leptin

Cold Thermogenesis 4: The Holy Trinity

I just want to thank Sean Croxton for asking me to present at Paleo Summit today. The ideas discussed began with a podcast I did with Jimmy Moore, #474. Before I begin here today, I strongly suggest you listen to the Jimmy Moore podcast I did in May of 2011 as a primer for this blog post. It’s going to be a long one, so open a glass of wine as the sun sets tonight. However, I think you need to hear it all tonight since I have your attention from the Paleo Summit. I have planned for this day for some time. I am humbled to share this with you all. It was hard for me to write. If any of you remember when I first gave my initial thoughts on leptin publicly, it was on a podcast I did with Jimmy Moore in May 2011. I discussed the things that transformed my thinking back then. Most of the time I spent with Jimmy, we talked about leptin. In the beginning of the podcast, I mentioned a person who saw me injure myself as I stood up to give a lecture, and told me she knew precisely why I hurt my knee. At the time, I thought I had a good handle on these modern medicine principles she mentioned so I was a skeptical of her thoughts. She told me when I got home she was going to send me a few papers and a book to read. The book was called “The Monk Who Sold his Ferrari.” She was emphatic that I read the book before the papers. Then, she told me to read six specific papers in the order they were numbered and then reflect on what I had just read.

Cold Thermogenesis 3

Evolutionary strategy is based upon finding an environmental niche and exploiting it. Evolution is based upon change and the natural adaptations to it. Today, we are going to explore how some environmental triggers might open a “biochemical trap door.” Why is circadian biology critical? For evolution to work, a cell first must adapt to its environment. So the first thing any living cell would see in an earth day is a period of day and night. It also has to find food to make energy (ATP). In addition, it has to control its own cellular division. The epic battle for the cell is the circadian cycle has to “yoke” the metabolic cycle to its growth cycle. Most people know that the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), is the circadian pacemaker that monitors this dance between darkness and light and the seasonal cold and hot temperatures in our environment. Evolution apparently agreed with this assessment, because we now know it to be true. What most people do not know is how leptin plays a massive role in regulating it. Research has revealed that leptin can induce expression of a neuropeptide gene called vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) through the VIP cytokine response element. VIP actually is what sets the circadian pacemaker to light. Leptin yokes metabolism and sleep to the light and dark cycle. When temperature becomes the dominant environmental trigger and not light cycles, leptin induces endothelial nitric oxide synthetase (eNOS), that shuts down the photic effects of VIP on the SCN. This means that leptin forces the SCN not to be able to use light any longer to yoke circadian cycles! Once temperature begins to yoke the circadian rhythms, some very special things happen to our biochemistry that normally does not occur in other environments. These are ancient epigenetic programs that are hardwired into the DNA of every descendant of a eutherian mammal. We are descended from these animals.

The Cold Thermogenesis Protocol

The Cold Thermogenesis Protocol should be added gradually to the Leptin Rx rest protocol. This blog post is additive to the Leptin Rx, and is an evolution extension of it for those who need it. I hope you all realize that not everyone will need it. Some will need it because they have special needs that they face. This blog is designed for those who have been previously left out of the reset protocol. Those people are gastric bypass patients, HCG users, those on exogenous steroids, chronic pain patients, and those with T2D and metabolic syndrome, as a few examples. Prolonged and controlled local peripheral skin cooling can induce selective “damage,” and increased hypothalamic signaling by forcing adipocyte apoptosis and subsequent loss of subcutaneous fat without damaging the overlying skin or the underlying muscle layers. This means that acute cold cause rapid leptin sensitivity! It means that fat is forced to liberate leptin from fat cells to slowly lower its serum levels as long as the cold stimulus is applied safely. This is new scientific information that was first carried out in pigs in 2008, and subsequently tested in humans and found to be quite effective for fat removal in certain selected areas of the body.

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