This is a story that starts with some negative publicity for meat, fish, and eggs, but has a better ending, although much controversy remains and science is still working out pathways. Fortunately for us, all sides agree that wine and high-quality olive oil, as well as other high polyphenol foods, emerge as “fixers” of this newly discovered risk factor.
In 2013 there was renewed interest in the compound TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide), which our bodies (specifically our gut bacteria and liver) make from dietary choline, carnitine, and lecithin. Those primary ingredients are enriched in meat, fish, and eggs in particular. Fish contain the highest amount of preformed TMAO of any food group. Several papers found associations between higher plasma levels of TMAO and increased risk for cardiovascular disease (heart attack or stroke) between 2013 and 2019. The papers caused a small panic in the paleo and carnivore camps, which had been advocating avoidance of grains, beans, and fruit due to the potential inflammatory effects of lectins, sugars, and processing. Also, it was difficult to square this new TMAO effect (risk) with the consistent and strong protective effects of frequent fish consumption. Other studies were published that did not always confirm the connection. The dietary ingredients (or sometimes they were given as supplements) were carnitine, choline, and lecithin. They were converted by the microbes to TMA and then by the liver to TMAO.
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The Glymphatic System: New Discoveries On Sleep And The Aging Of The Brain
Our Brain’s Newly Discovered Lymphatic System
Somehow, despite thousands of neurosurgeries and thousands of brain images, we missed it: there is a system of drainage vessels buried under the dura mater, the leather-like outer layer that surrounds the brain. It was theorized to exist in 2015 and definitively found in 2017. The glymphatic system is the lymphatic system of the brain, responsible for removing pathological proteins, including amyloid, that build up during the course of the day. The glymphatic system functions primarily during sleep, and mainly during the deeper phases of sleep, medically termed “N3” sleep. As we age, our other two systems of brain “cleaning” slow down, our sleep quality deteriorates, and metabolic debris, along with amyloid, begins to stack up… another challenge of aging. Read more
URIC ACID: Much Bigger Than A Big Toe Problem!
A Malady Of Kings
Uric acid is probably most famous for causing gout, an extremely painful, acute arthritis typically in the big toe but occasionally in other joints. However, new research over the last 10 years has exposed this circulating purine breakdown product as a metabolite that warrants our attention and concern, and not just for the health of our toes! There is accumulating evidence that uric acid directly causes fat accumulation, predicts the development of diabetes, and plays a major role in the appearance of metabolic syndrome (hypertension, diabetes, high lipids, abdominal fat deposits). All this can happen with or without a red-hot toe. Read more
Ode to Dark Chocolate: The Health Benefits of Dark Chocolate for Aging Skin
Dark Chocolate’s Health Benefits Include Skin Health
No website or blog on longevity medicine would be complete without a piece on aging skin, which includes UV-induced photodamage, loss of dermal matrix, and wrinkles. Of course, hormones, lifestyle, and sun exposure play a large role in how our skin ages, and we are covering those topics in other pieces. But I recently came across a series of articles highlighting the large beneficial effect of one of my favorite foods: dark chocolate! Read more
What Is Zone 2 Training And Why Is It Important?
What if I offered you a pill that took your cellular age back ten to fifteen years? This pill also increases mitochondrial numbers (kind of like the number of battery chargers in our cells), increases overall available energy, improves metabolic flexibility, lowers resting heart rate, decreases blood pressure, and improves insulin resistance? This “pill” is yours for the taking, except we call it “zone 2 training”.
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Your Immune System Reboot: Diet & Lifestyle
When the coronavirus SARS-co-v2, a devastating communicable disease, descended upon the global population in December 2019, it became clear early on that there was a wide spectrum of illness, ranging from almost nothing to diarrhea, severe pneumonia, stroke, and death. By May of 2020, it became even more clear that there are particular conditions (“comorbidities”) that markedly increase the disease severity and death rate, and that these conditions had in common an immune system dysfunction with the shared characteristic of chronic inflammation. We have learned that people with chronic inflammation have higher levels of furin and that furin acts as a facilitator to allow better binding of the viral spike protein to our ACE2 receptors. Harboring chronic inflammation turns us into something like Velcro, attracting more virus, secreting more furin, and allowing more severe disease states to evolve. Read more
Polypill vs. Treadmill: Walking Your Way to Optimal Health
My grandfather used to say “Exercise? I get plenty of exercise – pushing myself back from the dinner table every night!” Of course, he walked almost daily on the Coney Island boardwalk in the middle of the winter and lived well into his 90s, so this was really just a way to get a laugh from us. Read more
Why We Age and Why Genomics?
