I noticed that your Grassroots Health piece was *posted* shortly after 5 AM.
Dr Davis, I know I am not alone in the hope that you are personally getting sufficient sleep!
This hope is not entirely altruistic. We need you around here!

Mike V

(Incidentally, thanks for the Grassroots tip. I joined immediately when I spotted the list of star scientists supporting the group). From my point of view, it was well worth your "insomnia"!

I wonder here about cause and effect, my "natural" daylength is around 26 hours anyway. There was a recent BBC Horizon programme about the body clock where one researcher claimed she saw higher BG responses after the evening meal and therefore people should eat their carbs at breakfast.

Now in common with most Type 2s and many Type 1s my carb intolerance is far worse in the morning (I suspect diurnal variation in insulin resistance) so I'm wondering where she found these subjects. Are "normals" that different in their glucose response? I do best with low carb high protein moderate fat breakfasts and can do twice the carbs in the evening while maintaining normoglycemia, many people have a far steeper slope. I'm wondering if the lipids somehow slow the (pituitary) body clock. Certainly I sleep better and wake up better on low carbs.

Trinkwasser

Googling "diurnal insulin resistance/sensitivity" will produce plenty of studies about this topic.

This British one suggests that individual diurnal variability is much greater in diabetics than in non-diabetics.
*http://care.diabetesjournals.org/cgi/content/full/25/11/2022*

I imagine that you must already be well aware of other factors that could affect BG response such as gastric emptying rate, glycemic index of food and food combinations, food acidity etc.


Mike V
Note: I am neither diabetic nor a doctor. I do happen to have an interest in your topic, insulin mimetics such as cinnamon, sleep, the effects of melatonin, and possible connections with the other "western" diseases.

Interesting stuff with some references I will chase up later, thanks.

I also have a suspicion that IR at the muscle receptors and the liver/ alpha cells may also be decoupled. My lipids and BG readings tell me I have my IR under control but while I don't do Dawn Phenomenon as such I can still get diurnal variations in whether my liver will dump too much glucose when I don't need it (morning) or refuse to dump when I do (afternoon).

I've learned to tweak my BG manually against exertion levels and alpha lipoic acid has also helped even things out. Long term a Primal type diet and learning to run on ketones rather than glucose as a primary fuel has helped no end. Siestas seem to give me a second peak in IR, I hadn't really connected sleep cycles to the dyslipidemia before.

Dammit, when are they going to release Endocrine System SP1? We've been waiting millenia for this.

Yet another study adds to the growing clinical literature documenting the lack of sleep, or, in this case, the "violation" of circadian rhythms that occurs with unpredictable or shifting sleep patterns.

Without doubt, a primary benefit of the paleo diet is the elimination of grains (which contain inflammatory protein--gluten--and plant-defense toxins called lectins).

The high (good) fat aspect of the paleo diet also plays a big role in increasing HDL and lowering triglycerides. These good fats including animal fats, saturated fats (mistaken painted as bad-guy fats), omega-3's, omega-9's (like olive oil and avocado oil), while greatly reducing the inflammatory processed omega-6 oils (corn and soy oil, among numerous others).

The paleo diet also rules out any processed form of fructose:
http://www.thorne.com/altmedrev/.fulltext/10/4/294.pdf

i have eliminated wheat and all grains as you have suggested and my lipid profile from recent NMR has improved: HDL jumped from 40to 54; LDLC of 94 up from 93, and Trg dropped to 20 from 37 and large HDL-P increased from 3.3 to 14.8, particle number dropped from1795 to 1305, but they still remain all small particles.  LDL particle size unchanged at 19.7. So some good things from elimination of wheat and grains, but no change in particle size.  At 5'6" male and 145lbs, hard to lose weight.  Any suggestions on how to change particle size and lower number of particles further? diet is meat fish eggs poultry, whey powder, hard cheese, greek 2% yogurt and fruit and veggies, some red wine and dark(85%+ chocolate)  Vitamin D3 measures at 38(25oh). with family history, doc wants 20 mg Lipitor.  Excellent post in both cases. Perhpas Paleo not work for all, although Eades would say i should add more sat fat to diet

I love reading in more and more places that saturated fats are not evil!

The word is getting out, and one of these days, dietary researchers won't have to apologize about their results or come up with elaborate strategies to make sure that they can't be perceived as saying that saturated fat might be (gasp!) good for you.

Remember the Okinawans.  Previous generations of Okinawans are among the longest lived people on the planet.  Pork, fish, non-starchy vegetables (cooked in lard), and a little bit of rice make up almost all of their diet.

