Monthly Archives: July 2011

App Inventor is a book written by University of San Francisco computer science professor David Wolber along with the creators of Google’s App Inventor software:

• Hal Abelson, professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT

• Ellen Spertus, professor of computer science at Mills College and Senior Research Scientist at Google

• Liz Looney, Senior Software Engineer at Google

The first part of the book includes step-by-step instructions for building twelve different Android apps using App Inventor. The second part of the book is a reference to app architecture and programming topics. This post has some notes from the book. The book itself has much more information as well as helpful examples.

• App Inventor is a visual programming tool from Google Labs that allows anyone to build apps for Android-based devices. The web-based graphical user interface is used for designing an app’s appearance. The app’s features are created by dragging and dropping blocks that determine the app’s behavior.

• The major aspects of Google App Inventor are:

1. The Component Designer – the place to select components and define properties

2. The Blocks Editor – used to create behaviors for the components

3. Android emulator – used to test the apps that you build

• App Inventor allows you to package the app to be installed on an Android device.

• Some of the user interface components you can add to an app include:

- Button

- Canvas

- Check Box

- Clock

- Database

- Drop down lists

- Image

- Label

- Password Text Box

- Text Box

• Some of the behaviors that can be added to app components are:

- Accessing location information

- Animating images on the screen

- Getting data from web services like Amazon’s API

- Interacting with Google Maps

- Motion sensing

- Sending and receiving text messages

- Sending commands to robots

- Sound effects

- Speaking text aloud using text to speech

- Storing information in a database

- Touch sensitivity

- Using the camera to take a picture

Further information from the inventor’s manual in the back of the book:

• Apps are made up of visible components (user interface elements) and non-visible components (those that provide access to the built-in functionality of the device). The components are defined by properties.

• An app’s behavior defines how it responds to events. As events occur, the app reacts by calling a sequence of functions.

• Event types include: user-initiated events, initialization events, timer events, animation events, and external events.

• Important aspects of good app design include:

- knowing how to solve users’ problems

- building prototypes

- incremental development

- designing before coding

- commenting code

- breaking a problem into smaller parts

- imagining the software in action before building it

• Debugging an App Inventor application can be accomplished by watching variables and testing individual blocks.

• Ways of storing and retrieving information with apps include defining variables, which covers incrementing variables, building expressions, and displaying variables.

• App Inventor includes the ability to specify that some functions are only performed under certain conditions. An app can have branching and looping behavior.

• New functions (known as procedures in App Inventor) can be created and reused to eliminate redundancy in an application.

• App Inventor includes the databases TinyDB (which is used to store data on the Android device) and TinyWebDB (which is used to store data in a web database).

Exposing the Hidden Dangers of Iron is a book by Dr. Eugene Weinberg, Professor Emeritus of Microbiology and Immunology at the School of Medicine at Indiana University Bloomington. The book cites hundreds of scientific studies and Dr. Weinberg himself has written over 350 medical papers. Advertisements that promote foods fortified with iron have given people a false sense of security about iron. In reality, iron can endanger heart health and promote cancer.

Dangers of Iron

• Over time, excess iron accumulates at toxic levels in the heart, liver, endocrine glands, and joints.

• Iron overload contributes to the development of these diseases of the liver/gallbladder/pancreas: cirrhosis, liver cancer, liver infections, gallbladder disease, gallstones, and chronic pancreatitis.

• Iron overload contributes to the development of these diseases of the endocrine system: growth delay, failure to thrive, impotence, bilateral testicular atrophy, amenorrhea, infertility, premature menopause, diabetes, and hypothyroidism.

• Iron overload contributes to the development of these central nervous system conditions: Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, Friedrick’s ataxia, HARP syndrome, stroke, tardive dyskinesia, multiple sclerosis, depression, bipolar disorder, epilepsy, dementia, and memory loss.

• Iron overload contributes to the development of these cardiovascular conditions: cardiomyopathy and myocardial infarction.

• Iron overload contributes to the development of these pulmonary conditions: chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, lung cancer, and tuberculosis.

• Excess iron is connected to these skin/hair/nail conditions: psoriasis, cellulitis, porphyria cutanea tarda, leprosy, sarcomas, hyperpigmentation, premature aging, loss of body hair, premature balding, ichthyosis, platonychia, and koilonychia.

• Excess iron is connected to these ear/nose/throat conditions: periodontal disease, hearing loss, cataracts, retinal neurodegeneration, and age-related macular degeneration.

• Iron overload can lead to arthritis and osteoporosis.

• Elevated iron initiates and promotes cancer cell growth.

• The presence of excessive iron intensifies infections due to bacteria, fungi, and protozoa.

• Iron can interfere with antibiotic treatments.

• Excess iron can lead to the infections that contribute to sudden infant death syndrome.

• Iron supplements account for 30 percent of all pediatric poisoning fatalities.

• Fetal exposure to high maternal iron increases the risk of seizures during the first year of life.

Diagnosing and Treating Iron Overload

• Chronic fatigue is one of the first complaints of patients with iron overload.

• Tests that can determine iron overload include fasting serum iron, total iron binding capacity, serum ferritin, and unbound iron-binding capacity.

• The normal range for transferrin iron saturation percentage is 25-35 percent. Iron overload is present at an elevated transferrin iron saturation percentage greater than 45 percent.

