Health and Reversing Lifestyle Disease to Get Off Medications

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Health and Reversing Lifestyle Disease to Get Off Medications

7/27/2022

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6/2/2020
Lalit has many interests, namely Gita, Vegan cooking & Practice, Healthcare, Following Vegan Doctors and Indian Gurus, Started Several WhatsApp Groups, Lectures & Writing on these subjects. Some of his writing on WhatsApp are as follows:

Clear Health from NIH
 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

TESTIMONIALS

I am 73 years old and type 2 diabetic for 30+ years. I had triple bypass surgery on 16th October 2019. Started Rehab on 15th Nov in Berkeley for 4 months.

I joined this group on Feb 1 and started practice on Feb 3. Stopped drinking milk, started greens smoothie (kale, spinach, mixed greens, orange, apple etc); IF; continued Heartfulness.org meditation.

I have been taking 12 pills a day including metformin, glimepiride, levothyroxine, atrovastatin, metoprolol etc. I used to have shooting pain in my feet because of neuropathy.

Now I am free from all medicines, shooting pains and blood sugar is in acceptable limits.

Thanks to Hari Lamba Ji who connected me to this program and extremely grateful to Lalit M Kapoor Ji for establishing this program. This is a great service to tha society. Thanks and best regards. Som Soni

I read annual report of many it was quite encouraging. I was waiting for my test results which arrived today
I heard Lalit almost a year back when he addressed us in Delhi. I was not really convinced but his confidence was very motivating. I am diabetic and had CVD ( Cardio Vascular Desease) Hypothyroidism. I was consuming 1990 my Glucephase plus 7 other drugs to lower BP, to cut LDL, nitrate to address angina and 100 mcg eltroxin to address Hypothyroidism.

I am surrounded by Doctors in my family of most of specialities. To break their conviction was difficult. Though I started PBWF diet almost immediately after Delhi meeting. But IF was not acceptable especially my BMI was 23.
Still I was member of WhatsApp group encouraging reports of many and conviction of Lalit over powered. I started IF in May.

Today I am off Glucephase, my nitrate / day is halfed. BP medicine is out.
My blood parameters are below:
Total cholesterol 150
Triglycerides 69
HDL 73
VLDL 63
HbA2C 6.7
Createnine 0.86
SGOT 21
SGOT 24.
BP 132/67 pulse 63

All results are normal. I hope I am on track to lower even other medicines.

In about 3 months after starting PBWF ,I could get rid of

1.My medication for Hypertension from which I had been suffering for about 30 years.
2.Four tablets out of six that I had been taking for diabetes from which I had been suffering for the past 23 years.
I had been suffering from Asthma also for the past 23 years.To remain alright,I had to take a maintenance dose of two puffs of steroid per day.Whenever my condition deteriorated,I had to increase the no. of puffs to 4 ,6 or even 8 per day but thankfully,I never had to be hospitalised for this ailment.

Soon after starting PBWF,I realized that even when I forgot to take puffs,I didn't have much problem in walking, climbing stairs which was not the case earlier.So,I started decreasing the no of puffs slowly and gradually.

The good news is that now I don't have to take puff's ordinarily.I take one or two puffs only when Delhi's air quality is extremely bad and I have some breathing problem.

Such days are not more than 20 in a year.

I am a living testimony to what Lalit has stated above..

I break my fast at 12 pm with a glass of juice, followed by fruits at 1 pm , some salad at 2 pm and regular lunch at 2:30 pm..Green tea at 4 pm and a light dinner between 7-7:30 pm..We as family make it a point to have atleast one meal in a day together..

My fasting window is between 8pm to next day 12 pm..I try to walk 10000 steps during my fasting window between 4-7am followed by Yoga , Pranayam and Meditation..This way I have enough time to do what I want to during my fasting window..It reminds me of my school days ,when I used to get up at 4am , and study at while walking for 2-3 hrs on our terrace until it was time to go to school..Today I read or listen to WhatsApp messages while walking..And most of my WhatsApp messages are posted in the morning during my fasting window.. The morning time for me is the best time when I can work without any interruption and before our two very young grandsons get up and need attention..

The benefits I have derived from IF and following the above schedule are immense and for this *my whole family is thankful to Lalitji*

1. I am off all medication except for a few drops of Brimolol in my eyes for Glucoma..One year back I was on BP and cholestrol medication and my weight was 65 kgs..Today I am comfortable 54.4 kgs with BMI of 21 and my walking speed is almost 6 kms/ hr...I am the fastest walker in our condominium consisting of 5000 residents among the 60+ age group..I have a prize to prove that. So conclusion is that at 70+ ,I feel and walk like a 50+..

In my 70 years ,I had only one operation under general anaesthesia and that was when I had developed some strictures in my urethra ..During the operation a well known surgeon Dr NP Gupta Padma Bhushan and Chairman Urology Deptt Medanta Hospital who operated on me also cut a few blood veins near to my prostrate or supplying blood to the prostrate gland...And he charged extra for this additional surgery...Post operation He warned me that these strictures( they have stopped urine flow completely) may again come back and I must get urine flowmetery test done every month..This test measures the urine flow with time and charges are US$ 20 for such a simple test...I got hold of a 1 liter calibrated plastic mug and used to check average urine flow once a month or sometimes once a week..And thank God during the last 9 years after that lone surgery my urine flow rate has remained the same 600+ cc/ minute..

Why the above is important to narrate here is because of the *libido improvement* that I have noticed and experienced during the last 6 months after following the fasting regimen ( again thanks to Lalit) that I have described above...

Post prostrate gland operation ,I had developed retrograde ejaculation ,and that was some 9 years back..But its gone .. That's a wonder...Again thanks to Lalit...

PROGRESS NOTES FROM PBWF (PLANT-BASED WHOLE FOOD)

PART I. My Condition

On Nov 13, 2018, my hba1C was 10.9. I was taking 2000 mg of metformin and 40 mg of Glipizide and 10 units of insulin, just to maintain the hba1C at this very high value. The road ahead was quite clear, and it was not good, and it was cause for some despair.

I always thought we generally ate "healthy." We don't have very active social lives that involve Indian parties with heavy meals, we do the usual eating plenty of leafy greens, eat brown rice or whole wheat flour-based products, we don't remember when we last touched ghee or butter, for at least the past ten years, yogurt and milk were always low fat or skim, a meal included no more than 2 rotis (phulka, with no oil or ghee) or its equivalent in brown rice, and so on. I have never smoked in my life, and I don't drink much. I never drink at home, and never have any alcohol at home. The only times I drink is at an official dinner, banquet, etc., or a conference with professional colleagues. I have rarely had a "guys night out" to go drink. Even on occasions when I drink, it is beer, and if good quality beer is unavailable, I don't drink. Once in a while, I have some red wine at these official dinners. It has also been about 25 years since I had any coke or such soft drink, with sugar or with fake sugar. And whether it is tea or coffee, it has been over ten years since I added any sugar to it, and if I added milk, it was very little. I never liked milky sweet coffee or tea.

This was the most frustrating aspect of my condition because I was "doing all the right things." The only explanation I could give for my fast deteriorating condition was that I was never really able to maintain a regular exercise regimen. But it seemed almost cruel that this one thing led to a condition that was worsening month by month, with no abatement in sight. The other thing I could attribute it to was a family history. There has been a family history of both diabetes and heart issues on both sides of my family. So, I was resigned to blaming my genes for it and viewed diabetes as an inevitable condition over which I would never have any control.

I never tried any fad diets, weight watchers, paleo, keto, stuff your face with ghee or bacon diet, and so on. I am not that stupid. I would never have tried anything of that nature even if my diabetes kept worsening.

