Yearly Archives: 2011 - Page 3

Note: I’ve been overwhelmed with work lately and have fallen behind on the comment threads. I will get to comments on the Anti-Cancer and Q&A threads as soon as I can.

Appeal for Help: One of our readers is a dear lady in Queensland, Australia, near Brisbane. She is a chronic disease patient and housebound. She would like to have an assistance dog for emotional support, and would like to have a puppy that she can train. Australian law requires housing units to permit certified support dogs, but her housing complex is denying permission for a puppy that is not yet certified. If any Australian lawyer would be willing to provide her with advice on her legal rights pro bono, please send an email to pauljaminet@perfecthealthdiet.com and I will put you in touch.

[1] Jimmy Moore’s symposium: I’d like to thank Jimmy Moore for organizing his symposium on “safe starches.” It’s a great topic and only Jimmy could have brought together so many interesting people to discuss it.

It might have worked better if I had been able to provide some background to the panel. As it was, too many of the responders were unfamiliar with what we mean by “safe starches” and many may have supposed that our diet was designed for diabetics.

Kurt Harris did yeoman’s work this week, commenting on my post, Jimmy’s, and threads on PaleoHacks. It was great to have someone of like mind taking the time to comment. Thank you, Kurt, Melissa Hartwig, Emily Deans, Praguestepchild, and everyone who wrote supportive comments.

Some humor did come out of the discussions. My favorite was a PaleoHacker consoling Jack Kruse: “It’s just pillar envy, Quilt.”

I expect to post my reply on Tuesday.

[2] Music to read by: Brook Benton and Dinah Washington have what it takes:

[3] Interesting posts this week:  Michael A Smith of Critical MAS tests our ideas about ketogenic fasting and finds that he can eliminate hunger while fasting by eating coconut oil and fermented vegetables.

Sean at PragueStepChild reminds us of some great posts by an outstanding blogger who has gone silent, Robert McLeod, on the subject of macrophages and the role of chronic infections in disease. Start with Sean, but be sure to finish at Robert’s blog.

Chris Masterjohn reports that AGEs come from … ketones!

We know God is jealous, but is He also female? Sex outside of marriage may raise the risk of penile fractures. Via Tom Smith.

Stephan Guyenet continues his series defending the food reward hypothesis of obesity. JS Stanton of Gnolls.org has been doing a closely related series, here’s his Part VI which explains key concepts relating to food reward, and has links to Parts I through V. Part IV was my favorite.

Two economists took their hand at finding the cause of the obesity epidemic. The biggest cause they found? Declines in smoking rates, which explained about 2% of the weight gain since 1979.

Peggy the Primal Parent has had a fascinating experience with gut dysbiosis. Fiber and fructose give her hypoglycemic episodes, but pure glucose doesn’t.

Bruce Charlton notes that scientists tend to develop theories into taboos, so that “using the taboo concept in reasoning triggers nerves and hormones and alters the body state to feel bad.” This may explain the reaction of some low-carb gurus to the word “starch.”

Emily Deans and Melissa McEwen both reviewed Wheat Belly; Melissa emphasizes what’s not in the book.

Don Matesz proposes the unconventional idea that strength training reduces protein requirements.

Jamie Scott, That Paleo Guy, produced the ultimate primer on phytic acid. Chris Kresser recently advised not going nuts on nuts, because of their phytic acid.

Chris Highcock reports that Shift Work at Young Age Is Associated with Elevated Long-Term Cortisol Levels and Body Mass Index. This fits with our theme that proper circadian rhythms are important for many aspects of health including weight regulation.

Frank Hagan of Low Carb Age dissects a study we mentioned last week, that recommended a diet of 1/3 carb 1/3 protein 1/3 fat. Turns out they found that 1/3 carbs is better than high carb, but didn’t have any data to show that lower carb was worse.

Michael Greger, the vegetarian doctor, asks if animal food lovers are missing “vitamin S” – salicylic acid.

Mark Sisson at Mark’s Daily Apple has been holding reader video contests and has a ton – metric ton even – of reader workout and food videos. “Tuna Tataki with Gazpacho” won the prize for best recipe video.