• Other ways to determine iron overload are through magnetic resonance imaging, quantitative phlebotomy, superconducting quantum interference, dynamic infrared imaging, and genetic testing.

• Gallium salts interfere with the ability of cancer cells to use iron and have been used to suppress growth of cells of lymphomas and bladder cancer.

• Male blood donors have significantly lower rates of heart attacks than male nondonors.

• Therapeutic phlebotomy and iron chelation therapy can alleviate conditions associated with iron overload. These techniques should be done under medical supervision rather than trying them on your own.

Preventing Iron Overload

• Methods of preventing iron overload include:

1. eating less red meat

2. avoiding excessive consumption of vitamin C supplements

3. avoiding sugar

4. reducing alcohol consumption

5. avoiding iron-fortified foods

6. avoiding iron supplements

7. eating eggs to inhibit iron absorption

8. drinking tea to inhibit iron absorption

9. using lactoferrin as a natural iron chelator

10. taking baby aspirin on a daily basis

11. engaging in vigorous exercise on a daily basis

12. promptly using antibiotics to treat opportunistic infections

I’m not really convinced that a vegetarian diet is as healthy as eating meat and fish. I discussed some of the reasons in my post about Mark Zuckerberg’s yearly goal to only eat what he kills (Mark Zuckerberg Meets his Meat). Many people are vegetarian for cultural or moral reasons, and I definitely respect that. Environmental events may also lead more people to become vegetarian at some point in the future. Therefore, it’s important to learn from my mistakes to help people do vegetarianism in a healthier way.

I was a vegetarian for around a year in 2004 through part of 2005. I pretty much only ate bread, hummus, tempeh, soy, carrots, and cheese. At the time, I felt really bad and it exacerbated some physical and mental health problems. I think the brain and digestive problems that some vegetarians experience are avoidable as long as they avoid grains and get enough protein – and more importantly, enough saturated fat. Contrary to earlier inaccurate medical beliefs, the brain thrives on saturated fat and cholesterol. Paleolithic nutrition researchers may disagree on some things, but they almost all agree on the health dangers of grains and legumes.

A good vegetarian diet would be based around:

• omega-3 eggs

• heavy cream

• clarified butter

• coconut oil

• macadamia nuts

• green vegetables

• berries

• sweet potatoes

• white rice

This is basically the vegetarian version of the Perfect Health Diet.

After reading and enjoying the Perfect Health Diet book by Dr. Paul Jaminet and Dr. Shou-Ching Jaminet, I skimmed through the full archives of the Perfect Health Diet blog to find additional useful advice. Before I share the notes I took while reading the archives, I wanted to share a couple things to know about this post:

• To save time, I didn’t go through the comments of the posts on their blog, even though the comments have many useful responses written by Paul Jaminet answering reader questions.

• I may have missed some details in the extensive blog posts, so I recommend reading the archives of the Perfect Health Diet blog yourself if you’re interested in health and nutrition.

Now on to the notes and recommendations:

Foods to Eat

• Eat 20% of calories from carbohydrates, 10% from protein, and 70% from fat.

• Eat a variety of vegetables.

• Eat fatty meat and fish to reduce protein intake and increase fat intake.

• Eat safe starches (sweet potato, taro, white rice). Eating safe starches prevents mucin deficiency (which can lead to infections and gastrointestinal cancers).

• Sweet potatoes may (rarely) cause problems for people due to phytoalexins. If that’s the case, yams and rice are better safe starches.

• Eat about 1 pound per week of omega-3 rich fish but don’t take fish oil supplements (which can become oxidized).

• Eat dairy fats (butter or cream) and fermented dairy products.

• Get most fats from saturated and monounsaturated fats.

• Egg yolks, beef liver, and the Perfect Health Diet supplements can lower LDL levels.

• Intermittent fasting and a ketogenic diet with coconut oil can raise HDL levels.

• Adding short-chain fats like coconut oil can make a diet ketogenic without too much carb restriction. Ketogenic fasting with coconut oil is neuroprotective.

• Humans are adapted to safe starches and have eaten them for millions of years.

• Hunter gatherers probably ate a 20% carb, 65% fat, 15% protein micronutrient ratio.

Foods to Avoid

• Avoid cereal grains, sugar, fructose, omega-6-rich vegetable oils, dairy proteins, protein-containing plants and legumes (especially soy).

• Avoid vegetable oils in general. They are particularly dangerous when combined with fructose or alcohol.

• Grain consumption may contribute to the development of lymphoma.

• Grains and Omega-6 fats reduce bone mineral density.

• Wheat leads to leaky gut and autoimmune diseases.

• Wheat is addictive since it stimulates opioid receptors in the brain.

Weight Loss

• A choline-rich diet promotes weight loss.

• If weight loss isn’t working, replace the calorie-rich good fats (butter, coconut oil, cream) of the Perfect Health Diet with eggs instead.

Food Preparation

• Cook plant foods instead of eating them raw.

• Cook with steaming and boiling since higher temperatures generate toxins.

• Cooked white rice is extremely low in toxins.

Supplements and Herbs

• N-acetylcysteine may prevent cancer by preventing angiogenesis.

• Niacin raises HDL levels.

• Oregano has antimicrobial activities in the gut.

• Copper is a beneficial supplement, since copper deficiency can cause elevated LDL and cardiovascular disease.