[10:10 AM, 8/4/2019] Lalit Kapoor: PART 2. Enter Lalit

In our WhatsApp group of 1977-82 IIT graduates, it was mentioned by Saurabh Anand Prakash that there was this guy Lalit who had started a health group and he came across as very serious, not biased, not peddling anything, no-nonsense, and no crazy crap miracle cures. He had met this Lalit in Delhi and was impressed with the no-nonsense approach, and the significant changes he had been able to bring about in various IIT graduates and their families already through simple lifestyle changes. It still seemed too good to be true, and I have a congenital aversion to babas, sadhus, swamis, miracle cures, magic pills, etc.

But the stars seemed to have aligned, and I had only recently resigned myself to a monotonous deterioration of my condition, which as time progressed, would start having ugly manifestations such as sores in feet, blindness, amputation, insulin pumps, etc.

So, I decided that I waste so much time on bak bak WhatsApp groups, what the hell, I will join that group and see what the fuss is about, fully expecting to leave the group in a week or two.

Well, I am still here!
I listened to what was going on and decided to try out PBWF. Bought a Nutribullet blender, and started blending veggies on Feb 15. I also cut out all dairy and eggs. I was never a meat eater anyway. These changes were no big deal for me. I am not a typical south Indian who must have curd rice to think that the meal is complete. So, this was an easy set of changes to make. And I very quickly adopted Lalit's recipe for oatmeal with some minor modifications. I have been used to eating oatmeal for years anyway, so again, this was no real change.

The biggest shock was that within about three days, my glucose levels started going down. It was insane. How could these small changes show such an effect when such powerful drugs and insulin had met their match in my diabetes? The only thing I could attribute it to was cutting out dairy and eggs. This, on the surface, does not seem to be the kind of change that would yield such dividends. But I was simultaneously reading the China Study book, which I think is one of the top ten most important books I have read in my life. And I watched many of the movies Lalit recommended, in addition to watching little video clips by some of the doctors Lalit follows. It all started making sense, and to a person with a science and engineering background like me, that mechanistic explanation from the China Study book and the other sources was essential. It made sense.

I kept at it and monitored my glucose levels carefully, poking myself about 4 times a day, drawing Excel graphs religiously, and charting the steady and relatively fast decline in numbers. At some point, I also got myself the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System, which has been an amazing tool to manage my condition. When the levels fell to a certain extent, I backed off on the medications, first getting rid of insulin, I think within about one month or starting PBWF. Then I backed off on the meds by 50%, all on my own, without consulting the doctor. I knew the doctor would not budge if I just showed up and asked for a lower dosage. Instead, I chose the approach of backing off on meds, and still showing low levels, and presenting that evidence to the doctor to leave him no choice but to reduce the dosage.

I continued with this low dosage, through a month-long trip to Japan, ten days in Italy, etc., sticking as closely as I could to the new diet in conditions not too conducive to such a diet.

Then about 2-3 weeks ago, I started incorporating 16/8 Intermittent Fasting into my routine, and it was not too difficult to do, even though I am an early riser who for most of his life has finished breakfast by about 6:30 AM. And this was the second big lever I was adding to the system. And it started showing a decrease in glucose levels again. Finally, about a week ago, I started incorporating exercise into the routine, essentially walking about 8000 steps on average per day, all during the fasting window. This again started decreasing the levels further.

[10:10 AM, 8/4/2019] Lalit Kapoor: PART 3. The latest Push

Then I decided to do something bold/foolhardy/risky. On Tuesday, Jul 30, I decided to try an experiment and suspended ALL medications, including the 1000 mg of metformin, the 20 mg of Glipizide, the statin and the ACE inhibitor Lisinopril. I wanted to see what that would do, whether my glucose levels would shoot up immediately, whether they would increase a bit, etc.

It has now been five full days since I have taken no meds (except for the B-12 and D supplements.) I am happy to report that my levels did not rise at all, maybe just a hair. Based on 7-day averages of the glucose levels from the CGM, July 28 and 29 equivalent hba1c values were 6.96, they rose to 7.34 on Aug 1, and are now (Aug 3) back to 7.1. Remember, this is with no medications. This is quite a pleasant development.

I am certainly not declaring victory, and constant vigilance, blood tests (scheduled for next week) and doctor consultation will all be in the mix. I am quite confident that I will be able to maintain the diet, and even Intermittent Fasting does not seem to challenge. My worry is whether I will stick to enough exercise to keep the levels low. That is where I will have to exercise will power. And I am hoping that the positive reinforcement of continued low glucose levels will keep me on the straight and narrow path. The longer I go, the easier it will get.

But already, this is a far cry from the full dose of meds plus insulin just to keep the hba1c below 11!

[10:10 AM, 8/4/2019] Lalit Kapoor: PART 4. Some Reflections.

I believe that the main cause of the improvement is that I am not punishing myself with animal products like dairy and eggs and keeping on scratching the scabs, as Lalit explained, but adding new doses of inflammation every day.
The stimulus to the body through bad and excessive food has decreased, so it is a smaller challenge to the body to handle it.

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, some actual repair has happened. It is not just that the stimulus is lower with a better diet, the diet has repaired and enhanced the body's capability to handle the stimulus. I think there is some rejuvenation of cells happening here.

The overall system has improved.

Also, the influx of fresh vegetables and fruits (over what I used to eat) has improved the body's capability to handle adverse situations. There is some cleansing that has happened.

Also, I am beginning to understand the influence of nebulous gut biome. I believe that the fiber intake (over and above what I used to ingest) is helping to refresh and diversify this essential source of the body's capabilities to fight danger.

I have said before that weight loss has not been one of my goals, but I have lost about 16 lbs. since I started on this path. I feel far more energetic, and my stamina has improved. I can walk all day on cobblestone streets of Europe in the blazing sun with a lot of humidity and can easily average 20,000-25,000 steps a day exploring those cities of Europe. I walk faster, my knee pain due to mild arthritis has gone away (I forgot to mention that I used to take glucosamine pills for about 12 years and I dropped that in March, and still no knee pain.) Arthritis is an inflammation caused condition, and this is one sure indicator that the inflammation has decreased. I am standing more erect, no stooping, etc.

Overall, some increase in self-esteem and a sense of greater control of myself has also been achieved. I am hoping that this continues, and I can say I have stopped all medications instead of suspended all medications. That day is not here yet, it is too early to declare that, but I hope I will be able to do so shortly. (Clearly, people like KNS and others in India whom I don't know have been far stricter and more disciplined about all this, and have achieved even more drastic results faster, but I am quite happy with what I have been able to do, without disrupting my professional and personal life too much.

Sincere thanks to Lalit for his selfless and untiring help and inspiration, and to all of you for being such a good support group.

Written LecturesTable of Contents

Herbs & Spices
Kidney Disease
Type 1 Diabetes
Arthritis
Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)

Osteoporosis
Sugar: The Bitter Truth
Metabolic Syndrome
Diet of Indian Gurus
Placebo & Nocebo
Ancel Keys & The 7 Country Study
Here is the issue of TIME I am referring to.
FATS Omega 3 & 6 ALA, DHA, EPA
Meal Timing
Aging & Anti Aging
Hypertension (1)
Aggressive vs Moderate Approach to Treatment
Hypertension (2)
Vitamin-C vs Ascorbic Acid
Emotional & Spiritual Health
Dry Fasting: A Russian Experiment
Reverse Chronic Diseases - NO SUGAR
GRAS & CRISCO
Major Sources of Toxins
Modern vs. Alternate - How Medicine Changed
Intermittent Fasting
Green Juicing
Fresh vs. Frozen
Organic vs. Non-Organic
Fiber as Nutrient
Nutrients We Need
Diet & Lifestyle Guidelines
Protein Myth.
FOOD MYTHS
Five Pillars of Health
Eating at Different Times of The Day
STROKE & Cerebrovascular Diseases
Wheat in itself is very healthy.
Weekly Synopsis-wk2
Emotional & Spiritual Health
Physical Activity
Therapeutic Fast (2)

••• KIDNEY DISEASE •••

When you Google Chronic Kidney Diseases you will find many articles which all imply that CKD has many causes like

* High BP
* Diabetes
* Obesity
* Hear Disease
* Other CVDs

None of them tell you the true cause. Kidney disease is caused by the same foods that cause the above diseases and it is often made verse by the medications that you take to cure the above diseases. If instead of medication you cured your above diseases by diet modification, you are not likely to develop kidney disease. The research clearly shows that animal protein, animal fat and cholesterol are highly implicated with the decline in kidney health.