Peter of Hyperlipid blames the Denmark saturated fat tax on Unilever. This story he linked says that Denmark has a low obesity rate – below 10%. Look for that to change now that saturated fats are more expensive.

Via John J. Ray, the sad story of a 25-year-old woman who killed herself with cough medicine. The acetaminophen was destroying her liver, but she thought she had a cold and kept taking more.

At PaleoHacks, a healthy 34 year old had a heart attack. Did his doctors misdiagnose a protozoal infection?

[4] Cute animal photo:

[5] Remembering Steve Jobs:

Steve Jobs passed away Wednesday night. When we got the news, we had just finished a dinner with the Living Paleo in Boston group and Julie Mayfield, author of Paleo Comfort Foods. We stopped at Shou-Ching’s office so that, coincidentally enough, she could finish submitting a pancreatic cancer grant application before a midnight deadline.

A commenter asked if I had anything to say about his health history. No; we don’t know the causes of Jobs’s cancer, and have no reason to assume he wasn’t following the best available health advice. Indeed, he survived pancreatic cancer longer than most.

It is true that Jobs was a close friend of Dean Ornish – one of his last meals was with Dr. Ornish at a Palo Alto sushi restaurant, Jin Sho. After his diagnosis with pancreatic cancer in 2003, he apparently tried to treat his cancer with a vegetarian diet under Dr. Ornish’s direction, but it didn’t go well. He finished his life eating a pescetarian diet.

Jobs leaves a wife and four children. I like this photo of Jobs leaning on his wife Laurene after an exhausting talk:

Jobs was always a bit of a rebel; in the third grade he released snakes into the classroom and exploded bombs. At Apple the early ads celebrated rebelliousness in pursuit of progress:

We’ll remember Jobs as the greatest entrepreneur of his time, a man who did exactly what Apple’s ads said: “push the human race forward.” If you doubt how far the human race has come, watch the 28-year-old Steve Jobs introducing the “insanely great” Macintosh computer:

UPDATE: A modification of the Apple logo, by a student from Hong Kong:

[6] Let’s buy a lemon tree honey: It’s time for civil disobedience:

Several years ago, Bridget Donovan, who has now been dubbed “The Lemon Tree Lady,” purchased a Meyer lemon tree from meyerlemontree.com. A resident of Wisconsin, Donovan purchased the tree legally and in full accordance with all federal and state laws regulating citrus transport, and had lovingly cultivated and cared for her indoor citrus plant for nearly three years.

Then, out of nowhere, Donovan received an unexpected letter from the USDA informing her that government officials were going to come and seize her tree and destroy it — and that she was not going to be compensated for her loss. The letter also threatened that if Donovan was found to be in possession of “regulated citrus” again, she could be fined up to $60,000.

Donovan was shocked, to say the least, as her tree was not a “regulated citrus.” The store from which she purchased it is fully legitimate, and she had done absolutely nothing wrong. But it turns out Donovan and many others who had also purchased similar citrus plants had faced, or were currently facing, the very same threats made against them by the USDA.

Most of those targeted simply surrendered their trees without trying to fight back, Donovan discovered. And while she, herself put up a hefty fight in trying to get honest answers in order to keep her tree, Donovan was eventually forced to surrender it as well. And worst of all, many of those who were told that a replacement tree would be in “compliance” later had those trees confiscated, too.

Why has the USDA been targeting lemon tree owners? The answer is unclear, other than that they are a supposed threat to the citrus industry. And a USDA official admitted to Donovan that the agency has been spying on those suspected of owning lemon trees, and targeting all found to be in possession with threats of fines and raids if they failed to give them up — and the agency has been doing this without a valid warrant.

UPDATE: Apparently the threat is “citrus greening disease.” Hat tip James.

One of the comments: “First they came for the raw cow’s milk and I didn’t speak out, as I prefer raw goat’s milk. Then they came for the vegetable gardens in the front yards and I didn’t speak out, as I have my vegetable garden elsewhere. Then they came for the citrus trees and I didn’t speak out, as I prefer someone else to squeeze them …”

[7] Best comments this week:

Vincent explains the tuber fermentation strategy that helped cure his gut dysbiosis. He followed instructions at wildfermentation.com. Bella, like Vincent, cured her constipation with anti-fungal strategies.

