The Travis Corner

[Travis]

Interested in more of your posts on Japan. Will these been in a new thread or in here?

I just read a study on Koreans and hair loss, and they predictably have much less. Although fish oils are better that ω−6 fatty acids, they can still contribute to lipofuscin leading to increased aging; I think we can better, and eat mostly saturated fatty acids with a small amount of α-linoleic acid for DHA and the safer 3-series prostaglandins. The Japanese also consume more vitamin C and would be expected to have less cardiovascular disease, although they are rumored to have a higher prevalence of stroke (but they do consume more salt).

 

[Optimus]

# So safe foods – for the lack of a better term – are leaves (kale, spinach), fruits, dates and coconuts ? Would you add other foods to this list?

 

[Travis]

# So safe foods – for the lack of a better term – are leaves (kale, spinach), fruits, dates and coconuts ? Would you add other foods to this list?

Those are just the ones that I'm eating right now, in my current location; there are of course hundreds more foods that don't have either exorphins, immunogenic proteins, or much polyunsaturated fatty acids—linoleic acid especially. Of course all fruit and plant material—excluding seeds—have very few of these of these, and coconut and macadamia nuts appear to be the only acceptable nuts. As far as animals go, only ruminants have very low levels of linoleic acid (although very lean mean from the chicken is also low).

But proteins can be made non‐immunogenic with the correct preparation; if a person is committed to eating a certain food there are ways to improve it: sourdough fermentation decreases the immunogenicity of wheat, and boiled or fried eggs appear less immunogenic than scrambled (matrix effects protect the immunogenic epitopes from digestive enzymes.)

 

[Optimus]

Thanks. Have you come across any ways to reverse or stop premature greying of hair such as one starting in 20s and getting worse over time (currently 30)? The thing is that except for this I think I am very healthy and look younger/healthier in general sense of the term. The greying was primarily on the sides of my head but of lately it has spread to beard and top of my chest area. It’s quite puzzling.

 

[tara]

Personally, I don't like how coconut oil smells. And eating a tablespoon of butter is far more enjoyable than eating a tablespoon of coconut oil.

Really? I'd rather drink an entire 12‧oz jar of coconut oil than eat one spoon of butter (the vomit smell in butter is from the butyric acid).

It's different on food; butter generally has salt and coconut oil does not. But to eat butter straight does not sound good, and I'd venture that most people would agree.

Westside reckons no-one can eat straight fat either. Tastes are funny aren't they? When I'm hungry, I've been known to eat spoonfuls of (unsalted) coconut oil (refined or not) or butter and enjoy them all. There have been days when I'd choose an ounce of good salted butter over chocolate, but I'm pretty sure the salt is an important part of that. When coconut oil tastes bad to me, it usually means I'm low on salt.

I'm not at all surprised that chooks eat tallow. I'm sure I've seen mine clean up the fat on meat scraps with enthusiasm.

 

[CLASH]

@Travis
In regards to lipofuscin, as you have previously discussed, it is created from the interaction of iron or aluminum and linoleic acid. To avoid its build up we would avoid linoleic acid, iron and aluminum. However, iron isnt as easy to avoid, especially if eating ruminants (perhaps on the vegan diet you discussed it may not be as much of an issue). In this case do you think that donating blood multiple times a year would be enough to offset a high consumption of red meat, polyamines aside of course :) ?

 

[Travis]

@Travis
In regards to lipofuscin, as you have previously discussed, it is created from the interaction of iron or aluminum and linoleic acid. To avoid its build up we would avoid linoleic acid, iron and aluminum. However, iron isnt as easy to avoid, especially if eating ruminants (perhaps on the vegan diet you discussed it may not be as much of an issue). In this case do you think that donating blood multiple times a year would be enough to offset a high consumption of red meat, polyamines aside of course :) ?

