kline
Low impact marine resource? Krill oil?
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Lots of krills are out there, I think we should eat it whole.
.
Ref. 54. Jack, thanks for the thoughtful response to my questions. I did go back and reread Levee 1. Yep, I am feeling you now. I can remember several years back when I first heard of protein folding, and that the genome was an easy code to break so to speak compared to the complexity of understanding the possible results or outcomes of the enormous number of possibilities presented by literally trillions of folded protein combinations. I knew then that the CW explanations of the time (and they haven’t changed much) were pretty much infantile BS compared to what was probably the truth. Your post here has certainly confirmed my belief that we are but scratching the surface on all of this. But, it is in such an interesting direction on how man evolved and is evolving.
There is a very interesting book recently published–Turing’s Cathedral” by George Dyson–that tells the story of how nuclear weapons and computers co-evolved. It was around this time also that the DNA helix was “discovered” by Watson and Crick, 1953. The three significant technical revolutions then were the invention of thermonuclear weapons, stored-program computers, and the elucidation of how life codes itself, it’s instructions, as strings of DNA. Everything changed, and we see that even now in the explosion of biotechnologies, driven a significant amount from the ability to “computerize” the investigation of life’s codes. I think what has been lacking is that overarching theory that can unify the various bits and pieces (pun intended) to make sense of it all. I think what you are presenting is fundamental to that unifying theory about life, evolution, and man. It certainly provides a basis to think differently about the universe, possible life on Europa, and life across the universe in general. Great stuff!!
@Randy if I am correct Europa and Titan with their oceans are likely where life might be found because all that is needed for life is sun and AA and water……and it appears those things are all on both moons.
So, I’m reading the autoimmune chapter of Cordain’s Paleo answer and I’m hit by a thunderbolt (figuratively).
Jack – if by design we have leaky guts, and those leaky guts allow the Viral/Bacterial DNA/RNA into our system how does the Vagus nerve, and the Brain fit into all of this? (Besides the seafood providing the nutrients and the viruses/bacteria that spurred Brain growth)
What I’m getting at, is the vagus nerve the highspeed internet that’s assisting the assimilation/replication into our DNA or is there something else going on here?
when the gut works correctly, w/proper amount of Leaky Gut, the brain is optimal (this assumes their are no other issues) and the vagus nerve is the communications pathway btwn the 2. If there’s an imbalance in the gut (excessive permeability) a whole host of issues arise that directly impact brain function, and management of the body by that organ.
I’m sensing there’s something very important here I’m missing… but that maybe because you haven’t unveiled it as of yet…
@Gretchen…….you are getting ahead of the series. You will really like BG 4 AND BG5. BG5 might blow your mind.
Sigh, I’m still here and still reading. Quest labs only does HSCRP from cerebrospinal fluid. I’ll visit the Dr. tomorrow. It doesn’t help to get subsidized health care if one can’t get the right and/or available tests anyway. At least my DHEAS is up to 400. Am I correct that I should ask her to draw a female hormone panel? That is estradiol,total estrogens FSH and LH,testosterone, I am post menopausal. will ask for a thyroid panel too with RT3.
That’s to make sure the DHEA is not increasing the estrogen too much? Then I need to switch to taking 7-keto right? I know you will be discussing this on Sat. Thanks for the suggestions.
I’m all energetic from the increased DHEA so I am moving back to northern Michigan, can do CT very well there and I can live in Elders housing on the Res. FYI.
@TerryF go to LEF.org and look up the comprehensive female hormone panel……it tells you precisely what you need under their blood work tabs. You do not need a doctor to order it. You can order it yourself.
73 @Jack
all that is needed for life is sun and AA and water
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AA=??
Arachidonic Acid? (omega6)
..
@JanSz yes…..but if you’re human you must have lots of DHA.
Oh, I thought he meant amino acids.
@NonChalant No, so I guess its best to make it clear here.
I’m not 100% convinced that the allele is responsible for the longevity and that allele was acquired through microorganisms via seafood. According to this (http://www.tendergrassfedmeat.com/2011/03/01/eat-fat-live-long%E2%80%94the-real-food-of-okinawa/) the Okinawans eat high amounts of fat and organ meats, which would overall be a less-leaky diet. Since Okinawa is also tropical, apparently less fish is eaten since they spoil much faster in the heat. If the allele was acquired from seafood don’t you think a place where eating seafood was more predominant would have acquired an allele as you describe?
