Weekly Link Love — Episode 45
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Measles may wipe out the immune system’s memory of other pathogens.
Taking growth hormone, metformin, and DHEA appears to reverse signs of aging in humans.
Increased green cover lowers temperatures in dry climates, but not in wet ones.
Injecting alcohol into tumors kills them.
The health effects of extreme inbreeding.
A low-carb diet improves metabolic health and performance of firefighters.
Much of the gender gap in math and science can be explained by girls’ dominance in reading.
Insoluble fiber may be linked to increased colorectal cancer mortality.
An early eating window (from 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.) improves glucose levels, autophagy, and circadian function in people.
Episode 370: Dude Spellings: Host Brad Kearns welcomes Dude Spellings back to the podcast to talk cold exposure and stress/life/training balance.
Episode 371: Matt Walden: I welcome Matt Walden to the podcast to chat about the two papers we wrote together on Ancestral Resting Posture and how it affects our health.
Episode 372: Brad Q&A: Brad Kearns answers your questions.
Each week, select Mark’s Daily Apple blog posts are prepared as Primal Blueprint Podcasts. Need to catch up on reading, but don’t have the time? Prefer to listen to articles while on the go? Check out the new blog post podcasts below, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast here so you never miss an episode.
Johns Hopkins opens new center for psychedelic studies.
Don’t live off french fries, potato chips, and sausages.
Seriously. It is. Go live.
Why did darker and lighter skin evolve?
Did you know I do a Q&A over on the MDA Instagram every Wednesday morning?
Win some awesome pasta sauces (that are great with much more than pasta).
Reusable duodenoscopes (internal cameras used in hospitals) are making people sick. They can only be washed by hand, and it’s not good enough.
How people learn to safely cook and consume poisonous plants.
Can radiation renew old brains?
A win for the plaintiff would set a terrible precedent.
Podcast I enjoyed: Dr. William Davis on The Fat Emperor Podcast.
Article I found interesting: You don’t have to play with your kids.
I’m sure no one could have foreseen something like this happening: Scientists mistakenly insert bacterial antibiotic resistance genes into genetically engineered hornless cow.
Great lucid take on the “red meat in public policy” question: “Should dietary guidelines recommend lower red meat intakes?”
This is a powerful story: The shocking truth about statins—supposed benefits, side effect coverups, the works.
What do you stress about? Write down at least 3-4 sentences describing it in full and I bet some of it will melt away.
One year ago (Sep 1– Sep 7)
“One last point, when the vet said to my husband, wow his teeth are so clean and strong! What do you use to brush them? My husband replied, are you joking?? Who the heck brushes their dog’s teeth?? When he got done laughing he told him about the raw bones. The vet had nothing to say. He didn’t try to sell the pricey stuff on his shelf though…”
– Nicely done, Jennifer’s husband.
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Ⓒ 2020 Mark's Daily Apple
Re: Metformin
I consulted my doc about it and was aware of all of this research. He said that he didn’t think it was indicated for me for that use or any use. I think he’s right. I’m pretty lean and healthy, all good on blood tests, middle age. I agree with him, because I don’t know what additional benefits I would expect it to confer on me, and I don’t be one of those guys who gets too wrapped up in life “hacking.”
“Taking growth hormone, metformin, and DHEA appears to reverse signs of aging in humans.”
More than a decade ago, when WIRED was really awesome, they did a long article about millionaires who are seeking longevity. They mentioned that they were all taking metformin. But it was all rather mysterious. Now we know. 🙂
“Injecting alcohol into tumors kills them.”
I feel almost as bad to know this as when I found out about keto for cancer. My mom died before any of this was known. But it’s really awesome for current patients.
Inbreeding effects – doesn’t mention retroviral effects, or suspected retroviral effects. I don’t mean HIV, though that’s one of them, I mean the 8% of human DNA that’s dormant virus DNA.
“An early eating window (from 8 a.m. and 2 p.m.) improves glucose levels, autophagy, and circadian function in people.”
The circadian function thing is interesting. I have a terrible time keeping my bio clock on the same schedule as the sun. My in-laws routinely skipped dinner on Sundays to get ready for the week. Maybe I should try that, but more often.
“Reusable duodenoscopes (internal cameras used in hospitals) are making people sick. They can only be washed by hand, and it’s not good enough.”
