2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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Russ
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Re: 2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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Stavia wrote: It was a special moment to see him, Dr Terry Wahls and Dr Dale Bredesen in animated discussion. What a treat and we have to thank Julie for achieving this wonderful event.
Boy - really wish I could have been there for that. Look forward to listening to the tape, even though I know it will be worth a fraction of the experience of being there with y'all! Keep the news coming and can't wait to hear the discussion after everyone gets home and mentally distills everything learned.
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Re: 2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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miss you too Russ!!
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Re: 2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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Day Two

JAKE JACOBSON
Increase your health span by mimicking hunter gatherer's meal frequency
The last two decades research, especially in Japan, showing the science behind eight repair processes that occur during fasting.

Jake discussed the benefits of fasting - autophagy, protein scavenging, upregulation of insulin leptin & GLP1 receptors, glucose deprivation of neoplastic cells, BNDF secretion, SIRT1 upregulation, and reduction of visceral fat with consequent Reduced TNFa and IL-6.

He also noted that visceral fat loss is HGH dependent and the latter is reduced from age 40. Fasting is effective at raising HGH.

He believes that HDL is a surrogate for adiponectin and that 55 is a tipping point between a cytokine dominant and an adiponectin dominant system.

My opinion: a nice basic summary but not really at conference level.
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Re: 2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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TODD BECKER
Living high and healthy: Why Coloradans and others who live at high altitude live longer and what flatlanders can learn from them
Studies show that moderate hypoxia activates several hermetic processes that produce strong health benefits. Before the modern era, our ancestors followed some hormetic dietary and lifestyle practices which we can employ in our daily life to improve health and live longer

Todd is very interested in geographic factors in obesity. It is well known that obesity rates track consistently with altitude. There is very good data from both the US and Europe. Even the Appalachians stand out with lower rates in a sea of lower level obesity.

Why? Doesn't seem to be related to exercise, ethnicity, UV radiation, air quality but seems to be related to chronic hypoxia.

Hypoxia decreases obesity, diabetes, dementia thru complex effects including spontaneous decreased food intake, increased metabolic rate, increased leptin sensitivity. Hypoxia also increases life span and decreases CVD. Athletes living high and training low have increased performance.

How?
Pathways here are complex but include optimization of leptin and insulin, hormetically driven BDNF production, and anti-aging factors such as REDD and mTOR.

Hypoxia activates a powerful "stress sensor " called PGC1a (its actually a alpha but I dunno how to type it on my phone).This triggers a wide ranging metabolic cascade including effects such as autophagy and mitochondrial biosynthesis. You will have to watch the video to see the various effects which include the REDD mTOR pathway, BDNF, leptin and insulin.

So...do we all need to move to the mountains?
....There are three theories of aging
1. genetic programming ie programmed senescence. Solution: hacking supplements. Telomerase
2. damage accumulation by free radicals. Solution: antioxidants.
3. hyperfunction - overactive cellular processes involving mTOR , inflammation. Solution: hormesis.

Hormesis is a beneficial response to a low dose stressor that would be harmful in high doses because it stimulates defense and repair mechanisms and produces increased resilience

There are 4 basic types
1. structural eg weight lifing, exercise, sun tanning
2.defence eg polyphenols such as curcumin, green tea,caffeine.
3.metabolic eg CR, exercise, cold exposure, hypoxia
4. psychological eg phobia desensitization

Hormetic activation of the PGC1a cascade may also combat obesity thru a hypothalamic pathway encouraging us to be more active.

Hormesis shortage = metabolic syndrome.
Solution: cold showers. hike and lift heavy things. eat less frequently.

My opinion: excellent lecture - watch it on the AHS16 youtube channel when it's up.
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Re: 2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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BEN GREENFIELD
Biohacking versus natural living
How can we merge an ancestral lifestyle with technology, supplements, consumer electronics and a modern world? Where do we draw the line between popular biohacking trends and natural, healthy living.

Ben discussed various low tech options to improve our lives. He contrasted ways we can mimic cutting-edge mechanical and IT biohacking by just using our bodies and senses.

Examples are apps for meditation vs just sitting in the forest. Vibration platform vs star jumps. Electric brain stimulation vs Kundalini yoga.