• Vitamin D improves bone health, enhances muscle function and coordination, and has anticancer effects.

• Vitamin D can treat or prevent high blood pressure, osteoporosis, enlarged prostate, and autism.

• Magnesium helps vitamin D function correctly.

• Vitamin K has anticancer effects.

• Vitamin K2 reduces bone fractures.

• Melatonin improves bone mineralization.

• Choline supplements are recommended for people who are overweight, have elevated blood glucose or lipids, or who have elevated liver enzymes.

• Iodine contributes to cancer prevention and improves immune function.

• Selenium contributes to cancer prevention and improves immune function.

• Vitamin C and N-Acetyl-Cysteine assist in manufacturing glutathione to improve the strength of gut and immune cells.

• Avoid taking calcium supplements.

Lifestyle

• Exercise raises HDL levels.

• Avoid endurance exercise combined with a high carb diet (which may promote cancer due to oxidative stress).

• Ways to improve circadian rhythms and sleep: getting daytime sun exposure, sleeping in a completely dark room, eating during daylight hours, intermittent fasting overnight, eating safe starch carbohydrates during the afternoon

• Follow the Okinawan tradition of hara hachi bu (eating until 80% full).

• Most diseases are either uncorrelated or negatively correlated with cholesterol. The lowest mortality rates are found in countries with average total cholesterol levels between 200 and 240 mg/dl. Mortality rises sharply when cholesterol levels fall below 200 mg/dl (probably since a low total cholesterol level indicates the presence of infectious disease).

Immunology

• Viruses can cause cancers and shorten telomeres.

• Lipoproteins prevent infections, protect against pathogen toxin-induced tissue damage, and trigger antibody formation.

• HDL cholesterol protects against infections and diseases of aging.

• LDL cholesterol inactivates some toxins, including Staphylococcus aureus α-toxin.

• Protein restriction promotes autophagy, which enhances immunity and deprives viruses of sustenance.

• Nearly all diseases – even those thought to be genetic in origin – may actually be caused by infection and bad diet (Ewald hypothesis).

• Pathogens may be evolving from virulent germs that increase mortality, into mild illness-causing germs.

• Freezing fish for two weeks kills the parasites that infect humans.

• Take antibiotics to clear up infections that cause chronic diseases like fibromyalgia, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s.

• Intermittent fasting helps fight bacteria.

Treating Medical Conditions

• Bowel conditions: Melatonin can treat bowel conditions and reduce abdominal pain. These supplements can help promote recovery from bowel disease: polysaccharide and protease digesting enzymes, extracts (blueberry, raspberry, cranberry, blackberry, strawberry), herbs and spices (oregano, basil, rosemary, thyme, turmeric, ginger, kale), vinegar, citric acid, whey, and N-acetylcysteine. The following therapies can also help a person recover from bowel conditions: chelation therapy, reducing calcium intake, and fecal transplants.

• Constipation: Antioxidants, magnesium citrate, and high-fat diets can treat constipation.

• Dry eyes: Eating good starches can help prevent and treat dry eyes.

• Infections: Take vitamin C, vitamin D, iodine, selenium, iron, N-acetylcysteine, zinc, and copper to fight infections.

• Migraines: Ketogenic fasting can treat migraines. Magnesium and riboflavin can also be helpful for treating migraines.

• Multiple Sclerosis: To treat multiple sclerosis, follow the Perfect Health and take the Perfect Health Diet supplements for 3 to 4 months and then start antibiotics (specifically the Vanderbilt protocol).

• Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation: The ketogenic diet is a potential treatment for NBIA.

• Neurological problems: The ketogenic diet is useful for treating neurological problems (migraine, depression, seizures, brain cancer, neuropathy, brain infections).

• Thyroid conditions: Taking iodine along with selenium supplements (or seaweed and Brazil nuts) can improve thyroid health.

• Wounds: Vitamin K2, vitamin D, vitamin C, and magnesium accelerate healing of wounds and injuries.

Perfect Health Diet is a book written by two scientists who combed through massive amounts of scientific research. Their goal was to find a diet that would heal their medical problems and optimize health and longevity.

The two authors are:

• Dr. Paul Jaminet: an astrophysicist who worked at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and who is currently a management consultant

• Dr. Shou-Ching Jaminet: a molecular biologist and cancer researcher at Harvard Medical School

Perfect Health Diet is one of the most extensively researched books ever written about nutrition. It has over 600 research citations, with many of them referencing articles in nutrition journals and medical databases. The book is also suitable for a wide audience. Readers who want quick answers can skim certain sections and come away with actionable steps that are easy to implement. Scientists and physicians and nutrition hobbyists can dig into further technical information provided in other sections. I definitely recommend buying the book. More information on the contents of the book is at this page on the Perfect Health Diet blog: Buy Our Book

Here are some of my notes on what the book covers:

• Most diseases and forms of ill health are caused by food toxins, malnourishment, and chronic infections.

• By calories, the Perfect Health Diet is made up of 20% carbohydrates, 65% fat, and 15% protein. By weight, the diet is about 65% plant foods and 35% meats and oils.

• 20% of calories (about 1.5 lbs per day) in the Perfect Health Diet comes from safe starches like sweet potatoes, white rice, and berries. Also, feel free to eat as many vegetables as you want, but don’t count calories from them. 80% of calories (about 1 lb per day) comes from healthy fat (fatty meat, seafood, eggs) and around 4 tablespoons of healthy oils and fats.

