2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

[circular]

My comment: this certainly opened my eyes to the view that we should not lose sight of the big picture when considering evolutionary mismatch issues.

I've always felt my mismatch extended to so much beyond diet and exercise, primary among those other things being the need to be surrounded by and immersed in the natural world while being stuck in developed 'civilization'. Soundscapes are one of my big mismatches. I know my body suffers in most human designed sound environments unless they're recreating the natural world. For just one example, I love working in coffee shops, but the sound of an espresso machine feels like an assault on my ears. I think sounds in our modern, developed world that most people just assume are 'normal' are often very destructive.

[Tincup]

Here is a link to the Dr. Walhs Q&A.

There are 3 files. Unfortunately had some battery issues so missed part of it. Since many of the questions during this time were read from our list, when I have a chance I will listen and see what is missing and try to recreate from memory. Any who were there can also do this. Good news is we got much of it.

One difference between Dr. Wahls and Drs. Bredesen & Gundry is she is very resource constrained, especially with available tests. She has accomplished a huge amount with her program treating veterans with TBI and PTSD. She is very practical (and funny), for example she (jokingly) said we should start posting pictures of our poop and comparing to the Bristol Stool Scale. She wants it like a "smooth snake."

[Stavia]

ok team that's my report. Please can our other members who were at the lectures or dinners post their experience here, even if it's just a word or two so that this thread can document our shared experience.
Loved every minute. Thank you all.
Keep an eye out for the AHS videos on YouTube. They're not up yet.

[SusanJ]

Stavia, thanks so much for your summaries! I know how many pages of notes you took and appreciate them all. Here's to safe travels and a soft landing at work when you return.

[Russ]

Thanks, Stavia, and all. Sounds like a profoundly great conference.

Agree the meta-issue is mismatch for most of all of human health, and the dimensions are likely more varied and complex than we might think. I continue to view APOE4 itself explicitly this way, not as something that is intrinsically dysfunctional or broken. Of course the implication is that the thing to be cured is not my genetics, but my interface with the world around me, of which food is an important, but not the only part. The good news is that science can help us hugely - we just have to proceed with humility and proper respect for the bigger system of which we are but a part.

[TheresaB]

The Ancestral Health Symposium’s 2016 agenda with info on the speakers can be found at: http://www.ancestralhealth.org/post/ahs16-program-speakers-mobile-app
I still don’t see any YouTube videos yet.

Some side notes, but related to the symposium doctors/speakers who gave so generously gave their time to us while we were there:

Dr Gundry has a book coming out later this year, “for Christmas” whenever that will be. It should address more of his diet philosophy, including his thoughts on lectins. He published a book in 2009, “Dr. Gundry's Diet Evolution: Turn Off the Genes That Are Killing You and Your Waistline” but he has since stated that some of his dietary suggestions were edited out of that book because his publisher said he’d never sell books otherwise.
He did not plug his products at the symposium and turned down the AHS’s request to conduct a book signing, but Dr Gundry also has three products that have recently rolled out: Lectin Shield, Vital Reds, and Calm Redness Relief skin cream. I tried to order Lectin Shield, in anticipation of the symposium knowing I’d be eating out and would have difficulties finding dishes that would work. I haven’t gotten it because it’s on backorder, but I’m still looking forward to having it for those few times a year I meet friends at a restaurant. Vital Reds is chock full of polyphenols and probiotics, supposed to help with energy, cholesterol, and weight.

Dr Terry Wahls has already published a book, “The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine.” She has another book coming out April 4, 2017, “The Wahls Protocol Cooking for Life: The Revolutionary Modern Paleo Plan to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions.” Dr Wahls also conducts seminars.

Dr Bredesen is also writing a book, they’re hoping it comes out sometime late 2017.

[Julie G]

Given my time contrasts being in the midst of relocating, I just wanted to share some BIG picture takeaways for me. I think Bredesen’s & Gundry's understanding (nods to Finch) that ApoE4 carriers are direct decedents of the simians naturally leads to an assumption that living like that species would be advantageous to us. The current AHS understanding of paleolithic man eating a diet composed of primarily meat may better apply to our ApoE3 friends who came upon the scene only 220,000 years ago.

For ApoE4 carriers, eating a diet comprised of primarily plants (with occasional raw meat,) enduring long famines, and constantly moving may be a closer representation of our ancestral roots. We also need to remember that we may not have survived many years beyond reproduction. Our current strategy of using a specialized LCHF diet with extended fasts, daily exercise, and handfuls of supplements may be best viewed as a means to fix our broken metabolisms that resulted from our genetic mismatch as well as a hack to tweak our longevity. We all know that the apes weren’t using high polyphenol EVOO or popping Ubiquinol . Incorporating Bredesen's & Gundry's approaches with an overall focus on on reconciling our genetic mismatch might be our best defense against the pathologies associated with our risky allele.

[Lucy5]

Thank you Stavia & Susan for your excellent, detailed notes & analyses!! I'm going thru my notes to see if there's anything of consequence I can possible add.. (but so far only seeing stuff I managed to miss.. )

[Russ]

Given my time contrasts being in the midst of relocating, I just wanted to share some BIG picture takeaways for me. I think Bredesen’s & Gundry's understanding (nods to Finch) that ApoE4 carriers are direct decedents of the simians naturally leads to an assumption that living like that species would be advantageous to us. The current AHS understanding of paleolithic man eating a diet composed of primarily meat may better apply to our ApoE3 friends who came upon the scene only 220,000 years ago.

Dr Gundry brought this up in my original call with him, and I recall he did a thesis on just this subject, but didn't check out when I dug a bit deeper. See for example...
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/articl ... ne.0047760

Human APOE differs from that of other mammals at amino acid residue 61, which is arginine in humans but threonine in non-human mammals [24] (Figure 1). The interaction between residues 61 and 112 influences protein structure and lipoprotein binding, with the human E4 binding preferentially to low-density lipoproteins, while the E2 and E3 variants bind preferentially to high-density lipoproteins [24], [25]. Although the APOE of non-human mammals and the human E4 allele both have arginine residues at 112 and 158, studies of transgenic mice indicate that the threonine at position 61 in the APOE of non-human mammals results in binding preferences that are functionally similar to human E3 [26]. Thus, although the human E4 is thought to be the ancestral allele for humans, the ancestral primate APOE protein likely had lipid-binding properties most similar to E3.

In fact the implication would be that human APOE4 is a notable functional point of DIFFERENCE (not similarity) between apes and humans. The difference makes plausible sense in that the smaller gut and bigger brain was possibly a direct result of a superior capacity to uptake fat (and associated micronutrients) from animal sources. Haven't really dug too deep, but at best this concept deserves further scrutiny before acceptance.

Russ

[Stavia]

Russ my understanding is that it was the greater caloric density of animal foods that made brain size increase possible. I believe it is too simplistic and misleading to take one gene and assume that one alone will be the dominant evolutionary driver.