(I think)
disclaimer: to the best of my knowledge, the causes and cures of painful muscle cramps are unknown. Researchers have studied nearly every electrolyte & metabolite in people who don’t get cramps, people who get cramps, people who get cramps while they’re actively experiencing a painful muscle cramp, and when they’re not.
Conclusion:
¯\_(?)_/¯
This is about idiopathic painful muscle cramps. Pregnancy, dialysis, and cirrhosis-related cramps may be completely different.
Posted in Advanced nutrition, circadian, Fish, muscle, sleep, strength
Tagged circadian rhythm, diet, muscle, nutrition
Intermittent fasting (in mice)
Every-other-day feeding extends lifespan but fails to delay many symptoms of aging in mice.
THIS IS BASICALLY THE WORST POSSIBLE OUTCOME
Tl;dr: they’re immortal, but just keep getting older and older and it sucks. It’s basically the exact opposite of what we want, which is something akin to eternal youth.
This paper was a Giant.
Brief background: they were testing a model of intermittent fasting known as EOD, or ad libitum access to food every other day. It’s hard to relate this directly to humans because one mouse day is probably about at least 5 human days… although similar to humans, when chow time comes around, we tend to eat a lot. REFEED MAYHEM.
[rant]
It’s like that dude who takes a pic of 3 big steaks and posts it online, saying “dinner is served, bro” …trying to make it seem like they eat that way normally, ~3x/d, when in reality they’ve been intentionally restricting food intake all day to create a big enough energy deficit to accommodate said steaks… #CICO
P.S. as far as circadian rhythms and dietary protein requirements are concerned, this way of eating isn’t doing you any favors…
[end rant]
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Posted in Advanced nutrition, circadian, TPMC
Tagged body composition, calories proper, circadian rhythm, energy balance, nutrition
Breakfast [in the morning] strengthens circadian rhythms and reduces postprandial glucose excursion after lunch (Jakubowicz et al., 2017)
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Posted in angiotensin, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, chronopharmacology, circadian, Dopamine, sex, Sun, vasopressin
Tagged circadian rhythm, diet, nutrition
Worded another way, we strive for optimal, not merely survival.
We’ve seen it time & time again in various experimental models. Most recently in Antelope Ground Squirrels and Mice with disrupted master circadian clocks. In humans, we see mood disorders, impaired nutrient partitioning, increased cancer risks, et cetera, et cetera.
Posted in angiotensin, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, chronopharmacology, circadian, Dopamine, melatonin, Sun, Vitamin D
Tagged circadian rhythm, nutrition
Hey fam, remember this? Sunlight and the circadian rhythms in your skin
Tl;dr: During the day, when potential DNA damage from UV light is higher than at night, the circadian rhythms in your skin upregulate expression of enzymes which protect & repair DNA. They also downregulate proliferation because the last thing you want is for a harmful DNA mutation to be rapidly spread. All of this thanks to a robust circadian rhythm.
NEW STUDY
In general, LIGHT entrains the central circadian clock and FOOD entrains peripheral clocks. That’s why we try to get a big breakfast and go outdoors in the morning (or mimic this as closely as possible).
And from the aforementioned blog post, there is a bona fide circadian rhythm in skin, too. Well it appears this one, similar to other peripheral tissues, is regulated in part by FOOD but is also influenced by LIGHT.
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Posted in angiotensin, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, chronopharmacology, circadian, Dopamine, melatonin, pair-feeding, sex, sleep, Sun, Vitamin D
Tagged body composition, circadian rhythm, nutrition, obesity
Humans are unique in their remarkable ability to enter ketosis. They’re also situated near the top of the food chain. Coincidence?
During starvation, humans rapidly enter ketosis; they do this better than king penguins, and bears don’t do it at all.
Starvation ketosis
Humans maintain a high level of functionality during starvation. We can still hunt & plan; some would even argue it’s a more finely tuned state, cognitively. And that’s important, because if we became progressively weaker and slower, chances of acquiring food would rapidly decline.
Perhaps this is why fasting bears just sleep most of the time: no ketones = no bueno..?
