Readers Summary:
- What are the implications of Brain Gut 4 and 5 for modern humans?
- How does environment signals get translated into the language of biochemistry?
- What makes shellfish so damn special to humans?
- What are the brain specific nutrients of the Epi-Paleo Template?
- Do you think of food as hormone information and electromagnetic fingerprint or as metabolic fuel?
Geeks: The implications of Brain Gut 4 mean that to develop a brain seafood is required part of the program to maintain it. Nutrients and many other environmental factors have also been found to influence epigenetic programming of our DNA either directly or indirectly via metabolic sensors. Peroxisomal proliferator-activated receptors (PPAR’s), the vitamin D receptors, and the retinoid X receptors (RXR), and the retinoic acid receptors (retinol) (RAR) are all examples of the nuclear receptors that interact with the brain cell membranes to control inflammation and metabolism all over our bodies. It turns out that PPAR’s are the receptors that are at the crossroads of where inflammation and metabolism actually cross at cell membranes where DHA is buried. These are specialized lipid sensors (antenna) that pay attention to our balance of omega 6 and 3 levels. 3% of the human genome is directly or indirectly controlled by the endocrine functions of the Vitamin D system. This shows you how environmental signals are intertwined with the expression of DNA in humans by way of the mitochondrial matrix and the antenna’s on our surfaces. The Epi-Paleo Rx controls inflammation at a hormonal level in the brain (mitochondrial matrix) better than the more famous paleo diet.
Non Geeks: What we eat is really damn important when you have 3 lbs of lipid in your head called a brain. If you eat outside our design you get sick.
Levee 13 in the Quilt talks in depth about the effects of certain lipids on PPAR. It turns out DHA/EPA have massive effects upon it. Moreover, it also turns out that fish based PUFA (DHA) is also a ligand of retinoid X receptors (RXR), and RAR binds most of the forms of Vitamin A in our bodies. Remember from the Hormone 101 blog to make hormones we need Vitamin A and T3 to be present in good concentrations to convert LDL cholesterol to pregnenolone. Pregnenolone then undergoes transformation to the rest of hormone chain in humans, provided cytokine levels are low. That hormone chain ends in Vitamin D production making it an ideal way to tell us what is going on in that engine.
DHA, the fat in shellfish and seafood, has direct epigenetic effects on human epigenetics: Think Levee 14 of the Quilt
Geeks: Not only does diet induce immediate changes in DNA activation but it changes its genomic expression by altering the organism’s hormonal status to change the genomic body plan. This is how epigenetics controlled the growth of the human brain, spine, gut, and hind limbs. These are the things that separate us from primates. It is not clear that our genes are not where our major differences are found. Humans are the only mammals that can induce DNA changes just by the way we think. We know that DNA activation and expression occurs with thoughts from functional MRI data and PET scans on human brain function.
Non Geeks: The food we eat completely determines what kind of health we will have because of the way Mother Nature created us.
Many people in the paleosphere call this area the mind/body connection, but I find this to be a misnomer. The mind is the sum total function of the central nervous system (CNS) and its endocrine secretion is called a thought. That secretion can directly upregulate DNA and RNA activity with gene expression and protein formation. This means that a thought has a tangible action. This ability is found in the biochemistry of the DHA molecule itself.
Few people realize the possibility is that DHA in vivo plays a more direct role in neuronal signaling, in which some special properties conferred on the membrane by DHA chains exert an influence on membrane electrical phenomena (Bloom et al. 1999) This implies that the DHA molecule itself has some special electrical abilities and can exert quantum effects in vivo. The 6 double bonds in DHA allow for its electron cloud in the molecular structure of DHA to become a very special fatty acid with respect to unique properties. Humans exploit those advantages more than any other mammal on this planet. It has been put forth that some polarization of π-electron clouds might occur in the DHA structure, and perhaps even be transmitted from one double bond to another, either within a given chain or between neighboring chains in the membrane. This means that DHA has different properties in the lipid structures of the brain than it does when a researcher studies it in the lab. It implies these effects are lost when fish oil is in a pill form outside of its evolutionary package of shellfish. This is why supplementation falls far short of eating fish. But why you ask?
When DHA molecules are adjacent to each other in a tissue like a brain the π-electron clouds actually are closer together in space than they are when the DHA molecule is alone by itself in a pill or in a liquid state. This unique ability allows for DHA in a membrane to become to its own receptor in a membrane to allow for amazing electrical abilities. This is why DHA is so special and has been conserved by evolution in the nervous system of all life forms and not replaced with the more common land-based form of PUFA’s like DPA we mentioned in Brain Gut 4.
The molecular magic is so impressive, that Roger Penrose has shown how consciousness can be explained by the quantum effects of this one fatty acid. In this molecular arrangement, it would allow for gamma coherence of the neural microtubules found in the brain’s substance. This chemistry explains the effects of anesthesia and of consciousness, which have not been well described anywhere else in the biologic sciences. It appears the brain is built upon a special fat that allows for quantum effects to happen routinely. These measurements have actually been made in vivo in NMR experiments and electron tunneling experiments. These tunneling of electrons is also found to happen in mitochondrial electron transport respiratory chains as well. Many bloggers, so fond of bone collectors data, laughed at my ideas of quantum biology in the evolution. Now you know why they do. They don’t get it and never have. Just like their mentors and idols and the scientists that created the modern evolutionary dogma we all believe today. Today, we need to question that too.
Moreover, this evidence that these things happen within nanoseconds in the cell membranes of neurons are found in vivo experiments done in medicine daily according to functional MRI data, and EEG strips in all of us that doctors order daily. These abilities are also unique to humans. It’s nothing short of amazing to think evolution can move that fast on a micro level but still not affect the phenotype of the organism in any great macro way. Another paradox of life revealed I guess done by DHA in vivo.
Geeky Inflammation Link: We also know today, that epigenetic modifications usually involves activation of NF kappa beta at some point in the biochemical pathways of life. Therefore we must, consider inhibitors to NF kappa beta in future additions to “The Quilt”. We now know that DHA is one of those inhibitors of NF kappa beta. This implies a diet high in DHA not only is required for a complex nervous system but it also predicts excellent longevity because of its intranuclear effects on the main “911 controller” of the cytokine storms that cause inflammation and neolithic disease. These findings are nothing short of amazing, and help explain why brain DHA levels correspond directly to leptin levels and of mankind’s underlying hormone balance on labs.
Non Geek: DHA has the built-in ability to be super flexible for cell signaling and highly conductive electrically, but it protects itself from oxidation because of the quantum effects of its electrons. Paleo dogma tells you PUFA’s are bad. Well DHA is a very unstable PUFA outside the brain, but because of those 6 double bonds and its special electron cloud when it is densely packed together, it becomes a PUFA superman chemical. Outside of the body, it is Clark Kent because of a loss of quantum effects on its electron clouds. Remember when people made fun of this post? Be careful what you call bullshit on when you are not aware of what you really do not know. Food and their electrons matter more than anyone in Paleo could imagine. I was giving a huge hint back then.
Is DHA ancient even for Mother Nature time frames?
It turns out from molecular biology we have learned, that DHA, Vitamin A, and Vitamin D are all ‘molecular dinosaurs’ as environmental signals to the all neural structures in life. DHA and vitamin A, in particular, have 600 million years molecular history as sensors in the visual system of all species known to exist in Earth’s history.
A report in 2002 by the United Nations Children Fund showed that brains worldwide are being deflated because of a shortage of certain dietary nutrients like iodine, iron, vitamin A and zinc (Ramkrishnan 2002). They reported that malnourished humans have smaller brains in size and reduced cognitive abilities by 5-7 IQ points when iron is deficient. 13 IQ points is the cost of a low iodine level. I see this daily on MRI scans in my clinic. We are what we eat. When a human brain is ‘ill fueled’ these days we have the capability to measure it with an MRI or a neuro-cognitive test. The evidence worldwide is that we are a species in decline because we are drifting further from the diet that caused our brains to form initially. I mentioned this in my Paleo Summit talk with Sean Croxton. Well, here is that proof of that statement I was criticized for back then.
When you eat “food-like products” you acquire illness like diseases!
We have moved more to a diet designed to put empty carbohydrate calories into our guts with synthetic man made oils or oils of plants. These moves may help spread out resources to avert hunger worldwide, but they have led to a mediocrity of our species in the last 100 years. We may not die of starvation but we are causing our ‘cognitive de-evolution‘ decade by decade. This is obvious when you look at the recently rising prevalence and incidence of autism, ADHD, AD, and Parkinson’s disease. DHA concentration is directly correlated with disease. A key characteristic of DHA (ω3) deficiency is reduced learning capacity and behavioral pathology seen in humans. This was first described by Michael Crawford in London. The behavioral pathology in a ω3 deficient primate was also shown in Dr. Joseph Hibbeln’s work at the NIH USA (Hibbeln et al. 2005, 2007). It is clear that DHA is directly tied to human brain power. Nothing else in biology accounts for it. Dr. Remko Kuipers work is also important here and his upcoming talk at AHS 2012 should be a must hear!
Saving Darwin’s Reputation?
Moreover, it perfectly vindicates Darwin. Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species (1868) stated there were two forces in evolution, natural selection and the conditions of existence. Of the two, he said, the latter was the most powerful. Most people know about natural selection but few know about the latter. It turns out Darwin was more right than even he knew. This belief almost cost Darwin his legacy because he spent the rest of life looking for ‘epigenetics’ in an idea labeled “Pangenes”. He believed that Pangenes were responsible for translated environmental influences that have now become known as epigenetics today.
However, Weismann (1893) rejected this view completely, in the all-sufficiency based on experiments in which he cut off the tails of breeding rodents (experiments wrongly tied to Lamarkian ideas incorrectly) and observed that subsequent generations still produced tails. That set in train the present paradigm of the modern synthesis of evolution, and genomic determinism within which the DNA is seen as the sole dictator of difference and evolution, and to the notion of the “Selfish Gene” was set forth by Dawkins recently.
Non geeks: Genomic determinism means DNA and genes control everything. Today we know that it’s 180 degrees opposite that. It is all about epigenetics. This means we have total control of our DNA if we learn how to use it.
In 2003, the Duke experiments I mentioned in earlier blogs, like CPC #4, they showed that epigenetics is how “conditions of existence” are readily translated in the mammalian clade by acetylation and methylation patterns on their DNA.
Moreover, the evidence on omega 3 marine food consumption was overwhelming. We found in human diets during pregnancy directly affected childhood intelligence and behavior measured at 8 years of age postnatally. This data should act as a constant reminder that H. sapiens is also subject to Darwin’s conditions of existence (Hibbeln et al. 2007).
You rarely hear that in ‘paleo land/LCHF’. Every mother needs to know that data……what they do and eat primarily determines what kind of brain their child will ultimately have. If it is paleo, it is good, but it is not optimal or close to optimal for a human nervous system. This data shows us that mankind is among the most sensitive mammals to dietary epigenetic influence, whether we choose to believe it or not. What your grandmother and mother does during pregnancy has huge implications for your brain.
Let us look at what is required to make a brain from an evolutionary nutrient perspective.
Given what we learned in Brain Gut-4 we know we need a constant large stable of DHA to keep the brain running optimally. Now let us look further for the evidence of what else we need from a diet and where we find it in abundance and see if there are any connections to be made.
12 STEPS to the Epi-paleo Rx for Humans
Think of food as hormone information, not as a metabolic fuel. Think of the Epi-paleo template as human jet fuel for the human nervous system.
- We need a constant source of DHA and EPA to be present in food and not supplement form to support the metabolism and structure of the brain. DHA has many double bonds in its chemical structure making it inherently unstable outside of its chemistry outside of its dietary carriers in seafood. It is best to eat it, and not supplement it. for optimal health. there is substantial data from Dr. Patricia Kane’s lab at Johns Hopkins that fish oil may be quite dangerous for our EFA ratio’s in cell membranes of neurons. If you do supplement it for any reason you should refrigerate the DHA or freeze it.
- Recognizing that constantly providing a new source of DHA can power the brain to more optimal performance. The ratio for optimal cell membrane EFA’s is 4:1 at all times in human biologic systems. This balance is critical for optimal system performance in all tissues but is especially true in the central and peripheral nervous system that have massive amounts of excitable membranes. This means that we are adapted to a diet high in shellfish and we likely have adaptations to assist in its collection from the environment.
- If the brain is in optimal form the things it controls are also working well. The systems inherent design implies we are only as strong as our weakest link in this blueprint.
- If the brain is working optimally than it means by definition that inflammation levels are low system-wide not just in the brain.
- With low levels of inflammation leptin and all the distal hormones in the metabolic chain remain in allostasis without the need for exogenous intervention. This implies that understanding hormone allostasis and function is critical to understanding how to treat illness and disease. This is a major point lacking in modern medicine disease management.
- Brain-selective nutrients must be in constant supply to maintain optimal brain function in connecting it with the environment the human is in. The brain must connect via the thalamus to the Earth’s magnetic resonance and via the eye and skin via the sun. This means 3-5 days per week at least one meal needs to contain a food source that has access to these nutrients. Think levee one from the Quilt.
The Key Mineral to Human Development: Iodine
A. Iodine is so important that worldwide national governments mandates have created laws to make sure it is in the food supply of humans. No nutrient is more important to a species with a Ferrari engine in its cranium like we do. The fastest way to suboptimal performance for a human infant is to deplete its iodine source. That disease is cretinism. Iodine is abundant in shellfish, fish, and coastal plants, algae, and seaweed. A good Iodine source is also found in eggs, while meat and nuts are a moderately good source.