Human body has a preference for conserving protein and as a result very little new protein is required each day. Due to the protein myth we consume excessive protein and all extra protein we consume has to be converted into fat by removing the nitrogen from the protein. (except for nitrogen element, the protein, fat and carbohydrates are all nothing but a combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen). This nitrogen combines with hydrogen to form ammonia (NH3) which is very toxic and needs to be removed from the body quickly. This is achieved by converting that ammonia into uric acid (C5H4N4O3) and filtered into urine and peed out. There is no association between kidney function decline and intake of protein or fat from plant based sources.

The data indicates that in US less than 50% of all adults have normal kidney function and over 50% are likely to develop CKD during their lifetime.

Kidney’s main function is to filter blood of toxins and waste products and it achieves that by filtering blood. Kidneys auxiliary function is to maintain electrolyte balance, fluid balance and acetate balance.

A healthy kidney filters 6 liters of blood every hour removing 60 ml. of urine. When kidney fails one has to go on dialysis which is one of the fastest growing industry today. You see dialysis centers popping up on every corner shopping strip mall. One of the leading cause of of this growth is our obsession with the protein consumption as we saw in Dr. Janice Stanger’s discussion on protein in her video “Dangerous Truth about Protein”. The second problem is our over reliance on medications. All medications are toxic and require to be processed in the liver and kidney to achieve their desired effect.

The rate of filtration by the kidney is called Glomerulas Filtration Rate (GFR) which is about 6 liters per hour. When kidney is damaged it is not able to filter at the full rate. This decline is classified into
several stages of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

Stage1: GFR 90-100%
Stage 2: GFR 60-89%
Stage 3: GFR 30-59%
Stage 4: GFR 15-29%
-Fluid begins to accumulate
-Need to limit phosphorus, potassium and sodium.
Stage 5: Nausea, Vomiting, Swelling and Bloating. Almost no urine production.

Since kidney damage is caused by toxic exposure from processed foods, animal foods, alcohol, tobacco and drugs, it’s cure is simply to stop consumption of these foods and substances. and restore normal function.
Kidney cleanse is also very beneficial and should be practiced by doing water fasting weekly or bimonthly.

There are certain habits which hurt our kidneys and should be corrected or modified early in life and definitely after diagnosis:
1. Not drinking enough water
2. Delaying going to bathroom
3. Too much salt in our diet
4. Eating high animal protein diet
5. Lack of sleep
6. Using painkiller medications
7. Excessive caffeine intake
8. Alcohol consumption
9. Smoking

Kidney Stones:
The other problem associated with Kidneys is kidney stones.
Most kidney stones consist of Calcium Oxalate. People who are predisposed to kidney stones are born with higher Intestinal Oxalate absorption; so called super absorbers (a condition called Hyperoxiluria).
Spinach, Swiss Chard and Beetroot Greens are very rich in Oxalates and should be avoided by those who have advanced stage CKD (stage 4). These patients should also avoid excessive consumption of almonds and cashews.

Dietary Restraints:
Many doctors advise kidney patients to consume animal food and avoid foods rich in potassium and phosphates. They advise against consumption of green leafy vegetables and many fruits. They also advise patients to manage their other conditions like Hypertension, Diabetes, Cholesterol and Heart Disease by aggressive medication. This is somewhat flawed because of two reasons:

(1) fruits and green leafy vegetables help mitigate other diseases and
(2) the medications taken to manage other diseases are much more harmful to kidney than a little bit of sodium, potassium or phosphates in fresh fruits and vegetables. Please watch Dr. Greger’s video on the subject

••• Type-1 Diabetes •••

I have not discussed much about type-1 diabetes except the fact that it is caused by auto immune disfunction. We all know that the food after digestion is absorbed by the body and goes first to the liver where it metabolizes. The protein consumed is converted into amino acids and sent in the blood to all parts of the body. Cells in various parts of the body use these amino acids to replicate themselves.

Some children who are fed cows milk face a situation where the milk protein breaches the gut lining (leaky gut) and enters the blood stream directly before being converted to amino acids. The body perceives these protein cells as a threat and builds anti bodies to kill these foreign proteins. The structure of some of the proteins in the milk is very similar to beta cells in pancreas. The anti bodies produced by the body to kill milk protein cells, confuses these beta cells also into foreign cells and attacks them and kills them. This affects the pancreas ability to produce insulin. This condition is called diabetes type-1.

I have not come across studies that show that this condition can be cured. But I do know that plant based whole food combined with intermittent fasting can reduce the requirement of insulin greatly (less than one fourth) and thereby also reducing the risk of hypoglycemia.

There is also some evidence that suggests that prolonged fasting can help rebuild beta cells in pancreas. Prolonged fasting increases the stem cells in the body and these stimulate the production of new cells. It is called Pancreatic Regeneration. It is one of the most contentious topics in modern biology. More research is needed in this area.
Dr. Valter Longo of University of Southern California is doing research in this field.

••••• ARTHRITIS •••••

Studies have shown that over 70% of the people over age 65 suffer from Degenerative or Osteoarthritis. It is commonly believed that it is normal part of growing old. This is an incorrect understanding. In today’s world where we do very little physical labor compared to 100 years ago why should we suffer from arthritis of wear and tear when people in rural Africa, Asia, South America and also around the world in many blue zones are living a healthy active life late into their 70s, 80s and 90s.

Inflammatory Arthritis is a modern disease. There was not a single case of Rheumatoid arthritis in Africa till 1957.

When we consume food rich in oil or cholesterol, the internal lining in our intestines gets damaged and the food leeks into the gut (leaky gut). The leakage of foreign protein (Wheat, Barley, Rye, dairy or animal protein ) in the gut leads body’s defense mechanism to produce in antibodies which are specifically directed to the foreign proteins. However if certain human proteins in the body resemble this foreign protein, the antibodies attack those also and this leads to many Auto Immune Diseases. This process is called molecular mimicry. Rheumatoid arthritis is one of them which is caused by the cow’s milk. The cow’s milk protein is very similar in structure to the human protein in cartilage between the joints. As a result the anti bodies formed in the human body to attack the leaked cow’s protein start to attack the cartilage causing inflammation and pain in joints. Please watch Dr.John McDougall’s talks on the subject.

••••••• CVD •••••••
Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular Disease is the leading cause of death globally, killing over 18 million people annually. Cardiovascular Disease is a generic name for following conditions:

1. Hypertension
2. Coronary Artery Disease (Heart Disease).
3. Congestive Heart Failure
4. Stroke
5. Peripheral Artery Disease
6. Arrhythmia
7. Cardiac Arrest
8. Congenital Heart Disease

Of these with the exception of the congenital heart disease, all others are caused by diet and lifestyle. The first five are caused by the plaque buildup in the blood vessel walls through a process called atherosclerosis. Cardiac arrest and Arrhythmia are caused by malfunctioning of electrical impulses.

When coronary arteries get blocked not enough blood is available to heart muscles and the heart is not able to pump enough blood. This is called coronary artery disease. When the plaque ruptures and clogs the artery it is called heart attack. When heart stops beating altogether, it is called cardiac arrest.

In my post on Hypertension I had discussed how once a child is weaned of mother’s milk the inflammatory food he is fed begins to cause atherosclerosis. Autopsy of many young soldiers during Vietnam war showed that the clogging of arteries was already quite advanced by the time they reached age 18.

The internal lining of blood vessels is made of endothelial cells and the total surface area of all 70,000 miles of blood vessels lining is over 6-8 tennis courts in size. Together this (internal lining) is called the endothelium and constitutes the largest organ in the human body.

