Joseph finally quit grains to lower his bad cholesterol

Small, dense LDL is the type of cholesterol that gets under your vascular "skin", the thin lining that protects the inside of the vessel wall. These small, dense molecules are suspected to cause the first insult, which invites other factors to pile on and build a dangerous sludge in your artery called atherosclerosis. If you are a baby boomer like me, you were taught that cholesterol was bad. Then, no, no, HDL cholesterol is actually good; it was LDL cholesterol that was bad. Now we learn there are two types of LDL, large, buoyant LDL and the small, dense LDL. The small, dense version is the worst of the two. 

We also learned that the main cause of elevated cholesterol was fat. Well, yes, factory-made transfat is bad, but the biggest dietary cause of increased small dense LDL, is... carbohydrates! Dr. William Davis, author of The Heart Scan Blog, illustrates this in the case of Joseph, "a whip-smart corporate attorney" with high LDL cholesterol. Joseph's numbers before changing his diet were: LDL - 2620 nmol/L, and small LDL - 2331 nmol/L. Dr. Davis writes:

I advised him to eliminate wheat, cornstarch, and sugars, while limiting other carbohydrate sources, as well. Joseph didn't like this idea very much … (he) replaced all sugar and refined flour products with whole grains, but did not restrict his intake of grains. 

LDL decreased a small amount to 2451 nmol/L and small LDL to 1998 nmol/L. Dr. Davis:

I explained to Joseph that any grain, complex, refined, or simple--will, just like other sugars and carbohydrates, still provoke small LDL. Given the severity of his patterns, I suggested trying again, this time with full elimination of grains. 

Finally, LDL significantly decreased to 1320 nmol/L and small LDL to 646 nmol/L

This is typical of the LDL responses I see with elimination of wheat products on the background of an overall carbohydrate restriction. 

Take home point: Although genetics plays a role, the modern high carb diet with its refined sugars and grains raises your small, dense LDL, the really bad cholesterol. Unfortunately the test for small, dense LDL is expensive and not available in most medical offices. Talk to your doctor and find out what evaluation is right for you. 

(By the way, statin medications do not decrease small, dense LDL.)

Quote: Wasted food

The U.S. wastes a stunning amount of food -- 40 percent of what we produce, according to Jonathan Bloom, author of American Wasteland. That’s way above the already-staggering global average of one third. That means that 40 percent of the energy, water, and fuel we put into farming goes straight into the trash. All in all, Bloom says, “2 percent of all U.S. energy goes to food we’re throwing away.”

Read more at Grist.

Probiotics for Travelers

Guest Post by Gerard Guillory, M.D.

If you’ve had a vacation or business trip ruined by diarrhea and indigestion, you might want to
bring a probiotic supplement on your next trip. A good supplement will help your body protect
itself against the bacteria that typically cause “traveler’s diarrhea” and enable you to spend your
trip seeing the sights instead of the bathrooms.

Probiotics are a combination of living, beneficial bacteria that occur naturally in the human
intestinal tract. They are essential for maintaining healthy digestion. A growing body of
evidence suggests that the use of probiotics can help treat and prevent a wide array of intestinaltract
disorders, including traveler’s diarrhea.

Probiotics have been examined for their effectiveness in the prevention and treatment of such
gastrointestinal disorders as antibiotic-associated diarrhea, various forms of bacterial and viral
diarrhea, inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease), irritable bowel
syndrome, small-bowel bacterial overgrowth, and lactose intolerance. Probiotics may also help
prevent the development of colon cancer.

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Quotes: 800,000 Years

… concentrations of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere (are) higher than they’ve been in at least eight hundred thousand years.

… and they are now approaching those of fifteen million years ago …

Gas molecules are impervious to politics …

Laurence C. Smith - The World in 2050

Short Takes: "Silent" celiac disease, Pain on the brain, Anxiety in the gut

1. "Silent" celiac disease

Celiac disease is an insult of the modern diet occurring in at least 1% of the population. The reaction of the immune system to gluten protein in wheat and other grains sets off a "misguided attack" on the lining of the small intestine. As describe by ScienceNews:

The small intestine suffers from this misguided attack, and celiac patients can experience bloating, diarrhea, constipation, lethargy and poor nutrition as they lose some ability to absorb nutrients through the damaged walls of the small intestine.