Iodine best food source by seafood by a longshot. Iodine is the power of thyroid hormones, T4 and T3. T3 is critical for brain development but it is critical also for alterations made in embryogenesis to the limb buds as well. This is another area where humans are distinct from primates. Hind limbs were already present and just had to lengthen under the influence of massive dietary sources of T3 from shellfish, while the difference’s in the brain required massive amounts of iodine and DHA to pull off. This is why bipedalism appeared first in the fossil record before encephalization. The bone collectors are still whistling Dixie over this one.
Iodine has been established as a penultimate mineral for fetal brain development in the literature for humans. Low iodine levels specifically impair ketone body formation that directly inhibits myelination in the human brain. This means all hypomyelination states: IE Multiple sclerosis is tied to a loss of iodine at some level. Moreover, hearing and acoustic defects are very common in low iodine states. The reason is simple, the auditory cortex of humans is the area of highest metabolic demand (Sokoloff, 1991). Iodine depletion causes demineralization of the Organ of Corti in the inner ear to cause sensorineural deafness. (Goldey et al, 1995). If you can’t hear, you can’t assimilate speech or speak well. These are other unique human abilities too.
We know that homo habilis had evidence of an enlarging area of its surface brain where the modern human speech areas where. This means that iodine had to be present in great quantities during early neurulation of the auditory and language centers in our ascent from primates. Moreover, when iodine is depleted from pregnant women is does not allow for expansion of the neuronal pool. This implies that iodine is the major driver to all encephalization. The bone collectors see no evidence of this because they are looking at bones and not how human brains form. We also know in amphibians that tadpoles become frogs via a process called metamorphosis when iodine is in high quantities in the form of the bioactive form of T3 from the thyroid. There is much evidence of the power of iodine and the thyroid hormones from shellfish.
The evidence is steep that early homo had to have constant access to the water at all time to get iodine in large quantities. Here is another fact we know about modern humans that is instructive. We know that brain growth is stunted by two major factors. One is dietary a poor nutrient density from the diet or from a disease that inhibits the ability to absorb, assimilate or retain that nutrient. This implies that the diet and the gut are intimately tied to the formation of the human brain from the modern evidence of how our brain works today. You would never guess this from modern medicine because they do not see how a gut could possibly be related to brain growth or function. They are tied together by the evolutionary creation of where form meets function. Human nutrition is where there is an intersection of diet and metabolism. It is where environment meets the body. This is the perfect definition of modern-day epigenetics.
Humans have no mechanisms to conserve iodine in deficient states. This implies it had to be abundant in their evolution from an ape. It also implies that humans likely evolved close to shorelines where hydrology favored iodine deposition. Modern medicine still does not know how we absorb iodine in the body from the gut. If you look it up you will see this is true. I have a cite below that talks about it. I found out during some radionuclide Iodine studies I ordered on some patients that the isotopes of iodine seemed to bunch up in places in the gut that corresponded to the gut lining and paracellular pathway in enterocytes. This implied to me, that maybe the leaky gut was the designed to increase our ability to absorb iodine tremendously to fuel alterations to the primate brain and the mammalian body plan to give us some of the unique morphology that humans have. Iodine is needed to form T4 and T3, which were the transforming hormones that altered our new genes for brain growth and the older genes that control hind limb development to allow for bipedalism.
B. Iron is an essential mineral in the heme molecule of hemoglobin and the cytochrome proteins in our mitochondria to make energy. hemoglobin is composed of the red blood cell that carries oxygen in the bloodstream. The brain gets 20-23% of the cardiac output of every heartbeat. No organ comes close to that consumption. This means the brain needs to have adequate sources of iron to make sure hemoglobin and oxygen are constantly delivered to the brain to maintain performance. Seafood and animal offal are excellent sources of this nutrient. Moreover, iron is better absorbed from fish or meat than other sources by the human gut. People who do not eat enough iron can suffer from iron-deficiency anemia. Worldwide, about 1 billion people have iron-deficiency anemia, and about 2 billion people are deficient in zinc (Muller et al., 2005). Iron also facilitates the conversion or T4 to T3 the active thyroid hormone in the body. This makes it very critical for humans. Iron is also vital for temperature control in humans as well because of the effect of T3 on UCP’s. Now go back and re-read the magic in Hormone 101 blog now!
In the USA today 20% of women are iron deficient when MD’s check their ferritin levels. Globally, iron deficiency is the major cause of neuro-developmental delay in malnourished children (Pollitt, 1993) Iron is also a cofactor in the receptor of two major brain neurotransmitters, dopamine, and GABA and this leads to cognitive decline.
C. Zinc is critical in infant brain development because of its rapid growth. Zinc is the one mineral that is highly concentrated in the brain. The highest density is found in the mossy fibers of the hippocampus. Why is this important? The hippocampus is where humans learn by making new neurons and connections in their rapidly growing brains. Zinc deficiency is felt to be tied to autistic spectrum disorders because of this unique characteristic. Zinc is needed to get enkephalin to bind to its receptor too. We need Zinc to also make norepinephrine in the brain. The biggest need for zinc is in the lipid structure of the brain. We can not make or utilize the PUFA’s of the brain without Zinc. This is especially true of Arachidonic acid. Zinc is a cofactor in testosterone and estrogen production which is critical in directing specialization of the brain from male to female in its function. The most important hormones, leptin, and adiponectin are both sexually dimorphic. This mineral also helps with immune function and is essential for healing of wounds, development of sexual organs and bones, immune function, storage/release/function of insulin, and cell membrane structure and function (Wardlaw and Smith, 2009) Meat is a good source of zinc, but shellfish is a far superior source of it. Oysters are the best dietary source and they are found in shallow coastal beds. Connecting any dots yet?
D. Selenium is critical in the brain because of two major ties physiologically. One is the formation of glutathione peroxidase which protects the brain from oxidative damage of glycation and lipid peroxidation of its DHA in cell membranes. DHA is very susceptible to peroxidizable agents in the eye and the brain. Selenium also supports brain and thyroid iodine in metabolism as well. It helps the conversion of thyroid hormones to active T3 outside the brain. Iodine cannot be added to T3 without Selenium levels being optimal. This is why we always recommend using selenium before using iodine in supplementation. Hemoglobin production also requires selenium. The brain requires high oxygen tensions to function optimally. Fish and shellfish are ideal sources of Selenium, while meats are a decent source.
E. Vitamin B-12 helps the body maintain sheathes around nerve fibers, to activate another B-vitamin called folic acid and participates in many cellular processes (Wardlaw and Smith, 2009). It is found exclusively in marine and animal products. Many people seem to be unaware of how good marine sources of B12 actually are. Generally, it is not difficult to get enough vitamin B-12 in an Epi-Paleo diet. A 100-gram serving of clam, oyster, mussel, crab and several other shellfish types of meat will provide more than the Dietary Reference Intake (NAS 2004) of this vitamin that can be found on Table 7 in the Food and Nutrition Board report to the federal government in 2004.
F. Copper is also an essential mineral in the diet because it helps to form hemoglobin and collagen (a ubiquitous protein in the body). It is also a part of several enzyme systems, including those that prevent oxidative damage to cell membranes. This is extremely important in the human brain because of the sheer amount of cell membranes in the brain. Copper’s major brain effect, however, is in the lipids of the myelin sheath that protects the signal transmission. When copper is depleted we see hypomyelination in brains and on MRI’s Menke’s disease is an example of a human disease tied directly to copper depletion. People with MS look a lot like those with Menke’s in many respects. Lastly, copper helps to regulate neurotransmitters. (Bryd-Bredbenner et al., 2009). Copper is a cofactor for tyrosine hydroxylase to make dopamine. It is a cofactor of dopamine beta-hydroxylase that converts dopamine to norepinephrine. It is also s cofactor in monoamine oxidase which inactivates NE, serotonin, and dopamine. During evolution and massive brain growth, we increased our needs to make connections in fiber tracts and our needs to protect massive amounts of lipid membranes that would damage these delicate structures. Copper was critical in making this possible. Copper is even used as a cofactor in cellular respiration. The copper concentrations in shellfish indicate that the flesh of squid, lobster, oyster and several other shellfish are excellent dietary sources of copper. Once again, we find only offal is a good, not optimal animal source.
Seafood is crushing animal products in brain nutrient density across the board. Have you stopped to wonder why yet?
Truth Bomb Alert: No theory is too special to question: This includes the religion that is paleo is becoming.
If you do not believe what I am laying out here in excruciating detail, I would suggest you read pages 108-113 in Loren Cordain’s latest book, The Paleo Answer. I do not need to write a new Epi-Paleo Rx diet book, because, in those tables, he clearly makes the case for me about my ideas. That is, seafood exceeds anything in the paleo answer/solution/blueprint/template in terms of nutrient density for building a HUMAN BRAIN. I am highlighting this for you because it points you to the scientific truth, that to make a human brain, you need to have a unique mix of nutrients. They are provided in dense quality by shellfish and seafood, and not in a purely land-based animal diet. That proof was laid out in Brain Gut 4. Take a look at the ‘Denise Minger’ section of that blog for a refresher.
This data implied to me, any species with a large brain that consumed huge amounts of energy would have to have and eat a stable nutrient dense diet as its brain evolved. They would also have to have some unique adaptations to absorb those nutrients in their guts too. You and I are both humans, and we fit that bill. The Epi-Paleo Rx has buried the work of Cordain since 1999 and uncovered in Dr. Cunnane’s work in 2005-12. All I did, was uncovered that glaring fact. It’s time we all took a look to see what the data really says instead of just believing what has been published about the findings.
7. Brain-selective nutrients act in concert with our optimal gut microflora to have direct effects on genes that control the mammalian body plan and the retroviral genes that caused encephalization to occur. These nutrients are the once that sculpted our body plan from the transitional apes. This predates the Paleolithic. So why are we so enamored with the Paleolithic as modern humans? Should we not be striving for optimal human fuels or just merely better than the crap we are being fed today by the USDA?
8. Iodine is critical to any optimal health platform because of its effects on free T3 and TSH. There are special adaptations made for the collection of Iodine in the human system because of it. I believe it is absorbed best because the gut is semipermeable due to the fact humans have zonulin and primates do not. This also happens to help humans absorb DHA in high volumes as well. Thyroid hormones, including the prohormone thyroxine (T4) and its active version T3, are important regulators of vertebrates neurodevelopment. Specific transporters and deiodinases are required to ensure T3 access to the developing brain. T3 activates a number of differentiation processes in neuronal and glial cell types by binding to nuclear receptors, acting directly on gene transcription in the developing brain and neocortex of humans.
9. The brain has its own thyroid hormone system to make sure it is ideally formed while in the protective cocoon of the placenta and is optimally maintained postnatally. The effect of low Iodine levels on humans after birth is dramatic and has lifelong effects on many organ systems. Cretinism is the result of low iodine during and after pregnancy and is very common worldwide in humans living far away from marine environments. This is also true of the other brain selective nutrients but most prominent in Iodine. Today most of those organ dysfunctions remain in our blind spots. The standard western diet is very low in brain forming nutrients and maintenance nutrients and this is why we are seeing massive spikes in Autism and Alzheimer’s disease respectively. One is a developmental epigenetic disease (Autism) and the other is the result of a lifelong deficiency of brain-forming nutrients with a substitution of PUFA and carbohydrates. This leads to protein conformation problems and breakdown of the critical cell membrane EFA ratio’s int he brain to rapidly change electrochemical gradients of excitable membranes that the brain requires for functioning. Cognitive decline is directly tied to these system failures. This in turn directly affects the cerebral metabolic oxygen consumption. This is why AD is associated with low acetylcholine levels in synapses and low EEG patterns and low blood flow on perfusion and metabolic studies. Synapses use more O2 than any part of the lipid membrane and they are overloaded with DHA. This would seem incongruent because DHA is so susceptible to oxidation in the lab setting because it has 6 double bonds in it.
I did my residency at LSU, where Dr. Nicholas Bazan (ophthalmology researcher) found that we make derivative docosanoids from DHA that are profound brain antioxidant. This means that this PUFA is not only a great electrical conductor when stacked against each other, but it is also an amazing insulator for ROS. These derivatives are called neuroprotectins (NDP1). When the brain loses its DHA levels substantially, it becomes more susceptible to oxidation and protein folding malformations. This is seen in Alzheimer’s disease and aging. The molecular design of DHA, the polyenoic fatty acid most susceptible to peroxidation and located in regions of the most intense oxygen use in the central nervous system, is a remarkable feat of Mother Nature. Now you know how she did it. DHA is quite special, in fact, more special than most knew for human speciation.
The brain is the ultimate energy hog for nutrients and oxygen. It has no tolerance for lacking in either. If it does not get either, cognitive performance declines rapidly. We also know that when DHA levels fall (AD) cognitive function drops as well. When these changes occur they are usually seen with atherosclerosis of the vertebral and carotid arteries that feed the brain blood and oxygen.
10. These brain selective nutrients are provided in abundance to humans because of special physiologic and morphologic adaptations made in the human gut. These are not found in primates because they have no need for them because they do not encephalize much postnatally. The gut is designed to be naturally semi-permeable to brain selective nutrients. The blood-brain barrier also has special features to allow easy passage of some lipid nutrients, like DHA, and block out the passage of most other substance to protect its performance.
