Brent's primal success story

I no longer use my C-PAP machine, and I feel like a teenager again. All of my health issues are gone! I feel like I have a new lease on life. I look forward to every morning and cherish every day. Because honestly, when I was at my worst I didn’t know how many days I had left. We now have a second child, and I am able to play with them as much as I want, roll on the floor with them, and just be there for them. I truly have a life I never thought possible. I went from feeling like I was dying every minute of every day, to living the life I have always dreamed! It is truly a gift that I cherish every day.

Mark's Daily Apple

Cognitive decline in obesity

Obesity (a BMI of 30 or more) increases problems with memory and thinking, a condition also known as cognitive decline. Pauline Anderson, writing for Medscape Neurology MedPulseNews, notes:

It has been known for some time that obese patients face relatively fast cognitive decline, but recent research has suggested that if such patients are metabolically healthy, either naturally or through the use of medications, they may escape some adverse health effects…

However, a new study published in the August 21 issue of Neurology shows otherwise. While cognitive decline occurs faster in those with metabolic abnormalities such as high blood pressure or high cholesterol, the decline in cognitive function 10 years following baseline assessments were similar in the metabolically normal and abnormal groups. Anderson quotes study author Dr. Archana Singh-Manoux: 

We know that lower BMI is protective; that if your BMI is under 25, you have the slowest cognitive decline. So lower BMI is a good idea, but this notion that you can have a high BMI, and if your metabolic health is good, you'd be okay doesn't seem to be supported in our paper.

Related Posts

• Obesity in adults linked to cognitive dysfunction
• Getting fatter on the typical Western diet
• Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with obesity
• Did we start loosing willpower in the late 1970's?

MovNat's review of Practical Paleo

Diane continues to inspire people to good health through her podcasts and now with her new book, Practical Paleo, which releases today, August, 7th. After you read this review, I think you will want to mosey on over to Amazon and get your own copy.

MovNat

Success Story: Response to the primal diet

More importantly, I’ve noticed that a lot of nuisance health issues that I had attributed to aging and/or had for so long that I accepted them as “normal,” are gone. To name just a few, the achy shins and joints, compliments of power walking (I read that it was easier on the joints than jogging, lol!), are no longer achy. I no longer feel like I am going to pass out if I don’t have breakfast within the first 30 minutes after I wake up. I no longer need to constantly pack snacks for my mid-morning and mid-afternoon hunger pangs/shakes. I no longer get in a foul mood when I’m hungry. I don’t drink anywhere near the amounts of water I drank regularly when I was constantly fighting dehydration, nor have I had a need to drink Gatorade. I have more energy than ever ...

Mark's Daily Apple 

Do hunter-gatherers really burn more calories per day?

Daily activity of the Hadza. Image: Andreas LedererI often see persons in the office with neurological complaints such as headaches, dizziness, difficulty with memory and thinking, or alterations in mood that also have a BMI (Body Mass Index) in the obese category. A common reason offered for not being able loose weight is their inability to exercise.

Conventional wisdom holds that hunter-gathers maintain a normal weight through a combination of the Paleolithic diet and an active lifestyle that burns more calories. According to a new multi-institutional study, Hunter-Gatherer Energetics and Human Obesity published in the July 25 of Plos ONE, this conventional wisdom seems to be incorrect. As described by Science Codex:

The research team behind the study, led by Herman Pontzer of Hunter College in New York City, along with David Raichlen of the University of Arizona and Brian M. Wood of Stanford measured daily energy expenditure (calories per day) among the Hadza, a population of traditional hunter-gatherers living in the open savannah of northern Tanzania. Despite spending their days trekking long distances to forage for wild plants and game, the Hadza burned no more calories each day than adults in the U.S. and Europe. The team ran several analyses accounting for the effects of body weight, body fat percentage, age, and gender. In all analyses, daily energy expenditure among the Hadza hunter-gatherers was indistinguishable from that of Westerners. The study was the first to measure energy expenditure in hunter-gatherers directly; previous studies had relied entirely on estimates.

However, this does not mean you shouldn’t exercise:

The authors emphasize that physical exercise is nonetheless important for maintaining good health. In fact, the Hadza spend a greater percentage of their daily energy budget on physical activity than Westerners do, which may contribute to the health and vitality evident among older Hadza. Still, the similarity in daily energy expenditure between Hadza hunter-gatherers and Westerners suggests that we have more to learn about human physiology and health, particularly in non-Western settings.

Bottom line: The type of food consumed matters tremendously! The key factor in loosing weight is what you select at the grocery store or restaurant! Low-grade chronic inflammation resulting from the modern diet and the impact of modern foods on the brain's regulation of eating behavior are the prime suspects in the obesity epidemic. Returning to the ancestral human diet is the most powerful tool for reclaiming a normal weight.