@Ray F youre making the assumption I first did when I learned about this. They did not have to acquire the transposons there……they could have gotten in in route to Japan from the East Rift Zone and developed it there…….as they settled. We left Africa via coastal waterways to populate the world. That is why I think might have happened because this group has not spread it to any other Japanese…….it’s limited to the super centenarians on this island. that implies that the allele comes from the original settlers and passed to other islanders by the Founder’s effect.
Arachidonic Acid? (omega6)
@Jack Says:
@JanSz yes…..but if you’re human you must have lots of DHA.
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I hate to have a lots of anything, prefer just right, or adequate.
Besides, too much DHA displaces AA.
But you have already promised to address this and similar issues.
http://www.bodybio.com/BodyBio/docs/BodyBioBulletin-4to1Oil.pdf
..
@JanSz its coming…….trust me.
When I first learned that seawater is so incredibly loaded with viruses, I became convinced that viruses were playing a big role in evolution. 100 million virus particles per teaspoon, and practically all of them are unique. They absolutely have to be doing something, with all that genetic material moving around. I wonder what percent of them are retro? I also wonder to what degree other primates express endogenous retrovirus proteins in their placenta tissue? This is interesting stuff!
@Jerry more on that story will come……
New study done by the New Balance Obesity Center published in JAMA, comparing low carb, low fat, and low glycemic style diets.
Lots of stink about this in the media this morning…mostly highlighting the good of carbohydrates, and the bad of high fat diets. Interestingly though, the study pretty much lays to waste the low fat/high carb regimen. The high fat subjects had the best lipid profiles, TEE and REE, but the worst hs-CRP and cortisol levels. Will have to look closer to determine the specifics of the foods consumed in each. The study concludes that glycemic load is more important than low fat in weight maintenance.
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1199154
@NittDan I was interviewed this AM about this study and I think you have accurately portrayed the appropriate sound bite on it. I doubt this sound bite will make it to most hospital based dietitians and nutritionists because I asked one of them about this today in a facility I do business and it I got a real dumb look like I had no clue what I was talking about. Patients and physicians needs to realize we can take back control by controlling the foods we put in us that control our own epigenetic switches. Great comment here Dan!
Human upright bipedal gate serves two purposes. It keeps our noses out of water, and it provides for efficiency of long distance travel.
It’s hard waiting. There’s a mismatch. You’re attempting to mix Lamarckian inheritance with Darwinian evolution. This would be impossible because Darwinian evolution requires a killing environment and a tenuously small population. Lamarckian inheritance occurs in larger denser populations.
And voila! Humans are unique among higher animals for the huge differences in physical traits between genders. Elaine Morgan shows that during a critical evolutionary juncture men evolved in a totally separate environment from women and children. It was possible for species distribution to have vascilated into times when one gender enjoyed a large dense population while the other gender suffered in a sparsely populated killing environment.
@Bob read this link…….I think you might enjoy it. http://www.panspermia.org/virus.htm
@Jerry Malone Says:
When I first learned that seawater is so incredibly loaded with viruses,
I became convinced that viruses were playing a big role in evolution.
100 million virus particles per teaspoon, and practically all of them are unique.
————————
Sea water in my wife’s corral, sponge & anemones aquarium is RO water + sea salt (no viruses).
Time to bring original sea water, bucket by bucket.
.
@Jansz Jerry Malone is making a smart move………by the time I get to BG5 I bet the paleo-sphere will be aghast again………trust me. My scientific flashlight just is illuminating what many are not realizing while they argue about kitavins and carbs……….
My taste buds are trained to want seafood now. I can’t go too long without some type of fish. I usually get massive cravings for salmon (with the skin on of course).
@Zorica good…….you will see why soon enough
…and eggs.
Just thought of something:
OK, I know in summer, carbs are more appropriate. But going back to pre-paleo days with the beginning of our species…diet was seafood aka fats and proteins. So I’m guessing…if you don’t WANT too many carbs even in summer…it’s OK and no metabolic ill effects would happen like people suggest.
It’s true I am more ‘liberal’ in summer with possible carb treats…but honestly I just ‘feel’ better with closer to ketogenic style diet anyway. Right now what I tend to do naturally is an IF style but with BP coffee in the mornings. Sometimes I don’t feel hungry at all until dinner (therefore 1 meal a day) and others I’ll have lunch and dinner.
@Zorica you will love Brain Gut 5 then…….when we kick dogma to the floor once again
Great!
Jack…will the interview regarding the study be published someplace we can view it?
@Nittdan It was a live radio interview so Im not sure if there is a copy anywhere. I dont think radio has archives.
@Jack That’s an interesting genetic mutation tutorial. I confess to being poorly educated on the subject.
