A few interesting posts elsewhere caught my eye.
First, Dr. Emily Deans reports that people who have experienced influenza or coronavirus infections are much more likely to suffer mood disorders such as depression.
We believe that most diseases result from the interaction of a bad diet with pathogens, so we’re not surprised to see more evidence associating pathogens with depression.
As Dr. Deans says, make sure your vitamin D levels are optimized for protection against these viruses.
Second, Dr. BG offers something tangentially related to our last post on fecal transplant therapies. She links to a post by Richard Nikoley explaining that while in ruminants vitamin B12 is made in the rumen and can be absorbed in the intestine, in carnivores and omnivores like humans vitamin B12 is made in the colon and is not absorbed well, but rather exits in the feces.
This is why animals, in addition to eating a lot of liver if they are carnivores, also eat feces (coprophagia). It gives them vitamin B12. (Perhaps it also cures their colitis, but we’ll await clinical trials to be sure.)
Always eager to provide visual evidence, Dr BG managed to find this video of gorilla coprophagia. Do not watch if you are squeamish, eating dinner, or dislike the sound of children squealing!
via this link:
Hey, thanks for the shout. I just mat do a follow up since, now I have a whole new pwespective on what it ought to mean to Go Vegan!
🙂
Hi Richard, thanks for the visit. Perhaps you can expand your series into a Vegan diet book! Dr. Campbell made a lot of money on that. I’m sure yours would be more entertaining. 🙂
I watched the poo-eating monkey video with my kids-hillarious!! I think I’ll stick to supplements or liver, however.
Old time bodybuilders used to eat tons of liver tablets. That seems to have gone out of style-I wonder why? They are a good source of iron, B12 and vitamin A. Maybe people thought they might OD on the iron and vita A? Still, the old timers used to swear by the stuff for building muscle.
Hi Thomas,
I would definitely be concerned about iron and vitamin A excess … but I am glad we have B12 supplements! I’d hate to have to go the gorilla route.
Thanks for the link! I thought the correlation was pretty intriguing, myself.
I’ll have more links for you later, Emily, when I get around to the Alzheimer’s series. A lot of other things to do first however. My zero-carb friends are waiting for their series.
Ooh – my next post is going to be on a link between parkinsons and genes associated with poor mitochondrial efficiency. Can’t wait to see your zero carb info, because I still have some more questions about VLC and ketosis and I’m certain your take will be illuminating. As you know, ketosis would increase mitochondrial efficiency in the brain…
(this paleo stuff is medical nerd heaven)
I guess seeing them eat it is better than having them throw it at you at the zoo.
What vitamin do you suppose this is about? – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6sBwJQBXM4
(And I just bought the book at Amazon)
Hi R,
Cute video! I’m guessing it’s just sport. Probably a young male who wants to practice his aim.
One of the evolutionary changes in humans that improved our ability to speak involved a movement of the larynx that made it possible for food to go down the wrong pipe. Monkeys and apes don’t have this, so they don’t have a choking hazard from antics like this.
Hi Paul,
I thought (maybe wrongly) that the Optimum Diet was not zero carb and Dr. K focused on the potato as a carb source? If this is the case why the GI cancers due to lack of mucus etc.?
Is it because the glucose was too low?
WP
Hi winalot,
The Optimum Diet is not zero-carb but it’s very low-carb, 100-200 calories per day vs >200 for us. I suspect some Optimal Dieters go below 100 calories per day however. Esp. since I believe they count calories from vegetables which we don’t think are available.
That series will start shortly.
Hi,
What’s your take on oxalates? Something to worry about?
Hi Abby,
Maybe, if you have fungal infections or kidney stones. Not for most people. The stress of worrying can do you more harm than the oxalates.
How’s your grandma?
Hi Paul,
Thanks for the reply and looking forward to the series. I raised my concern as I’m following the 200 calories a day approach and don’t want stomach cancer 🙂
Would the ketosis protect me or should I be focusing on my mental health first and worry about GI issues later (by increasing glucose calories) when brain is working better?
WP
The coconut oil ketosis is protective, but I like redundancy so I would still seek at least 200 carb calories and 600 carb+protein calories a day. I think that should be sufficient to prevent an elevated risk of stomach cancer. Of course no one knows for sure exactly what the risks are where, and how much variation there is among persons, but I think probably very few or no people will have trouble at 200 carb calories a day. Nevertheless, everyone should monitor their own saliva and tears, and if eyes and mouth are dry, should increase glucose intake. I believe mucus/glycocalyx deficiency is the likely mechanism for elevated gastrointestinal cancer rates.
Ok, just wondering since I have a lot of green tea and sweet potatoes.
And they’re basically feeding her nutrient enriched sugar, and aren’t worried about blood sugar in the 160s. The doctors are giving her insulin, but don’t see any reason to change what they’re feeding her. I guess we’ll see.
One more question. I’ve heard milk decreases the absorption of catchechins, would this be true for heavy cream as well?
Thanks!
Hi Abby,
I was afraid they’d be giving her glucose. Is it intravenous? It would be healthier diet-wise to provide a tube to the stomach and feed her a balanced diet. The glucose diet definitely raises her blood sugar and that’s not good, especially if the infection is bacterial.
I did cut down green tea myself because of oxalates but I have a history of fungal infections.
Milk doesn’t seem to decrease absorption of catechins, see http://www.nature.com/ejcn/journal/v52/n5/abs/1600568a.html. There was a report that casein protein from skim milk prevents nitric oxide release in response to tea drinking, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17213230, but the mechanism was unknown. Heavy cream has much less casein than skim milk, so whatever the mechanism is, it should be lessened with cream.
Yes, it is intravenous. And she has a pretty bad case of pneumonia, so it is certainly not helping.
The second study was the one I was thinking of. But I will probably continue with my heavy cream and tea for breakfast then. I used to have scrambled eggs, but I don’t cook egg yolks any longer.