Every cell in the body needs nutrition and oxygen and this is provided every second by the blood, pumped by the heart. These endothelial cells have a unique property of releasing Nitric oxide gas and this makes the blood flow smoothly through the blood vessels. When a plaque is formed on this surface it reduces the area of nitric oxide release. As a result there is double whammy; not only the effective opening is reduced in size reducing blood flow, the surface available to release nitric oxide is reduced increasing friction. So the reduced opening and higher friction makes the heart pump harder and reduces the blood supply.

To cure this problem one needs to do two things:

1. Stop hurting the endothelium (atherosclerosis) more by stopping the consumption of inflammatory foods.
2. Increase consumption of anti inflammatory foods; specially those foods that release nitric oxide. All green leafy vegetables have nitrates in them which release nitric oxide. This helps by not only making blood flow smoother, it also removes the plaque already existing. This was first demonstrated by two doctors independently in 1980s; Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn of Cleveland clinic and Dr.Dean Ornish of UCSF.

Dr. Esselstyn covers this subject well in the documentary “ Forks over Knives”. Out of 199 patients Dr. Esselstyn treated, 198 survived for many years and many are still alive today. All these patients were severely ill with multiple heart events in the prior years. Except one (who did not follow the instructions) none had any heart event following dietary changes. Bill Clinton became his patient after going through a quadruple by pass surgery in 2004 and three stents in 2008. He was advised another bypass surgery in 2010 but Dr. Dean Ornish, a personal friend of his, advised against it and asked him to follow Dr. Esselstyn.

After many years of efforts, Dr. Dean Ornish succeeded in persuading the medical insurance companies including Medicare (offered to all US senior citizens) to agree to pay for diet and lifestyle change program for cardiovascular patients. His program includes yoga and meditation.
Please watch the following videos on the subject.

I think for children a 12 hour eating window should be a good practice. Considering that they have to go to school early, one can keep a 7:00AM to 7:00 PM schedule. The adults can delay breakfast and have dinner at 7:00PM with children. It is common in US to finish dinner by 7:00 PM.

It is a good idea to let them participate in some religious 24 hour fasts also.

Our IIT schedule can also be brought in line to within 12 hour eating window.

We as a family have cut down dinner parties and prefer to host lunches more. It also avoids serving alcohol. However the debate continues, as to should one serve guests food that guests like knowing very well how unhealthy it is. Papli has started making some exotic vegan dishes that are within a budget of 2 tsp ghee/oil.

Fortunately in US the restaurants open for dinner at 5:30 and close by 9:00. In India this is a problem and requires a social change.

•• OSTEOPOROSIS ••

Osteoporosis is weakening of bones as we age and is more common among post menopausal women in White and Asian communities. It worsens with age and can result in multiple fractures. It is more common among thin, petite women and also dependent on family history.

Women generally loose 1% of bone mass each year after menopause.

There are many risk factors that can lead to bone loss and osteoporosis; some, like gender, ethnicity, body size and age are out of one’s control but others are reflective of one’s diet and lifestyle and can be modified at any age.
One common myth about osteoporosis is that, one is not getting enough calcium in diet. The second myth is that milk is the best source of calcium. Both of which are untrue.

1.The bones do not become strong by eating calcium. Calcium is actually very brittle as any body who has ever used a chalk to write on a black board would know. Bones are made of collagen which are fibrous proteins comprising a honeycomb structure, and an inorganic bone mineral in the form of small crystals. The strength in bones comes from putting stress on this honeycomb structure which we do when we exercise. The more stress we put on the bones the stronger they get.

2.Milk is not a good source of calcium. On the contrary milk is acidic in nature like all animal foods and causes acidosis. To neutralize this acid the calcium in the body is utilized and this leads to depletion of calcium. Osteoporosis is most common among the countries that consume most dairy. These include US, Canada, Denmark and Sweden.

3.In addition to macro minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium which have well-known roles in bone health, trace elements such as boron, iron, zinc, copper, and selenium also impact bone metabolism. These are often neglected in diet and specially among vegetarians who do not consume enough leafy green vegetables, nuts and seeds. Green leafy vegetables, berries, prunes and nuts & seeds are the best sources of trace minerals. One should also replace manufactured salt with natural rock salts like Himalayan salt which is rich in trace minerals.

4.Other factors that contribute to osteoporosis are:

- Consumption of calcium is not enough because everything we consume doesn’t necessarily get absorbed in the blood. Vitamin D-3 plays an important role in absorption of calcium into blood. Lack of vitamin D-3 obtained through sun exposure can contribute to osteoporosis. Taking vitamin D-3 as supplements is not without controversy and jury may still be out.

- Lack of vitamin K-2. Consuming calcium and absorbing it into blood is not enough. It can cause harm if absorbed in heart muscles or blood vessels. Vitamin K-2 is critical as it directs calcium into bones. The richest source of vitamin K is in green leafy vegetables and bacteria in our gut convert that to vitamin K-2.

- Excessive consumption of Sodium found in processed and prepared frozen foods.
- Consumption of diet Colas and tea and coffee with sugar substitutes are also associated with osteoporosis.
- Consumption of medications
- Consumption of alcohol and smoking.

Here are some videos worth watching that deal with the subject.
••• OSTEOPOROSIS •••

Osteoporosis is weakening of bones as we age and is more common among post menopausal women in White and Asian communities. It worsens with age and can result in multiple fractures. It is more common among thin, petite women and also dependent on family history.

There are many risk factors that can lead to bone loss and osteoporosis; some, like gender, ethnicity, body size and age are out of one’s control but others are reflective of one’s diet and lifestyle and can be modified at any age.
One common myth about osteoporosis is that, one is not getting enough calcium in diet. The second myth is that milk is the best source of calcium. Both of which are untrue.

1.The bones do not become strong by eating calcium. Calcium is actually very brittle as any body who has ever used a chalk to write on a black board would know. Bones are made of collagen which are fibrous proteins comprising a honeycomb structure, and an inorganic bone mineral in the form of small crystals. The strength in bones comes from putting stress on this honeycomb structure which we do when we exercise. The more stress we put on the bones the stronger they get.

2.Milk is not a good source of calcium. On the contrary milk is acidic in nature like all animal foods and causes acidosis. To neutralize this acid the calcium in the body is utilized and this leads to depletion of calcium. Osteoporosis is most common among the countries that consume most dairy. These include US, Canada, Denmark and Sweden.

3.In addition to macro minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium which have well-known roles in bone health, trace elements such as boron, iron, zinc, copper, and selenium also impact bone metabolism. These are often neglected in diet and specially among vegetarians who do not consume enough green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds. Green leafy vegetables, berries and nuts & seeds are the best sources of trace minerals. One should also replace manufactured salt with natural rock salts like Himalayan salt which is rich in trace minerals.

4.Other factors that contribute to osteoporosis are:

- lack of vitamin D-3 obtained through sun exposure. Taking vitamin D-3 as supplements is not without controversy and jury may still be out.
- consumption of medications
- Consumption of alcohol and smoking.
Here are some videos worth watching that deal with the subject.

•Sugar: The Bitter Truth•

“The last 50 years of nutrition information in America is a big fraud and that is why diabetes has continued to increase.”

This is a statement by Dr. Robert Lustig who teaches medical students at University of California at San Francisco with reference to impact of refined sugar on Coronary Heart Diseases (CHD).

Dr. Lustig’s YouTube video “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” released in 2011 went viral with over 10million viewings. He collaborated with Katie Couric of CBS to make the documentary “Fed Up” in 2014, which I strongly recommend.

When a sugar molecule binds to a fat or protein molecule, it is called glycation. When we roast food at high temperatures it turns reddish brown quickly. The same phenomenon (glycation) happens in our body at 98.6 degrees, slowly over long periods and leads to aging. When we eat sugar or fructose in refined form without the fibers it results in rapid glycation. The faster you brown the quicker you die.