However, others sensitive to gluten may not show these classic intestinal signs but instead suffer silently. As ScienceNews continues:

But many people don’t have such clear symptoms, said gastroenterologist Katri Kaukinen of the University of Tampere. Even undetected the disease can have health effects: It has been linked to poor educational achievement and failure to thrive in children, apparently due to nutrient loss. In adulthood, undetected celiac disease is associated with a risk of fractures, poor dental enamel, short stature, pregnancy difficulties and skin problems. 

Learn more from Nathan Seppa at ScienceNews or from Dr. Gerard Guillory in the previous post Gluten Sensitivity on the Rise.

2. Pain on the brain

Constant back pain wearing you down? Well, it does thin a portion of the frontal cortex of the brain. Fortunately, good pain control can allow the brain to recover. As reported by ScienceNews, scientist at McGill University in Montreal studied the brains of patients with low back pain and found the upper-outer edges of the frontal areas, specifically the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (a region involved in pain modulation), were thinner than normal. Six months following successful treatment of the pain, repeat scans showed improvement in these areas. The greater the pain control, the greater the return to normal. Learn more from Laura Sanders at ScienceNews. 

3. Anxiety in the gut

Evidence is slowly growing that a number of "psychological" disorders such as depression may actually originate from poor nutrition. The latest study looks at the impact of gut bacteria on anxiety. As reported by ScienceDaily:

Working with healthy adult mice, the researchers showed that disrupting the normal bacterial content of the gut with antibiotics produced changes in behaviour; the mice became less cautious or anxious. This change was accompanied by an increase in brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which has been linked to depression and anxiety.

When oral antibiotics were discontinued, bacteria in the gut returned to normal. "This was accompanied by restoration of normal behaviour and brain chemistry," Collins said.

One more reason to protect your gut bacteria by avoiding grains. 

The Idea of an Ecovillage

Post by John Michael

Teepee and Cotopaxi: A teepee, which is part of the housing at Comuna de Rhiannon, sits in the foreground, while volcano Cotopaxi looms behind.

There are many opportunities to create systems that work from the elements and technologies that exist. Perhaps we should do nothing else for the next century but apply our knowledge. We already know how to build, maintain, and inhabit sustainable systems. Every essential problem is solved, but in the everyday life of people this is hardly apparent.

Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual by Bill Mollison

I’ve heard a lot about sustainability, and I know that it’s a good thing, but I’ve rarely seen it in practice, and never to the extent that it’s practiced here, at Comuna de Rhiannon, a farming commune located within the Andes Mountains, and about an hour to the north of the Ecuadorian capital of Quito. Sustainability is the operating idea at Comuna de Rhiannon, and it governs the fate of everything that lives within the commune’s boundaries, from the hogs that are used to till Rhiannon’s soil, which is rich in volcanic ash, as the farm is surrounded by several volcanoes, to the food that is leftover from meals, which is either used as animal feed or as compost, depending upon what it is. Sustainability is such an integral part of the culture at Comuna de Rhiannon that on my third day here I found myself being teased by two young British men, who were residents of the commune at the time, because I had double-spaced my texts before printing them, and because I did not print on both sides of a sheet of paper. “That’s not at all sustainable, John,” chided Will. “No, absolutely not,” agreed Rob, who punctuated his statement by shaking his head in tongue-in-cheek disappointment. But, instead of reacting with annoyance, as I tend to do when I’m teased, I was pleasantly intrigued by the exchange, because it was the first time that I’d ever been teased about my sustainability. In fact, it was the first time that I’d ever heard of anyone being teased about their sustainability, and I began to wonder whether the culture of sustainability on display at Comuna de Rhiannon was a sign of the things to come in both Western Culture and, perhaps, Global Culture at large.

