A Life Less Ordinary

Periodic cramping, bloating, constipation, and diarrhoea. There was also the unfocussed anxiety, irritability and depression - which got worse with menstruation, but was there most of the time.

These symptoms are not pleasant and make life uncomfortable in many ways - but when you add in the onset of rheumatoid arthritis which was beginning in the thumb and finger joints, the development of alopecia areata, on top of a pre-existing vitiligo condition – then far from life being one of joy and excitement, becomes one of constant pain, worry and misery - especially when you’re a 20-something year old young lady.

After countless hours and consultations with private healthcare specialists where your prognosis is regular symptomatic treatment with steroid injections to quieten the unavoidable flare-ups of pigment loss in fairly expansive patches of skin, hair loss and debilitating pain that will progressively become more frequent and aggressive as you age, then your future becomes a bleak and dark place to envisage.

When you add to this a diagnosis of endometriosis, then that dark place becomes an abyss, especially when the consultant who you hope will throw you a lifeline shrugs it off as being ‘normal’ and offers a contraceptive pill to alleviate the symptoms as a conciliatory measure. Normal? ‘normal’ is not always what it seems, especially when that norm data is derived from the average of a less than healthy population.

None of the Doctors, consultants or specialists even mentioned nutrition and when questioned they responded that it wasn’t really a factor.

“It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.”
~ Chuck Palahniuk, Fight Club

I think we had almost reached this ‘lost everything’ stage, so maybe it was time to try anything – well something; anything is a wee bit ambiguous.

The vitiligo, alopecia and rheumatism are all auto-immune related conditions which have a massive genetic component to them. But genetics do not equal destiny. Just because you have a specific gene doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be expressed; this is where epigenetics (gene-environment interaction) is so important. There’s nothing we could do to alter her genetics, but we do have a large control over the environmental conditions.

Because there was an obvious gut component to the situation, we arranged her food to remove any potential triggers for inflammation and provide specific nutrients that are known anti-inflammatory agents, knowing that doing so we are also beneficially modulating the HPA axis and pancreatic function which then has further implications down the cascade. In addition to this we also created an environment that assisted the repairing of the gut and other tissues in the body.

Within a fortnight the rheumatism had completely quietened down. Within a month the bloating, constipation and obtrusive diarrhoea* had disappeared. The anxiety, irritability and depression had also diminished. There have been no further flare ups of vitiligo and hopefully the alopecia is now in remission (it’s difficult to gauge as you have to wait for the hair follicle to cycle which can take at least a few months), but it’s looking good so far – no further patches occurring and the previous areas are now growing new hair.

As well as assisting in reducing the unpleasant symptoms, there was also a nice, but not unsurprising effect. Take a look at the accompanying photos and you may just be able to see to what I’m referring.

Well done Nazaneen. You’ve had to be very strong for so long – now, with this gremlin under control let’s begin to make your life a stunning masterpiece.


*Foods that previously would’ve required an almost instant visit to the bathroom have since been re-introduced and now seem to be tolerated perfectly fine

Virus Causes Over-eating

 
Weight stigma, weight bias, weight-ism and weight-based discrimination are all terms used to identify the act of characterising someone based upon their weight (usually at the extremes of under- or -over). In our culture under-weight people are often perceived as harsh, controlling and cold, whereas over-weight people are perceived as indolent, inconsistent and permissive. These stereo-typical memes (essentially a virus of the mind) permeate through our society to such an extent that they have been shown to have a large effect on how we socially and economically interact. For instance it has been shown that being overweight, regardless of ability, has a negative consequence on success at job interviews, promotions, pay raises and many other aspects in careers.

Our culture shapes our reality much more than is appreciated. Culture is the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society. It’s an information construct. The information you receive becomes your reality.

Your most sacred, intimate beliefs, including your belief in a creator(s) was taught to you by someone else. Had you been born into a different culture, you would now hold different beliefs and worship different god(s). But, you would feel just as certain about those beliefs as the beliefs you hold now. In both cases the source of many of these beliefs are a long forgotten mystery, yet they are still as potent, if not more so, than at their inception. The ambiguous residual traces of memes often cause more damage than the original because the uncertainty that builds in over time allows for biased interpretation. Thus it is prudent to be discerning to whom we give our minds.

The media makes great use of this cultural influence to shape our thoughts and views on the world. The newspapers, television and internet, all forms of virtual reality, constantly bombard us with images, icons and other material that changes our perception of reality. If we use this unexamined content as the basis of our learning, then we simply become a manipulated pawn in a game we don’t even know we are playing.

Overweight, whether as a cause or a consequence of disease, is a health concern. However the current trend of fat-shaming is not only vile, but it doesn’t help overweight individuals rectify the situation (which I’m assuming is the purpose of fat-shaming - it couldn’t just be venom projected from un-enlightened, insecure, unsophisticated minds, could it?).

A recent study has supported the hypothesis that the hyper-phagia* (over-eating) often seen in overweight individuals is not only a result of brain circuits damaged by specific foodstuffs (especially hyper-palatable foods processed to contain the magic combination of salt, sugar and fat), but also that the ability to control the evolutionary urges to consume these foods is diminished due to this culturally generated perception of image.

The study looked at how a weight-stigmatising environment affected an individual’s ability to control themselves in regards to food. Women were randomly assigned to read a news article about stigma faced by overweight individuals in the job market or a control article. Exposure to weight-stigmatising news articles caused self-perceived overweight women, but not women who did not perceive themselves as overweight, to consume more calories and feel less capable of controlling their eating than exposure to non-stigmatising articles. Weight-stigmatising articles also increased concerns about being a target of stigma among both self-perceived overweight and non-overweight women.

The self-perception of individuals who perceive themselves as overweight alters the way the brain functions. When individuals who perceive themselves as overweight are exposed to an environment where they are made to feel shame, guilt and other negative emotions, the body initiates a stress response. The stress response is a very ancient and powerful set of processes, mediated mostly by the R-complex (our reptilian brain) and limbic system (paleo-mammalian brain) that served us well in our evolutionary past to handle dangerous situations and drive us to seek out food. The problem is when activated these areas over-ride our higher brain functions.

The higher brain functions are mediated by the neo-mammalian brain. Among these higher functions is the ability to regulate and control behaviour by using reasoning, problem solving and planning. For instance, if we were presented with a chocolate cake, but know that it was at odds with our current goals, using the executive functions would allow us to regulate ourselves by reasoning that ‘If I eat this cake now, it won’t help me reach my goal, so I shall politely decline’. However if the brain is in a highly stressed state, this process does not occur or is at least severely inhibited, and thus the regulatory brakes are taken off and the action of devouring the cake is literally a no-brainer.

A key finding of this study was that the actual body-size of the individual wasn’t as impactful as was the perception of body-size, which ties directly into our observation of how the contemporary bed-fellows of media and industry manufacture an ever more encompassing environment where we are subjected to powerful influences on our perceptions which in-turn influence our behavioural autonomy.

If I were of a more cynical mind, I would suggest that the roots of this culture of fat-shaming and fit-spiration may have more to do with contrived market forces to get you to consume, consume, consume, than an honest attempt at promoting health.


*The same neural stimulation in the hypothalamic-limbic-pituitary circuits of the midbrain that cause some to overeat, can also have the opposite effect in certain people causing them to not eat at all.

Reference:

Brenda Major, Jeffrey M. Hunger, Debra Bunyan, Carol T. Miller, The Ironic Effects of Weight Stigma, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Available online 1 December 2013, ISSN 0022-1031, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.11.009.

Positive Lifestyle Changes Associated with Longer Telomeres

 
The Lancet (Oncology) journal described a study whose results revealed that improvements in diet, exercise, stress management, and social support are associated with longer telomeres* (DNA-protein complexes at the end of chromosomes which shorten with cellular aging).

The current study included 35 men with low-risk prostate cancer who had elected to undergo active surveillance. Ten men participated in the lifestyle intervention and 25 served as controls. Blood samples collected from the subjects at the beginning of the study and after five years were analyzed for peripheral-blood mononuclear cell telomere length and telomerase levels.

