Cholesterol Lipid Hypothesis Part IV Endothelial Dysfunction
March 13th, 2023
How does an artery clog?
Let us recap a little at this time.
1) Cholesterol and lipoproteins are significant and necessary for pathology to develop but not the only player in heart disease and atherosclerosis. I believe that inflammation is the root cause of the problem driving the lipid imbalance and plaque formation.
2) Lipoproteins are produced and recycled every day in order to deliver energy to tissues around the body via triglycerides and are a part of the ancient innate immune system. They are primed and ready to fight all systemic pathogens that are trying to hurt us.
3) Your genetic makeup may dictate whether you produce and/or recycle more cholesterol/lipoproteins than are advantageous in our current environment.
Cholesterol Lipid Hypothesis Part V
March 20, 2023
Cholesterol Part V - What to do?
I hope that over the last four weeks I have sufficiently laid the case for heart disease as a complex disorder that is far from just a cholesterol/lipoprotein issue. It is vastly more complex than this especially with the new emerging data on the actions of high density lipoproteins, HDL, in reverse cholesterol and other molecule removal from circulation. In the next weeks newsletter, we will look at HDL.
Coronavirus Update On Hold For Now
March 13th, 2023
Omicron US strains: as of March 11th data - variants make up: BQ.1 is 2%, BQ1.1 is 5%, XBB1.5 is 90% and XBB is 2%
Omicron XBB.1.5 is now the only major player in the Covid space. We are many weeks into this stable run of this variant. We are in a very steady state with disease risk and morbidity.
North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services notes a flatline of Covid associated hospital ICU use for almost 1 calendar year now. Volumes are not changing despite the variant shifts.
Omicron US strains: as of December 17th data - variants make up: BA.4.6 is 1%, BF.7 is 5%, BA.5 is 10%, BQ.1 is 31%, BQ1.1 is 38% - New strains XBB is 7% and BN.1 is 4%
December 19th, 2022
The new world of Omicron is a constant deck chair shuffle regarding which strain holds court and for how long. It appears that a few months is the max a strain maintains the chairs. China is heading into a massive illness burden which could alter the frequency of the mutations.
None of these VOC's are showing signs of increased disease morbidity.
Little else to report here. (CDC Variants)
Quick Hits and other musings -
1) More on vaccines in young adults men from JAMA: "Question What are the frequency, clinical features, and early outcomes associated with myopericarditis after COVID-19 mRNA vaccination in adolescents and young adults? Findings: In this systematic review and meta-analysis of 23 studies, including 854 patients aged 12 to 20 years with vaccine-associated myopericarditis, the incidence of myopericarditis was higher in males after the second dose.
Limitless
December 19th, 2022
The new docu-series on National Geographic Disney with Chris Hemsworth is excellent.
Many of the topics discussed here over the years are explored visually for us all to consume over a few episodes. Chris is challenged to push himself beyond his previous limits and beliefs. Where this series takes a turn for the best is the linkage to health and longevity. They explore how pushing oneself to discomfort is actually health promoting longe term. The science is discussed in parallel to the challenge and the mental/physical drama.
Food in Infants What do we know?
December 26th, 2022
"Humans are the only mammals who feed our young special complementary foods before weaning and we are the only primates that wean our young before they can forage independently. There appears to be a sensitive period in the first several months of life when infants readily accept a wide variety of tastes and this period overlaps with a critical window for oral tolerance. As a result, infants should be exposed to a wide variety of flavors while mother is pregnant, while mother is nursing and beginning at an early age. There also appears to be a sensitive period between 4 and 9 months when infants are most receptive to different food textures.
Calcium
December 26th, 2022
A mineral involved in many reactions in the body! It is found primarily in our bones and teeth as a storage site. The body carefully regulates calcium levels by stealing from the bones when the system needs more.
It is critical for the function of blood vessels, muscles, neurologic and intracellular signal transmission. It is also critical for hormone secretion. This covers every aspect of feeling good and moving with fluidity.
Based on age, we need roughly 1000 mg daily. This should be derived primarily through food. If you need to supplement, current evidence suggests that supplementing above 500mg for a 70 kg human is not a good idea.
Loneliness
December 26th, 2022
Humans like many animal species like to live or interact in groups. The species in general has historically benefited from collective grouping behaviors. Safety in numbers and shared food collection has allowed humans to live and thrive. Human groupings are like social concentric circles with country at the large end and family unit at the small end. It is at the extended family sized ring that people really benefit from psychologically through intimate love, education of values and elder wisdom and perceived safety.
Omicron US strains: as of December 24th data - variants make up: BA.4.6 is 1%, BF.7 is 4%, BA.5 is 7%, BQ.1 is 27%, BQ1.1 is 36% - New strains XBB is 18% and BN.1 is 4%
Decmeber 2nd, 2022
None of these VOC's are showing signs of increased disease morbidity.
Little else to report here. (CDC Variants)
Quick Hits and other musings -
1) Boring week - nothing to report this week on covid!
2) Science heavy but an explanation for certain humans that struggle with weight gain: "Here we report a heterozygous tandem duplication at the ASIP (agouti signaling protein) gene locus causing ubiquitous, ectopic ASIP expression in a female patient with extreme childhood obesity. The mutation places ASIP under control of the ubiquitously active itchy E3 ubiquitin protein ligase promoter, driving the generation of ASIP in patient-derived native and induced pluripotent stem cells for all germ layers and hypothalamic-like neurons.
