Category Archives: Advanced nutrition

Research studies, hypotheses, data, etc.

Sunlight is anti-cancer: get some

Posted on December 2, 2017 | Leave a comment

Some important points: there is a lot of evidence that low melatonin mediates the carcinogenic effects of circadian arrhythmia. One of the classical observations was that melatonin-depleted blood from women exposed to bright light promoted tumor growth in a model of human breast cancer and rat liver cancer (Blask et al., 2005). This is also the study that elucidated one possible mechanism: tumors take-up the n6-fatty acid linoleic acid and convert it to 13-HODE, which drives proliferation. Melatonin inhibits this (and more).

Free full article on Patreon!

There are also data in both humans and rodents that bright light exposure during the day protects nighttime melatonin secretion against artificial light-induced suppression (eg, Kozaki et al., 2016).

This was confirmed by showing bright daytime light exposure protected sleep quality in people exposed to artificial light at night (Rangtell et al., 2016).

FYI Rodents exposed to light at night are screwed (Blask et al., 2014):

So, daytime light preserves & protects nighttime melatonin secretion. Melatonin-replete blood inhibits tumor growth. And to connect all the dots: daytime light exposure inhibits tumor growth in some pre-clinical models cancer (eg, Dauchy et al., 2015).

And for all you Walburgers, melatonin inhibits aerobic glycolysis in tumors (eg, Hevia et al., 2017 AND Mao et al., 2016)!

This isn’t a free pass for you to use artificial light at night. Ideally, you should use no artificial light at night. Or dim red ones. Or at least rock some hot blue blockers.

Nocturnal light pollution and underexposure to daytime sunlight: complementary mechanisms of circadian disruption and related diseases (Smolensky et al., 2015)

Doxorubicin resistance in breast cancer is driven by light at night-induced disruption of the circadian melatonin signal (Xiang et al., 2015) (same for tamoxifen [Dauchy et al., 2014])

For full access to all articles and much more (or if you just like what I do and want to support it), become a Patron! Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

Also, I’m open to suggestions so feel free to leave a comment or email me directly at drlagakos@gmail.com.

Affiliate discounts: if you’re still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers, Carbonshade is offering 15% off with the coupon code LAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE. TrueDark is running a pretty big sale HERE. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

If you want the benefits of ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS. I recommend Lion’s Mane for the brain and Reishi for everything else.

calories proper

Become a Patron!

Activate #Nrf2, then optimize: Brussels sprouts

Posted on November 28, 2017 | 2 comments

Hahaha What can’t you do, Nrf2?

Remember The Day Almonds Became Interesting? Namely, “the long series of unlikely events that must occur in order for the bifidogenic effects of almonds to manifest.” Well, it happened again. Or the opposite.

[Patron link]

I’m not a huge fan of antioxidant supps for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to ATBC and CARET. There are certainly some exceptions to this, although your body can handle itself quite well under most circumstances.

I am, however, a pretty big fan of periodically doing things like activating #Nrf2, because anti-cancer. Advantage is that if there’s nothing going on, Nrf2 is degraded pretty quickly (can’t really say the same about antiox supps). If there is something going one, Nrf2 rallies the troops to swiftly restore balance: pathways pathways pathways -> DEAD CANCER CELLS.

IT DOESN’T GET ANY EASIER THAN THIS, FAM

One of the major ways Nrf2 gets it done is by inducing the synthesis of endogenous protective compounds like glutathione. Glutathione synthesis requires sulfury stuff, particularly (if it’s available), cysteine. Guess what?

Sulforaphane activates Nrf2 and breaks down to provide cysteine for glutathione synthesis. WEIRD COINCIDENCE, I KNOW RIGHT?

WHAT CAN ANY REMOTELY REASONABLE PERSON CONCLUDE FROM THIS?

JOIN MY PATREON TO FIND OUT!

Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

Also, I’m open to suggestions so feel free to leave a comment or email me directly at drlagakos@gmail.com.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

calories proper

Become a Patron!

2 Comments

Posted in Advanced nutrition, cancer, fiber, Vitamin D

Tagged fiber, mortality, protein

Ketone supps and physical performance

Posted on November 25, 2017 | 4 comments

We’ve had a couple more studies on the various ketone supps: two esters (D-b-hydroxybutyrate-R 1,2-Butanediol Monoester and R,S-Butanediol Diacetoacetate) and one beta-Hydroxybutyrate sodium and potassium salts (KetoForce). We’ll call them Clarke, Burke, and Stewart so I don’t get Carpal Tunnel Syndrome typing them out each time. Technically, b-hydroxybutyrate isn’t really a ketone, but whatevs.

