I often focus on the bigger facets of the disease of civilization. Things like cardiovascular disease and cancer, which are major killers and the subject of intensive research. But the disease of civilization is a spectrum of disorders that affects the body in countless ways, large and small. I recently read an interesting paper written by an all-star cast, including Loren Cordain, Staffan Lindeberg and Boyd Eaton. It's titled "Acne Vulgaris: A Disease of Western Civilization". The paper presents data from two different groups, the Kitavans...
Senin, 29 September 2008
Kamis, 25 September 2008
Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is milder form of NASH, in which the liver becomes enlarged and accumulates fat. Ready for a shocker? The prevalence of NAFLD is thought to be between 20 and 30 percent in the Western world, and rising. It's typically associated with insulin resistance and often with the metabolic syndrome. This has lead some researchers to believe it's caused by insulin resistance. It's a chicken and egg question, but I believe it's the other way around if anything. There are certain animal models of human disease...
Selasa, 23 September 2008
Agave Syrup
Anna brought up agave syrup in a comment on the last post, so I thought I'd put up a little mini-post so everyone can benefit from what she pointed out. Agave syrup is made from the heart of the agave plant, which is pressed to release a juice rich in inulin. Inulin is a polymer made of fructose molecules. The inulin is then broken down either by heat or by enzymatic processing. The result is a sweet syrup that is rich in fructose. Agave syrup is marketed as a healthy, alternative sweetener. In fact, it's probably as bad or worse than high-fructose...
Senin, 22 September 2008
How to Fatten Your Liver
Steatohepatitis is a condition in which the liver becomes inflamed and accumulates fat. It was formerly found almost exclusively in alcoholics. In the 1980s, a new condition was described called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), basically steatohepatitis without the alcoholism. Today, NASH is thought to affect more than 2% of the adult American population. The liver has many important functions. It's not an organ you want to break. This week, I've been reading about how to fatten your liver. First up: industrial vegetable oil. The study...
Kamis, 18 September 2008
A New Toy
I bought a new toy the other day: a blood glucose meter. I was curious about my post-meal blood glucose after my HbA1c reading came back higher than I was expecting. A blood glucose meter is the only way to know what your blood sugar is doing in your normal setting. "Glucose intolerance" is the inability to effectively control blood glucose as it enters the bloodstream from the digestive system. It results in elevated blood sugar after eating...
Jumat, 12 September 2008
Inactivity and Weight Gain
Most of the papers I read in the field pay lip-service to some familiar stories: thrifty genes; calories in, calories out; energy density; fat intake; gluttony and sloth. It may sound counterintuitive, but how do we know that inactivity causes overweight and not the other way around? In other words, isn't it possible that metabolic deregulation could cause both overweight and a reduced activity level? The answer is clearly yes. There are a number of hormones and other factors that influence activity level in animals and humans. For example,...
Senin, 08 September 2008
A Practical Approach to Omega Fats
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Hunter-gatherers and healthy non-industrial cultures didn't know what omega-6 and omega-3 fats were. They didn't balance nutrients precisely; they stayed healthy by eating foods that they knew were available and nourishing. Therefore, I don't think it's necessary to bean count omega fats, and I don't think there's likely to be a single ideal ratio of n-6 to n-3. However, I do think there's evidence for an optimal range. To find out what it is,...
Sabtu, 06 September 2008
Omega Fats and Cardiovascular Disease
I noticed something strange when I was poring over data about the Inuit last month. Modern Inuit who have adopted Western food habits get fat, they get diabetes... but they don't get heart attacks. This was a paradox to me at the time, because heart disease mortality typically comes along with the cluster of modern, non-communicable diseases I call the "diseases of civilization". One of the interesting things about the modern Inuit diet is it's...
Kamis, 04 September 2008
Omega-3 Fats and Brain Development
Another interesting study that Dr. Hibbeln sent me is about the link between maternal seafood consumption and neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. The study is about as powerful as epidemiology gets, with an enrollment of 11,875 mothers. The bottom line is short and sweet: compared to the children of mothers who ate 340 grams or more of fish per week, children whose mothers ate very little fish had an increased risk of low verbal intelligence, poor social behavior, poor motor skills, poor communication skills, and poor social development....
Selasa, 02 September 2008
The Omega Ratio
The theory advanced by Dr. Lands and Hibbeln is that the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in the diet is the crucial factor for mental and physical health, rather than the absolute amount of each. Omega-6 and -3 fats are essential long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. The number refers to the position of the double bond near the methyl end of the carbon chain.The ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 (hereafter, n-6 and n-3) in the diet determines...
Senin, 01 September 2008
Vegetable Oil and Homicide
One of the major dietary changes that has accompanied the downward slide of American health is the replacement of animal fats with industrially processed vegetable oils. Soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil and other industrial creations have replaced milk and meat fat in our diet, while total fat consumption has remained relatively constant. The result is that we're eating a lot more polyunsaturated fat than we were just 30 years ago, most of...
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