Sugar molecules when combined with oxygen produce energy and release an oxygen element which leads to oxidative stress. This oxygen element is neutralized by antioxidants in our food.

The glucose structure is mostly in the ring form and thereby very stable but fructose structure has more linear form and therefore less stable. As a result the fructose gets glycated at a much more rapid rate (seven times more) than glucose. This is why processed foods and sugary sodas which use high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to sweeten foods and drinks are more harmful than sugar. Added sugar is also harmful but sugar and fructosein natural food form are not harmful.

Dr. Lustig’s main hypothesis is that sugar when consumed as added sugar (instead of natural sugar in food) is responsible for diabetes, high cholesterol and heart diseases. He demonstrates that the same amount of calories when consumed in sugary soda are responsible for 11 fold increase in diabetes. He also demonstrates that refined sugar and HFCS consumption is responsible for liver fat.

Dr. Lustig explains that there are three metabolic syndromes
1. Subcutaneous Fat: this is the fat under the skin. This is called the “bucket” hypothesis meaning when we eat more than what we spend the extra calories are stored as fat.
2. Visceral Fat: this a fat inside the body that surrounds the vital organs. When we are under stress and depression this results.
3. Liver Fat: this is known as the non alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Please watch the two videos linked below if you are interested in knowing more technical details. They both are rather long and not a required viewing.

•• Metabolic Syndrome ••

Metabolic Syndrome is a condition that represents one’s state of health based on five markers. These are :
1. Waist (abdomen) size more than half of one’s height.
2. Blood pressure over 130/85.
3. Triglycerides over 150.
4. HDL cholesterol under 40.
5. Fasting glucose over 100.

When one has three of the above five conditions he is referred to as having Metabolic Syndrome. When one does not have any of these conditions, he is generally in good health.

So far what I have said is well recognized and established. What is not recognized is that each of the above five conditions is caused by resistance to insulin.

1. As fasting insulin levels rise the body mass index also rises. The presence of insulin restricts body from burning fat. Glucose is stored in the liver as Glycogen which when combined with fatty acids makes triglycerides; which is stored in fat cells. The reverse of this process is utilized when body runs out of glucose. However presence of insulin doesn’t allow this to happen and body is unable to burn fat.

2. Insulin stimulates kidneys to retain salt which increases fluid volume in blood and thereby increasing BP.

3. Human liver can store glycogen only up-to 100 grams. After that liver goes through a process called De Novo Lipogenesis which means formation of new fat. Three molecules of fatty acids combine with one molecule of glycogen to form triglycerides. That increases the level of triglycerides in blood.

4. Increase in triglycerides also leads to reduction in High Density Lipoproteins (HDLs).

5. Insulin resistance reduces body.’s ability to store sugar in muscle cells, liver cells and in fat cells as triglycerides This gives rise to higher sugar levels in blood. Which results in diabetes.

So the main cause of metabolic syndrome is insulin insensitivity.

Reduced sensitivity results from two causes; (1) over consumption of refined carbs and (2) prolonged consumption of carbs. Long eating window from 7:00 AM to 11:00PM of 16 hours keeps the presence of insulin in the body longer, making the body less sensitive to insulin.

•• Diet of Indian Gurus ••

In all my health groups, at some point or other a discussion about the merits of our rich cultural heritage of yoga, pranayama and meditation comes up. Add to that the undisputed nutritional richness of our spices. One would expect that our yoga and spiritual masters must have lived a long and healthy life. Generally this discussion comes up on account of my criticism of dairy and ghee. So I decided to research the life of yoga masters of the last 150 years and found that, of the sixteen masters, the life span ranged from 39 to 100 years. The average life span was 78 years and the median was 77.5 years. Even if we exclude the two extremes, for the remaining 14 the average was 79.2 years.

Here is the raw data. I was fortunate to be blessed by three of them and I have cooked for two of them many meals.

1.Mahavtara Babaji: 74
2.Vivekananda: 39
3.Shivananda: 76
4.Ramana Maharshi: 71
5.Kuvalyananda: 82
6.T. Krishnamacharya100
7.ParmhansYogananda59
8.Anandmayi Ma: 86
9.Dhirendr Brahmchari70
10.Mahesh Yogi: 90
11.BKS Iyangar: 96
12.Patabhi Joyce: 94
13.TKV Desikachar: 78
14.Chinmayananda: 77
15.Swami Rama: 71
16.Dayanand Sarswati:85
——————————--
Total 1,248 : Avg. 78
——————————--

••• Placebo & Nocebo •••

We have known for some time that a patients belief in a certain medication or treatment plays an important role in his recovery. Many alternate forms of treatments practiced for centuries or even millenniums have produced surprising results. Even I have memories of visiting Hakims and Vaidyas 60+ years ago. Such care providers (incorrectly called doctors) always had good bedside manners and asked many questions as to what was your diet, how was your pea and poop, any aches or pains, color of tongue and eyes etc. . After thorough examination they gave a medication in small paper packages (pudia). They also prescribed some restrictions (parhej) on food; what to avoid and what to take while on that medication. In most cases the health improved within a week or two. Now the only thing that was not clear was: what healed the body?

1. Was it the medication or
2. Was it the changes in diet or
3. The body healed by itself or
4. The positive belief of the mind healed the body.

What I have learned from my PBWF doctors is that our body is a very sophisticated organism and it is always trying to heal itself. So most likely the body healed because of 1, 2,3 and 4 above but what was in that paper pudia was probably immaterial.

All drug trials for new drugs have to go through rigorous double blind studies where the test group is divided into two equal groups and one group is administered the actual drug being tested and the other group is given an inactive substance with no therapeutic value. Both the groups are told that they are receiving the drugs. Generally the patients in both groups see some benefits. For the drug to be approved the study needs to demonstrate that the group receiving the drug had statistically better results than the placebo group. These are called the double blind studies because neither the patient nor the doctor knows which group is getting real medication and which group is getting placebo.

Interestingly what we have learnt in recent years is that the reverse of placebo is also true called Nocebo; when we believe something bad is going to happen to us it often does.
In old Indian Puranic stories, there is often a reference to curse being put on someone. The principal by which this curse probably worked was same as what we call Nocebo effect. Please watch the linked videos below on the subject.

••• Ancel Keys & The 7 Country Study •••

Ancel Keys was a famous American physiologist who had formulated a balanced meal for combat soldiers called K-rations during second World War.

Ancel Keys hypothesized that dietary saturated fat causes heart attack. He had presented this diet-lipid-heart disease hypothesis in 1955 to the World Health Organization (WHO). He undertook a study popularly known as “Seven Country Study” which proved his hypothesis and it became the basis of US government’s recommendation to reduce fat consumption. This is what led to the proliferation of low fat foods beginning in 1960s. After his death in 2004 the data discovered from his house and lab showed that the the study was actually conducted in 22 countries and he had eliminated 15 countries to manipulate the data to prove his hypothesis. It is probably the biggest lie of the 20th sanctuary. It shows how researchers can stoop so low (to prove their hypothesis) for fame and money. His picture was printed on the cover of the TIME magazine.

️We have discussed how rich industries like Food, Pharma and Health Care influence the information that flows to us. Now let us talk about the Government and the Media.

In government I am talking about both the elected politicians and the administrative officials.

The politicians need money to win elections every 4-5 years and the money comes from rich industries so it is natural for them to support industry. This is achieved by the lobbyists working with the staff of politicians.

The administrative officials are also looking for their future after retirement and there are plenty of cushy jobs available within these industries to absorb them post retirement. As a result most (not all) senior administrative officials are happy to oblige the the lobbyists. All they need is some science to support their actions and as we saw in my earlier posts, it is easily provided to them by the researchers who more likely than not were funded by the industry.

Now let us look at Educational institutions where bulk of the research is done.