11. The parasympathetic nervous system controls the connections between the gut and the brain. On each end of this conduit are two specialized membranes to control the optimal health milieu of both the gut and the brain at all times. The policeman of this system is the vagus nerve. Its connections to both systems are intricate and vast in humans compared to a transitional ape. The leptin receptor is the thermostat of this system’s efficiency. Like a thermometer uses mercury to record the temperature levels, inflammation is the leptin receptors’ mercury. Inflammation is what destroys the hormone response by lowering T3 and stopping the conversion of LDL cholesterol to the steroid pathways.
Massive Importance #1: This makes reading the steroid pathways response to inflammation the Rosetta stone for human health monitoring. This implies that we need to think of food as hormone information, not as a metabolic fuel. Think of the Epi-Paleo Rx as human jet fuel for our nervous system. We go as our brain goes. Think of the GI tract as a metabolic computer which adjusts your physiology in response to the nutrients it detects. This is how the Brain-Gut axis works in humans.
12. Cooking of these marine food sources impedes their optimal usefulness to the optimal system functioning but it can easily be overcome by increasing those nutrients from other less dense sources or increasing the volume of cooked seafood eaten. One small example of the effect of cooking is the formation of estrogen in humans. When there is a large volume of undercooked or raw seafood eaten consistently it favors the formation of a special estrogen called estriol (E3) by our gut flora. Estriol is secreted normally during pregnancy in humans to protect the fetus. During the rapid growth spurt of a fetus, a big risk to the system is uncontrolled growth in a highly charged, growth environment in the placenta. This process is commonly known as cancer. Estriol (E3) is the weakest of the three major estrogens in humans and has the most deuterium in it. In fact, it is 1,000 times weaker in its effect on breast tissue. Vitamin D also protects the breast against cancer development. Vitamin D is found in great concentrations in many kinds of seafood. Weston A. Price mentioned it many times in his writings. What most forget is Price’s observations were made in people who ate their food in natural environments outside not affected by a power grid or technology. Vitamin D was found to be exceedingly important in breast cancer prevention in 2009 and the link further cemented recently when the JAMA linked artificial light to breast cancer risk as well. Estriol is the estrogen that is made in large quantities during pregnancy and has potential protective properties against the production of cancerous cell transformation. This is the evolutionary protection of fetal structure by estriol in a highly powered growth state.
Raw seafood will limit the production of estradiol and estrone by the gut flora, and this confers major advantages to human females as they age. These are commonly found in humans who eat large amounts of undercooked seafood. This is one reason Asian women have markedly lower rates of breast cancer compared to western women. Both of these estrogens are been shown to have links to many human diseases when other systems are out of their allosteric hormonal balance. Food is either a slow killing poison or a healing miracle for humans.
Summary
In 2005, Dr. Cunnane found that eating one kilogram (1/2 pound) of shellfish from mollusks and crustaceans is all that is needed to meet these requirements to fuel human brain growth. Shellfish happens to be found in shallow water sources and was known to be abundant in the Rift Zone coastal fossils. Cunnane’s data also was in line with what Cordain reported from 1999 to 2005, but Dr. Cunnane went further with this data.
He showed that it would have been impossible to form the size of the current human brain without a seafood source because DHA was the critical element to its construction. Meat does not contain enough DHA to form a human brain. This implies paleo alone is not enough. This is why the internet forms are loaded with people not hitting their targets. The evidence for that is found in the brain to body ratios of all land-based mammals on this planet. It seems today many are blinded to this science. This insight might have hit the bone collectors or the early paleo supporters, if they had examined closely, what really separates us from primates, instead of assuming what has been published in the literature was factually correct.
One thing that was very concerning to me in Cordain’s and Eaton’s 2005 paper listed in cite 8, is that it was not just based on the facts that we know to be true today. It was based upon a belief that their theory was based upon only. This reminded me of Cordain’s stance on saturated fats in his first paleo diet book, that now has evolved, but not for the correct reason in my view, and I expect his views to change on this soon as well. In fact, later that very same year, Dr. Cunnane published a landmark paper (cite 9,10) that showed what Cordain and Eaton wrote was just not factual about DHA biochemistry and human brain evolution. Dr. Cunnane has spoken about this incongruity many times since 2005 and has given an amazing amount of data to refute Cordain and Eaton when it comes to human brain evolution and diet. This is one area where the paleo answer is trumped by the Epi-Paleo Rx, as I have outlined here. Again these are not my ideas of theories. I am merely shining a light on what is published for you to examine critically. Only your health and longevity may be at stake if you chose to ignore it.
It appears we evolved on this shellfish/seafood template and we have been evolving away from it as we moved from our coastal existences throughout our history. The paleo diet is good enough to sustain us today compared to a SAD, but it is not optimal for making or maintaining the human brain. This has huge implications for many people with neurodegenerative conditions (or diseases that are linked to organs from ectoderm in the embryo) that I treat daily. I think a combination of these diets were mixed as man began to move around the globe to populate it. Interestingly today the world health organization still lists over 1 billion humans suffering from low iodine issues because they live inland and are landlocked. This finding, today, supports Dr. Cunnane’s research findings of what is needed to build a human brain from our diet.
The classic neurodegenerative disease of modern man is Alzheimer’s disease. After reading this blog you should realize precisely why it is overwhelming for modern humans. They have a huge deficiency of all the brain specific nutrients in their diet while they are eating foods that are man-made that steepen the onset of the disease, namely refined carbs, grains, and industrial PUFA’s that are oxidized easily. Read this on Alzheimer’s Disease for more details about this disease.
Where we came from initially had to be the seacoast because there are no sources of several of the brain specific nutrients in places inland and over mountains. This also follows how Homo migrated out of Africa by following coastal waters. There is a lot of evidence that we brought elephants with us on that journey to make passage. And yes, you can fish off the back of an elephant in case you were wondering and dive for oysters too.
So after 5 parts of this series what was Homo’s solution?
Paleo or Epi-Paleo… you decide.
I just want to point out what we know now. It might have implications for you now. Optimal is a road that breaks free of the land-based solution to diet. My e-cookbook reflects what the science is pointing me too. What is good for our brain appears to be good for all human biology.
It’s funny how form meets function in evolution, no?
More Support: Webinars by Dr. Kruse
- Epi-Paleo Rx (July 2012)
Your Shopping List for this Post
Additional Resources
- Brain Gut 4: What was Homo’s Solution?
- Brain Gut 6: Epi-Paleo Rx
- Vitamin D: The Sunshine of Your Life?
- The Quilt: PPAR
- The Quilt: Epigenetic
- Hormones 101: Clinical thoughts revealed
- My Leptin Prescription
- Do Food Electrons Impart a Quantum Effect?
- CPC #4: Evolutionary Friend or Foe?
- Can’t Remember? Is your Protein Bent?
Cites
- http://www.wsg.washington.edu/communications/online/shellfishnutrition_09.pdf
- http://www.livestrong.com/article/339801-nutritional-values-of-meat-fish/
- http://foodconfessional.wordpress.com/2008/04/16/meat-nutrition-information/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seafood
- The Paleo Answer, Loren Cordain
- http://paleohacks.com/questions/117616/been-on-paleo-for-3-months-now-starting-to-feel-very-bad#axzz1ykWRpDHq (Faileo)
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21765985
- Cordain, L., Eaton, S. B., Sebastian, A., Mann, N., Lindeberg, S., Watkins, B. A., O’Keefe, J.H., Brand-Miller, J. 2005 Origins and evolution of the Western diet: Implications for the 21st century. Am J.Clin Nutr 81: 341-54.
- Cunnane, S.C 2005b. Origins and evolution of the Western diet: implications of iodine and seafood intake for the human brain. Am J. Clin Nutrition 82: 483
- Cunnane, S. C. 2007. Docosahexaenoic acid and human brain evolution: missing the forest for the trees. Br. J. Nutr 97: 1021-22.
- Cunnane, S.C. Survival of the Fattest.
- http://www.terrapub.co.jp/onlineproceedings/fs/wfc2008/pdf/wfcbk_057.pdf
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16596303 (breast cancer and artifical light)
Just curious, what percentage of seafood/shell fish to red meat do you recommend?
Or are you saying it should be 100% seafood?
@Shilohman Read the blog carefully the answer is in there for the minimum amount. 1/2 pound a day……is all it takes to make you optimal. The rest you can fill with bacon……or grass fed meat. I just want the DATA to stand up to the DOGMA that most believe.
holy crap – what a blog post
does this mean adding raw sea scallops on the side of my slow cooked wild salmon is a good thing?
@golooram Jayha……meat or fish? you decide now that you have data.
In my lectures I talk a lot about the out of Africa theory which is the accepted model of human planetary conquest. I stress the importance of the intertidal zone and how we are MOST evolutionary adapted to eating (think shellfish and seaweed) what lives there. What is lost on most people is that sea levels were 100-300 feet lower than they are today so like you stated in BG-4 the fossil record is scant. The physical record is also scant for the reason I stated.
The sad part is that these food sources are still available but seldom used. I have hope though. I can get wild mussels for 99 cents/pound.
Well done Jack.
@John I been holding my tongue for long enough……..I told the people around me that the data was overwhelming that many were missing. The reason it was missed is because bone collectors (paleoanthropologists etc) and dietitians/nutritionists have not a clue about how to build a human brain and when you realize what it takes and look at the science that is out there………well, 7 years I decided. I changed. Now its time for the readers to read the data and decide. Strong recommendation you look at every link. Lots of hard work went into this blog, thanks for the kind words.
I am just connecting the dots. I had some knowledge of anthropology, evolution, and chronobiology before we met. Combine that with embryology, brain development, genetics and epi-genetics the answers are screaming at me that most people are doing it wrong. I took an oath to improve the human condition and I will do my best to do just that.
PS- I have SELDOM known you to hold your tongue.
@John This is one time I did……….This blog was going to be my AHS talk……now that I am going on vacation I decided to let you have it a few weeks in advance. I moved it up in the rotation. I know a guy like you who read across disciplines would like it. Sadly few scientists, clinicians, and paleo afficiando’s do that. When I was down in Austin I want to give this talk during my hour long session…….I came real close to doing it but I got talked out of it. But if you listen to the presentation I gave during that hour when the video’s show up……..you will heat the Epi-Paleo template mentioned and some other choice comments too……..the people who came up and talked to me after it got an ear full. Those selling the paleo dogma just talked behind my back and made jokes about the data I had. Well, it is time for them to swallow and digest some of it and realize what they have come to believe from the torch holders of the movement is well……..dogma just like they blame on my profession. Like I always say…….QUESTION EVERYTHING. Everyone on my forum knows it.
Hi Dr. Kruse
Oh I decided about two weeks ago! I have replaced grassfed meat as my main source of protein with wild salmon (mostly sockeye, occasionally king) – to keep it interesting I cook it up sometimes with pancetta or bacon. On the side, I cut up a raw serrano pepper and just shovel in salmon and serrano with each bite.
If I get a little more bored, I’ll saute up some chicken livers and have it on top of my salmon meal. I also bought some wild frozen shrimp and scallops that I have as well about 1x a week, hence my question if I should supplement scallops more often, and if so, leave them uncooked.
Thanks
@golooraam The implications of this science are clear……eat more raw seafood and mix it with the Paleo solution, blueprint, or answer…….but never be fooled that those ideas approach optimal because if you have a human brain………the science is calling bullshit on that notion.
@Lynn Regarding you question……..will there be a cliff note version written in english of BG 5 for the NON GEEKS? Sure here it is: Simple eat more seafood than meat……..bacon still rocks but is best with scallops and oysters. Your life depends upon it. Got it?
Jack,
Before everybody wakes up: “eating one kilogram (1/2 pound) ”
seems not correct. 250 grams or 1/4 kilogram is more close.
Most of all, enjoy a great vacation.
Hugs,
Petra
@Petra thanks for the conversion correction…….I am not a kilogram guy being an American!
In fact there is 2.2 pounds in a kg. So 1/2 pound is 227grams and 1/4 pound is 113grams.
Need some of the seafood be raw?
@janet did you read the blog? Raw is better…….transitional apes did not cook their shellfish. Homo did……so I think a mix is not a bad idea for us. That is how I approach it for me and my clinical practice.
Two odd things occurred to me while reading this post: First, is it possible that the “om” of yoga has an interesting effect by stimulating the vagas nerve and “exercising” the gut-brain pathway? Second, my odd craving that occurred with each pregnancy, usually before I even knew I pregnant, for real Caesar salad with anchovies was an epigenetic cue for my progeny?
@chewingthefat my wife calls cravings like that……quantum biology at work. And no, we are not kidding when we say it either. The packing of the electron clouds of DHA in the brain lipids is nothing short of amazing and it turns out brains into giant TV antennas. This is why I have become more worried about EMF of modern technology……..a lot more worried and why I have a levee in the Quilt about it.
More sushi…. More scallops….more seafood….got it. Love it!! One question, would those suffering already from AD benefit from an epi paleo template or are they too far down the road for it to be of much benefit? If so they oughta put mackerel head smoothies on the menu at all the memory care facilities, stat!!
@krusing if they do eat it without the oxidized pufa’s and carbs yes I believe the optimal thing for AD is oyster cooked in coconut oil……nothing is a better evolutionary Rx for AD. Most people get AD eating like a chimp…….all their life…….and they need to eat like a transitional chimp did instead
Now we see why the 30 day seafood challenge was a great idea!