[Patron link]

“Clarke”

“Burke”

“Stewart” (this is actually a blend of the sodium “Na” and potassium “K” [not shown] salts)

Two studies on Stewart

Nutritional ketone salts increase fat oxidation but impair high-intensity exercise performance in healthy adult males (O’Malley et al., 2017)

“Ten healthy, recreationally active men.” The participants did a brief warm-up then a 150 km cycling time trial after receiving 24 g Stewart or salt-matched placebo. Controlling for salt was cool, but Stewart has about as 5 kcal/g, so the placebo could’ve controlled for that somehow, with either fat or carb, or something… (probably wouldn’t have mattered anyway)

Results: blood beta-hydroxybutyrate reached about 1 mM, power output declined 7% and it took the keto group about 45 seconds longer to complete the time trial.

Oral beta-hydroxybutyrate salt fails to improve 4-minute cycling performance following submaximal exercise (Rodger et al., 2017)

“Highly trained cyclists.” Similar study design as McSwiney’s — drain the tank with 90 minutes cycling at 80% max then 4 minute maximal performance test. Same dose as above in 2 divided doses. Same issue with the control group.

Results: blood beta-hydroxybutyrate reached ~0.6 mM and there was a trivial (non-significant) increase in power. This is actually in line with my interpretation of McSwiney regarding the decline in power output before and after draining the tank; ketoadaptation and all that jazz.

One study on Burke

Ketone diester ingestion impairs time-trial performance in professional cyclists (Leckey et al., 2017)

“Internationally competitive elite cyclists.” Two doses of 20 g Burke then a 20-minute warm-up followed by a 31 km time-trial. Non-caloric placebo control, whereas Burke is estimated 4.7 kcal/g. They were well-fed and caffeinated.

Results: beta-hydroxybutyrate reached ~1.1 mM, time-trial took 2% longer, and power was reduced 3.7%.

One study on Clarke

Nutritional ketosis alters fuel preference and thereby endurance performance in athletes (Cox et al., 2016)

“High performance athletes.” This study was different: one group got a drink that was 40% Clarke and 60% carbs (by calories), the other drink was 100% carbs. Calorie-controlled. They cycled for an hour at 75% max (to drain the tank), then 30-minute time trial.

Results: this is the first one that worked. beta-hydroxybutyrate reached 2-3 mM and they made it 2% further during the time-trial.

Affiliate discounts: if you’re still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers, Carbonshade is offering 15% off with the coupon code LAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

If you want the benefits of ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS.

For my interpretation of these studies and an explanation why I think the different keto supps had different effects (or if you just like what I do and want to support it), head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

Also, I’m open to suggestions so feel free to leave a comment or email me directly at drlagakos@gmail.com.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

calories proper

Become a Patron!

4 Comments

Posted in Advanced nutrition, Ketosis

Tagged ketogenic, ketones, ketosis

I’m not anti-keto, but I’m not anti-science.

Posted on November 22, 2017 | Leave a comment

The ketogenic diet inhibits mTOR but spares muscle. Wait, wut?

[Patron link]

mTOR is a key mediator of skeletal muscle growth. Primarily via stimulating protein synthesis, although some researchers are even looking for ways to activate it to prevent atrophy (eg, Dyle et al., 2014) (eg, ursolic acid & tomatidine).

Role of skeletal muscle mTOR in mechanical load-induced growth (Goodman et al., 2011)

Signaling pathways mediating muscle mass in aging skeletal muscle: role of mTOR (Sandri et al., 2013)

Mechanisms regulating skeletal muscle growth and atrophy (Schiaffino et al., 2013)

mTOR is necessary for proper satelite cell activity and skeletal muscle regeneration (Zhang et al., 2015)

Continue reading →

As if we needed another study about breakfast. Or 4.

Posted on November 19, 2017 | 4 comments

Exhibit A. Participants were given ~30 grams of whey, casein, or carbs 30 minutes before bed (Kinsey et al., 2014). [side note: the closer it is to bedtime, the less food is needed to mess up your rhythms. Worded another way, if you’re gonna have a big dinner, the earlier the better]. The following morning, you guessed it, they weren’t hungry for breakfast. And they had higher insulin levels. FFS. Worded another way, light early dinner -> lower insulin and more hungry for breakfast, in the morning.

