Stavia's report on AHSNZ17 - Ancestral Health New Zealand Conference 2017

[Stavia]

Stavia, thanks so much for posting your notes! Some great points to ponder for sure.

Especially like the notes in an area I've been thinking about lately, and that is seasonal rhythms. I recently read an article about a hunter-gatherer tribe in Africa and the authors underscored that they were very happy and didn't worry about tomorrow, because they were tuned into the seasonal variations: if it's the rainy season, they do this, if it's the dry season, they do that. They live very much in the moment. And, of course, they had a lot of opportunity for connection.

It reminds me of growing up on a farm. There is a lot of seasonal stability in one's life, even if there are short-term stressors like hail, lack of rain, etc. You know what you need to be doing at any given time of the year. You know what's coming next.

Good stuff!

Susan, I loved the paradigm of looking at cycles in a day, a season, a life.
He feels strongly in midlife one should be in the mindframe of coming home after the hunt or the gathering, with a sense of gratitude and that its enough. The serotonin phase. Midlife shoudnt still having a drive to amass more stuff as in the hunting/gathering phase which is noradrenaline driven.
Dallas believes our whole lives are out of synch with natural rhythms.

[Stavia]

Stavia, you're a natural teacher. Interns on this site get "mini-courses" just by reading. On behalf of all of us, thank you!

Jan, its the only way we can change society, from grass roots. We all need to arm ourselves with knowledge and its my contribution to our activism.

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[Jan]

I'm with you, on changing society.

[Russ]

Russ it was difficult to understand but I'll try. Its one of the current sociological theories about health. Neoliberalism says its about the individual. Individual choices are paramount. But there are a bewildering amount of choices. Capitalism is very good at exploiting so many choices. Weight loss for instance. There are hundreds of books each offering different choices. Thousands and thousands of scientific studies. Yet people are still fat. In the paradigm of neoliberalism and capitalism it becomes their choice but then their failure is their personal responsibility and society has in fact by giving them a myriad of choices, doomed them to fail and to be left with the responsibility of the failure. He then went onto the death drive and how mindfullness may be an expression of the death drive which is a drive for peace and quiet and an absence of self in this world of so much emphasis on self.

The talk itself came across as a drug-induced meandering, but still feels like if one peels away the words, there may be some important things to reflect on. Will let this one roll around. My initial sense is that this isn't really about 'neoliberalism' or 'capitalism' {and all the discussions on what those words mean], but maybe this snippet from the original post....

Solution: Structures that we live in should be mindful for us.

...which perhaps is just not quite right? If the implication is that some benevolent person synthetically architects structures that remove our need to think, that feels not only not right, but downright dangerous. Yet, I think much could be gained for us to be more mindful of the structures what we live in - especially the natural structures, which would allow us to synthetically architect human structures and systems (healthcare, food, ...) to work mindfully within that flow. In such a world, our own mindfulness helps us prosper within that flow, instead of driving us to death by trying to fight it. And maybe that is actually his point?

Anyway, thanks for recording your thoughts on this unusual talk... I will let the words and concepts mingle with my own (mindful) thoughts and see what I can discern from it all.

Russ

[Stavia]

Russ it was difficult to understand but I'll try. Its one of the current sociological theories about health. Neoliberalism says its about the individual. Individual choices are paramount. But there are a bewildering amount of choices. Capitalism is very good at exploiting so many choices. Weight loss for instance. There are hundreds of books each offering different choices. Thousands and thousands of scientific studies. Yet people are still fat. In the paradigm of neoliberalism and capitalism it becomes their choice but then their failure is their personal responsibility and society has in fact by giving them a myriad of choices, doomed them to fail and to be left with the responsibility of the failure. He then went onto the death drive and how mindfullness may be an expression of the death drive which is a drive for peace and quiet and an absence of self in this world of so much emphasis on self.

The talk itself came across as a drug-induced meandering, but still feels like if one peels away the words, there may be some important things to reflect on. Will let this one roll around. My initial sense is that this isn't really about 'neoliberalism' or 'capitalism' {and all the discussions on what those words mean], but maybe this snippet from the original post....

Solution: Structures that we live in should be mindful for us.

...which perhaps is just not quite right? If the implication is that some benevolent person synthetically architects structures that remove our need to think, that feels not only not right, but downright dangerous. Yet, I think much could be gained for us to be more mindful of the structures what we live in - especially the natural structures, which would allow us to synthetically architect human structures and systems (healthcare, food, ...) to work mindfully within that flow. In such a world, our own mindfulness helps us prosper within that flow, instead of driving us to death by trying to fight it. And maybe that is actually his point?

Anyway, thanks for recording your thoughts on this unusual talk... I will let the words and concepts mingle with my own (mindful) thoughts and see what I can discern from it all.

Russ

yup it was stuff I'm not good at understanding.
What was interesting tho was the concept that choice may cause insecurity and freedom may result in being trapped in a feaful state. I think....

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[WhatNext]

He feels strongly in midlife one should be in the mindframe of coming home after the hunt or the gathering, with a sense of gratitude and that its enough. The serotonin phase. Midlife shoudnt still having a drive to amass more stuff as in the hunting/gathering phase which is noradrenaline driven.
Dallas believes our whole lives are out of synch with natural rhythms.