@glamazon……now those who did are no longer wondering why they saw the improvements they did. When you eat as we are designed to eat…….amazing things can happen to you
This is Factor X all over again…I am blown away.
@teller The heat I was under for the last 6 months…….I just wanted to go live with a long time ago but I stuck to the Quilt plan. Lay out CT all before BG. BG 5 was to be BG ten after AHS……but since I am no longer going……..I decided it was time. I am glad you liked it.
Those of us with the leakiest guts may have seen the fastest improvements from the seafood challenge.
The first thing the docs tell you when you are pregnant are to avoid sushi and even cooked fish due to mercury…..your thoughts? Would pregnant women be better off dining on sushi a few days a week? I know I wanted to.
@coldbren they also tell you to take statins and there is a pill for every ill…….what exactly is your point? Sashimi is a pretty damn good choice to make an optimal baby brain………
1 kg = 2.2 pounds (so if the study was conducted using kilograms as the measurement, you’d have to eat just over 2 pounds).
@Lauren that would be a pound then…….Cunnnane was quoted at a 1/2 kilo!
Brilliant. THANK YOU for laying it all out. Amazingly, it seems so simple and makes so much sense. Yet most everyone missed it. No wonder I feel amazing after each fish head smoothie!
@Lauren……The data was always there. Our dogma is what hid it from us. That is paleo dogma…….not medical dogma. More irony.
Thank you, Dr K. It’s after dark but it’s pretty enlightened in my dark cold cave in the Rockies! I got from BG 1 we’re supposed to eat like transitional apes much more than paleo. I can now see how you made the connection between fibrocystic breast disease and my brain issues.
I’m not sure I did myself a favor with the raw mackerel head smoothies for the last few days….. my neurologist today countered my “I am slow” with “you are presenting excellent to me”. Now to be happy about that (he was correct in that my thinking was a bit faster than usual – mackerel head smoothie a few hours prior?) or not so happy b/c he couldn’t see anything wrong with my darn bad brain!
Ahhh, thanks for putting me out of my misery waiting patiently for BG 5.
@Souldanzer…….someday I want you to write your story up. You need a guest blog on here for everyone to see what you have been through. Now you know what it will take to fix that machine in your head. Never settle for less. No matter how bad it gets. When there is a will there is a way.
Btw, I suspected you had another secret about how you can accomplish so much in so little time…… I figured it wasn’t *just* cold-adaptation and optimal nutrition the way we all knew it… there were a few extra things involved that you weren’t quite ready to give away, correct? That’s been one great mystery to me ever since being on MDA!
Still amazed how you pull all these things together from so many sources. Amazed.
@Souldanzer I have quite a few more…….but when the time is right all to be revealed.
I got the most stubborn will in the universe. I wouldn’t be here or in this life anymore if I didn’t. Sorta required for the kind of AN I had/have…. just had to learn to apply it for the correct purpose. It’s all about my thoughts after all…
arghhh, more misery 🙂 I gotta work on my patience.
What about ceviche? Do acids change quality? This is all amazing and oh so common sense at the same time. Once again, thanks Jack, you are the man. Enjoy your vacaton.
@Dali Cerviche is probably one of the best choices…….as long as you limit the nightshades.
“Diluted seawater contains almost the same concentration of minerals and trace elements as blood plasma, and its sodium content matches that of blood.” Rene Quinton, circa 1900.
It is now known that ocean water contains 92 different minerals and all of them are essential to our good health. Just think of the beneficial minerals and phytonutrients in ocean water that we have yet to discover. Another good reason for seafood consumption.
http://oceanplasma.org/documents/lifetherapy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Quinton
@Ron I almost put that in BG5 but I have it later in the series.
You asked what my point is in number 26. I was just pointing out how conventional docs really cause harm in my opinion and scare women into avoiding critical nutrients. Another reason why you are so awesome shining the light for people searching for answers.
@Coldbren The greater point of the Quilt is that we all need to realize we are in control of our health and our destiny. We need to stop giving that power to those outside of us because they have more training. We all need to understand how we work and use this science to drive our decisions and our behavior. For too long we have allowed too many things to get in the way of how we should be living. Modern life has made that path way too easy. We all need to reflect upon this.
Okay Dude we’re finally boiling it down. The ultimate optimal food- Roe ceviche?
@Dali pretty solid…….with some Cod liver and green veggies in some animal fat or coconut oil……you’re cooking with gas now if you have a Ferrari engine in your head.
It only makes sense. Most all of the big population centers in the World are near the water, or were before the exploration of the West in North America.
Thinking about the shells of oysters/clams/mussels, I’m wondering if it might not be a good idea to add shells to my stocks to draw out some of the minerals?
Great post!
@Eric When i get oysters I do throw the shells in the crock pot…….I have no idea whether it make sense or not.
Part of the problem I think is that most people do not notice their de-evolution so they don’t see a need to change anything. Brain function decline happens slowly for the average person over a lifetime starting in the womb already. You need a pretty sharp brain to be able to notice your brain’s speed and caliber is in a steady, slow, chronic decline. And fight CW while at it that decline is to be expected.
I think my decline was so terribly obvious to me b/c so much of it happened in few hours. I can still hide it all if I just want to (maybe not from you, Dr K) and really I’m just matching what is happening all around me. I am shocked every time someone tells me there is nothing wrong with my brain just b/c it’s the level that person is functioning on (and it appears there is many, many people who are functioning at a much lower level).
And there is the offensive factor – how do you point out to someone that their brain function is declining in a polite way.
why the cod liver? does any fish liver do?
@Souldanzer anyone does but cod liver is easy to source.
Heh. Souldanzer, the cod liver explanation is in BG 7.5. 🙂
And that blog you wrote, he? 🙂 …..let me spoil it then: vitamin A and D??
Well, that was certainly worth waiting for. I want to run around telling everyone I know to eat all the fish they can!
Jack, you touched on ADHD and Autism being a possible result of critical nutrient deficiencies in utero. Do you feel that modern meds like Vyvanse and Ritalyn in children already diagnosed could be REPLACED by an epi-Paleo seafood-rich diet?
@Jodi absolutely……….Those diseases are epigenetic in my opinion and are found in the grandmother and mother’s history……but no one is checking their D and progesterone levels before they get pregnant and they should…….because this is what controls the ability to fill a babies head with DHA in a placenta. It so obvious and no one is connecting the dots why these kids are being born in record numbers……it is not vaccines. Its their maternal sides horrible diet over generations showing up in the kids brain
@Jack Is the reason mercury is not a big deal the fact that Selenium binds to the mercury and makes it not an issue as long as Selenium values are high enough?
Or is it more complicated than that? I’ve heard getting enough Iodine will push Fluorine, Chlorine, Bromine out of the Thyroid because its more “heavy” does this related to mercury not being an issue? If you have enough of the right nutrients they will displace mercury? Or is it just that mercury isn’t a problem when bound to Selenium.
@Jon The issue is that Hg in seafood is in its biologic package as it is designed and we can usually get rid of the Hg because Se is with it. That is not true with fish oil or powders. Moreover, the implications of how the electrons clouds work in Vivo should make you all realize that what is found in tissues/meat/brains works best with seafood…….not a supplement. HUGE IMPLICATIONS. this is why the table in the back of Robb’s book needs to called out big time……some in paleo have…..DHA is a very special PUFA……it does things no other PUFA can do but it must be in its evolutionary biologic package for the eating organism to get the benefit.
So people (like my mom) who have “high levels of mercury” need not heed warnings about consuming certain types of seafood? Is there any merit to such restrictions?
@Jodi I used to worry about it too but when you test for it after a period of time rarely do I see it rise. I just do not think its a huge deal. I only avoid canned tuna and swordfish…….for this specific reason.
Holy dogma smackdown! Loved this.
I now understand why I craved tuna, salmon, shrimp and oysters during both of my pregnancies. I ate some sort of seafood every day during both of my kids pregnancies.
How much does eating seafood (Shellfish) influence healing from a severe leaky gut?
Since I’ve gotten over my offal aversion, and I love raw seafood (thank you Okinawa & Guam) – I guess its time to dive in, the MHS.
OH can I say what a find of seafood was made at COSTCO This weekend. SHRIMP SCORE!
@Gretchen I am not sure about the total effect of seafood on the leaky gut……but I know people who have it seem to get better much faster than the ones who I can not convince to try it.
@Jack
If Selenium binds to mercury in the body of a fish will it do the same in us? By this I mean if you have too much mercury in your system will a diet heavy in seafood supply Selenium and thus make the Mercury not a problem?
2Jon it does but it is cleared by use rather easily. If you are concerned about it just have it tested. I have some patients who really worry about it and test for it but so far no one has seen a spike up in heavy metals with seafood.
Jack,
I’m thinking next time I get to the fish monger, I’ll bring home some of each kind of shell fish, some shrimp and Bronzinni fish. After the meat is consumed, I’ll make a nice fish broth. Shrimp shells are a good start for a fish broth with mild veggies. You just have to believe oyster shells would work the same as beef bones. A little white wine for flavor and sea salt.
Ever since I read that sea water has 100 million viruses per teaspoon, I have had a better respect of the ocean. This BG series has made it clear we should be thinking in that direction. I like your analogy of the brain-gut-veges nerve working together. When I explained this to my teen daughter and wife last night, they both said it makes perfect sense. That’s progress.
@Eric you made me laugh because the critics always love to point out how foreign my info is to people. I think it is foreign to those who nothing but bacon and grass fed meat with no seafood. Low DHA in their brains maybe?
Wow, when I was pregnant with my first child 14 years ago, I craved sushi. I ignored what the doctor said and listened to my body. There was one two-week stint where I went to the same sushi restaurant every day and ate. Now I know why! Both of my children are highly intelligent…….
@Grace I have actually been asking all pregnant women now if they crave seafood when I speak with them and people always ask me why……after I tell them they usually begin to crave it then. LOL
Cod liver happens to be the favourite playground for the anisakis nematode, and there can be hundreds of them on a single large liver How do you prepare your liver to avoid potential issues ????
@pete: Cod liver from Norway……so far has been good to me.
Few years ago I was eating only seafood and veg for cholesterol issues. it did bring my cholesterol down. was worried about mercury so I had Genova hair test NO mercury. 🙂
Wow! I have wondered why I was not loosing weight on paleo. I am down a few pounds after starting the fish protocol I am on a roll now! I check this page immediately upon waking. I’m hooked. Thank you Dr K.
Question. I am eating fish every day. I have stopped the krill oil. I eat 2 brazil nuts per day for selenium, I take 600 to 800 magnesium at bedtime with 3 mg. melatonin and 50 mg of DHEA upon waking. All supplements are from Dr. K’s recommendation page. What do you think. Do I need an multi vitamin or does this cover it? Thank you! You have changed my world
@Bonnie if you eat well there really is no need for a supplement. I think when people are in a life style transition supplements work.
Fantastic! I am so loving this information and can’t wait to share it with all my pregnant clients and future clients! I can thank my Scandinavian lineage for my current health and the health of my kids, methinks. Apparently my grandmother required all her children to eat fish several times a week. I definitely craved fish during both my pregnancies and ate sushi a lot with my first. The docs managed to scare me off the sushi with my second, but I still ate a lot of salmon. Being land-locked can be difficult, but I’ve managed two servings today, one sardines, and one sockeye.
I love how you advocate the liberal consumption of bacon, Jack. No complaints here, of course; I love the stuff! But how do I explain to brainwashed naysayers that fatty pig meat is a more optimal protein source than chicken or grain fed beef? What is it about pork that makes it a “cleaner” food than “the other other white meat”?
@Jodi Scallops and shrimp and awesome with bacon……everything is good with bacon. Simple, it has a good MUFA profile when it is pastured. Chickens never really do, just eat their eggs.
Having just read your blog post https://jackkruse.com/do-food-electrons-impart-a-quantum-effect/ for the first time, I think maybe steering my career into quantum-epi-nutrition is the way to go.
Okay, you have me running like a crab to your sources.
It’s funny about Darwin. Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory outlined drastic wholesale changes.
Darwin was preceded by Lamarck. Lamarck described inherited change as slow and evolutionary. Lamarck said that individuals change the traits they pass on to their offspring as a consequence of interactions with their surroundings. Lamarck’s inheritance theory melded right into the predominant religious creationist paradigm. It even supported moralist religious views which claimed that people’s behavior affects their offspring.
Because Darwin’s evolution theory traced the history of human life back to the origins of life on earth, his ideas were a hard sale against the dominant creationist paradigm. Scientists and reporters picked up Darwin’s gauntlet, and portrayed his “survival of the fittest” thesis as the bulk of his theories. They contrasted “survival of the fittest” against Lamarckian inheritance.
Later the discovery of genes tended to validate Darwin’s “survival” concept. So the scientific community all ran to that side of the ship. Then the discovery of epigenetic proteins tended to validate Lamarck. So the scientific community all ran to that side of the ship. They claimed that Darwin’s theory failed to incorporate epigenetic changes.
They were ……Wrong.
Darwin did not argue for survival of the fittest as the only means of changing and passing on traits. Darwin spent much of his work supporting and expanding Lamarckian inheritance. Since Lamarck was first, he deserves credit, but that doesn’t mean Darwin was wrong.