We had great comments on both sides of the food reward issue. The general consensus: Perfect Health Dieters have substantially reduced food cravings and appetite, and can easily ignore most junk food, but there are still some combinations of food that create cravings or addictive eating. Here’s Stabby:

I have been eating the PHD for a while, and it has really reduced any sort of cravings and tendency to mow down, even if the food is really yummy. But indeed, I will down a bag of potato chips in an instant, because it is just that cracktastic, pretty much designed to stimulate me in every possible way.

Erp:

I’ve tried to lose weight by going low carb. The weight losses were successful, but I didn’t stop craving high carb/sugary stuff and would always gradually go back to the bad old ways and gain the weight back.

One year later strictly following the PHD, I lost almost 40 lbs and not only don’t I crave carbs and sugar, I am actually repelled by the smell of a bakery. Yeast and cinnamon are off putting.

Peter:

After approximately six months of PHD I have zero craving for sweets and have easily resisted entire tables groaning with plates of cakes, doughnuts, cookies and so forth. Resisted is the wrong word though – it’s as if all desire for a (formerly craved) substance has left my body. I’m not sure if it’s related, but I have no desire to drink alcohol these days.

Nancy:

I am maintaining my weight loss without cravings or white knuckling and feel great. Thank you! Thank you!

Interestingly, it seems to be the richer, more complex taste combinations that stimulate addictive eating. For Ellen, it’s a dessert made from “rice krisps, coconut flakes, macadamias, rice syrup, coconut oil, ghee, salt and cinnamon”; for Shelley, “trail mix of chopped up 85% dark chocolate, raisens, dry roasted salted macadamia nuts and unsweetened coconut flakes”; for Jaybird, wheat-based cake batter. Ellen writes:

Because I had seen some positive changes in my blood sugar from incrementally increasing my starches (and also from the PHD regimen of supplements especially high dosage of iodine) I got carried away and thought maybe I was getting closer to perfect and I could handle dessert type treats. It has only been two weeks, but I have been creating more and more of them. A bad sign.

Shelley writes:

I have made PHD ice cream, sweetened berry compotes, etc and this doesn’t happen. So far it’s just this one combination of products. strange?!

Fascinating.

[8] Not the weekly video: Cat and mouse:

Via Pål Jåbekk.

[9] Shou-Ching’s Photo-Art:

[10] Weekly video: Robb Wolf was the hero of Discovery Channel’s “I, Caveman.” They have selections from the show online. This one is about their difficulty obtaining potable water:

Shou-Ching and I will be speaking tomorrow to the Living Paleo in Boston group, at a potluck dinner hosted by Amit and Shilpi Mehta, on the topic of “Common Pitfalls of Paleo.” We’re excited to meet everyone. Kamal Patel has already promised a question about “the philosophical and emotional aspects of glycogen.”

Also, Paul will be appearing on Patrick Timpone’s The Morning Show on Thursday, Oct 13, at 11 am EST/10 am CST.

[1] Book Reviews and Cures: Several mentions of our book came to our attention this week:

Larry Carter of Dan’s Plan included us in his “Five Slightly Different Flavors of the Paleo Diet.” (The other flavors: Cordain, Wolf, de Vany, and Sisson.)

Steve Omohundro called our book, “My favorite reference … I’ve read it twice and am still learning lots from it.”

Sean at Prague Stepchild offered kind words:

What’s cool about this book is that it is sort of the health aficionado’s health book, yet at the same time extremely accessible. So accessible that my wife has pretty much been monopolizing it since it arrived more than a month ago. This is especially notable because my wife’s native language is Czech, and while her English is excellent, she’s not crazy about reading books in English. In fact she just plain doesn’t do it.

Jennifer Fulwiler of Conversion Diaries gives the best review ever:

I love the subject of nutrition. My fascination with it began when I was 18, and for the past 16 years I’ve read tons of books on the subject, from pop diet paperbacks to heavy textbooks…. I have found a book that is head and shoulders above everything else I’ve ever read on the subject … It’s called The Perfect Health Diet, and it is awesome. (To give you an idea how good it is, I stayed up late reading it in the hospital the night after the baby was born because I couldn’t put it down!)