• Foods to eat: starchy tubers, white rice, fruits, berries, vegetables, seaweed, fatty meats, seafood, eggs, butter, cream, ice cream, sour cream, lard, tallow, coconut oil, olive oil, nuts, cheeses, yogurt, and spices.

• Foods to avoid: grains and cereals (wheat, oats, corn, other grains, bread, pasta), sugar, corn syrup, soda, candy, legumes (soybeans, kidney beans, pinto beans, peanuts), omega-6-rich vegetable seed oils (soybean oil, corn oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, canola oil), pasteurized milk, and dry lean meats

• Supplements to take: multivitamin, vitamin C, vitamin D3, vitamin K2, magnesium, selenium, iodine, copper, and chromium

• Practice intermittent fasting through strategies like restricting eating to an eight hour time period each day, or through occasional ketogenic fasting by eating lots of coconut oil while temporarily avoiding carbs and protein.

• The Perfect Health Diet prevents and may even cure diseases like heart disease, cancer, dementia, autoimmune diseases, fatigue, acid reflux, graying hair, etc.

• Hunter gatherers ate diets consisting of 5% to 35% carbohydrate, 50% to 70% fat, and 15% to 25% protein.

• Mother’s milk is a complete food for infants, and it has a ratio by calories of 39% carbs, 54% fat, and 7% protein.

• Mice that were designed to develop diabetes became highly resistant to the disease when they ate a diet consisting of 5.6% carbohydrates, 82.5% fat, and 12.0% protein.

• The Perfect Health Diet optimizes bodily nutrition, minimizes stress on the gut and liver, and is robust against dietary failure by providing redundant sources of nutrients.

• The Perfect Health Diet minimizes the risk of glucose deprivation, keeps blood glucose levels low, manufactures ketones that nourish neurons and protect against glucose deficiency, and limits toxins.

• Ketogenic diets are potential treatments for epilepsy, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, psychoses, migraines, solid tumor cancers, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, obesity, bacterial infections, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, and neuropathies.

• To make the diet ketogenic, eat about 200 calories from safe starches like sweet potato and the rest of the calories from coconut oil.

• A long-term ketogenic diet is only recommended as a treatment for certain diseases. For healthy people, occasional days of ketogenic fasts are helpful.

• Adding 26 pounds of muscle per year requires only 5 grams (20 calories) of protein per day. Controlled trials have not found any additional muscle gain from higher protein consumption.

• Whey protein contains branched chain amino acids, which increase muscle growth and help heal the gut.

• Too much protein intake can lead to ammonia poisoning.

• In animal studies, restricting protein leads to longer lifespans.

• Most cells prefer fats over glucose for energy, since fats burn cleanly while glucose produces reactive oxygen species that can damage cells.

• Eating a purely carnivorous diet can lead to stress on the liver, toxicity, reduced longevity, risk of glucose deprivation, dry eyes, and gastrointestinal cancers.

• To avoid glucose deprivation, it’s important to eat at least 200 carb calories per day, eat at least 600 calories per day of carbs and protein, and include coconut oil and fiber in the diet.

• It’s important to keep glucose consumption in a sweet spot near the body’s glucose needs, as carb consumption above those needs can lead to hyperglycemia and hyperinsulinemia.

• Hyperglycemia can lead to nerve damage, organ damage, bacterial infections, cancer progression, and increased mortality.

• For a good lipid profile, keep dietary carbs below 600 calories per day.

• The optimal fatty acid ratios are 10% of fat calories (6.5% of total calories) from short-chain fatty acids, 75-80% of fat calories (50% of total calories) from long-chain saturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids, and 10-15% of fat calories (7-10% of total calories) from omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.

• An excess of omega-6 fatty acids is linked to heart disease, cancer, stroke, obesity, inflammation, immune system suppression, mental illness, arthritis, asthma, headaches, menstrual cramps. osteoporosis, allergies, ulcerative colitis, and increased mortality.

• Some ways to bring PUFA levels near the optimum are: avoiding vegetable seed oils and foods prepared with them, eating meats low in omega-6 (like beef and lamb), and eating about a pound of salmon a week to balance omega-3 and omega-6 tissue levels.

• In animal studies, omega-6 PUFA lead to negative health effects, whereas saturated fats have beneficial health effects since they are immune to the oxidizing effect of sugars.

• High omega-3 intake (such as 6.5 g/day or 5 lbs of salmon per week) may increase the risk of hemorrhagic stroke. Intakes less than 3 g/day are safe.

• Fish oil capsules don’t prevent cardiac death, but fish consumption is preventive. Fish oil capsules can easily become rancid.

• Saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids are nontoxic and safe in large amounts.

• High dietary intake of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids reduces the risk of heart disease, increases muscle mass, and increases body temperature (which is useful for fighting infections).

• A high intake of saturated and monounsaturated fat leads to muscle gain by increasing testosterone levels, inhibiting muscle breakdown, and promoting the release of growth hormone.

• Short-chain fats like coconut oil protect the brain, protect against cancer, have antimicrobial properties, improve blood lipids, and promote weight loss.

