Readers Summary
- Who really controls our fat mass?
- How do hormones control our flora?
- How should doctors translate health or illness?
- What is an example of modern life that exemplifies this?
- What killed the King of Pop
Today, we are going to dive into the gut flora story a bit deeper than we did in our first gut flora post to help you understand how a a change in gut flora might lead to changes in your health by altering your hormone panel. Obesity is an inflammatory brain condition. Where does the infection come from? The gut flora actually is what causes humans to become fat. It has to due with shear numbers and the species of bacteria in our gut. There is a particular flora that produces adiposity and obesity in humans. These bacteria make something called FIAF (Fasting induced adipose factor) that control this process. This factor blocks lipoprotein lipase (LPL) in fat cells. LPL allows us to convert dietary Free Fatty Acids carried in lipoproteins into neutral fats that are stored in adipocytes.
Non Geeks: Our gut bacteria makes humans fat.
Geek Alert: The FIAF is made by our liver, muscles, and our small bowel wall when food sources are in short supply. This is the signal to stop storing fat in our fat cells when food is scarce. What is not well appreciated by many is that the FIAF in our intestinal wall is controlled 100{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6} by our gut flora. When we have a simplified gut flora it favors fat cell creation. When our gut flora is complex and healthy, it has 100 trillion cells with 250 species. We tend not to make fat in this instance either! Moreover, when the bacteria are active metabolically due to the presence of simple sugars, production of FIAF ceases, and fat creation is signaled. This implies that our gut flora is directly tied to fat creation in humans. The gut flora’s action is directly signaled to the brain via the afferent nerve fibers in the vagus nerve. In those newly created fat cells, a protein called leptin is also produced, and acts as a score keeper for the brain of how much fat is stored in the body. This messenger is sent to the brain around midnight when we are sleeping allowing the brain to assess total energy balance in the body. This maybe a good time and go back and re-read the following Leptin posts:
- Leptin: Chapter One
- Central Leptin Dominance for Health Part 1
- Leptin Part Deux: Liver
- Why is Oprah still obese? Leptin Part 3
The Colonic Sperm Bank
Our colon is the anaerobic reactor that reproduces our gut flora. The appendix is the “sperm bank” that keeps a nice sample of our current gut flora in case we get a nasty bought of gastritis that cleans our microfilms and our flora out into the toilet. We eat things under conditions with NO oxygen present in our gut. This type of environment stimulates the gut flora to extract a lot of energy from food because of scarcity. The chemical reaction basically is to extract as much oxygen from the food and leave behind carbon and hydrogen. This is essential what a ‘turd’ is in its basic form. In an anaerobic environment bacteria have an amazing capability to extract energy from food for its host, namely us. Bacteria have little ability to save any of this energy for them. The human body usurps their ability to be great energy extractors and uses it for itself. Your gut flora is what makes you fat and your gut flora is under control of hormones!
Since the human colon is anaerobic when we feed these bacteria a diet high in simple carbohydrates they extract the oxygen and and leave us with bowel gas and lower levels of FIAF. This actually allows us then to store fat that we can use later on for our own needs. This fat is loaded with long chain fatty acids, but to gain the energy in its bonds we have to have oxygen to access it. The bacteria don’t have that luxury, so they are inept at using the fat they created! We, however, can use it at our inner mitochondrial membrane to create energy via ATP using electron chain transport. In fact, long chain fatty acids have huge energy potential for the host. One molecule of glucose has only six carbons. Glucose can make 28-30 ATP. One molecule of an 18 carbon stearic acid, a FFA, has three times as many carbons as glucose but makes five times the amount of ATP (147 ATP) while only having two times the caloric density of glucose. This shows you precisely why a calorie is not a calorie and why CICO makes little sense. In the distal colon we make large amounts of long chain fatty acids under normal healthy conditions.
So when the human host turns around and eats a fat laden ketogenic diet it creates a huge hormetic issue for our gut flora. They can not access the energy in these fats because there is no molecular oxygen present and the human host is not hungry at all because the presence of the fat in the gut is signaled to the brain via the vagus nerve. This is the perfect storm for the human and really bad news for the gut bacteria. This is why one has to question the validity of any safe starch theory in my view. The molecular biology of the gut just does not support it.
Let us review this again
Geeks and Non Geeks Unite: The gut bacteria become starved, FIAF rises, and this makes the human host burn its own fat for fuel and fat stores are depleted. This is precisely how the dance between our gut bacteria and our own adipose tissues is supposed to work in normal conditions. As amazing as this sounds it gets more bizarre. Since our gut flora controls our ability to make and store fat what if I told you they also might control our desires for the foods that they really want, namely fiber and carbohydrates? Well, this is precisely what happens. The gut flora control the levels of neurotransmitters, agouti, ghrelin, and NPY in the peripheral and central nervous system and this drives us to want to eat things. I have covered this numerous times already in many past blogs. The type of gut flora we employ actually is tied to the appetite, desires, and to the reward of the food with respect to the brain’s frontal lobes. (central dopamine levels)
Radical Thought: Food reward should not be thought of a concept intrinsic to foods, but of the type of gut flora we have living in our own gut!
These signals from the gut flora eventually get hard wired into the brain over time by Hebbian learning. This is a very dynamic process, and nothing in the gut or the brain is fixed in this process. This is why it is so hard to get a handle on clinically. I think is where modern medicine will be revolutionized in the next 100 years. The knowledge we are unaware of might just change everything we think is true today. The key factor for humans maybe that the human gut flora seems to be very susceptible to the environment it finds itself in before puberty and before total brain maturation occurs at 25 years old. It appears that the local environment we live in in our early life is quite critical to this dynamic duo. This implies that where we live, the sources of food we eat, and the light conditions required to grow the food are provided under are all encoded in our food and this is directly transmitted to our brain via our vagus nerve by these neurotransmitters in the gut.
How might the brain account for these things? Well, the brain looks at micronutrients coming in through the gut and translates these chemical signals into neurotransmitters that the brain circuits can understand and decipher. For example, when we eat a diet high in fructose (found at the equator) the gut and body respond in kind by causing an increase in absorption of iron, while causing a relative copper deficiency in cells. A copper deficiency is handled differently in both sexes. Women need more copper than men do. The reason is simple. Copper is required for the production of the enzymes which convert progesterone into estrogen. However, in men, more zinc is required to form the enzymatic machinery needed to convert progesterone into testosterone.
When we eat a diet high in fructose, this will also lower zinc levels in cells. This lowers testosterone in men. Higher fructose levels also cause a transient magnesium deficiency in all cells in both sexes when this occurs chronically. Acutely, it changes it at the intestinal brush border. I mentioned here in this blog that is precisely how diabetes actually begins. This lowers the magnesium available to make ATP(energy) if it goes on too long. This is why magnesium deficiency is so common in people who eat carbohydrates in a mismatched environment (T2D). This is also why most diabetics suffer from low magnesium stores and over time this will destroy their sleep and cause peripheral neuropathy too.
The reason these things happen is because in a high light environments (think tropics or equator) humans can compensate for the higher fructose loads in their diet because higher levels of sunshine simultaneously increase Vitamin D levels in our body. The higher sugar consumption in this diet, will drive up LDL levels and the free T3 levels in the thyroid which allows the LDL to convert to pregnenolone, DHEA, and testosterone because of the higher than normal environmental exposures to the sun. We can compensate for these dietary fructose changes because our immune systems are simultaneously up regulated by the higher levels of DHEA and Vitamin D levels. We can tolerate more inflammation from this type of diet because our immune system is in better shape! This is the giant circle of life I laid out in the Hormone 101 blog post over a year ago.
What happens in a mismatched enviroment? (Light or Carbs)
When we live in a mismatched environment to light or carbs, we can not compensate well, so what happens? We begin to lose estrogen and progesterone in our brain and it begins to collect in our gut, our fat cells and in testes and breasts. The excessive estrogens can’t be cleared by the liver and the excesses lead to neolithic diseases when this occurs chronically. Light levels correspond to food sources everywhere on this planet. This also implies we are not well adapted for traveling long distances and seeing different food sources. Our gut was not designed for intercontinental travel it appears. Maybe this is why jet lag is not well tolerated? Moreover, it ruins the cortisol/DHEA/melatonin axis where light is a major player in the brain circuitry and this alters our gut flora. This maybe why the environment we grew up in has such fond memories for us and why we seem to adapt awfully fast when we return to it? The information in the food sources are transmitted to our brain by the gut flora’s action. There is a transaction of micronutrients that happens at our gut and our immune system sits right there to check the score. The brain is also paying attention to this accounting too, even if modern science is not. This dance is very complex, but fascinating to me.
So how is this signal transmitted in the brain?
Simple, it is the hormone response of the epigenetic signal given to us from the gut flora.
Our brain has more neurons in our gut than any other place in the body. We often call it our second brain. Moreover, the brain does not have a hard wired circuit to every single cell in the gut, or every bacteria in the gut, so it transduces the signal of these 100 trillion cells using a hormone response to modulate this signal. This is how the environmental signal of food is transmitted to the neural signal of the brain’s alphabet. This is why in Brain Gut 5, I told you hormones are the Rosetta Stone for deciphering what is best for the brain. I told you there to think of food as hormone information, not as a metabolic fuel.
We can decipher the message once we understand the language of the gut flora to the brain. This is why understanding hormones is critical to obtaining health.
Becoming an Epi-Paleo Rx Translator of Heath
When we see an altered hormone panel in clinical practice it might signal something small now, but it could morph into something you mind might not even comprehend. If this continues long enough you will wind up with some major health changes that become very complex and very difficult to treat. These diseases are treated only when they become firmly entrenched and obvious to most clinicians but the majority of patient suffering from them have the problem persist for years undetected until things worsen.
Today’s analogy to bring this home
Non Geek Alert: Today, we are going to use a candida infection (fungus) of the gut to illustrate for you how it can radically alter your healthy gut flora. We generally ingest candida from foods and organic matter from the environment but our immune system does a rather good job of keeping this yeast under control when allostasis is maintained between our environment and our hormones. When this balance is tilted out of our favor, we wind up favoring the situation that supports colonization from the yeast, and if the situation is allowed to persist long enough, it could become a frank sub clinical infection of the gut. If left longer still, it could become a systemic problem that could cause major diseases like breast cancer or prostate cancer. That might seem like a pretty big jump in disease risk to some people, but understanding how it all happens is important. It shows you how important great gut health is to a modern human’s physiology. The most common way the gut flora is altered in our modern world is via indiscriminate carbohydrate and antibiotic use. These create opportunities for candida grab some real estate on the gut flora’s monopoly board.
When a candida infection begins, it is because there are too many simplified carbohydrates being eaten at the same time as the inoculation of the yeast. This favors its growth because candida metabolizes sugars. If the diet is truly seasonal in carbohydrate exposure this is not a usually a problem, but in our modern world, carbohydrates are now available 24/7 and they are quite bio available and cheap. Modern medicine also uses antibiotics in many clinical situations which might be over kill. I have personally tried to curb my own use of prophylactic antibiotics before and after surgery now because of this issue. I have personally found the most effective way to stop infections is to re-engineer my patients gut flora about three weeks before surgery using a special protocol and cocktail that I developed. I follow this up with a strict Epi-Paleo Rx, I call the EPCOTx Protocol that is designed to limit inflammation. Check this link out to get a good idea of how complex things can get.
This is done to dramatically lower inflammation and leptin levels. Candida is known to flourish in high leptin level states (inflammed). These people also tend to be leptin resistant. When leptin levels are high it activates the inflammatory cascade via cytokines. This is all mediated through poor intracellular signaling of NF kappa beta, which is the ‘911’ number in a cell.
So who suffers from Candida?