There you go: We keep moms awake even better than their newborns!

Gratifyingly, a couple of cures were reported on the constipation thread. First, Anna:

I’m so grateful to you for this information. I’ve been suffering for weeks but I took the recommended supplements and did nothing else — and experienced relief the second day. In a world full of useless and confusing information, having a good source is such a godsend. Thank you for all that you do.

Then, Vincent reported his constipation is almost cured with our anti-fungal diet:

After a few weeks of little improvement, I experienced my first normal bowel movement in a long time (years?).  After more changes to my regimen, I now have normal stools on most days.  The greatest improvements coincided with the times I added fermented tubers and (later) ThreeLac.  I also think that cranberries, turmeric, increased amounts of safe starches, the Now Foods anti-fungal, and removal of my beloved coconut oil were all quite helpful.  My victory is not complete — I still get diarrhea fairly easily and the occasional hard stool — but the improvement is incredible.

Many thanks, Paul, for helping me fix a problem that has plagued me for a long time.  I wish you, Shou-Ching, and all your readers the great health and happiness you deserve.

Sincerely,

Vincent

Our sincere thanks to everyone who reports results. It’s such a pleasure to hear from you!

[2] My Research for Kamal’s Question:

Via Andrew Day on Facebook.

[3] Interesting Items This Week: Kurt Harris is one of the most respected authorities in the Paleo movement, and Jimmy Moore asked his thoughts on our advice to eat a certain amount of “safe starches.” Kurt’s discussion is excellent. His diet advice is essentially identical to ours, although the reasoning by which we reach our conclusions differs in a few respects.

Over at Dallas and Melissa Hartwig’s blog, a great “Whole9 success story”: How Jessica O cured trichotillomania and seizures with a Paleo diet.

Beth Mazur explains why she’s the Weight Maven (“A Maven is someone who wants to solve other people’s problems, generally by solving his own.”) and links to a cool cartoon showing the significance of a Ph.D.

Robb Wolf backs ever so slightly away from low-carb: “In years gone by I’d have staunchly recommended a low carb paleo diet as THE best intervention but I can’t in good faith recommend that anymore.”

Perhaps he was influenced by this study. Bix at Fanatic Cook passes on results from a large population-based study (27,140 participants) in Sweden:

• A high-protein intake was associated with an increased risk for type 2 diabetes.
• Replacing protein with carbohydrate … was associated with a lower risk for type 2 diabetes.

Stephan Guyenet is starting a series on the mechanisms underlying food reward. I think this is much needed, and I’m in the group he’s targeting (“skeptics” and “scientifically inclined people who want mechanism”). (Note: I’m not skeptical that food reward exists, or that addictive-like wanting is an important factor in many cases of obesity. I’m skeptical over the origins of addictive-like wanting, and over the universality and importance of this factor – whether it is the cause, or a symptom; whether bland food is curative, or merely a means of symptomatic relief. I’m wondering whether there will be compliance to an unrewarding diet.)

Peter at Hyperlipid conducts a trial to prove that chocolate is more rewarding than bananas. On another thread at Peter’s, Jenny Ruhl points out an interesting fact about obesity and diabetes:

The number of people with diabetes in the overall population stays fairly close to 9% but the number of obese and insulin resistant people keeps growing to where it is somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3rds of all older adults.

So whatever is causing the obesity epidemic, it doesn’t promote diabetes.

Stan the Heretic gives us a study from Sweden claiming that gene expression is optimized on a 1/3 carb 1/3 fat 1/3 protein diet:

“Both low-carb and high-carb diets are wrong,” says Johansen. “But a low-carb diet is closer to the right diet. A healthy diet shouldn’t be made up of more than one-third carbohydrates (up to 40 per cent of calories) in each meal, otherwise we stimulate our genes to initiate the activity that creates inflammation in the body.”

Dr. Briffa discusses a study showing that B12 deficiency is linked with brain shrinkage in later life.

Chris Masterjohn shows evidence that dietary protein protects against cancer by raising glutathione levels.

Via Julianne Taylor on Twitter, CoQ10 maintains fertility in older women.

