2016 Ancestral Health Meetup - Stavia's blog

[Stavia]

hi team! We are very excited for the next few days and I will try and report as fully as I can for those who cannot be here with us physically.
So far Julie, Mr Julie, George and Theresa and myself have gathered in Boulder. The Whole Foods run for Julie and myself was classic as we explored the aisles and bought large bottles of olive oil. George and Theresa brought their own food. It was very interesting to see the overlaps and divergences between our meals - certainty it is not one size fits all, although there is significant commonality.
Tomorrow is the coronary calcium scan day and gathering of the clan with a private dinner.
The next day is the actual conference. I will try as best as I can to document both the academic and social aspects.
See you tomorrow either in person or on the forum!

[Ruth]

Thanks, Stavia. I was hoping one of you guys would blog about the conference and meet-up. I look forward to reading your thoughts and musings and about the group's adventures each day. I hope you all have a fun, intellectually stimulating yet relaxing time in beautiful Boulder!

[Stavia]

very welcome Ruth. I have just had a look at the programme and it's massive. I might have a thread for each speaker. Unfortunately I cannot clone myself so maybe someone at a different talk can add their bit.
Wish we could all be here.

[ru442]

very welcome Ruth. I have just had a look at the programme and it's massive. I might have a thread for each speaker. Unfortunately I cannot clone myself so maybe someone at a different talk can add their bit.
Wish we could all be here.

Thanks Stavia! Any updates are appreciated, enjoy and don't get to bogged down in blogging...

[Stavia]

Update: we have just finished our first dinner at Blooming Beets here in Boulder.
We enjoyed a delicious dinner as arranged by Katie, who was in our thoughts at her difficult time currently.

It is now a tradition that we each introduce ourselves and share our status. It was very emotional at times and so wonderful to see the support of the group for each and everyone of us as we shared our stories with absolute trust. I feel this on the written forums, but it is very special to see it in the flesh. There were tears and there was applause and there were nods of deep understanding as we each spoke. This is the bond that holds us together.
We have built a beautiful community and here it was in the flesh.

Unfortunately growth comes at a price. Julie and Susan spoke about this in their welcome. We have now grown to a size beyond what is sustainable by a handful of us. We are in need of more hands on board. Aspects of help could be anything from meet and greet, a spot on a moderation roster one day a week, wiki work, IT work or whatever anyone can think of further our mission and to keep our community together.
In addition events such as this that we can report on, our server, our insurance now that we are a non profit, honoraria and dinners that we have to pay for our speakers and etc all add up and we are dependent on donations to keep going. None of the mods or directors take any money for any duties - all donations go to true expenses.

If you feel you are able to contribute to keep our community together please either contact Julie after the conference or donate via the link on the front page

[circular]

Thank you for any and all updates as you can, but don't take too much time to try to make them 'real time' at the expense of your experience there. Maybe next year we can arrange Google hangouts for those who can't attend in person, as long as the other organizational needs are accounted for with new volunteers. Ironically instead of being there I'm in the midst of a full neurological evaluation of my mother who's cognitive status has been changing (along with many other of her health issues). It's reassuring to know you are all there working hard to help us avoid this possibility for ourselves.

[TheresaB]

Not to step on Stavia's toes, but we had a wonderful day today. Both Dr Bredesen and Dr Gundry gave their talks. The presentations, along with all the presentations of the AHS are supposed to be loaded to YouTube eventually.

This evening we had dinner with these two wonderful doctors and Dr Bredesen held a Q&A period for us. This link should take you to a recording of that session. My apologies for the quality of the recording, it was a noisy restaurant and we were not in a separate room.

Link to Dr Bredesen's Dinner Q&A at AHS Aug 11, 2016

[MarcR]

I was in the restaurant and did not attempt to participate because of the acoustics and physical situation. Given what I observed, I'm thrilled with the quality of the recording, Theresa. Lots of fascinating observations from Dr. Bredesen. Thanks so much for your labor of love!

[Stavia]

thank you Theresa! You are a darling to post this so quickly. And everyone is welcome on this thread anytime.

So how was today?
Both Dr Bredesen and Dr Gundry were both superb and complementary in their approaches and both have been extremely generous with their time. We are most grateful to them for promoting the implications of what Dr G calls the true ancestral gene.
I have written notes of all the talks I attended but have had no time to transcribe yet as we are busy from early morning to late at night. The quality was variable but we learn something from every presenter.
So how was today? Fabulous. Beyond expectation. There was a constant buzz of networking and positive, warm interactions and warm welcomes from total strangers. The community is just lovely. I was invited to join the physicians arm of AHS and will obviously feed back anything I learn to you.

Dinner was well organised and we were privileged to have both Drs attend Tonight we focused on Dr B and Theresa kindly recorded him answering our questions. Please listen to his pearls of wisdom. We learned so much.
It's pumpkin time now and another busy day tomorrow.
I promise I will summarise the lectures when I have a minute.

Nite xx

[Stavia]

ps. here's the first talk

STEPHAN GUYENET
Calorie intake: a cornerstone of ancestral health: Emerging evidence is suggesting that calorie intake may be the single most important determinant of chronic disease risk in affluent cultures today

Stephan believes that calorie intake is a major driver of non communicable diseases and our current position of evolutionary mismatch driving ill health.

The only study of caloric intake in a hunter gatherer population is in the Hadza where total caloric intake in the lean, very active people was the same as a sedentary Westerner. The rate of non communicable disease is very low.

He refuted the findings of Flegal who stated the dietary paradox that all cause mortality was lowest at slightly overweight. His reasons are that this was not adjusted for smoking and ill health. Stokes looked at maximum weight attained in the lifetime and found a direct correlation between weight and increased mortality.

He cited the famous 20 yr Rhesus monkey calorie restriction study where the intervention group vs unlimited refined food had a reduced burden of age related disease including diabetes. And the second study of 27 years of caloric restriction versus a healthy diet where there was a marginal reduction in age related diseases.

Finally he discussed the study of healthy men who ate a calorie excess of 300 to 500 kCals a day and developed insulin resistance. And he also cited the Diabetes Prevention Program Study which showed for every kg lost in a prediabetic there was a 16% reduction in progression to type 2 diabetes.

My opinion on his talk: nothing earth shattering, nice reminder, but it's certainly not a simple as just calories.