It's more specifically formed from the polymerization of proteins with lipid peroxidation aldehydes, a process catalyzed by iron; all polyunsaturated fatty acids with a bis‐allyl carbon will do this, and linoleic is generally talked about in its relation to eicosanoids only. Aluminum displaces iron from it's binding sites, liberating free iron which catalyzes the Fenton reaction ⟶ creating the hydroxyl radical (‧OH) which abstracts the bis‐allyl hydrogen (‧H) from a fatty acid to make water (H₂O) and a lipid radical (‧L). These are eventually hydrolyzed spontaneouly formong long reactive aldehydes and dialdehydes which crosslink cellular proteins forming lipofuscin; this is largely thought to be resistant to proteolysis, although fasting has recently been shown to increase the number of phagocytosomes in brain cells. So completely avoiding aluminum, keeping iron in a decent range, and avoiding excessive polyunsaturated fatty acids should limit lipofuscin—especially if a person fasts intermittently, about two days every other week or so.

 

[CLASH]

@Travis
As always thank you. In regards to intermittent fasting what about a 16-8 schedule as opposed to a full 24 hour fast?

 

[Travis]

Westside reckons no-one can eat straight fat either. Tastes are funny aren't they? When I'm hungry, I've been known to eat spoonfuls of (unsalted) coconut oil (refined or not) or butter and enjoy them all. There have been days when I'd choose an ounce of good salted butter over chocolate, but I'm pretty sure the salt is an important part of that. When coconut oil tastes bad to me, it usually means I'm low on salt.

I'm not at all surprised that chooks eat tallow. I'm sure I've seen mine clean up the fat on meat scraps with enthusiasm.

I can drink coconut oil, and have done so in the past. However, I have never eaten butter without it being melted on something; in that case, I will admit that it's good and has a more complex flavor than coconut oil + salt.

But for that very reason, coconut oil adds an oily texture without overpowering any flavors. I have added coconut oil + salt on steamed vegetables (bok choy, broccoli) and had liked it. As both having short and medium‐chained fatty acids, there seems little difference between butter and coconut oil in ~90% of it's constituents. I think perhaps the retinoids could have a unique taste, but it could be the very short chain products of bacterial action which do this. Butter has a few shorter carboxylic acids than coconut oil (i.e. lactic acid, butyric acid) and also diacetyl, which is used in artificial butter flavoring.

Butter is certainly on of the five very best oils healthwise, but for some reason I have always been turned‐off by it when cold and clumped‐up on a spoon. This could be one of my idiosyncracies, sure, but my sister is the same way. I don't really like drinking milk either but would freely consume heavy cream, cheese, and yogurt. I found cream too good in espresso to consume it regularly; the last time I did that I'd been metaphorically chained to my espresso machine all day. I think some foods are 'too good,' as eating them serves to make the more plain and natural foods seem a bit drab. When I had been eating goat cheese I wouldn't eat coconuts since they seemed plain by comparison—and they had been! not having salt or the complex metabolic products from bacterial action.

 

[Travis]

@Travis
As always thank you. In regards to intermittent fasting what about a 16-8 schedule as opposed to a full 24 hour fast?

It all sounds good. Initially: of course a person's body weight would determine how much they should fast, if at all, but for those maintaining a certain weight and aiming to increase autophagy and 'cell renewal' there seems to be a considerable leeway—there is no way to tell what the 'right' schedule is. If you read some of the older fasting books (@burtlancast ) you will hear of 'increased mental powers' after the fast, and that 'the patients had no idea how clear they could think.' This clarity of though could perhaps rationally be explained by the reduction of interfering substances in the brain through autophagy, which is upregulated in rats after 48 hours without food:

Alirezaei, M. "Short-term fasting induces profound neuronal autophagy." Autophagy (2010)​

The autophagosomes can be visualized by making genetic constructs having green fluorescent protein attached, or by using immunohistochemistry (fluorophore‐linked antibodies) to visualize the specific proteins involved; I have even seen these demonstrated using electron microscopy, as the autophagosomes are seen by a bright electron‐lucent region.