Just imagine you are applying for a PhD program at a leading university in USA, you need financial assistance. This assistance comes in the form of a research grant from, say, a soft drink manufacturer who is interested in undertaking a research to show that consumption of sugary sodas in moderation can be part of a balanced healthy diet.

The funding the company provides is on an annual basis. You opt to work on this project and by the end of one year you know if your conclusions are negative the research project may get cancelled and the funding may be terminated. You are careful in the choice of your words in the report you submit. The data we all know can be statistically manipulated to achieve the desired goal. No body has asked you to falsify the data and most likely you are not doing that (we will see later that even omitting some data can lead to false conclusions). So you prepare your report choosing your words carefully showing the affect of sugary soda in neutral enough fashion that it can be construed to be healthy. This research paper when published in a medical journal has a brief attached to it, because most doctors do not have time to read the whole paper so they only read the brief. The lobbyists are quite aware of that and they play a key role in choosing the words in the brief.

Now let us talk about the media or the medical journal. Any editor has multiple choices for the material for his next issue. He is free to chose any one of them. Now I want to explain that there is something called reprints of an article. If you like an article in a magazine say “TIME” and you want to get some reprints of that article, the magazine will be happy to provide those at a cost of something like 3-5 dollars each. The front page of the reprint will be the cover page of that issue of TIME but inside will be the article you have requested as reprint. It is a common practice.

Now if you are the editor and you are debating about which of the multiple articles on health you should pick for the next issue and the lobbyist for the Dairy industry suggests that if you print the one mentioning that butter is good for health he would be interested in getting 400,000 reprints. (He wants those reprints to hand out to all the doctors in the US ). What would you do as the chief editor of the TIME magazine? You will choose that article. That is almost one million dollars of extra income for your magazine. Your personal compensation has a profit sharing component so you may see an extra bonus of 50,000 for that month.

Please understand that in this whole example there is no conspiracy. No body is bribed. No body has broken any law. Every body’s conscience is clean but you the consumer is mislead. This happens all the time every day.

Here is the issue of TIME I am referring to.

It was cooked in pressure cooker. The dish is a dopyaza meaning it uses onions twice. First stir fry grated onions with Khada masala; cloves, cinnamon sticks,badi ilaychi, whole black peppers and bay leaves in ghee then one by one add ginger, garlic paste while stirring constantly. Now add whole potatoes (make sure you have punched some wholes in them with a fork), whole onions and garlic cloves, keep stirring for few more minutes. Now add ground masalas mixed separately in 1/2 cup of water: Haldi, Dhania, red peppers; keep stirring. Add tomato paste or purée and finely chopped heirloom tomatoes. Add another 1/2 cup water and salt, put cauliflower in the middle pour gravy with a spoon to cover cauliflower. Pressure cook to two whistles.

Prepare white khichri separately (thick consistency). Serve cauliflower on a bed of khichri.

•• FATS Omega 3 & 6 ••
ALA, DHA, EPA

Human body is good at converting all excess calories we consume into fat. Fat is a way for body to store enerhgy during periods of feasts so that we would have it available during periods of famine. Fat is found in all plant based foods. So consumption of 10-15% of total daily calories as fat is more than sufficient. There are three types of fats;

1. Saturated Fats: All animal fats are saturated fats. Among plants, coconut and palm kernel are good examples.
2. Mono Unsaturated Fats: these are found in nuts, avocados, olives and mustard seeds
3. Polyunsaturated Fats: Omega-3 found in dark leafy greens, walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds and Omega-6 found in corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil and cotton seed oil etc.

Of all these fats there are only two fatty acids that our body can not make and they therefore are known as essential fatty acids. These are Omega-3 and Omega-6 and they need to be consumed daily. Besides these there really isn’t any essential fat.

Omega fats are of three types; ALA, DHA and EPA. Plants are rich in ALA; animal food and specially fish is rich in DHA and EPA.

Human body can convert ALA into DHA and EPA. Food sources like Flaxseed, Chiaseed, Walnuts etc. are good sources of Omega-3 and provide plenty of ALA.

A question sometimes raised is that based on some studies it appears that this conversion by human body may not be sufficient and therefore DHA & EPA supplements should be taken regularly. Dr. Greger who reviews all medical and nutritional research papers has discussed this subject in great detail. I want to state that I do not agree with this argument for following reasons:

1. My whole premise about nutrition and health is that human body evolved over millions of years and knows how to handle food as long as we feed it natural food in whole form. Based on this rational I say that food supplements are not required and are often more harmful than helpful. The only exception Vitamin B-12 is because of chlorination of water in municipal supply which eliminates vitamin B-12. The argument that human body can not make enough DHA and EPA is inconsistent with this premise.

2. There are many Giants in the field of PBWF and they do not always agree on some issues. Under those situations I have to make a call and pick one view over the other. I had discussed the issue of DHA and EPA with Dr. Collin Campbell and Dr. John McDougall three years ago and they both feel against taking these supplements. I quote below Dr. Collin Campbell.

“If I must answer the DHA question, I would only say that we can get plenty of that type of chemical from the consumption of the omega-3 fatty acids that are found in certain plants–certain nuts, flaxseed, etc. Indeed, it also is related to a dietary balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids and this balance can be readily met with a good quality diet of wholesome vegetables, fruits, grains and nuts.”

Please read the two articles posted below by these two doctors.

The question Azhar has asked is at a level of complexity that I generally avoid getting deeper into in such groups. Of all recommendations I make a WHY question can be asked and to every answer another WHY can be asked. The answers keep getting more technical and complicated from a level of educated consumers as we are to a college student of nutrition to a masters student to a PhD scholar in micro biology to a post doctoral to a Nobel Prize winner.

In the movie Forks over Knives Dr. Collin Campbell states clearly that it is flawed to dissect food into its nutrients and focus on isolated nutrients. This is because all nutrients in the food work like various instruments in a symphony. However this recommendation is at odds with the “Food Supplements” industry which is a 125 billion dollar industry and growing at the rate of 8% per year. They can’t let their business stop growing. As we will see later in my future posts, food and supplements industries are funding more and more research to create a confusion in the minds of consumers.

Research so funded tries to make a case why plant based food is not complete and why one needs to take supplements.

The processed food industry keeps removing fiber and nutrients from their foods to increase shelf life. This makes people ill and they go to doctors who prescribe them medicines as they have been taught in medical colleges. These medicines make people more sick with side effects and food supplements industry is quick to oblige.

The question Azhar is asking one such result. There is some research that suggests that Omega-3 found in vegetable sources is not good enough and must be supplemented either by eating animal food or by taking supplements. Here is my response to that argument.

• Diabetes cutoff point •
An example of how greed influences treatment of our chronic diseases.

In 1997, the Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus, established the cutoff point for diagnosing diabetes and it was lowered to fasting plasma glucose (FPG) of 126 mg per dl (7.0 mmole per L).
Fasting glucose in the range 110-125 was classified as prediabetic (further lowered to 100-125 since). Prior to 1997 the cutoff for diabetes was 140.

This one change doubled the number of diabetic patients overnight also doubling the income for diabetes doctors, endocrinologists and Pharma companies.

Some of the doctors that I consider as my teachers like Dr. John McDougall had questioned the efficacy of this move and had been fighting the ADA treatment guidelines. The American College of Physicians (ACP) which is a much larger forum of doctors than ADA (American Diabetes Association) or AACE (American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists), finally conceded in March 2018 and recommended revised guidelines for treatment. However the doctor, most of you, who are diabetic, visit for your treatment is either a member of ADA or AACE, so it is easy for him to refute ACP recommendations by simply saying that they are not governed by those guidelines.
This is a subject I have been pushing hard repeatedly in this group.

I am attaching a link to an article that was published at the time two decades ago. I hope those of you who are still not convinced and unable to contradict your doctor will read this.

