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Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

harvardmagazine.com

211–220 of 240 posts

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#211
It's worth noting, that despite being blocked out in the diet list in the research, the state of red meat is still not firm [0]. There seems to be a body of evidence that naturally fed ruminants are very good sources of nutrition for people. It's worth noting said nutrition profile does change DRAMATICALLY when they're fed unnatural sources (grain/feed) over natural sources.

If you don't eat meat because you don't want to for whatever reason, but there is a LOT of bias in food research.

In general, avoid refined sugars, avoid refined seed oils, avoid other refined/processed foods... increase intake of less processed (even if cooked) foods, and try to eat fattier fish 3-4 times a week.

https://chriskresser.com/does-red-meat-cause-inflammation/

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#212
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Critics might suggest that inflammation is just a symptom in these diseases, rather than a cause. But Hotamisligil says, unequivocally, “Chronic inflammation is uniformly damaging and is absolutely causal to the process, because if you interfere with it, you can reverse the pathology.” And this ability to control such diseases simply by reversing inflammation is a biological response, dating far back to the time of…

So what are the "right tools" to reverse diabetes in humans? These are probably different for the different types. (When young, non-obese kids get it, I doubt it's because of energy surplus)

For type 2, more, longer and more frequent fasting. Stopping most carbs and all refined sugar. Reducing calories (through fasting or general reduction) so that weight can normalize. Hormones are overriding in this, and elevated blood glucose generally also means elevated insulin which will reduce the effectiveness of any approach to weight loss.

Extended fasting is the most assured way to help normalize glucose. Some, and expecialy over time (I'm one of these) show elevated gluconeogenesis response and will take longer to normalize under a fasting focused or very low carb (aka keto diet). Once glucose is normalized (without supplemental insulin) the weight is easier to manage/normalize as well.

It's not easy, and the longer you are diabetic (type 2) the harder it is. Supplemental insulin works against you in a lot of ways. Time restricted eating, generally, and more specifically very low carb (not overdoing protein) are good approaches.

There's a lot of supporting articles and reference linked data on dietdoctor.com and elsewhere. First, and foremost, stop all refined sugars. Second, avoid refined carbs. Third, reduce refined seed oils. Eat clean and get some fatty fish 3-4x a week. And imho clean can mean red meat from naturally fed sources, likewise eggs and fish.

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#213

My prediction: 1) reducing chronic inflammation by, for example, exercise or eating better food, is proven to have good health effects 2) pharmaceutical companies try to make that into a pill 3) dang, the benefits of the pill are not nearly as big as if you exercise and eat better food, and not nearly as big as our early trials of the drug indicated they would be 4) we must need a different kind of pill

There will be a terrible proposal plus dangerous pill, like the idea to infuse a burger with statins to nullify the cholestrol https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2010-08/cheeseburgers...

statins have been shown to increase all cause mortality in more cases than decreasing it... giving them to most of the population is a horrible idea... our bodies need cholesterol, they produce more than we will ever consume and it's fucking ridiculous as a general marker. HDL:Triglyceride ratio is better, but still highly hackable.

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#214
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your quote says "humans are hard-wired to conserve energy", not "humans are soft-wired to be stupid and can learn to be smart". Where does "work on becoming smart" address anything you quoted?

The quote is assuming people are "machines" hard-wired to eat bad food and don't work out. I deeply believe humans are smart and can reflect and change their behavior. At least, we need to give them the chance to. Where do you think did I not address the things I quoted?

Where do you think did I not address the things I quoted?

Quote: "People know what they need to do" - your response to that: ignore it, don't address it.

Quote: "that knowledge doesn’t change behavior" - your response to that: ignore knowledge entirely, state that "smarts" changes behaviour.

Quote: "Humans are hard-wired to conserve energy (citation)" - your response to that: don't address it, implicitly dismiss it, state that willpower overcomes hardware (no citation).

Quote: "prefer foods that are fatty, salty, and sugary." - your response: ignore it.

Quote: "This suggests that pharmaceutical interventions that block inflammation may be necessary" - your response: "really?" doesn't particularly address it. Yes, apparently, really.

Quote: "to check the global epidemic of non-communicable disease", your response to global epidemic of disease: "why don't people WORK HARD to be SMARTER, they're ill because they're dumb", i.e. dismiss it as trivial and uninteresting with a throwaway intelligence worship quip.

Hard-Wiring implies software can't change it. This is the fundamental point, if you're to address the things you quoted, you need to address why you think it's not hard-wired in the face of a claim that it is, or why the claim is unsupported. The world's population has become more overweight and obese over the past hundred years - is your explanation that it has become dumber since stopping working to be smart?

If you addressed the things you'd quoted, your comment would have included things like: why you don't think people "know what they should do", why you think people are not hard wired to conserve energy, why you think taste for high energy food is learned or is changeable and not innate, why you think "work to be smart" is a plausible way to address a global disease epidemic and what you think that work would involve, and how it could be taught to the world. Why you think it's possible that work can improve "smart"ness, is there anything to suggest that's true? AND/OR why those claims shouldn't be accepted.

