Chronic Disease: Is there a cure?

Diabetes, heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, arthritis, IBS, cancer... chronic, hereditary, incurable disease...

What if we challenge some of these assumptions:

Heredity

My mom and dad both have Type II diabetes.  My mother had a quadruple bypass in 2013. My paternal grandfather died of a heart attack.  My maternal grandparents both died of cancer.

I'm screwed...

I am beginning to think genetics plays a different role in what I'm being told because if diabetes were hereditary, why didn't my grandparents have it?? Or their parents?  Doesn't it seem strange that diabetes and heart disease is getting worse? If it's being passed down like old family photos, then I should see a pattern that is clearly absent.

Look at this for diabetes:
Rate per 100 of Civilian, Noninstitutionalized Population with Diagnosed Diabetes, by Age, United States, 1980–2011

Heart disease:
The Coronary Heart Disease Epidemic

And here is a general search engine called WONDER from the CDC for causes of death.
CDC WONDER

I would argue that due to genetic origins, your metabolism might be predisposed for certain dietary needs.  If you ignore those needs, then combine that with a sedentary lifestyle, THAT could be root cause. In other words, instead of seeing diabetes as the inevitable result of genetics, perhaps if you just eat the right things and get some exercise, you never have to go down that road.

The above is  NOT a revelation, or it sure shouldn't be.  We know diabetes is a metabolic disease. So is coronary heart disease (CHD). Eat crap. Sit on ass.  Get sick.

Note - metabolic is the part that should be striking.

me·tab·o·lism [məˈtabəˌlizəm] noun
the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life.

What do we know?

Fact: You should get most of your calories from healthy whole grains and cereals
Wait - The western diet and lifestyle and diseases of civilization

The net here is - if you look at hunter gatherer populations, they don't have our problems. If you give them McDonald's and Coca Cola, they develop them. Take the crap away again, and they go back to healthy.

Their natural diets are high protein + high fat.

"Forks over Knives" links protein to cancer, but I recently watched a TED talk about angiogenesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angiogenesis) that talks about how the circulatory system can adapt and grow or shrink based on what our bodies need.  i.e. to get more blood to an injury, more vessels can grow to affect that, then trim back when no longer needed. Your body can actually bypass a clogged artery (which doctors call a "natural bypass"). I point that only because the point of the talk was that well-fed cancer flourishes. If you starve it, it stalls or even goes into remission.  What if reducing protein means we starve the cancer? Would that not also imply that we are starving ourselves?? Another argument to that is that "back in the day" your ancestors didn't get 3 squares a day... they ate when there was food, which means they probably had to fast sometimes. Perhaps this allows the body to detox and heal itself vs constantly having to digest the crap we put in our bodies today.  Hmm...

Fact: High cholesterol causes heart disease.
Wait - Most heart attack patients' cholesterol levels did not indicate cardiac risk

"75% of heart attack victims had normal cholesterol"... come again??

If high cholesterol is the reason for heart disease, which is the cause of heart attacks, then something in this article doesn't make sense. If your cholesterol is good, you won't die of a heart attack, right?? WRONG!

How did that make you feel? Are you on a statin?? Did your doctor mention CoQ10?
CoQ10 and Statins: What You Need to Know

I have had 4 separate doctors prescribe a statin, and nobody ever said "Take CoQ10 as well Carric". Supposedly it has been known for like a decade that statins block the a fundamental process that makes cholesterol, but it also the process that produces CoQ10 (and a few other vital hormones). What are we doing??!! The answer: we really have no idea, so we need to stop dicking around with what has evolved as an almost perfect system!!! We are treating symptoms that don't even tie back to any root cause...

Also, as it turns out, we don't even get the story on cholesterol. I'm sure you have been told "Your LDL cholesterol is high, and HDL is low.  Let's get you on [insert harmful poison] as a vital imperative". There are at least two kinds of LDL, one of which is not harmful. I read the Brits recently discovered a third that is "glycated", meaning it's sugary sweet and even  more sitcky. LDL B is the bad stuff.  It's tiny particles that get into your arterial wall, then when they oxidize, your body responds as it would to any foreign body. Inflammatory response.

