- You are here:
- Home »
- Blog »
- Townsville
Category Archives for James Hoopers Blog
Schizophrenia & Mental Conditions Determined By Poop?
Let food be your medicine?
This new study shows that feces from a human with schizophrenia “gives” a similar condition to MICE when the feces is transplanted. http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/2/eaau8317
Think about that. The interaction between our gut biome (bacteria collection) and our brains is so strong that the mix of bacteria in our guts is predictive for mental conditions.
Our biome is determined by a number of variables – do you know what they are? Do the people you trust to “prescribe” drugs for you know what they are?
Do you know how your mental and gut systems interact with each other?
Have you noticed that when you alter your diet for a while, you often find your mental state changed? Perhaps when you travel? Or in the holidays?
Do you know what foods will help your biome have a nice health mix, and which foods lead towards too many of the bacteria that release output that may give you schizophrenia or depression or inflammation?
You may know about the supplements that have been marketed to you – and some vitamin knowledge… And that depending on your research – fat or sugar or protein or salt or water or chemicals or whatever is your enemy or friend. But you are likely only pa rtially correct, at best.
Apart from your biome, did you know that humans need MOTION for vitality.
How much – a freaking bucketload – every day. Exercise is nice, and can give us motion – but ideally we need a bloody good shakeup every day. RIGOUROUS motion. We need it to pump the gunk around our bodies so it can be “cleansed” and secreted. (Called the lymphatic system). it is our drainage system separate to our blood system.
AND – our digestive system likes it – a lot. What is the biggest selling (and growing) category of “over the counter” medicines in pharmacies and supermarkets? Yep – indigestion relief. Worth billions.
And prescription items like PPI’s (proton pump inhibitors) – that turn DOWN your stomach acid production – following the WRONG THEORY that heartburn/reflux is “caused” by you producing too much acid. These drugs do reduce your symptoms, but also reduce your ability to digest food. (Remember that biome relies on you to pre-digest their food.) [Most indigestion is due to a SHORTAGE of stomach acid – which means the food stays there for longer and is not well digested, and produces a stack more gas and pressure.]
And you likely do not chew your food enough – and gobble dinner like a starving dog. Digestion begins in your mouth – full of enzymes and is high pH to get more of the starch you eat broken down BEFORE it reaches your stomach! Eat too fast means that the starch you ate hits your stomach (acidic or low pH) before it is broken down. Your stomach has low pH – which it needs to break down protein (that nice steak) – but this is not ideal for dealing with unprepared starch digestion. Eat slowly.
And you like eat when you are a bit “stressed” or rushed. Ever heard of the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous systems? Maybe you have. Sympathetic is fight, flight and freeze – and produces adrenalin for you. Para-sympathetic is “repair, feed, breed”. This one repairs you, rests you, and allows you to digest your food (so your biome is happy!) But your PARAsympathetic system does not operate much when the SYMPATHETIC system is on (it is designed to protect you from environmental threats).
So if you are eating (or recovering or trying to produce offspring) when you are stressed – guess what? Does not work so well. You produce LESS stomach acid when stressed – and that gives you indigestion/gas. Angry biome. Poor sleep. Faster aging. Unhappy brains. Nothing good.
And this in turn feed the huge market for digestion “aids”.
And likely you will find that your overall level of inflammation in your body is near the top of the scale. Bad digestion, unbalanced biomes, increased hyperventilation, and a reflex that makes you want to eat sugar all the time means that you don’t feel good. You get allergies. You get belly fat. You don’t feel like exercise (or motion) – just feel like eating more sweeties and coffee – and some poor quality sleep.
Then you realize you are not on a good track – and you go to change. But what do you do? Who can you trust to include the most important 20% (that gives you 80% results)? Your doctor? The internet? Your personal trainer? Your dietitian? Daytime TV? Best-selling book?
I have dived deeply into all of these over the decades. My family considers me to be obsessed.
Another problem is that everyone who has ever read a book (or a summary or seen the TV bite) believes they are “qualified” to give advice. Maybe that is true. It just depends on whether you want good results.
This is a very long post – so let’s cut to something you can use today.
Our bodies are a series of connected systems. Each affects all of the others. And each system will act to cover up the errors or changes in other systems. With this in mind – just choose one or two systems to work with at time – the effects will flow to all.
1. Start with recognizing that YOU control what goes into your body. Who is in charge? You also control the RATE that you put food in, and WHEN you do it. Just you because you feel a little pang of hunger – does not mean you MUST eat. Who is in charge?
- In effect this means that must EAT SLOWLY. Count how many chews you do per mouthful of food and DOUBLE it. Aim for 50. While you are chewing, put the knife and fork DOWN on the dish. Do NOT prepare the next bite. Do that after you swallow.
- ENJOY your food. Take a moment with bite to sense the flavours. You claim to eat what you do because you enjoy it, right? Slow down and actually do that. Relax with it. You may find you make different food choices when you do this action – vegetables get better! Sweeties fade a little.
- CONTROL your portions. Your stomach is NOT big – but it has probably stretched a bit to get used to your giant meals. Aim for a protein amount (eg meat) the size of the palm of your hand, and everything else being 3x that. Stop just a little bit short of feeling totally satisfied! (Seriously! Totally satisfied equals overfull for most of us).
- STOP drinking COLA of any kind, including diet colas. Drink water, not too much, enough.
