Calories from Foods Vary with Preparation Method and Your Gut Bacteria
Calorie counts listed on food packages or restaurant menus are deceptive because they tell how much energy a food produces when it is burned in a laboratory. The number of calories absorbed in your body is likely to be quite different, depending on how the food is...
Nick Buoniconti and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
Nick Buoniconti was a five-time All-Pro and winner of two Super Bowls in his 14-year career in the National and American Football Leagues, an All-American at the University of Notre Dame, and a highly intelligent lawyer, player’s agent, TV sports broadcaster,...
Could the Obesity Epidemic Be Caused By an Immune Defect?
Mice that have a specific defect in their immune system all become obese (Science, Jul 26, 2019:365(6451)). These mice have defective T cells that are unable to recognize harmful invading germs and allow these germs to survive in their colons. You have about 100...
Steve Jobs and Pancreatic Cancer
Steve Jobs was given up for adoption at birth and went on to become a self-made billionaire even though he was never graduated from college. He used marijuana and LSD and dropped out of Reed College in his freshman year to travel through India to study Zen...
Neu5Gc: A Genetic Reason Why Humans Have More Heart Attacks Than Other Mammals
Two to three million years ago, our pre-human ancestors had a single genetic mutation in their CMAH gene that protected them from a deadly form of malaria but set them up for risk for heart attacks that increases when they eat a lot of meat from any kind of mammal...
More Vegetables, Less Diabetes
Data from nine studies of 307,099 middle-aged people followed for up to 28 years shows that those who ate lots of plant-based foods and restricted meat had a 23 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes, and those who ate the most vegetables had a 30 percent...
Neil Armstrong’s Bypass Surgery
Neil Armstrong was a great American hero who: • flew 78 combat missions as a Korean War military pilot, • was a test pilot for new planes, and • was the 1966 spacecraft commander for Apollo 11, the first manned lunar mission. On July...
LDL Cholesterol Can Be Too Low
A study of more than 100,000 healthy Chinese citizens followed for nine years showed that having very low levels of LDL cholesterol (<70 mg/dl) is associated with increased risk for bleeding into the brain, and the lower the LDL, the greater the risk (Neurology,...
High Protein Diets May Increase Heart Attack Risk
The Paleo diet and other high-protein diets may be among the more harmful popular diets recommended for weight loss because they: • raise blood levels of TMAO, a marker for increased heart attack risk (European Journal of Nutrition, July 5, 2019:1–14), and • fail to...
Jim Bouton and Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy
Jim Bouton was not good enough to play on his high school baseball team but ended up as a professional All-Star baseball pitcher with the New York Yankees who won both of his starts in the 1964 World Series. He was also a best-selling author, movie actor, and...