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Simple Paleo: Salmon salad

For a simple Paleo lunch, try baby romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes and black berries dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and turmeric. Add asparagus drizzled with truffle oil and steamed in the microwave and top it off with canned salmon, in this case, Pacific Northwest wild pink salmon from RainCoast Trading.

Dr. John & Mother Hen

Gluten Sensitivity on the Rise

Guest Post by Gerard Guillory, M.D.

Approximately 1% of persons in the US have celiac disease, an immune reaction to the gluten protein in wheat (above), barely, rye and sometimes oats. Many more may sensitive to this foreign protein.Gluten sensitivity is more common than medical experts once believed, affecting perhaps as much as 1 percent of the U.S. population. The symptoms of this condition, also referred to as celiac disease, can be widely varied and highly unpleasant. The good news is that celiac disease can be detected through a simple blood test and effectively managed through changes in diet.

Gluten is a protein found in wheat, barley and rye and food products such as breads and pastas that are derived from these grains. Gluten also is sometimes found in oats, which frequently are contaminated with gluten during processing and, as a result, also contain the protein.

In some people, the body’s immune system is triggered by the presence of gluten, causing a variety of problems. In children, these can include failure to thrive and short stature. Many gluten-sensitive adults experience chronic gastrointestinal problems, including diarrhea, flatulence and weight loss. Recent studies have indicated that many adults who are gluten-sensitive experience non-gastrointestinal problems as well, including iron-deficiency anemia and decreased bone density.

I became interested in gluten sensitivity in 1989, when I wrote my first book on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I had included a chapter on the so-called elimination diet. In those days, we didn’t have effective tests for many food allergies, so we recommended that patients eliminate various foods from their diet and then resume consumption of these, one by one. This would help identify the cause of IBS symptoms.

Through this method, we found that when some patients eliminated gluten from their diets, not only did IBS symptoms disappear, but so did other problems such as rheumatism, allergies and skin disorders.

Recent studies suggest that this isn’t a coincidence; in fact, there appears to be a direct link between gluten and auto-immune disorders. If you have an auto-immune disorder such as rheumatism, I recommend that you ask your physician about gluten sensitivity and consider getting a blood test. You also should consider testing if you are experiencing unexplained gastrointestinal problems such as chronic diarrhea or weight loss. Testing should be done before you attempt to eliminate gluten from your diet, so that the lab can determine whether gluten is triggering an immunological response.

If you test positive for celiac disease, your physician is likely to recommend that you work with a dietician to develop a gluten-free diet. Many people also join a support group, which helps them stay with the diet. Growing numbers of grocery stores and natural-foods stores sell gluten-free products, so the difficulties associated with the diet are perhaps not as onerous as they once were.

Gerard L. Guillory, M.D., is board-certified in internal medicine and has been practicing in Aurora, Colo., since July 1985. As an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Dr. Guillory is actively involved in teaching medical students, resident physicians, and nurse practitioner students. He has lectured extensively on the role of nutrition and disease. Over the years, he has fostered an interest in patient education and has authored three books on digestive troubles.

Originally posted at The Care Group, update Feb 7, 2011

A Paleo Mother's Day Dinner

Two of our older boys joined us (the oldest is in Ecuador) and together with our youngest son, five of us celebrated Mother's Day with a family dinner.

Appetizers included store bought smoked oysters and shrimp.

Baby romaine & fresh herb lettuce were mixed with carrots, celery, strawberries, and olives. The salad was dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

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Patagonia, the new local economy, and fabric recycling

Yesterday I took the day off. Yes, in the middle of the week, unusual. I drove to Boulder and took an easy hike in Chautauqua Park at the Flatirons base, my first hike since the cycling injury. After lunch, I strolled along Pearl Street and stopped into the Patagonia store. One of the first things to catch my eye was the book let my people go surfing: the education of a reluctant businessman by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. 