2. RELAX before you eat. Learn to meditate – it is not difficult. I will cover some tips in another post. As a start, just stop and be still for 3 minutes. Sit quietly. Don’t talk. Just sit. Think of something good that happened today, or in the past. Just chill. And then eat. Do not drink alcohol at this point. Have a glass of wine with dinner – but as FOOD not as a drug crutch.
Enough for now.
Cheers
James
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/5/2/eaau8317
Cholesterol Tactics: Non-Drug Approach to a Better Lipid Profile for Business Owners
Background: Cholesterol – usually doctors look at total, LDL and HDL (and sub-components of these). HDL fractions are considered to be “good”, LDL’s more or less bad. (LDL risk depends on the SIZE and NUMBER of these little bastards – small ones are badder.)
The “Lipid lowering drugs” – I believe – are like putting a bandaid on a splinter.
You feel better because you are doing “something” – even though you know it is essentially just hiding whatever the imbalance is.
YOUR FIRST TACTIC TO TEST:
There is a ton of info/evidence showing that ADDED SUGAR is one of the main drivers of increased total cholesterol and increased LDL levels. Here is research – this one is about children – but it will do for you as well: https://www.
This looks complicated, but the main point is that just 9 days of reducing fructose (fructose is one half of sucrose – which is table sugar) “fixed” these kids cholesterol profiles.
Sucrose has ONE molecule of fructose + ONE molecule of glucose – ie table sugar is 50% fructose. Fructose is MUCH sweeter than glucose – which is why we have been trained to want to eat it…
The article says that just 9 days of reduced fructose (even without giving the kids fewer calories in total) MASSIVELY improved their cholesterols (38%).
These kids were big consumers of sugar – but the process for you is the same (to test).
How does it work? Your liver creates more and different cholesterol mixes when you eat fructose (which is in table sugar). If you cut back fructose – your liver stops doing it. When it stops doing it – cholesterol levels improve.
So?
You can test this with mild, moderate or extreme action. I suggest moderate.
This means for the next month or so – DO NOT EAT ANYTHING WITH “ADDED SUGAR” ON THE LABEL OR THAT TASTES SWEET (Eg cake/pastries/soft drink/fruit juice or fruit drinks (that you might have been drinking to reduce your coffee intake)/sauces (esp tomato)/breakfast cereals. Check the labels on anything you buy.
If it tastes really nice – be suspicious. Thirsty – drink water.
Have no more than two pieces of fruit per day. No lollies, chocolates, rocky road (sorry), no sugar in tea or coffee. If you get really hungry for this stuff – stir fry some vegetables or eat a steak (no sauce). You WILL likely feel some withdrawal – get through it – use your will power.
This is the “moderate” because you still allowed to starchy things like bread, potato, rice, grains, pasta. This test is JUST restricting your fructose intake (which is part of “sugar”). If you did also reduce the starches as well – you would lose some fat – but that is not the test here. Reducing your “added sugar” foods will lose some fat – but the goal is your cholesterol. And for a test it is best to change ONLY one variable at a time, if you can.
I do not know what you eat – but the inference if you are reading this (your cholesterol levels suck) is that sugar foods have crept into your habitual diet.
Do this for a month or so – then recheck your levels. Talk with your GP about this if you want – they will agree.
Lipid lowering drugs are a scam – the market is now over $US 21 000 000 000. They are popular because people believe they can take a pill and not have to change their diets. But it does not work as promoted, and a tsunami of health issues will be generated by “bandaid pills.”
Show this to your partners/families (and your GP). Measure your changes.
Cheers
James
Are You Using Solar Power In Your Petrol Powered Car?
Where Did Coal Get It’s Energy From? And Why Should You Care Anyway?
I remember seeing photos of PV fences in China – used to heat water in a truly frigid northern climate, with the sun at an acute angle so that the rays hit the panels that were perpendicular to the ground. Every time the cost of PVs drops – the economics of fresh solar power changes.
In my head, coal, oil and gas are just “OLD” solar emissions captured by trees, and stored for a few million years. Yes – coal burning RELEASES solar energy. And coal IS “solar energy storage”.
In a freakishly clever model, trees use solar energy and CO2 to make wood, at the same time releasing the O2 so that creatures like humans can survive. And when we burn the wood (or much older wood called coal or old wood farts called gas) – the solar energy is released as heat and radiation.
Who knew?
Before we were clever enough to harvest FRESH solar radiation by ourselves (eg with PVs) to make handy electricity – we used to have to find the OLD solar energy lying around in coal, wood, oil, gas… Then carry it all the way to our “power stations”, and “burn” it to get the solar power out.
Now we can capture FRESH solar power, more and more effectively. And soon we won’t have to dig up “OLD” solar, carry it to a big furnace and burn it…
It is a structural change. Because capturing FRESH solar is becoming cheaper than finding the OLD solar, using energy carrying it thousands of kms to a station, burning it, then transporting the electricity to where you want it. FRESH solar has fewer steps to complete.
And there is more FRESH solar power available than we could need. And once we (eventually) harness it better – the need for “OLD” solar energy will dissolve.
So – pop quiz – do all current motor vehicles run on energy that came from the Sun?
(For now leave nuclear energy out of the model – but that has a surprising place in energy production as well.)
Melbourne apartments get photovoltaic glass balustrade in Australian first
Make your own plans
Click and drag your mouse on the page below to create your own universe. See how you are either the creator – or are bombarded. You can have a blank, bland screen or as many wonders as you can create. Enjoy…