• Blueberries reduce pathogenic bacteria while increasing probiotic bacteria. Blueberry husks with probiotics increase butyrate levels in the blood. Starches (potato, taro, white rice, sago) as well as squashes and stalk vegetables may also generate butyrate. Butyrate prevents obesity, heals the intestine, improves gut barrier integrity, relieves constipation, helps prevent colon cancer, delays neurodegeneration, improves cardiovascular health, stabilizes blood glucose levels, reduces inflammation, and promotes tissue healing.

• People with damaged guts might benefit from limiting fiber.

• Combine starches with fats in a ratio of one-third carbs to two-thirds fats.

• Make sure meat is fatty and moist instead of lean and dry. Lean meats should be combined with a fatty food.

• Eat two to three times as much plant food (as measured by weight) in relation to meat.

• Carb calories (about 300 per day) should be from safe starches like taro, sweet potatoes, yams, potatoes, white rice, white rice noodles, or white rice crackers.

• Avoid commercial foods until food producers start using healthier cooking oils.

• Raspberries, papaya, banana, and strawberries have a high potassium to fructose ratio (which indicates a healthy fruit or berry).

• Spices and salt are beneficial, but extremely hot spices can damage the digestive tract.

• Grass-fed meat, eggs from grass-fed chickens, and wild fish have lower omega-6 levels.

• Macadamia nuts have the lowest omega-6 content out of all tree nuts.

• All plants have toxins, so it is safer to eat small quantities from a wide variety of plants rather than large amounts of a single species.

• Cereal grains impair digestion, lead to inflammation, trigger autoimmune diseases, make the body susceptible to infectious diseases, damage heart tissue, promote cancer, cause neuropathy, cause rickets, lead to acid reflux, promote kidney disease, lead to stomach ulcers, increase the likelihood of a heart attack, and increase mortality.

• Wheat has opioids that cause tumor cells to multiply, cause schizophrenia, and feminize male bodies.

• Legumes have negative digestive effects including leaky gut, bad digestion, diarrhea, and bloating. Legumes also cause stunted growth, organ dysfunction, heart disease, tendon damage, and allergies.

• Vegetable oils lead to cardiovascular disease, liver damage, and immune system dysfunction.

• Fructose interacts with polyunsaturated fats to generate toxins, so fruit should be eaten on an empty stomach between meals and eaten only with cream or coconut oil. Breakfast may be the safest time to eat fruit due to the overnight fast and glycogen depletion.

• High fructose corn syrup and sugar lead to DNA damage, faster aging, stiff joints, aged skin, high blood pressure, heart attacks, bad lipid profiles, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, pancreatitis, obesity, impaired memory, organ damage, bacterial infections, cirrhosis, fetal insulin resistance, gout, and kidney disease.

• Avoid sugar-cured meats, which have advanced glycation endproducts. Uncured bacon is fine.

• People who have arthritis may benefit from avoiding nightshades (eggplant, tomato, peppers, and potato).

• Potatoes should be kept continuously in a cool dark environment.

• It’s safest to cook meats a lower temperatures, which prevents the formation of toxic compounds.

• Good drinks are tea, coffee, water, cream, and wine.

• The Perfect Health Diet is very similar to the traditional Pacific islander diet. Pacific islanders such as Okinawans, Kitavans, and Hawai’ians who ate the traditional diet had exceptional health and life expectancy.

• Supplements are useful, since modern people are malnourished (due to sedentary lifestyles, nutrient-poor modern foods, food production, modern cooking, and antinutrients). Even paleolithic humans may have been malnourished.

• Malnourishment leads to reduced health and lower IQ among offspring of malnourished parents.

• Multivitamins are useful, but only if vitamin D and vitamin K2 status is optimized.

• Vitamin D reduces the incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, diabetes, intracellular pathogens, dementia, multiple sclerosis, and mortality from all causes. 3,000 to 5,000 IU of vitamin D (from both sun and supplements) is a good amount. 25OHD levels should be around 40 ng/ml.

• Vitamin K2 helps prevent hemorrhage, fractures, atherosclerosis, joint disease, cancer, cognitive decline, and vitamin D toxicity. 100 mcg of vitamin K2 per day is a good recommended amount.

• Selenium and iodine promote thyroid health, improve immune function, and help prevent cancer. Iodine intake should start at 1 mg/day or less and be upped gradually to give the thyroid time to adapt. To prevent selenium toxicity, 200 mcg/day is the recommended amount.

• Magnesium leads to significant reductions in cardiovascular mortality and improves immune function. A good magnesium intake is 400 mg/day to 800 mg/day.

• Eating a quarter-pound of beef or lamb liver per week provides enough copper, which most people are deficient in.

• Chromium improves immune function and helps prevent cardiovascular disease. 200 mcg/day of chromium is safe and beneficial.

• Vitamin C decreases mortality from all causes and increases lifespan. Vitamin C supplements in the range of 500 mg to 1 g per day are beneficial.

• Some supplements to avoid are vitamin A, calcium, zinc, niacin, vitamin E, folic acid, and fish oil capsules.

• There are thousands of toxins and hundreds of pathogens which can cause diseases. It may be important to take antibiotics to cure chronic diseases.

• Pathogens are associated with atherosclerosis, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, mood disorders, cancer, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, rosacea, and other diseases.

• The Perfect Health Diet and supplements provide support to important immune system components and actions such as antimicrobial peptides, respiratory bursts, autophagy, and protein restriction.

• Ketogenic fasts with coconut oil promote autophagy, which is very effective in fighting pathogens.

