Ring in the New Year

Whew.  A bit of a hiatus there.  I hadn't quite realized how much I had overextended myself until decamping to Texas for some serious sitting around.  There I had all sorts of unrealized ambitious plans to read and get caught up, visit some local Crossfits, answer some emails, etc.  I did very little at all besides the holiday stuff,...

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Time to Freak Out. Sensibly.

There is a reason I stick to relatively easily modifiable practices and how they might (possibly!) improve health and prevent disease.  I like fun exercise, real food, wool socks in the wintertime, and sunshine.  I don't like to think about the years of farm pesticide waste seeping into the groundwater, or the estrogenic compounds in plastic....

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Evolution and Anorexia Nervosa

There was a bit of a dust-up in the paleo and low carb blogosphere about some comments Gary Taubes apparently made about anorexia and insulin in an interview.  He noted that insulin was used as a therapy for anorexia, thus suggesting that (perhaps) anorexia, like obesity, is a disorder of fat metabolism. My suspicion is that Gary was using those...

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Beyond the Chemical Imbalance Part 2

Love the new song from the new album by the Black Keys:  Lonely Boy (from El Camino)   I know this guy's video will get slashed soon enough, but for now� enjoy!  The Black Keys said Lonely Boy is a departure from their typical style, as it is up-tempo.  I wish they would do more like this one!Are you peppy yet?  You ought to be, because we are going to dive back in to...

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Depression - Beyond the Chemical Imbalance (Part 1)

Today we go back to the basics of depression.  Borodin's Nocturne (right click to open in new tab).I would say there are three main theories held by the general public about the causes of depression:1) Bootstrap theory:  you are a lazy good-for-nothing who just needs to snap out of it and get up and get yourself better.2) Trauma theory: too much stress, death, trauma, etc.3) The chemical...

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Tales of the Metabolically Deranged

Happy Thanksgiving!  I'm probably in too good of a mood to write this post properly, but I have a moment right now and must seize the opportunity, and I'm going to try to make this short but cogent.  A few days ago I noted that I don't agree with Mercola and Rosedale about their characterization (paraphrased, as it wasn't quite as black and white) of glucose as toxic and human beings as...

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Soda Begets Zombies

Okay, not likely.  But the sugary variety might well be causing depression in those vulnerable to fructose malabsorption.  Have a look at my previous post on the subject.Today I have a mere observational study that adds to a pile of evidence that soda ain't the best thing in the world to be drinking, behaviorally speaking. "The Twinkie Defense: the relationship between carbonated non-diet...

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Handel and the Biology of Allergy, Atopy, and Suicide

With respect to classical music, I'm a much bigger fan of the classical and romantic composers (Mozart, Beethoven and all those Russian guys like Rimsky-Korsakoff) than the earlier baroque composers (such as Bach and Handel).   Baroque is beautiful and often awe-inspiring, but too structured for my taste --  like a doily or a stained glass window in a church.  Back then gardens were...

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Sniffles and Suicide

Let's revisit the basic premise, my hypothesis we are searching to disprove.  Humans are not broken, but we are not optimized for our current environment, whether it be modern stress, modern social structure, modern diet, modern sleep, or modern activity.  Perturbations from the homo sapiens "norm" of paleolithic life (minus the few adaptations we have accumulated in the recent...

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Is Postpartum Psychosis an Autoimmune Disease?

Here's an article for the "everything is connected" file.  Also for "yes, psychiatric disease has biologic underpinnings and is medical illness" file.  Also the "inflammation in the wrong place at the wrong time is super-bad" file.  And it may be of interest to anyone who has had symptoms of autoimmune disease helped by an anti-inflammatory (paleo-type) diet.Postpartum psychosis is...

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Evolutionary Psychiatry and Bipolar Disorder

A couple of papers came to my attention this week that relate to what I consider "real" evolutionary psychiatry.  That is, what are some evolutionary reasons we might have genes that make us vulnerable to psychiatric disorders.  The "real" evolutionary psychology academics consider this discussion to be "Abnormal Psychology,"  and like all evolutionary psychology, it is somewhat controversial....

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Offline

Hi all! A snowstorm took out myhome Internet service a week ago, and it is still not repaired. I have a post written for when service is restored, but in the mean time, be sure to check out the "map" at the upper right for some pertinent archives. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPh...

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Brain Shrinkage and B Vitamins

As we discussed before, humans are rather unique among primates in that our brains appear to shrink as we age.  When I first posted the article, Steve Parker, M.D.* noted that there was a recent article on PLOS1 about B vitamins decreasing brain shrinkage, so I thought I would investigate the matter further.  Recently I've been going through this years' issues of The Carlat Report** to get...

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Quick Talk Update

Just a quick reminder that I will be speaking to the Harvard Law School Food Law Society at Noon on Monday, October 31, 2001.  Further details about the event are here:  http://hlsfoodsociety.weebly.com/events.htmlI am told it is open to the public.I've been deluged at work, but have managed to pull a few interesting papers today, so cross fingers that I will get a moment to blog...

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Conventional Wisdom and the Lunatic Fringe

This weekend I had a terrific opportunity.  Nathan Rosenberg is an exceptional fellow who is co-president of the Harvard Food Law Society and a key organizer of next year's Ancestral Health Symposium.  He found me at AHS11 and asked me if I might be interested in speaking at Harvard Law School - I said sure, though I wondered what I would say, seeing as how doctors and lawyers are natural...

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