ScienceDaily links to a new Nature paper showing that fat cells in obese people store fats more easily and shed fats less easily than fat cells in normal people. A study author says “this is the first time that someone has demonstrated that the metabolism of fat in the fat cells differs between healthy and obese individuals.” If something so basic had never been demonstrated, it’s no wonder the blogosphere can’t agree on what causes obesity.

More manipulation of mammals by germs: From The Scientist, A Lactobacillus rhamnosus strain reduces anxiety and depression in mice, and may do the same in people, according to a new paper in PNAS.

While fermentation of vegetables produces very healthful foods, fermentation of meat tends to culture germs that can digest us, and is a very risky activity. Melissa McEwen points out that the lore of how to do it safely has largely been lost.

Wired.com has some neat graphics on the gut microbiome. Most striking to me was this chart of how long it takes people who don’t eat kimchi to refresh their gut flora:

[4] More music: We’re so classy, classical music isn’t good enough unless wine glasses are involved. Here’s Bach’s Toccata and fugue in D minor:

[5] The 2011 Ig Nobel Prize for Medicine has been awarded: For demonstrating that people make better decisions about some kinds of things, but worse decisions about other kinds of things, when they have a strong urge to urinate.

Via Peter Klein.

[6] Cute animal photo: From Logan Pass, Glacier National Park, Montana:

Via EarthPorn by way of Lance Strish.

[7] Best Comments This Week (not about constipation):

Jana had a great comment on the relentless pressure on cancer patients to be “upbeat,” and the harm it may do.

Majkinetor guides us to a paper showing that a maternal protein-deficient diet can promote high blood pressure and impaired glucose metabolism in offspring, but that this effect can be rescued by folate supplementation. Vitamins B6, B12, and choline are even better.

Lance Strish had a very informative discussion of toxicity from AGEs and ALEs.

[8] Shou-Ching’s Photo Art:

[9] “Little Miss Muscle”: Was spindly 7^th-grader April Atkins the world’s strongest teenager?

Via Instapundit.

Shou-Ching and I would like to extend our thanks to Denny and Aimee Perrin, proprietors of Aimee’s Livin’ Magic, for inviting us to speak to the monthly Locavore Dinner last week. It was a delightful group of people, and Shou-Ching and I had a great time. It was also a lovely setting, looking out over an inlet from the Maine coast. If you ever find yourself passing through York Maine, check out their shop and art gallery at 254 Cider Hill Road (Maine Rte 91).

I’ll be speaking again next Sunday, October 2, to the Living Paleo in Boston group, on the topic “Common Pitfalls of Eating Paleo.” Thanks to Amit and Shilpi Mehta for hosting the event and suggesting the topic.

[1] Music to read by: Andy Williams tries to remember:

[2] Interesting posts this week: Brian Cormack Carr gave a very nice review of our book at Paleo Diet News.

Emily Deans discussed some papers which Jamie Scott found: evidence that gut dysbiosis may be a cause of autism, and proof that serotonin-depleted individuals are more prone to anger and irritability. This last is why anger and irritability are symptoms of brain infections: the immune response in the brain, driven by interferon-gamma and designed to deprive pathogens of tryptophan, dramatically reduces brain serotonin levels.

Speaking of Jamie, he has moved to a new site (ThatPaleoGuy.com), and this week discussed a paper I had been holding for a blog post: proof that plants can be toxic via RNA as well as protein. See Plant RNAs Found in Mammals in The Scientist. (PS: Jamie, you can import your old blog’s content into your new blog.)

Dr. William Davis’s new book Wheat Belly is doing well: it’s #78 on Amazon as I write this. Here is an interview in MacLean’s. I haven’t read the book yet, but Melissa McEwen has.

Some steps forward in the obesity discussion: Peter at Hyperlipid is following up on JS Stanton’s lead regarding mitochondrial dysfunction in obesity. CarbSane chips in with evidence for metabolic diversity among the obese. Stephan Guyenet discusses evidence that humans over-eat and gain weight on a junk food diet.

Dr. John Briffa joins the “Taubes v Guyenet” discussion. He thinks compliance will be a big issue for unrewarding diets. In another post, Dr Briffa makes one of our favorite points: in weight loss, the first key is to never be hungry.