• Melatonin promotes muscle growth, kills tumor cells, protects against infections, and is effective in treating some diseases (irritable bowel syndrome, high blood pressure, macular degeneration, glaucoma, and diabetes).

• Exercise and diaphragmatic breathing are effective for reducing stress and strengthening immune function by lowering cortisol levels.

• Ways to lose weight: eliminating omega-6 oils, cutting fructose intake, giving up wheat and other cereal grains, normalizing thyroid function (with iodine, selenium, and vitamin D supplements), eating nutrient-rich foods, and having intermittent fasts

• Ways to accelerate weight loss: spending time in cold temperatures, spending more time on your feet, exercising at high intensity twice a week, eating coconut oil, getting a good night’s sleep, drinking lots of water, and getting a fecal transplant from a slender person if necessary

• People who have lifespans of greater than 110 years tend to follow high fat/low-carb diets, calorie restriction, and intermittent fasting.

I’m one of the resident candymen in my office. Many offices have a candyman (or candywoman) who has a bowl of candy on his or her desk to share with other employees. I started bringing candy to work a few years ago to share it with other people as an expression of enthusiasm and camaraderie. Now there are multiple people who share candy at my workplace. I wanted to share candy with others because it had brought so much joy to me. Candy was a big part of my youth, as it was used to signify love and friendship. Unfortunately, I also had childhood obesity and mood problems, which were mostly due to a high intake of sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

I knew very little about nutrition when I was a child, and still not very much even a year ago. I’m frequently learning new things about nutrition and challenging my longstanding assumptions. I used to think sugar was mostly harmless. Then I realized it was bad. Now I realize that it’s absolutely terrible. There are still some studies that show mild health improvements from chocolate consumption. Those benefits are due to the cocoa and not the sugar. Small amounts of dark chocolate may lower high blood pressure and deliver antioxidant benefits, just as small amounts of alcohol may promote longevity. Some people may still be allergic to chocolate, and even small amounts of dark chocolate can still cause problems for some people.

Sucrose and fructose still aren’t benign. These substances have toxic effects. They damage DNA, promote aging, and cause heart disease. That barely scratches the surface. Dr. Robert Lustig’s video presentation on sugar (Sugar: The Bitter Truth) has become an internet phenomenon for good reason. He uses his extensive knowledge of endocrinology to describe the dangers of sugar in detail.

I’m still not sure how to help people taper off. Giving people something for a while (like candy) and then abruptly taking it away is a fast way to generate animosity. I’m open to suggestions regarding the best ways of helping people detox from sugar.

Several months ago I wrote a post titled Stem Cells for Height, which outlined the possibility of someday increasing height through advances in biotechnology. I was recently contacted by someone who was offered the opportunity to increase their height by having stem cells injected into their bones at a clinic in China using a machine from South Korea. The procedure promised a height increase of up to 30 cm in adults! It would be nice if this technique worked, but I remain skeptical. The last time I checked, the website for this clinic had gone offline, so maybe it’s too good to true.

Articles like this are why I’m fairly skeptical of stem cell treatments that aren’t FDA-approved:

• Health Experts Warn of ‘stem cell tourism’ dangers

Regenerative medicine researchers say that patients could lose their money and have no recourse to get a refund. Patients might even get cancer from unrestrained stem cells. There still may be the possibility that stem cell clinics in China will develop successful treatments while American stem cell research proceeds at a slower pace due to FDA regulations. I’m not really sure what the right answer is. The regenerative medicine professors are skeptical of places like Beike Biotech, but that company seems to be conducting legitimate research (though admittedly I haven’t read their published papers):

• Beike Biotech Featured Publications

Legitimate stem cell therapies are still a major component of the future of medicine. Two major companies in America that are conducting clinical trials of stem cells are Geron and Advanced Cell Technology. Geron is conducting a trial of stem cells to heal spinal damage and Advanced Cell Technology is conducting experiments using stem cells to treat eye problems like macular degeneration. Bone marrow stem cells are also used to treat cancer. I know that other researchers are working on creating stem cell treatments to heal the heart muscle. Researchers have also successfully used tissue engineering to create new bladders and tracheas for patients. Anthony Atala of Wake Forest University has grown a kidney using tissue printing, but printed kidneys are still years away from being given to human patients.

Mesenchymal stem cells are also being used for bone healing in experiments, though I haven’t heard anything about being able to use them for the purposes of increasing height. Here’s a story about accelerating the healing of injured bones:

• Bone Growth Accelerated with Nanotubes and Stem Cells

Thousands of clinical trials using stem cells are being conducted or have been conducted. This is a list of clinical trials in the USA that are testing stem cell treatments:

• Stem cell clinical trial search results on ClinicalTrials.gov

As for increasing height using stem cells, I wish it was true. There are legitimate stem cell treatments out there, but unfortunately I’m not familiar with any that can increase adult height.

Updated 4/21/2013

The Wall Street Journal Guide to the 50 Economic Indicators that Really Matter is a new book that discusses the role of economic indicators in forecasting the economy and predicting economic performance. It’s written by:

Simon Constable: a journalist for the Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, and Barrons

Robert Wright: a professor of political economy at Augustana College

The book has endorsements from James Altucher and Nouriel Roubini, who each have very different takes on the economy. Bulls and bears can both enjoy this book. I’m not sure if the book can help traders make money in a world where they’re up against superhuman trading algorithms. In fact, the authors themselves even say something along similar lines. They recommend using this information for longer-term strategies. The book is also a fun read and a good guide to understanding the economic indicators that get discussed on finance news sites.