The lifestyle program consisted of a whole food diet, moderate exercise, stress management (yoga, meditation and relaxation), and weekly support group sessions.

Men who engaged in the lifestyle program had telomeres that were 10% longer on average at the end of the study, while the control group experienced an average 3% decrease in length. Greater adherence to lifestyle recommendations were found to be associated with a corresponding increase in telomere length.

Reference:

The Lancet Oncology - 1 October 2013 ( Vol. 14, Issue 11, Pages 1112-1120 )
DOI: 10.1016/S1470-2045(13)70366-8.

* http://humanperformanceconsulting-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/hayflick-unlimited-part-1.html

Breathe

 

Stress is now being shown by science to be linked to the initiation and rapid degeneration of many of the major diseases plaguing humanity today from cardiovascular diseases, many cancers and certain dementias. However as I’ve shown in previous articles* it’s not really the ‘stress’ that gets you, rather it’s your response (and more usually ‘reaction’, there’s a difference) to the stressor.

To help you begin to remove yourself from the primitive immediate r-complex reaction to stress that many of us display (much like our non-human animal cousins), we can use mindfulness to develop a quiet mind. Far from just minimising damage from stress reactivity, the new research coming out surrounding mindfulness is demonstrating that it allows us to begin to tap into the miraculous power of our genome, from abilities such as enhanced creativity and vastly increased brain speed and power, to physical performances that we currently only catch glimpses of from our species absolute elite. You, your friends and your family all have this potential, practicing a quiet mind is an essential component to being able to harness it.

Here’s a great group of methods that the amazing people at the University of California San Francisco assembled (annotations are mine) to help you to begin developing a quiet mind; all they ask you to do is regularly BREATHE:

(B)reathe - Take deep breaths and be present in the moment. To help you remain in the present simply focus on your breathing, notice how it feels, not only the breath but also how it affects your entire body and mind.

(R)ealistic goals – One of the oddities of the Human psyche is our over-confidence – ever notice how we are all the greatest driver in the world? The same is true when dealing with, especially short-term, goals, we are often overly confident in our ability to achieve them. There’s a truism that goes ‘we overestimate how much we can do in a day, but we greatly underestimate how much we can do in a year’. Set realistic goals, make a plan and then achieve them. Success is a habit - create success, often.

(E)veryday events – ‘Just my luck, it always happens to me’. Always? I’m willing to bet (of the Gentlemen’s kind) that whatever bad things have happened this year, you’ve probably had at least 100 times as many days where it didn’t. Why don’t we celebrate the fact that today, is actually a good day, for so many reasons?

(A)cts of kindness – The greatest gift is in the giving. In our increasingly consumerist world we often feel that gifts have to be a purchasable item. Yet with all of this ‘stuff’, people are less content than ever. So I’m not sure the solution to happiness will be found in more ‘stuff’. There are other things that we can give to each other though – time, compliments, friendship…I’m sure you can think of many others. We don’t elevate ourselves by pushing people down around us relative to where we are; that only keeps us at the same level. Lift people up around you and you’ll naturally be buoyed up by your surroundings.

(T)urn negative events around – Even in our darkest hours, if we look at it from the right perspective we can always find a positive or useful outcome. Learn to become a seeker of these silver linings, that’s where the growth is.

(H)umour – Humour is Natures stress reliever. See the silliness in it all, especially our artificially created social constructs. Be self-depreciating without taking it to heart. As the saying goes, ‘Don’t take life too seriously, nobody gets out alive anyway’.

(E)nd each day with gratitude – As a culture we often end our days reflecting upon the events that transpired and more often than not dwell upon what went wrong. Using the same thought-pattern as in the ‘everyday events’, focus specifically on what you are grateful for on this day. A little phrase that might help you in this process ‘Appreciation over expectation’.


* http://humanperformanceconsulting-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/what-is-real.html

Less 'brown fat' Linked to Diabetes and Obesity

 
The findings of a study published today (12th November 2013) indicate that the lower level of brown adipose tissue (BAT, or 'brown fat') found in south Asians—who make up a fifth of the world's population— could help explain why they have an exceptionally high susceptibility to developing metabolic problems such as obesity and type II diabetes.

BAT has been shown to have beneficial effects on glucose tolerance, lipid metabolism, and body weight in pre-clinical studies. Unlike white fat cells, which in-part store the body's surplus energy as fat, brown fat cells in BAT can convert some of this energy into large amounts of heat, thus dissipating the energy surplus rather than storing it. Estimates suggest that fully activated BAT can contribute up to 20% of total energy expenditure; for the average female in the UK that would be equivalent to approximately 300 Kcal worth of fat per day. To put this in perspective this is the same amount of fat that would be used during a higher intensity aerobic class lasting 90-120 minutes (1 ½ - 2 hours).

Previous studies have shown that BAT activity is reduced in obese adults, thereby limiting this route of energy expenditure.

In this study, researchers from the Netherlands compared resting energy expenditure and BAT volume and activity in 12 healthy lean south Asian men (aged about 25 years) and 12 matched white Caucasian men after exposure to cold using PET and CT scans – all subjects were Dutch nationals. The effect of cold exposure on non-shivering thermogenesis and plasma lipid levels was also measured.

The results demonstrated a noticeable difference in resting energy expenditure (REE). The REE was markedly lower (-32%) in south Asian participants than in Caucasians, as was the volume of metabolically active BAT (-34%).

The researchers concluded that the lower resting energy expenditure, non-shivering thermogenesis, and BAT volumes in south Asian populations might underlie their high susceptibility to metabolic disturbances, such as obesity and type II diabetes. The researchers further suggested that development of strategies to increase BAT volume and activity might help prevent and treat these disorders.

In the HPC-UK Lean for Life program, increasing the amount and activity of BAT is one of our primary aims. It requires a few steps to create the specific environment to stimulate BAT production and activity, but once it’s set up, it is very easy to maintain a low body-fat body with very little effort and remain that way for life without the deprivation or unnecessary amounts of exercise called for by more common approaches.

www.hpc-uk.net

Reference:

Leontine E H Bakker MD et al. Brown adipose tissue volume in healthy lean south Asian adults compared with white Caucasians: a prospective, case-controlled observational study. The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology - 12 November 2013 DOI: 10.1016/S2213-8587(13)70156-6


Artwork by marcbourcier.deviantart.com/

Overweight Damages Your Brain

 
The composition of your body (Lean Body Mass: Fat Mass) is a big component of health from many perspectives. The amount of muscle you carry is vital for multiple processes throughout the body; some we’re only just beginning to recognise. One key function of muscle is to assist the immune system; if you lose your muscle, you lose your body defence system. Consequently the loss of muscle opens up the body to a whole host of maladies from infection through to cancer. This is one reason why the health of a person who has aged typically degenerates into dysfunction and disease as the loss of muscle allows excess oxidative stress and chronic inflammation to pervade the entire body.

In addition to loss of muscle, which alone is devastating, the accretion of excess body-fat is also very damaging. Space only allows me to give one or two examples, so let’s look at the lesser known consequences of being overweight - dementia. A number of population-based longitudinal studies show that midlife overweight (BMI* 25-29), and all obesity (BMI 30 and above), multiplies the risk of dementia.

We know that diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and metabolic syndrome are all intimately linked to dementia, and high body-fat often co-presents with these dysfunctions. However, there are a small population who do carry extra body-fat but do not immediately display, on the surface, the usual symptomatic alterations in health. But just because the usual markers of disease are not as evident in a small population of overweight individuals, doesn’t mean that there isn’t damage being done silently under the radar.

The now famous Swedish Twin Study showed conclusively, that overweight at midlife increases the risk of Alzheimer’s, and vascular dementia, independent of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Simply being overweight (BMI 25-29), without any other apparent health problems, almost triples the risk of later life dementia.

Part of the reason is the chronic inflammation that accompanies excess body-fat; I’ve shown in previous articles how chronic inflammation underlies almost all of the degenerative diseases that plague humanity. But new studies are revealing how overweight and/ or poor diet triggers the degenerative changes in your brain that lead to dementia.