You didn’t claim Darwin to be wrong in this regard. It’s just interesting how Darwin’s paradigm shift made him a controversial, misunderstood figure. It’s like an actor who gets “type cast”. His portrayal of one character is sooooooo good that his brilliant versatility gets ignored.
@Bob Lamarck was a philosopher not a scientist and where he was coming from was a totally different paradigm but he got shredded by history…….without just cause. Now that epigenetics is known as the big factor we need to really understand its implications……..modern healthcare and patients do not……..They think they can do anything they can do……..Those who will do well are those who realize they are better off doing what we should do and are designed for.
Jack: “They think they can do anything they can do…..Those who will do well are those who realize they are better off doing what we should do and are designed for.”
You came very close to paraphrasing Isiah. I wouldn’t know that if I didn’t support it wholeheartedly.
Great blog, a real eye-opener (even now my husband, who really dislikes most seafood, wants to start eating it). I can’t wait for the webinar next week! I have been eating some seafood every day for a while now (mostly salmon), but the last few days I have had proportionately more with more variety and must say today I feel sharper and have so much energy – I am so excited and will definitely be eating more seafood/shellfish. Thank you Dr. Kruse!
Just listened to an interview with John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods. He stated that 90% of your caloric intake should come from fruits and vegetables…and I was just starting to like the guy.
Says he eats 18-20 servings of fruits and vegetables a day…hate to see that brain in 20 years…or his toilet now.
@NittDan its hard to change dogma anywhere
Steve Jobs believed the same thing, and look where it got him.
Wowsers!!! The BG series has been my favorite.
Would you consider Salad Shrimp (mini shrimp, or canned shrimp) a gold mine. Short lived, so less mercury concerns. Inexpensive. Wild Caught. You eat everything but the head. And from the limited nutritional content, it seems to blow fish away. I found a good comparison here.
http://skipthepie.org/finfish-and-shellfish-products/crustaceans-shrimp-mixed-species-canned/compared-to/fish-tuna-salad/
@Bobert I eat the head too…….just saying
Dr K, the third para: “to make hormones we need Vitamin A and T3 to be present in good concentrations”. If this is present http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19103647 does it have a negative impact on LDL conversion to hormones even if the diet is as described in BG5?
For those who want to get extra minerals out of your shells and bones add a teaspoon of vinegar to your cooking broth. Wine will also suffice.
@Glamazon Great idea….i no longer drink any white wine so this maybe its new use.
@ Jack, have to push the aussie connection, here is a story about aborigines in Australia , Weston Price and the search for fats. http://editor.nourishedmagazine.com.au/articles/australian-aborigines-living-off-the-fat-of-the-land
@John H love it. keep them coming.
Just curious why we aren’t seeing nobel price winners coming out of the Yukon since the Inuits traditionally have kept closest to this type of diet (they’re on SAD now). Is there any evidence they have bigger brains given their high DHA diet?
@BenG I have to look into autopsy data but one thing we do know…….Since the SAD got to them in the 1950’s the incidence of T2D, alcoholism and suicide has skyrocketed. That shows you just how important a lack of DHA is when you consider 60 yrs ago it was unheard of up there.
Jack, how do you consume your cod liver?? Raw, fried , baked???
@Pete Eliot Raw
Jack, truly amazing work!
I have a 5 month old, who is starting to show interest in solid foods. Curious of your thoughts of undercooking seafood and pureeing in the blender for the little one? He is breakfeeding, and once a day we give him FCLO (since birth).
@Digital You could cook the seafood……like shrimps, oysters etc…..kids love them because they are soft but make sure they are small enough for them so they do not choke on it.
Do you source canned cod liver or is it available fresh/frozen?
@Dali both……one of my forum members sent me cans of Norwegian cod liver……rocked.
I was at the gigantic korean supermarket last night looking with new eyes. Frozen roe from different types of species, salmon heads, dried tiny whole shrimp and all other assorted dried fish. I also saw frozen lamb and pig’s head besides a huge selection of offal. My only concern the meat is not grass fed but the fish selection rocks from the fresh tanks.
@Glamazon China town in NYC has this too…….I miss it.
You might pick up some vegetarians with this post. Some veggies don’t consider shell fish meat and will eat it. Since some shell fish seem like an aquatic insect, ie. crustaceans, what does an insect diet do for us?
Jack,
Will you please tell me why you don’t deserve the next Nobel Prize?
@Will Boyden I discovered nothing…….I am just shining light on what we know and am connecting dots. That is innovation not discovery.
@will. I asked the same thing months ago. No joke.
@ pete eliot: The Weston A Price Foundation always recommends freezing your raw meats, offal or seafood for at least two weeks to kill pathogens. I am not personally knowledgeable about the Nisakis nematode, but you could look into if freezing kills it.
Caroline, I think he means “anasakis” nematode.
Info on freezing to kill nematodes:
http://seafood.ucdavis.edu/pubs/nematodes.htm
Info on anasakis worms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisakis
@Kathylu……she knows her microbiology.
Freaking out. You mention Loren Cordain’s new book, and I am in the middle of reading the only book available from the library from him. I look over at the open, inverted book,and sure enough it is “The Paleo Answer”. After finishing the blog and comments, I look back for the page reference, flip over the book and am totaly dumbfounded to see that one week ago, I stopped reading at page 116. Having read BG3 I had already noticed the point about seafood.
@Greg Carried That is called thin slicing. Read Outliers by Malcom Gladwell and you’ll see why the more seafood you eat the better thin slicer your become.
For the poor land-locked folk there is a local option open to them that has not been mention here, to the best of my knowledge. Insects.
Dr Price saw a lot of insect eating in many land-locked people. If you are saying “Gross!” right now, Crustaceans are considered the insects of the sea. I’ve never given it a go but maybe others might be interested.
@Caroline I have eaten bugs when I was out in cold…..nasty but I could do it if I had to survive.
I had a chocolate covered cricket once. It was yummy.
Does anyone know where you could find nutritional information about locust or grasshoppers? We have a great grasshopper season around here; think about all that wild fat and protein for the taking!
Do you remember that line from the movie The Horse. They are in the desert eating locust. “And fear not the locusts. They are a gift from above. Not a plague, as you might believe.”
Sorry, the movie was Higalgo:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidalgo_%28film%29
I live in northern New Mexico, and the locals eat cicadas toasted with salt. They taste like toasted pumpkin seeds.
@Kristi they only come out of the ground once every 7 yrs!
Why isn’t Eratosthines credited with discovering that the earth is round and orbits around the sun?
Proof is not just a scientific construct. It is also a social construct. That’s where we come in. Witness the success of the garbage known as global warming. Witness the ridicule of Drs. Marshall and Warren who discovered that H. Pylori causes peptic ulcers. Big Pharma is still reeling decades after acceptance of their thesis.
From 6 billion years ago earth’s water has constantly increased in salinity as it has dissolved more and more of earth’s salt stores. I think oceans today are about 7% saline. It’s interesting that the environment which selected the human diet was probably brackish …..maybe 2-3% saline. This might harken back to marine salinity when air-breathing animals crawled out of earth’s oceans. Ocean dwelling life forms have been forced to adapt more thoroughly to greater salinity levels. Land dwelling life forms have not.
If you want an effective treatment for asthma, sinusitis, or even cystic fibrosis try tumbling in ocean surf for a couple of days. It works wonders.
http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Respiratory-Disorders/Hypertonic-Saline-Treatment-for-Asthma/show/337764
I was always told as a child that fish is brain food. I never realized how right they were.
I have a problem. I am signed in and able to post to the blog comments. However, in the forum, it thinks I am not signed in, and it won’t let me sign in (error message of bad user id or password)
Can someone tell me what to do? Or at least alert the marketing monkeys since I can’t even post in feedback?
TIA
@Mary Allen I just sent an email off to Misty…….she will see it at some point and contact you to repair it. The site is being moved now as we prepare to upgrade things. The MM are gone.
@Jack I am reading Outliers now and just finished Blink. The Gladwell book about thin slicing is Blink. Outliers is about the roots of success. Both good reads!
@Dave K I have read them all and mixed them up…….but I realized after reading that book I am a big time thin slicer and always have been. I lost some of it as a fat man but since I used CT and the Epi Paleo Rx…….it’s back huge.
Dr Kruse, I am living your protocol. I used to enjoy eating various foods because recipes/restaurants were recommended, but now, and thank you, I eat for my hormones. You have mentioned a couple of times that thoughts can change DNA, so I suspect you have more to say on this matter…but everytime I try to explain the protocol to my friends I am asked if my way of life will get me an extra 10 years, 10 months, 10 hours or 10 minutes…I know you have he answer…but I don’t…help!
@Ray Brown…….what ever time you have left…….it will be lived Optimally. That is my answer.
Dr Kruse,so my best is the protocol, if I can avoid the proverbial bus hitting me, then bacon (thank you) fish (salmon, sea bass) , which I eat fried in coconut oil, prawns, eggs, red grapes, some greens and some grass fed meat and offal, (sausage OK?), is my optimal diet until my final breath
Jack,
I tried to use the emailed link for signing up for the webinar, but it failed. I wanted to find out what the cost was and perhaps sign up.
@Eric Give them some time…….we are transitioning website this weekend so lots of things are up in the air now.
If Vitamin D and A were very early important elements, was vitamin K as well?
@Jenny……..that is later in the series.
@ Ray. for me this is not about life extension. It’s about feeling and performing great for the rest of my life. who wants a longer crappy life? After getting your human organism functioning optimally you will feel great. I am now hooked on feeling great.(oh and i probably will live longer)
@Dali your story is pretty cool……you need to do a guest blog someday when your write it up.
I wonder if seafood could help with migraines. It’s high in Mg after all.
Lemme rephrase. I bet seafood could help with migraines.
Thanks, Jack If you are in the midst of moving the site, I am probably just caught in that.
Jack,
Can I assume that any fruit etc that washed up on some ancient shore(coconuts,pineapples,melons,papayas,etc) are ‘superfoods’? I know that pineapple(like coconuts) has a hermetic skin that keeps it’s sweet juices inside in the hottest weather.
Your BG5 is great.
Will
My favourite meal. Sauté a few sliced cloves of garlic in some butter along with some chopped bacon. Then toss in the scallops. 1 to 2 minutes cooking time at most for the scallops. It’s easy, fast and the most delicious meal ever – and now I know the science behind why it is so good! Thanks for another great post.
going for an all raw meal today
wild scallops and shrimps, I’ll throw in an egg yolk and some MCT oil so it’s not so lean
@Golooram 1 lb of prawns sea veggies and seaweed and now 200 lbs of ice for a few hours in the dark………yes it is on like Donkey Kong. Family gone so I can get crazy cold.
Jack, I have FRESH cod liver, is it ok to sear it, say one minute per side and toss it on a salad??? I am transitioning to raw. Thanks for all you do, you are amazing!!!
Thank you for making everything so crystal clear. It answers so many questions that I have had. Now I know from your eye-opening blog posts what I have been missing in my pursuit of being optimal.
@Terry please share this information with all your friends and print it out and give it to your family and doctors. The only way we will transform the world is to get them to examine this.
Absolutely. Being a starfish takes on a different level of meaning.
In regards to eggs, why dont we eat the eggs of sea birds(not just gulls). The birds eat a perfect epi-paleo diet. I wonder what the DHA content, if at all, exists in the eggs of sea birds. I can imagine East Rift Man( robbing nests and getting additional DHA that way. The chickens we use now are descendant of a land locked jungle bird from the past.
But fowl eggs are pretty remarkable things. Feed a chicken flax, omega-3(ala) in the eggs. I wonder if chickens have ever been fed a sea based diet and what has happened to the eggs.
I know that albatrosses have great nutrition density of their eggs but you cant find them and they are always out to sea. Plus they are very long lived……..lots of mitochondria. Remnants of the Theropod dinosaurs. #Factor X.
I assume the dots are leading to k2 mk-4 being optimal? It is known that the organs of fish contain decent anounts of k2 mk-4 as well as fowl fed cod liver oil grew at better rates and had eggs with it. Makes me want to raise chickens and fed them raw shellfish and cod liver oil.
@Bobert I have not got to it yet……but its coming. The best source of K2 is the 100 trillion bacteria in gut. Sadly, few americans have that many and why they have huge amounts of IR, T2D and low testosterone………All caused by low Vitamin K2.
Bobert I occasionally mix some cod liver oil into my chicken’s scratch grains. Wow they love it! If I give them too much CLO or sardines/tuna, their eggs get a little fishy tasting, but it’s all good to me. The bugs they fight over have to be good also.
@dali I just got up after 4 hours of circadian sleep(between 10pm and 4am). I should have gotten an extra hour or two, but I blame that on a little computering last night, as Jack points out as disrupting the circadian cycle.
This am I downed a can of sardines and fermented beets and cheated a little by doing a quick enema, getting a good load of crap that probably would have stuck around in my gut. I think my choice was best, at least for now until I get more CT time in. I also had some probiotics.
200 LBS of ice?
All the best.
Will
@Will I only made it through 35 minutes in the ice…..for some reason could not handle it last night.
You can test for DHA levels…and that predicts leptin and hormone status? Hmmm…this might be an accessible test?
@Zorica it is but not as accurate.
@ Jenny West: Vit K is in seafood. Vit K synrgizes with A and D.
@Jenny and Zorica all are abundant in fish…….all are fat soluble too.