The book lists economic indicators in the following categories: consumption, investment, government, net exports, multiple GDP components, and inflation/fear/uncertainty. I was most interested in learning about leading economic indicators, so I have categorized the economic indicators as follows:

Leading:

• Baltic Dry Index

• Big Mac Index

• Book-to-Bill Ratio

• CBOE Volatility Index

• Consumer Sentiment

• Copper Price

• Crack Spread

• Credit Availability Oscillator

• Credit Spreads

• Current Account Deficit

• Durable Goods Orders

• Existing Home Sales

• Federal Funds Rate

• Fertility Rates

• Gold Price

• Housing Permits and Starts

• ISM Manufacturing Survey

• ISM Non-Manufacturing Survey

• JoC-ECRI Industrial Price Index

• LIBOR

• London Metal Exchange Inventories

• M2 Money Supply

• New Home Sales

• Oil Inventories

• Philadelphia Federal Reserve Business Outlook Survey

• Real Interest Rates

• Russell 2000

• Short Interest

• Tankan Survey

• TED Spread

• Texas Ratio AKA Zombie Bank Ratio

• TIC Data

• TIPS Spread

• Weekly Leading Index

• Yield Curve

Leading and More:

• Automobile Sales (leading into recessions, coincident with lagging recoveries)

• Federal Government Budget Deficits and the National Debt (coincident to leading)

• Industrial Production and Capacity Utilization (leading, coincident)

• Misery Index (coincident to leading)

• Producer Price Index (leading into recessions, coincident into expansions)

• Retail Investment Activity (leading into recessions, lagging during recoveries)

• Underemployment (leading recession, lagging recovery)

Coincident:

• Aruoba-Diebold-Scotti Business Conditions Index

• Beige Book

• Chain Store Sales

• GDP Deflator

• GDP Per Capita

• Personal Savings Rate

• Unit Labor Costs

The book has much more information on each economic indicator. Each indicator has a list of facts about it in these categories:

• When to look

• Where to look

• What to watch for

• What it means

• What to do

• Risk level

• Profit possibility

For finding information on nearly every indicator, the authors recommend the Wall Street Journal’s Market Data Center.

In his book 59 Seconds, psychology professor Richard Wiseman compiled information from many different psychology studies to create a scientific self-help book. This book is designed to be evidence-based and use techniques validated by scientific research. Many of the recommendations can be accomplished in less than a minute, hence the title of the book.

The following list has some of my favorite recommendations. The book has citations for the scientific studies it references.

• Feeling in control of your life increases psychological and physical health.

• Suppressing negative thoughts doesn’t work. Instead, a better temporary option is to distract yourself with something fun.

• Privately writing down thoughts and feelings about a traumatic event that you experienced leads to major boosts in psychological and physical health.

• Writing down things that you are grateful for is a way of increasing happiness.

• Thinking about your best possible future, writing about the most wonderful experience in your life, and writing about someone you love also lead to increases in happiness.

• Paying for experiences gives people more happiness than buying products.

• People who spend a greater percentage of their income on others are happier than people who spend all their money on themselves.

• Carrying out five nonfinancial acts of kindness on a single day also increases happiness.

• Maintaining a smile for 15 to 30 seconds leads to happiness.

• Men who sit upright become happier than those who slouch.

• Body language strategies to increase happiness include: relaxed walking, swinging your arms more, having a spring in your step, making more expressive hand gestures during conversations, nodding your head, having a firmer handshake, and wearing colorful clothing

• Language strategies to increase happiness include: using more words that represent positive emotions, referring to yourself less often, varying the pitch of your voice, speaking a little faster

• When trying to motivate people to do something they don’t want to do, offer a realistic (but not excessive) reward and follow the activity with praise.

• Ways to succeed in job interviews include talking about topics that are of great interest to the interviewer, smiling, maintaining eye contact, praising the organization, not overreacting to mistakes, and being open about your weaknesses early on in the interview.

• Sitting in the middle of a group leads to a more positive impression of you in the minds of others.

• Companies with simple names outperform those with awkward names.

• When writing, the use of simpler language makes you seem more intelligent.

• Asking for small favors is a way to increase your likeability in the minds of others.

• People who are at risk of being seen as too perfect will benefit from deliberately making occasional mistakes.

• The principle of trait transference means that when you say positive things about people who aren’t present, people involved in the conversation will see you as more likeable.

• People are more likely to agree with you after they have already said something positive.

• People are more easily persuaded during a meal or when drinking caffeinated drinks.

• Rhyming phrases are seen as more accurate.

• Emphasizing similarities between you and another person is a good way to get them to like you.

• Humor makes people more generous.

• To increase the chances of getting help from people, talk to them individually instead of in a group setting.

• Seemingly spontaneous small favors can elicit positive reciprocation.

• Effective techniques for achieving goals include making a step-by-step plan with concrete and measurable steps, telling other people about your goal, reminding yourself about the benefits of achieving your goal, rewarding yourself for making progress toward your goal, and recording your progress by taking notes.

• A way to fight procrastination is to decide to work on a task for just a few minutes.