This availability causes the gut flora to simplify, in both species of bacteria, and in shear numbers. We normally have 100 trillion gut bacteria and about 150-250 species of bacteria/yeasts/parasites in a normal gut. When the mix simplifies it decreases and changes the bacterial microfilms that the gut bacteria grow on. This is the perfect opportunity for candida to take over a gut. There are many ways this can happen, but I am just explaining to you the two most common ways it happens in our modern world. Diabetics have the largest battles with candida. This is why T2D, candida, and an obesity type flora tend to occur together. The situation for T1D or a Moby/LADA diabetic is quite different.
And what symptoms do they have?
We already mentioned T2D are a big portion of the sufferers. But what are the symptoms of a candida infection and altered gut micro-biome? Symptoms vary wildly between people because their gut flora does as well, and this makes it a tough diagnosis for many physicians. Most MD’s are taught to look for the low hanging fruit symptoms, like a white patch on mucous membranes that can be scrapped off to show a red map-like covering of the surface. We see this is in the aero-digestive tract and in the genitourinary system often. The more “zebra like” symptoms can be chronic fatigue and loss of energy. They can be related to depression and progress to regular or migraine headaches, bloating, excessive gas as well. One of the more interesting ones I see often as a neurosurgeon is pain or tightness in and between the shoulder blade area. This is commonly seen in degenerative disc disease (or herniation) of the neck and in gallbladder disease. An astute clinician must be aware of the unusual presentation of this yeast infection. That ability was more adept in the days before evidence based medicine. A cookbook approach, like evidence based medicine, won’t find these things often in my view. Candida can also contribute to brain fog, mood swings, memory loss, itching, multiple region joint pain with normal X-rays, chronic indigestion, ulcers, many sinus conditions and cancer generation as well.
Who else is at risk?
When the situation becomes entrenched by a western diet, modern antibiotics or any chronic stressor, we might see the development of many diseases we see in modern man. Chronic candida can also contribute to irritable bowel syndrome, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, multiple food intolerances, chronic heartburn and gastric acid reflux disease (GERD). This can get so bad that a form of candida can become invasive and burrow into organs and be deadly. I have taken care of many brain abscesses from candida in those people. Since candida albicans produces alcohol and acetaldehyde in its normal life cycle, it may also contribute to many other subtle dysfunctions, including general toxicity, liver dysfunction, nutrient deficiencies (Cu, Mg, Zn,I, Se) and more as I mentioned above.
Any production of alcohol means that it will cause the formation of higher levels of estrogens like estrone and estradiol in many tissues of the body. These hormones continue to collect and overwhelm the normal detox pathways in the liver called phase 1 and 2 detoxification pathways. You can think of phase 1 as being responsible for breaking things down and then sending the raw materials to phase 2, which builds new substances from the raw material by adding molecules to them (this is called conjugation).
Phase one detox is carried out by the P450 enzyme system in the liver. A diet low in protein-all too common in women who are trying to lose weight with a low-fat diet can dramatically slow phase II detoxification. Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), including ibuprofen, also slow phase II detoxification.
Want some easy clinical symptoms to pay attention too to fix your inner guru? Does garlic make you sick to your stomach? Does your urine have a strong smell after you eat asparagus? Did you suffer from toxemia during your pregnancy? Did your Vitamin D level drop quickly? Any of these symptoms might indicate problems with phase II estrogen clearance. (Phase 1 depletes methyl donors (low B12 and betaine) and phase 2 has defective conjugation) When these pathways do not work well it can cause many radical changes in the remainder of the flora to continue to co evolve and create the perfect storm to cause cancer in the thyroid, pancreas, ovary, colon, prostate, breast, and in the uterus. These tissues are all epithelial based tissues. This is why cancer is exploding in all these organs. The recent explosion of thyroid and pancreatic cancer has caught my profession off guard. It makes complete sense to me because I understand how circadian mismatches can kill us. (Channel Steve Jobs, Walter Payton, Gilda Radner, Joe Piscopo)
Candida infections often are linked to insulin resistance and epithelial cancers with massive depletion in fat soluble vitamins (A,D. K, E) and micronutrients in foods. You might be seeing why now why all these cancer types have risen dramatically in the last 112 years. We now live in that perfect storm. Colon cancer and breast cancer rates have been growing at exponential rates over the last 50 years in particular. Curcumin, the compound that gives turmeric its yellow color, is interesting because it inhibits phase I while stimulating phase II. This effect can be very useful in preventing certain types of epithelial cancers. This is also why it is a vital part of my EPCOTx PROTOCOL Rx for the gut. Many of you have done educational consults with me have already heard about it. Soon the rest of you will too, in a future blog.
Special shout out to modern small people
In kids, learning and behavior disorders are often due in part to candida infection, who eat a lot of simple sugars or who have exposed to a ton of antibiotics for any reason. This allows a rapid conversion of the flora to a simplified one that allows inflammation to begin in the gut and then assault the portal circulation (liver), overwhelm it and then get to the blood brain barrier to cause major brain specific diseases. Any parent of a child with ADHD or spectrum disorders know full well what this can do to their child’s brain and behavior immediately. Nothing will depress a brain faster than sugars. Depression is tied to anxiety too. Sugar is also tied to aggressive behavior and to violent crime. See it is easy to think badly when your brain cant work well because your gut flora has been stolen by your diet. Now think back to Brain Gut 8, and why I made the comment to one of the ladies, that she maybe showing signs of brain damage. See this is no laughing matter people. It is the giant circle of life coming back to destroy our brain biology.
Hormones and Cancer
Geek Alert: Many researchers are now linking Candida albicans and a simplified gut flora to illnesses associated with hormonal imbalance. As mentioned above, candida produces ethanol, which produces an intoxicating effect in the blood if the count level is too high. I have actually seen uncontrolled diabetics go to jail for impaired driving because of this effect when I was a resident! Ethanol grows quickly when candida has a nutrient source like simple sugars from grains or HFCS. In severe cases it produces much more than the liver handle and eliminate. The liver’s job is to take the excess estrogen from its fat soluble form and turn it in to a water soluble form to be eliminated in the urine or in the bile (estrogen detox pathways mentioned above). If the gut flora is simplified simultaneously, as it often is, the person will develop hard stools like one would see on a Bristol Stool chart level one or two. This means that the fecal elimination time is increased and because of this the water based estrogens are reabsorbed and the levels in the body grow. This radically affects the progesterone to estradiol balance in women and in men it can be the cause of man boobs, decrease libido, premature ejaculation, lowered testosterone, a lowered vitamin D level, higher LDL cholesterol from alteration of the LDL receptor in the liver. There is even evidence now that estrogen and testosterone receptors are radically altered in their signaling by these chronic elevations to cause cell signaling problems that lead to cancer. Look at this infographic on cancer from AHS 2012 again. Sometimes the signaling can be so bad that it can produce enough estrogen from reabsorption of estrogen the is makes the cells think they enough estrogens, which signals the body to cease endogenous production. This can cause major hypothalamic signaling changes between the gut and brain that are commonly seen in binging, eating disorders, and infertility cases. When this happens abnormal signals are sent to the thyroid gland (CRH), making it think it has enough stopping the production of T3. This stops the normal hormone pathways from the conversion of LDL cholesterol to pregnenolone that we outlined in the Hormone 101 blog post.
This is why we can see dramatic changes in fecundity, in menstrual problems, fibroid production, excessive bleeding, excessive cramping and bloating and in serious hypothyroid situations where reverse T3 is through the roof on labs. Obesity, infertility, hypothyroidism and eating disorders are merely ‘train stops’ before the ultimate stop, Cancer. Watch this video on iodine and hypothyroidism and where it leads too.
Cancer is not caused by genetic changes in our genome as most believe today. The genetic change we see in oncogenesis are the direct result of cancer formation to begin with by an altered cellular signaling gone awry. Once cancerous change occurs, cancers use glucose as their fuel source and alter the cells biochemistry to hijack the pathways. This hijacking then increases the leakiness of the first cytochrome in the mitochondria to ROS and mitochondria then die under the direction of glycolysis (carbs). This is why we should be advocating staying away from carbs in cancer cases. This was the source of my beef in the safe starches debate that broke out earlier this year, but was of course totally taken out of context by the paleo meme. Examine the poster from AHS 2012 I linked to earlier, done by a clinical oncologist (Caveman Doctor), which makes this point crystal clear. Dr. Otto Warburg wrote about this in 1928 and no one has proven him wrong as yet. The problem is cancer clinicians and researchers seem to have forgotten about this link to glucose and lactate. All of these things destroy normal cellular signaling and this can lead to cancer eventually if it left to continue.
More Geekiness: Another byproduct is acetaldehyde and it is related to formaldehyde this disrupts collagen production, fatty acid oxidation and blocks normal nerve functions. I see this problem as a spine surgeon because of the acceleration of disc degeneration in the spine. Orthopedic surgeons see it in the major joints. We are taught to replace those joints instead of fixing the real problem: the altered gut. I got this message about 7 years ago and began to change the way I managed the diseases of the spine and brain. The ethanol and acetaldehyde will also help hasten the brain by allowing more inflammation into through the blood brain barrier and into the brain. When this occurs we see depression, the loss of DHA (fish oil fat), phospholipids, ceremides and sphingolipids in the brain and function slowly diminishes overtime. Protein folding becomes abnormal and things like Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s, and cerebral strokes become very common. When we lose DHA we tend to replace it with other PUFA’s that don’t have the “magic built” into its chemistry that DHA does. We outlined that briefly in Brain Gut 5. That was a pretty important blog post in retrospect. We also lose total body and brain iodine that protects our DHA from any oxidative attack. This diminishes the production of pro-resolution chemicals in the brain. They are called resolvins, lipoxins, and protectins. I mentioned these briefly in Brain Gut 5. They were discovered by an opthalmic researcher at LSU (Dr. Bazan) and this is where I first heard about them. Their job is to protect the most sensitive part of DHA’s PUFA structure from the oxidation of inflammation. They work in concert with iodine to protect the integrity in the areas of the synapse where nerve connections are made. This is where neural connections occur to control all the processes in our body. This allows us to control proper signaling. This is the source of all cancers. When inflammation is high signaling is lost in all types of neolithic diseases. Most diseases have an inflammatory brain component to them.
The King of Pop: Was it his doctor, his family, or his choices?
In reality his death was caused by all of them. When this fundamental chemistry is destroyed, brain function is dramatically altered clinically. When we lose the fundamentals of neural chemistry we begin to de-evolve and see more primitive neurologic state of function. This is a ‘small example’ of the brain damage comment I made to Mrs. MJ Friedman in the guest blog, Brain Gut 8. They thought it was funny then, but when you understand the real life implications of it, I can not laugh about these things any longer. There are biologic consequences to all our decisions. In a surgical or a clinical situation when someone has this “slight brain damage” any new stressor pushes them over the edge. Think of getting a test done under a general anesthetic like an MRI or an ankle fracture set with ketamine. This stress can cause you to decompensate neurologically. Some of my patients have much bigger risks for post anesthetic issues than others. Those with significant alterations in their gut flora carry the highest risks in my view, as a neurosurgeon. I do things peri-operatively different in them than those who do not exhibit these symptoms. Delirium under the stress of life or an ICU become more common things these days because altered gut flora are now the primordial condition of our species in the western world.
You might see the way Michael Jackson died in a different light now. Was he a creative genius and talented to the max? Sure he was. But why did his career peak in 1984 and fall off a cliff? Thriller was when he was at his apex of ability. Ironically, it was also when the human brain fully matures and myelinates using ketosis biochemistry in the brain. Yes, safe starch folks, the brain myelinates via ketosis not using the Krebs cycle. Once again, Dr. Cunnane’s data comes back to teach you something paleo has not. He spent his entire young life in a studio surrounded by man-made EMF’s that altered his blood brain barrier and increased his brain’s sensitivity to glucose that also easily changed his gut flora. His primordial environment on this planet was a sea of man-made EMF’s from electrified music and performances. In 25 years, he went from supremely talented to total destruction. 25 years. Now think about when we electrified the planet and began to use EMF and think about when neolithic disease began. Yes, their is a fly in the ointment. EMF’s destroy your gut flora quickly.
