Monthly Archives: January 2012

I’m a fairly slim guy, so why do I keep reading diet books? I honestly don’t care what other people weigh. I’m not disgusted by obese people or think they’re less human in any way. I don’t make fun of people with weight problems. Some people’s unconscious brains think that obese individuals are infected with pathogens, but that’s a evolutionary relic. A person’s weight doesn’t matter nearly as much as their level of kindness and intelligence. I was a former fat kid myself and have no conscious stigma towards overweight or obese people.

I write about this material to help people like my former self. I used to be overweight and nearly obese as a child and adolescent. That led to physical problems, mood problems, and social problems. After reading about nutrition, I can clearly see that the weight gain resulted from sugar, fruit juice, grains, high fructose corn syrup, and trans fats. Knowing what I know now about nutrition could have helped me avoid the problems I experienced growing up. I’m also interested in researching nearly all areas of medicine as a hobby, and bariatric (weight loss) medicine is particularly interesting.

Many people also want useful information about nutrition and health. The obesity rate and incidence of diabetes continue to rise in many countries. Both obesity and diabetes can lead to severe health problems. Many people have an interest in evidence-based weight loss and I want to provide them with useful information. Interestingly, people aren’t really responsible for whether they’re slim or obese, since free will probably doesn’t exist (see my post The End of Free Will). Genetic and environmental influences determine an individual’s weight. Trying to shame people into losing weight via tough love won’t work, since the principle of psychological reactance will then lead people to overeat as a way of exerting their independence. A better strategy is to inform people in a non-confrontational way that provides them with science-based tips and tricks for weight loss that readers can easily follow. Exposure to this information will help with the environment side of the gene-environment interactions that determine human behavior.

The Chemistry of Calm is a book written by psychiatrist Dr. Henry Emmons. It describes natural ways of treating anxiety disorders. Some of the information is based on the author’s experiences in treating patients and following spiritual practices. The author also references scientific studies that validate natural treatments for anxiety. In this post I focus on the material from the book that cites scientific research (studies are listed in the back of the book).

• Sugar and refined carbohydrates lead to excess insulin production. Excess insulin is associated with anxiety, depression, and insomnia.

• In one study, subjects who viewed trauma on film were less likely to develop flashbacks if they played Tetris half an hour after seeing the trauma.

• The omega-3/omega-6 imbalance leads to an inflammatory response that has negative effects on brain function.

• Exercise can reduce sensitivity to panic attacks. Exercise also protects cells from oxidation, helps normalize blood sugar, reverses metabolic syndrome, decreases inflammation, treats depression, promotes brain cell survival, and helps normalize cortisol levels.

• Deep abdominal breathing induces relaxation and improves performance.

• Practicing compassion meditation or mindfulness meditation leads to greater activation in the left prefrontal cortex, which is associated with feelings of calmness and well-being.

• A study of OCD patients at UCLA found that mindfulness meditation reduced their symptoms.

• Brain scans of post-traumatic stress disorder patients found that mindfulness meditation helped study participants reduce amygdala activity.

• Exercise, social connection, blueberries, and omega-3 fatty acids lead to greater BDNF production. This in turn improves mood.

Supplements:

• 5-HTP – reduces anxiety and improves mood (but don’t take it if you are already taking a SSRI medication)

• Acetyl L-carnitine – enhances mitochondrial production of ATP

• Alpha-lipoic acid – helps energy production and improves glucose metabolism

• B Complex – influences methylation in a way that suppresses the production of cortisol

• Chromium picolinate – improves insulin function and reduces carbohydrate cravings

• Coenzyme Q10 – improves mitochondrial energy production

• D-ribose – reduces oxidative stress

• DHEA – boosts serotonin function, reduces cortisol, and improves mood (but don’t take it if you have a tumor or are at risk for cancer)

• Fish oil – reduces inflammation and reduces insulin resistance

• GABA – relaxes the brain and boosts immune function in people subjected to stress

• Ginger – reduces inflammation

• Ginkgo Biloba – protects against the memory loss that results from prolonged exposure to cortisol

• Glucomannan – reduces insulin surges after meals

• Green tea extract – reduces inflammation

• Inositol – is as helpful as antidepressants for treating panic disorder

• L-theanine – sharpens mental focus while reducing anxiety at the same time

• Magnesium – protects nerve cells from the excitotoxic effects of glutamate

• N-acetylcysteine – helps treat trichotillomania and may treat OCD

• Passionflower – may be as effective as benzodiazepines for treating anxiety

• Pycnogenol – regulates blood sugar and reduces inflammation

• Rhodiola – reduces anxiety

• St. John’s Wort – treatment for generalized anxiety and OCD

• Taurine – increases glycine and GABA to calm the brain

• Turmeric – products brain cells from stress and injury

• Valerian – reduces anxiety and improves sleep

• Vitamin D – helps in the production of serotonin and protects nerve cells from excess glutamate

• Zinc – may make serotonin more effective

Know Your Chances is a book about medical statistics. The book is written by three physicians:

Dr. Steven Woloshin

Dr. Lisa Schwartz

Dr. H Gilbert Welch

All of the authors are professors of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. The book is an excellent introduction to understanding health information and the results of medical studies.

Here are some notes from the book:

• When you hear about the number of people with a disease, it’s important to ask: “Out of how many?”

• Be clear about how many people actually experience an outcome and how many people could possible experience the outcome.

• Time frame is also important. Ask yourself, “Over how long a time does this risk happen?”

• Determine whether a certain risk is actually the risk of developing a symptom, getting a disease, or dying from it.

• Reframe a risk message, such as looking at the message from the opposite perspective.