I’ve explained before that our adipose (fat cells) are not simple storehouses of fat, rather more and more we are discovering that it is a neuro-endocrine organ that sends out multiple hormonal signals to the body. One of these hormones is Leptin. Leptin is intimately involved in your metabolism, but either through overweight or poor nutrition and lifestyle it becomes dysfunctional. Being overweight means that you have more fat cells that can secrete leptin, so beyond a certain threshold (18% Body-fat in men and 22% Body-fat in women) it becomes excessive and the system starts to break down. Recent studies have revealed that leptin is vital to regulate beta-amyloid and tau protein both of which are integral components of the changes in the brains of those with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. If the leptin system becomes dysfunctional, as it does in overweight individuals, it cannot perform its regulatory role on beta-amyloid and tau, which then allows brain degeneration to continue unabated.

Over at the HPC-UK website there are a few calculators that can give you a bearing on your level of body-fat (once you know this you can use it to reveal your biological age in that regard too). As mentioned above if your body-fat percentage is above 18% (men) or 22% (women) you may want to consider taking steps to bring this down to below these levels.

You can find these calculators here http://www.hpc-uk.net/5.html


*Although BMI has its faults, it is a simple test that is a fair measure of overweight status in a relatively sedentary populace. More active members of society (such as those who train regularly) ideally would use more direct measurements of body-fatness such as skin-folds, bio-electrical impedance or if accessible, the bod-pod or underwater weighing.

Brain Damage

 
Best selling author and Columnist for 'The New Yorker' Malcolm Gladwell has, for the past few years, been forming an assault on one of USA’s most heart held passions – Football. I say assault; really he is just pointing out a fairly obvious issue with a fundamental feature of the game; that feature being collisions, more precisely head collisions.

Malcolm Gladwell has been exploring the link between the repetitive sub-concussive blows players experience on the field during games and practice and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE); a progressive neurological disorder. Malcolm Gladwell is not ‘making’ this connection; he isn’t qualified in the relevant areas. As a very popular journalist he is however in a very powerful position to highlight what a body of research, which is currently growing rapidly, is suggesting. That suggestion is that repeated head trauma (even very slight trauma such as gently banging your head against a brick wall) causes the brain to be injured which results in the aforementioned umbrella term CTE.

CTE manifests as a reduction in brain mass across a broad range of regions. As well as atrophy (degeneration) of brain tissue due to neuronal loss, CTE also presents as dysfunctional neurofibrally tangles formed by a defective form of tau protein and as the accumulation of plaque formed by beta-amyloid, both of which prevent the brain from communicating as the neurons are unable to effectively relay information. If these sound familiar, you’d be right, they are two of the changes that are present in brains of those with Alzheimer’s.

Others with CTE have symptoms of motor neuron disease symptoms which appear to mimic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ((ALS) also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) and also Huntington’s disease. Progressive muscle weakness, balance and gait problems are some of the earlier symptoms of individuals who had verified CTE, so here we’re looking at overlaps with individuals who develop Parkinson’s and similarly related degenerative diseases such as progressive supra-nuclear palsy which is often misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s.

As you can imagine damage to the brain not only results in physical functional issues, but also cognitive, behavioural and emotional changes too. These symptoms are diverse, including depression, anxiety, aggression, memory, and executive function deficit to name but a few. Which symptoms appear depends on which area of the brain is most affected by the damage, although they often co-present in various ratios due to the often global effect of the process.

Malcolm’s choice of football isn’t, I believe, because of a deep seated hatred for the sport, but more because of the very obvious evidence of head collisions, and in part because using football as the focal point of the discussion will emotionally gain more attention due to the deep love of the game in the U.S. He could have chosen any sport where similar incidences of collisions and especially head trauma are an integral part of the activity such as ice hockey and combat sports; in fact CTE was previously known as dementia pugilistica, due to its prevalence in those who participate in boxing. Combat outside of sport, such as those serving in the armed forces are also at risk of CTE, especially, but as we’ll see probably not the main reason (this will in all likelihood hold true for the football players and other athletes too), via blast injuries. In fact, you don’t have to be physically insulted at all to initiate the process that is part of the CTE condition, in which case even the less physically combative of us may also be at risk.

If you receive a blow to the head, even one that doesn’t seem particularly offensive such as heading a football (soccer), your body will switch on specific genes to defend itself from the stress. The switching on of these genes increases the production of messenger signals called cytokines which initiate an inflammatory state to deal with the damage caused by the physical trauma. The cytokines then proceed to stimulate specialised cells in your brain called ‘Glia’ which have multiple roles in maintaining the function of the brain. One of their roles is to produce nitric oxide, which is a vital chemical for health especially of the brain as it is a necessary messenger for the flow of transmissions through neurons. The problem is when levels of nitric oxide become excessive such as when it is induced by stress (physical, chemical or emotional), and the chronic inflammation that accompanies this environment.

Although taking multiple (or even a single hit to the head if it’s sufficiently hard enough) can create this nitric oxide tsunami, there are other situations that cause this too, and I think this is where the perfect storm that is contact sports becomes problematic.

As mentioned above, there doesn’t need to be a physical insult to cause an increased production of nitric oxide, you can do it with a simple, and even unconscious, thought. Heightened feelings such as rage or fear cause the brain to produce increased levels of nitric oxide; the reason is fairly simple when you think about it in the right context. During our evolutionary past, throughout the lineage, right back to our distant reptilian forebears, our ancestors had to develop processes that would allow them to survive in a much more hostile environment than we do today. Nitric oxide was built into this system to speed the signals in the brain when our ancestors needed to fight or take flight, hmmm….just the kind of emotions and circumstances that are heightened on the field of play and war.

We still have the legacy of this design today which continues to serve us very well in the right circumstances, such as when are in actual physical danger or when we use this increased processing horsepower in sport. Problem is most of us tap into the system on a daily basis, generally when we are not even in immediate danger. As Spidey’s Uncle Ben (Parker) said ‘with great power, comes great responsibility’, and the nitric oxide system is very powerful, so we need to be very responsible in how we use it, otherwise it will result in brain deterioration on an accelerated scale. And that’s not even taking into account the even bigger problem caused by excess glutamate, which is even more damaging, and like nitric oxide is released by strong negative emotions.

I’ve shown in previous articles* how your perception of the world governs to a large extent your reality, so even if you don’t put yourself in harms way, those amongst us who are quick to become annoyed, enraged or can’t let things go, are simply hastening their own demise, as well as not enjoying the little time they have here on Earth to boot. We're getting pretty good at keeping bodies patched together, even after we've allowed them to become diseased. Brains, not so much. If you'd like to maintain your brain lifelong, you’d be wise to learn how to change that situation**.


http://humanperformanceconsulting-uk.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/what-is-real.html

** There are ways to reduce the damage caused by the fall-out of excess nitric oxide beyond limiting the amount of knocks you take to the head, however I’m unable to give a blanket account of the methods used due to the wide range of individual differences in, not only your brain structure, but also your personal lifestyle dynamics and history; a one-sized fits all approach is really a one-sized fits none.

Skin Elasticity Biomarker

 
Your skin is the largest organ in your body which has multiple functions. Besides its own vital roles, the skin can also be used as a loose marker for other non-directly related systems in the body.

Two of the most prevalent proteins in your skin are collagen and elastin; collagen provides structural strength and integrity and is supported by elastin, which as the name implies provides the skin with its elastic properties. To give you an idea of how these two proteins work in combination, think about a willow tree in a strong wind; the willow tree has a remarkably resilient structure, not because it is completely rigid, but because it bends and gives enough to buffer the force of the wind. Your skin is similarly designed, it has just enough rigidity to act as a physical barrier, but also the elasticity to be physically deformed (to a certain extent) without breaking.

These two proteins are very important in other areas of your body too, such as the arteries that act as part of the transport infrastructure for your blood. Your heart creates pressure to generate the force needed to pump your blood around the body. To withstand this pressure the blood vessels that supply the body with blood need to be strong enough to resist this force, which is where collagen comes into play. Just as important though is the need to be flexible, which is the main role of elastin, so that you don’t spring a leak every-time the pressure raises sufficiently high. Elastin also has a neat trick of being involved in harnessing elastic strain energy which is part of a genius solution called pressure wave propagation that Nature has hit on to minimise the energy cost of being able to circulate your blood.

