The Disease of our Time

As you sit reading these words, there are 6 septillion (that’s a 6 with 24 zeros) biochemical/physiological events taking place in your body. That’s more than there are stars in the universe.

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Fortunately, the “things” controlling these biochemical events are few. The brain could not possibly handle all of them and still have enough “brain power” left over to do some rational thinking; those things the brain does control are handled below a conscious level, such as digestion, breathing, etc, all occurring with your brain on “auto-pilot.”

The controlling mechanism of these 6 septillion events comes from diverse genetic programming. Events in our cells are all programmed according to the genetic codes in each cell. Above that coding are hormones.

Hormones are messengers that transports signals from one place (cell) to another (cell).

The importance of vitamin D that science has discovered in the past few years (and keeps on discovering) almost seems to overshadow the one overall consensus that vitamin D could be better described as a hormone rather than a vitamin.

When our ancestors were hunter/gatherers running about nearly naked, vitamin D levels in their bodies were optimal. Few realize that when vitamin D is created by the sun, it sits on our skin for about 24 hours before it is completely absorbed by the body. Today, because we shower daily, absorption of any vitamin D from the sun is much less than optimal.

So this brings us to a basic thesis in this discussion, which is the differences between early humans (hunter/gatherers) and modern humans (cubical/keyboarders). One salient point here is that these differences are not within us but without (on the outside).

Our bodies have not evolved much since we were hunter/gatherers. We are still very much that hunter/gatherer. (There are a few exceptions. More and more babies are being born without a little toe these days. So, there goes the piggy that ran wee-wee-wee-wee all the way home.)

As hunter/gatherers, we got a lot of sun, a wide variety of raw, fresh foods, and lots of exercise.

The first great change to our food supply came about some 12,000 years ago when we went from being a hunting society to an agrarian society. Agriculture seems to have taken place around the globe during this time; China constructed their first rice paddies, animals became domesticated in the Middle East, natives in Mexico began growing squash (though they would have to wait nearly 6,000 years before they would raise corn on the cob).

Agricultural societies made room for cities to pop up as reliable food sources became available. Though there were grains in our pre-agriculture days, suddenly they were much more abundant, producing the greatest change in the human diet ever (or till post WWII industrialization).

The next great changes came during the Napoleonic wars with the invention of canning and food storing. Refrigeration later allowed large quantities of vegetables to be shipped far and wide as we switched from eating locally to consuming foods that had thousands of miles on them.

In early agricultural societies, our exercise patterns changed, but still, most labor was done manually, and farming required a lot of manual labor. Most workers got enough exercise working in the fields, while, at the same time, sport became a part of the human experience. We were still hunter/gatherers, and the needs and psyche underpinning the hunter/gatherer had to be channeled somewhere after we’d become “citified,” thus the development of sport (and now you know how the NFL came about). When you consider that the only other channel for this physical competition would be war, dangerous sports (which many were back then) were the more civilized option, though sadly, war has never been ruled out.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the greatest change to our food supply, as well as to our exercise habits, came following World War II.

Suddenly, because of excess bombs left over from the war, we had a surplus of nitrogen that could be used on our fields. Nitrogen was nitrogen to the profiteers. Mechanization and the assembly line cut the amount of energy expended by workers, and limited their movements due to specialization along that assembly line. It would take medicine nearly 50 years to recognize repetitive movement injuries.

Processed foods started filling up the supermarkets. Heck, supermarkets began filling up our large cities. Organic chemicals infiltrated every aspect of our lives and showed up in our foods to protect them, preserve them, color them, flavor them, and to make those foods irresistible. I should point out that “organic chemicals” and “organic foods” have totally different meanings.

Desk jobs sprung up, then cubicles and instant communication, and suddenly the only exercise workers got was walking to and from their automobiles (or commuter trains).

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that a new illness cropped up that took a few years to label. Can you name it?

Metabolic Syndrome

If you research Metabolic Syndrome, you’ll find a number of definitions and varying criteria for its diagnosis.

Let us make our own definition: obesity, leptin and insulin resistance, and inflammation.

Influence by the pharmaceutical industry has pushed the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association to add high cholesterol levels to factors resulting in metabolic syndrome, but this is the big lie behind the 9 billion dollar a year Statin drug fraud.

I need only reference this article: World Renown Heart Surgeon Speaks Out On What Really Causes Heart Disease. Or I could point you to our own, awfully well written article: The Real Cause of Most (85%) Heart Attacks.

I could reference our book Bypassing Bypass,(I.Link) which, believe it or not, you are reading right now as all of the chapters in the book were tuned into web pages and you are now reading those pages that we started updating with more of the research we’ve been gathering. This update started January of 2018. It’s simply perfect to get confirmation by a “world renown” heart surgeon, even when we first published this stuff some 10 years earlier than he did.

So, before we move on, let us summarize where we are:

Because our bodies are still those of the hunter/gatherer and we still need the diet and exercise of the hunter/gatherer; modern society, our food supply and lack of exercise has led to Metabolic Syndrome that is the foundation of those chronic degenerative illnesses insuring early death by stroke, heart attack, and cancer not to mention a host of illnesses that diminish our quality of life.

Which Came First: The Chicken or the Egg?

There’s a term I’ve heard in my research called “obesity-related inflammation.” Apparently, this is what’s killing us. In our article on Chronic Inflammation, I point out that modern medicine has recently concluded that most all illness begins with inflammation. I also point out that that’s all the deeper they’re going to go because they have drugs for that.