I believe this is when Mr. Jackson’s altered pathologic gut flora caught up to his brain and destroyed it over the last 25 years of his life. As result of this mismatch, he found he could not sleep at all, and it he had to rely on powerful anesthetic drugs to put him down, so powerful they killed him. Was it irresponsible medicine that killed him? Sure that played a role, but the question no one seems to asks what was the pre existing state that got Mr. Jackson to that point? How did he get to a point where he needed a drug like Diprivan and Ketamine to sleep? I think this blog opens that rabbit hole for you to think about now. Think about his life, the stressors, his family dynamic, the vitiligo, the veganism, the bizarre behavior and his strange choices from childhood to adulthood. All of these things are linked to a lower dopamine level in his retina and frontal lobes. Where they a pop star’s eccentric coincidences or modern epigenetics of a bad gut flora being simplified to slowly destroy his brain and his ability to sleep?
Read my last cite and see if things are not adding up. In my opinion, he was the poster boy of what a bad gut could do to wonderful brain. It is the giant circle of evolutionary life in my opinion. His rise was meteoric and his de-evolution was just as dramatic. No one sees the evolutionary biology in his story, but I do. It is a brain gut story to be sure and why it make this series now.
What we believe heavily influences how we see the world. Most of us are unaware of that bias in ourselves or in others. When we hear the King of Pop, it immediately brings up memories of him that we all have. I destroyed mine and now think it was just sad no one saved him from himself. Memes are powerful forces. Once a concept is drilled into society’s beliefs, it’s becomes difficult to change whether it is wrong or right. Maybe what killed Mr. Jackson was massive environmental mismatches from EMF and light? You think about it and decide. I would imagine you will drop some comments about this here on the blog.
Summary
Your gut can easily destroy your brain overtime, if you allow it to with your diet or to artificial light. The science is complex for sure. This blog open your mind to these possibilities now, and the science behind this is incredibly fascinating. I decided to leave the mind bending science out of this post. I just wanted you to see a birds eye view of how one small change in gut ecology might and can change the local micro-biome, the local microfilms of the gut and eventually give you things you just could not fathom in diseases. The people who have done educational consults with me can fully attest how these principles can be directly applied to their own situations. Today, I used the combination of examples of candida, antibiotics, and simple sugars like wheat bread, coke, fruits, and apple pie to be our examples of how this might happen. If you found this provocative you might be blown away about how artificial light, chronic stress, heavy metal toxicity, BPA, synthetic hormones, perfumes, cosmetics, and other ‘luxuries’ of modern life can destroy a body. Just ask those who have decided to come visit me in the rabbit hole of evolutionary medicine.
And remember, no army can stop an idea whose time has come and I think things are changing for us all now. Mediocre health is self-inflicted by our actions and imprinted by the health care complex but your healthy genius is self-bestowed by your new thoughts. Own them and you own your life and control your health.
More Support: Webinars by Dr. Kruse
- EPCOTx Protocol (September 2012)
Additional Resources
- Leptin: Chapter One
- Central Leptin Dominance for Health Part 1
- Leptin Part Deux: Liver
- Why is Oprah still obese? Leptin Part 3
- Your Gut, Neurotransmitters, and Hormones
- Gnolls.org Open The Door To Obesity Fight
- Why Sleep and Leptin are Yoked
- What is Peripheral Neuropathy?
- Vitamin D: The Sunshine of Your Life?
- Hormones 101: Clinical thoughts revealed
- Brain Gut 5: Paradigm Drifts Paradigm Shifts: Epi-Paleo
- Brain Gut 6: Epi-Paleo Rx
- Brain Gut 8: Their Trip Down the Rabbit Hole
- The EPCOTx Rx
- Can’t Remember? Is Your Protein Bent?
Cities
- Atkins, R., Dr. Atkins Diet Revolution.
- Crook, W. MD, The Yeast Connection.
- Trowbridge, J., The Yeast Syndrome.
- Truss, O., The Missing Diagnosis.
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12851125
- http://forum.jackkruse.com/showthread.php?1084-Autoimmune-and-the-VDR-vitamin-d-receptor/page3&highlight=vitamin+receptor
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2187592/How-stress-depression-shrink-brain.html
- http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/MetabolicSyndrome/34220 (gut flora of obesity)
- http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/08/15/gut-flora-microscopic-organisms.aspx?np=true
- http://gordonlab.wustl.edu/PublicationPDFs/344_BackhedPNAS04.pdf (how the gut bacteria makes us fat)
- Effects of gut microbiota on the brain: implications for psychiatry
- Karen-Anne Neufeld, BSc and Jane A. Foster, PhD
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2674977/ (Why the King of POP went nuts)
I don’t know anyone that this isn’t relevant to. I’m just hoping there is a good gut flora possible. I guess all you do is not eat the bad stuff and it will fix itself.
Sugar is really and truly worse than alcohol, in my opinion. At least you don’t have the gut flora byproducts of the fermentation process with liquor, or the peripheral fat.
If you have a gut Lee this is relevant……for sure. Too bad it is not for Mr. Jackson.
How does eating fish raw reset ones gut flora?
I’m wondering how fecal transplants fit into this. From what I remember reading about a story involving them and fixing someones issue with a really bad bacteria it worked by fixing gut bacteria I think.
Fecal transplants from someone eating a great diet might be one of the faster ways of going toward optimal….sounds sick but does this thought have any merit?
Guessing this would be expensive and not at all easy to do at the moment. I feel gross just typing that question….
@Shiloman That answer was in point 12 in Brain Gut five.
@Jon they fit in huge. I just have not gotten specific on things just yet. Right now in 2012 fecal transplants are already considered the gold standard for recurrent bouts of antibiotic resistant C. Diff diarrhea. Do I think it has even more clinical utility…….yes I do but the science is not caught up to my thinking just yet. It is easy to do and would not be expensive to do really but very few places outside of Ivory Towers are doing it now.
I wish my damaged brain could absorb and retain this amazing information, thank you again for your awesome blogs. I am waiting to hear back from my doctor for a Rx for Nystatin (this was even before I heard you saying anything about candida) I am hoping to get a Rx for my daughter who has been exhibiting tics (and she has yeast infections growing up). Do you have a favorable opinion of Nystatin? For Kids?
@Coldbren if your daughter has a fungal infection this blog should really open your eyes. You must eradicate all yeast to re gain your gut flora and it is not an easy task.
All yeast? I thought some was natural for the gut. Is it really fine to get rid of all of it? Maybe some amount has a function?
Or not? Just asking. Or is it just some forms of fungus that are bad and others might have legitimacy?
@Jon they do. Candida was just used as an example here in this blog to show you what one small change can do.
For the brave and thrifty among you…here are instructions for a DIY (do it yourself) home fecal transplant. Can’t wait to hear about people’s results!
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/index.php?threads/fecal-transplants-fecal-bacteriotherapy-diy-home-version-very-straightforward.13744/
Mindblowing as always….. and more blog posts to re-read now, because the lights are turning on. People ask me whether I miss bread and sugar and starches. Well yeah, I loved eating those things. But knowledge is power. And knowing what I have learned here, and reading the cites to your blog, I just can’t allow myself to eat things that will further harm me. It’s like dropping a 15-ton weight on my desire to eat any of that stuff. This blog post just cements that even further….. awesome stuff Dr K!
Fantastic post Dr. Kruse! You are connecting so many dots for me in terms of my health and the health of my child. THANK YOU!
In your experience, is starving out the candida (via eating Epi-Paleo), crowding them out (via consuming lots of lacto-fermented veggies and probiotic capsules), and minding light cycles enough for a brain-gut child who has a history of recurring candida rashes, or are prescription anti-fungals always going to be imperative in healing such a child?
Are there signs (laboratory or other) aside from normalized behavior and decreased neurological symptoms that could let a parent know they are doing enough to heal the child?
@scrn2007 you must do everything humanly possible to eradicate candida because of what it can do.
I would think Michael Jackson’s skin whitening surgery and numerous plastic surgeries couldn’t have been beneficial to his health. But probably a good thing was that oxygen tank he slept in.
when you do most things irrespective of your biology Pete, one small thing right wont help. This is why he died at 50 and a mess.
“Since the human colon is anaerobic when we feed these bacteria a diet high in bacteria they extract the oxygen and and leave us with bowel gas and lower levels of FIAF.”
The second bacteria should be: carbohydrates, I suppose?
@aldert, yes it should be.
You seem to state that a ‘fat laden ketogenic diet’ is bad news for the gut flora. Did I read this correctly? And as there are no safe starches, protein is really the way to go?
@andre with regards to obesity flora yes you read it correctly.
“One of the more interesting [symptoms of candida] I see often as a neurosurgeon is pain or tightness in and between the shoulder blade area.” Oh my. Sorta like someone has walked up behind you and gently pressed their palm between your shoulder blades? That kind of feeling?
@nonchalant…….yep.
My comment before reading:
I go to bed at 10pm no matter what.
After just two days of sleeping in a different house with east facing window and no need to cover the window with towels as I had been doing at my former place of residence since at least January, I can get up BEFORE 7am. Wake up yesterday was 6:50, and today wake up was 6:35. 7am is not bad either considering I was waking up in more darkness due to towels and west facing room.
My new place of residence beginning in September has a south-east facing room in quiet residential neighbourhood. My circadian biology is about to go from ‘not bad due to effort’ to ROCKSTAR!
Circadian rhythm + epi-paleo is just awesome!!
@Zorica The more you pay attention to circadian cycles the better one gets.
O, and when I wake up I go outside to ‘look at the sun’, but I did this behaviour at my old place too.
Dr. Kruse very interesting blog post! Thanks so much! First ok I am laughing even more now, laugh with me all who read this, I did not say who had brain damage! I certainly hope I don’t!!! Brain damage through the method you describe is not a laughing matter, only the delivery of the information was at the time. This is serious, it makes so much sense. I have seen cases where diabetics were accused of drunk driving, and find that fascinating! When it comes to eating fruit away from the equator, can one not compensate for this by upping their vitamin D? I know that when I go on vacation I never feel good, stomach issues, but since I’ve changed my diet cutting carbs and sugar it’s not a problem so much anymore. Is the problem with eating differently during travel more associated with carbs and sugars or can other foods affect and change the gut flora as well?
@MJ I understand, but I want all my readers to understand how important this is. People do not realize their brain function is directly proportional to the brain specific nutrients they eat when the their inflammation levels are low. This allows the nutrients from a good Epi-paleo diet get into their brain to improve them. The diet alone is not the panacea many think it is. I thought you would like the information on how carbs out of season or eat for the wrong latitude is accounted for by the body and the brain. Too many people just dismiss this information. It is all a function of how the gut and the brain work in unison. The middle player is the organic cation transporters in the brain and the kidney. I covered this science in the webinar last month for the members. The science is nothing short of amazing and it points out why many times clinical medicine and especially psychiatry is missing some key cogs in how all this is connected. Travel is a huge factor in altering a gut flora. My personal belief is that our gut flora has its own circadian clock and it is really affected by changes in time and that change is transmitted to our brain to make us feel worse.
I see myself in this blog as being fragile and one thing can tip me the wrong way. I am working on the gut. I am rotating probiotics daily, adding kevita, and fermented pickles. Eating fish 2-3 times a day and keto. Any way to get it done better or more efficiently?
@Kami yes…..if your hormones are suboptimal it will take longer.
I’m really beginning to peel back the onion that links my issues together.