If heart disease has nothing to do with cholesterol, then what is root cause? My research indicates inflammation, which is actually caused by what we are putting into our bodies. The trick is, if you do research on what you should and should not eat, you will get a million different answers. We keep adjusting the food pyramid for US citizens.  Well, how the hell is that working out for us?? Not that anyone actually follows it, but look at what we DO eat, and you may find a pattern. We vilify fat, but it's almost always mixed with tons of sugar.  Ansel Keys' data was cherry picked (the guy who is responsible for linking fat to heart disease - do the research vs just taking my word) too. So what to do? Well, I know "paleo" is a popular fad, but honestly - what did your ancestors eat?? What did the pioneers eat? They lived hard lives, but they didn't have heart disease and diabetes.

Chronic

Once you have it - you just have to live with it forever. I don't like that idea... So I found this book called "How to Cure Diabetes" by Dr. Sherry Rogers, and it gave me real hope.  Have I cured it? No, but I'm making progress. When I cut out carbs, and eat grass-fed meat, olive oil, avocado, butter from grass fed cows, vegetables (no fruit), my blood sugar slowly works its way down to normal. Now, I will state the caveat that I changed a lot of things at once, which was stupid because it doesn't help me isolate cause and effect, but I was actually struggling until I added "intermittent fasting". Most of us feel HORROR at that word, but I read a book on it:

Periodic Fasting: Repair your DNA, Grow Younger, and Learn to Appreciate your Food

Cristian Vlad Zot, Richard David Feinman

and while I feel it was slightly "hokey", I think it's good information.  The author is Romanian and clearly didn't ask a native American to edit his content, but I have no issues with that. It just means some of the expressions are a bit odd, and I'm "pretty sure I know what he meant".  The net is: we can go hungry, and it's not the end of the world. Reading about people going 10, 30, 389 days with no food was an eye-opener. I know - it sound crazy, but you should be challenging what you think you know.

A few of the things I'm taking and have read about:

Acetyl L-Carnitine - I have read it can assist with nerve demyelination, and is being used to help treat MS. Why? My goes feel a bit fuzzy a good bit of the time because I ignored my diabetes. I'd like to get things back to normal, thank you very much.

Magnesium - I take some stuff called "Natural Vitality Natural Calm Magnesium Powder" (you can get it on Amazon, where I get all my supps). I mix in a few things for a "detox" drink once or twice a day.

Vitamin C - I buy the powder and mix in my detox drink above.

Vitamin E -pretty fundamental anti-oxidant. The more I read, the more I believe it's a must.

Glutathione - Recommend you just do some of your own research. From what I can gather, it's a major anti-oxidant, and helps your body detox.

COQ10 - essential anti-oxidant. Most concentrated in the heart.

I take some other things, but the above is most of it, and based on my reading has been confirmed as a good part a supplement stack.

Why do I take these?  Well, I mentioned "inflammation" above in relation to cholesterol and heart disease.  I am reading this book right now:

The Great Cholesterol Myth: Why Lowering Your Cholesterol Won't Prevent Heart Disease-and the Statin-Free Plan That Will

Stephen Sinatra, Jonny Bowden  

These doctors argue that CHD comes from inflammation, which is a natural and healthy process in the body - but not when it is systemic and chronic.

The more I read, the more I'm convinced that it is this chronic inflammation, caused by a MYRIAD of factors, that leads us to all of our modern problems, so you have to try and figure out why so much inflammation to really vet this out, and this is again where things get a bit muddy.

I have read peanuts are inflammatory as well as toxins like plastic (regardless of whether or not it has BPA's), pesticides, steroids, hormones, mold toxins, etc. All of these things provoke an immune system response, which results in inflammation.

A few years back I read about people arguing that we MUST detox. I researched further and found medical doctors debunking this saying "Our bodies are designed to detox. Let it do it's thing, and quit eating weird stuff and shoving things up your bottom".  I put the matter to rest, and decided not to worry about it.

With my current set of issues, more data, and more thought - I would tend to agree that toxicity is part of the problem. We are bombarded by crap constantly from various energy sources (appliances, phones, the sun), the water, the things we eat are brimming with poison.  I would agree that under normal, natural circumstances (i.e. before the industrial age and gross consumption of processed foods) that yes, the body could probably deal with all that, and we would be fine.