Related Links

• An "Insight of the Decade": Chronic inflammation kills
• Inflammation impairs frontal lobe brain function 
• Paleolithic Nutrition: Chronic Inflammation
• Getting fatter on the typical Western diet
• New hypothesis: Acellular carbohydrates promote obesity
• “Fascinating insight”: Inflamed cells circulating in bloodstream
• Paleolithic Nutrition: Diabetes and the Modern Diet
• Success Stories 

Books: Practical Paleo by Diane Sanfilippo

Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food. This quote from Hippocrates is the first line in “Practical Paleo” and provides the backbone for the 415-page tome by Diane Sanfilippo, a certified nutrition consultant who specializes in ancestral nutrition — based on diets before processed foods. Unlike diet books that promise quick weight loss and six-pack abs, “Practical Paleo” focuses on nourishment.

New York Times

Success Story: After 20 years on a plant-based diet

I started the Paleo diet about two years ago because the low-fat vegetarian thing that I’d been for twenty years just wasn’t working. Within three weeks, I’d lost three dress sizes (not so many pounds, but who’s counting), and my muscle tone had visibly improved. But the most amazing change was in my personality and health. It was as if someone had lifted a dark veil from my head. I sleep less but better, wake up happy, and look forward to my daily challenges. My hair loss and skin problems have vanished. My teeth are stronger, and my gums don’t bleed. My thyroid (which I claimed was enlarged, but doctors disagreed) has gone back to its normal size. I could go on and on.

Suzanne

The Paleo Answer

Success story: Loose weight and spend less time in the gym

The Vancouver Sun has a reasonable article on the Paleo diet. The usual concerns such as kidney stones and osteoporosis are answered by considering acid / base balance. (Also, more on osteoporosis & the Paleolithic diet here.)

The experience of Rahmin Khan, presented below, alludes to an important point: what you eat is more important than how much you exercise. Yes, I know, the first law of thermodynamics (conservation of energy): the maintain a stable weight, calories in must equal calories out. The problem is: low quality foods are less effective in satisfying hunger and one has to eat more to feel full. The most powerful weight loss tool  is making the right food choices. 

The author describes the experience of Rahim Khan and his wife:

Warehouse manager Rahim Khan of Langley started on the paleodiet just before his 27th birthday. He weighed 250 pounds, heavy for his 5-foot-11 frame.

“Less than a year later I hit my optimal weight of 173 pounds,”said Khan, who lost weight even as he cut back on his workouts. “I used to be in the gym three or four days a week and sometimes for two hours, now it’s 30 minutes and I’m out.”

Khan, his wife Liz and their three children all follow the paleodiet at home. Exceptions have to be made when the kids visit their grandparents, Khan laughed.

“I was skeptical at first,” said Liz, who admits feeling sick and lethargic for the first two weeks after the change. “But I feel so much better now, I didn’t even know how lousy I felt before.”

A primal success story

As I got closer to college, and gained and lost, and gained it all back plus more, I got more discouraged. I needed to lose 40 lbs, then 50 – my parents got more concerned. Bribery: promises of money, of new clothes, of the choice to attend the private university I had fallen in love with on my visit there – they were all dangled before me. And oh, by God, I tried. When conventional methods failed, I tried to make myself throw up – and am now thankful for the fact that it didn’t work.

Mark's Daily Apple

Getting fatter on the typical Western diet

Image: Newsweek magazineGary Taubes, an Investigator in Health Policy Research at the Berkley School of Public Health, has been battling conventional wisdom regarding nutrition for years. He has delivered his message in many forums including the 2007 book, Good Calories, Bad Calories and the 2011 book, Why We Get Fat.

His most recent contribution is an article in the May 14 print issue of Newsweek: The New Obesity Campaigns Have It All Wrong. Taubes notes that conventional wisdom regarding the cause of obesity is based on the concept of “energy balance”:

At its heart is a simple “energy balance” idea: we get fat because we consume too many calories and expend too few. If we could just control our impulses – or at least control our environment, thereby removing temptation – and push ourselves to exercise, we’d be fine. This logic is everywhere…”

Unfortunately, the "energy balance" concept is failing us: 42% of American will be fat by 2030. Even NIH Director Francis Collins has difficulty explaining the failure - “We are struggling to figure this out.” Taubes has another view:

There is an alternative theory, one that has also been around for decades but that the establishment has largely ignored. This theory implicates specific foods – refined sugars and grains – because of their effect on the hormone insulin, which regulates fat accumulation. If this hormonal-defect hypothesis is true, not all calories are created equal, as the conventional wisdom holds. And if it is true, the problem is not only controlling our impulses, but also changing the entire American food economy and rewriting our beliefs about what constitutes a healthy diet. (emphasis added)

Related Posts

• Did we start loosing willpower in the late 1970's?
• Paleolithic Nutrition: Diet and Modern Disease
• The Standard or Average American Diet
• Are mainstream nutritionists beginning to recognize the value of Paleolithic nutrition?