With poor lifestyle and average ageing these proteins are not incorporated optimally in the arterial vessel structure and therefore the system gradually becomes more and more dysfunctional. This will have wide ranging consequences throughout the entire body and can be manifest in many ways such as hypertension, heart disease, stroke or arterial aneurysm, amongst others.

A really quick and simple test that acts an adjunct to other markers is the skin elasticity test. The test takes less than a minute, follow this link to the test instructions and result calculator http://www.hpc-uk.net/5.html

Ageing: Chronological vs Biological

 
Many of you already know that death isn’t as a result of the passing of years; there’s no mechanism for the passage of time to cause a person to die. There’s no such thing as ‘dying of old age’. Death only occurs by damage, dysfunction or disease. To the extent that you can prevent these three factors, you are essentially immortal.

One way we can measure these factors is through Biomarkers of Ageing. Biomarkers of ageing are various measurements that can give you an idea as to the level of degeneration of your body. In some we have sufficient data to be able to determine a measure called ‘Biological Age’. As opposed to ‘Chronological Age’ (how long you’ve been here on Earth), biological age is a measurement of the physical state of your body.

We all know people who look after themselves very well by eating nutritious food and exercising regularly who appear to be much younger than the candles on their Birthday cake suggests. We also know those who eat poorly, smoke, burn the midnight oil regularly and do not exercise who look decades older than other people of their chronological age.

To be able to age well biologically, you need to know where you stand presently. By knowing your health status you can then assess your biological age compared to your chronological age. If your biological age is higher than your chronological age, you should consider taking remedial action fairly promptly to address the situation. Even if your biological age is younger than your chronological age, you shouldn’t be too complacent, but ensure you are maintaining good habits (or start incorporating them if you haven’t already) to keep this score low. A good age range to try to maintain or re-attain is somewhere under 35, preferably 30.

I’ve put the first of a series of biological calculators over at the HPC-UK website; the first one is based upon blood pressure, a measure many of you will have probably had tested recently. It’s an important one as heart disease is still the number one cause of death in the UK.

I will try to put up calculators for a battery of tests that can be taken easily at home or obtained from your Doc’ or local chemist. Some tests do not have sufficient data to be able to generate a biological age score, but I will make those tests into a traffic light format so you will have an idea of whether the score is good (Green); meh (Yellow); or maybe start dialling for an ambulance (Red)…

The blood pressure calculator can be found here: http://www.hpc-uk.net/5.html

Real Body Composition

 
“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.” ― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Current calculations put the Big Bang as occurring about 13.7 billion years ago which was the beginning of the primordial Universe that was composed of hydrogen, helium and a little lithium. From these elements the first stars were born, which in their interiors the heavier elements found in Nature such as carbon were created. Given sufficient time, and depending on the size, these stars ended their lives in a spectacular fashion by exploding and thus seeding the Universe with their components. These elemental components through an elegant dance began to amalgamate into various mixes which form the Universe that we see today.

One particularly varied combination of elements coalesced into a planet which allowed for a certain mix of elements to organise into a form that could replicate itself. Over millennia these replicators become more and more complex by learning to incorporate more of the mix into itself and use it for increasingly elaborate functions. The result (so-far) of this process is us and all the life-forms upon a collective home, called by us, Earth.

Although you may feel separate and fairly permanent, a key idea to grasp is how connected and impermanent you actually are. Your body is a temporary composite of the ancient material that continually, instant by instant, flows through you in the form of solids, liquids, gases and vibrations. Some of this material is fairly long haul others are more fleeting day trippers. Who you are now is the reflection of this flow. The skin you see in the mirror is mostly made of the flow in and out of you during the previous two weeks, the blood in your veins from the flow of the last 4 months, even your bones who almost completely anew from this flow once every 7 years. Moment by moment you are reconstructing and exchanging yourself with the Universe.

If you look at the image alongside this piece you will see that far from what you are told annually by the popular media the key to a healthy and high performance body and mind is not the latest flavour of the month super-food or supplement, but a precise mix of ancient substances that make up the human body.

By simple arithmetic you can see that three quarters of your body are made from just two elements – oxygen and hydrogen, mostly combined together in the form of water. The second largest substance that makes you and me is carbon (oxygen is the first with hydrogen being third) which is certainly the basis of life (as we know it) on this planet, if not throughout the Universe (although silicon has the necessary properties too). If we include nitrogen into this mix, at three percent, then this combination of four elements account for over 95 percent of your body.

These four elements are provided by the air you breathe, the water you drink and the protein, fats and carbohydrates that you eat. If you’re getting these basics wrong by breathing in polluted air, drinking impure water and eating foods that do not contain the correct types of protein, fats and carbohydrates, then no matter what you do, or how much you spend, wish, hope, pray or will it to be, it will amount to nought because you’re not creating the basic structure for the remaining few percent to integrate optimally.

The remaining few percent of your body are mostly minerals which are in descending order of amount calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, sodium, chloride and magnesium. Combined with the above four elements (CHON), these eleven substances make up 99.9 percent of your structure. Thus to build and maintain your framework optimally you need to seek these substances via your food choices. And because they occur in different proportions in different sources you need to make sure you’re covering your bases by eating a wide variety of foods.

Although all of the rest of the nutrients combined only account for 0.1 percent of your structure they are no less important. Iodine, for example, is only required in the amount of 150-300 mcg (micrograms). Just for clarification, a microgram is a millionth of a gram; pretty tiny. But without regular inclusion of this miniscule amount into your structure, your body becomes rapidly dysfunctional and diseased. So, on a daily basis your body sorts through all of the food you eat, the air you breathe and the water you drink to locate this, for all intents and purposes, invisible substance, which it then incorporates into your structure so that it can continue to function and exist.

This simple premise should underlie almost your entire approach to nutrition, if not life. You should attempt to provide yourself with the environment so that you can optimally enable this flow of ancient substances through your body in the correct proportions and in the least contaminated way possible. That way, the DNA that resides within you can express itself in response to the environment to which it evolved. Given the right environment the abilities that lay dormant within each of us can begin to be realised; abilities that will astound even the most pessimistic of us.

Cellulite Solutions - Part 2

 

In the previous pieces in this series we have seen that the three main symptoms that in combination give the bumpy appearance associated with cellulite are excess fat, circulatory insufficiency, and connective tissue architecture. In the last instalment we also saw that the epidermis (the upper surface of the skin) can often mask cellulite even if all the other factors are present; so we looked at a basic protocol overview of how to begin thickening the skin to provide this effect. As with all things in the body we have to bow down to nature and respect physiological dynamics, so this protocol will take at least 6 months of regular application to have an effect of allowing enough turnovers of the cells to develop an increased protein content. Although this will help to improve the ‘appearance’ of cellulite it does nothing to change the factors that really create the cellulite situation.

Cellulite usually occurs at a few periods in life; knowing this we can then gain an insight into the mechanisms responsible for its development. The main period when cellulite becomes apparent is puberty, a time when the hormonal milieu kicks into high gear. Because cellulite is more commonly a female issue this points straight away to estrogen being a key player. The whole hormonal network is fairly complicated and thus space prevents us from exploring all of the interactions, so we’ll just skim across the area to pick up the main gist of what is going on.

Estrogen is the pivotal player in cellulite by propagating many of the features of cellulite. It underlies the abnormal architecture of the connective tissue that forms the mesh in which the fat cells poke through. An imbalance in estrogen either as an excessive total amount, or disproportionate levels relative to other hormones is a key feature of people with cellulite. This can be caused by many factors but the key ones are excessive body-fat, stress, alcohol, smoking, and exogenous sources of estrogens such as birth control pills and exposure to environmental xeno-estrogens.