• Statistics about risk are most helpful when they are based on people who are similar to you, especially in terms of age and sex.

• Compare a risk to other risks to develop a sense of how big or small they are by comparison.

• It’s important to know the absolute risk (the number of people who die from a certain disease) rather than the percentage risk.

• Any treatment that reduces death from a major cause such as heart attack (even by a small amount) is probably worth considering.

• People who start at a high risk for a certain problem tend to gain much more from taking action than people who start at at low risk.

• Compare the chance of experiencing an outcome if you don’t take a certain action to the chance if you do take the action.

• Outcomes ranked from least important to most important are:

1. Better test results

2. Fewer symptoms of disease

3. Fewer deaths from disease

• Possible reasons that surrogate outcomes may not lead to beneficial changes in patient outcomes include:

1. The link between the surrogate outcome and the patient outcome is weak.

2. The treatment that improves the surrogate outcome may affect the body in many ways.

3. The surrogate outcome may not be the actual cause of the patient outcome.

• If you hear about a medical intervention that improves a surrogate outcome, ask this question: “Has the intervention also been shown to have a beneficial effect on what people experience or feel?”

• The most effective test of a treatment is a randomized trial.

• Consider side effects in two categories: symptom side effects and life-threatening side effects.

• The measure “death from all causes combined” is a very useful statistic.

• Ways of deciding whether to take an action or not:

1. If an action doesn’t have important downsides and doesn’t have an important benefit, then consider taking the action.

2. If the action doesn’t have important downsides and has an important benefit, then take the action.

3. If the action has important downsides and doesn’t have an important benefit, then don’t take the action.

4. If the action has important downsides and has an important benefit, then consider taking the action.

• Only about one-third of treatment proven helpful in animals have turned out to be helpful in people.

• Without a control group, it’s impossible to know whether the intervention really accounts for the study findings.

• Evidence ranked from least believability to most believability:

1. Observational Study: Series of patients with know comparison group

2. Observational Study: Series of patients with comparison group

3. Observational Study: Single randomized trial

4. Observational Study: Multiple randomized trials

• Be cautious of studies that are preliminary and have not gone through peer review.

• Most serious problems with new drugs emerge within 5 years of FDA approval, so it might be wise to stick with drugs that have been around for at least 5 years rather than going with a new one.

• Be skeptical of researchers who have conflicts of interest and who stand to benefit financially from a certain outcome.

• Some common ways of skewing study results:

1. Comparing a product to a placebo rather than to another drug that treats the same problem

2. Comparing a product to the weakest drug that treats the same problem or using the other drug at a low dose

3. Measuring less important surrogate outcomes

4. Selectively publishing only the studies with the most favorable results

5. Selectively reporting only favorable outcomes in medical journal articles or prescription drug labels

6. Using unrepresentative patient anecdotes

7. Failing to provide any numbers related to outcomes

8. Providing only the relative change in outcomes

9. Exaggerating the good aspects of the product and minimizing the bad aspects

10. Scaring people into adopting the intervention

11. Shaming people into adopting the intervention

The Healthy Skeptic is a book written by Dr. Robert J. Davis, a health journalist who also teaches at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. The book describes ways of cutting through the misinformation that appears in health news.

Here are some notes that I took on the book’s advice for evaluating health news:

• Epidemiological studies are typically observational studies, which means that they can’t definitively prove cause and effect.

• Questions to ask yourself when evaluating a research study include:

1. What kind of study is it?

2. How big is the effect?

3. Could the findings be a fluke?

4. Did the study participants come from a homogenous population, or are the participants more diverse?

5. Is there a biologically plausible explanation for the study?

6. Was the research funded by an organization with a vested interest in the outcome?

7. Was the research peer reviewed?

8. How does the study compare to previous studies on the same topic?

• Here is how studies rank in quality (from least credible to most credible):

1. Test-tube research

2. Animal studies

3. Population studies

4. Short-term human experiments

5. Case-control studies

6. Cohort studies

7. Randomized clinical trials

• The larger the effect, the more believable it is. It’s important to find out the absolute difference in risk rather than just the relative risk.

• When results reach statistical significance, there is a very small probability (less than five percent) that the outcome is due to chance.

Wheat Belly is a book by Dr. William Davis, a cardiologist who has reversed diabetes and markers of heart disease in his patients. The key to these health improvements involved giving up wheat. The book describes the dangers of wheat – even whole grain wheat – and outlines a program of what to eat to improve health.

Here are some notes from the book:

• By giving up wheat, patients can lose 20, 30, or 50 pounds within the first few months.

• Diabetes can in many cases be cured – not simply managed – by removal of carbohydrates, especially wheat, from the diet.

• Whole wheat bread increases blood sugar to a higher level than sucrose.

• In a study of healthy and slender volunteers, two medium-sized slices of whole wheat bread increased blood sugar by 30 mg/dl (from 93 mg/dl to 123 mg/dl) which is no different from white bread.

• In people with diabetes, both white and whole grain bread increase blood sugar by 70 mg/dl to 120 mg/dl over starting levels.

• A Mayo Clinic study of 215 obese celiac patients showed 27.5 pounds of weight loss in the first six months of a wheat-free diet.

• A study showed that wheat elimination reduced the number of people classified as obese by half within a year.

• People who eliminate wheat from their diet typically report improved mood, fewer mood swings, improved ability to concentrate, and deeper sleep within just days to weeks of giving up wheat.

• Research from psychiatrist F. Curtis Dohan shows that during World War II, patients required fewer hospitalizations for schizophrenia when food shortages made bread unavailable. The hospitalization rate went up when wheat consumption resumed after the war was over.