Another amazing blog. by reading you I remember me as a child, I wanted to be a vet. Finally I studied anthropology but today I realise with you that human beings really are animals! So the child is happy 🙂
thanks for sharing your thoughts & experiences, I can’t wait to learn more!
@Caroline Cooper; Here are some Amazon.com links to bug/insect nutrition and cooking methods.
Enjoy!
http://www.amazon.com/Creepy-Crawly-Cuisine-Gourmet-Insects/dp/089281747X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342991909&sr=1-2&keywords=insects+eat
http://www.amazon.com/Eat—bug-Cookbook-grasshoppers-centipedes/dp/0898159776/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342991909&sr=1-1&keywords=insects+eat
Dr. Kruse, Is it common in your practice to test for schistosomiasis and other helminth infestation in the neck and brain? How common is it? What are the implications? What diseases can result? What foods help?
Dr. K,
Is there any other way to reduce tissue/serum omega 6 besides long-term altering of diet? How about exercise, especially intense HIIT?
@DanHan Yes. Dr. Patricia Kane’s PKT protocol.
Hi Dr. Kruse
I had a question. Tonight for dinner I am having a big plate of raw ‘ceviche’ with 8 oz of opah and 4 oz of sea scallops, steeped in lime juice and serrano pepper.
This is very lean and I was going to supplement with some coconut or MCT oil. Is it also good to throw in some ‘regular’ saturated fat like grassfed ghee or some pastured egg yolks? I am still not clear as to how to mix up saturated fat intake, as sometimes I see MCTs in your comments, sometimes butter, etc…
I have been doing raw pastured egg yolks as they are filling and I try to stay away from dairy on most days
I know I am probably overthinking it – but just thought I would ask.
@golooram i think a MUFA is a better choice with that……Why? re read the blog. When you mix in too much saturated fat it inhibits the ability of the brain and central nervous system to use the ingested in the diet……
..Well done..! Jack..!!
Excellent.. This should put to rest a lot of dogma floating around.
…but you’re still a fan of butter yes? Which setting do you prefer butter laden? I see other comments you make where you say add butter with your fish or mussels etc.
Is this the same for coconut oil in terms of ” When you mix in too much saturated fat it inhibits the ability of the brain and central nervous system to use the ingested in the diet……”
yes this is confusing, “too much saturated fats” or I missing something here….
@JimG and Zorica re read the blog…….you can not assimlate DHA well into you brain when your the foods you consume also have saturated fats. This is why shellfish and fish do not have saturated fats in them from in their evolutionary package of natural state. Moreover, I believe this is why Cordain bad mouthed saturated fats in his first book. The community built up around his book loves saturated fats from a Paleo/Primal template and they pushed back……..and he relented because they are his target audience. The data for the Epi paleo template was buried in his data but it took other scientists to see what he missed. Seafood is best for a mammal with a big brain. Moreover, it was required for man to evolve. The data is definitive in that regard. Here was COrdain’s real problem in 2005………he was between a rock and hard place. He and Eaton built the paleo diet up from scratch……but the data did not fully support it as the optimal human diet from an evolutionary perspective. Cunnane and Crawford’s work showed that definitively in the very same year. Cordain’s Paleo Answer also has published data in it that says the same thing. But no one is pointing this incongruity out until now. Cordain kept doing his thing…….and then the Paleo 1.0 folks, like Sisson and Wolf wrote their books, without really fully understanding anything about what really separates us from transitional apes. That distinction was our Central nervous system. That distinctly human organ put very specific requirements on our food sources in order for evolution to create it. If you have a diet and book to sell and you find out after the fact that maybe you missed out on some important data maybe you would be concerned that someone would realize it sooner or later and question it? In my opinion none of them but Cordain, was aware of Cunnane and Crawford’s data, and why it humbles the paleo template in a transitional evolutionary manner. The paleo template is light years better than a SAD so it resonates big time………with people. But to say it is optimal for humans is just totally not based upon the scientific literature that neural biology is now known. Remember, Cordain and the rest of the paleo authors have no expertise in neural biology. Biochemistry is one thing, but neural chemistry is another field all together. One prominent paleo blogger does those chops, but what he is writing today, and what we know about what the brain requires to function is totally incongruent. It is as if the right hand does not know the left hand exists. That is bad news for people who read these things and do not have the 30,000 ft perspective of what we know today. BG series is about that distinction. It is paramount that one understands this. If you think eating a land based paleo diet gets you to optimal I have a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. It is not possible. Re Read the land based vegetarian Minger portion of the series. I lay it out in detail. Land based mammals do not get enough DHA in their food chains to sustain a human like brain. This means you can never say that eating that land based meat diet is optimal for a mammal with a huge brain. It is possible that their version of the paleo diet will improve your health light years from a SAD perspective. I don’t doubt that at all, and never have. But the internet forums of everyone’s site in paleo are still littered with people who are not getting results all of the time. That means we should be asking why. Those people gravitate to my site. Why? Because, I explain why it might be the case. I want people to look at those issues and explain them. Right now, most of them just ignore it and try to make fun of you as they show their ignorance. When I remind them of it…….they attack the messenger. I tell everyone here to question everything, always. BG 5 shows you what is actually published in Cordain’s book………that should make you wonder about a whole lot more than this, no? Begin to ask why then is all I am saying. I love butter and CO…..and I think you can use them when you fairly healthy. But if you are far from optimal you need to do a lot right early to get back to allostasis. I deal with those people not the healthier cross fit crew that sell books.
Here’s some more support for you. The Pomo Indians of northern California call their highest god Dasan, the ancestral father. They say he “came out of the ocean and turned into a man. He talked, and by the power of his words, the world came into being. After this he made the first people.” Here in the SW the Indians who came from the Aztec Ruins area near Farmington NM say that the ant people came up from the depths to begin the first people. How does that connect you may ask? This whole area is part of an ancient sea bed. Very interesting. Thanks for helping me make these fascinating connections.
Thanks Dr. Kruse
I went back and did a lot of reading of your blog
I’m gonna skip on the raw butter for now and focus on wobbly pastured bacon on the side of my seafood
I think a lot of that fat is MUFA
by the way, a number of folks have commented on me looking better and lost more weight in the last few weeks
keep in mind I have been doing CT, first ice baths, then cryo therapy and Vasper for a while – but it was only after I switched to pretty much all seafood since June 29th that things are really coming together nicely
thanks a bunch!
@Golooram If you attend the webinar you will get an earful why this happens……and have the chance to ask me questions.
Dr K, you say ‘you can’t assimilate DHA well when you also consume saturated fats’ and you then say that butter and CO are great for people when they are ‘fairly healthy.’ Some follow up questions… on the forum you suggested that adding ghee to our mackerel head smoothies would make it the super food. And you have many times mentioned that CO was your ‘main diesel fuel’ when you were getting healthy. Can you clarify what seems to be this discrepancy? Thanks! Lauren
@Lauren yes I can………tomorrow night.
PS As CO is an aromatase inhibitor, does its use then become important in those of us who are E dominant (therefore not yet optimal) and doing the epi-paleo protocol?
@Lauren these are points that are specific to one’s case. So yes, one would have to be mindful of that as you apply it. But once you see why the Epi-paleo Rx is designed to be a reversal to estrogen dominance you will have a 30,000 ft view of why mother nature did it. Tomorrow night it will be explained.
thanks Dr.Kruse, it is more clear now and I will tone down the use of saturated fats,
so what is the optimal oil to cook food with, macadamia oil ?
@JimG tomorrow night’s Webinar will introduce all attendee’s to the Epi-paleo Rx for the first time.
thanks Dr. Kruse
that’s why I’m a member !
can’t wait
now off to my bacon and ceviche 🙂
Jack,
It’s right about now when it becomes clear that you are holding out critical parts of your theory for money, that I get this sour feeling in my gut. If you don’t plan to lay out the concepts here, clearly, then what’s the point of following you and I might say, hanging in there with you? Feels a little “unprofessional” to me. Just my opinion Jack.
@Eric Hanner Too bad you feel that way but all this work is worth something. If it is not to you, don’t bother engaging the info when you want it, synthesize it all yourself. Moreover, I dont think this info is critical to my theories at all. What I have already given you is massively important……..but if you think this is info is critical and CT 4, CT6, CT protocol, Leptin Rx, CT 7, BG 2, and BG5…….then your sensibilities are quite different than mine. And answering all these comments…….I guess that is worthless to you too. I think it has become clear to me you have entitlement issues. I have a sour feeling in my gut responding to this honestly, but you deserve an answer of how I feel. I think it was pretty “unprofessional” of you to complain about something trivial considering how much you got here and on the forum for nothing. This is not your doctor responding……it is a blogger. You’re here to read thoughts and hopefully get some insights or some FREE education not get any medical treatment.
Micheal says @ the forum :Weston Price on Fish and Sea Food
Jack mentioned Price in a recent blog post. Strangely, just before I’d got to that point I found comments of Price’s coming into my head.
It’s interesting the importance he sees in the maritime element in the Hebridean Islanders’ diet. Informally, I believe Price was known for recommending seafood to inquirers looking for dietary advice as one of the most nutritious foods one could eat.
He also mentions fish and shellfish when discussing Polynesian Islanders — still today very large and healthy people with a reputation at rugby that belies the size of their populations. (Genetic momentum?)
And there are some interesting comments with reference to African tribes living largely on fish:
The Government of Kenya has for several years sponsored an athletic contest among the various tribes, the test being one of strength for which they use a tug-of-war. One particular tribe has carried off the trophy repeatedly. This tribe resides on the east coast of Lake Victoria and lives very largely on fish. The members are powerful athletes and wonderful swimmers. They are said not to have been conquered in warfare when they could take the warfare to the water. One of their methods is to swim under water to the enemy’s fleet and scuttle their boats. They fight with spears under water with marvelous skill. Their physiques are magnificent. In a group of 190 boys who had been gathered into a government school near the east coast of Lake Victoria only one boy was found with dental caries, and two of his teeth had been affected.
http://www.journeytoforever.org/farm…ce/price9.html
In the same chapter Price also has this interesting note on the Dinka:
Dinkas, Jebelein, Sudan. This tribe lives on the Nile. Its members are not as tall as the Neurs. They are physically better proportioned and have greater strength. They use fish from the Nile and cereals for their diet. They decorate their bodies profusely with scars.
The Nuer (I take it that’s who he means by “Neurs”) are cattle herders, living at that time on mostly milk, blood, and meat. It’s interesting that these people should be a bit taller than the fish-eaters, but not so well-proportioned or strong.
Perhaps most striking is what’s said about the Maori of New Zealand, however. In chapter 15, Characteristics of primitive and modernized dietaries, we have:
The native Maori in New Zealand, used large quantities of foods from the sea, wherever these were available. Even in the inland food depots, mutton birds were still available in large quantities. These birds were captured just before they left the nests. They developed in the rockeries about the coast, chiefly on the extreme southern coast of the South Island. At this stage, the flesh is very tender and very fat from the gorging that has been provided by their parent. The value of this food for the treatment of tuberculosis was being heralded quite widely in both Australia and New Zealand. In the primitive state of the islands large quantities of land birds were available and because of the fertility of the soil and favorable climate, vegetables and fruits grew abundantly in the wild. Large quantities of fern root were used. Where groups of the Maori race were found isolated sufficiently from contact with modern civilization and its foods to be dependent largely on the native foods, they selected with precision certain shell-fish because of their unique nutritive value.
A splendid illustration of the primitive Maori instinct or wisdom regarding the value of sea foods was shown in an experience we had while making examinations in a native school on the east coast of the North Islands. I was impressed with the fact that the children in the school gave very little evidence of having active dental caries. I asked the teacher what the children brought from their homes to eat at their midday lunch, since most of them had to come too great a distance to return at noon. I was told that they brought no lunch but that when school was dismissed at noon the children rushed for the beach where, while part of the group prepared bonfires, the others stripped and dived into the sea, and brought up a large species of lobster. The lobsters were promptly roasted on the coals and devoured with great relish. Other sea foods are pictured in Fig. 74.
Chapter 12 is devoted to the Maori — “Isolated and modernized New Zealand Maori”.
Price notes that an earlier researcher had found that:
the incidence of caries in the Maori [was] 1.2 per cent in a total of 326 skulls. This is lower even than the Esquimaux, and shows the Maori to have been the most immune race to caries, for which statistics are available.
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_lib…e/price12.html
He describes the unmodernized Maori as being, physically, “on a pedestal of perfection”.
He concludes:
The Maori race developed a knowledge of Nature’s laws and adopted a system of living in harmony with those laws to so high a degree that they were able to build what was reported by early scientists to be the most physically perfect race living on the face of the earth.
So eat up.
“What a man! What a brain! And all this is due to fish you say?”
1 minute 40 seconds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjbR73qSukY
Eric, that’s a bit harsh. I think what Jack has been doing from the beginning is trying to lay a solid foundation for people to be able to understand, interpret and apply some fairly sophisticated medical knowledge. I actually appreciate his use of the Socratic teaching method. He is trying to get all of to think and to question our beliefs. Would I like to have all the info at once? Yeah, I would…but I do understand why he is doing it this way.
Eric…I get what you are saying, and I confess to having a visceral reaction similar to yours, but the man has got to make a living too. I can only imagine how all this might be impacting his practice and/or his private life. Don’t know how he does what he does…must be the seafood.
not be a jerk, but what is with this ‘Occupier’ mentality?