Ohh thank you, finally this issue is being talked about. Actually most “preventative screening” tests are nonsense, but if a person has a problem, then there’s no avoiding the hose.
“I’m sure no one could have foreseen something like this happening: Scientists mistakenly insert bacterial antibiotic resistance genes into genetically engineered hornless cow.”
Add animal cruelty to the list of reasons to avoid GE stuff. The poor creatures, created in a lab will now be put down without ever having a life. Not the best moment in science.
I <3 the poisonous plants article! Is it acorn season yet? There's an easy one to get started on.
What do I stress about?
Lately I've been stressing over my family. They missed some important facts when they told me about our history, and while I understand why, it still hurts and makes me feel annoyed. I know parents hear this every day but please talk to your kids, tell them who grandparents were, where they lived, everyone's LAST name, and where and full name of family members. I totally lost touch with a very large part of my family because I only know them as Andrew and Diana, etc. I have nobody left to ask. All the people whose last name matches my grandparents have passed on. The new generation is married, changed names.
Y'know? That didn't help. I'm all worked up again. Sigh nobody's fault.
Measles ceased as a serious threat in developed nations long before the vaccine was introduced. Every child got measles and it was not feared. It was a rite of passage, like chicken pox/varicella. There is plenty of evidence in the popular media that measles was not considered a threat. There is a Brady Bunch episode where the whole crew gets it and has fun spending days off from school together. Natural exposure to measles grants permanent natural immunity. Permanent natural immunity is the basis of herd immunity, which is what keeps vulnerable people safe.
The vaccine does not provide permanent full immunity. We have two immune systems: cellular and humoral. The cellular is the first line of defense. It takes on anything unusual it finds in the cells, prompting the effects we usually call the “sickness” – mucous, coughing, rashes – but are actually the body’s efforts to neutralize and clear the invasion.
Later on the body stores information about the pathogen in the humoral immune system. This is the automated defense line of the body that can recognize invasive pathogens and neutralize them almost effortlessly.
The cellular and humoral systems work together. The relationship is complex and not fully understood. Vaccines bypass the cellular immune system and attempt to go straight to the humoral system with their antigens. They use inflammatory agents (i.e. serious toxins) to prompt the humoral system into responding to them.
Measles is not a problem in a society with good nutrition and a history of natural exposure. We have broken natural exposure with the vaccine however, and now the status of herd immunity is in danger. More measles vaccinations will not solve the problem because the vaccine itself is causing the problem.
Vaccines should really be used only as temporary emergency measures. If you are healthy your cells will handle pathogen exposure easily. As anyone who lives Primal knows, living a healthy lifestyle means you rarely get sick.
The medical establishment is pushing mandatory vaccine laws very hard now. Anyone interested in protecting their health should pay attention.
https://www.amazon.com/Vaccines-Autoimmunity-Changing-Childhood-Illness/dp/1603587772
Thanks for this post, especially the book recommendation. It’s difficult to find non-hysterical information on vaccines anymore on the internet.
Another book that has been important to my family is Aviva Romm’s Vaccinations: A Thoughtful Parent’s Guide. It is a levelheaded discussion of each childhood disease and the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. Romm leaves it to the parent to consider the risks involved in vaccinating, not vaccinating, or using a delayed schedule on each possible childhood illness. There is also information on how to handle childhood diseases if you decide not to vaccinate, and when to seek medical care.
Thanks for this. The book I always mention when people tell me they don’t understand the vaccine debate is “Rising from the Dead” by Suzanne Humphreys MD. It’s a nice easy to read biography of a doctor. Except when she started doing exactly what she should do: report adverse effects of vaccines, she was systematically ostracized by her medical center. She later became a functional medicine doc and has some excellent videos explaining, for instance why vitamin C is being underused. The one talking about how much Vitamin C a goat makes when it’s sick is particularly convincing.
Wow. “It’s Later Than You Think” is alarmingly true and convicting. My kids are 13 and 11 and I am cherishing these last few years of them being kids and living in our home. I need to be reminded of how short and precious our time on this earth is. This article really helps to put things into perspective. We’ve got once chance at this life. Let’s make the most of it!
Thanks for posting “It’s later than you think”. Tragic story but such a great reminder to spend your time on what you value. Also – please never stop posting your Weekly Love Links! I look forward to them each week!