The brain of newborn babies consumes a huge amount of total daily energy, and nearly half comes from ketones. A week or so later, even after the carbohydrate content of breast milk increases, they still don’t get “kicked out of ketosis” (Bourneres et al., 1986). If this were a harmful state, why would Nature have done this? …and all those anecdotes, like babies learn at incredibly rapid rates… coincidence? Maybe they’re myths. Maybe not.
Ketosis in the animal kingdom
Imagine a hibernating bear: huge adipose tissue but small brain fuel requirement relative to body size and total energy expenditure. No ketosis, because brain accounts for less than 5% of total metabolism. In adult humans, this is around 19-23%, and babies are much higher (eg, Cahill and Veech, 2003 & Hayes et al., 2012).
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Posted in Advanced nutrition, circadian, clamp, coconut, diet, Dietary fat, Exercise, fat, insulin, Ketosis, Protein, Trans fat
Tagged Atkins, calories proper, carbs, diet, energy balance, energy expenditure, fat, insulin, nutrition, Paleo, protein
“Need” is a funny concept. You don’t need to eat seafood. You don’t need an appendix or legs, either.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/13840426
https://www.patreon.com/posts/13840426
Telomere length is believed to be a biomarker of aging: the shorter your telomeres, the faster you’re aging. In the study, they measured telomere length in white blood cells and EPA+DHA in whole blood at baseline and again 5 years later.
Quartile 1: EPA+DHA = 2.3% of the fatty acids in whole blood.
Quartile 2: 3.3%
Quartile 3: 4.3%
Quartile 4: 7.3%
Potential confounders: quartile 4 was comprised of educated rich white old non-smokers with low levels of inflammation, but the statisticians assure us those variables were controlled for… so there’s that.
You might be thinking: Bill-man, I don’t feel like getting my Omega-3 Index tested, how much seafood will put me in that fourth quartile?
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Posted in Advanced nutrition, Dietary fat, fat
That’s basically everything.
Aging predisposes you to pretty much every single disease. We all die eventually, and no one wants the last 10 years to be low quality of life. We used to say “healthspan,” now people say they “want to die as young as possible, as old as possible.” That is, to live a long life but remain healthy and active until the end.
Couple recent studies suggest a robust circadian clock (both centrally & peripherally) may be the key.
LIGHT is the primary zeitgeber which entrains the central clock. Food entrains the peripheral clock. Both in the morning, to co-entrain both clocks and prevent desynchrony.
DARKNESS and decreased food intake in the evening is just as important. Being young helps, too (von Gall and Weaver, 2006)
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Posted in Advanced nutrition, angiotensin, Bromocriptine, Cabergoline, chronopharmacology, circadian, Dopamine, melatonin, sex, sleep, Sun, vasopressin, Vitamin D
Tagged circadian rhythm
We’ve seen that meal size and frequency can influence circadian rhythms, but here are some examples of how nutrients can, too.
Circadian phase advance: going to bed earlier, waking up earlier. Blue blockers at sunset, bright light at sunrise. Flying east. Autumn.
Circadian phase delay: staying up late, sleeping in. Flying west. Spring. Using smart phones, tablets, and iPads in bed at night. Light pollution.
Relative to adolescents, infants and children are circadian phase advanced. This is part of what is fueling the movement to delay high school start times. Kids are mentally better prepared to work later in the day. With early school start times, performance is down in the morning, but they kill it on video games after school. Delaying start time by an hour won’t totally fix this, but could help.
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Posted in chronopharmacology, circadian, diet, Energy balance, insulin, Ketosis, melatonin, Protein, sleep
Tagged body composition, carbs, circadian rhythm, diet, fat, ketosis, melatonin, protein
Why Low Carb?
Study design & results in a nutshell:
5 weeks, low(ish) vs. high carb (40 vs. 58%) with the calorie difference split between protein (23 vs. 16%) and fat (37 vs. 27%). In other words, the low(ish) carb diet was higher in protein and fat. And there was 2 versions of each diet — a high and low glycemic index. Lots of crossing over; all in all, weak intervention but decent study design & execution.
Aaaand nothingsauce nothingburger. Goal was insulin sensitivity, not weight loss.
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Posted in Advanced nutrition, diet, Dietary fat, Energy balance, fat, Grains, insulin, Protein
Tagged body composition, calories proper, carbs, diet, energy balance, fat, protein