As well as promoting the formation of irregular connective tissue, an estrogen imbalance promotes the formation of fat, which will further feed back into the production of estrogen. So one major factor in reducing the environment that causes cellulite is to address hormonal balance, which as stated above is way beyond the scope of this piece. To give you an idea of the complexity, in the HPC-UK Lean for Life Program it takes 12 weeks to cover the basics of the hormonal cascade for fat loss. The major hormones involved in cellulite are, as already stated estrogen, as well as progesterone, prolactin, thyroid, insulin and cortisol.

Besides the specific hormonal environment (although as with everything in the body, there is massive interplay) the other causes of cellulite are inactivity or inappropriate activity. Even in people who do not have a hormonal imbalance that propagates an irregular connective tissue matrix, the act of gaining body-fat too quickly will create a cellulite condition, as the connective tissue cannot maintain pace to provide the necessary scaffolding to hold the structures in place, so the excess adipose (fat) spills out through the established collagen strands.

Inactivity hits you from multiple angles. Modern life has provided us with many creature comforts, but one that is seemingly innocuous is our chairs. Depending on your occupation, I would hazard a guess that at least half of your waking hours are spent in a seated position. Being in this position for hours on end creates a situation where the area around your thighs is relatively inactive which not only reduces circulation due to lack of muscular contractions, but also compresses the tissues underneath and to the sides of your thighs which further increases the herniation of the adipose. This should also reveal the wisdom of any kind of wrapping treatment and excessively wearing tights or leggings.

Because circulation is reduced the normal flow of nutrients and metabolites cannot occur in the area, so the fat cells can’t effectively liberate their fat to be used as fuel, nor turnover the cells properly to ensure maintenance. This situation further compounds the issue as the tissues begin to accumulate damage which then increases localised inflammation and with it fluid retention. The inflammation issue itself, which is a pivotal feature of cellulite, is dependent on your nutritional makeup, your physical activity (amount and type) and many other lifestyle factors. Excessive inflammation also adds to the lipogenic (fat creating) environment which hastens the development of fat in the area. So for many reasons daily exercise and regular non-exercise movement throughout the day is essential to reduce the environment that creates cellulite.

However, even in those people that do exercise, they are unfortunately given poor advice as to the kind of exercise best used to help the situation. I’ve shown before how excessive reliance on aerobic type exercise actually reduces your ability to remain lean as it increases your efficiency at metabolising fat, which on the surface appears oxymoronic. And even in those people who do sufficient exercise to out-weigh the efficiency (as long as they continue to exercise), the negative effect it has on the hormonal and metabolic environment is still unhelpful.

You can’t cheat it off either; not covered in the previous piece on current treatments, liposuction is often promoted as a cellulite cure by sucking out the excess adipose tissue. No way. Liposuction removes the deeper levels of fat that actually provide a cushion for the more superficial cellulite. By removing that softer layer, the cellulite rests closer to the firmer muscle tissue and becomes even more obvious.

The only way to permanently reduce cellulite is to lose the excess fat that is pushing through the mesh of connective tissue, support the re-modelling of the connective tissue and improve the health of your skin, which although not covered here is a major contributor to the production of hormones, especially testosterone in females. This requires an integrated approach where you improve your daily nutrition to optimise your structure, exercise regularly to signal the correct expression of your DNA to produce a lean body, and regulate your hormones to help create healthy and vital environment. All of this takes a little time to accomplish, as you have to wait for the old cells to die off and be replaced with newer more appropriately constructed cells. Look at a minimum of 6-12 months as the time period for this to occur. Each day is an opportunity to support the revision of the condition or contribute to the worsening of it.

If you are looking at that timeframe and are balking at the idea, remember this - The time will pass regardless, the key factor is how you choose to utilise that time.

www.hpc-uk.net

HPC-UK Bitesize (Health): Weight Training Decreases Blood Cell Oxidative Stress

  

Free radicals are highly reactive chemicals that in excess are linked to DNA damage, depressed immunity, muscle damage and fatigue.

Antioxidants assist in neutralising the destructive fallout from these chemicals.* Research out of Iran found that an 8 week weight training program increased antioxidant enzymes in red blood cells (superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidise).

Summary- Weight training can help to protect against free radical damage and improve metabolic health.

Reference

International Journal of Sports Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism, 23: 230-236, 2013

* Find out more about oxidation here (‘Breath of Fire’) http://wel-ness.blogspot.co.uk/

Cellulite Solutions (Part 1)

 

In the previous two pieces we saw that cellulite is a really a created term propagated by the cosmetic industry to lull an ever increasing supply of consumers into paying for products and services of dubious efficacy. Even with the high-end treatments the change in appearance is a temporary one at best, and at worst a causative agent in the aggravation of the condition.

In this piece we’ll begin to look at the conditions that contribute to the symptoms that are collectively called cellulite and in understanding these factors try to divine the interventions needed to modify the causes of the situation.

We have already seen that the three main symptoms that in combination give the bumpy appearance associated with cellulite are excess fat, circulatory insufficiency, and connective tissue architecture.

Although it’s thought that cellulite is mainly a female concern, a larger proportion of men than is readily apparent actually have a condition similar to cellulite, its just better concealed. Part of the cellulite condition is inadequate thickness of the skin, which is why there are in fact many individuals (both male and female) that have all of the other traits of cellulite, but because they have thicker skin, the lumps and bumps aren’t as visible. This intervention (thickening the skin) is actually one of the more successful interventions being offered by the medical and cosmetic industries alike.

One of the most effective methods of stimulating the body to remodel thicker skin is through the use of Retin-A; and herein lies a sorry tale. Retin-A works very effectively to remodel skin by removing damaged protein structures, and stimulating the growth of new proteins to create a more uniform and thicker skin. It was developed in the late 1960’s as a treatment for skin conditions such as acne vulgaris and keratosis pilaris (chicken skin). However, once Retin-A, which is a derivative of vitamin A (retinol), was shown to have real world effect, it was immediately seized by the pharmaceutical industry and is now a regulated treatment. This is true of many effective treatments, once they show real biological effect they are then usually re-classified as a drug and subsequently tightly regulated. Sometimes this is a good thing as some people really do need saving from themselves, sadly it does however restrict access to the more level headed of us.

So for most of us Retin-A is off the table but there are other chemicals that are accessible which perform a similar function; these are the hydroxy acids (alpha and beta). Hydroxy acids, like Retin-A, stimulate the growth of new proteins within the skin to produce a thicker more even tone. As suggested in the previous instalments, this isn’t an overnight effect, both Retin-A and Hydroxy acids stimulate the remodelling of your skin, but this is dependent upon physiological dynamics. The cells that make up your skin take a minimum of two weeks to turnover (they’re in constant flux, breaking down and re-building), but the change in each cycle is miniscule, so it takes a number of these cycles to create an appreciable effect. The remodelling process is reliant on the consistent provision of beneficial nutrients, the right signals and the minimisation of destructive stresses. Even with daily attention to providing the right environment for optimal skin health it will take at least 6-12 months to have any lasting effect. You have to grow a better body.

Nutrition for skin health is beyond the scope of this article, but here are a few tips to assist in the remodelling of skin towards a thicker, more evenly toned expression.

First, you need to wash, carefully. Keeping your skin clean is essential to minimise the toxins we are bombarded with daily from stressing the skin and causing an inflammatory condition which then prevents the effective remodelling of skin as well as at the same time as highlighting the hills and valleys due to fluid retention. However, over-zealous cleaning is counter-productive as it removes the natural humectant coating (moisture retaining substances) and disturbs the microbiome (bacteria) that maintains skin health. Excessive cleaning may in fact contribute to the appearance of cellulite by removing these two key features of the skin environment. Use gentle cleansers and do not use regular soap.

As well as maintaining skin hygiene, you can assist the process by gentle exfoliation. Uneven skin, like local inflammation, highlights the lumpy appearance of cellulite. Regular exfoliation to smooth out the skin will slightly reduce the appearance of cellulite, although it is a mostly cosmetic effect. It is however necessary to remove the flaky skin cells which contribute to irregular texture and also provides a ready source of nutrition (the skin cells) for specific bacteria that contributes to poor skin health. Again like cleansing, you need to be gentle and consistent, a few times per week is more than sufficient. The key is to encourage a better environment for healthy renewal, if you try to push it, however, the body will push back, often with results being the opposite for which you’d hoped.

