Syndrome X or The Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of diseases that tend to occur together. These are also called the western diseases or diseases of civilization because they occur in astronomically high numbers in western society and are virtually non-existent in more traditional living areas of the world. The diseases are: obesity (specifically abdominal obesity), high blood pressure, heart disease, impaired blood sugar regulation, Type 2 diabetes, and unhealthy levels of blood lipids (dyslipidemia). When the theory was first proposed that these affilications might be related it was hypothesized that obesity was the cause of the other surrounding diseases. We now know that obesity (the excess accumulation of body fat) is just another symptom of an underlying disorder - a hormonal disruption that leads to the unregulated growth of many tissues, not just fat tissue. The underlying disorder is hyperinsulinemia... in normal language that's too much insulin. Insulin is uniquely stimualted by dietary carbohydrate so too much insulin is very likely caused by too much carbohydrate.
But the list of disease linked to hormonal disruption of insulin production is growing and no longer limited to the handful named above. To the list we can add:

• acne
• early first menustral cycle in young girls
• cancer
• increased stature (we're taller than we used to be)
• skin tags
• hyperpigmentation of the skin
• female infertility
• male pattern baldness

From Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology...
Hyperinsulinemic diseases of civilization: more than just Syndrome X

Abstract

Compensatory hyperinsulinemia stemming from peripheral insulin resistance is a well-recognized metabolic disturbance that is at the root cause of diseases and maladies of Syndrome X (hypertension, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia, coronary artery disease, obesity, abnormal glucose tolerance)... Insulin is a well-established growth-promoting hormone, and recent evidence indicates that hyperinsulinemia causes a shift in a number of endocrine pathways that may favor unregulated tissue growth leading to additional illnesses...  These endocrine shifts alter cellular proliferation and growth in a variety of tissues, the clinical course of which may promote acne, early menarche [first menustral period], certain epithelial cell carcinomas [cancer], increased stature, myopia [poor vision], cutaneous papillomas (skin tags), acanthosis nigricans [hyperpigmentation of the skin], polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) [the leading cause of female infertility] and male vertex balding. Consequently, these illnesses and conditions may, in part, have hyperinsulinemia at their root cause and therefore should be classified among the diseases of Syndrome X.

Labels: Caveman, Evolution, Health, Heart Disease, Insulin, physiology, Research, Science

From the Washington Post....

Paleolithic diet is so easy, cavemen actually did it

"Here's a question for the weight-conscious: How often do you see a fat caveman? Exactly. Maybe excepting Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, most portrayals of the people who lived 12,000 years ago depict svelte folks baring rock-hard -- if hairy -- abs. What's their secret? Surely it's great exercise to be out chasing woolly mammoths and foraging for berries all day. And it helped that there were no Fruity Pebbles or venti white chocolate mochas hundreds of generations ago.


But, seriously, what if we ate like our Paleolithic ancestors? That would be lots of lean meats, nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables; no grains, salt, sugar, legumes or dairy products. Some people do, and it's called the Paleo diet -- short for Paleolithic, which refers to the era before agriculture took hold, a movement away from a hunter-gatherer lifestyle that resulted in settled societies, and, eventually, Twinkies and couch potatoes."

Labels: Caveman, Diets, Evolution, Food, Nutrition

Another article on barefoot running. Obviously one of our favorite topics!

Barefoot Running: How Humans Ran Comfortably and Safely Before the Invention of Shoes

"...says Daniel E. Lieberman, professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and co-author of a paper appearing this week in the journal Nature. "By landing on the middle or front of the foot, barefoot runners have almost no impact collision, much less than most shod runners generate when they heel-strike. Most people today think barefoot running is dangerous and hurts, but actually you can run barefoot on the world's hardest surfaces without the slightest discomfort and pain. All you need is a few calluses to avoid roughing up the skin of the foot. Further, it might be less injurious than the way some people run in shoes."

Labels: Caveman, Evolution, Running, Science

Labels: Funny Stuff, Science

Labels: Evolution, Exercise, Research, Running

"Reduce your salt intake" is one of those standard pieces of nutrition advice that is so ubiquitous we all assume it must be true. Sodium is a popular target as supreme diet evil-doer among media favorites like Eat This, Not That (from the geniuses at Men's Health), Dr. Oz and his questionable health advice dispensed 5-days a week from the set of his new TV show, and the colorful labels of packaged food declaring the product to be "reduced sodium!!!". Dieticians everywhere insist that you absolutely must reduce your sodium intake and provide horrifying statistics on the sodium content of Subway subs, McDonald's breakfast, and Campbell's soup.