••••• Meal Timing •••••

The time at which we consume food, plays a role more important than we would otherwise imagine. The food we eat in the morning is less likely to be converted into fat than the food consumed at night. Human body has over 40 trillion cells and these work on a circadian clock. Because during day time our body is physically more active it has evolved to keep more food in sugar form during daytime. All excess calories always get converted into fat as that is our way of storing energy for occasional periods of famine which were quite frequent thousands of years ago.

In today’s society we rarely experience famine.

The latest research published in 2017 has shown that meal timing and frequency are associated with changes in Body Mass Index. Please watch the linked video below.

••• Aging & Anti Aging •••

I want to cover the subject of Aging and what latest research findings are on the subject. Every cell in human body has a nucleus and inside that nucleus we have chromosomes which have the genetic code. Each end of these chromosomes has a tail called Telomeres. As human cells split and create new cells the telomere’s length shrinks. Also oxidative stress reduces telomere length. When a conception takes place the telomere length is 15,000 base units. By the time a child is born the telomere length reduces to 10,000 base units. As the child grows and more cells are reproduced the telomere length reduces and when it reaches 5,000 base units we die. Every unhealthy action we expose our body to, the telomeres get chopped down and our biological age advances. Smoking, drugs, alcohol, sugar, junk food etc. etc. is affecting the telomeres in our body reducing their length and advancing our biological age. By testing we can determine the length of an individual’s telomeres and thereby determine his biological age. Biological age is obviously different from chronological age and may be more or less, depending upon the individual’s lifestyle.

Recent research has shown that it is possible to lengthen the telomeres by changing lifestyle and thereby reducing your biological age.

It won’t be incorrect to say that everything we have been discussing in this group from day one is about increasing your telomeres. If there is a single measure of good health it is your biological age. Here are some videos explaining the concept and anti aging findings.

••• Hypertension (1) ••••

The Human body has over 70,000 miles of blood vessels. The inner lining of these blood vessels is made of a single layer of cells called Endothelial cells. The total surface area of these inner linings is equivalent to 6-8 tennis courts and together this constitutes the Endothelium. Endothelium is the largest organ in the body.

When a baby is weaned off mother’s milk his Endothelium is absolutely clean. As a baby starts to consume foods that are inflammatory to the body the Endothelium starts getting damaged. The body’s self healing mechanism deposits a localized coating of cholesterol to heal the damage to Endothelium. As we grow older, more of our Endothelium gets spotty deposits of cholesterol. (During growth years from 2 to 16, the size of Endothelium also increases. However after the age of 16-18 this growth comes to an end)

The result of continuing deposits of Cholesterol is that the effective inside opening of our blood vessels reduces. This process is called Atherosclerosis. Also, the surface resistance to blood flow increases. Endothelial cells have a unique ability to release Nitric Oxide gas which makes blood flow smoother. The area affected by cholesterol deposits can not release Nitric Oxide.

Now, if we apply the simple scientific principle to achieve the same flow rate the pressure difference between two ends of a tube has to increase when (a) the friction inside is increased and (b) the effective opening is reduced. This is how our body adapts and increases blood pressure (BP). The second principle at play here is that our blood vessels are malleable and they inflate (ever so slightly) when heart pumps blood. With age and calcification this capacity also diminishes. This process is known as Arteriosclerosis. Those parts of the blood vessels which have narrowed openings normally would expand allowing the blood to go through. However, after blood vessels are hardened, the body can’t do that anymore and blood pressure has to be increased further to pass the same amount of blood. This is what happens to our bodies as we age into our 60’s and 70’s. High blood pressure is actually a healthy sign that our body is functioning as it should.

Factors affecting the blood pressure are blood volume and resistance. The resistance is a function of the flexibility of the artery wall, artery diameter and blood viscosity.

One leading cause of the problem is the inflammatory foods that we eat. Unfortunately the medical science’s total focus is on treating the symptom and they find different mechanisms to lower the BP. Starting with Diuretics to Antihypertensive drugs to ACE Inhibitors to Beta Blockers to Calcium Channel Blocker to Vasodilators. No body tells you to stop eating inflammatory foods. Your wife tells you not to get angry and not to stress out but she doesn’t realize the problem is in the food she is cooking. You both go out for dinner to calm you down and have a nice evening out, not realizing that the food that restaurant is serving is causing more harm.

When you change the food the body begins to heal. This process of recovery is a function of the changes in diet and lifestyle that you are making. The drastic the change the faster the recovery. In Dr. McDougall’s 10 day program here in the suburb of Santa Rosa a drop in BP of 17/11 points is achieved and 90% participants get off or reduce their medication.

Some other points to note are:

1. Average blood pressure in a new born child is 64/41. When child is one month old the pressure increases to an average of 95/58 and stays around that till the child is weaned at age of say 2 or so.
2. As child grows and starts eating inflammatory foods the blood pressure increases and by the time he reaches the age of 10 his average BP reaches 110/70. A normal range being 102-120 over 61-80.
3. By the age of 16-18 the average is 120/80 and the normal range is 110-131 over 64-83.
4. After this age the guidelines for normal do not change. (Why? We will discuss this separately)
5. Blood pressure goes up with excitement, physical activity (like weight lifting or running) and pain.
6. Blood pressure goes up when we add volume to our blood supply which happens with water and salt.
7. But the main reason for increase in BP is Atherosclerosis and Arteriosclerosis as described earlier.
8. Dr. Kempner in 1950s successfully treated his patients with rice diet. Patients with BP as high as 240/120 came down to normal.
9. Many people on BP medication feel elated when their BP goes below 140/90. This is a flawed thinking. The goal of all BP medications should be 140/90 and not any lower. For people over 60 it should be 150/90. If you are taking BP medications and your BP is lower than 140/90 or 150/90 depending upon your age, you should reduce medications.
10. When you start doing aggressive BP treatment what happens is you develop many side effects including increased risk of dying of heart disease called J.Phenomenon mortality.
11. A very large study was published in Jan. 2018 by the name “The J Curve between Diastolic BP and risk of all-cause and cardiovascular deaths”. This showed that reducing diastolic BP to very low levels had higher all-cause mortality than those who had diastolic BP of 70-80.
12. A financial conflict exists between study investigators and Pharmaceutical companies. From Pharma company’s point of view an aggressive intervention is more profitable, as a result, lobbyists apply subtle pressures on investigators. Lead investigators have been found to receive large consulting fees from Pharma companies.
13. The guidelines for Hyper Tension are issued by the “Joint National Committee on Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure”. JNC was first constituted in 1977 and there have been 8 task forces constituted since then. It is quite revealing to analyse their recommendations.

In 1997 JNC-6 guided that HT cut off should be 140/90.

In 2004 JNC-7 guided that anything above 120/80 and up to 140/90 is to be considered PreHT and therefore watched.

In 2014 caving in to demands by a group of experts who had maintained all along that aggressive treatment of HT by medications is harmful and leads to increased all-cause mortality, the guidelines were relaxed as following: for adults under age 60 normal is 140/90 and for adults over age 60 normal is 150/90 (unless they are suffering from CKD or Diabetes in which case it remains 140/90).

As a result of 2014 guidelines the drug industry and Doctors suffered and their incomes dropped. The American College of Cardiologists in collaboration with American Heart Association decided to issue there own guidelines in 2017 conflicting the JNC-8 guidelines. They reduced the HT thresh hold to 130/80.
For people over 60 our goal should be to maintain a BP of 150/90 without any medication.

The doctors I follow in the Plant Based Whole Food movement have always maintained that aggressive treatment by drugs causes more harm than good and that is my position also.

You as a consumer will have to make your own call.
•••••••••••••••••••• LMK

•Aggressive vs Moderate•
Approach to Treatment

Many doctors today are just too keen to put you on medication. When we reach our 40s we some time feel tired and sluggish and go see a doctor. Doctor orders a blood test and on any chemistry that is outside the range (the so called normal), he prescribed a medication. Now that medicine has side effects and it has adverse drug reactions (remember the difference we discussed earlier) so few months later you visit the doctor again and he does more tests and finds more abnormality and gives you more medications and he also scares you to never stop medication with out consulting him.