[Patron link]

Dopamine and breakfast.

Light and food in the morning.

Metabolism is gimped at night.

Exhibit B1. Expecting mothers: “Across the whole cohort, night-time, but not day-time, carbohydrate intake was positively associated with glucose concentrations after the glucose load and inversely associated with early phase insulin secretion (P < 0.05)” (Chandler-Laney et al., 2016).

Evening is not the best time to carb… but it’s not just carbs… and it affects infants, too.

Affiliate discounts: if you’re still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers, Carbonshade is offering 15% off with the coupon code LAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

If you want the benefits of ‘shrooms but don’t like the taste, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS.

For full access to all articles and more (or if you just like what I do and want to support it), head over to Patreon! It’s only three bucks a month and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

calories proper

Become a Patron!

Sunlight, Meal Timing, and Circadian Rhythms.

we’re talking some serious epigenetics

4 Comments

Posted in Advanced nutrition, chronopharmacology, circadian, diabetes, Dopamine

Tagged circadian rhythm, diabetes, insulin, ketogenic

Funded by Big ‘Shrooma

Posted on November 12, 2017 | Leave a comment

Reishi, the mushroom of longevity.

“The goal is to maintain or improve brain function and physical performance. And not get cancer.”

[Patron link]

‘Shrooms-every-day is part of my long-term anti-cancer plan. It’s not always a lot per serving, but I try to do the whole variety thing as much as possible, whatever’s available.

Maybe it’s one of those ice-age fairy tales fallacies, but cultures around the world have attributed a large number of health benefits to ‘shrooms for literally, thousands of years:

“Ganoderma [reishi] has a very long history in East Asia as a medicinal mushroom dating back to the Chinese materia medica ‘Shen Nung Ben Cao Jing,’ written between 206 BC and 8 AD. It was considered a superior tonic for prolonging life, preventing aging, and boosting qi.”

Continue reading →

Brain Health, Easy Steps

Posted on November 9, 2017 | 1 comment

Open to everyone at Patreon! <- link

Affiliate discounts: if you’re still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers, Carbonshade is offering 15% off with the coupon code LAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

If you want the benefits of ‘shrooms but don’t like eating them, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS.

Tl;dr: sleep, sunlight, seafood, and exercise. Maybe some others. No industrial foods.

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) comes up a lot, so I’ll just tell you now, it’s like brain-fertilizer.

Sunlight promotes dopamine synthesis in your brain (eg, de Lima et al., 2011). Dopamine, via D5 receptor, has a lot of direct effects on memory and learning, but also stimulates BDNF (Perreault et al., 2013). Take a walk outside after breakfast and/or lunch. Bonus: vitamin D is also good for the brain and exercise after meals promotes +nutrient partitioning.

At night, you need melatonin, and for that, you need darkness. In my experience, it’s harder to control sleep onset & duration than time in darkness. T.S. Wiley recommends 9.5 hours of darkness. That’s a lot, I know, but I have a lot of respect for Wiley and she explains it well in Lights Out!

The studies on melatonin supps are mixed (eg, 1, 2, 3, 4) but those on crappy sleep aren’t (eg, 1, 2, 3), so come on fam, at least get some blue blockers (if you choose Carbonshade or Spectra479, use coupon code LAGAKOS for 15% off).

The positive influence of exercise on brain health seems to have many mechanisms, BDNF being one of them (Seifert et al., 2010). Myokines from exercising muscles have a part in this (Philips et al., 2014), so does beta-hydroxybutyrate (eg, Sleiman et al., 2016 and Marosi et al., 2016). Possible role for exogenous bHB supps?

Niacin boosts BDNF (eg, Fu et al., 2014). Fortunately, it’s fairly abundant in the diet, but if you wanna try something new, nutritional yeast can add cheesy deliciousness to just about anything.

Niacin is also a precursor to NAD+, and this company really REALLY thinks NAD+ is the bomb (see their website for a round-up of the science). Rodent studies have suggested nicotinamide riboside is better at boosting brain NAD+ than niacin (eg, Collins and Chaykin, 1972), but as mentioned above, niacin isn’t hard to find via diet.

Affiliate discounts: if you’re still looking for a pair of hot blue blockers, Carbonshade is offering 15% off with the coupon code LAGAKOS and Spectra479 is offering 15% off HERE. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, read this then this.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

If you want the benefits of ‘shrooms but don’t like the taste, Real Mushrooms makes great extracts. 10% off with coupon code LAGAKOS.