I have to wonder – you talk about the location where you were raised. I’m one of those individuals who’ve lived all over the US, plus some international countries. What’s interesting is I’ve always felt best in high mountain desert stepp environment like Colorado, and Idaho. Every time I go to Idaho – an amazing sense of well being settles over me – I always thought it was just my connection to my family – but its actually my connection w/the land and microbes that’s driving that sense of well being. What if find interesting – is that I didn’t live on a regular basis in Idaho growing up – but I always visited my grandparents every summer for 2-3wks, I have no allergies in this environment (high desert stepp of ID,CO, UT, MT,WY,NV) – but I do in CA (where I was born), in the midwest (IL, KS) as well as NJ, MD, DC, VA. I also have no allergies in the ecological environment on Guam,Indonesia or Maylasia, but do have allergies in the ecological environment on Okinawa. Very interesting.
What’s even more striking is the following comments:
Nonchalant Says:
August 21st, 2012 at 6:14 am
“One of the more interesting [symptoms of candida] I see often as a neurosurgeon is pain or tightness in and between the shoulder blade area.” Oh my. Sorta like someone has walked up behind you and gently pressed their palm between your shoulder blades? That kind of feeling?
Jack Says:
August 21st, 2012 at 6:38 am
@nonchalant…….yep.
I’ve always been told that pressure btwn the shoulder blades is directly related to my asthma. Well, HELLO! my Asthma is directly related to candida – especially my allergy responses to irritants such as ragweed – which is why I’m walking around hacking up a lung right now for the past 3wks. I think I’ve figured that’s why I can’t fix the aero-digestive tract! Its also what’s probably keeping my FBG running toward high levels even w/epi-paleo diet in ketosis.
So it looks like I need to not only add the metaformin to my arsenal – but I also need to add a 12wk round of difulcan to kill off the candida I have floating around, to address the FBG issues, as well as the respiratory issues.
Blown away by epi-paleo solution and how it impacts my over all health….
@Gretch I thought this one would open your eyes further……you are a walking example of how this all really happens in a person.
Phenomenal blog, Jack.
Unfortunately I see so much of myself in here.
Gretchen, why 12 weeks on Diflucan to kill the candida rather than another number of weeks? Do you have a reference for this? Thanks!
@Kami It is all the giant circle of life like I said in the blog…….here is your Disney reminder:
Mufasa: “Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope.”
Young Simba: “But, Dad, don’t we eat the antelope?”
Mufasa: “Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.”
—Mufasa
The animals are smarter than the ones with big brains it appears.
Thanks for this clear information on the liver detox pathways…another bit of the quilt that is starting to all hang together.
So true that doing one thing right isn’t going to turn the tide….but putting together a whole mess of changes and behaviours can make a huge difference. I love feeling how all this information is changing me…better still to see the evidence in some labs…that’s the next step.
@Sea Horse……I told you all during the MDA days that labs are your mirror to what is really happening on the inside. This is how we evaluate your epigenetic switches……and once your aware that human epigenetics was set on fast forward by Factor X maybe now your starting to see why circadian biology is ridiculously important to mankind?
The following study – regarding antibiotics given to babies and associated obesity supports BG9.
WOW Connecting all the dots.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48736968/ns/health-childrens_health/#.UDOkY6mPUTM
Watched the linked BBC video on fasting and have 3 observations:
1) as pointed out in the video, lowering IGF-1 by fasting only delays AI diseases
2) fasting appears to only delay the effects of inflammation
3) it was mentioned to eat a low protein diet, but unless I missed it, they never gave a reason for the low protein diet in relationship to lowering IGF-1.
Now, 2 questions:
1) Wouldn’t a 3-4 day fast once a month reduce muscle mass significantly?
2) Isn’t it interesting that all of the fasting research is done in the USA where the big grain companies rule?
@Shilohman 1. It will when your warm adapted……go back and re read CT 6. This is the missing link to the video. In the cold all the biochemistry is reversed and IGF1 protect us by increasing our lean muscle mass and reducing body fat. That is a direct affect of growth hormone.
2. Nope it is by design. They want this info quiet. Bill Davis book has caused them massive problems.
Ok.. you definitely got my attention on this one. It’s scary to think that something like the gut can in essence, destroy one’s brain. I know there are other factors that play into as well, as you stated above, but when you start breaking it down into little pieces, it’s simply mind-blowing the outcome that we are facing if changes are not made. I will have to re-read this many times (as usual) to fully understand it’s entirety. But thank you Dr. K for this blog. I have lots of work to do, but now more than ever, I also have a “map” of where to start.
@Dannielle this is why the time you spent with me in Fla should have opened your eyes even wider…….Bad brain function for sure tells you the gut is broken in some fashion.
Fantastic post, Dr. Kruse. Key is that we MUST own our own health. I truly feel sorry for docs today, as many patients see them as some sort of god who knows all. We need to work with our doctors, and understand that in some of these areas, if you follow Dr. Kruse’s blog, you will have more current info than your doctor- and this does not make your doctor a bad doctor.
I only had my initial educational consult with you a week ago, but have already offered a good doctor the opportunity to work with me while I transform myself, and to learn from the process. I think it is important to present the offer in just this way to a physician. Not all physicians are amenable to this approach, but better to know at the beginning….
Totally awesome, Dr. Kruse and gives me several more tools to put into my box, so to speak. Looking forward to my follow up consult already, as things are clicking. Looking forward to the Webinar.
@Marseea Great insight and it is true. This is why Dr. Ernie Garcia’s manifesto is true. Most docs I know try real hard…..but the deck is stacked against them by the way the system is set up. Hospitals, the govt and insurance companies are the real culprits……especially the hospitals. And they have just been given carte blanche by the new health care law.
Amazing blog…thank you Dr. Jack…
I wish I had all this info in my 30’s instead of 60’s–I wonder if I would have paid attention??
@Carol Do not worry about the spilled milk…..just worry about what you can do right now!
Jack, you said “In the cold all the biochemistry is reversed and IGF1 protect us by increasing our lean muscle mass and reducing body fat. That is a direct affect of growth hormone.”
In the video were some people with very low levels of IGF-1, with very short stature. What would be their reaction to cold? I’d bet even their low amount of IGF-1 would increase.
@Nonchalant the people in the video have LeRon’s syndrome which is a genetic syndrome and not an epigenetic one. Moreover, the studies on longevity are not done on cold adapted humans. When they are I bet we find out a new story. Why? There is an IRB study being done at Cedars Sinai now that is showing increased longevity in patients with end stage heart disease on GH. If these people, who are on death’s doorstep are living longer it tells us the things many clinicians and scientists believe about IGF 1 maybe wrong. I asked myself these questions when others just think what is believed is true……..well it is not. People on GH do quite well, but we need more studies.
Of all your blog posts, this one resonated deeply with me. I totally agree with what you said about
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I was getting so much better before a family trip to Scotland in June… since the return, I’ve been feeling miserable–like I’m falling apart in every way. I kept thinking that it was the lack of sleep and different foods, etc. that got my cortisol so wonky… Thanks for the timely posting of this..it’s really amazing stuff.
“Travel is a huge factor in altering a gut flora. My personal belief is that our gut flora has its own circadian clock and it is really affected by changes in time and that change is transmitted to our brain to make us feel worse.”
Is there a way to jumpstart the colonization of the gut with the proper bacteria? I know most probiotics don’t have much in them compared to the 100 trillion bacteria in the gut. But what about something like VSL #3 which has 450 billion in one packet?
@Lyndra there is…….and it is part of my EPCOTx Rx. It is coming.
..so, the appendix is FAR from a useless organ, like we’ve been taught? Does it follow that without this bank of gut flora that people with no appendices have serious issues recovering from gut issues?
@Krusing the appendix is critical as our gut flora bank account.
Since eating strictly keto-Epi Paleo my stomach bloating is disappearing. I also take probiotics along with eating fermented veggies. I try to keep my diet and supplement taking very simple. I am now able to buy Sushi grade Alaskan Salmon from the fisherman himself, and have been making plenty of salmon tartare and absolutely love it. You could not have told me a year ago I would be eating fish at almost every meal, let alone raw. This blog also explains why back inflammation between shoulder blades is waning (think I new the answer intuitively.
Brain damage!!! Makes me sad since I caused it myself by my life-style. I am still not sure how pain pills and aspirin correlate but I haven’t taken a one in over 10 years. Not even when I broke my rib because of what they do to me. I won’t sleep for weeks if I take a pain pill. Hope there is never a reason I would have to take one again because of the chaotic mess they cause. Reading this blog keeps me focused on doing what is right NOW. Thank you, Dr Kruse for your help in giving us the prospect of a quality life.
Kathylu, but you would want a DIY (do it yourself) home fecal transplant from someone in your home town, no?
OMG…this did it. It brought it all together for me…*now* I understand. I *get it* Jack!!
@chewingthefat I’m just warming up…….to cool you down. The quilt is 40 years of my experience and education and so far we are only a year into it. I am glad your are finally seeing the light but I promise you when you read the older blog posts that I linked in here you will see many foundational building blocks. The further we go the more clarity you should see.
The appendix has everything, good and bad, though? or the original good stuff?
@Lee Read this……notice the date too. The world of medicine will change because science will make it. http://www.economist.com/node/21560559
I need clarification on fermented veggies (saurkraut) and kombucha (made with yeast) If we suspect internal yeast causing havoc…we should avoid these 2 things….right?
@Coldbren…….not all yeast are bad. The candida in the blog was an example and I said it clearly there.
Well, Dr K, you told me this blog post was ‘about me’ and you were so right! It is like you laid out the history I never told you, down to tiny little indicators of gut malfunction starting when I was young (and the Jackson 5 were still dancing!). It makes total sense how I ended up where I did…. now I’m turning this train around. Can’t wait for your future blog posts and the EPCOTx protocol. Thank you!!!
@Lauren After speaking to you I decided to put up or shut up and break the chain of how I was going to release it. This should show you just how detailed things are and how your labs can be thin sliced by someone who understands from a 30,000 ft view of how things all fit. Because of you I released it earlier. Now make sure you use this education to light your passion for optimal on fire. I need a starfish in the southern hemisphere.
Interesting since I grew up in New Orleans and ate a lot of seafood back then….
“This maybe why the environment we grew up in has such fond memories for us and why we seem to adapt awfully fast when we return to it?”
Yay!
@LinD it is what ails you now…..just avoid the PUFA’s that NOLA is famous for. You need to go back to Fat City and get to Drago’s and order the BBQ’d oysters. I may fly down there just to meet you.
I reccomend the book ‘Gut and Psychology Syndrome’ by Dr
Natasha Campbell-McBride. It’s full of excellent recipes for the digestively-challenged. She is an expert in feeding usually fussy kids (and adults) with gut problems.Her recipes are easy on the gut and tasty!
I look forward to the upcoming seminar.
Will boyden
So many connections…understanding why i had the worst sinus infections of my life after going to South America and Africa…and why my most chronic and painful symptoms of celiac became apparent after returning from South America (and after a heavy dose of cipro)….and why my diagnosis of mycoplasma was not new, but lying just under the surface of my issues. Despite my damaged, foggy brain and my non-existent stores of energy…the synapses are cracking! I’m all for rewiring those auto-associated patterns!
Jack that article at the Economist you cited mentioned “A disrupted microbiome has been associated with a lengthening list of problems: obesity and its opposite, malnutrition”.
I don’t think they are opposites. I think SAD = malnutrition.
My sister was cured of severe clostridium difficle via fecal microbiota transplant(stool transplant) when antibiotics failed. This procedure saved her life!
http://www.fecalmicrobiotatransplant.com
@D Johns soon this will be standard of care for a leaky gut……I honestly believe it.
I do to Jack, I believe fecal microbiota transplants will revolutionize medicine and treatment of many diseases much in the same way that antibiotics revolutionized the world after world war II.
Dr. Kruse,
So if “the appendix is critical as our gut flora bank account” what if one doesn’t have an appendix? Mine burst when I was 18 and I almost died. I was in the hospital for over a month, most of that time on IV antibiotics. I lost 60 lbs. (from 185 to 125). Does that mean I’m screwed?