Most of what I’ve read surrounding this gene transposition issue ignores the genetic contributions of funguses. In my opinion funguses pose a particularly heinous threat because they come pre-loaded with the ability to mutate and survive various environments. It sounds strange, but fungus species spawn spores of several genders. Each spore contains different genetic structures than other spores.
Once the spores start growing fungus, the different genders co-mingle. A spawn of, say 30 unique fungal spores could produce hundreds of unique types of fungi. Immunity in the surrounding host environment could easily kill 99% of the fungal genotypes. But likely one or two of the fungal strains will survive and start feeding on the environment. In such a scenario immunity can differ from host to host, and still there is a likelihood of fungal infection.
It’s been shown that candida albicans fungus can work in conjunction with wheat gluten to initiate zonulin release and intestinal permeability. Both candida and gluten display hyphal wall protein 1 (HWP1) on their surfaces. Through a few complicated maneuvers the digestive immune system starts recognizing gluten as candida, and releasing zonulin.
Candida albicans is particularly heinous for a few of its aspects.
1. It grows like topsy in an environment of fructose.
2 Unlike most viruses and bacteria candida can survive horrendous assaults by substances like chlorine and antibiotics. Candida does this by retreating into a dormant “spore” state.
3. Once all danger is passed candida becomes healthy, and advances itself in an environment free of competing bacteria and viruses. Candida produces spikes, and grows successive new spores along the spikes.
When the intestines release zonulin, and wash the intestinal contents through to the lymph system, it seems natural to assume that the candida spikes and spores fill the spaces between the epithelial cells.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12826451
http://www.denvernaturopathic.com/news/celiac.html
Whether or not viruses use a leaky gut in order to change our DNA, it’s clear that fungi would play in integral roll in placing viruses in position to affect the change. However, if Candida albicans is any indication of invasiveness it wouldn’t be surprising if funguses have lent genetic material to our DNA.
I’m not the only person thinking fungus.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?oe=UTF-8&q=cache:0P9jQJDG7h0J:http://www.orthomed.org/resources/papers/schzpro.htm%2Bschizophrenia+dna+fungus&hl=en&ct=clnk
There’s even evidence that SSRI drugs receive their curative power over blood pressure, not by direct action, but by killing fungi.
http://jac.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/51/4/1045
The remaining question is, can a fungus actively insert itself into our DNA while greaching the DNA like a virus can?
Jack, Bob, I just read the page at the panspermia link:
“One example of a benefit conferred by viral genes comes from humans. A sequence installed by a retrovirus regulates the amylase gene cluster, allowing us to produce amylase in our saliva. This sequence that we share with a few other primates enables us to eat starchy foods we otherwise couldn’t (17).”
Well, there you have it. The ability to regulate starch metabolism apparently came from a prehistoric retrovirus infection. What’s most amazing about this is that the retro genetic material got placed in our junk DNA and performs a regulatory function on genes that were presumably already in the genome.
@Jerry No one in paleo talks about this…….and I mean no one.
According to this http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/64347-human-ancestor-ate-bark-like-a-chimp
We ate bark… Bark must be a part of the diet early in the transition to humans. I need to go chew on trees now?
@Ray F…….that is called ancillary not primordial for the brain or the gut.
This is a stretch: Are you doing a bio-hack that involved (possibly extended from your MRSA experiment in January) where you somehow infect/give virus to yourself which alters epigenetics to test how much ‘safe starches’ you can handle and I mean with no bad consequences like Kitavans? Hmmm….
Also, I am more interested in seeing the next generation of the super centenarians…let’s see if they can live to past 100 with high carbs, if they carry on the allele, or if epi-genetics makes them a bit weaker…we shall see.
@Zorica No I am not doing that kind of testing on me now. I am testing a couple of other things instead.
@Mel Roberto Ferrari et al., “Reorganization of the host epigenome by a viral oncogene” [abstract], doi:10.1101/gr.132308.111, Genome Research, online 12 Apr 2012.
@Bob 24 June 2012
miRNAs from plants can enter animal cells and regulate their metabolic processes, a pair of botanists in France report. Micro RNAs (miRNAs) are short strands (typically 20 to 25 nucleotides) of non-protein coding RNA that bind to complementary sequences on mRNAs (much longer, protein coding RNAs) and modify their expression, usually by silencing them. They affect most animal and plant genes, although somewhat differently in plants.
“The authors of this study hypothesized that epithelial cells in the intestine might take up miRNAs in food, package them into MVs [plasma microvesicles] and release them into the circulatory sytem. The secreted MVs could then deliver exogenous plant miRNA to target organs where they could regulate cognate mRNAs.”