For the rest of this article (which includes advise on foods & supps), or if you just like what I do and want to support it, head over to Patreon! Three bucks a month for access to all content and there are many other options. Sign up soon as the number of spots at the $3 level is limited. It’s ad-free and you can cancel at any time.

calories proper

Become a Patron!

1 Comment

Posted in Advanced nutrition, chronopharmacology, circadian, diet, Dietary fat, Dopamine, Exercise, melatonin, Sun, wine

Tagged circadian rhythm, ketones, melatonin, sleep

Yet another study showing low carb doesn’t impair performance +

Posted on November 6, 2017 | 1 comment

and by some metrics, at least in this study, might even improve it.

Ketoadaptation enhances exercise performance and body composition responses to training in endurance athletes (McSwiney et al., 2017)

[Patron link]

Advantage of this study over previous ones: 12 weeks. I believe the choice to opt for self-selection over randomization was to improve adherence (which was pretty good for this 12 week-long study). Downside is, well, it’s not randomized. Crossover RCT is best but it’s always a trade-off: sample size, duration, tools, etc., everything has a price. Literally.

Tl;dr: Ketoadaptation doesn’t diminish performance at high intensity even after “draining the tank.”

The study: we aren’t told much about the diets, just high carb vs. ketogenic. And keto group was advised to drink broths for salts, mins, electrolytes, etc.* Speaking of which 🙂 Kettle & Fire is offering 20% off their delish broths/stock HERE.

*I don’t think this qualifies as cheating in this #context.

Before and after the 12-week dietary intervention, a battery of tests were performed: a six second all-out bicycle sprint (SS), immediately followed by a 100 km time trial (TT), immediately followed by a 3-minute sprint (CPT).

These were well-trained, healthy individuals who continued their training throughout the study. This & duration are two important nuances of this study (more on this below).

The biggest finding …*drumroll* … significantly greater fat loss in the keto group and this wasn’t even a weight loss study. They also jacked up protein intake so they didn’t lose muscle mass. Protein declined in the high carb group, but they were able to maintain muscle because carbs increased.

WHERE HAVE WE SEEN THIS BEFORE

HINT: HERE

Whether they knew it or not, this study was designed to test peak power output before (SS) and after (CPT) exhaustively draining the tank (TT). The theory is that ketoadaptation: 1) spares glycogen so there’s some juice left in the tank for the second peak power test, although racing 100 km is pretty tough so there couldn’t have been much juice left in either group; and 2) ketoadaptation relies more on fatty acids at every level of output, as evidenced by the RER figure (below). Fuel usage comes close at high levels of output (both groups rely more heavily on glucose), but ketoadapted is always a little lower (eg, see the right-most point in the figure below). And fat stores are basically limitless whereas glycogen is not. This may or may not have been a factor here.

PEAK PERFORMANCE

I don’t know why the authors reported peak power relative to body weight. I could understand lean mass, maybe, but keto lost a lot of weight via body fat. If peak power remained the same (as has previously been shown), it would [falsely] appear to increase in this study.

For a more nuanced interpretation of this study (which is good, I promise!), head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

Also, I’m open to suggestions so feel free to leave a comment or email me directly at drlagakos@gmail.com.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

calories proper

Become a Patron!

1 Comment

Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Dietary fat, insulin, Ketosis, muscle, Protein, strength

Tagged Atkins, body composition, carbs, diet, energy balance, energy expenditure, exercise, insulin, ketogenic, ketones, ketosis, nutrition, protein

TRP activation indicates an assassination attempt

Posted on November 3, 2017 | 1 comment

Whether it’s a noxious odor or burning sensation, TRP channels are there to let you know something’s up. They’re why we feel sting, burn, itch, etc., etc.

[Patron link]

TRPV1 lights up just as much if you bite into a burning hot food as it does a hot pepper. It responds to physical heat and capsaicin.

The infamous wasabi receptor, TRPV1:

TRPA1 in the lungs reduces respiration because it’s activated by poisonous gases… so you end up breathing in less of the poisonous gas. Actually, respiratory TRPA1 activation will make a sleeping mouse wake up and flee!

And yet for some reason, TRPs are anti-cancer in a wide variety of #contexts.