@Paul No it means your journey to recover your flora is tougher, but doable.
@jaime Here is the link to transitional apes you asked for…….yes this story goes back 60 million years in our ancestors. BG series is open a new rabbit hole. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2010/11/16/gut-bacteria-recap-the-evolution-of-apes/
@Darlene said on the forum, “Hello everyone. I am a 44 year old mom of two (all grown up), have been married 26 years, live in Montana, and unfortunately was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) last Christmas.
I am a nursing student, and love medical research. Immediately upon diagnosis, I began eating a raw, vegan, gluten free diet. I then transformed that into a totally grain free diet. I felt amazing for about 6 months, when I started to get tired and run down. At that time, more research led me to the belief that I may not be doing myself such a great favor by the raw vegan diet, so I added bone broth, grass-fed beef, eggs etc. I also added coffee back into my morning routine with heavy cream (grass-fed organic).
I then came across the Perfect Health Diet and was allowing myself safe starches.
Just days ago I read The Caveman Doctor and Dr. Kruse’s info on safe starches and realize now that they will have to be eliminated from my diet.
The type of cancer I was diagnosed with is usually seen in much older people, except that it seems lately, younger people are being diagnosed. CLL is a slow moving blood cancer (hopefully), and I have had time to experiment. It is a monoclonal proliferation of B-Cells. If any of you know anything about CLL, I do not meet any of the currently tested for FISH test criteria (13q deletion etc.) , which places my overall survival at about 5-9 years. They believe I have had this for about 2. For those of you that do not know about CLL, that will sound like gibberish.
My White Cell count is 29k, my absolute lymphocytes are about 85%. In December of 11 at diagnosis, it was 22k. It was stable while on the vegan diet, not increasing over three months. Then, after adding meat back in (and coffee) it increased to 29K.
There are SO many conflicting studies, articles, and opinions on what a person with cancer should eat. There is even more question when the cancer is a blood cancer. Not much information out there. I have even come across a study that shows that leukemic cell lines are immune to death by ketosis. They are able to maintain life by glycolysis or ketosis, either one. (I cannot relocate this study).
My prior history has been a mess. I had post-viral syndrome after a particularly bad case of influenza in 1990. I had not really been the same since. There were random diagnoses such as Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, non-differentiated connective tissue disease etc. I have had my gallbladder out, my appendix out, my tonsils out. During the appendix operation in 2008 I acquired Clostridium Difficile. I had this relapsing and reoccurring for 8 months. For 8 months my gut flora was assaulted with Vancomycin. When I asked for a stool transfer I was literally laughed at by the gastroenterologist. I gathered information on my own and did it myself using my daughter’s stool. I was cured in one day. Dr. Kruse’s latest blog post on gut flora has been eye opening.
All of these random problems cleared up when I eliminated grains from my diet and ate the paleo way.
So I am here. I have read lots of information by Dr. Kruse, but have not been entirely sure how much applies to me. With my student loan in October, I will be utilizing a consult. Until then, I will be devouring information where I can get it. Thanks for any advice or help you can throw my way. I find that the more I learn, the better I feel. The oncologist/hematologist cannot be relied on for helpful information, they tell me that what you eat doesn’t matter!
I realize that my post makes me sound like an exhausted lost-cause, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I have tons of energy, workout cross-fit style, play, spend time in the sun, and enjoy every moment of my life. I have always fought back and I will continue to do so. ”
Thanks for reading!
Darlene
@Darlene Darlene…….the genetics of cancer are a result of an alteration of normal metabolic process not the proximate cause of the disease. We were all taught that genetics is the root cause. It said, 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.
Cancer researchers and oncologist have made this mistake in my opinion from the get go. It is all about epigenetics. The best diet for cancer is the best at controlling inflammation at the brain level to affect hormonal modulation and epigenetic expression. The moral of the story for your particular paleo template? Most folks are more interested in being effective than right, when it comes to their diet. There’s a huge difference between paleo solution and Epi paleo Rx when you are not well, and you are not. My site focuses in those in our community who are not well or ideal as they want to be. You have an obligation to yourself only. You can only change yourself. You can’t let other people tell you who you are. You have to decide that for yourself. Health improvements always begin with I, not we.The Paleo template is a very good diet because it is is better at controlling inflammation than most other diets. When I discovered the Epi-paleo Rx seven years ago, I kept researching all the biochemistry links of why it worked so well in those with serious diseases and illness risks. It destroys inflammation while providing the human with massive quantities of brain specific nutrients to rebuild your neural circuitry to optimize your signaling. Degraded signaling is what causes cancer in my view.
Think of food as hormone information, not as a metabolic fuel. Think of the Epi-paleo Rx as human jet fuel for the human nervous system. Accept that your epigenome is a loaded gun, and your lifestyle is the trigger. Your lifestyle cant change you. It reveals who you really are. I promise you are in the right spot and I will do all I can to help you become a starfish. We need more of them.
Dr Kruse,
If you took 100 30-50 year olds with Obesity and/or Metabolic Syndrome/Pre-Diabetes, and got them out of the artifical light, into the cold bath, on the LRx/Paleo, or ideally, Epi-Paleo diet, how many would eventually get improved, and/or optimal gut flora and reduce obesity, symptoms, etc over a time of consistent behavior without the need for supplements, hormones, pro-biotics, fecal transplants, etc? I’m just trying to get an idea of what kind of realistic improvement people will achieve based on a previous 30-50 years of glycation, SAD, toxins, lousy gut flora etc etc.
@BenG I think we can return to 1850’s numbers. That means ridiculous success. Just wait til tomorrow’s webinar and Brain Gut 10.
Dr. Kruse: “We were all taught that genetics is the root cause. It said, Genomic determinism means DNA and genes control everything. Today we know that it’s 180 degrees opposite that. It is all about epigenetics.”
Otto Warburg was simply amazing. Warburg discovered that cancer is defined by its fermentation of sugar, that the transformation of normal cells into cancer cells is defined by the transformation from oxidation to fermentation. Warburg made these discoveries around 1930.
Westerners started associating Nazi medical practice with eugenics, racial purification, and whack Nazis like Joseph Mengele. Postwar Allied scientists and doctors could not make names for themselves by following a German genius. And they could not attract carb-addicted cancer patients by telling them that abstaining from carbs is required for curing cancer.
So world cancer science is stuck in this wrong-headed push toward a genetic cancer cure which will never come ……..never.
Not all prewar Germans were Nazis. Even if they had all been Nazis though? …..they pushed the envelopes of many fields so far ahead that we ignore their contributions at our own peril. Accept the best, regardless of its origin, and discard the rest.
@Bob Smith. Quite correct. It was 1928 to be correct. He also realized the power of lactate too. Cancer steals glucose and lactate pathways to become immortal. Every cancer uses it somehow.
Dr. Kruse: “Degraded signaling is what causes cancer in my view.”
The entire pathway is not proven. But enough critical parts of the pathway are proven in order to prove that cancer initiation has nothing to do with genetics. mRNA communicates between epigenetic proteins in the nucleus and organelle processes in the cytosol. One of the most promising modern cancer drugs is everolymous (Afinitor). Afinitor works by blocking the ability of mTOR to communicate with mRNA. Cells use mTOR to scout out food sources. mTOR detects the presence of flavonoids like glutamate in the extracellular matrix, and tells mRNA of its findings. Then mRNA initiates as-yet poorly defined processes which import the flavonoids for fermentation. When Afinitor blocks mTOR’s communication with mRNA, then the cell can’t import flavonoids for cancer transformation.
@Bob once again you are hitting a homerun. Every part of my EPCOTx Rx are all mTor down regulators! You need to come around more often
@Jack — What do you think about the following home candida test?
http://www.candidasupport.org/test_saliva.html
When you awake in the morning, before you put anything into your mouth, work up some saliva and spit it into a clear glass of water. Within 1-30 minutes, look in the glass. If there are strings coming down from your saliva, or if the water turned cloudy, or if your saliva sank to the bottom, YOU MAY HAVE A CANDIDA CONCERN!
Healthy saliva will simply float on the top!
(You may want to put out a glass of water in the bathroom or on the nightstand the night before you wish to do the home Candida Saliva test, just to remind yourself not to brush your teeth prior to spitting into the glass.)
Why does this work?
Candida overgrowth begins in the colon. Over time, as the fungal yeast multiplies it begins to migrate through the digestive tract, moving up into the small intestine, then the stomach (bloating, indigestion), up the esophagus and into the mouth. If it becomes strongly entrenched there you can see a white film on your tongue and inside your cheeks. Once it has moved up to the mouth and you spit into a glass of water the yeast will sink because it is heavier than water. If there is no yeast it will float on top.
@TheKid Im ok with it but I doubt you’ll get anID doc to treat based upon it.
@Bob Smith — Interesting information. However, some cancers do not respond to Ketosis. Does this say anything about the preceding oncogensis itself? Does this suggest that fermentation was not part of it in the first place, for those types of cancers? Or do those certain cancers start with fermentation but then stop its utilization once cancerous?
@TheKid very few dont. And those that dont have still stolen control of the cellular machinery to make ATP. The genetic damage occurs after the epigenetics and that is the point that cancer researchers do not seem to get. They are all looking at the changes instead of stopping them from becoming the cell’s default program.
Let’s go! “@LinD it is what ails you now…..just avoid the PUFA’s that NOLA is famous for. You need to go back to Fat City and get to Drago’s and order the BBQ’d oysters. I may fly down there just to meet you.”
I haven’t been back to NO since the World’s Fair was there in 1984! I’ve been off grains/legumes for almost a year now, but indeed had too much SAD growing up.
I would love to go visit and see my best friend who still lives in the area. So let me know when you and your wife go next time. My husband and I need to get away after we get settled into our new home this Sept/Oct.
You KNOW I need the oysters! The BBQ ones at Drago’s sound delicious. http://www.dragosrestaurant.com/about/our-oysters/
FIAF it seems, is also produced by hypoxia. Would this also help account for the fitness of the famous Sherpas, who spend their lives in a low oxygen atmosphere? Therefore should we, in addition to cold therapy, seafood/paleo diet also be sleeping in hypoxic tents or at least vacationing in the Andes/Rockies?
@Clifford you are making the assumption your brain is already good. for those with an altered brain living at an altitude would not be ideal. If it is repair and is well then it helps. Most place with mountains do not have ideal food sources as laid out in BG 5 or 6.
Hey Doc…
Great article. I have very itchy skin at night with no obvious rash, etc. I’ve often thought that the gut/parasites has its own circadian rhythm just as an earth worm would.
I came across this article recently about the micro-biome on the skin.
http://www.livescience.com/19913-body-microbiom-nigms.html
They swabed the belly-buttons of over 200 individuals and found over 4,000 bacteria strains and not one person had a single strain of bacteria in common with anybody else.
First, I would think the human gut would have 100/1000 times more bacteria strains than the 250 to 500 identified.
Secondly, if no one had a single strain in common, would that implie that the number of bacteria on this planet would be infinite and constantly changing every second?
Hey Jack…
I’m a slow thinker…too much sugar as a kid. Are you saying that every “thought” in our brain is dependant upon our gut flora? That out “free will,” the “Devil,” “God,” etc., is based in our gut?
Would that make our gut “supreme” over our “brain”
Lastly… how do you define epigenitics?
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/22/13399483-antibiotics-may-help-make-you-fat-studies-show?lite&fb_source=message
How do I define epigenetics? It is the study of heritable changes in gene expression or cellular phenotype caused by mechanisms other than changes in the underlying DNA sequence. In lay terms, our genes don’t control us, but our lifestyle and thoughts do. What we do to them or think can alter or control their expression. That is what epigenetics is all about.
TheKid: “some cancers do not respond to Ketosis”.
Not all cells are part of tissue. But to my knowledge those cells originate as parts or products of tissue. Not all cancers are associated with insulin resistance. But to my knowledge those cancers are associated with products of elevated glycation, most notably small dense LDL cholesterol.