Once you’ve thrown out the surface garbage, you can then attend to the task of remodelling the real skin structure. If you have access and you can afford it, then you can enlist the aid of a medical specialist hopefully well versed in dermatology who can provide you with an individual protocol for the use of Retin-A. The rest of us from more meagre holdings have to rely upon more accessible chemicals to assist us in stimulating an increased turnover of the proteins in the skin, which as we saw above were the hydroxy acids. There are three common hydroxy acids, lactic acid (alpha-) and glycolic acid (alpha-), which are both water soluble, and salicylic acid (beta-) which is lipid soluble. The lipid soluble beta-hydroxy acid is especially beneficial as it can penetrate through the fatty structures in the skin, so has a more widespread effect than the alpha-hydroxy acids. Daily and judicial use of these chemicals will gradually change the structure of the skin to a more healthy and abundant landscape (i.e. thicker and more uniform), but keep in mind that this will take a year or so for permanent (-ish) effect.

The final factor (in our small summary) that will vastly improve the health of your skin and improve the appearance of cellulite is the hydration status of your skin. Like the rest of your body, the skin is mostly water. However, due to its direct interaction with the environment, it has to deal with multiple stressors many of which cause it to dry out. I’ve covered previously how the hydration status of the cells in the body is in itself a potent signal that then dictates various cascades to either promote certain biochemical pathways or block them.

Most of the topical cellulite treatments simply work by causing the retention of water in the skin. This assists in the healthy turnover of the skin and temporarily smoothes out the skin, giving the illusion of reduced cellulite. One of the key ingredients that can achieve this is hyaluronic acid which helps to increase the skin's natural elastin levels. Hyaluronic acid does this by absorbing fairly large amounts of water which then supports the elasticity and youthful appearance of skin.

Performed regularly these activities will go some way to providing the skin with the correct signals to stimulate a thicker and more even skin texture and tone which in part will reduce the appearance of cellulite. This in itself is really only a cosmetic effect as we have done nothing to address the underlying connective tissue structure, nor the excess adiposity that is creating the pressure upon the collagen matrix. That is what we will address in the next piece in this series, as they are both fairly involved scenarios.

Fleeting Fantasies (Cellulite Treatments)

In the previous instalment (Peeling Back The Truth of Cellulite) we saw that cellulite is not truly a real discrete thing. It is however a perfect storm of contributory factors which lead to three primary manifestations: abnormal connective tissue, adipose excess and dysfunction, and local circulatory insufficiency. So to permanently reduce cellulite, all three of these symptoms, and more pertinently, their causes need to be addressed. The majority of treatments touted as cellulite ‘cures’, not only fail to use that simple premise, but by virtue of the mechanisms of some of the treatments (usually the ‘premium’ modalities) often exacerbate the issue in the long run.

The following are a few of the current treatments that propose to cure cellulite:

Laser

The use of laser therapy comes in a few different flavours, but the versions that are sufficiently powerful are obviously regulated and only available via medical professionals. The low power laser therapies offered by your local beauty therapist have an effect by a totally different mechanism.

The current professional therapies use a cannula with an integrated laser that is used to disrupt the fat cells and collagen fibers. This disruption will obviously change the structure in the area and temporarily improve the appearance of cellulite. However, it doesn’t change the environment that caused the cellulite to appear in the first place, so can’t prevent the re-appearance of the abnormal infrastructure. And because the treatment causes very rapid destruction of the tissues, it will feed into the chronic inflammatory cascade that is a prevalent factor in the cellulite condition. So it’s not unfeasible that the use of this invasive and highly destructive process could actually accelerate the condition. Of course this won’t be evident in the first 12 months or so as it will take time to re-grow the tissues, but once it does, the likelihood is that the situation will be even more aggressive than before the treatment.

Acoustic Wave

Therapies based on acoustics use a high energy wave, it is proposed, to disrupt the adipose tissue that is pushing through the connective tissue matrix. There is limited evidence that this occurs, but even so even if it did work, like the laser therapy it doesn’t address the cause of the cellulite, and again may actually act as a promoter of subsequent development.

Mesotherapy

Mesotherapy uses injections to ‘dissolve’ the fat cells through the use of many different chemicals. The chemical used depends on the practitioner. Although the word ‘dissolve’ is often used for marketing purposes, the injections aim to cause cellular apoptosis (cell death) in the fatty tissue. If the treatment is successful in achieving what it suggests, it too will suffer from the same issues as the above two therapies. Tissues don’t simply dissolve and flush out of the body, it requires a huge local and systemic immune response to remove the debris, which as previously suggested will feed back into the process that promoted and maintained the development of cellulite.

Thermotherapy

Like the laser therapies there are a few different versions of this, the premium treatments again need to be performed by a medical professional. These premium treatments use radio-frequencies to target the underlying structures and generate high levels of local heating which like the above therapies cause cellular apoptosis and the resultant widespread debris caused by the death of cells in the tissues. There are side-effects of the treatment that do improve, temporarily, the cosmetic appearance of cellulite.

There are many other therapies that also claim to reduce cellulite such as Iontophoresis that uses galvanic currents to increase the permeability of the skin in an attempt to pass various substances through to the lower layers, or Electrophoresis that creates an electrical field that is suggested to alter the flow of nutrients in the area to increase the structure of the connective tissue to a more normal pattern and also assist in lipolysis (fat breakdown). Neither treatment has shown conclusive evidence of improvements in studies on cellulite.

In the more accessible treatments available to the public such as low level laser, iontophoresis, lymphatic drainage, wraps, and pressotherapy, the one common factor (whether overtly evident or not) is massage. Part of the issue with cellulite especially in the higher stages is localised oedema (swelling or fluid retention) which is a symptom of the inflammatory environment and various mechanical factors. The use of massage temporarily shifts the fluid out of the compartment and reduces the pressure being placed on the connective tissue matrix, giving the appearance of reduced cellulite. Given a few days or often hours, the osmotic pressures normalise and the fluid re-enters the area, and you’re back to square one. This is mostly how the crèmes and lotions ‘work’ too, via the fact that during application you are giving the area a daily massage. Massage does assist in the treatment of cellulite, and is a helpful part of the equation, but don’t confuse the temporary appearance change caused by some of the more aggressive treatments with anything being done to the actual structures. The main benefit of massage is to assist in the circulatory flow in the region, which needs to be a continual presence, not a once or twice a week temporary cosmetic illusion.

The above treatments cannot result in permanent alterations of the presence of cellulite, simply because they treat, with various efficacy, the symptoms of cellulite whether individual or in combination. They do nothing to address the underlying causes and will therefore allow the situation to continue, or as we have seen may actually intensify the progression of cellulite. In the next post we’ll look at how cellulite develops and once we’ve understood this environment we can then consider solutions to mitigate and even reverse the condition

Peeling Back the Truth of Cellulite

 

Orange Peel, Mattress Skin, Cottage Cheese, Bubble Wrap are just a few of the words used to describe cellulite; the bumpy appearance some women and men exhibit especially in the abdomen and upper thighs.

Looking on Google, the search term ‘cellulite’ is an annual favourite, especially in the months leading up to summer. Despite the apparent widespread acceptance as a real phenomenon, it is not actually an acknowledged term in medicine. Which in their (the medical orthodoxy) defence, is actually closer to the truth than marketers would have you believe. At one end of the scale the medical establishment, if asked, will inform you that ‘cellulite’ is simply body-fat. At the other end of the scale the marketers, of endless products and treatments, will have you believe that cellulite is a discrete type of tissue that can only be removed by use of this newly discovered secret and proprietary mechanism. The ‘discreteness’, of course, is different in each case depending on what and how the product or treatment they hope to sell you works. The truth, as you’ll see, lies somewhere in between these two; but very much closer to the orthodox medical end of the spectrum.