We associate protozoal infections with the tropics, but some protozoal infections are significant health threats in the US, including Toxoplasmosis, Giardiasis, and Babesiosis. LymeMD discusses how Babesia establishes chronic infections.

Beth Mazur finds a great quote from Wendell Berry :

People are fed by the food industry, which pays no attention to health, and are treated by the health industry, which pays no attention to food.

This reminds me of an observation made by Stan the Heretic: if medicine were about patient health, doctors would recommend chocolate rather than statins. Dennis Mangan is also on the chocolate bandwagon.

Yet another study has come out disputing the XMRV – chronic fatigue link.

Bruce Charlton likens the procedure of modern science to a “Texas Sharpshooter”: whatever it hits, is where the bull’s-eye gets painted. But unconventional approaches to science can sometimes prove highly productive. Recently, an advance was made by letting the public solve a puzzle as a communal game.

Kristen Michaelis of Food Renegade has a great rant about the loss of our freedom to produce and consume the food of our choice. Kristen gets a well-deserved Instalanche. Related: Richard Nikoley on how we’ve “advanced” from being socially powerful to socially powerless, and Andrew Badenoch of Evolvify explains that libertarianism – which I suppose could be called the institution of civilization – is non-Paleo; Paleo society did however benefit from the option to choose among competing bands.

Dr. Ron Rosedale discusses the influence of diet upon multiple sclerosis.

Finally, Dr Steve Parker asks, “Why did the cannibal eat the trapeze artist?”

[3] Nice hat:

bird image

[4] Cool comments this week:

Daniel on the desirability of maintaining a high dietary choline: folate ratio.

Sweet Feather discussed the risks of high iron levels to those with the common genetic defect of hemochromatosis and how to adapt one’s diet to it.

Shelley’s comment on “ear rock” induced vertigo led me to this NPR video on how to cure vertigo with the “Epley maneuver”.

GeeBee posted photos of her food – quiche and pork pies. I especially liked the quiche.

[5] Saudi Arabians get the strangest diseases: Lemon tree growing in ear syndrome:

Saudi doctors successfully removed a lemon seed stuck inside a woman’s ear for nearly two months, ending fears that the seed could have sprouted, a newspaper in the Gulf kingdom reported on Thursday….

“The seed could have grown and generated branches but the wax in the woman’s ear has prevented fluids from reaching the seed.”

Via Rantburg. Of course, that doesn’t beat the Irishman who died of spontaneous combustion. No word if alcohol or cigarettes were involved.

[6] Shou-Ching’s Photo Art:

[7] Not the weekly video: For your amusement, Chinese bicycle acrobats:

[8] Heavenly bodies: This is the Milky Way above the Himalayas, photo by Anton Jankovoy:

From the Daily Mail via Barry Ritholtz.

[9] Weekly video: From the golden age of cinema, Robert Benchley explains “How to Eat“:

A reminder: Shou-Ching and I will be at the Locavore Dinner, hosted by Denny and Aimee Perrin at the Wrap-Around Cottage, 254 Cider Hill Road, York, Maine, later today (September 17). Contact information may be found here. A pot-luck dinner starts at 5 pm; bring “a dish to share consisting of locally-sourced ingredients of animal and/or vegetable origins.” After dinner, I’ll give a talk describing our diet and the logic behind it. All are welcome.

[1] Interesting posts this week: Dr. Kurt Harris was interviewed on the Robb Wolf show. Kurt reports that he got healthier when he went from VLC to 15% carbs, and that lately he’s been eating 40% carbs from safe starches, and doing fine. Some interesting observations: Kurt thinks that problems with legumes are more commonly due to FODMAPs than toxins (and thus problems are gut flora dependent). He says that peaches give him problems due to polyalcohol sugars such as sorbitol.

Remember when Sean at Prague Stepchild was “taking on” Stephan Guyenet?  He’s surrendered.

Pål Jåbekk had a nice post on Carbs and cancer – a good primer for our cancer series.

Lucas Tafur has moved to a new site, plans to broaden his scope, and begins with a nice post: The “Old Friends” Hypothesis.