Cancer feeds on sugar. Cancer transformation does not. It feeds on flavonoids …….mostly glutamate.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glutaminolysis
Cells are protected from glutamate by tissue transglutaminase (TTG) in the extracellular matrix (ECM). When we ingest carb proteins they attach to our intestine wall by cross-linking with tissue transglutaminase. As Dr. Kruse has explained, the process is facilitated by oligosaccharides. The immune system recognizes the attachment as an antigen attack. It sets up an immune reaction which attacks TTG throughout the body and removes it. The reaction is highly inflammatory, and leaves cells everywhere without protection from flavonoids.
Wheat and beans contain WGA and ConA. These are two of the proteins known to mimic insulin, and cause insulin resistance and elevate blood sugar. Combined these proteins cause the perfect storm for giving a person cancer.
Studies have shown that the majority of cancers are associated with insulin resistance and elevated blood sugar. The pathways are pretty well nailed down. For the few other cancers, studies reveal that they are tied to other glycation processes. To my knowledge we don’t know enough about specific pathways. Knowing what we know, what are the chances that they aren’t associated with carb proteins and sugars? Would you bet your life that they aren’t?
Popularly “ketosis” is defined, not by an absence of sugar intake, but by ingestion of less sugar than is maintained by a carb-adapted person. The carb-adapted person’s liver starts converting protein into sugar.
A carb adapted person probably wouldn’t be able to stop the cancer transformation simply by cutting back on carbs and achieving “ketosis”. A cancer victim would defeat the Warburg transformation by converting from carb adaptation to fat adaptation. He/she should stop ingesting carbs all together. The problem is, most cancer patients are totally and incurably addicted to carb sugars and carb proteins. Tell these people they must totally stop ingesting carbs, and you get back looks of stark – terror …….literally.
It takes a long time to reverse insulin resistance enough to reduce blood sugar. It takes even longer to eliminate the products of glycation. So the non insulin resistance cancers would take longer to turn around.
Dr K (and Bob Smith)… as a former cancer patient who is now a devoted epi-paleo follower, it isn’t just patients who give you the look of terror and disbelief. My doctors give me that look. In fact, just today, they have refused to follow me any longer, saying that because I won’t have regular mammograms there is nothing they can do for me. They have not once asked about my diet, my hormones, my gut, my circadian cycles… not even my stress levels! I appreciate their desire to take care of me, but I reject their paradigm fully. Give up carbs or give up mainstream medicine? Easy choice. I choose life. And I will get to optimal! Today – as in everyday – I am grateful for all you do, Dr K.
@Lauren do they offer Thermograms in your country?
@Lauren, Jack. Below is a link to a thermogram company that my mother has used for breast thermography instead of mammograms. Click on the locations button to find providers in the US and internationally.
http://meditherm.com/
@ Cliff I think that Dr. K laid out how to replicate a hypoxic environment without having to go to high elevations. The dive reflex where you hold your breath…is slightly hypoxic. So whether it is simple face dunks (I still do these regularly over any other CT at this time of year). Or when swimming and holding breath.
It is invigorating to say the least, and Jack, tell me if this is more suitable for someone who may have a brain condition over the high elevation thing.
Good luck, Cliff!
@Zorica it is. Swimming is the best way to stimulate CT and underwater swimming makes hormesis even easier.
Ron, thanks for the link to the thermography company.
“and underwater swimming makes hormesis even easier.”
Years ago when i lived in New Zealand, I knew two guys who were on the national “underwater hockey” team. This truly is a strange sport, but it does *wonders* for your lung capacity. This guy was the fittest and healthiest person I knew, he never got sick, and loved swimming in alpine lakes and creeks – cold was no problem. Of course, he also trained in the pool all the time, and spent lots of time at the bottom of the 10′ deep pool, where the water is cold. he was well built, but I always wondered we he didn’t appear as lean as other athletes (e.g. triathletes) – that layer of subcutaneous fat would be it.
He loved his seafood too, and, not surprisingly,was able to go snorkeling like you wouldn’t believe.
I recently read an interesting book called “Fats are good for you, and other secrets” By Dr John J Kabara.
It was not so much about all fats, but really about “monolaurin”, a derivative of coconut oil – and a component in breast milk.
This stuff apparently kills all sorts of viruses, bacteria (e.g. MRSA) and (undesirable) yeasts, including candida.
The book claims It works when antibiotics do not, and because of the fundamental chemical nature of its action, they can’t develop resistance.
BUt it doesn’t seem to affect lactobacilli and other friendly bacteria.
If the stuff is in breast milk, then it is there for a reason, so there would seem to be a natural basis for all this.
You can buy it, online, without a prescription, from the company the Doc founded, at lauricidin.com.
It is not actually a drug, but a food supplement!
Hi Ron and Dr K. Thanks! Yes, we have thermography here. In fact, I told my oncologist that this was my plan (I already have a clinic who will provide it). The doctor said, “You want to do what?” Then I got the lecture. Then the dismissal. Given that I live in New Zealand, perhaps I should explore this underwater hockey option 🙂
@Paul N
Coconut oil is so great though why buy a supplement with just the monolaurin? I prefer using coconut oil myself.
@ Jonathan,
Monolaurin is a monoglyceride of Lauric Acid (C12). In coconut oil it exists as the triglyceride, and when we digest it, the two end c12’s are split off to leave sn2 monolaurin. But to get the antibacterial properties, it needs to be in the end position on the glycerol molecule, 1 or 3, denoted sn1(3) . This is the form in breast milk, and Lauricidin (the trade name) is pure sn1(3) form.
That said, it is possible that we may make small amounts of it,
You don’t need very much 1/4 -1/2 tsp/day is it.
Google it and do some reading – it is very interesting, and I’d much rather take that than antibiotics, though in some case the both together work better than either alone.
Lots of good info…need to read again, then re-read. I do have to stand up for the C-Section Kids Corner. You know we probably don’t get colonized with good bacteria from the get-go, since we don’t pass through the birth canal. And if we are not breastfed, uh oh…..there are studies showing that babies delivered by C-section do not “catch up” in the gut flora department until about 6 months of age when compared to vaginally delivered babies. And how many C-sections are being done today? Oy vey….
@ Paul N that’s why I got bovine colostrum. I feel (in conjunction with everything else I’ve been doing really helps). I will try goat’s colostrum next time. (I want a farm fresh source this time instead of powder).
@ Paul N
I guess that guy in the water was in the cold water chronically, almost like a Polar bear or something, so perhaps over such length of time the subcutaneous fat develops, but not if it’s just a few times a week in moderately cold water, or short bursts of ice dips in ‘frozen’ waters. I think Wim Hof has a more lean body (?) because he does not spend hours and hours and days and days….interesting.
I remember someone referring to the Bajau people of Indonesia. They spend a lot of time in the water, yet are extremely lean (but it’s not cold water)…
I am looking forward to my polar dips in the winter though. Yes indeed.
Eating a good amount of carbs will put on a layer of fat, even with CT.
@Nonchalant not according to Matt LaLonde or Stephen Guyenet. Carbs don’t make you fat they actually can thin you out. It’s the latest thing in paleo. LOL.
Jack, you said in a earlier post that the appendix is crucial, my wife had hers out 4 months ago, she’s not been doing too well since. What diet changes/tips would you recommend?
Many thanks
@johnnyh I have not gotten to this as yet but she needs to re tool her diet and she needs to aggressive reestablish her gut flora.
Thanks for quick reply Jack, so epi-paleo diet, with lots of fermented products and probiotics?
@Johnny I am not into that many fermented products. They contain too much acetaldehyde for me.
Let me rephrase. Eating a good amount of carbs will tell your hormones to put on a layer of fat, even with CT.
JohnnyH I love seafood so much and luckily epi-paleo is plenty seafood. 🙂
Fermented veg I think is good in winter…
My interpretation of Dr. K’s ‘I am not into that many fermented products’ should not read as ‘none’. Sounds like he means not some hard core overload.
I wonder if mega-dose is good at the beginning though. …but then again eating the fish in MANY forms, raw and all kinds of seafood trumps that need.
I think a perfect world would be: fecal transplant (as initial jump starter) then straight to EPCOTrx and/or epi-paleo. But if you can’t/won’t do fecal transplant than I think epi-paleo is good…even better than Leptin Rx, however I think Leptin Rx is more about timing of things and that those timings should be used with seafood/fish.
Mmmmmm….gravlachs.
@zorica spot on.
O, and I shall cease to use my computer at least an hour before my bed time (even with F.lux). I will re-visit a practise I used while in the Bahamas—reading a book at night in yellow light. Had no internet, so that was my option. There many good things about Eleuthera which I didn’t even realize at the time…this was eating ‘crap’ like Milo (with some powdered milk from France)(But the powdered milk from France was probably better than the milk sent from the States), bagals, chicken, soda etc. I just ate ‘whatever’ and drank plenty. (Three month period). My circadian biology was IMPECABLE though, and had access to sea water several times throughout the week.
A lot of people state they have trouble getting from grass-fed cow products. Here’s a link in Que. that someone from Bulleproof said has grass-fed. They also have goat products too.
http://www.fermegroleau.com/
The site is in French, so don’t mind the French.
That should read: In Canada…
“If you found this provocative you might be blown away about how artificial light, chronic stress, heavy metal toxicity, BPA, synthetic hormones, perfumes, cosmetics, and other ‘luxuries’ of modern life can destroy a body.”
Dr K… I have eliminated artificial light, most stress, BPA, synthetic hormones etc.. but what about heavy metal toxicity. If chelation is not the best idea, is the optimal route to fix the gut and the detox pathways?
@Lauren loaded Question for an educational consult.
Fair point. I’m trying to process my consult… I guess what I’m wondering is if I’m correct in this thinking: chelation is potentially dangerous and not necessarily helpful because it frees bound heavy metals in an unpredictable way. So, overall, it’s better to build health and immunity (including, of course, gut health) to lower inflammation, become supremely LS and tie all aspects of life to evolutionary/optimal cycles than to focus in on one element like heavy metals. Is that sound reasoning?
@Lauren. The best defense is your best offense in cancer. Always build immunity over anything else. This protects the genome. My views on this are very outside the box but they are all in the Quilt. The levees contain gold, top to bottom. If inflammation is low you wont have cancer to worry about.
*building immunity every day*
I get ALL angles of people tearing me down for my decisions. I’m lucky that I’m a strong person…lucky!
Glad to have this site…but on the other hand…I feel that I went ‘looking’ for it too. Know what I mean? Goes both ways. 🙂
Dear Jack,
RE: My question on 8/24/12 about pending colonoscopy on “Ask Jack”.
First of all, thank you for your speedy and wise reply:)) and especially, thank you for this link::
http://roarofwolverine.com/archives/2772 – EVERYONE go here and read this.
Your quick reply gave me the opportunity to dodge yet another bullet- not easy in these times….Everyone should read the “Wolverine” blog. It is critical information.
I cancelled the procedure and feel so relieved. The main reason I had it scheduled was because my insurance company called me and said I could get it for “free” and then, my physician looked at me with wide eyes and made me feel like I’d better get my literal ass right over to the hospital because you never know what things could be lurking inside.
Ha ha, “free” at the cost of losing my healthy gut flora that I have accumulated like gold nuggets after all my invested time in becoming “optimal” . While I’ve never had any problems with stomach issues, bloating,always normal digestion, no family history pointing to colon cancer or bowel problems, there I went and got all bent out of mental control and correct thinking and scheduled it.
So, two days ago, after reading your last two blogs it dawned on me that I would totally undo all the good I’ve been striving for by going through this procedure, depleting my gut with that poison drink and God knows what other damage I could encounter during the procedure.
Actually, this is the second time I cancelled -the first time was two years ago, not having any ” gut” knowledge, I had a GUT FEELING not to do it also! So if you listen, those little critters so connected to our brain will guide you down the right path.