I’m skeptical about the article regarding girls not pursuing STEM fields due to their higher reading ability. Decades ago, women were at the forefront of computer science, but when men became interested in those jobs, women were pushed aside. Read this NYT story: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/magazine/women-coding-computer-programming.html
I read the media piece about the boy who went blind due to his limited diet. If I hear one more health professional tack on “…and whole grains” as an important part of a human’s healthy diet I’m going to suffer optic neuropathy..or maybe whole brain neuritis!
I feel the same way about tofu that the vegan feels about meat. Moreover, seeing malnourished vegans with pink hair out in public causes me to cringe uncontrollably. Maybe I should sue them to stay indoors.
So not only will you not speak up for medically fragile children being forced out of school as CA takes away even medical exemptions… but you’re spreading propaganda pieces on the measles. Your refusal to dig into the research on this subject is so disappointing. Are you not familiar with the work of Dr. Thomas Cowan, explaining how vaccinations trigger chronic illness and autoimmune disease?
“Q: But we can’t expect kids to learn everything on their own today. There’s a lot that parents must teach them, right?
A: As soon as you bring mandatory schooling into the equation, it sort of opens the floodgates to all this other control and management of children’s behavior.”
Now that’s a money Q&A if ever I saw one!
The measles article is riddled with the types of quotes you can laugh at:: “Every time we don’t die from an infection we can basically think of it as, we got lucky.” Ha, I don’t think so, Doc. The immune system exists to battle things like infection. It isn’t luck whether it works or not.
The vax debate silences any doubts as to the miraculousness and unquestionability of every vaccine that is conjured up and produces whack “science” like this here. Scientific “consensus” keeps tearing its ugly head.
The purpose of the immune system is to prevent an infection or disease. An infection means that the immune system was overwhelmed for a period of time. If you didn’t die from the infection, you were lucky that you were strong enough to wait out the infection while the immune system was ramping up.
And you will be lucky the next time you encounter that same pathogen because your immune system is ready to fight a pathogen that it has previously encountered and you will not get sick from that pathogen – like chicken pox, you get it once as a kid and are constantly exposed for the rest of your life but don’t get it again.
The measles article is just ridiculous. It’s a bunch of conjectures with some correlated facts that can be better explained in other ways. The humoral immune system cannot “forget” its stored information about pathogens its encountered. That would be a huge catastrophe for humanity if that was possible under normal circumstances. Measles has been around for ever, if it was wiping the humoral immune system as part of its normal course humanity would have never made it.
I’m going to have to think about your SwS request. One of the problems I’m having is a bitterness about not being treated like a person with a brain by the medical establishment. I know I can’t change that by myself, but as with any abusive environment, I have been more and more assertive about what I want and what I will not agree to. Sometimes I feel like I’m battling on of those megacorps you see drawn dramatically in anime cartoons. I wish it was romantic enough to include a motorcycle. I would want any narrative I tell about myself to be authentic and right now, that would include things like my frustration.
After a few years of IDF that had me mostly eating between noon and 8, I recently tried early time-restricted feeding (eTRF) and man it seems to work well for me. I did it under the influence of this guy’s posts: https://www.patreon.com/CaloriesProper/posts
And I learned about him from an MDA post…
Insoluble fiber may be linked to increased colorectal cancer mortality.
Question: is psyllium husk the insoluble fiber they are referring to in this study that was associated with increased colon cancer? I’ve read it several times and I’m confused.
Some prebiotics are included in my probiotics like MOS and inulin. I think these are soluble. Am I right? I’m confused
The “it’s later than you think” article hit me really hard, I was bawling… Incredibly sad and also really inspiring to spend my time with my young children more mindfully. Makes me want to throw all technology out…
Appreciated red meat and dietary guidelines article which warned about cherry picking data and ignoring data which doesn’t support a point of view- like podcaster ‘wheat belly’ Davis apparently did with this article:
Wheat & gluten.pdf
Maybe some ‘commitment bias’ showing here…..
That vegan getting angry at the neighbours for everything made me remember a lady getting angry at me and some cousins/siblings as kids playing around their cottage one morning beside ours. She said we were being really loud. We weren’t. So the next morning I went out early and fired off my cap gun a bunch of times.