This expectation was upheld. Thus we see a way for an animal species, even humans, to acquire small genetic subroutines from the plant world. In this study the acquired miRNAs were observed to affect only somatic cells, and not germline cells. Still, very interesting.
Hervé Vaucheret and Yves Chupeau, “Ingested plant miRNAs regulate gene expression in animals” [html], doi:10.1038/cr.2011.164, p3-5 v22, Cell Research, Jan 2012.
Thanks, Monica C. Vella and Frank J. Slack, for the illustration of the “Dicer” miRNA in C. elegans from their online WormBook.
Thanks for the alert, Jeff Krolick.
Viruses and Other Gene Transfer Mechanisms is the main related local webpage. What’sNEW about HGT |
For all the vegans who think grasses and plants are so safe……..they ain’t.
@Jeff dont think its possible that life can survival solar UV light in space without a protective atmosphere?…….WRONG. http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM5RNBXH3H_index_0.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120628193020.htm
Programmable DNA Scissors Found for Bacterial Immune System
ScienceDaily (June 28, 2012) — Genetic engineers and genomics researchers should welcome the news from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) where an international team of scientists has discovered a new and possibly more effective means of editing genomes. This discovery holds potentially big implications for advanced biofuels and therapeutic drugs, as genetically modified microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, are expected to play a key role in the green chemistry production of these and other valuable chemical products.
@Jack Wow it seems that miRNA is to mRNA what epigenetic proteins are to DNA. And since mRNA is the alter-er of both epigenetic proteins and DNA, then grasses and other plants, via miRNA, become alter-ers of both epigenetic proteins and DNA.
This should come as no surprise. Anyone with half a brain knows that a steady diet of grasses is deadly to all mammals besides ruminants. The massive extinction of humans and livestock following the 535 a.d. Krakatau eruption demonstrated the concept with a grim reaper sickle. Grasses grew, but produced no grain. Humans in grain-eating enclaves of the Holy Roman Empire were reduced by 80+%. Horses and horse cultures of the silk route nearly became extinct.
Central Asian Turks survived and flourished because they farmed cattle. Watch and listen through some Hungarian folk dance. It comes straight off the Mongolian tundra. Without historic evidence, we would have no clue how it arrived in Hungary. 15 centuries ago the Mongolian and Hungarian cultures had been merged for almost 20 centuries.
A friend of mine with terminal breast cancer followed the “grassing” protocol. It shortened her life, probably a few weeks.
@Bob I got a kick out of one the ‘diet book guys’ pushing rice to the paleo crowd and no one thought to check the effect of rice on miRNA. Well when you do you might never eat rice again. Ignorance is bliss.
this is pretty cool:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-06/ciot-tpo062712.php
http://www.nature.com/news/phylogeny-rewriting-evolution-1.10885
Phylogeny: Rewriting evolution
Tiny molecules called microRNAs are tearing apart traditional ideas about the animal family tree.
@Lee That article points out precisely what I am saying here in this series………the bone collectors have been wrong for a long time…….and they will never believe it. But we must show them because our health and longevity depend upon following the sunlight of this new scientific information.
Anyone want to go back to re listen the Factor X webinar now? Read this gem from the Nature article, ” The findings also shift the geographical origin of placental mammals, suggesting that they started in the Northern Hemisphere, where the first rodent fossils are found, not in the Southern Hemisphere, as many researchers have assumed on the basis of fossil and DNA data.”
What did my Factor X, theory predict again?
Inquiring minds want to know. Closed minds will run for the cover of conventional wisdom of phylogeny. The rules are different folks and as this series rolls out more dragons are getting slayed. Just wait til Brain Gut 4 and 5.
About a week ago,the’food police’stopped a truck bringing
fresh vegetables($40,000worth)from our local farmers to a
local WAPF chapter outlet(FortLauderdale,FL).They through the fresh organic veggies out on the road,and held the two drivers in custody.Through the efforts of our local chapter head we did get a partial shipment.
I thought this was a free country.
@Will it’s only free if the man says its free…….the framers of our constitution would turn over in their graves if they saw todays version of democracy in the beltway.
It happens that elections are coming.
Do not let the 2000000 dead people vote again.
Those who vote must have a right to do so.
.
More miRNA news…..http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22571175 How miRNA of resveratrol re engineers your gut microflora.
Here’s the scientist most responsible for the mainstream media hype about the wonderful benefits of resveratrol:
http://www.pharmalot.com/2012/01/heart-researcher-falsified-red-wine-research/
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Resveratrol Researcher Falsified 145 Studies
If you were skeptical about the links between a substance found in red wine and developing a fountain-of-youth pill, you have still more reason today. A University of Connecticut researcher named Dipak Das, who studied those supposed links and directed the school’s cardiovascular research center, fabricated or falsified research data as many as 145 times.