The term ‘cellulite’ was coined in the 1920’s but didn’t really become a household term until the 1970’s when cosmetic companies got hold of it and used it in combination with the twin darlings of marketing ‘vanity’ and ‘fear’, to sell dubious crèmes and lotions, that cost pennies to make and that sold at a premium. As we’ll see, although the application of these crèmes does temporarily (hours) reduce the appearance (not the real structure) of cellulite, use of these crèmes may actually hasten its development.

Body-fat ‘is’ a major player in cellulite, the medical establishment are absolutely correct on that, but, that’s not where the story ends. Cellulite is not simply caused by body-fat alone, it’s a combination of specific local structures caused by the interplay of energetics, hormones and other physiological factors that all contribute to this condition. In simple terms it’s excessively full fat cells protruding through the mesh of connective tissue in the skin above.

Before we get into the details of the conditions that contribute to cellulite (in successive posts) or the current ‘treatments’ purported as cures (next post), I just want to quickly cover a very important point to help you navigate the disingenuous market-place to save you from being hoodwinked. Because of the physiological conditions that contribute to cellulite it takes at least 6 months of daily interventions to change. Anyone claiming to remove cellulite in a few treatments is not quite telling you the truth, whether intentionally or just through their own ignorance. And because of these specific physiological conditions, no degree of external (or internal, as you’ll see in the next post) prodding, poking, lasering, suction or wrapping will amount to anything permanent.

Cellulite is relatively simple to fix, but it does take a few lifestyle changes to do it properly. A saying I always bear in mind when considering my actions is ‘If you haven’t got the time to do it right, when will you find the time to do it over’.

Do it right, once.

The Power of Words

 
 
The everyday language we repeatedly use shapes our behaviour. Habitually using the right words spoken in the right way can bring us compassion, respect and strength in life. The wrong words can all too easily bring us dislike, disrespect and instability. To improve our likelihood of achieving our goals and aspirations we have to improve what we say, not only to others but also to ourselves.

Whenever we feel sensations such as joy or sadness, those sensations are weighted emotionally by the word labels we attach to them. The labels that we attach to our experience become our thoughts and our memories of that experience. The phrase ‘I’m enraged’ leaves a very different emotional and biochemical memory pattern than does ‘I’m a bit miffed by that.’

Habitual self-language patterns are often not recognised, so people do not realise their influence. However you can begin to appreciate how they (words) affect you when you consider how we are spoken to by others. If somebody told you ‘I think you’re mistaken’, the phrase doesn’t create the same level of emotional response as somebody saying ‘You’re wrong’, and it certainly has nowhere near the same emotional response than if they had said, ‘You’re a damn liar’. All three phrases are essentially saying the same thing, but the level of emotional attachment is orders of magnitude different in each case.

A new study has shown how words in our environment, even on an unconscious level, can dramatically alter your behaviour

Inhibitory self control such as not picking up a cigarette, not having a second drink, not spending when we should be saving, can operate without our awareness or intention.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication and the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) demonstrated through neuroscience research that inaction-related words in our environment can unconsciously influence our self-control. Mindlessly eating nibbly’s at a party or stopping ourselves from over-indulging may seem impossible without a deliberate, conscious effort. However, the research indicates that overhearing specific language, even in a completely unrelated conversation, saying something as simple as ‘calm down’ might trigger us to curtail our junkie-like biscuit eating frenzy without us even realising it.

Subjects in the study completed a task where they were given instructions to press a computer key when they saw the letter ‘X’ on the computer screen, or not press a key when they saw the letter ‘Y.’ Their actions were affected by subliminal messages flashing rapidly on the screen (too fast to be consciously seen). Action messages such as ‘run,’ ‘go,’ ‘move,’ ‘hit,’ and ‘start’ alternated with inaction messages ‘still,’ ‘sit,’ ‘rest,’ ‘calm,’ and ‘stop’ and nonsense words ‘rnu,’ or ‘tsi’. During the test the subjects wore an EEG (electroencephalogram) device to measure brain activity.

The test was cleverly set-up so that the action or inaction messages had nothing to do with the actions or inactions volunteers were doing, yet the researchers found that the action/inaction words had a definite effect on the volunteers’ brain activity. Unconscious exposure to inaction messages increased the activity of the brain’s self-control processes, whereas unconscious exposure to action messages decreased this same activity.

The researchers said ‘Many important behaviours such as weight loss, giving up smoking, and saving money involve a lot of self-control’. ‘While many psychological theories state that actions can be initiated automatically, with little or no conscious effort, these same theories view inhibition as an effortful, consciously controlled process. Although reaching for that cookie doesn’t require much thought, putting it back on the plate seems to require a deliberate, conscious intervention. Our research challenges the long-held assumption that inhibition processes require conscious control to operate.’

This study further reinforces the concept of words having power; regardless of whether the interaction is on a conscious or an unconscious level.

A good idea (in general, not just in respect of this premise) is to expand your vocabulary. Find a new word to displace the words you usually use when you encounter a situation. Use the new words regularly to heighten the emotional intensity for the positive aspects of your life, and most importantly use new lower impact words for the negative experiences you encounter.

Gradually improving your habitual vocabulary is a wise investment. You’ll rapidly alter how you think, how you feel, and how you behave. Without question there will still be times, for example, when we feel justified in being incensed, but by controlling your language patterns, you will be able to control your emotions to direct and utilise them to better effect. Your choice.

Reference:

Justin Hepler, Dolores Albarracin. Complete unconscious control: Using (in)action primes to demonstrate completely unconscious activation of inhibitory control mechanisms. Cognition, 2013; 128 (3): 271 DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2013.04.012

Omega 3’s and Prostate Cancer

I had seen the previous incarnation of this study (1) a few years ago, so when I saw the follow up study on the physiology feeds the other night, I thought ‘Meh’ and wasn’t going to write about it. But yesterday as soon as the media got their indelicate mitts upon it and spun up headlines such as ‘Omega 3 Raise Risks of Prostate Cancer’, I received a number of queries from concerned folk. So let’s take a look at this in a less tabloid-esque sensationalistic manner.

The first and most important take-away is that the study (2), despite what the media and sadly one of the research team suggests, does not, in fact cannot, make this definite claim. The study is based on a type of statistical science what is known as epidemiology. Epidemiological studies look at patterns and trends to begin to seek out links between factors. In the right hands this can be a very powerful tool, which can help us find which areas to focus upon and investigate further with more specific and generally more expensive methods. It does have its problems though.

A basic example of this problem can be though of as thus:

In the summer time, more people suffer from sunburns.

Ice-cream sales increase in the summer time.

From this could we conclude that: Ice-cream causes sun-burn?

And this is the problem. The idea that because two factors ‘sun-burn’ and ‘Ice-cream’ happen to occur at the same time, doesn’t mean that one necessarily ‘causes’ the other. In this case the forgotten factor was the sun. There’s a very simple, but underappreciated maxim that says ‘Correlation doesn’t imply causation’. That is, just because there is a link between factors doesn’t mean that one factor leads onto the other factor. It ‘may’ but that is why further studies need to be done accounting for all of the factors.

This current study suggests that there is a link between high plasma omega 3 and the more aggressive subset of prostate cancer. Now ‘link’ at this stage, refers to a correlation i.e. Ice-cream, not a ‘causation’, so unlike the media let’s not jump the gun.

This correlation could be because as the paper suggests (I’ll cover one of the ways this ‘may’ happen in a later Bite-size piece) that higher levels of omega 3 are influencing the development (not initiating) of a more aggressive form of prostate cancer, or, and this ‘may’ likely be the case, those who have prostate cancer, especially those with the more aggressive subset have higher levels of plasma omega 3. Although these appear to be the same statement, they’re in fact totally different.

The study used subjects whose ages ranged from 55-85, and this is important. By the age of 50 almost all men have symptoms of prostate disease, which is usually in the form of recurrent bouts of prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate, often caused by infection), or as Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH, overgrowth of the prostate gland, linked to inflammation), some poor souls have both. By age 85, over 90% of men have developed prostate cancer. I’m not suggesting a causal relationship between the two, but there’s certainly a correlation between prior inflammation in the prostate and the development of prostate cancer. We also know that oxidative stress is part and parcel of the inflammatory response, but we’ll come back to that in a moment as it muddies the water slightly.