I would say it's a different story these days.  You should really do some research on what GMO means, and look at the ingredients on food labels.  There is plenty of stuff online up on youtube, and on Netflix as well as books and Internet resources. Some of it comes across as a bit "kooky conspiracy theory", but I believe there is a thread of truth in it.

Pair the likely "toxic load" we all suffer along with inflammation caused by sugar, stress, nuts, omega-6 fatty acids, oxidation of our body's cells from free radicals, and it starts to feel like perhaps we should be helping our natural systems with less crap, and the things it needs to purge and heal itself. Anti-oxidants pair with free radicals so they aren't destroying your cells, and avoiding some of the toxic stuff in our society has to have a positive net effect.

The real question is: if we provide a more healthy set of circumstances for our bodies to flourish, will they get all the way back to healthy?

Losing the fat is KEY.  I recently ready it's now considered an organ, so if you are above 30% body fat (buy a scale that measures this - even if it's not 100% accurate, it gives you an idea), your systems are utterly out of whack.

We were not designed to carry tons extra fat around beyond a certain point. Some is fine to make it through the times in our species' past when there was no food. You can go for quite some time on JUST water, and while I have not yet tried it, I understand that once you get past the initial withdrawal from carbs and your body switches to burning fat, it's vaguely euphoric (and getting the brain to run on keytones is supposed to yield mental clarity according to the Bulletproof guys).

I want to still believe we aren't being lied to, but I think we are, and the misinformation is so pervasive that even doctors who want to do the right thing are giving bad advice.

I don't want to regurgitate a book's worth of content, and I could go on for a lot longer, but I think this is a good start.  The message is: have hope, and ask questions. There may be a way to get the body back on track so it heals itself, and if you can reshape behavior early (like how you feed your kids), maybe we could turn this thing around.

We are living longer despite the adversity we are creating for ourselves, but I think we could absolutely live a hell of a lot better.  That's what I'm after personally. Look good - feel good - enjoy life.

Stop treating the necessary, self-inflicted diseases (especially with this asinine symptom-centric nonsense approach) and start preventing it.

Why are we sick?

Disclaimer - I am not a doctor, and none of what I share should be taken as medical advice. I am only sharing what I have learned in the hopes that it's another source of info so you will challenge what you think you know. Check what I tell you.  Ask questions. Be open-minded, and don't accept what you think you know to be fact.

In my 30's, I developed this theory that "reality is subject to individual perception". I referred to it as "life's doppler effect", and as you move through life, your perception changes subject to your perspective.  Perspective is shaped by the data you have up to that point, and how you have processed and interpreted it.  It's like wherever you are, and whatever you have learned defines your vantage point. To me, this explained why each of us is thoroughly convicted that WE are right ("I am not an asshole!" "Yes you are.." Who goes to heaven? Catholics? Baptists? Muslims?  We are all pretty sure we have the answers. I think I started thinking more about this after watching Zeitgeist. If you have an open mind, it SHOULD challenge some of the things you think you know. I'm not saying it's factual - I honestly believe this series of movies is pushing a specific agenda - but it DID make me stop and think, so since then I have started challenging some of my core beliefs, and try to take in the data I gather, process it, and continually define my view of the universe.

Actually, if you know a little about physics, this whole story aligns to Einsteins theory of relativity, but in more of a philosophical vs physical sense.

I'll provide a little background on me, so if you see some similarities in your timeline, maybe you can get ahead of your problems sooner, or maybe you will find hope and some info that helps.

I'm fat.

We are our own harshest critic, but I would say I have been fat most of my life to varying degrees, and it was largely a source of shame until it became a "quality of life" issue.

I was quite thin until 9, then got pudgy until I was about 16. I lost a ton of weight doing high school sports (wrestling was what REALLY tore off the tonnage as well as the girl I was dating at the time providing me impetus to eat less - she was incredibly fit, and pointed out that "this gut has to go"), and then just stayed sort of "normal" (220 - 250lb / 100 - 105 kg) through college. BTW, I'm ~6'4" [1m94], and not thinly built...

I graduated from GSU, lived in France for a year, came back to the states, got married, and then BOOM! - I packed on weight like a grizzly preparing for hibernation. 275 .. 300 .. 320 .. By about 30, I had peaked around 375 - 380 [170kg] (most scales don't really go beyond 365, so I'm guessing).