Craig Newmark reminds us that no one appreciates your health as much as you do, so you should try to take care of it yourself. Bruce Charlton says that science has gone from maximum to minimum honesty.

Eggs or chickens: which poisoned us first? Dr. Michael Greger, a vegetarian, argues that eggs are bad for us, and that eating chicken may lead to a smaller penis. But Dr. Oz says that eating eggs will extend your life.

Bon Appetit says gluten-free is the hottest new health trend: “Physicians are swearing that their own fatigue and brain fog lifted” after they gave up gluten, says Peter H. R. Green, M.D., director of the Celiac Disease Center at Columbia University. “We don’t know the mechanisms for this. It’s fascinating.”

A new blog about living Paleo on little money: A Slim Winter. “[T]his is borne from desperation, frustration and anger…. We have used up all of our savings and now are living just on our unemployment check.  Those checks stop in seven more weeks.  It’s crunch time.”

[2] No, it’s not love: Sea otters hold hands to keep from drifting apart while sleeping.

Via Yves Smith.

[3] A surprising cure for tinnitus?: Todd Hargrove (How to Do Joint Mobility Drills, July 26, 2011) taught us about brain maps, and how a re-mapping the brain can cure phantom pain and improve mobility.

Well, it turns out the brain has maps for sounds also, and tinnitus is “phantom hearing.” Re-mapping the brain may cure tinnitus:

“We argue that reorganizing the cortical map should be the goal, so that the nerves get some input and stop their tinnitus activity,” he said. “You don’t want to leave these cells without sensory input.”

“We changed our (brain training) strategy from one where we completely avoided the tinnitus domain to one where we directly engage it and try to redifferentiate or reactivate it, and we seem to be seeing improvement,” Merzenich said.

[4] Cook your food gently: By testing the hearts of old mice for oxidative agents in mitochondria, researchers found that acrolein, which is generated when glycerol is heated to 280ºC, was responsible for most of the aging damage.

Chavez JD et al. Site-specific proteomic analysis of lipoxidation adducts in cardiac mitochondria reveals chemical diversity of 2-alkenal adduction. J Proteomics. 2011 Apr 13. [Epub ahead of print] http://pmid.us/21513823.

[5] Pretty: Jack Brauer of WideRange.org photographs Plitvicka Jezera National Park in Croatia:

Via the Daily Mail.

[6] Do maternal low-carb diets make children fat?: In mice, mothers eating low-carb high-protein diets give birth to offspring prone to obesity. Some evidence has emerged indicating that something similar may happen in humans.

In a new study, women who ate a “low-carb” diet – 1,000 calories per day or less – early in pregnancy were more likely to give birth to children with hypermethylation (epigenetic silencing) of the retinoid X receptor-alpha (RXRA) gene. This is the most important receptor for vitamin A.

The more RXRA was silenced, the more likely children were to become obese. By age 9, children in the highest quartile of RXRA methylation at birth were significantly fatter than children in the lowest quartile of RXRA methylation.

Godfrey KM et al. Epigenetic gene promoter methylation at birth is associated with child’s later adiposity. Diabetes. 2011 May;60(5):1528-34. http://pmid.us/21471513.

See also:

Reynolds RM et al. Maternal BMI, parity, and pregnancy weight gain: influences on offspring adiposity in young adulthood.  J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010 Dec;95(12):5365-9. http://pmid.us/20702520.

Pollin TI. Epigenetics and diabetes risk: not just for imprinting anymore? Diabetes. 2011 Jul;60(7):1859-60. http://pmid.us/21709282.

[7] Perfect Health Hummus?: Anyone who wants to eat more carbs is going to need more “safe starches.”

One of the more popular legumes worldwide is chickpeas, the main ingredient in hummus. A number of commenters – Andrea Reina, Ruth of Ruth’s Real Food, and Beezneez – gave us instructions for achieving this. Here are Ruth’s detailed instructions. You need acid, potatoes, overnight soaking, and thorough cooking.

[8] Shou-Ching’s Photo Art:

[9] Video of the week: Catherine Destivelle performs an amazing solo climb in Mali:

Via UKClimbing.com.