In the Preface, Yvon lays out new directions for Patagonia brought on through reflections on sustainability:

At Patagonia we have started to prepare for what we think will become a more locally based economy. A global economy based on cheap transportation is not sustainable. Our present mode of production includes buying organic cotton in Turkey, shipping the bales to Thailand to be processed into fabric, shipping the fabric to Texas to be cut, to Mexico to be sewn, on to our warehouse in Reno, then to our stores and dealers, and finally to our customers' homes.

The retail price of regular gas 10 years ago (May 8, 2001) was $1.427 per gallon. Today it is $3.963. If petroleum prices continue to increase at same rate over the next couple of decades, it wont be sustainable at all.

Another direction for Patagonia is to "start making all clothing from recycled and recyclable fibers." This is a dramatic change, one that will likely take years, and may never fully materialize. But for a company already a leader in sustainability, it signals a new direction that other companies will likely emulate. Beginning with the Common Threads Recycling Program:

We seek to close the manufacturing and consumption loop in the way the modern aluminum industry works. We'll collect from our customers their worn out polyester garments and send them back to Teijin for recycling into new polyester fiber. ...With the extra shipping, the program still yields energy savings of 76% and reduction in greenhouse-gas (CO2) emissions of 71 percent, compared to the creation of polyester fiber from new, petroleum based raw material.

Those savings are sure to generate interest among competitors. However, as always, customer choices drive the market.  

Related entries:
Numbers: Water and blue jeans
Jeans made with less water

Q&A: Will we get enough calcium on the Paleo diet?

In this and in subsequent entries, I will respond to some of the questions received following the lecture Paleolithic Nutrition: What is the Evidence? The lecture will also be given at noon on Friday, May 6 at The Medical Center of Aurora, North Campus.

Adults considering Paleolithic nutrition worry about getting enough calcium if the cut out dairy products. Their main concern is preventing osteoporosis, a thinning of the bone that can lead to fractures, disability, and in the elderly, even death. (Calcium metabolism in children is a separate issue and will not be considered in this entry. After all, Paleolithic young were likely breast fed for 5 or 6 years.)

The modern diet, also referred to as the Western diet, is not favorable to healthy calcium metabolism. As Staffan Lindberg notes in Food and Western Disease:

For the average Westerner, roughly one-fourth of their energy intake is provided by food that is lacking in calcium (primarily oil, margarine, and sugar). Cereals, which provide an additional 25%, contain relatively little calcium.  Hence, it should come as no surprise that the calcium intake among many hunter-gatherer societies is estimated to have been higher than among modern Westerners.

Fruits and vegetables, which form the base Paleolithic food pyramid, are important sources of calcium. As Loren Cordain states in The Paleo Diet:

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Anecdotal Evidence of Climate Change and Ecosystem Decline in South America

Post by John Michael

As a traveler, I often find myself engaged in small talk, and no topic is more frequently the subject of conversation between myself and those that I meet while traveling on the road than the weather. Yesterday I was riding in a truck up the side of one of the three volcanoes that surround the Ecuadorian city of Otavalo, which is located within the country’s northern highlands. I began to speak with my driver about the rash of tornadoes that had just ravaged the American South. He told me what a shame it was that so many people had died, and then he went on to say something that I found very interesting. “It never used to rain this much in Ecuador,” he admitted. “Sure, it would rain every now and then, but never every day like it does now.” He gestured toward the overhanging gray clouds and at the rain that was spattering the windshield. “Before, we would hear about things like what happened in your country, and they were things that only happened in other countries. But now, with these rains, people are dying here, too.” “People have died because of the rains?” I asked him. “Yes,” he nodded, momentarily turning from the road to look me in the eyes. “Thirteen people have died recently from floods and landslides.” He looked back at the road. “And it’s worse, because now, with all of this rain, the crops are beginning to rot before they can be harvested.” I stared out the window at the hilly fields of corn that we passed. “We used to be so happy,” he continued, “because Ecuador was a paradise, but now things are changing.” Five minutes after he had said these words, the rain turned to hail, and we had to pull off to the side of the road and wait until the storm had calmed before continuing on our journey.

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