The cell needs amino acids; when it is running low, it breaks down certain proteins not needed for survival. The anabolic peptide homones and their receptors would be almost surely substrates for the autophagosome, such as: prolactin, IGF‐1, insulin, IGF‐1 receptor, interferon-γ, IGF‐1 binding protein, interleukins, et.c.. . You might also expect, especially in the brain, that peptide hormones and neuropeptides used to regulate hunger to be similarly catabolized: proopiomenalocortin, leptin, enkephalins, ghrehlin, et.c.—all small soluble proteins that the body would have less need for in its fasting state. I think this is why the 'refeeding' stage could be dangerous after extended water fasts; the body doesn't have the amount of insulin and IGF‐1 receptors to deal with an extremely concentrated meal (more people seem to die from the refeeding stage than during the fast—after eating something totally absurd—but this is rare.)

Bodybuilders have been known to fast for a few days to decrease fat, allowing their muscles to look bigger. I only say this because it shows that 3‐day fasts don't perceptibly affect the skeletal musculature; there are many other free proteins floating around for the mycocytes to consume, and the reduction in muscle mass seen in very long fasts are probably more realistically though of as 'reduced synthesis'—the same turnover rate of muscle fibers in both cases, only during fasting less new ones are made.

Anyone fasting over three days is kinda 'on their own,' and probably should do some reading beforehand.

 

[Wagner83]

But for that very reason, coconut oil adds an oily texture without overpowering any flavors. I have added coconut oil + salt on steamed vegetables (bok choy, broccoli) and had liked it. As both having short and medium‐chained fatty acids, there seems little difference between butter and coconut oil in ~90% of it's constituents.

That is odd I always thought butter had longer-chained fatty acids than coconut oil, interfered with glucose oxidation more and was stored easier.

As for fasting, what do you think about how much intermittent fasting / fasting increases growth hormone?
e.g.
Augmented growth hormone (GH) secretory burst frequency and amplitude mediate enhanced GH secretion during a two-day fast in normal men. - PubMed - NCBI

Two days of fasting induced a 5-fold increase in the 24-h endogenous GH production rate [78 +/- 12 vs. 371 +/- 57 micrograms/Lv (Lv, liter of distribution volume) or 0.24 +/- 0.038 vs. 1.1 +/- 0.16 mg/m2 (assuming a distribution volume of 7.9% body weight), P = 0.0001]. This enhanced GH production rate was accounted for by 2-fold increases in the number of GH secretory bursts per 24 h (14 +/- 2.3 vs. 32 +/- 2.4, P = 0.0006) and the mass of GH secreted per burst (6.3 +/- 1.2 vs. 11 +/- 1.6 micrograms/Lv, P = 0.002).​

 

[Travis]

That is odd I always thought butter had longer-chained fatty acids than coconut oil, interfered with glucose oxidation more and was stored easier.

As for fasting, what do you think about how much intermittent fasting / fasting increases growth hormone?
e.g.
Augmented growth hormone (GH) secretory burst frequency and amplitude mediate enhanced GH secretion during a two-day fast in normal men. - PubMed - NCBI

Two days of fasting induced a 5-fold increase in the 24-h endogenous GH production rate [78 +/- 12 vs. 371 +/- 57 micrograms/Lv (Lv, liter of distribution volume) or 0.24 +/- 0.038 vs. 1.1 +/- 0.16 mg/m2 (assuming a distribution volume of 7.9% body weight), P = 0.0001]. This enhanced GH production rate was accounted for by 2-fold increases in the number of GH secretory bursts per 24 h (14 +/- 2.3 vs. 32 +/- 2.4, P = 0.0006) and the mass of GH secreted per burst (6.3 +/- 1.2 vs. 11 +/- 1.6 micrograms/Lv, P = 0.002).​

Does it really have much stearic acid though? Even if it had slightly more than coconut oil, some carbon chains in butter are shorter than the ones you'd find in nonfermented milk or coconut oil. Although not generally considered a 'fatty acid,' the shorter butyric (C∶4) and acetic acid (C∶2) are still acyl chains (though no viscous enough to feel 'oily'). But as far as the taste goes, I'd put money on the food chemists who say it's diacetyl.

I think caproic acid (C∶6) is the shortest acyl chain which is generally considered a 'fatty acid,' but I don't think there's a sharp cut‐off point in the graph for viscosity vs chain length.