New insights into pharmacological tools to TR(i)P cancer up (Gautier et al., 2014)

If you’re exposed to a TRP activator and escape, cool, if not, you die (jk). Unless it’s a false assassin, in which case that smarty TRP will be downregulated.

I’m happy to have not participated in this study:

Oral irritation by mustard oil: self-desensitization and cross-desensitization with capsaicin (Simons et al., 2003)

Jab a mouse with a large enough dose of capsaicin, early enough in life, and they’re virtually permanently desensitized (Gamse et al., 1980). Under no circumstances should you do this.

TRPA1 is actually upregulated in lung cancer cells (Schaefer et al., 2013). It’s unknown why, but given the chemopreventive nature of TRPs and the ability to modulate them, might a spicy meal or 2 be prudent?

For the rest of this article (and much more) head over to Patreon! Five bucks a month for full access and there are many other options. It’s ad-free and you can cancel if it sucks 🙂

Also, I’m open to suggestions so feel free to leave a comment or email me directly at drlagakos@gmail.com.

20% off some delish stocks and broths from Kettle and Fire HERE.

calories proper

Become a Patron!

Save

1 Comment

Posted in Advanced nutrition, cancer

Tagged cancer, nutrition

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Posted on October 28, 2017 | 6 comments

“LIGHT for thought”

There are some things you can control and many more you can’t (eg, circadian disruption, alcohol, BRCA, etc.). It’s impossible to know how much circadian arrhythmia contributes to cancer risk, but the epidemiology is strong and some of the mechanistic work makes sense. It has to do with LIGHT and melatonin.

[Patron link]

Tl;dr: a robust circadian rhythm and proper melatonin peak at night mitigate a lot of other factors. If there’s artificial light at night, then there’s no melatonin, and that’s like, SHIELDS ARE DOWN! And it doesn’t take a lot to shut ‘em down.

There’s also a dietary angle, but it’s borderline one of those things you can’t change (unless you try really really hard) (more on this below), or at least not nearly as fast as you can fix melatonin (see HERE).

In 1978, Cohen and colleagues made a few seminal observations (Cohen et al., 1978). In their words,

“(1) Pineal calcification is commonest in countries with high rates of breast cancer and lowest in areas with a low incidence; the incidences of pineal calcification and of breast cancer are moderate among the black population in the United States.

(2) Chlorpromazine raises serum-melatonin; there are reports that psychiatric patients taking chlorpromazine have a lower incidence of breast cancer.

(3) Although information is lacking on breast cancer, the pineal and melatonin may influence tumour induction and growth in experimental animals.

(4) The demonstration of a melatonin receptor in human ovary suggests a direct influence of this hormone on the ovarian function, and possibly oestrogen production.

(5) Impaired pineal secretion is believed to be an important factor triggering puberty (early menarche is a risk factor for breast cancer).”

The dark side of light at night: physiological, epidemiological, and ecological consequences (Navara and Nelson, 2007)

And further observations, for example, that urinary melatonin is prospectively inversely associated with breast cancer (Schernhammer et al., 2008) and total blindness is protective against breast cancer (Flynn-Evans et al., 2009). Total visual blindness is associated with a variety of other problems, but they’re less likely to succumb to artificial light at night-induced melatonin suppression.

For the rest of this article or if you just like what I do and want to support it, head over to Patreon! Three bucks a month for access to all articles and there are many other options. There is a limited number of spots left at the $3 level so sign up soon! You can cancel at any time.
And it’s ad-free 🙂

Discounts: still looking for some hot blue-blockers? Carbonshade and Spectra479 are offering 15% off with the coupon code LAGAKOS. And for some delicious organic broths/stocks, Kettle & Fire is 20% off HERE.

calories proper

Become a Patron!

6 Comments

Posted in Advanced nutrition, angiotensin, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, chronopharmacology, circadian, Dopamine, melatonin, sex, sleep, Sun, vasopressin, Vitamin D

Tagged cancer, circadian rhythm, melatonin

Category Archives: Advanced nutrition

Sunlight is anti-cancer: get some

Activate #Nrf2, then optimize: Brussels sprouts

Ketone supps and physical performance

I’m not anti-keto, but I’m not anti-science.

As if we needed another study about breakfast. Or 4.

Funded by Big ‘Shrooma

Brain Health, Easy Steps

Yet another study showing low carb doesn’t impair performance +

TRP activation indicates an assassination attempt

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

awesome finder

Recent Posts

Twitter live feed