Australian Aborigine in Swamp Darwin
I wrote previously about O’dea’s study on Australian Aboriginals and their improvement in diabetes following a return to their ancestral lifestyle and diet.
National Geographic has an article on the vanishing Aboriginal lifestyle. Among other things, you’ll learn how to catch and cook a sea turtle.
The Aboriginals had Australia to themselves before Captain James Cook landed on the continent in 1770. Now they’re less than three percent of the population.
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I ran across some nutrition-advice videos of Dr Michael Greger six months ago and started following him at Twitter. It soon became clear he favors a vegan or vegetarian diet. Dr. Harriet Hall at Science-Based Medicine has Dr. Greger in her crosshairs, challenging many of his claims. Well worth a read. An excerpt:
Vegans tell us the Inuit, who lived almost exclusively on food of animal origin, had a short life span. That’s not true. Statistics on the Inuit between 1822 and 1836 showed that their average life expectancy was about the same as that of European peasants of the time who ate a diet overwhelmingly based on bread. 25% of Inuit lived past 60, and some lived into their 80s and 90s.
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Primalmeded physician Anastasia has started a series on resistant starch. I’m still trying to get the definition into my thick skull. Anastasia offers this one:
The official website named Resistantstarch.com – An Information Portal for Health Professionals (don’t you wish that broccoli had an official website?), gives us this definition:
”Resistant starch is the sum of starch and products of starch digestion not absorbed in the small intestine of healthy individuals”
It is also classified as the third type of fibre (together with soluble and insoluble) by several health agencies, including Food Standards Australia and New Zealand, and its MO [modus operandi] is to bypass the normal absorption process in the small intestine straight to the colon where it is fermented by colonic bacteria (which also makes it a “prebiotic”).
Consider this quote: “It is reasonably certain that man was originally made to live and exercise in the open air, bathe in rivers, and expose his body to the healthful action of the sun.”
And this one:
“Civilized man is manufacturing and eating many substances that slowly but surely lead to degeneration, disease and premature death.”
These nuggets could easily come from a paleo lifestyle blog, the kind that argues our modern diet and way of life are making us sick.
Except that the first one is from an 1894 book called Athletics for Physical Culture. And the second is from a 1926 book called Natural Foods: The Safe Way to Health.
Both were written by proponents of physical culture, a fringy movement of health enthusiasts, which lasted from the 1880s to 1920s in the U.S. and Europe.
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…according to an article in MedPageToday.
Yet another reason to work out
In a forward-looking study, white men suspected of prostate cancer and scheduled for biopsy were less likely to have the disease if they were at least moderately active, according to Lionel Bañez, MD, of the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Durham N.C., and colleagues.
If they did have cancer, they were significantly less likely to have high-grade disease if they had been working out regularly, Bañez and colleagues reported in Cancer.
Another way to reduce your risk of prostate cancer is to follow the Mediterranean diet. Other cancers reduced by the Mediterranean diet are breast, colo-rectal, and uterus.
The association of exercise and lower prostate cancer risk was not noted in black men, for unclear reasons.
MRI scan of brain
Our bodies keep blood sugar levels in a fairly narrow range. You might think you’re fine if you’re anywhere within the defined normal range.
Think again.
Australian researchers found that people with fasting blood sugars toward the upper end of the normal range had more degeneration (atrophy) in parts of the brain called the hippocampus and amygdala, compared to those in the low normal range. Degeneration in those areas is often manifested as dementia.
The hippocampus is critical for learning and memory formation and retention. The amygdala is also involved in memory as well as emotion. The two areas are intimately connected, literally.
How Was the Study Done?
Over 250 study participants aged 60 to 64 years had normal brains at baseline and were free of diabetes and prediabetes. Nearly all were caucasian. MRI brain scans were done at baseline and again four years later. Significant atrophy (shrinkage) was seen in the hippocampus and amygdala over time, with greater atrophy seen in those with higher baseline fasting glucose levels.
Fasting blood sugar was measured only once, at the start, and ranged from 58 to 108 mg/dl (3.2 to 6.0 mmol/l). (Fasting glucose of 108 would be prediabetes according to the American Diabetes Association, but not by the World Health Organization.) Participants weren’t tested for deterioration of cognition.
So What?
The results of the study at hand are consistent with others that link higher rates of dementia with diabetes. Diabetics, even when under treatment, usually have higher average blood sugars than non-diabetics. The study authors speculate that damage from higher blood sugars may be mediated by inflammation and abnormal blood clotting (prothrombotic factors and platelet activation).
It’s interesting to contemplate whether non-diabetics and diabetics would have less risk of developing dementia if blood sugars could be kept in the lower end of the normal range. How could you do that? Possibilities include:
Steve Parker, M.D.
Reference: Cherbuin, Nicolas, et al. Higher normal fasting plasma glucose is associated with hippocampal atrophy: The PATH Study. Neurology, September 4, 2012, vol. 79, No. 10, pp: 1,010-1,026. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e31826846de
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…to prevent cardiovascular disease and stroke. Those mineral trends are natural with the paleo diet, although not mentioned by Dr. Pande.
For detail: http://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/getting-more-potassium-and-less-salt-may-cut-heart-attack-stroke-risk-201304126067
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Click for a slide set of a presentation by Alan Aragon given last month. The overall tone is anti-paleo. I file the link here for future reference.
One of his key points is that humans have been eating grains (and legumes) for much longer than many in the paleosphere think. That may indeed be true, but it’s difficult to imagine them eating them in the large and year-round quantities we do today. Same for industrial seed oils.
Also, Alan has no problem with our current high omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid ratio and overall omega-6 FA consumption. I think the jury’s still out on those.
Otherwise, Alan makes some good points and slays a few straw men.
I was surprised to see photos of Sisson and Wolf supplements.
h/t non-paleo Melissa McEwan
A breast researcher would say, “Yes.” A quote from tomorrow’s The Sun:
Professor Jean-Denis Rouillon, from the University of Besancon, led the 15-year study into women’s breasts.
He said: “Medically, physiologically, anatomically – breasts gain no benefit from being denied gravity.
“On the contrary, they get saggier with a bra”.
Here’s more extensive coverage.
…in an attractive infographic. You do follow her blog, don’t you?
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Click pic to purchase book at Amazon.com. E-book versions also available at Smashwords.com.
Diabetic Mediterranean Diet Advanced Mediterranean Life
Paleo Diabetic 