• Prior to the introduction of Western foods, schizophrenia was rare in New Guinea (in only 2 of 65,000 inhabitants). As wheat was introduced, the incidence of schizophrenia increased to a rate sixty-five times higher.

• A study that removed all wheat products from meals provided to schizophrenic patients led to a measurable reduction in disease symptoms. When wheat was added back into the diets of patients, they re-developed hallucinations, delusions, and social detachment.

• Studies with small sample sizes have demonstrated improvement in autistic patients when wheat is removed from their diet.

• When digested, gluten is degraded to a mix of polypeptides that can penetrate the blood-brain barrier and bind to the brain’s morphine receptor.

• A study showed that 50 percent of obese children with celiac disease approached normal BMI with wheat gluten elimination.

• Multiple clinical studies demonstrate the weight loss advantage of low-carb diets.

• Gluten-free foods made with cornstarch, rice starch, potato starch, and tapioca starch can still increase blood sugar.

• Wheat gliadin triggers the release of zonulin, which leads to inflammatory conditions such as celiac disease, thyroid disease, joint diseases, and asthma.

• Wheat triggers zonulin release and disrupts intestinal permeability, just like the infectious agents that cause cholera and dysentery.

• Conditions associated with gluten intolerance include: dermatitis herpetiformis, liver disease, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, lupus, asthma, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, ataxia, and peripheral neuropathy.

• Rheumatoid arthritis has been shown to improve and occasionally remit entirely with gluten removal.

• Celiac sufferers who fail to avoid gluten can experience as much as seventy-seven-fold increased risk for lymphoma and twenty-two-fold greater risk for cancers of the mouth, throat, and esophagus.

• Eliminating wheat is a possible treatment for irritable bowel syndrome and acid reflux.

• The adoption of grains into the human diet was followed by archaeological evidence of increased infections, bone diseases such as osteoporosis, increased infant mortality, reduction in lifespan, and diabetes.

• High blood sugars lead to damage to pancreatic insulin-producing beta cells.

• Ignoring advice from the American Diabetes Association and instead cutting carbohydrate intake leads to improved blood sugar control, reduced HbA1c, weight loss, reduced high blood pressure, and reduced triglycerides.

• Physicians such as Dr. Eric Westman and Dr. Mary Vernon report that they typically need to reduce the insulin dose by 50 percent the first day a patient engages in reducing carbohydrates to avoid excessively low blood sugars.

• Research by Dr. Jeff Volek shows that sharp reduction in carbohydrates reverses insulin resistance, postprandial distortions, and visceral fat.

• A study by Dr. Eric Westman placed 84 obese diabetics on a strict low-carbohydrate diet that reduced carbohydrate intake to 20 grams per day. After six months, waistlines were reduced by over 5 inches, triglycerides dropped by 70 mg/dl, weight dropped 24.5 pounds, HbA1c was reduced from 8.8 to 7.3 percent, and 95 percent of participants were able to reduce diabetes medications. 25 percent of participants were able to eliminate medications (including insulin) altogether.

• Studies in mice susceptible to type 1 diabetes show that elimination of wheat gluten reduces the development of diabetes from 64 percent to 15 percent and prevents intestinal damage characteristic of celiac disease.

• Protein-rich meats have effects that partially negate their acid load. Animal protein exerts a bone-strengthening effect through stimulation of the hormone IGF-1.

• Children, adolescents, and the elderly who increase protein intake from meat show increased bone calcium content and improved measure of bone strength.

• Vegetable consumption neutralizes the acidic burden from animal products.

• A study from the University of Toronto found that increasing gluten consumption led to increased urinary calcium loss by 63 percent. It also led to increased markers of bone weakening.

• A study of obese patients with osteoarthritis found a 10 percent improvement in symptoms and joint function with each 1 percent reduction in body fat.

• Advanced glycation end products result from increased blood glucose. AGEs lead to loss of kidney function, atherosclerotic plaque accumulation in arteries, deterioration of cartilage in joints, loss of brain cells, damage to eye tissue, and the development of some kinds of cancer.

• Wheat increases blood glucose, which leads to the development of advanced glycation end products and accelerates the signs of aging.

• Fructose increases AGE formation within the body up to several hundredfold more than glucose.

• Broiling and frying animal products increases AGE content more than a thousandfold.

• A study of arterial function found that a meal cooked by frying or broiling led to a 67 percent reduced capacity for arterial relaxation in diabetic patients.

• HbA1c in the “normal” range is associated with increased risk for heart attacks, cancer, and 28 percent increased mortality for every 1 percent increase in HbA1c.

• Carbohydrates form small LDL particles and glycate small LDL. These particles are potent contributors to atherosclerotic plaque.

• Excess carbohydrates lead to high levels of insulin in the bloodstream. This stimulates lipogenesis in the liver and leads to nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

• High blood sugars and diabetes itself are reversed in many, if not most, cases by reduction of carbohydrates.

• A study by Dr. Ronald Krauss found that as carbohydrates as a percentage of diet increased from 20 to 64 percent and fat content decreased, there was an explosion of small LDL particles.

• A study by Dr. Jeff Volek found that eliminating wheat, sugar, cornstarch, potatoes, and rice led to a reduction in small LDL particles by 26 percent over twelve weeks.

• The antigliadin antibodies triggered by gluten can damage Purkinje cells of the brain and lead to cerebellar ataxia. This results in a loss of balance, involuntary muscle twitching, involuntary jerking motions of the limbs, and impaired memory.

• A study of thirty-five gluten-sensitive patients with peripheral neuropathy found that the twenty-five participants on a wheat-free and gluten-free diet improved over one year, while the ten control participants who did not remove wheat and gluten deteriorated.