 

[CarbAppreciator]

That is odd I always thought butter had longer-chained fatty acids than coconut oil, interfered with glucose oxidation more and was stored easier.

As for fasting, what do you think about how much intermittent fasting / fasting increases growth hormone?
e.g.
Augmented growth hormone (GH) secretory burst frequency and amplitude mediate enhanced GH secretion during a two-day fast in normal men. - PubMed - NCBI

Two days of fasting induced a 5-fold increase in the 24-h endogenous GH production rate [78 +/- 12 vs. 371 +/- 57 micrograms/Lv (Lv, liter of distribution volume) or 0.24 +/- 0.038 vs. 1.1 +/- 0.16 mg/m2 (assuming a distribution volume of 7.9% body weight), P = 0.0001]. This enhanced GH production rate was accounted for by 2-fold increases in the number of GH secretory bursts per 24 h (14 +/- 2.3 vs. 32 +/- 2.4, P = 0.0006) and the mass of GH secreted per burst (6.3 +/- 1.2 vs. 11 +/- 1.6 micrograms/Lv, P = 0.002).​

This should only be transient in a healthy person. GH basically gives one diabetes, increasing fat oxidation, opposing insulin... only natural under energy stress. Feeding should lead to a quick reduction. It's only concerning when gh is chronically elevated as in diabetes type 1 and acromegaly etc.

 

[CarbAppreciator]

Alirezaei, M. "Short-term fasting induces profound neuronal autophagy." Autophagy (2010)

I'd like to see this study done with humans, Kroemer said in the interview that 3-4 days of fasting in rats is enough to kill them, because their metabolisms are so much higher than humans. So two days for a rat is already a severe fast.

Still, its interesting/encouraging to see that neurons are less protected to energy stress than generally thought of. Perhaps the huge human brain is even more vulnerable to energy deprivation than a rats.

 

[Travis]

I'd like to see this study done with humans, Kroemer said in the interview that 3-4 days of fasting in rats is enough to kill them, because their metabolisms are so much higher than humans. So two days for a rat is already a severe fast.

Still, its interesting/encouraging to see that neurons are less protected to energy stress than generally thought of. Perhaps the huge human brain is even more vulnerable to energy deprivation than a rats.

Really? So you think a 2 day fast in rats is equivalent to a longer fast in humans? This is interesting, because so far I've been assuming that humans would induce autolysis on the same time scale as rats—which happens in about two days (but is tissue specific).

 

[CLASH]

@Travis
What do you think about the validity of ELISA ACT LRA testing for testing immune reactivity type IV hypersensitivity?

 

[Wagner83]

The bottles are on their way Travis:
Castor oil induces laxation and uterus contraction via ricinoleic acid activating prostaglandin EP3 receptors

 

[Hairfedup]

The bottles are on their way Travis:
Castor oil induces laxation and uterus contraction via ricinoleic acid activating prostaglandin EP3 receptors

Very interesting.

 

[Amazoniac]

Herb Doctors: Thyroid, Polyunsaturated Fats And Oilsnew

When you are hypothyroid and produce lactic acid too easily, you tend to accumulate endorphins. Endorphins are produced in response to the signal of increased lactic acid to compensate for the stress by acting like morphine equivalents. And the endorphins themselves limit your physiological functions in a protective way, sort of like a localized kind of hibernation. And so, the naloxone or naltrexone will clear those out. Sometimes, in 2 or 3 days, you can see a person come out of depression or a lethargic state. There was a study in California of demented people who were given very big doses of naloxone for several days or several weeks and their dementia improved just by blocking the endorphins.

 

[Kartoffel]

Hey Travis,
You seem to eat a lot of pineapples. What's your opinion on their serotonin content? Pineapples, plantains, and unripe bananas seem to contain quite a bit of it. They are not as bad as nuts, but to me it seems something to be cautious about, especially, if you consume larger amounts.

Bruce (Nature volume 188, page 147 (08 October 1960)

Feldman and Lee (The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 42: OCTOBER 1985, pp 639-643.)