So we have a cohort in the right age range for those who are displaying symptoms of some form of prostate disease, whether it’s an ‘–itis’, benign hyperplasia or cancer. And we know that the first two of these are intimately intertwined with inflammation, as is the third. We also know that one of the most potent anti-inflammatory substances we can get via nutrition is omega 3. So it doesn’t take much thought, to see that those people who are displaying symptoms of prostate disease, may have taken the route of upping their omega 3 consumption to reduce inflammation in hope of quenching the flames. And the worse the symptoms the more someone is likely to do all they can to combat them.

I say ‘all’, but that’s with some reservation. Although omega 3 do have anti-inflammatory properties, they are far outweighed by the excess amounts of omega 6 in the diet, which can be both anti-, and pro-inflammatory. However, because of the way our standard diets are set-up the pathway generally only runs down the pro-inflammatory route. One of the key switches which select the pathway that is used, is Insulin. There are many influences upon Insulin, but the two biggies are high glycemic index carbohydrates and fructose. Fructose can definitely be implicated, but again it will make the picture too complicated. High glycemic index carbohydrates on the other hand, are a little easier to associate (again correlation, not causation). High GI carbohydrates are generally found as grains, which just so happen to also be a rich source of omega 6, so we have a foodstuff that loads the gun by providing the raw material for pro-inflammatory substances and pulls the trigger by it’s production of Insulin and thus the diverting of the cascade towards the pro-inflammatory track.

Take a look at the newest rendition of dietary advice (the EatWell Plate); one of the largest food groups pushed by dietetics is grains and other high glycemic carbohydrates. The current diet has a ratio of omega 6:3 of, on average, 15:1; to put this in perspective our ancestor’s diets would’ve been closer to 1:1 - 1:2. A gram or so of long chain omega 3 is a drop in the ocean compared to the amounts of omega 6 we now consume. Maybe a better idea would be to lower the intake of omega 6?

Think of it this way, if you began running a tap and realised you had a blocked sink, would the ‘first’ thing you do be: a) call a plumber to come and fix the blockage, or b) turn off the tap? Now replace the tap with omega 6, the blockage with inflammation and the plumber with omega 3.

The study also pointed to associations that the higher grade cases were more likely to be being treated with finasteride (an alpha-5-reductase inhibitor that prevents the conversion of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone) and the lower grade case had less diabetes in their history. Another two factors that point towards Insulin and inflammation as being pivotal.

So, when it comes to the study those who have the more aggressive form of prostate cancer, and thus are more symptomatic, lo and behold, have the highest plasma levels of omega 3. Just as an aside, the difference between the two levels of omega 3 was about the difference between one and two high omega 3 fish (salmon etc) meals per week. This situation (taking in more omega 3 in an attempt to reduce inflammation) could be one conclusion that can be drawn from the study. There are many others which is why the media have done such a hatchet job on ‘reporting’ this study.

The reason why omega 3’s are so potent is that they are so biologically active, this is how they work in the body, they are highly reactive, but it’s a double edged saw, as this activity also allows them to be easily damaged. And this is why they are difficult to get in the diet, as they can’t be implemented into processed foods without becoming rancid (omega 6 are more robust and survive a lot better in the manufacturing process), so people often use an omega 3 supplement. Companies who produce fish oil (the most widely used omega 3 supplement) have to protect the omega 3 in order to prevent them becoming damaged. The way most companies do this is to encapsulate them, thus protecting them from air (and thus oxygen), use opaque containers to protect the oil from light, and if the company is good, keeps the product refrigerated to prevent damage by heat. To up the ante, most companies also add an anti-oxidant to the mix, and since fish oil is a lipid, the most relevant type of anti-oxidant is lipid soluble and for many reasons vitamin E fits the bill perfectly…almost.

The study in question is part of larger project called the SELECT trial, which had already suggested that vitamin E (the synthetic dl- racemic form) was associated with a 17% increase in the risk of prostate cancer.(3) But as we know the Big G likes to dwell in the details.

Vitamin E is one of the four fat-soluble vitamins that cannot be made by the human body, so must be ingested. Vitamin E is made by plants in eight different iso-forms divided into two classes of four iso-forms. These usually come as mixed tocopherols and tocotrienols in nature however most of the research is on the D-alpha tocopherol form of natural vitamin E, which is the most biologically active.

Synthetic vitamin E, is DL-alpha-tocopherol, the laboratory produced form of the naturally occurring, D-alpha tocopherol. Having both the D and the L isomers, and this is key, renders it ineffective, as the L isomer does not occur in nature, and our DNA does not recognise it.

Two of Vitamin E’s functions are to 1) form part of the cellular membrane (membranes are the surrounding seal of the cell) and defend it against oxidation, and 2) within the cell, and within its organelles such as the mitochondria, vitamin E is the first line of defence against lipid peroxidation. This is where the issue ‘may’ also be occurring.

The use of synthetic vitamin E in the omega 3 supplements may be exposing the membranes of the prostate cells to oxidative damage (by virtue of not being the right tool for the job) and this may be compounded by the incorporation of easily oxidised omega 3 into the membrane (which is usually a good thing) allowing a chain reaction of oxidative damage to occur. It ‘may’ also allow mitochondrial damage to proceed and this is a biggie, since the mitochondria actually uses re-dox (which oxidation forms the –ox part) pathways to dispose the body of damaged cells and cell components.

This is only half of the problem, even if you’re taking in sources (food or supplements) of natural forms of vitamin E (which, by the way, are associated with lower incidence of prostate cancer (4,5), taking single nutrients is never suggested by anyone who knows anything about nutrition, doing so, especially with what are termed ‘anti-oxidants’ may increase oxidative stress, even using the natural forms that are supposed to be present in the Human body. Nutrients, and especially anti-oxidants (more properly termed ‘re-dox agents’) always work in synergy. This is why a wide variety of ‘real’ food is promoted by those in the know, to hopefully obtain ‘all’ of the nutrients that work in cohesion.

There’s much more to this story than the media have reported, but to discuss all of the factors would become encyclopaedic. But here’s my take, like all disease the incubation period is usually a long span of time, so the best time to work on preventing disease is decades ago, the second best time is today, before the rot sets in. Prostate cancer; like many diseases, are mostly down to lifestyle factors. This is not a judgement it is merely a fact. If you wish to avoid disease, clean up your lifestyle, and the earlier, the better. Once disease is present and established, good nutrition is definitely helpful; if not imperative, but sorry, it’s not a cure. This is where we graciously ask the skilled and amazing health care professionals to step in and use their methods of fighting back diseased states. With their help, we can hopefully get another stab at life. This is where nutrition can come back into play as the star player, doing what it does best: slowly building a body that is resilient to disease. Nutrients aren’t drugs, let’s not use them as though they are.


References:

1- Brasky, TM et al. Serum Phospholipid Fatty Acids and Prostate Cancer Risk: Results From the Prostate Cancer Prevention Trial. Am J Epidemiol. 2011 June 15; 173(12): 1429–1439. Published online 2011 April 24. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwr027

2- Brasky, TM et al. Plasma Phospholipid Fatty Acids and Prostate Cancer Risk in the SELECT Trial. JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst (2013) doi: 10.1093/jnci/djt174. First published online: July 10, 2013

3- Nicastro, HL and Dunn, BK. Selenium and Prostate Cancer Prevention: Insights from the Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial (SELECT). Nutrients. 2013 April; 5(4): 1122–1148. Published online 2013 April 3. doi: 10.3390/nu5041122

4- Israel, K et al. RRR-α-tocopheryl succinate inhibits the proliferation of human prostatic tumor cells with defective cell cycle/differentiation pathways. Nutrition and Cancer, 1995;24:161-169

5- Eichholzer, M., Stähelin, H. B., Gey, K. F., Lüdin, E. and Bernasconi, F. (1996), Prediction of male cancer mortality by plasma levels of interacting vitamins: 17-year follow-up of the prospective Basel study. Int. J. Cancer, 66: 145–150. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0215(19960410)66:2<145::AID-IJC1>3.0.CO;2-2