• A British research group has so far diagnosed sixty-one cases of encephalopathy, including dementia, due to wheat gluten.

• Temporal lobe seizures triggered by wheat gluten are improved after gluten elimination.

• In one study, a low-gycemic diet yielded 23.5 percent fewer acne lesions, compared to a 12 percent reduction in the control group. Participants who cut their carbohydrate intake the most had a nearly 50 percent reduction in the number of acne lesions.

• Wheat gluten-related rashes and skin manifestations include dermatitis herpetiformis, alopecia areata, oral ulcers, cutaneous vasculitis, acanthosis nigricans, erythema nodosum, psoriasis, vitiligo, Behcet’s disease, dermatomyositis, icthyosiform dermatoses, and pyoderma gangrenosum.

• Fasting over a period of eighteen hours to several days can lead to weight loss, reduction in blood pressure, improved insulin responses, and longevity.

• Wheat withdrawal can lead to fatigue, mental fogginess, irritability, or sadness. This tends to last only a few days. Fortunately, many people don’t even experience symptoms of withdrawal when giving up wheat.

• Reintroduction of wheat can provoke undesirable effects such as joint aches, asthma, and gastrointestinal distress.

Recommended foods

Vegetables (except potatoes and corn)

Raw nuts and seeds

Oils (extra-virgin olive, avocado, walnut, coconut, cocoa butter, flaxseed, macadamia, sesame)

Meats and eggs (preferably free-range and organic)

Fish and shellfish

Cheese

Non-sugary condiments

Foods to avoid

Wheat products

Unhealthy oils (fried, hydrogenated, polyunsaturated)

Starches (cornstarch, rice starch, potato starch, or tapioca starch)

Dried fruit

Life Without Bread describes how low carbohydrate nutrition and healthy fats can prevent and reverse major causes of disease. The book is a collaboration between two experienced medical researchers:

Dr. Christian Allan: a biochemistry researcher who has worked at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories, the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, the National Institutes of Health, and biotechnology companies.

Dr. Wolfgang Lutz: a physician who has used low carbohydrate diets to treat thousands of patients

Here are some notes from the book:

• People who do not eat animal foods run the risk of deficiencies in the essential amino acids.

• Saturated fat resists oxidation.

• Every carbohydrate your body needs can be made from either protein or fat.

• When you eat any carbohydrate you are essentially eating sugar.

• The plan presented by the book is to restrict all carbohydrates to 72 utilizable grams per day and eat as much of any other foods as you wish.

• Permitted foods: fish, animal meat, eggs, cheese, sour cream, cream cheese, plain yogurt, cream, animal fats, salads, leaves and stems of vegetables, avocados, limited unsweetened alcoholic beverages, and nuts (in moderate amounts)

• Restricted foods: breads, pastas, cereals, grains, potatoes, pastries, bagels, sweet fruits, sweetened foods of all kinds, dried fruits

• The more insulin a person produces from overconsumption of carbohydrates, the lower the levels of sex hormones. It’s possible that all that may be needed to increase one’s sex drive is a reduction in carbohydrate consumption.

• Too much insulin results in depressed levels of other anabolic hormones, such as growth hormone.

• A study found that children fourteen to twenty-seven months old who had below normal growth patterns also consumed an excessive amount of fruit juice. After nutritional intervention to supply more calories from fat and protein, weight gain increased to much higher levels and the children began to thrive.

• Type 2 diabetes can be reversed by the reduction of carbohydrates in the diet.

• Type 1 diabetes may be the result of an initial viral infection which is not destroyed, due to the immune system being weakened from excess carbohydrate consumption.

• A higher level of glucose in the blood leads to a greater chance of destructive reactions between proteins, lipids, and sugars. This process eventually can lead to the destruction of cellular function.

• A study of patients with diet-controlled gestational diabetes mellitus found that carbohydrate restriction resulted in improved glycemic control, less need for insulin therapy, a decrease in the incidence of large-for-gestational-age infants, and a decrease in cesarean deliveries.

• A study of patients with type 2 diabetes found that after ten months of a low carbohydrate diet, 66 percent of patients with hyperlipoproteinemia reverted to normal.

• Excess carbohydrate consumption leads to the production of triglycerides, the form of fat that gets stored in adipose tissue.

• A study of patients with type 2 diabetes found that replacing saturated fat with carbohydrates resulted in an increase in triglycerides, and therefore an increased risk for coronary artery disease.

•  A fatty acid molecule with six carbon atoms yields forty-eight ATP molecules from aerobic respiration inside the mitochondria. Fat supplies more energy for the same amount of food as compared to carbohydrates.

• The heart uses fatty acids almost exclusively for energy, and those are saturated fat.

• Cholesterol is essential for life. It is the most prominent member of the steroid family of fats and an essential component of eukaryotic membranes. Cholesterol is also converted to bile, which is an integral part of digestion.

• The Framingham Heart Study found that men who consumed more saturated fat and cholesterol in their diet actually weighed less and had a lower risk of heart disease.

• Excess homocysteine in the blood can lead to heart disease. A study found that vegetarians and vegans have higher levels of homocysteine compared to people who have high fat and meat intakes.

• A study of 194 patients who died from heart disease found that the average cholesterol level in people with the most severe heart disease was 186 mg/dl (which is a normal or even low cholesterol level).

• The hemoglobin level decreases in people who adopt a low-carbohydrate diet. A lower hemoglobin level is associated with a reduced tendency of blood to clot. Blood clots raise the risk of heart attack and stroke.

• Carbohydrate restriction can treat hypertension retinopathy and malignant hypertension.