Does anybody ever bother to question whether this advice has any scientific justification? Clearly not. Much like the anti-fat movement of the last few decades, sodium has been the victim of an overzealous rush to spread "information" to the public before it had been properly investigated, tested, and proven. Several decades ago, researches established a tenuous association between sodium intake and incidence of hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart disease. This research has since been discredited for several reasons including questionable data analysis, too many confounding variables, and a statistically insignificant correlation between sodium intake and health problems. But apparently, science doesn't matter, because before any of that could be worked out by the scientific community, the public health duo of politicians and media got together to declare that we should all reduce our sodium intake. The Public Health Sector makes decisions like this NOT based on what is best or most effective for any one person, but on the idea that even a teeny tiny difference per person spread out over millions of people could have a big impact on national statistics for the incidence of disease.

A Meta-Analysis (that means a big 'ol analysis of all the studies ever done on a particular topic) conducted by the University of Copenhagen on studies regarding the effects of dietary sodium reduction concluded: These results do not support a general recommendation to reduce sodium intake

Gary Taubes wrote an article called The (Political) Science of Salt back in 1998. It's long, and well researched (as are most thing written by Taubes... and for this we love him). Among the many paragraphs worth quoting, is the following:
After decades of intensive research, the apparent benefits of avoiding salt have only diminished. This suggests either that the true benefit has now been revealed and is indeed small, or that it is nonexistent, and researchers believing they have detected such benefits have been deluded by the confounding influences of other variables.

Those other variables? Tom Naughton lays them out nicely like this...

• Refined carbohydrates produce high blood sugar and high levels of insulin, which in turn are both bad news for your arteries. Refined carbohydrates also cause water retention, which raises your blood pressure. (So if you really want to reduce your blood pressure, give up the sugar and starch.)

[Our note - the effect of a high carbohydrate diet on hypertension is twofold: A byproduct of the chemical reaction of metabolising sugar is water, which is not present when your body metabolises fat for energy. Insulin also signals your kidneys to retain sodium and therefore retain fluid. Chronic hyperinsulinemia leads to chronic hypertension]

• Blood pressure tends to go up as we get older. (Mine hasn't, but bear with me here.) We're also more likely to suffer heart attacks and strokes as we get older.
• Stress causes your body to produce more cortisol, which can damage your arteries. Stress also raises your blood pressure.
• Eating lots of vegetables may be good for your heart. Vegetables are also high in potassium, which lowers blood pressure.

So in decades of research, no conclusion has been reached. If you believe dietary sodium has little or no effect on health then clearly you've sold out to the salt industry's high paid lobbyists. If you are adamant that sodium is the major identifiable factor in the north american diet giving everyone high blood pressure and heart attacks, then obviously your bias has deluded your view of the evidence and led you to vastly overstate any detectable benefit (if one even exists at all). There are mountains of evidence on either side of this argument.

Unless you already have high blood pressure or reduced renal function that prevents you from properly processing salt, there is absolutely no reason to reduce your sodium intake. None. Nada. And for athletes, the effects of cutting your sodium intake can be downright disastrous. From a lowered metabolism, to diminished athletic performance, to fainting and even death.

Further reading... Sodium Is Your Friend Part I and Part II.

Labels: Food, Health, Heart Disease, Insulin, Myths, Research, Science

This primal thing is catching on! Check out this recent article from the New York Times: The New Age Caveman and the City

"The caveman lifestyle, in Mr. Durant’s interpretation, involves eating large quantities of meat and then fasting between meals to approximate the lean times that his distant ancestors faced between hunts. Vegetables and fruit are fine, but he avoids foods like bread that were unavailable before the invention of agriculture. Mr. Durant believes the human body evolved for a hunter-gatherer lifestyle, and his goal is to wean himself off what he sees as many millenniums of bad habits.

These urban cavemen also choose exercise routines focused on sprinting and jumping, to replicate how a prehistoric person might have fled from a mastodon.

In a city crowded with vegetarian restaurants and yoga studios, the cavemen defy other people’s ideas of healthy living. There is an indisputable macho component to the lifestyle.

“I didn’t want to do some faddish diet that my sister would do,” Mr. Durant said.

Labels: Caveman, links