Literature Review
January 9th, 2023
Memories can be laid down well without sleep attached to it according to a new study in PNAS. It has long been said that sleep is key to culling neurons that are related to memories that are unimportant and also increasing the quality of the neurons for memories that we need to keep, while sleep deprivation disrupts this reality. The authors of this study looked at two groups of rats show a novel object and tracked the quality of the memory formation. They state: "Long-term memories are considered to be optimally formed during sleep, but they may also be formed during wakefulness. Using behavioral indicators dissociating object and context memory in a novel-object recognition (NOR) paradigm, in combination with pharmacological inhibition of hippocampal activity
Potassium
January 9th, 2023
Potassium: a mineral found abundantly in some foods and the earth as a white salt. It gets its name from potash or plant ash which is loaded with potassium.
Every cell in the body utilizes potassium in some way. It is necessary for signal transduction in all nerves and muscles including the heart. It is critical for kidney and hormone function. Your intestines require it to move and your blood requires it to keep acid/base balance. We use it in carbohydrate metabolism and much more.
Obesity Treatment for Adolescents
January 9th, 2023
Semaglutide is a new injectable drug that has shown incredible results in adults with diabetes and obesity by activating the glucagon like peptide one receptor. This action increases insulin release, glycemic control and blood glucose utilization. This in effect decreases adipose storage and blood glucose increases that lead to the symptoms of diabetes over time.
Before I discuss the study, I want to point out that this medicine is 100% unnecessary if children and adolescents follow a healthy diet and exercise regimen.
Long Distance Love bombs
December 12th, 2022
What are they?
According to Dr. Jeremy Goldberg, they are acts of verbal and written kindness sent out to the masses for the stated purpose of promoting and growing kindness and happiness. Don't you just love that!
I do.
For that reason, I am interviewing him this week for the podcast to really dive deep into the reasoning of word choice, the effects of that choice in relationship and how anger bludgeons this process.
Zinc 2
December 12th, 2022
Zinc is the second most abundant mineral on earth after Iron and is critical for many biological processes. Zinc exists in a 2+ state and is not sensitive to redox reactions making it an ideal cofactor for enzymatic activity of cells that turn over rapidly like skin, gut and immune cells. For this reason it is used often in the cell and needs to be provided in adequate volume for normal function.
Zinc must be actively transported into the cell for action to occur leaving humans needing zinc transporters for optimal function.
Mirror Neurons
November 14th, 2022
Mirror neurons are brain cells that fire at the exact location of the motor command or other command of another person doing the event. Thus, the term mirroring. This was an amazing discovery at the time in 1994. From a later paper by Dr. Rizzolatti, "A category of stimuli of great importance for primates, humans in particular, is that formed by actions done by other individuals. If we want to survive, we must understand the actions of others. Furthermore, without action understanding, social organization is impossible. In the case of humans, there is another faculty that depends on the observation of others' actions:
Volume 12, Letter 49 Coronavirus Update 75 plus other stuff
November 21st, 2022
The work around Covid research is fading for me. This is now mostly a highly contagious upper respiratory infection for most. The morbidity has faded to a level where we are seeing very limited disease in children and the hospital data remains completely plateaued. Unless there is a dramatic shift in this virus, we are moving toward a world where Covid may be like the other 4 circulating coronaviruses for most of the United States population
Omicron US strains: as of November 19th data - variants make up: BA.4.6 is 4%, BN.1 is 5%, BF.7 is 8%, BA.5 is 24%, BQ.1 is 26%, BQ1.1 is 24%
Protein
November 20th, 2022
Protein is critically important on a per day volume not a percentage of daily caloric intake. Think of protein more as a vitamin or mineral for basic functions. The current reality for most teenagers to elderly is 30-60 grams per serving 3 x per day to equal 1.5 to 2 grams per kilogram or 0.75 to 1 gram per pound. This is the basic requirement for active protein synthesis and all of the downstream metabolic events that follow. Remember that protein is the base building block of DNA, RNA, all proteins as enzymes and so much more. To be protein deficient is a mess of grand proportions.
Volume 12, Letter 50 Exercise, Protein, BDNF and Mitochondrial Biogenesis
November 28th, 2022
In a continuation from last week, we are going to dive deeper into this research. From The Journals of Gerontology: "Low skeletal muscle mass is associated with cognitive impairment and dementia in older adults. This review describes the possible underlying pathophysiological mechanisms: systemic inflammation, insulin metabolism, protein metabolism, and mitochondrial function. We hypothesize that the central tenet in this pathophysiology is the dysfunctional myokine
Unprocessed Red Meat
November 28th, 2022
Many organizations and media outlets have been bashing red meat consumption as being unhealthy for years. That never made sense to me as all natural foods in moderation are almost always healthy. By natural, I mean, red meat from an animal that eats grass as expected and not human derived corn meal, antibiotics and hormones.
From the study, " We found weak evidence of association between unprocessed red meat consumption and colorectal cancer, breast cancer, type 2 diabetes and ischemic heart disease.
Medicine 3.0
November 28th, 2022
I have been thinking and talking about the dysfunctions of our current medical system for years. We are not very good at preventing disease while we are best in class at surgical repair and acute care like infections and trauma. This reality really bothered me in the early 2000's as I noted the constant increase in diseases that were chronic like autoimmunity, ASD, obesity, diabetes and more.