• A low carbohydrate diet reduces levels of uric acid. That leads to a lower risk of kidney stones.

• The triglyceride levels of 118 patients in Dr. Lutz’s practice dropped an average of more than 50 percent after only three months on a low-carbohydrate diet.

• A reduction in carbohydrates leads almost immediately to reduced gas formation and therefore less discomfort from gastrointestinal problems.

• Heartburn is often the first symptom to disappear following withdrawal of carbohydrates from the diet.

• Gastritis and many types of ulcers will heal if carbohydrate intake is restricted.

• Numerous fats are powerful antimicrobial agents. Low-fat diets promote microbial growth in the stomach and intestines.

• A low carbohydrate diet and the avoidance of flour and sugar can help treat Crohn’s disease.

• The only way to burn fat is to reduce carbohydrates enough so that the fat-burning hormone glucagon gets activated.

• In Dr. Lutz’s practice, carbohydrate restriction successfully led to weight loss in 100% of the 100 extremely overweight adolescent patients who were treated.

• Out of the thirteen vitamins, only one (vitamin C) is not available from animal foods. Six vitamins are supplied in reasonable quantities in eggs alone. Five of the vitamins are found in appreciable quantities in vegetables. Even vitamin C is abundant in vegetables such as broccoli.

• People who are lactose intolerant should choose milk products that contain no lactose, such as cheese and cottage cheese.

• In general, animal foods provide more vitamins and minerals per serving than does any single serving of a fruit, vegetable, or grain.

• People beginning a low-carbohydrate diet should consider taking an L-carnitine supplement for the first few weeks if they experience any muscle fatigue or cramping during that time.

• L-carnitine improves insulin sensitivity in insulin-resistant diabetic patients.

• Too much insulin and glucose in the blood can cause cells to dedifferentiate and thus can be a primary cause of dietary-related cancer.

• Eating too much carbohydrate results in too much insulin, which can result in too much IGF-1. These hormones can go on to signal cells to change and become cancerous.

• A study of nearly 33,000 women found that there was no association found between those who consumed the most red meat and breast cancer.

• The Nurses Health Study found that there was no difference between high-fiber and low-fiber groups and colon cancer risk.

• A study of Australians found that a high-fat diet led to fewer risks in terms of changes in markers of colon cancer.

• The time between agricultural development and today, compared to our evolution from hunters and gatherers, represents about 0.2 percent of the total evolutionary time. This tiny amount of time is insufficient for a species to successfully adapt to a major change in its food source.

• Ample evidence exists that, at some stage, human ancestors were primarily hunters/scavengers of meat, whose diet consisted mainly of animal-derived foodstuffs.

• The introduction of stone tools (of which some date back more than 2.5 million years) mark the beginning of the shift to high-energy, fat-containing animal foods.

• People who are overweight with a sedentary lifestyle, who have diabetes, high blood pressure, or heart problems, should ease into carbohydrate restriction and only try to reach the desired carbohydrate level over a few months.

• People with gastrointestinal problems should completely avoid every kind of grain product containing gliadin, including wheat, rye, barley, and oats, at least until the condition shows a marked improvement.

Healthier Without Wheat is a book written by naturopath Stephen Wangen, an expert in gluten intolerance and cofounder of the IBS Treatment Center.

Here are some notes from the book:

• Raw wheat is essentially toxic to humans.

• Glutens are divided into gliadins and glutenins. Gliadins and glutenins are resistant to digestion by stomach acid and pancreatic enzymes. The digestive process does not break them down into smaller components that can be more easily managed.

• Gluten is found in the following grains and products made from them: wheat, spelt, rye, barley, kamut, durum, triticale, einkorn, semolina, bulgur, wheat germ, couscous, farina, emmer, matzoh, graham

• There are at least 200 problems associated with gluten intolerance, sorted into 13 categories (an alphabetical listing of all 200 problems is listed in the book’s appendix): digestive, skin, emotional, physical well-being, mind/neurological, musculoskeletal, respiratory, head, women’s health, autoimmune, chromosomal defects, malignancies/cancer, and miscellaneous

• Every year thousands of people go to hospital emergency rooms because they are suffering from severe abdominal pain or other digestive problems. For a tremendous number of these people, it turns out that they do not have appendicitis, gallbladder problems, ulcers, celiac disease, or any other known problem. Many of these people are suffering from a gluten intolerance.

• Millions of people on this planet don’t eat wheat and are very healthy.

• L-glutamine and fish oil can help heal the digestive tract.

• Candida growths can cause fatigue and digestive problems. Candida thrives on sugars and refined carbohydrates. A diet high in sugar, alcohol, starches, and refined carbohydrates promotes yeast growth.

• It’s important to replenish your intestinal tract with probiotics. Refrigerated products from reputable companies tend to be the best sources of good bacteria.

• The 15 most common food allergies in the United States are:

1. dairy (including butter, cheese, and yogurt)

2. eggs

3. bananas

4. gluten (wheat, spelt, barley, and rye)

5. cane sugar

6. peanuts

7. almonds

8. pineapple

9. garlic

10. goat’s milk

11. soy

12. baker’s yeast

13. brewer’s yeast

14. vanilla

15. nutmeg

The book “Dangerous Grains” is written by Dr. James Braly and Ron Hoggan. The book describes the health dangers of grains and why many more people besides those with celiac disease may actually be gluten sensitive.

Here are some notes from the book:

• Dr. Christopher Reading cured lupus in over one hundred individuals. The patients eliminated grains and dairy products from their diets.

• Dr. Reading also helped five out of six patients fully recover from cancer by combining a gluten-free diet with conventional cancer treatments.