The focus of his work was resveratrol, which sparked considerable interest among numerous scientists and drugmakers as a way to slow the aging process. GlaxoSmithKline, for instance, three years ago paid $720 million for Sirtris, which was developing a compound, but later pulled the plug on one version of a drug because the results were disappointing results…..
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and……
http://retractionwatch.wordpress.com/2012/01/12/resveratrol-fraud-case-update-dipak-das-loses-editors-chair-laywer-issues-statement-refuting-all-charges/
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Resveratrol fraud case update: Dipak Das loses editor’s chair
First, we have confirmed with publisher Mary Ann Liebert this morning that Das has been relieved of his duties as co-editor in chief of Antioxidants & Redox Signaling. ….his name has been removed from the masthead of that journal.
…..A formal retraction of two articles coauthored by Dr. Das will also be published and uploaded to Medline.
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@Bob not true…..Lenny Guarrente and David Sinclair are the leaders in sirtuin research….this guy is a minor player.
Bob Smith- “Here’s the scientist most responsible for the mainstream media hype about the wonderful benefits of resveratrol”
Dr. Kruse- “not true …..Lenny Guarrente and David Sinclair are the leaders in sirtuin research”
See any differences?
However, about sirtuins and resveratrol specifically……
http://www.science20.com/catarina_amorim/longevity_gene_sirtuin_one_big_research_error-82868
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Is The ‘Longevity’ Gene Sirtuin One Big Research Error?
……The conclusion, proved in this study over and over, is that sirtuins have no effect on longevity and that several of the essential experiments of the” anti-aging sirtuin theory” were wrong due to design flaws what raises the question; why did it take 11 years to detect these?
The new results will not be accepted without a fight, there is just too much at stake, and in this same edition of Nature researchers linked to some of the original experiments in worm reply accepting that they did mistakes but also claiming to have produced new transgenic roundworms that do not lose their high longevity when backcrossed. Interestingly they also refer , as proof that sirtuins work, to a published article where again no backcross was done.
Whatever happens now, and even if Glaxo and the original researchers keep pursuing the “anti-aging sirtuin theory”, its credibility has been strongly shaken.
Citation: Burnett, C et al. Absence of effects of Sir2 over-expression on lifespan in C. elegans and Drosophila. doi:10.1038/nature10296Nature; e-pub in advance, 22/09/2011
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Read the article from the start. As always the devil is in the details.
At best polyphenols are just hype ……an excuse to eat rich food and drink wine. At worst they kill beneficial bacteria, and cause autoimmune and metabolic disease.
please fill in the implications for understanding and treating ADHD…
@Kathylu http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/01/bornavirus-in-human-dna/
Jack, is this a possible example of Factor X at work?
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/234882.php
A virus that infects humans without causing disease kills breast cancer cells in the laboratory. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) College of Medicine in the US, tested an unaltered form of adeno-associated virus type 2 (AAV2) on three different human breast cancer types representing different stages of cancer and found it targeted all of them…The researchers at Penn State have also found that AAV2 can kill cells derived from prostate cancer, methoselioma, squamous cell carcinoma, and melanoma.
It very well maybe Maggie.
Could you clarify what the retrovirus or viral mutation was that is tied to ADHD….I really enjoyed coming back and reading this again…
@SeaHorse As humans migrated out of Africa around 50,000 years ago and moved across the planet, evolution may have latched onto a gene linked to risk-taking and adventurousness. This gene came from a virus that was incorporated into our junk DNA, and we shuffled the deck with it for sometime. That virus later became the DRD4 gene. The DRD4 gene codes for a dopamine receptor in the brain. It exists in several versions, or alleles, and studies have shown that people tend to have slightly different personality traits depending on which they have. The 4R allele, for instance, is associated with being even-tempered, reflective and prudent. The less common 7R and 2R versions have been linked to impulsive and exploratory behaviour, risk-taking and the ability to shrug off new situations. http://tools.medicine.yale.edu/kidd/www/330.pdf
Researchers are beginning to play with the idea that our culture could be influencing evolution, says Robert Moyzis of the University of California, Irvine. He has shown that 7R arose as a rare mutation 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, after we left Africa, then spread rapidly in human populations. The 2R allele is a modified version that arose in Asia less than 10,000 years ago.
He has also shown that people diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are twice as likely to have the 7R allele. He thinks some of what we consider ADHD symptoms, like rapidly shifting focus and quick movements, are actually survival traits that were selected for during our migration out of Africa.