• Visualizing a process (rather than an outcome) from a third-person perspective is a more effective way to achieve goals.

• To increase the odds of achieving a goal, describe potential benefits and setbacks right after each other (writing down ways you will benefit from achieving a goal, then barriers to achieving the goal, and repeating the process a couple of times).

• Some ways to trick yourself into eating less are by eating at a normal speed at the beginning of a meal and then switching to eating slower, hiding food, reducing distractions while eating, using smaller plates, and keeping a food diary.

• A way of improving creativity comes from working on a problem for a short amount of time, then working on a mentally challenging task, and then coming back to the original problem.

• Being around plants make people happier, healthier, and more creative.

• Some ways of increasing creativity include pulling on something (as opposed to pushing something away) and resting your hands on your things (as opposed to folding your arms).

• Subtle mimicry increases the probability that another person will find you attractive.

• In general, women value courage and a willingness to take risks over kindness and altruism in male partners.

• Gazing into another person’s eyes induces attraction.

• Describing the benefits that come from a negative experience is a way to reduce anger and stress about that experience.

• Techniques to reduce stress include praying for others, listening to classical music, spending time outside, and using humor.

• Dog ownership reduces stress and promotes longevity.

• People are more likely to agree to a big request if they have already agreed to a small request.

• Working on a difficult task between being exposed to a decision problem and making the decision leads to a greater sense of satisfaction with the decision.

• People end up regretting the things they didn’t do much more often than the things they did do.

• To deal with regrets, think of three benefits of your current situation and three potential negative outcomes of choosing a different course of action.

• People who lie tend to move around less, repeat the same phrases more often, provide shorter and less detailed answers, take longer before starting to answer a question, hesitate more, using impersonal language, and switching topics more often.

• People most often lie during phone calls and are least likely to lie over e-mail.

• The five personality traits that define most of an individual’s personality are openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, and neuroticism. These traits are each measured on a continuum and tend to remain unchanged throughout a person’s life.

Just Listen is a book by Dr. Mark Goulston, a psychiatrist and the author of multiple books on overcoming self-defeating habits and becoming more effective in social situations. His new book shares important information about improving communication skills. Dr. Goulston has trained executives at major companies as well as hostage negotiators. The book is awesome. It starts off like an action movie, with a shotgun-wielding man facing off against a SWAT team. The hostage negotiator in the story uses strategies from the book to calm down the gunman.

Here are some of the strategies discussed in the book:

• During a stressful time, the act of identifying your emotions will inhibit emotional responses so you can think in more reasonable ways.

• Overcome subconscious filters that cause you to generate inaccurate stereotypes about people based on gender, age, ethnicity, education level, and emotional expression. It’s more important to think about events in a person’s life that are more accurate in terms of identifying and predicting behavior.

• Some strategies for helping a person feel understood include: asking what the person is feeling, asking to what degree they are feeling that emotion, asking why the person is feeling that emotion, asking what needs to happen to make them feel better, and asking how you can help.

• Try spending more time showing sincere interest in other people instead of constantly attempting to come up with witty and impressive things to say. Think of a conversation as a detective game where your goal is to learn as much as you can about the other person.

• Sample questions to ask in business: How did you get starting doing what you do (and what do you like best about it)? What are you trying to accomplish (and why is that important)?

• Sample questions to ask in personal relationships: What person has had the biggest influence on your life? Who are you most grateful to? If you imagine your life is perfect, what do you see?

• When a person responds to questions, ask follow-up questions and summarize what they said.

• Give people the opportunity to feel important.

• Give people time to vent and don’t interrupt them while they’re venting. When they’re done, pause and say “Tell me more.”

• Be honest about making a mistake, or even better – reach out for help before you mess up.

• Sharing information about your weaknesses and failures is a good way to create empathy between people.

• Eliminate toxic people like pathologically needy people, bullies, takers, narcissists, and psychopaths from your life.

• When a bully tries to intimidate you: make eye contact, act polite yet bored, and even bully them back (but only if you have a backup plan).

• To shift someone from a defensive attitude to an open attitude, ask “What’s something that’s impossible?” and then “What would make it possible?”

• When someone is having trouble, empathize with the negative thoughts and feelings they are experiencing by acknowledging how difficult their life is.

• Put yourself in another person’s shoes and ask “How would I feel if I were him or her right now?”

• A way to calm down angry people is to keep them talking via saying things like “Tell me more…”

• To deal with weaknesses, address them up front by: quickly describing the problem, explaining how to handle it, and then moving on to the next topic.

• Ask people questions that let them think creatively and express their intelligence. These are questions that show you’re interested in a person’s ideas and supportive of their life and goals.

• Working with people on a cooperative activity is a way to get them to lower their guard and open up to you. Make sure you don’t abuse their trust. Avoid things like searching for negative information or arguing with them.

• Ask people questions that invite them to fill in the blanks, rather than questions that put them on the spot.

• In business situations, keep pushing for what you want until you reach the point where the other party tells you “no.”

• The Power Thank You:

1. Thank a person for something specific.

2. Acknowledge the effort that went into their action.

3. Tell the person the personal impact on your life and the difference that it made.

• The Power Apology:

1. Express sincere remorse and allow the other person to vent.

2. Find a way to make amends to them.

3. Show that you’ve learned your lesson through the actions you take from that point on.

4. Request forgiveness at a later date.