Instead, "nah bro, just work at being smart" is the same quality of reply as "global disease epidemic of cancer may need chemotherapy" "really? why not work on raising your astral frequencies?". It's a feel-good non-solution that doesn't relate to what was said.

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#215
post #124

My prediction: 1) reducing chronic inflammation by, for example, exercise or eating better food, is proven to have good health effects 2) pharmaceutical companies try to make that into a pill 3) dang, the benefits of the pill are not nearly as big as if you exercise and eat better food, and not nearly as big as our early trials of the drug indicated they would be 4) we must need a different kind of pill

Bottom line: pharma sells pills to make money; they don't make money off of healthy people who don't take their pills. So long as we link the health industry to making profit, we are prioritizing profits over health.

> we are prioritizing profits over health.

A cure for Hepatitis C was developed by profit-seeking companies. Be careful what you're willing to throw away.

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But neither does profit motive. Is facebook maximizing the benefit of their users? It’s more like maximizing benefits to the minimum amount of people at the expense of the maximum number of people.

> But neither does profit motive. Sure it does. Developing a cure for 100 people will generated far less profits than a cure for 100,000 people. It's why you see cars get better every year and constant attempts to appeal to the widest customer base possible. (That didn't happen with Soviet built cars, which tended to never improve.) As for advertising platforms, the customers are the advertisers.

I don’t dispute that.

But in the first paragraph, the side effect is that developing a not-quite-cure treatment for 50,000 people is more profitable than both the others.

As for the last paragraph, this is perhaps the essence of the problem. The motive is profit, so we only care about the advertisers. But the users are real people too, and they are getting screwed.

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#217
post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The quote is assuming people are "machines" hard-wired to eat bad food and don't work out. I deeply believe humans are smart and can reflect and change their behavior. At least, we need to give them the chance to. Where do you think did I not address the things I quoted?

Where do you think did I not address the things I quoted? Quote: "People know what they need to do" - your response to that: ignore it, don't address it. Quote: "that knowledge doesn’t change behavior" - your response to that: ignore knowledge entirely, state that "smarts" changes behaviour. Quote: "Humans are hard-wired to conserve energy (citation)" - your response to that: don't address it, implicitly dismiss it,…

So, you are implying these are my responses even though I never actually wrote them? How is that different from telling me I did not supply citations?

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#218

In my case, inflammation is a side effect of insulin resistance, like my fellow 83 million Americans with metabolic syndrome. If I can reverse the cause long enough, the liver should stop dumping fat into the adipose tissue and triglycerides may drop.

I did a 5-day fast last month. Water only, 120 hours. In the 30 days since I completed the fast, my fasting blood glucose has dropped from ~80-90 down to 65-75. I'm concerned about the accuracy of my Freestyle Libre, but it was previously consistent with professional labs. Anyway, a long term fast like the one I did may help improve your insulin resistance; it seems it did for me.

As someone with a fasting glucose of 95-99 (my GP isn't concerned, I'm not a diabetic), I wonder why would you want to reduce fasting glucose if it's not even in the prediabetic range?

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did. In fact that was a great start, but once you reach a certain point (in having metabolic syndrome), the Keto+IF reaches diminishing returns. It did bring me down 18 inches on the waist. The gut and hypertension will remain. In fact, my hypertension actually went up. To go further requires either Metformin or Berberine. I opted for Berberine, but time will tell.

Insulin resistance is related to inadequate protein, not excess fat per se. You may need more muscle, which is partly based on getting the right kind and amount of protein. Egg whites are the most bioavailable protein. Humans can use about 98 percent of it. I used egg whites to good effect when one of my sons needed more protein for some reason. Reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8748147 (This is not adv…

The positive association between egg consumption and prostate and colon cancer that has been showing up consistently in studies since the 90s is concerning. I'm not sure the risk is worth it.

Re: Inflammation might be the root of preventable disease

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But neither does profit motive. Sure it does. Developing a cure for 100 people will generated far less profits than a cure for 100,000 people. It's why you see cars get better every year and constant attempts to appeal to the widest customer base possible. (That didn't happen with Soviet built cars, which tended to never improve.) As for advertising platforms, the customers are the advertisers.

I don’t dispute that. But in the first paragraph, the side effect is that developing a not-quite-cure treatment for 50,000 people is more profitable than both the others. As for the last paragraph, this is perhaps the essence of the problem. The motive is profit, so we only care about the advertisers. But the users are real people too, and they are getting screwed.

> the side effect is that developing a not-quite-cure treatment for 50,000 people is more profitable than both the others.

Until someone else develops a cure and takes all your business away.

Recall that a company blinded by greed developed a cure for Hepatitis C, not a treatment.

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