Thank you again for sharing your mammoth amount of wisdom, allowing us to pick your brain for possibly life saving answers, and letting us share our results from the wise advice that you give us so unselfishly. The utter respect you show us is overwhelming.
Thank you so much, again.
Now, if I could only stop reading your blog late into the night- -addicted to it:)
@skinny crips just realize that when fecal transplants become standard for gut flora issues this is precisely how it will be delivered……so understand there is a ying and yang of this procedure. Not everything in life is totally bad or totally good. We need both sides of the coin to give us perspective and help us appreciate the magnitude of both sides.
Behind you is the infinite power, before us is the endless possibility, around us is boundless opportunity. The time ahead of you is where the magic lies in life.
If they discovered the path to cancer way back in 1928 why is the present cancer cure rate so abysmally low?
@ will…….they don’t understand it and never have. Genetic damage associated with cancer is a result of the altered metabolic signaling. They focus on genetics while the answer is in the process of the loss of control. That is done by inflammation
@Will. “The ACS is an emergency organization, a temporary organization … to wage an unrelenting fight against cancer”. The ACS official statement in 1913. If you agree with John Beard’s trophoblast theory, the cure for cancer has been around since 1902. There are cures for cancer, but they are suppressed by the medical establishment (ME). Any doctor that claims a cure for cancer immediately loses his license to practice and ends up in court fighting for his professional and financial future. Why? Imagine if tomorrow the ME accepted a cure for cancer. Think of what would then happen to the medical, research, pharmaceutical and fund-raising industries that profit so greatly from the “war on cancer”. We’re talking billion$ per year. It may reach into the trillion$ worldwide. And notice in the original ACS statement, they don’t dare mention “defeating” cancer. They never intended to.
This is all based on those with political ambitions who look to expand their influence and power over others. And in the process our liberties and freedoms are slowly eroding away. In this country if you have cancer, you have the choice of burning, poisioning or cutting. Or you could do nothing, which is probably more effective. If you want alternative therapy, make sure your passport is current.
Just look at what the ME has been doing to Stanislaw Burzynski down in Houston. And look what they’ve done to Tullio Simoncini in Italy, Harry Hoxsey, Ernst Krebs Jr., John Richardson, Rene Caisse, Kanematsu Sugiura. And the list goes on and on.
The ME has defined themselves as the ultimate authority and with that position, THEY define the truth. Shouldn’t the TRUTH be the ultimate authority.
Time to step off my soapbox.
@Ron post more often!
Yeah, good question, Will.
@Jamie Here is another brick in the wall to your email…….BG 7 and 9 just keep getting support: From 8/22/12 NYU:http://www.newswise.com/articles/study-suggests-early-exposure-to-antibiotics-may-impact-development-obesity
40% of cancer deaths are from cachexia …..wasting away. The medical establishment views cachexia as the end product of cancer. The official explanation? ……that cancer causes cachexia if oncology succeeds in preventing tumors from impairing a vital function, thus averting death via cancer encroachment.
I’ve witnessed this progression, and the medical establishment has it wrong.
Cancer begins with inflammation and the shutdown of cellular metabolism. By far the most common scenarios start with type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, peripheral neuropathy, ataxia, loss of motor control….. all diseases which can only be described as wasting away. Then cells start turning cancerous. If the cancer interrupts a vital function then the patient dies. Otherwise, the disease proceeds into paraneoplastic diseases …..nerve and motor dysfunction storms. Finally the patient just starts shutting down.
This progression is cachexia, from start to finish. Cachexia IS the underlying disease of cancer. Cancerous cells are simply cells which mutate in order to exploit the inflammatory, sugary environment and to avoid cell death.
How any “expert” can view this progression any other way is confounding.
@Bob I am with you……..but many in my profession and the paleosphere just do not get it.
Hi Jack,
I read earlier in the thread that you love swimming for it’s hormetic effects (deep water)and CT adaptation….do you swim in pools or your lake? If pool is all that’s available, is it best to limit sessions, so you’re not exposed to the chemicals too much (i.e. chlorine)?
Or do the net positives of swimming in a chlorinated pool outweigh the chlorine exposure?
Thanks.
@Hari saline pools and a regular lake!!
ok, so this explains even more for my situation!
had appendicitis about 4 yrs before my fibro dx – and was a flight attendant for 12 years-and I knew all that international flying was making me feel not so hot-on flights to asia we’d miss an entire night of sleep
so with all I need to get going on here, I’m a little overwhelmed – but clearly circadian sleep and diet should be first? then add cold thermo?
(Looking forward to EPCOTx!)
Christy
Can we assume that as a result of the excellent findings of Dr Kruse,Dr Cunnane,and Dr Lipton (and others) that because of the very favorable effects of a Circadian environment (that environment exsisting only on the area below the ionisphere and the surface of the Earth, and probably some deep water regions), and that these are the only places in the Universe for the further developement of the human brain? Were we humans designed to only live on the Earth and live Circadianly?
@Will I think that is too complicated……evolution is pretty simple. It reacts to what the environment deals and plays the hand.
Bob Smith, you said that cancer begins with dyslipidemia, so are you saying that high colesterol causes cancer?
thanks.
@Anna K he never said that…..you thought you heard him say that. He said,”Cancer begins with inflammation and the shutdown of cellular metabolism. By far the most common scenarios start with type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, peripheral neuropathy, ataxia, loss of motor control….. all diseases which can only be described as wasting away. Then cells start turning cancerous. If the cancer interrupts a vital function then the patient dies. Otherwise, the disease proceeds into paraneoplastic diseases …..nerve and motor dysfunction storms. Finally the patient just starts shutting down.
This progression is cachexia, from start to finish. Cachexia IS the underlying disease of cancer. Cancerous cells are simply cells which mutate in order to exploit the inflammatory, sugary environment and to avoid cell death.
How any “expert” can view this progression any other way is confounding.” inflammation ruins cellualr signaling. Loss of signaling is the source of every neolithic disease. Dyslipidemia is just one of them. The best way to get cancer is to have a low LDL with high levels of inflammation. This is the way statins cause it and why so many large trials link their use to cancer. When LDL is low you get problems witha normally functioning mitotic spindle. When the spindle is broken then you get euploidy in the chromosomes…..and cancer progression becomes easy. There are many roads to all diseases…….but inflammation underpins them all.
Hi Anna K, You wrote: “Bob Smith, you said that cancer begins with dyslipidemia, so are you saying that high colesterol causes cancer?”
I mentioned dyslipidemia along with other conditions as the beginning phases of cancer. The condition most tied to cancer is insulin resistant type 2 diabetes (T2D). T2D is associated with high blood sugar and inflammation. These conditions glycate cells, organs, and products of organs …….like hormones, red blood cells, leukocytes (white blood cells), and cholesterol.
Some cancers are as much and more associated with these products of glycation. Prostate cancer is not tied to T2D at all. Prostate cancer is tied to dyslipidemia. I’ve read that other cancers are also associated with dyslipidemia, but less profoundly. The prostate gets signals from testosterone. As I understand, testosterone is modified cholesterol.
Cholesterol is produced in the liver. In people who are prone to dyslipidemia the liver produces small dense low density lipoprotein (sdLDL) under the same conditions which cause T2D. sdLDL is a product of glycation. Men with dyslipidemia are at higher risk for prostate cancer. All people with dyslipidemia are at higher risk for many chronic and deadly conditions.
All of these conditions are associated with inflammation. There are many pathways to inflammation. Many are covered in these pages.
@Bob This is where I would step back and and disagree a bit. Prostate cancer is most associated with IR and glycation and not testosterone production. We in medicine were told this was true from 1940 to 2010. Then a large metananlysis came out in the Urology literature that showed the reverse is true. Men with the lowest levels of testosterone actually have the worse death rate and higher grade cancers.
Cancer is caused by the shutdown of cellular metabolism. There are a few contributing factors to this shutdown. One is hypoxia, or oxygen deprivation.
Lectins are sticky proteins. Wheat has a significant lectin load. Some lectins are capable of binding red blood cells together. Wheat lectins fall into this category. Clumped red blood cells are incapable of collecting oxygen from the lungs, and are incapable of delivering oxygen to cells which need it. This is one hypoxia pathway.
Another hypoxia pathway comes with inflammation and the failure of the iron transporters which carry oxygen into cells. Hemoglobin is inflammatory. Hemoglobin gets its inflammatory properties from the iron it carries. The liver monitors iron overload in the blood by becoming inflamed. The inflammation causes the liver to release hepcidin, a transport blocking enzyme. The small intestine lining normally transports iron from food into the blood the same way it transports all nutrients. The lining cells use ferroportin to absorb iron from the intestinal lumen, and deposit it into the bloodstream. Hepcidin from the liver blocks ferroportin, and blocks the absorption and transport of iron into the blood. This is how the body guards against iron overload.
When wheat causes intestinal porosity, the porosity allows iron to bypass the body’s system of iron regulation. Iron from food, especially from wheat, can flood into the bloodstream in uncontrollably toxic levels. This iron inflames the liver, causing it to release more iron-blocking hepcidin. Cells all over the body use iron to regulate the flow and use of oxygen for metabolism. Unfortunately these cells use ferroportin, the same iron transporter which intestinal cells use. The liver’s iron blocker blocks cells all over the body from absorbing iron, and severely inhibits the proper metabolism and disposal of oxygen.
Celtic people from Ireland have been studied for their increased genetic susceptibility to celiac disease, an autoimmune attack against the small intestine caused by wheat ingestion. It has been discovered that these same celts tend to have a high genetic predisposition to hemochromatosis …..iron overload. It is theorized that people who are not genetically selected for wheat ingestion retain and store higher levels of iron than people who are selected. Placed in a wheat-consuming culture these people tend to over-absorb iron. Since the permeability issue in celiac patients is the same permeability issue in metabolic and other autoimmune patients, one must conclude that the same iron mechanisms at work in celiac patients are at work in all autoimmune and metabolic disease patients.
Wheat eaters are at a severe stamina disadvantage. You find them wheezing under the smallest of strains. Wheat eaters are also swollen and inflamed from toxic iron overload. It’s unfortunate, given the extra iron wheat eaters constantly flush through their systems, that they are incapable of placing it to good use.
Cancer is a metabolic disease. Cancer represents a failure of the cell’s ability to convert food and oxygen into energy. The basic problems to look for lie in 1) the mechanisms which deliver food and oxygen to cells, 2) the mechanisms which clear metabolic waste products, and 3) the health of the cellular metabolic engine.
Other carb proteins, such as milk casein, cause the same permeability, inflammation, and oxygen transport problems as wheat proteins.
Dr. Kruse, As you probably are aware, the iron pathway I described is one of two major pathways. By far the most significant in my opinion. Once a medical student tried to explain to me the pathway which brain neurons use for oxygen transport. Apparently they use totally separate iron transporters. It went right over my head.
‘Course the duodenal bypass of iron regulation is upstream from both brain and non-brain cells.
@Jack Well that supports my suspicions. There’s prostate cancer and prostate cancer. Most “prostate cancer” is pretty benign. Those cases must be the cases tied to dyslipidemia. The smaller percentage of fast growing metastatic cases must have the same causes as all fast growing metastatic cancers, inflammation and insulin resistance.
Off too Google…..
Bob Smith, always great to read your comments. Thanks for your input.
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/au/2012/248607/
This is just insane. Because for decades the medical establishment has associated dyslipidemia with prostate cancer, oncologists have been using dyslipidemia as an indicator of whether prostate abnormalities are cancerous. This would mean that the study-produced connection between dyslipidemia and non-invasive prostate cancer, and the study-produced disconnect between type 2 diabetes and non-invasive prostate cancer, both come from the fact that oncologists have created their own perception.