I distinctly remember the sheer (borderline unnatural) pleasure of drinking ice water by the 32 oz (.95 l) and then the desperate and frequent trips to the toilet resulting from my body trying desperately to compensate for my out of control weight.

You guessed it - Type II diabetes. I had dryness under the tongue, had to pee every 20 minutes, and was chronically thirsty. This happens because your body is trying to rinse the sugar out, and I was working against it by pumping down soda and other high carb/high sugar treats, because dammit - they taste good (I have an unhealthy relationship with food and drink that has culminated into some serious problems).

I lost a little here and there, and was in the 340's for most of my mid 30's (thank you Atkins), and the diabetes symptom's abated somewhat. In fact, until I was about 38, I was passing the blood sugar tests just fine.  Cholesterol and blood sugar were a bit sporadic, but all-in-all pretty healthy.

Fast forward to April 16, 2012.  I had gotten down to about 270 living on pretty good food in the UK, and thought "I must be doing all the right things". I was slowly getting back into the gym after about 4 years of not working out, and it was shoulder/triceps day.  I was finishing some punch downs, and slowly became aware of this unpleasant feeling in my chest.  I had dealt with discomfort plenty in the gym over the years, but this persisted, and got progressively worse. I of course, drove home, took a conference call, grabbed some aspirin, jumped in the shower, laid down... but the discomfort (an incredibly dull but intense general pain in my chest) persisted. I went downstairs and told Michelle that something was wrong, and maybe I should go to the doctor.

It was a minor heart attack on the right side of the heart (the part that fuels blood to your heart and lungs), so they popped in a stent.

When they told me I was having a heart attack, my first reaction was SHAME. I had let my body down for so long, it was now failing me, and I was about to leave my beautiful wife and 3 small children behind to fin for themselves.

How did a guy that could do 80 pushups in a minute for his college ROTC test and had recently lost 40  pounds wind up that healthy? I had been ignoring diabetes. I was diagnosed at about 38, but after taking metformin for a few minutes, I decided to ignore it.  This was also the first time I was put on a statin, which I told the doctor "made my liver hurt".  It felt swollen and sensitive.  He told me the liver has no nerves, and it was in my head [WARNING].

Post myocardial infarction, I was put in a whole array of meds (metformin, ramipril, aspirin, atorvastatin (Lipitor), then they added glimepiride because my blood sugar was SO far out of whack, it now requires a sledge hammer).

Read up on the side effects of these drugs, and you will see why I was both horrified and ashamed that I had allowed things to get this far out of control.

Fast forward again to the real reason I am updating my blog after about 3 years of no activity.

I have been reading a LOT about medicine and chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, arthritis -- cancer. I first read some of the books by Sherry Rogers.  Her books are a bit emotional, and while they cite a lot of respectable references, at times the books have that "fringe / conspiracy theory" feel.  Like maybe she some kind of weird hippie pushing macrobiotics and a staggering array of supplements, BUT first and foremost - her books gave me hope that you could actually reverse things like diabetes and heart disease.

Quick digression: what is heart disease?
My interpreted definition: It's the accumulation of plaque on the arterial wall which affects the body's ability to circulate blood. Heart attacks occur when these plaques rupture and result in a blood clot that hits an arterial occlusion.
Why do I have it? Well, doctors would have me believe it's because of high cholesterol, which is a result of some poor lifestyle choices. I agree and disagree...

I would like to share what I have learned (and continue to learn) in the hopes that it has some positive impact. I have lost loved ones to diabetes and cancer, and I think we are largely misinformed.  It's clear to me that when it comes to health and medicine, the facts seem to be far and few between, and there are VISCERAL debates on some pretty basic subjects.

 So, I'm going to create some posts around a few basic categories for discussion.

More and more, when I do research, I'm seeking root cause and systemic fix. Just like what I see in information security, we are treating symptoms, and often not asking the right questions.

I HATE when I click on a link that sounds like a promising new answer, and it's one of those dumbass story board animations where you never get the punchline unless you send some guy "$299 in 3 easy installments..." We have a right to know and be informed.  This information is free, and I would love to have more data to confirm or refute what I'm learning.

I know there are sites out there with a hell of a lot more expertise and knowledge than I'll ever absorb, but I haven't found them all yet.  I will share what I have found, and hopefully we can figure out a few things.