Dr. Kruse doesn’t owe us anything – when is the last time one has devoted this much time to a blog and answered questions with this regularity…
considering most of the message is absolutely free and has been the whole time – a little extra for cutting edge thoughts is something some of us are willing to pay for
@kathylu, NittDan,
Or he could be building suspense, every now and then pausing to see who is addicted enough to his style, to pay for the chapter ending. I can’t think of another medical professional who operates in this way. He does have a practice as a base of operation. Don’t get me wrong, Jack is an interesting guy. He has drawn some clever conclusions and made some strong accusations aginst most of the Paleo leaders. I think if he has something to say, he should say it. Everyone who reads this blog has invested a lot of time in Jack. The idea that I or anyone else should now have to pay for the conclusion to a story I thought was being delivered by a medical professional is, ridiculous.
Wow, can you say entitlement issues? Trolling much? LOL
For less than a month’s yoga class fee I get to ask this guy’s opinion on my medical issues everyday if i want and he answers me. then every once in a while he publishes mind blowing theory about how we are tied to this creation. Oh wait you don’t even have to pay for all that, but i chose to be a karnivore for $1.65 a day. If Jack just layed it all out I would probably miss 50% of it. Let it gel.
For those living in the Great Lakes area. Legends of the Lakes Brand white fish. 3 oz serving has .35gm EPA and 1.03gm DHA (higher than Chinook Salmon) and doesn’t exceed FDA mercury limit. And it tastes good!
Overnight delivery of fresh frozen white fish from Lake Superior Fish company is available
Dr Kruse, are you about to reveal the answer to your own question “are all electrons created equal?” Have you ascertained why the electrons from fat are conferred a metabolic advantage?
@Ray Brown I already kind of did that in BG 5. Read the part about the special electron clouds of DHA. And if you go back to the electron post……the answer to the metabolic advantage of fat burning over carb burning is there too. It is because electrons from Fats enter a different cytochrome in the electron chain transport system than they do when it comes to carbs and it creates more leakiness.
I have been eating seafood almost every day for more than two weeks. I did not understand why I had the feeling that I was detoxing all the time. Now I understand. I am on the way to Optimal. Great!
@Terry thank you for this info!!!…that is great to know. I just looked up information on White fish and I am within walking distance to Superior Fish. I am hoping they have the livers–I just might be able to eat those. If not, I will find them. I prefer eating fresh lake fish anyway.
I have been eating fish everyday now for 3 weeks and I am sleeping MUCH better and feeling much better overall. Seems inflammation is waning too. Early this morning I also decided to give up all dairy. Eggs I will limit as well to see how much better I feel. For one that never ate much fish I am learning and starting to actually love it. Where this is coming from I am not sure. I sure want to thank you Dr Kruse for all this information, even if I cannot be a member of your club.
@Carol Soon the reason why will be revealed. Michael on my site added some more vital information for you all to consider too before tonights Webinar.
He says, “It seems to be the same situation in North America with respect to the native peoples. There are reports of early explorers of people in superb physical condition and health. Now they’re some of the least healthy people.
Canada:
… obesity, metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes in First Nations
http://www.cbc.ca/thelens/bigfatdiet/wortman.html
U.S.:
The Indians are hit harder and faster than the rest of us because they are only two generations away from the “old way” of life, based on game animals and fish. Uncle Sam will never admit that the Indians were tall, lean and healthy just two generations ago. If ever someone wanted proof that humans weren’t designed to eat a grain-based diet, look at the American Indian population-almost all of them are battling overweight, diabetes, and heart disease.
http://www.westonaprice.org/traditio…uts-and-grease
And come to think of it, the Australian Aborigines are in much the same plight. They’re not only unhealthy; their societies are riddled with violence, endemic crime, alcoholism, and sexual assault:
http://www.smh.com.au/national/alcoh…0408-rv67.html
Yet, according to Price:
Their social organization is such that almost every person who had been in intimate contact with them, testified that they had never known any of the Aborigines to be guilty of the theft of anything.
Price notes:
The rapid degeneration of the Australian Aborigines after the adoption of the government’s modern foods provides a demonstration that should be infinitely more convincing than animal experimentation. It should be a matter not only of concern but deep alarm that human beings can degenerate physically so rapidly by the use of a certain type of nutrition, particularly the dietary products used so generally by modern civilization.
Whenever I think about these kinds of issues I find it frightening that Price can have been documenting all this so carefully and in such detail, and yet everyone has gone on in much the same way heading for the edge of the cliff. It’s truly mind-boggling.”
@David Regarding the π-electron clouds in our email here is a PDF for you to get the chemistry behind it. https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:V0gcFFCacc4J:www.chem.ucla.edu/harding/notes/notes_14C_noncoval02.pdf+π-electron+clouds&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESj9N5uy_oo7n-bV28Acb79NdA4lBAJz9rFteCSixT9RTYYpsFVr-Y_WnBb_ymkChwBELEyvvRuzD1q7RY_G2SndkEjJi3V2XGuHzy-lUjRsH9vype3WlIRNwChzj3rkazGpDfgz&sig=AHIEtbQGov7AErsO3RHCq1hO47iE90lhzQ
Hi Jack. The reference above actually answered a couple of questions for me. First, I can see that pi electron clouds could certainly function as an ionic switch through relative attraction or repulsion from atoms with different EN.
Also, I’m glad the examples focused so heavily on the halides. I have been mildly wondering why it seems to be necessary for people to take 50 mg of Lugol’s per day to accomplish bromide detox. I was a bit confused because on the surface it seems that since the MW of iodine is so much greater than bromine, that Br should be readily displaced from receptors. However, when you add up all the intermolecular forces, the EN charge difference is greater for Br, thus giving tighter molecular bonding. Thanks.
@Kathlu after tonight you might see why I upgrade the regular paleo diet made popular by Cordain, Wolf and Sisson using some of these principles. They have not considered this angle because they are not into brain physiology. And humans go as their brain goes……tonight I will show you how that really works at a micro level and how it should drive your macro behavior. When you know why something works it makes following it much easier.
@Carol,@Jack, During my travels in Michigan, we ate fresh caught white fish almost every day. I’d be interested to know if you can get the livers too.
My mother reported as the malnourished youngest of 13 children that her older brothers were 6 feet plus tall and there were so many fish that one could just reach into the water and catch one with the hands. many things happened and by the late 1920s people were starving.
@Terry, I will go over to Superior tomorrow and ask them, probe them and tell them they have to give me the livers. ..hehehe!! I saw a interesting recipe for them. Will post if I can get them.
Know I am missing out on the webinar, but happy for those who get to listen to it. I have my suspicions it will work on the macro and the micro level. I am being turned into a fish lover, but hardly a mackrel head smoother lover–I will never do that.
Hi – does anyone know how to join the live webinar? I’m not a member, but I purchased a webinar ticket on the site. I received the paypal confirmation, but didn’t receive any info about when and how to access the webinar. Thanks.
@Lynne email [email protected]
Awsome webinar, Dr. K. I will be absorbing and chewing on this one for awhile. Especially what you said about getting circadian rhythms right. More important than diet. That’s a paradigm buster. I love the decreasing order of importance of food categories. Very practical. And here I am at 10:18 writing. LOL…off to bed.
@Glamazon Thanks…..I think I will write up a blog this week and get it up.
Where is the webinar?
When will it be avaible for suscribers?
Thank you
@Phillippe it was last night at &PM CST in USA. It is now on the Webinar tab for our members to relisten to.
It is not yet in the webinar tab.fyi
Will those who purchased the webinar tickets be able to re-listen? I was only able to join at 7:15p CDT after emailing Misty, and also couldn’t stay until the very end. There were so many details I might’ve missed…
Dr Kruse, good webinar but I think I missed a couple items on your good and bad list.
Since I’ve been on the CT my early morning and late evening BP’s have IMPROVED by 10 to 20 points,both sistolic and diastolic levels. LEH measured my reverse T3 75.5(high) and CRP .8(ok) six weeks ago(pre-CT). I think my reverse T3 (and cortisol) must be getting better.I’m also sleeping MUCH BETTER.Thanks!!!
Also at http://www.anh-usa.org a couple articles on ‘Coconut Oil
and ALZ, and a link to four substances that prevent and reverse Dementia and ALZ(bottom of the page)-DHA(in fish oil),coconut oil,niacynamide, and natto.
Will-ex EE.
Dr. Kruse, You have stated that obtaining DHA from fish and shellfish is superior to obtaining it in liquid/supplement form. I understand the potential interaction of the DHA molecules incorporated in a membrane and thus somewhat constrained, but unless cell membranes from fish and shellfish are directly incorporated into our brains, I don’t see how it makes much difference from a dietary standpoint. Staring at the DHA molecule, reminds me of a benzene ring.
T. Field
@T. Field it matters in how it is assimilated in the gut with Iodine. We do not know how iodine is actually absorbed from the gut. It appears the best way is in concert with the evolutionary package it is best designed to come in.
Dr. Kruse, I found this today and it is an interesting article on DHA and curcumin:
————————————————
A randomized controlled study involving 27 animals with induced cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM) found that a combination of curcumin and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) promoted better spinal health and neutralized the clinical and biochemical effects of myelopathy. Animals underwent placement of a nonresorbable expandable polymer placed in the thoracic epidural space and were exposed to either a diet rich in DHA and curcumin (DHA-Cur) or a standard Western diet (WD) over a 6 week period. Results showed worse function in gait the WD group than in DHA-Cur group. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), syntaxin-3, and 4-hydroxynonenal (4-HNE) were similar in DHA-Cur group to intact animals, but decreased in WD group. DHA-Cur group exhibited increased higher lumbar enlargement syntaxin-3 and a reduction in lipid peroxidation (4-HNE). Findings indicate that DHA-Cur may promote spinal cord neuroprotection and neutralize the clinical and biochemical effects of myelopathy.
From: “Dietary therapy to promote neuroprotection in chronic spinal cord injury,” Holly LT, Blaskiewicz D, et al, J Neurosurg Spine, 2012 Jun 26.
@Werner I have been doing this for over 7 years……in these exact cases. Trust me…….it works like magic because this is how we were designed to work by Mother Nature.
What about people with allergies to shellfish? How does this come about? And can this be reversed? If it cannot be reversed, would a diet high in non-shellfish seafood be sufficient?
@Micheal We spoke about this in the webnar last night. Most people do not have a true allergy to seafood. It is dut to an IgA issue which is related to abnormal cortisol/DHEA axis. It can easily be overcome with an allergist in treatment often times.
Thanks for the webinar last night. Jeff and I enjoyed it thoroughly. In what forms do you get your sea vegetables? We usually find them dried or ground. So far we’ve used kelp powder and dulce powder mixed in our sea salt shaker (and in our smoked salt shaker) and use liberally. Can you get them in raw, fresh form somewhere? Is there any benefit to them fresh raw? I’m not sure about the seaweed salad at the asian markets because of the other ingredients.
@Dee most good asian markets get them in fresh. You may have to hunt one down in your town……if not there is always google and Fed ex.
@Jess from WholeFoods: Here is my response. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22676203#
In the summer I feel like I need to eat less butter. I still use it obviously, like 1 tablespoon or something if I use that for cooking. I often use coconut oil these days (I figure it’s not ‘too much’ saturated fat blunting the affects of brain assimilation of DHA, but you could correct me on this).
In winter, I will up my butter intake again to help keep me warm for my polar swims and daily snow ‘baths’.
I’ve started taking a pro-biotic and using inulin in addition to increased seafood intake. My cycle decided to come back (don’t know if it was THAT fast of an affect) since May 7th. For the last month (and maybe a bit) I was having a lot of constipation, VERY dry skin (especially on hands) to the point that no matter what it was dry as ever. My sleep felt fine…so I don’t know.
A note about this cycle: First of all the night before it actually arrived it was the TINIEST cramp pain…like so small. Then it arrived on Saturday. It was very light spotting with NO cramping!! Second day it was an actual flow with whatever shedding of uterus that happens. I felt mildly uncomfortable but I did NOT need to take any advil. Third to current day, seems normal and not excessive. If I’m lucky I will be regular from now on. CROSSES FINGERS!!
Thanks Dr. K. I know this journey to health is always hard and I just want to halt development of further problems even though I don’t have anything ‘serious’. But same with the people down the road, they didn’t have anything ‘serious’ in the beginning. I know what my potential bad could be…I stop that. My potential good is what I’m focussing on instead.
My year is coming full circle from last year and it’s only getting better from here on out. It was good, then went down hill then got a better, then had signs of weird decline…then NO I stop it again. Feel very optimistic this time around.
@Zorica BG 6 will be out soon enough…..I am currently writing up a blog based upon what I spoke about last night. I am just mentally shot now……I think my brain knows its time to shut down for some time off.
@ Michael Moose We get the niacin flush when we eat oysters.I think some people might mistake that for an allergy.
@Lee and that niacin flush comes from the Amino acids in the seafood that in there in high quantities and are not being assimilated properly from the gut and into the blood by way of the kidney and into the brain……..the excess is left in the blood and it is converted to niacin and hence you get the reaction because the transport system that works on these NT is broken by the inflammation in our bodies. That is the real reason it happens. We covered that in detail in the Webinar last night.
Well I listened and missed that. Not the kidneys part, but the flushing. So not flushing is good and would show progress?