Dr. Davis, it wasn't that long ago that you were very cautious about fats and saturated fats, but I've seen a substantial shift in your comments over the past several months.  I salute your resolve to really understand what is good for our hearts and then going beyond that by doing your best to communicate what you've learned back to everyone who will listen/read.

This is the first time I have seen someone call out Gluten as the component of wheat that causes inflammation response.  Good to know as it is often a primary source of protein for vegetarians.

I don't see the fructose argument though.  This is a simple sugar that is broken down to glucose in the digestive tract like any other sugar eaten; according to high-school human biology......

Dr Davis,

Do low carb eaters need to be concerned about the aging effects of oxoaldehydes such as methylglyoxal?

I read recently that the concentration of such compounds increases during ketosis and that they are much more reactive than glucose, readily forming protein cross links which age the body.

-- Tom

Some people may be wondering how it was that eating wheat and other high fibre grains caused humans to become weaker, shorter and fatter.

This paper http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6299329 Reduced plasma half-life of radio-labelled 25-hydroxyvitamin D3 in subjects receiving a high-fibre diet.
unearthed by Stephan at Whole Health Source, provides one possible explanation as it shows a high-fibre diet reduces the half-life of 25(OH)D3 thus speeding up vitamin d deficiency.

Yes!  I thoroughly enjoyed Dr. Eades commentary on that study.  Although I do wish that study authors wouldn't obsess so much over saturated fat.

Steven from http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/ also did a bang up review.  His blog is also quite fantastic.  He did a series on Tokelau Island migrant studies that was very interesting.  They are a people that eat quite a lot of saturated fat, from coconut, and yet had virtually no heart disease.

I cut out wheat a long time ago but haven't had blood work recently.  If cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease, why worry about it?  Why eliminate saturated fats if they're not contributing to atherosclerosis?

kevin

The wheat connection is interesting, it's far and away the worst grain for spiking my glucose levels, even wheat bran will do it.

My athlete cousin is already showing signs of the familial insulin resistance in her thirties and while she stuffs her body with far more carbs than I do she has noticed a marked improvement from avoiding wheat.

The horrible irony is that a diabetic colleague diagnosed my diabetes over twenty years ago and a friend who knew my diet suggested I might be wheat intolerant. My doctor wrote that I had "fanciful notions" and hypochondria. Now here I am. Meanwhile the GP died "unexpectedly" which was ironic

I wonder if wheat has always been this (comparatively) toxic or if it's the modern strains specifically. Originally it was a transgenic cross, kind of natural GM, with far more chromosomes than is good for it, but has been majorly tweaked over the years to provide current yields

It's odd to me how often folks state that there's no proof that saturated fat intake causes heart disease. I know the standard arguments, I've read Good Calories, Bad Calories and many of the websites dedicated to disproving the lipid hypothetesis.

But the fact is, there are quite a few studies that demonstrate that saturated fat intake IS associated with higher incidence of heart disease (not just cholesterol profiles).

A few examples:
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/337/21/1491

http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/abstract/337/21/1491

http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/70/6/1001

The majority of the studies I've seen on low carbohydrate, high fat diets have all been pretty short-term and didn't actually measure heart disease. They just measured cholesterol and, occasionally, inflammation.

To Anonymous's question about fructose.  It's very important that you understand the metabolic pathway for fructose.

Fructose is carried by the blood from your gut directly to your liver.  Once detected, your liver stops everything else and converts fructose to triglycerides.  It does this because fructose is a highly reactive sugar and is treated as a dangerous substance by your body.  Triglycerides aren't nearly as bad (but if you've been reading this blog, you know that they're pretty bad, too).  

Most of the triglycerides are released into the blood (where they represent the wrong side of the HDL/triglycerides heart health ratio), while some small fraction remain trapped in the liver tissues.  If you keep hitting your liver with triglycerides (via fructose), and live long enough, those triglycerides get stored in the liver and you'll end up with fatty liver disease.

Fructose is all sorts of bad news for your health.  Sucrose, HFCS, honey, cane solids, corn syrup solids, etc: all contain significant quantities of fructose, and over time, all pose a risk to your heart, your liver, and via insulin resistance and glycation reactions, your entire body.

I am new to trying to understand the most healthy diet and just finished reading Dr. Eades book (who does not eschew whole grains in his meal plans).  I am reminded of Michael Pollan's comments that preface his book - 'In Defense of Food' in which he claims there is much ideology with regard to diet and nutrition.  

