READERS SUMMARY: 1. WHAT IS PPAR-gamma AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT? 2. HOW DOES IT TIE ARTHEROSCLEROSIS, VITAMIN K2, AND OUR LIPID PANEL TOGETHER? 3. HOW IS A LEAKY GUT, THE LIVER, OBESITY,CHOLESTEROL, BLOOD PRESSURE TIED TOGETHER? 4. HOW IS EXERCISE COUPLED TO THIS COMPLEX WEB? 5. HOW DOES PQQ FIT INTO ALL THIS? 6. [...]
READERS SUMMARY: 1. How does MSG and aspartame affect you and your brain and your fat loss? 2. What do artificial sweeteners do to a human? 3. How does neuronal injury from diet, trauma, and energy depletion all tie together? 4. What about young humans? 5. What about young humans with injured brains? In part [...]
What should I do before I start The Leptin Reset? Before you start, take a picture of yourself from all angles. Don't be bashful or you'll be sorry in 18-24 months. Next, weigh yourself naked. Let your significant other or a family member take this picture. Go to the store and buy a piece of clothing that does not fit you now, but will when you have met your goal. Remember, calories are important when you're LR (leptin resistant) and mean nothing once you are LS (leptin sensitive). Macronutirents count when you're LR and mean nothing when you're LS. How do I determine if I am leptin resistant? Remember, you can be LR (leptin resistant) if you're fat or skinny. If you're overweight by more than 30lbs, it is a lock you have some degree of LR. If you're underweight by 20 lbs, you are likely LR, too. If you had an eating disorder, you're likely suffering from a serious leptin issue. The easiest test is to look in the mirror. The mirror does not lie and it is really cheap. For those people who still can't be sure after peeking in the mirror, you can order some blood tests. My favorite is the HS CRP (highly sensitive C-Reactive protein) and the reverse T3 tests (but there are others). They are accurate in over 90{a7b724a0454d92c70890dedf5ec22a026af4df067c7b55aa6009b4d34d5da3c6} of cases.
So now that we examined Dr. Lustig's insulin theory of metabolic control we need to take a look at the reward tracts that are located in the human brain. These tracts have been well studied and their neurochemistry is well understood. What appears not to be as well known is how the hypocretin neurons and the leptin receptor control and modulate their activity. The key point here is that the dopaminegic tracts eloquently spoken of Dr. Guyenet's reward series are the "efferent only" path that is part of the effector arm of the leptin receptor and the hypocretin neurons. This means, in English, they are playing second fiddle to the leptin receptors and are not the dominant cause of obesity. They clearly play a major role in the neuro-circutry but they do not control obesity. They carry out the action but the orders were given by someone else. One of the reasons I had a major problem with the reward series, is because of my "day job" as a neurosurgeon. I have had the opportunity to operate on many brain tumors in the reward tracts and never have I ever seen either preoperatively or postoperatively one patient develop severe morbid obesity. If these tracts were truly dominant causes this would lead neurosurgeon and neurologists to see many patients with this problem. Well, we do not. That was a big issue for me with the theory. The second issue I had with it was that when we neurosurgeon's have patients with brain tumors involving the hypothalamus we see tremendous effects on feeding, obesity and on anorexia. This is well documented and I have personally seen this in many cases. Dr. Lustig pointed this out in his AHS 2011 talk when he showed some clinical cases of craniopharyngioma's and of hypothalamic trauma's that resulted in morbid obesity.