In his masterful book “Lifespan: Why We Age- And Why We Don’t Have To” David Sinclair asks, “What if, in our 60’s, we weren’t fretting about leaving a legacy but beginning one? What if we didn’t have to worry that the clock was ticking? In fact, he makes the case that we are closer than you think to changing what “old age” looks like, feels like, performs like. David Sinclair is an optimist of course, but he’s also a Harvard professor and one of the most prolific researchers in the area of aging, or senescence. His lab has turned out paper after paper, building and transforming our understanding of the aging processes. Some of the things he has uncovered have rapidly entered the mainstream, at least the mainstream consciousness of groups willing to act on early information, before it is proven and tested in prospective trials. We have learned that a little bit of stress is good for the body, for example, periods of cold, periods of fasting, eating less volumes of food (even 12% less) than most, exercising daily. He does not preach extremes- a brisk cold walk after dinner will do.
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Barbells: Do We Need Them?
It’s not enough to walk the dog. That is to say, there are several components to a well-executed exercise plan or prescription. For most of us, walking at 2-3 mph would best be categorized as an “activity of daily living” rather than exercise.
One reason to exercise is to improve or maintain cardiorespiratory fitness. The World Health Organization recommends a minimum of 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week, or 75 minutes of “vigorous” activity. However, the American Heart Association is now recommending 300 minutes per week, and a JAMA review article in 2015 highlighted that for longevity benefits, while 150 minutes reduced all-cause risk of death by 31%, 450-700 minutes per week resulted in a 39% decreased risk of death. If you are doing the math, that is approximately 1 hour per day. There is no question that moderate to intense cardio-aerobic exercise is a powerful longevity tool, and in fact, fitness is a better predictor of lifespan than cardiovascular risk factors and labs. The heart rate must rise to 60-70% of your heart rate maximum (something we call zone 2 training) in order to count. Read more
Merlot Meets TMAO!
This is a story that starts with some negative publicity for meat, fish, and eggs, but has a better ending, although much controversy remains and science is still working out pathways. Fortunately for us, all sides agree that wine and high-quality olive oil, as well as other high polyphenol foods, emerge as “fixers” of this newly discovered risk factor.
In 2013 there was renewed interest in the compound TMAO (trimethylamine N-oxide), which our bodies (specifically our gut bacteria and liver) make from dietary choline, carnitine, and lecithin. Those primary ingredients are enriched in meat, fish, and eggs in particular. Fish contain the highest amount of preformed TMAO of any food group. Several papers found associations between higher plasma levels of TMAO and increased risk for cardiovascular disease (heart attack or stroke) between 2013 and 2019. The papers caused a small panic in the paleo and carnivore camps, which had been advocating avoidance of grains, beans, and fruit due to the potential inflammatory effects of lectins, sugars, and processing. Also, it was difficult to square this new TMAO effect (risk) with the consistent and strong protective effects of frequent fish consumption. Other studies were published that did not always confirm the connection. The dietary ingredients (or sometimes they were given as supplements) were carnitine, choline, and lecithin. They were converted by the microbes to TMA and then by the liver to TMAO.
Read more
OURA Ring For Sleep Monitoring
Matthew Walker, PhD, is one of the leading sleep scientists in the world and currently a professor at UC Berkeley. He is the author of the book “Why We Sleep” published in 2017, and has written hundreds of papers, spoken at many professional meetings, and made several TED Talks and podcasts…all to get the word out that the right sleep is critical to our health and longevity. In fact, when asked what are the three most important ingredients for a long and healthy life, such as diet, exercise, etc., he usually responds “sleep, sleep and sleep”.
Many people “feel” that their sleep is okay…after all, if they are able to get up reasonably well in the morning, finish their day, and accomplish a few tasks after dinner, what could possibly be wrong? However, what we find when we study people’s actual time in deep sleep, time in dream sleep, and overall sleep quantity, is that as a society we are desperately “sleep deprived” and not optimized whatsoever for the best brain or cognitive outcomes over our lifespan.
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