Recently obesity has been declared an “illness,” and though I would tend to agree with the authorities, I also want to fight this trend because every time modern medicine declares a new illness, they bring out a drug to fight it.

All illness begins with our diet and lifestyle (of course, with a few exceptions). It is our diet and lifestyle that lead to inflammation. We live highly coagulable and inflammatory lives. (The coagulable refers to our sticky blood.)

But now get this: we know that weight gain can lead to inflammation, but did you know that inflammation can lead to weight gain. So, really, which came first, the fat or the inflammation?

With the discovery of leptin, fat is now seen as a major endocrine organ. If you have fat, you are producing leptin. Produce too much leptin and not only will you become leptin resistant, but you increase the pathways to inflammation that result in chronic degenerative illness. Leptin resistance causes us to eat too much, lowers our metabolism, and leads to weight gain.

In a study called: Obesity and leptin resistance: distinguishing cause from effect, I came across this statement: “Moreover, the induction of cellular leptin resistance by obesity complicates efforts to distinguish the mechanisms that predispose to weight gain from those that result from it.”

They are saying, in other words: which came first: the chicken or the egg?

When you are leptin resistant, you are insulin resistant. But which comes first? Leptin resistance or insulin resistance.

In his book, Fat Chance, one of the pioneers in the field of leptin resistance, Robert Lustig, a professor of clinical pediatrics, expounds a whole new scientific theory: “Professor Lustig believes insulin resistance triggers leptin resistance, and, crucially, he has discovered that by reducing insulin levels it is possible to improve ‘leptin signaling’ (the brain’s ability to read leptin), stop cravings, put the brakes on food consumption — and trigger weight loss.”

[Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2255442/The-REAL-reason-eat-New-theory-revolutionise-way-lose-weight.html#ixzz2YDQOyNNJ]

(Excuse me if I don’t stand and applaud. This is the dietary foundation behind my book Rapid Safe Weight Loss (I.Link) which was first published two years prior to the above article being published.)

Somebody stab me in the brain, please!

If you will allow me this slight digression: science is sometimes a bit bi-polar. On one hand we have Golden Calves that everyone bows down to. Today’s Golden Calf is “cholesterol causes heart disease.” The industry makes about 12 billion dollars a year off of this golden calf.

On the other hand, science, in an attempt to be perfectly accurate, tends to be redundant.

From this ongoing study http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01268696, I found the following statement: “The exact mechanisms of the complex pathways of metabolic syndrome are not yet completely known.”

If you Google that sentence, you will find dozens of websites (including Wikipedia) that have published this ongoing research paper verbatim.

It goes onto say:

The pathophysiology is very complex and has been only partially elucidated. Most patients are older, obese, sedentary, and have a degree of insulin resistance. Stress can also be a contributing factor. The most important factors are weight, genetics, endocrine disorders (such as polycystic ovary syndrome in women of reproductive age), aging, and sedentary lifestyle, (i.e., low physical activity and excess caloric intake). [we have removed the references]

Bipolar! We have both Golden Calves and Rigorous Investigation into the obvious.

Golden Calves are subject to collapse. For example, we assumed for years that eating fruit would raise our blood sugar faster than processed carbs (taco chips) or starches (potatoes, rice), but when tested, sure enough, that Golden Calf fell. Another Golden Calf was erected because cancer doesn’t like an alkaline environment, therefore tumors must be acidic. Once tested, it was found that the cores of tumors were actually alkaline.

After the discovery of leptin, it was assumed (another Golden Calf) that obese people were low in leptin. After testing, it was found that they were brimming with leptin, their brains just didn’t know it.

So, why do I call science redundant?

Because it’s as plain as the nose on your face that metabolic syndrome is caused by humans being hunter/gatherers who neither hunt nor gather, eat processed crap filled with chemicals never meant to be inside the human body, and live sedentary lives (as the piece says above).

“It’s as plain as the nose on me face.”

~Stan Laurel

Sure, the exact pathways are unknown, but the average person couldn’t care less. I love science, but I won’t waste a moment of my time reading the conclusions to the studies that will find the exact pathway to metabolic syndrome because we all know why we’re here and how we got here.

So, the answer to: Which came first: the chicken or the egg?

Who cares?

Ultimately it’s the inflammation that is killing us. I don’t care whether my fat cells caused the inflammation or the inflammation caused my fat. It’s the inflammation that is killing me.

We know we must modify our lifestyles or live shorter, low quality lives. We know we have to move our bodies. We know we have to keep our insulin from spiking.

We know (from numerous studies) that once we lower inflammation, all our numbers start to improve: insulin and leptin resistance improves, triglycerides improve, and even cholesterol numbers improve.

So here is my challenge: first read, or print out and put in your kitchen our article on Chronic Inflammation (This article, because of its importance, is constantly being updated).

Additionally, we know from multiple studies that leptin resistance increases with C-Reactive Protein (CRP). Something you’ll see in the article Chronic Inflammation is a product I’ve recently put on my favorites list: Cardia-7. It alone can cut your CRP in half in a very short time. To read about it alone, go here: Cardia-7, the Heart Healthy Anti-Inflammatory. 

Make sure that each meal consists of something anti-inflammatory, and, if you need, start supplementing with anti-inflammatories.

Keep your insulin from spiking, because that seems to start the whole process moving.

Stop outsourcing your meal preparation. Take back your kitchen. Make it the warmest room in the house.

Disease begins on the end of your fork and the path to wellness, wholeness, begins in your kitchen.

Who cares which came first? Get rid of the inflammation and you start to heal. Duh.

Further Reading:

How to Keep Your Blood Sugar From Spiking 

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