• Neurological researcher Dr. M. Hadjivassiliou has observed gluten sensitivity in over half of his chronic neurological patients.

• Peptides known as exorphins found in gluten cereals have morphine-like properties.

• Hunter-gatherers were five to six inches taller than farmers who ate grains.

• Aboriginal groups develop diabetes, thyroid disease, cancer, malnutrition, and major depression when introduced to a gluten-rich diet.

• Gluten proteins can be passed between the cells that line the intestinal wall, leading to inflammation and greater intestinal permeability.

• Gluten proteins have been shown to damage many internal organs and tissues on contact.

• Gluten is addictive and can lead to food cravings, disorientation, irritability, sleepiness, depression, mental fogginess, fatigue, and/or shortness of breath in the first few days and weeks of following a gluten-free diet. Those are symptoms of withdrawal from gluten-derived opioids.

• In general, a gluten-free diet excludes all foods made from wheat, rye, and barley. This includes avoidance of pastas, pancakes, batters, breads, and other baked foods (except when prepared with flours made from rice, corn, nuts, amaranth, quinoa, and other gluten-free foods).

• Strict avoidance of gluten quickly leads to healing of the small intestinal lining and improved nutrient absorption.

• Oats cause abnormal changes to white blood cells inside a test tube.

• Not a single case of enteritis developed among pediatric cancer patients who received conventional cancer treatments and then followed a gluten-free, dairy-free, low-residue diet (compared to 70 percent rate of enteritis with a conventional diet).

• Ketogenic diets starve the cancer cells of the glucose they need to reproduce.

• Exorphins in grains abolish the protective function of natural killer cells against cancer.

• Exorphins cause increased insulin production and release, which is another pathway that promotes cancer growth.

• 40 percent of rats who are genetically susceptible to insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus will develop the disease when fed wheat gluten. Only 10 to 15 percent of the genetically susceptible rats will develop IDDM when fed a gluten-free diet.

• About half of patients with rheumatoid arthritis show clear signs of gluten sensitivity through elevated serum levels of anti-gliadin antibodies. Blood tests have revealed gluten sensitivity in 34 percent of juvenile chronic arthritis patients and in 47 percent of adult rheumatoid arthritics.

• Phytates in grains combine with minerals during digestion to decrease the availability of minerals that help grow and maintain healthy bones.

• Peptides derived from gluten grains have been implicated in schizophrenia, epileptic seizures, and vascular illnesses.

• In cultures where gluten-containing grains are rarely eaten, schizophrenia is rare or nonexistent.

• Eliminating gluten can result in the elimination or lessening of migraine pain.

• A gluten-free diet may alleviate some or all of the symptoms of IBS.

• Gluten sensitivity is often a contributing factor in chronic diarrhea.

• Patients with Crohn’s disease have very high levels of antibodies against gliadin proteins. This indicates a leaky gut, an immune response, and sensitivity to gluten.

• There are frequently elevated levels of IgG and/or IgA gliadin antibodies in colitis patients, indicating that gluten is a contributing factor in the signs and symptoms of colitis.

• Glutamine can help accelerate healing when initially going off gluten and to lessen intestinal inflammation when gluten is inadvertently or intentionally reintroduced back into the diet.

One of the greatest dangers to human health is something that is considered healthy. That dangerous substance is wheat. It’s the silent killer in the breadbox. Wheat increases the mortality rate more than nearly any other food. Even whole grains aren’t safe. Whole grains raise blood sugar as much as table sugar does.

Denise Minger examined the original data from a massive epidemiological study in China and found that wheat significantly increases obesity. It’s also a major contributor to death from heart disease. Wheat flour has a +67 correlation with heart attacks and a +46 correlation with cervical cancer! Her posts on the subject are here:

• The China Study: Fact or Fallacy?

• The China Study, Wheat, and Heart Disease; Oh My!

Minger notes that the data comes from an epidemiological study and is thus less valuable than controlled studies. That’s where these next posts come in. Dr. Paul Jaminet is an astrophysicist who examined nutrition research in great detail with his wife Dr. Shou Ching Jaminet (who is a cancer researcher at Harvard Medical School). They also came to the conclusion that wheat has negative health effects. Some of their posts on the topic are:

• Wheat is a Cause of Many Diseases, I: Leaky Gut

• Why Wheat is a Concealed Cause of Many Diseases, II: Auto-Antibody Generation

• Why Wheat is a Concealed Cause of Many Diseases, III: Adjuvant Activity

In my next series of posts, I will be posting notes from books that reference biochemistry research and medical studies to describe the negative health effects of wheat. This research demonstrates that wheat is a problem for everyone, not just people with celiac disease.

These books include:

• Dangerous Grains

• Healthier Without Wheat

• Life Without Bread

• Wheat Belly

It’s unfortunate that wheat is so bad for human health, since wheat is important to the economies of many states in the midwest (like Kansas). Luckily, wheat can be used for biofuel. The papers at the following link present an overview of the use of wheat in biofuel production:

• Wheat for Biofuels, Bioenergy and High Value Bioproducts conference papers

Land used for grains could also be converted to raise grass-fed cattle and buffalo as the paleo diet increases in popularity. Perhaps this could even open up important export markets for the USA.

A Life Decoded is the autobiography of Dr. Craig Venter, the biologist and entrepreneur who gained fame and fortune for decoding the human genome. He’s now working on a number of exciting projects involving synthetic life and biofuels. One interesting aspect of the book is that it’s the first autobiography in history that integrates knowledge of the author’s full genome.