Wow, this jumped off the page at me. I'm trying to decide when to retire. I'm 65. The longer I work the more financially secure I'll be when I retire but I would be okay now unless our current administration starts WWIII or tanks the economy. I grew up in financial insecurity--my mother worked until she reached forced-retirement age at 70--and it's hard to shake the fear of not having enough.

[SusanJ]

Hey What, do you like what you do? Then stick with it.

If not, consider a slow step out of work. I know the feeling of not having enough. I retired for the first time at 55, mostly due to repetitive stress injuries of working on computers, then I consulted part-time in my same field, then switched entirely to something different that was part time and paid a whole lot less. Over that period of time I came to see that I could live on less money, and did enough due diligence to feel comfortable with what I have in my retirement accounts. Maybe a slow out strategy could work for you, too.

[TheresaB]

I'm trying to decide when to retire. ... it's hard to shake the fear of not having enough.

I hear you. I decided to retire in 2011, long before I’d even heard of ApoE4. I was a consultant, it was very interesting work which I enjoyed, but it was also very stressful, very long hours, working 6-7 days a week, living on the road, eating poor food with no exercise. Because of the miserable lifestyle, the job paid very well but instinctively I knew I was killing myself. I told myself I was only going to do it temporarily until I reached a certain financial goal. In year 6 of my 10 year plan, short of my financial goal, I decided to retire for good anyway. My question to myself was, do I really want to be financially comfortable but unhealthy to enjoy it in my later years, or live a modest life with health? I opted for door #2.

The uncertainty of having enough is very real. A few years ago I developed an unexpected orthopedic issue with my foot (too much retirement hiking and skiing ) that necessitated multiple surgeries, physical therapy, and other treatments that were not in my planned budget of living within the means of my retirement paycheck, so I’m diving into my savings more than anticipated. The good news is, by strictly following Dr Gundry’s and Dr Bredesen’s protocols, I feel my chances of facing future huge medical bills from cancer, cardiovascular disease, or Alzheimer’s is significantly diminished.

So, one person’s opinion here, I have no regrets. My consultant job was my second career. I held two high paced, very responsible, intellectually stimulating careers, I thought I would go crazy after retiring, but I’m 6 years in and still loving it. The key of course is to continue to remain active and intellectually stimulated.

Changing subjects but related to this thread subject of ancestral health, videos from this year’s American Ancestral Health Symposium are now available on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... C1kMJtT8xF
Topics:

• AHS17 Dirty Genes - Ben Lynch
  AHS17 What if It's ALL Been a Big Fat Lie? - Peter Ballerstedt
  AHS17 Nearsightedness: A modern disease - Steven Turpin
  AHS17 Breast Cancer Pathogenesis and Dietary Recommendations - Rand Akasheh
  AHS17 The Role of Mitochondria In Ancestral Development - Jeff Leighton
  AHS17 The Blood Type Diet: Rescuing the Baby from the Bathwater - Denise Minger
  AHS17 Gut Immune Function - Michael Ruscio
  AHS17 Causes and Non-Causes of Insulin Resistance - Kyle Mamounis
  AHS17 Nutrient Sensing: Pathways to Optimal Health & Resilience - Tom Fabian
  AHS17 Ketogenic Diets, Caloric Restriction, and Hormones - L. Amber O'Hearn
  AHS17 Where do cravings come from? - Stephan Guyenet
  AHS17 Movement Ecology and the Difference Between Exercise and Movement - Katy Bowman
  AHS17 Physical Activity as a Polypill for Chronic Lifestyle Disease - Darryl Edwards
  AHS17 The microbiome inside your cells - Tim Gerstmar
  AHS17 Ancestral Wiring in Modern Society: The Impact of Stress - Mike T Nelson
  AHS17 Dentistry Panel
  AHS17 Exuberant Animal master class - Frank Forencich
  AHS17 In Touch - Creating Health and Vitality with the Tactile Sense - Tony Federico
  AHS17 What's really wrong with the literature and how to fix it - Richard Feinman
  AHS17 Jumping out of the nutrition system - Adele Hite and Sean Mark
  AHS17 How the 'New Man' inadvertently sabotages the first ancestral food - Nick Mailer
  AHS17 The Dirt on Cancer and Chronic Disease - Grace Liu and Nasha Winters
  AHS17 Our Perinatal Microbiome and The Postpartum Brain - Sunita Iyer
  AHS17 The State of Paleo Panel

[WhatNext]

Hey What, do you like what you do?

It's complicated. I've worked for a long time in a field few people work in. I support the defense department, running specific software for a specific application, and I've become "the expert". There is currently a lot of interest in this application and I am somewhat in demand, which is a two-edged sword. I have to travel, which I love/hate: I hate having to leave my dog home alone but know it would be more traumatic for her to be boarded. There are aspects of travel I enjoy but I don't sleep well and it's hard to eat healthy food because meals become social events. I've gotten more and more used to giving presentations but still find in unnerving. I hate having to get up at 5:30--when I don't set the alarm I sleep until close to 7. I think if I said I were going to retire it would cause some panic. I hope to "take a slow step out of it", as you say. I need to hand it off to someone but don't know who that would be at this point.