I understand many people have strong opinions, but I am hoping someone can provide insight into this website that includes whole wheat as one of the most important foods in our diet -- http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=141.

I am not asking this to be controversial, but would genuinely like to hear some factual counterpoints.

This is great news for the paleolithic community: the British Medical Association has just recognised the importance of paleolithic diets in this recent report (see pages 5/6): http://www.bma.org.uk/health_promotion_ethics/child_health/earlylifenutrition.jsp

This is truly a great read for me!! I love the quality information and news your blog provides Smile I have you bookmarked to show this to all!Thanks.


health

I have read your article Michael Eades on the Paleolithic diet' good article The diet consists of an inflexible meal plan. The diet does not allow forsubstitutions or deviations

Welcome to visit-

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This is the first time I have seen someone call out Gluten as the component of wheat that causes inflammation response. Good to know as it is often a primary source of protein for vegetarians.

Well, I've heard of some, diabetics all I think, who have had a cath done and ended up with stents simply because they are diabetic.  No symptoms, just high cholesterol and diabetic.  

I know one woman who has 2 50% blockages and has been told she needs a bypass ASAP....and completely asymptomatic. (her's was diagnosed by ultrasound, external ultrasound too, does that sound right? can they see that degree of detail?)

Hi, Cindy--

No, ultrasound cannot visualize coronary arteries. But they can visualize the left ventricle. Perhaps she had an abnormal left ventricle that provided presumptive evidence of poor flow. But that's just my guess.

This post reminds me of how trusting people can be with hospitals and magazine articles, even when they suspect something might be wrong.  

When it comes to investments it always amazes me how people can trust strangers to invest their hard earned money.  A person might read a magazine article about a "hot investment", or maybe a stock broker mentions the companies latest recommendations from their company "research experts".  And without much thought and no research of their own people will happily hand over cash with out really knowing what investment they are buying into.    

It is a different reaction if a stranger off the street came to you and said he/she knows of a fantastic investment you should buy into.  If that happened, you would naturally be cautious.  If you did not dismiss the stranger outright, you would ask questions, want to know what kind of success the stranger had in the past, details about the investment, and what was their definition of success?  

I've been talking with a lady who's husband has heart disease.  She learned of my heart healthy diet and felt a need to give me her negative unsolicited thoughts.  She reads magazines and tells me of the latest procedures or drug possibilities being developed.  She does not think highly of her husbands doctors. Up until the other day I had not heard her say a kind word about any doctor.  "They don't know what they are doing!" she would tell me.  I told her about TYP and the great information she could learn from the web sight,and the success many are having with reversing heart disease, but TYP did not interest her.  Her doctor had not told her of CT scans, lipoprotien testing.  Even learning from me about heart healthy supplements and diet held little to no interest for her.          

The other morning she told me her husband had a check-up and the doctor told him he was doing "fantastic".  I nodded and said that was great, I hope he has continued success.  I walked away thinking what I really wanted to say - why do you still trust so much?  Did you ask for your husbands doctors definition of fantastic?  Is it fantastic because he has enriched the hospital with procedure after procedure?

Yes. Well said.

As you point out, most people regard the absence of symptoms the same as health. Of course, that's not even close to the truth.

The emerging phenomenon of self-empowerment in health will make for great confusion as well as great opportunity.

Dr. Davis,

A little bit off the main thread, but what do you think are the chances of having completely clear coronary vessels if you have a heart scan score of zero?

Thomas--

The chances are excellent. The likelihood of uncalcified plaque and the risk of coronary events like heart attack is exceptionally low.

There are exceptions when symptoms are present or certain forms of lipid (cholesterol) abnormalities are present, but they are indeed exceptional. Please read the Track Your Plaque Special Report, What if my heart scan score is zero?

Sad but its all about the money now. After my 3rd visit to er room last dec 04 I had them unplug me and walked slowly out of the cath lab...Dr. said I needed bypasses etc., but I refused...plus the 10,000 for all the drugs was a bit much...3 bags of morphine was the cheapest........read your book after scan and have been doing good so far so guess 2 of the 4 stents from 03/1999 are not blocking anymore plus nitro use is way down now going into the 4th yr.

Was going to make appt. but with the weather so bad I'm just staying put and reading all this stuff. Would like to say my BP is lower now that am low carbing and no atenolol or altace needed so what you eat does make a big difference.

Hope you keep this site going as its really helping me a lot. I'm so far keeping the right neck flowing at 50% after operation, the left still no flow and not operatable now. Good luck and keep the info coming....Roaming