Here are some quotes from the book that I found particularly enlightening:

“Every day of my childhood was a day of play and exploration that had a bigger impact on my development than anything I was taught in school and, although I can’t know for certain, at least as much as my DNA. I think that one reason I was able to become a successful scientist that my natural curiosity was not driven out of me by the education system.”

“Even by the age of two, the one trait that has perhaps most characterized my success had become apparent: taking risks.”

“While my upbringing showed that I loved my freedom and could be reckless, there was more to me than that. If I had to state another key trait that was obvious early on, it would be my insatiable urge to build things, from crystal radio sets to forts. I was always happiest when I was lashing something together, relying on my imagination to fill out what my crude materials and tools could not provide. While my peers were getting the creativity bashed out of them at school, I would do anything I could to lay my hands on material to build things from scratch.”

“On one occasion I snuck away from my family to hang out with my friends under the bleachers, where they drank beer and smoked. The gang left the stadium for downtown San Mateo, and I found myself in the backseat of a stolen car that was being hot-wired. We set out on a joy ride. When a police car began to follow with flashing lights and siren, I panicked. We swerved into an alley close to the stadium and braked hard. I got out and ran as fast as I could back to the bleachers, my family, and normal life. However adventurous I might be, I was not a criminal. I began my second year of high school with a new outlook. I didn’t know what I wanted or where I was going, but I was not going to be a teen hoodlum.”

“An IQ test revealed a respectable score of 142, among the best of thousands of draftees and recruits.”

“I had indeed learned an important lesson: It really pays to take risks and to take control of your own life.”

“I wanted to escape. I was determined to get away from the living, the dead, and the dying: The ones who wanted to live but couldn’t. The amputees who would survive but wanted to die. Those who were so badly injured that they hardly knew if they were alive or dead. The stream of bodies that were being medevaced from the jungles, the bomb-scarred rice paddies, and the ruins of thatch-and-mud-wattle hamlets. I thought about the “Dear John” letter from my girlfriend, Kathy, who could not bear to hear any more about the grisly things that I had seen and what I had felt. Now all I could sense were the warm waters of the sea off China Beach. After five months, I was determined to swim away from the bullshit, the madness, and the horror. My plan was to carry on until I was exhausted and then sink into dark waters and oblivion. This would not be easy, because I was a strong swimmer and in great shape. More than a mile from the beach, as I saw venomous sea snakes surface nearby to breathe, I began to have doubts about what I was doing. But still I swam on through the emerald green – until, that is, I made contact with reality when a shark began testing me, prodding me in a ‘bump and bite’ attack. I kept swimming but now more slowly and less determined. I began treading water and looked around. The air was hazy, and I could no longer see the shore. For a moment I was angry that the shark had disrupted my plan. Then I became consumed with fear. What the fuck am I doing? All thoughts of dying departed. I wanted to live, more than I had ever done in the previous twenty-one years of my life.”

“I turned around and swam for the shore in a state of panic, driven on by sheer adrenaline. I was more afraid than I had ever been before, not of the shark or the venomous snakes but that I might not make it back safely because of my stupidity in wanting to die, in wanting to take the easy way out of the brutality and loneliness of Vietnam. Getting back to shore seemed to take forever; I could not believe that I had swum out so far, and wondered if I was even heading in the right direction. All I could think of was how much I wanted to live and how foolish I had been. Then I came upon the breakers and knew I had a chance of making it if I could bodysurf to the beach. I caught a wave and rode it as long as I could, and then caught a second and a third. Then came a final wave. My feet could now touch the sandy bottom. I swam on for a yard or two and then ran through the water until I collapsed. I lay on the sand, naked, for what felt like hours. I was exhausted and relieved. I was grateful to be alive and to have escaped the fatal consequences of my flawed view of life. There was now no doubt in my mind that I wanted to live. I wanted my life to mean something; I wanted to make a difference. I felt pure; I felt energized. I felt I had the strength to carry on.”

“Although [the patient] died a few days after being flown to the Philippines, he showed me the effects of the human spirit and of sheer willpower, which can be stronger than any drug. The effort we had all put into giving him a few more days of life was far from wasted, because he had bestowed on all of us, but most particularly me, a wonderful gift: He had won our respect and had given us a thirst for life, which I have craved almost every day since I first met him.”

“The Tet Offensive changed public attitudes back in America, and it changed me, as well. I learned more than any twenty-year-old should ever have to about triage, about sorting those you can salvage from those you cannot do anything for except ease their pain as they died. I was not studying at the university of life but of death, and death is a powerful teacher.”

“Life was my gift. I had seen thousands of men my age killed or maimed in unthinkable ways. I did not feel survivor’s guilt, but I did want to do something with my life to honor all those who were now beyond my help.”

“It is difficult to underestimate the confidence that I felt in early 1969 about returning to school. At the same time it is difficult to overestimate my motivation to advance myself. Like anyone, I feared failure, particularly given the lackluster state of my academic record. But having seen real poverty of mind, body, and soul in Vietnam, I knew the value of education – in this case, my own education.”

“I was prepared to work hard, and had to learn how to learn and how to study for the first time. However, like so many people who have succeeded in life, I had some great teachers who encouraged and inspired me, taking a real interest in my education.”

“Sato argued that I could affect far more lives with scientific breakthroughs than I could by working with one patient at a time, and I found myself repeating those arguments to my brother Keith.”

“Kaplan encouraged me, as he always had, by saying that most scientists tend to talk themselves out of doing an experiment by thinking of all the ways it might fail, and ‘If you believe in the experiment, then just try it.’”

“Although Kaplan argued that the ‘truth always comes out in the wash’ I still believe that fraud should not be swept under the carpet for the good of the scientific community. Something much greater is at stake than individual reputations – the credibility of science itself.”