Dr K, I’ve been very interested to read the ideas of Blackburn and her colleague, Elissa Epel, re: theories of mediating telomerase. In a lecture I listened to by Dan Siegel, he mentioned that a very new paper, just submitted for publication, posits that ‘presence’ is the likely mediator for the increase (and as an antidote to succumbing to stress). Sounds more like your opening statements in the webinar… attitude and thinking!
Good morning Jack. The webinar was excellent. You differentiate between shellfish and crustaceans with shellfish being #1. This would be molluscs and echinoderms including squid? Thanks.
@Dali yes…….BG 6 will be about this……Many people asked me to make a special blog about this webinar minus all the science so I am in the process of doing just that.
Just finished breakfast. Shrimp- head and shell on- sauteed in bacon fat with black pepper. Eating the shells was no problem. Yum.
Jack,
Your GB5 is superb-the tunneling,the vagus nerve to conduct specific coded messages to bring inflamation to specific body locations by non-hard-wired transference,
the power of DHA in the cells by tunnel packaging,the power of our thought prosseses above all the other creatures to affect our DNA,etc,etc.(I’m still reading).
And,of course,the coastal passageway of this brain.
Congratulations.
Will
@Will thank you……..the road to optimal has many bricks. This one is a pretty big one.
@Frank Here is a blurb about the Fish question you asked about.
The capacity to metabolize and absorb EPA and DHA varies from one individual to the next. The right amount of omega-3 for one person might be entirely insufficient for another, rendering it difficult to determine whether you are obtaining the full cardioprotective benefit. Testing allows aging individuals to establish baseline cardiovascular disease risk levels, and then optimize their omega-3 status with additional intake. Re-testing after four weeks is recommended to monitor your progress. (LEF has an Omega profile score that does this)
Some groups of people are at high risk for omega-3 deficiency—and cardiovascular disease. Vegetarians, especially vegans, typically have difficulty obtaining optimal EPA and DHA levels, since these omega-3s are absent from plant-derived foods. Flax seeds and oil contain the omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), which is converted only very slowly in the body to EPA and DHA. For these reasons, people who eat little or no cold water fish may especially wish to determine their omega-3 status.
Surprisingly, individuals who consume high quantities of fish may also suffer from sub-optimal omega-3 status. Our increasingly industrialized food chain now produces a substantial portion of its harvest from mega fish-farms, where the unnatural diet of soy and grain meal the fish are given greatly diminishes the omega-3 content of their flesh. Fish obtain and concentrate omega-3 fatty acids by consuming natural sources of these fats. The original source of EPA and DHA is from marine algae and phytoplankton. Small fish consume the algae and phytoplankton, then larger fish consume them, then even larger fish consume them and thus the EPA and DHA become concentrated at higher levels of the food chain. Farmed fish are completely dependent on their feed—if it does not contain EPA and DHA, the fish will not contain it in the levels found in wild fish.
Disturbingly, it seems more and more farm raised fish are coming up short in quantities of important EPA and DHA fatty acids. According to a 2008 sampling survey of farmed fish, tilapia (the fastest growing and most widely farmed fish) and catfish have much lower concentrations of omega-3s, very high ratios of omega-6 to omega-3, and high saturated and mono-unsaturated fat to omega-3 ratios. The study’s authors noted that “marked changes in the fishing industry during the past decade have produced widely eaten fish that have fatty acid characteristics that are generally accepted to be inflammatory by the health care community.”
Jack Says:
Surprisingly, individuals who consume high quantities of fish may also suffer from sub-optimal omega-3 status.
————————–
I am sure that apply not only when eating farmed fishfood but also to wild caught.
Trust but verify.
I have just about convinced my self that almost all (easily available) Omega6/Omega3 tests, are useless.
http://forum.jackkruse.com/showthread.php?2691-LA(O6)-ALA(O3)-and-EPA-DHA-ratios
To be able to verify I could use clear criteria for testing.
Need help in defining them.
..
@Jansz It is by now widely recognized that the typical North American diet (SAD) is replete with omega-6 fats (mostly vegetable oil) and sorely lacking in omega-3s. The Canadian government’s department of public health, typically more forward-thinking than organized medicine in this country, has taken the step of recommending a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 not greater than 4:1 for optimal cardiovascular health. Yet the typical American diet hovers at a ratio of roughly 8:1.1
EPA and DHA may reverse the potentially deadly effects of this egregious dietary imbalance in as little as three weeks. In fact, individuals ingesting 2,000-4,000 mg for that interval have experienced significant improvements across a range of key cardiovascular risk factors, including platelet aggregation (clotting potential), lower triglycerides, improved endothelial function, and reduced blood viscosity (“thickness”). Research indicates that in some patients on lipid-lowering statin drugs, the addition of omega-3 may reduce levels of LDL and VLDL cholesterol while maintaining a better safety profile than adding additional drugs. By favorably influencing electrical conduction in heart tissue, EPA and DHA supplements can also reduce cardiovascular disease mortality, especially sudden cardiac death.
You may think of a regular heart rate as a sign of good health, but in healthy humans, heart rates should undergo slight variations. For this reason, low variability in heart rate is predictive of increased risk for coronary heart disease, death, and arrhythmias (irregular heart beat). In adult heart attack survivors, 4 grams of combined EPA and DHA per day was able to restore heart rate variability to normal levels. And endothelial dysfunction, the complex result of years of elevated cholesterol, inflammation, and structural remodeling of tissue, is improved in large arteries by 3-4 grams/day of combined omega-3 supplements.
These benefits save lives. For example, in people with established coronary artery disease, ingestion of fish oil concentrate containing 55% EPA/DHA (6 grams/day for 3 months, followed by 3 grams/day for 21 months) substantially slowed progression of cardiovascular disease. These individuals also had fewer heart attacks and strokes compared to controls.
Finally, in one of the largest of its kind, a European prevention study of 2,836 subjects showed that supplementation of less than 1 gram/day of EPA and DHA over 3.5 years in patients who’d already suffered one heart attack reduced the mortality rate from cardiovascular disease by an average of 30%.
1. Holub BJ. Clinical nutrition: 4. Omega-3 fatty acids in cardiovascular care. CMAJ. 2002 Mar 5;166(5):608-15.
2. Angerer P, von Schacky C. n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and the cardiovascular system. Curr Opin Lipidol. 2000 Feb;11(1):57-63.
3. Schmidt EB, Skou HA, Christensen JH, Dyerberg J. N-3 fatty acids from fish and coronary artery disease: implications for public health. Public Health Nutr. 2000 Mar;3(1):91-8.
4.Dietary supplementation with n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin E after myocardial infarction: results of the GISSI-Prevenzione trial. Gruppo Italiano per lo Studio della Sopravvivenza nell’Infarto miocardico. Lancet. 1999 Aug 7;354(9177):447-55.
5. von Schacky C, Angerer P, Kothny W, Theisen K, Mudra H. The effect of dietary omega-3 fatty acids on coronary atherosclerosis. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. Ann Intern Med. 1999 Apr 6;130(7):554-62.
6. Dekker JM, Crow RS, Folsom AR, et al. Low heart rate variability in a 2-minute rhythm strip predicts risk of coronary heart disease and mortality from several causes: the ARIC Study. Atherosclerosis Risk In Communities. Circulation. 2000 Sep 12;102(11):1239-44.
7. Christensen JH, Gustenhoff P, Korup E, et al. Effect of fish oil on heart rate variability in survivors of myocardial infarction: a double blind randomised controlled trial. BMJ. 1996 Mar 16;312(7032):677-8
8. Goodfellow J, Bellamy MF, Ramsey MW, Jones CJ, Lewis MJ. Dietary supplementation with marine omega-3 fatty acids improve systemic large artery endothelial function in subjects with hypercholesterolemia. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2000 Feb;35(2):265-70.
9.Raper NR, Cronin FJ, Exler J. Omega-3 fatty acid content of the US food supply. J Am Coll Nutr. 1992 Jun;11(3):304-8.
10. Kris-Etherton PM, Taylor DS, Yu-Poth S, et al. Polyunsaturated fatty acids in the food chain in the United States. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Jan;71(1 Suppl):179S-88S.
11. Connor WE. Importance of n-3 fatty acids in health and disease. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Jan;71(1 Suppl):171S-5S.
12. Nordoy A, Bonaa KH, Sandset PM, Hansen JB, Nilsen H. Effect of omega-3 fatty acids and simvastatin on hemostatic risk factors and postprandial hyperlipemia in patients with combined hyperlipemia. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2000 Jan;20(1):259-65.
13. Leaf A, Kang JX, Xiao YF, Billman GE, Voskuyl RA. The antiarrhythmic and anticonvulsant effects of dietary N-3 fatty acids. J Membr Biol. 1999 Nov 1;172(1):1-11.
to all: This is pretty light weight but as I get better I seem to notice my relatives not doing this are getting more and more balmy than their usual craziness. Maybe I’m more aware. Anyone else notice?
@Jack :
re post #228
…….
While these words you have quoted may be true, they lead to bad outcome.
Most of what you have quoted comes from:
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2010/may2010_Optimize-Your-Omega-3-Status_02.htm
There is also this line there:
————————–
The average American male has a dangerously high ratio of 16.2,
whereas the maximum recommended AA:EPA ratio is 5.18
By contrast, Japanese men, whose diets are rich in omega-3s through fish consumption,
generally possess AA:EPA ratios of 1.7,
reflecting a substantially lower risk of chronic inflammation.
—————————-
http://img705.imageshack.us/img705/5059/image163x.jpg
per Genova Diagnostics desirable AA/EPA(12-125)
average being Average(12,125)=68.2
as a middle of desirable level
5.8 or 1.7 levels will lead to what Ed Kane cries about in his article
Why 4:1 Ratio Oil?
http://www.bodybio.com/BodyBio/docs/BodyBioBulletin-4to1Oil.pdf
When he says that AA is being mischaracterized
————-
In effect, arachidonic acid can metabolize in both directions,
either promote inflammation (PGE2), or, promote
anti-infl ammation — (PGI2), but we only hear of the
inflammatory side, the one that tells you to buy ibuprofen,
or aspirin, or even get a prescription for steroids, which
also block AA metabolism. In effect, calling arachidonic
acid inflammatory is a lie — or a half-truth, which is really
a whole lie
——————————–
…
@Jansz All tests are useless when viewed by themselves. You need to put them into the context of the clinical picture. You keep asking about the same thing over and over again but I am not sure how to make the point to you. These tests are worthwhile in the face of underlying inflammation with low Vitamin D levels and the presence of illness. I am not really sure what you’re driving at honestly.
Thanks Dr Kruse for these mind opening blogs. I’ve been reading for a couple of months and finally have a thermometer to measure the water temp. I’m seeing great results.
One detail was bothering me about what is meant by shellfish. Wikipedia says
”
Shellfish is a culinary and fisheries term for exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates used as food, including various species of molluscs, crustaceans, and echinoderms.
Crustaceans (Crustacea) form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles.
Cephalopod molluscs such as squid, cuttlefish and octopus
Bivalvia[45] molluscs : clams, oysters, scallops, geoducks, mussels
”
So shrimps are crustaceans, oysters and squids are both mollusks, and they all are shellfish.
Jack? I have a steady supply of Atlantic salmon from Lake Ontario. Wild caught but never lived in the ocean. Good enough? I consider it better than farm raised….
@Michele Wilson awesome……….if you got it from there.
@JS http://www.livescience.com/7736-epigenetics-revolutionary-humans-work.html
Jack…. captaindavewilson.com my husband’s fishing charter!
@Michele Where is he at?
Dr K, after this and BG 6 and the webinar, I went back to the Cordain book to re-read. Do you agree with his take on salt? He seems to advise against salt consumption at every turn and for a million different reasons (yet makes no distinction between ‘salt’ and ‘sea salt’ ever that I can see). I use real (sea salt) liberally. Any problems with that?
@Lauren On table salt yes……but not on sea salt. That is why humans sweat glands leak ridiculous amounts of NaCl…….we are designed to get rid of much of our dietary salt via our cooling mechanism.
@Jo here is the autism Zn link I told you about. http://www.nature.com/srep/2011/111103/srep00129/full/srep00129.html
More support for Brain gut 5-12.http://www.tgdaily.com/general-sciences-features/66307-genetic-mutation-explains-human-migration
When you know better you do better.
The Brain Gut 6 blog post seems to no longer be functional. I simply wanted to inform you in case you did not know. Thanks.
Dr. Kruse,
Just thinking about this blog from the perspective of “supplement sellers”. Is there a case for isolated DHA once integrated into membranes, joining the pi-electron cloud to acquire the electrical capabilities of pi-electron cloud network in brain lipids, which it didn’t have initially? Thereby could the end-product of integrating isolated DHA be similar to integrating DHA in the SN-2 position from seafood?
Just a thought … but I’m focused on what matters – seafood and oysters.
There is a role for them when the ocean finally dies off. That is currently happening.
In regards to my comment above, certainly DHA has to be coupled with Iodine for protection, as well as with Iron to integrate DHA into membranes, so ultimately I’d expect very little if of supplemental DHA to be integrated into cell membranes.
As a result, I think the literature on DHA grossly under-estimates how important and how clinically significant DHA consumption can improve cognition and health if consumed in its evolutionary package.
Just designed in the prospect of designing some prospective studies applying the Epi-Paleo Rx post-concussion at Western University, who the NHL just gave $500,000 to for research.
I’d expect a major clinically significant effect of the Epi-Paleo Rx, above and beyond much the DHA literature.