Obesity in adults linked to cognitive dysfunction

Duke University and CDC predict 42% of Americans will be obese by 2030. The impact on the nation's health (and economy) will be significant. Obesity is associated with many modern diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, metabolic syndrome, and sleep apnea. Other associations include migraine headaches, increased brain pressure (pseudotumor cerebri), rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammation of the brain's frontal lobes and hypothalamus.

Obesity is measured using the Body Mass Index (BMI) and is calculated by dividing body weight by the square of the height. As noted by Medscape Neurology, BMI “is the most common means that clinicians use to define obesity.”

Central obesity, obesity of the abdomen, is also harmful to health. The extra adipose tissue collects below the skin (subcutaneous adipose tissue) and around the abdominal organs (visceral adipose tissue). While many of us grew up thinking extra fatty tissue was harmless, it is now understood that the adipose tissue of central obesity represents a “pathogenic tissue compartment” (a compartment of tissue that can make us sick).

In a study published in March 2012 issue of Age and Ageing, Dae Hyun Yoon MD, PhD and associates looked at the whether obesity, as measured by BMI, and central obesity affected brain function.

In 250 patients, 60 years of age or older, the amount abdominal fatty tissue (both visceral and subcutaneous) was measured on an abdominal CT scan and compared to the results on the MMSE-KC, a Korean diagnostic scale similar to the Mini-Mental State Examination that measures cognitive function. The researchers discovered that persons 60-70 years of age with a high BMI or high visceral obesity had significantly more difficulty with memory and thinking. According to Medscape Medical News:

After controlling for age, sex, education, hypertension, and diabetes, high BMI and being in the top tertile for visceral adipose tissue area were significantly associated with poor cognitive performance in those up to age 70 years.

Dr. Yoon explained:

Visceral adipose tissue is more metabolically active than subcutaneous adipose tissue and is thought to have a stronger influence on insulin resistance, among other things. It has long been considered as a pathogenic tissue compartment and this research shows a positive association between visceral adipose tissue area and low cognitive functioning. (emphasis added)

Contrary to popular belief, excess fat does not just sit there; it produces inflammatory substances that affect a variety of bodily functions. The extra fat impacts how the brain works; or, in this situation, doesn’t work.  

Staffan Lindberg MD, PhD, writing in his medical textbook Food and Western Disease: Health and nutrition from an evolutionary perspective, notes that “overweight was extremely rare among hunter-gatherers.” As he shows, increasing evidence is pointing to the ancestral diet as the best model for reclaiming health.

To learn more about the ancestral human diet, consider these Ancestral Diet Resources. Also, take a look at the response in BMI and central obesity of these two dedicated Paleo advocates! (Unconquerable Dave and Diana)

Go Paleo to reduce and then get rid of obesity. Keep your brain sharp.

If you are on a special diet for health reasons, discuss the Paleo diet with your doctor before making changes. Also discuss with your doctor if you have high blood pressure or diabetes since your medications may need to be lowered. Also, if you are on Coumadin or have hemochromatosis, discuss this diet with your doctor before you start.   

Rheumatoid arthritis is associated with obesity

Is the typical modern diet a factor in the development of rheumatoid arthritis? Image: iStockphotoHealth, Medical, and Science Updates reports on a Mayo Clinic research study that revealed over half of the increase in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) cases seen in women from 1985–2007 is related to the increase in obesity during that time. While “the exact nature of the link between obesity and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis is not clear,” the relationship to obesity suggests RA may be - at least in part – due to the typical modern diet. 

Not only is RA more common in persons with a high body mass index (BMI), according to a study by the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, it is also more severe in when obesity is present. Furthermore, persons RA and obesity are more likely to have associated diseases (co-morbidities) such as "hypertension, diabetes mellitus and chronic pulmonary disease."

In a review article New York Medical College, the authors note that although RA is viewed primarily as "chronic progressive inflammatory joint disorder," the disease also affects other organ systesms: 

Cardiovascular manifestations of RA include predilection for accelerated atherosclerosis and endothelial dysfunction resulting in coronary artery disease (CAD), stroke, congestive heart failure, and peripheral arterial disease. ... Other manifestations include pericarditis, myocarditis, and vasculitis.

Although the cause of RA is unknown, dietary grains may be a factor. In medicalese, from a study by Dr. Loren Cordain and associates:

By eliminating dietary elements, particularly lectins, which adversely influence both enterocyte and lymphocyte structure and function, it is proposed that the peripheral antigenic stimulus (both pathogenic and dietary) will be reduced and thereby result in a diminution of disease symptoms in certain patients with RA.