“Too many times I had seen science driven less by data and more by the force of a particular personality or the story on which a professor had built his career. I wanted the real, empirical facts of life, not those filtered through the eyes of anyone else.”

“I told Freese that I felt so strongly about trying the new technology that I would use this money and take responsibility for the risk. He could still have fought me, but I think by now he had become impressed by my determination, and the order went to ABI.”

“I believed thin, and still do today, that success was the best tactic to impress my critics: Good data will always win the argument.”

“I remembered Nate Kaplan’s advice not to talk yourself out of doing experiments: The answers ultimately lie in how the world actually works, not in the dogma of the day.”

“But, of course, great ideas are often simultaneously conceived by several people who have responded in a similar way to the climate of thinking, and it can be hard to pin down when and precisely how a flash of inspiration is born. Kaplan had taught me that good ideas are a dime a dozen for a smart person, and the only thing that alternately distinguishes good from great is in how an idea is executed – how it becomes reality.”

“Although some scientists are disdainful of commercialization, I was only too happy that my science could produce something of value because that also meant it had the potential for doing some good in the world.”

“I could also ditch everything I hated about academic institutions. First and foremost, there would be no tenured positions in which one held a position on a permanent basis, without periodic review of contract renewals. Tenure actually delivers a double whammy to the organizations that endure this outmoded arrangement. The second-rate people who thrive in a tenured environment like nothing more than to surround themselves with more mediocrity and drive out those who might excel and reveal the shortcomings of the entrenched.”

“I wanted to employ the best, most talented scientists for TIGR, not to provide security to those who had a different agenda from the institute’s or, worst of all, to the second-rate, the humdrum, the pedestrian, and those who lacked motivation. People with drive and imagination don’t need tenure. More than a decade after I made this decision, I feel even more strongly that it was the correct one, and as a result I have never had a problem keeping talented people.”

“If scientists tend to get a little bitter and resentful when one of their peers attracts significant press attention, the one sin they can’t forgive is when a rival makes money, too. Like most human endeavors, science is driven in no small part by envy.”

“Wally’s early death reinforced the main lesson I had taken from my Vietnam experience: Life must be lived to the full, something Wally had done for as long as he could.”

“My critics had dwelled on how I was only in research for the money. They got it backward: I was interested in money only to have the freedom to do my research.”

“As Aristotle observed, a likely impossibility is always more preferable to an unconvincing possibility.”

“I had often been accused of creating a cultlike following at TIGR, and if that meant I had motivated my team to look beyond their monthly paycheck, to believe in a mission, and to undertake a scientific crusade, then I plead guilty.”

“What eventually made the difference during this difficult start-up phase is that I led from the front. My team believed in me, and I believed in them.”

“Most now understand what I have always believed: that human gene patents usually have less value than the cost to pursue them. Of the twenty-three thousand or so human genes, fewer than a dozen have generated real value for the businessman or the patent.”

“Not letting your opponents see you cringe and sweat can be more damaging to your attackers than a good counterpunch (though the latter can be very satisfying).”

“New ideas, new approaches, and new techniques were instantly rewarded and put into action.”

“Neither Ham nor I bought into simplistic notions of genetic determinism, which supported the idea that we were only what our genes made us, and that the trajectory of our lives could be accurately predicted from our genetic code.”

“I could have walked away from science to lie on a beach or to sail into my grave, but that reminded me of my patient in Vietnam who had given up and died because living was too tough and too painful. I was not done yet. All my life I have been a dreamer and a builder, and this was not the time to stop.”

“The scientific evidence is now overwhelming that the 3.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide that we are pumping into the atmosphere each year are altering global climate patterns – modern life, in short, is unsustainable. But I wanted to do more than just using less oil and gas or installing a solar panel. I felt that genomics had something unique to offer. Shotgun sequencing of the oceans could provide a snapshot of ocean health today, help to monitor its health tomorrow, and reveal the microbes that are responsible for creating much of our atmosphere. The metabolic machinery of ocean microbes might also teach us new ways to make alternative sources of fuel such as hydrogen, methane, or ethanol.”

“It was clear to me, as it always has been, that data is the only way to win scientific arguments.”

“I have always argued, and illustrated throughout this book, that there will be very few unequivocal answers revealed by our genomes, and what they will tell us will probably be best expressed in terms of probabilities.”

“Only about 3 to 5 percent of cancers are due to genetic defects inherited from our parents; the other 95 to 97 percent are due to the somatic gene changes.”

“Bacterial viruses – phages – may actually be responsible for keeping microbe levels low in some seas. If we can understand this relationship better, and learn how to inhibit the viruses, or make the bacteria resistant to phage attack, a lot more organisms could be capturing carbon dioxide and damping down climate change.”

“Now that I am the first chemical machine to gaze upon his own sequence, I am still struggling to make sense of what it all means, an endeavor that will probably take decades. Over that time I am sure that millions more people will have the opportunity to do the same as the cost of sequencing drops to the point where we can read a human genome for about $1,000. There is still an ocean of great science left for me to explore.”

The book also has sections where Dr. Venter discusses certain gene variants in his genome and the possible impact on his life. Variants of the following genes are mentioned in the book:

SRY

DAT1

AMPD1

Per3

DRD4

CDH23

GSTM1

GSTT1

Apo E

TNFSF4

CYBA

CD36

LPL

NOS3

SORL1

CYP1A2

FTO

klotho

MAO

GNB3

MMP3

NOS1AP

ENPP1

CAPN10

OAC2

5-HTTLPR

CFH

Her2

Tp53

PIK3CA

RBL2

EGFR

CETP