My opinion: self depreciating and humorous and this was really fun.
It's worth watching just for Goat Man alone.
http://www.thomasthwaites.com/
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Re: 2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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stavia's post on rand akasheh's talk:

"It is critical to realise brain insulin resistance can occur in the absence of peripheral insulin resistance, obesity and diabetes."

1. how do you measure brain insulin resistance? how do you know if you have it?
2. any information on home to make the brain more insulin sensitive? improve GLUT1 function?
3. any updates on intranasal insulin?

thanks.
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Re: 2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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CHRIS KNOBBE
Food choice and vision loss - is age related macular degeneration preventable

Before I summarise this talk I need to explain that I sat transfixed with goosebumps as I realised with horror that age related macular degeneration was yet another manifestation of the effects on our bodies of the Western lifestyle and diet with consequent generalised inflammation resulting in adverse vascular and neural effects.
Sorry about the bad pun but it's blindingly obvious.
Dr Knobbe, an ophthalmologist elegantly and logically traced the prevalence of AMD over time and geographical distribution according to consumption of Western refined foods especially industrial seed oils. It tracks perfectly and now we have a prevalence of around 30% in the older people as opposed to being almost unknown 150 years ago and in preindustrialised societies today.

AMD is strongly associated with metabolic syndrome, obesity, T2DM. However the party line is that the aetiology is unknown.
If one tracks the dietary components of white flour, sugar, vegetable oils and transfats, AMD follows introduction of these foods worldwide. It appears that it most strongly follows industrial seeds oils and there seems to be a 30 year incubation period. He has seen this in data from 22 countries. The most striking is Japan where sugar consumption has been stable but vegetable oils have more recently been introduced. The party line was that the Japanese were genetically resistant to developing AMD as it used to be incredibly rare there but now sadly this is no longer true as a 57x increase in AMD has followed a 4x increase in consumption of vegetable oils.

PUFAs are biological poisons is hus conclusion and are causing irreversible blindness.

My opinion: watch this video. It will be life changing.
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Re: 2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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SARAH BALLANTYNE
Ancestral Sleep
Key aspects of ancestral sleep - duration, quality, consistency, seasonal variation, circadian synchronicity and sleep hygiene

This was ironically the last talk in a jam packed day. I was tempted to put my head on Marc's shoulder and nap.

Sarah feels that sleep is the most important determinant of health however we don't prioritise it.

What does ancestral sleep actually look like? It is in fact only recently that this has been scientifically studied - amongst the San in Namibia, the Hadza in Tanzania and the Tsumane in Bolivia. There is very little variation in sleep. After a large amount of daytime activity, they settle by the fire then separate into family groups. Onset of sleep is about 3.3 hrs after sunset and offset shortly before sunrise and duration is 5.7 to 7.1 hrs. It is not biphasic. Sleep is not interrupted by extended periods of wakening. The major zeitgebers are sun and temperature.

Specific consequences of inadequate sleep ate an increase in all cause mortality-12% with less than 6 hrs regularly.

She also discussed the role of the glymphatic system in the brain during sleep whereby waste products of cellular metabolism are removed.

My opinion: very nicely presented . Worth watching. Some really interesting graphs.
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Re: 2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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Day 3: good morning team!
I am about to head out for the third jam-packed day.
It has been just beyond expectations so far.
My head is full of snapshots of precious moments that will last me a lifetime.
Lying in the sun surrounded by my Apoe4 siblings all brownbagging. Jumping jacks with George. Non stop chatter surrounding me. Complete acceptance surrounding me. Seeing Drs Wahls Gundry and Bredesen animatedly chatting. Susan's face turning back to me with eyebrows raised as one speaker misrepresentated the evidence. Julie's constant graceful, gorgeous presence and beautiful smile. Constant hugs. Intelligent and insightful discussion. Those of us on the board brainstorming how to better serve and grow our precious community.
Those of you who are not here is body: we are here representing all of you. You are also loved and valued and are part of us all.
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Re: 2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

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Stavia wrote:My opinion: watch this video. It will be life changing.
Are any of these lectures up on youtube somewhere?
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