The modern connection between prostate cancer and dyslipidemia, the modern disconnect between prostate cancer and type 2 diabetes come from the fact that oncologists have been removing prostates which are not cancerous.
Just sheesh. Somebody get a rope.
What?? They determine whether the prostate is cancerous not by biopsy, but by a lipid panel?
Gee, and I thought it was just women who got their reproductive parts removed with impunity.
Jack and Bob, thanks for the answers, very detailed explanation.
@Anna K and @ Bob Smith Here is a link to show you how gut bacteria might give you cancer. http://the-scientist.com/2012/08/17/cancer-causing-gut-bacteria/
How has Dr Lorraine Day remained cancer free for 18 years
now? She did it on her own, and she’s still going strong!
Ok, I saw the recommended grains…yuck. She says eat 75% raw (probably from the veggies) so you’re going to get some beneficial bacteria if it’s organically grown (not pesticides etc. and local). Also she advocates good circadian cycles without realizing it…and with that the exposure of sun in the morning. She advocates mediation too.
So ya, her idea of grains…yuck. Also a tragedy that she avoids fish….but does she eat seaweed at all? Would be her only saving grace…you know the algea and all…
Who knows…
my guess:EPCOTx PROTOCOL Rx =Chittlins.
here’s a great article talking about using milk from other mothers (via wet nurse or milk share like human milk 4 human babies) to help treat genetic conditions in infants/toddlers
http://www.bestforbabes.org/science-you-can-use-could-wet-nurses-reverse-genetic-diseases
“The key factor for humans maybe that the human gut flora seems to be very susceptible to the environment it finds itself in before puberty and before total brain maturation occurs at 25 years old. It appears that the local environment we live in in our early life is quite critical to this dynamic duo. This implies that where we live, the sources of food we eat, and the light conditions required to grow the food are provided under are all encoded in our food and this is directly transmitted to our brain via our vagus nerve by these neurotransmitters in the gut.”
I find this VERY interesting…I was born in cold Buffalo NY but since my dad was in college in West Virginia, for the first three years of my life I did summers in Buffalo and the rest of the year in WV. Then we lived in Buffalo until I was 11 when we moved to Alabama for four years. I always said living there “ruined” me, thinned my blood or something as I couldn’t take the cold winter when we moved back up to Buffalo at age 14. I also “developed” a lot more than my female classmates and would say “things grow bigger in the south.” HA! I moved a lot in my 20s, living in Buffalo, Rochester, Pittsburg, Rochester again, Cleveland and finally Buffalo where I have been since I was 28. Still have trouble tolerating the cold.
Wonder what it’s all done to my gut flora – a bit schizophrenic?
Just wanted to chime in on the fat vs carb posts, think we all know plenty of thin people who eat carbs so do these folks just have a genetic advantage or have the obese just damaged their metabolism to an extent that they have to avoid inflammation wherever possible including from carbs?
Also, if you look around the blogosphere there are plenty of posts from folks who developed hypothyroid like symptoms from going low carb for a period of time and whose symptoms have resolved from reintroducing carbs. Do you think this is from the undereating that often happens when going low carb or do you think it’s another mismatch from mimicking winter with food choices for too long (but still living in a warm environment most of the time) and thus be an argument for bringing carbs into the mix seasonally or cyclically? or perhaps you have another opinion all together…?
From what I’ve read, Weston A. Price showed that it wasn’t macronutrients ratios that determined optimal health or body fat, but the inclusion of fat soluble vitamins and the absence of processed foods (including vegetable oilseed refined sugars).
@Meghan The real reason is coming in the next four blogs……..When you are not aware of what you dont know……bad things happen. Paleo has some interesting and deep holes.
More on the epigenetics of the gut flora:http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/probiotics-destroy-toxic-chemicals-our-gut-us
Dr Kruse. Quoting you” Methylation defects cause an altered estrogen clearance by ruining phase one and two detox” Do we overcome Methylation defects by fixing our guts so we can improve phase I and phase II detox?
@Kami Both.
Great!. Thank you. I love learning.
The adiposity index, gut flora thrown off by high sugar/bread diet & antibiotic overuse, the tie-in to leptin resistance, how constipation can cause estrogen dominance, how any simple sugars at all can trigger gut flora repercussions/cravings, high carb lowering Mg, bouncing T3/LDL with subsequent pregnenolone deficiency, the connection to bingeing & eating disorders, T3 being shut off inappropriately, brain fog and depression … are you sure you wrote this about Lauren, and not about me?
The concept of hormones being the signal leaving the bacterial multiplexer (of sorts) – perfect! I get that! It helps in a million ways. Food as info, not fuel – it makes sense.
These are things I’ve been on the cusp of understanding (I’ve been a stool-watcher for several years now, and started an anti-candida diet in 2009, etc.) but it’s starting to pull together for me now. Thank you.
“Obesity, infertility, hypothyroidism and eating disorders are merely ‘train stops’ before the ultimate stop…….Cancer.” This is the precise series of events that resulted in my dear friend’s death of cancer one year ago. If only she had known this 5-10 years ago…
My question for now: If the firmicute:bacteroidete ratio is skewed toward obesity, should anything be done to try to affect that directly (for instance, supplementing certain bacteria, or clean-slate wipe-and-replace), or would the effort be best focused on the keto-epi-paleo diet, circadian work, & CT and just let the corrections happen as a chain reaction affects one system after another?
@Mamagrok The best policy right now based upon what we know is to limit inflammation to improve signaling. That means Epi paleo Rx, CT, and careful monitoring of your hormone panel is in order. You basically want to read BG 12 very carefully and live in a chronic reduced state to maximally improve signaling.
What about proteins in the gut? They have not so much O2 like carbs but some O2. So is this why one gets gassing when eating too much protein?
not everyone does…..if you do it it a sign of an alter flora and bad environment
Ok.
1. And why is it that so much people have gas when eating onions or leek (me too). Also sign of bad gut flora?
2. Are the bacteria getting their energy from the bonding of oxygen in the carbs? Or is oxygen simply the byproduct of breaking down the carbs?
3. So the oxygen in the fats wont be free, because the bacteria cant break down the fats?
4. So normally protein wont be break down from bacteria and release oxygen, but simplified bacteria will do?
Sorry for these questions, but I sometimes dont get the meaning right in english texts.
1. too much oxygen in gut due to weak sphincter due to circadian mismatch = UBi 25.
2. no
3. bacteria can use many atoms as their terminal electron acceptor.
4. no.
Dr. Kruse. This blog basically illustrates my situation. How do I fix the sleep issue though? I sleep fine til 3:00am and from that time til about 6:00am I can’t get back to sleep. I know I have to solve the candida issue by cutting out grains, dairy, and sugar, a using probiotics, and I’m taking cold shower before bed, but are there other things I can do. My body just wakes me up at 3:00 and it’s so frustrating and stressful, because I know my body can’t repair on 4 hours of sleep.
Ryan………ENVIRONMENT. Yours stinks in some way and you need to use devices to biohack why it does. I’m going to post a few things here to give you clues: This video makes all my points come to life for your eye balls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NTSejgsjTc
How much do you know about “The Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act of 1968?” You might ask me, what does that law have to do with the issues in this thread or in the blog I have linked below? In 1962, following the birth of thousands of armless and legless babies in Europe caused by thalidomide that had been sold to pregnant women, the US Congress required drug companies to provide pre-market scientific evidence of the safety of “new drugs”. In 1968, Senator Rogers, of Florida proposed applying the same social principle to devices that emitted man-made electromagnetic energy into the environment. His proposal, The Radiation Control for Health and Safety Act of 1967, would have authorized the government to perform research and regulate the safety of all devices that emitted man-made electromagnetic energy. But opponents of this principle, the industries that manufactured and sold energy-emitting devices, successfully argued that the health impact of man-made electromagnetic energy should be assessed “subsequent to marketing”. This policy shifted the burden of proof to the party asserting injury and was subsequently adopted by all federal agencies since this time. Each relevant federal agency therefore NOW BEGINS with the assumption of SAFETY and not precaution, and requires any aggrieved litigant to prove non-safety of the devices man uses. This is why we need lawyers to repair the mess this law gave the USA. This law benefits the tech industry. http://magazine.nd.edu/news/67946-i-am-an-emf-refugee/
My house has a smart meter but it doesn’t emit microwave frequencies. I’ve put my trifield 100xe meter right next to the smart meter( on the microwave setting) and it shows nothing. We turn off wifi at night when we sleep. I put my phone on airplane mode. My parents do not, but they are two rooms away.
Trimeter is jut not good enough as the video showed.
Do you use a smart meter guard Dr. Kruse?
I dont have a smart meter.
Are smart meters not required in Louisiana? Is it possible to switch a smart meter out for an analog meter?
not in the historic districts.
Dr. Kruse, on a different note, how is the quantum yield in Colorado? I’ve thought of places I’d like to live, and that’s one of the places I’ve thought of. Higher altitude, so better quantum yield right?
Above 5000 ft it is decent as long as your are not in a major city.
I wouldn’t say I have a bad memory, but I wish I could remember more rounds of golf, or more stuff from my childhood. Are there any ways to unlock old memories? I know looking at photo albums and such can maybe jog a few, but remembering memories that I can’t call to mind would be amazing.
Thanks Dr. Kruse.
Memories are stored optic-magnetically by hologram. So if you improve the Faraday effect in cells of the body you can improve this. The key is understanding that the the organizations of atoms within tissues determines how effective the Faraday effect is in cells. You’d be very wise to read Time 21-25 and listening to the October and November 2016 webinars or you will continue to spin your wheels.
Thank you Dr. Kruse. I will read those blogs. My current conundrum is that I’m struggling to gain weight (5’9″ 140 lb) I assume because I have the fat malabsorption. I purchased an ox bile supplement that I thought might help, but that doesn’t seem to be doing anything either. I’m concerned if I start doing cold CT, that I’ll burn too many calories and struggle to gain, or even maintain my weight. I’m starting to follow the epi-paleo RX but it says to avoid all grains, so if I can’t absorb fats, and can’t eat any carbs then it’ll be really hard to get enough calories. I know cold CT is mainly used to help people lose weight, but I can’t afford to loose any weight, but I need it for the liver function to allow me to digest fats…I know that CT is not only for weight loss, from a previous comment, but I’m concerned about losing more weight. do you see my conundrum here? Will I burn less calories since I am lepton sensitive already?
Don’t assume anything. You clearly should do testing and see a doctor to work this out before you keep spinning your wheels.
I just did the GI effects test. Should get the results back in a few weeks.
Thank you Dr. Kruse
Dr. kruse, so I got the results back from the GI effects test, and the floating stools is a microbiome issue. 1. What steps can I take to resolve this?My gut flora have low diversity, and I have some inflammation localized to the gut.
2. will probiotics help this?
Sunlight on your abdomen and via your eye every morning with improvement of your water use would be something to consider. Talking to your doctor about fecal transplantation is another consideration
Thank you very much Dr. Kruse. Have a nice Thanksgiving!
Dr. Kruse, Will CT help with the microbiome issue, or should I avoid that because of the fat absorption issue?
Also I sent Tom Doud a message on Facebook but I never heard back. Is there another way to reach him about blue blockers?
Thanks.
CT is always good. You could try the the forum PM method.
Dr. Kruse, I am still struggling with the floating stools issue, and likely fat malabsorption. Are there quantlet protocols that can help with this? Also, I saw your post on sulfur containing foods, like eating eggs in the morning. Can I still eat eggs and get a benefit even with the day issue?
Finally, is the “ask Jack” the PM method?
Thanks!
I’m following A. Ehret antimucus diet and I’m feeling better every day. More over I’m taking garlic every morning. The truths about our society are revealed little by little. Unfortunately, or not, we’ll be conscious about it, too late. It’s sad to see people around me, family and friends, are very sick and you cannot say anything because each time they take you for a fool…I’m really tired about it. Fungi are very sophisticate living being, we should study them very deeply.