Today, we are going to cut deeper into the leptin story. We need to look at the leptin receptor because its biology will explain why studying macronutients at a dietary level just becomes a confusing mess with seemingly multiple paradoxes. I recently commented on this in Paul Jaminet's blog on August 24th 2011. The comment was very detailed but not written well so I am going to lay out the reasoning in the next few blogs. As most of you know leptin is the lynchpin in my Quilt and sits at position two. Many people might not realize how important it is for health, in sickness, and for optimal endocrine function. It is the dominant factor in obesity and this series is out to show you why this is the case based upon the data coming out of some labs who specialize in this neurobiology. This series is going to be laser like biochemistry on a 30 foot level. When we talk about this type of lab science it is very easy to lose perspective of the larger story I am trying to unveil to you. I have previously called leptin the master hormone of the brain. Remember that the brain has two ways to control things, one is direct neural wiring and the second is the control over the hormonal secretions body wide. Given these two factors, I think I may have under called it, honestly. This hormone signals the entire body's nutritional status, metabolic status, and endocrine status to the brain at all times. The brain in turn uses leptin to regulate total glycemic control, energy balance, and all neuroendocrine function in all systems in humans. This means that energy regulation is centrally controlled by our neuroendocrine system. The brain uses this hormone as an afferent and efferent signaling hormone to know precisely what is going on in our 20 trillion cells body wide. The brain does not have direct wiring to all 20 million cells because of space limitations of our cranium and our mother's vaginas. So it uses hormones and cytokines to extend its power and reach to send signals to those 20 trillion cells.
I was in a lounge watching the news last week and began to over hear a group of dermatologists talk about the new FDA rules set down for sunblocks that will go into effect in January of 2012. There was unanimous agreement among them all that sunlight was the source of everything that was bad in their world. One of the doctors said to another that, "no human should be out in the sun and they should just take vitamin D3 from the drug store instead of getting it from the sun." It was at that point I knew this was going to make a blog post about this. Apparently no one realizes that photosynthesis supports most of the food chain on this planet? And we are the mammal who has an energy hog in our head that needs energy. Since our skin is derived from neuro-ectoderm and we too use photosynthesis to make Vitamin D for our protection from poor electron dense foods in summer maybe we better re think this position. It is beyond me why the sun is so vilified. We could not have evolved past single cells organisms without it. We all learned that simple fact in school. But now with advanced degrees and plaques on our wall, are we going to blame all skin diseases all on the sun now? I definitely don't buy this conventional wisdom. So I decided to begin to add pieces to the immunity levee in the QUILT because of this conversation. And before we start let me be clear. It is better to get Vitamin D3 from the natural sources before a supplement in my opinion. But there is a catch to this pearl of wisdom. First, review this link on natural Vitamin D production.
READERS SUMMARY: 1. HOW YOUR GUT BRAIN AND RESPONSE OF YOUR BRAIN ARE ALL TIED TOGETHER? 2. WHAT ARE THE 4 MAIN NEUROTRANSMITTERS? 3. WHAT DO THEY DO AND MEAN? 4. WHAT AFFECTS THEIR PRODUCTION? 5. HORMONES ARE THE BRAINS ENDOCRINE SECRETION THAT TELLS YOU HOW YOUR EPIGENETIC SWITCHES ARE SET. 6. HOW WE USE [...]
READERS SUMMARY: 1. WHY IS MAGNESIUM SO IMPORTANT? DID THE OBESITY BATTLE OF THE BLOGS MISS IT? 2. HOW SHOULD YOU THINK ABOUT MAGNESIUM AND HOW TO TEST IT CORRECTLY? 3. WHAT DOES MAGNESIUM REALLY DO? 4. THE MISSING LINK IN TAUBES, GUYENET, LUSTIG, AND EENFELDT'S RECENT COMMENTS? 5. ITS THE BRAIN GUYS......WHEN THE SQUABBLE [...]
READERS SUMMARY: 1. Is it correct to believe that omega 6's are always bad? 2. What are the pathways these fats travel and what do they really do? 3. Do we need some type of ratio for optimal health? 4. What are the normal ratio's of O6/O3 in certain organ's? 5. Why is knowing what [...]
READERS SUMMARY: 1. What ties Levee 5, 6, and 16 all together in the QUILT? 2. Why is Vitamin D and Selenium the key to the gut? 3. How does Vitamin K play a role? 4. Why is autoimmune disease, cancer and neolithic disease more common today than ever before? 5. Is there another environmental [...]