A person who was a perfectly normal person 6 months ago has now become a patient for life.

This is what is happening all around you. Deviations on your blood chemistry from normal range will not kill you. Your medication is more likely to kill you. We saw that in the documentary “Death by Medicine”.

Many doctors who are conscientious people are beginning to realize this and are voicing their concerns. The PBWF doctors I follow are in that group. There are many others who are not in the PBWF group but conscientious never the less. They are beginning to realize that specialization in medical field has become so prevalent that no one is looking after the overall health of the patient. Lesser and lesser number of doctors are choosing to be a GP (General Practitioner). There isn’t enough money in it. The effect of one specialized drug on other diseases is not being researched properly. For example we have known for some time that many diabetes drugs cause heart diseases and statin drugs cause diabetes. Also we saw in Dr. Veerapan’s confession how Eli Lilly’s psychiatric does was causing diabetes.

This has led to a type of research where they study large group patients to understand their mortality rates. Mortality for any reason; it is called “All Cause Mortality”. The research is beginning to suggest that when we treat patients very aggressively, often on the pretext of defensive medicine, more patients die compared to those on whom such aggressive approach was not taken.

This has resulted in many guidelines for treatment to be revised. Quite often practitioners of the medical specialty which is effected by these revisions feel threatened by such revisions and refuse to follow the revised guidelines. It has happened in two specialties that I was personally affected by. Hypertension and Diabetes. It must be happening in other fields also. I have not yet researched them. But one effect is that the social media is now being bombarded by the lobbyists to create a fear and doubt in your mind.

If you are going to die sooner with aggressive treatment suffering more side effects and discomforts than WHY go that route?

Think ! And Think again!

Did Rishi Kapoor really had to suffer in NewYork hospital for 11 months ?

••• Hypertension (2) •••

What is normal blood pressure and what is the cutoff point for Hypertension. There is lot of confusion about it and I will attempt to clarify that in this post.

The blood pressure was first measured in 1733 and the term essential hypertension was first coined in 1911 to describe elevated blood pressure for which no cause could be identified. For few decades BP was categorized as malignant (severe over 210/100) or benign.

John Hay, Professor of Medicine at Liverpool aUniversity, wrote that "wthere is some truth in the saying that the greatest danger to a man with a high blood pressure lies in its discovery, because then some fool is certain to try and reduce it". This view was echoed by the eminent US cardiologist Paul Dudley White in 1937, who suggested that "hypertension may be an important compensatory mechanism which should not be tampered with, even if we were certain that we could control it". Charles Friedberg's 1949 classic textbook "Diseases of the Heart", stated that "people with 'mild benign' hypertension ... [defined as blood pressures up to levels of 210/100 mm Hg] ... need not be treated".

So as you can see there has always been a debate whether to treat high BP with medications or not.

Over the next decade evidence accumulated from actuarial reports and longitudinal studies, such as the Farmingham Heart Study that "benign" hypertension increased death and cardiovascular disease. This was in spite of the fact that both those studies only pointed to association and not the causation. As drugs became available in 1960s and 70s more and more doctors started prescribing drugs. Mahatma Gandhi’s BP was 200/100. His doctors were more worried than him.

In 1976 a joint national committee was established by the National Institute of Health( NIH) called “Joint National Committee (JNC) on the prevention, detection, evaluation, and treatment of high blood pressure” in the US to come up with the guidelines for treating Hypertension. This is one of the foremost American regulatory bodies on the management of hypertension. The first JNC report was released in 1977 and since 7 more JNCs have been constituted and the most recent JNC8 released its guidelines in June of 2014.

The members of JNC come from various disciplines like, health care, health education, Pharma, Food, Government and consumer advocates. While the consumer advocate’s interest is to serve us by providing the most current and honest findings, the same can not be said about others. Pharma and Health Care industries have too much money riding on the outcome of these committees. The government should bat for us but politicians need donations for re-election and bureaucrats are hoping for a cushy job after retirement. As a result the decision making process is quite convoluted.

Between 1977 and 2003 under the direction of NIH, JNC issued 7 reports.

Despite 5 years in preparation, NIH did not release a JNC 8 report and recently made the decision to withdraw from issuing guidelines. The responsibility for issuing hypertension-related guidelines was transferred to the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology. (Like asking the fox to guard the henhouse.) Without the endorsement of the AHA or the ACC, JNC 8 committee members published their guideline report in 2014. The table below summarizes some recent JNC guidelines.

You can see from this table that based on JNC-6 guidelines a blood pressure reading of 120/&0 was defined as optimal and 140/90 as Hypertension. These are the numbers etched in the minds of most doctors and patients.

There has been a growing debate over past three decades that with increased specialization in the medical field the health of the patients is not improving and all cause mortality rates are on the rise. From patients point of view he wants to live healthier and longer and he really doesn’t care what the markers for BP or Blood Sugar or cholesterol are. Some of the senior doctors have come to realization that medical care is going haywire and have become vocal. PBWF movement is out come of that dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Going back to the JNC table you can see that these consumer advocates finally won out. The JNC-8 guideline recommends that for people over the age of 60 no treatment should be prescribed up to a BP reading of 150/90 and the goal medication should be to achieve a BP of under 150/90. For younger people the normal is 140/90.
When one is not on BP medication, lower BP is sign of good health. But when you are taking BP medications, maintaining a BP way below 150/90 or 140/90 (for younger folks) is a mistake. You are unknowingly harming yourself.

As a result of JNC’s 2014 guidelines the drug industry and Doctors suffered and their incomes dropped. The American College of Cardiologists in collaboration with American Heart Association decided to issue there own guidelines in 2017 conflicting the JNC-8 guidelines. They reduced the HT thresh hold to 130/80. You can now understand the politics at play. ACC and AHA represent the interest of their members (doctors) and not the consumers like you and I. ACC/AHA guidelines make 31 million more people subject to hypertension treatment with medications. At 300 dollars a year that is 9 billion dollars a year in doctors fees and roughly the same for Pharma companies.

For people over 60 our goal should be to maintain a BP of 150/90 without any medication.

I have come across
many people in my health groups who were taking BP medications and maintaining BP at levels far below 150/90 and were proud of the fact that their BP was 120/80 or 125/75. Clearly these people were harming themselves and increasing their chances of all cause mortality.

•Blood Pressure Measurement

To further complicate the issue of diagnosis of Hypertension is the fact that the doctors and their staff are very poor in measuring BP.

Most common practice is measurement at the doctor’s office but these readings are often taken incorrectly and there is also the anxiety factor known as the white coat effect.

In a recent study called Systolic BP Intervention Trial (SPRINT), it was found that the proper measurement (called research grade; 5 minute rest, 3 automated measurements and no other human in the room) was 12.7 mm lower than routine office measurement.

When you measure at home, you are likely to get lower readings.

Ambulatory monitor that gives average of 24 hours, is the best reading.

There are 19 different elements that constitute an accurate BP measurement. Some of these are:
- need to be seated for 5 minutes.
- Back supported and feet on the ground.
- No caffeine, smoking or exercise for for 1/2 hour prior to reading.
- No talking by patient or observer.
- No clothing under the cough.
- Support arm horizontally at the level of heart.
- Cuff should be right size; not too small.
- Repeat measurements with results averaged of lowest two readings. Or take the lowest reading.
- Failure to adhere to these guidelines may lead to higher readings.

A recent study in 20 clinics showed that of all readings that were over 140/90, 36% had normal second measurement.

To summarize:
1. The drugs for hypertension have adverse drug reactions and dangerous side effects and should be taken with caution to avoid kidney problems.
2. Most measurements of BP are taken improperly and lead to higher than actual readings.
3. There is confusion about guidelines due to vested interests of big Pharma and Health Care Providers.
4. It is best for people over 60 to maintain BP below 150/90 without taking medications.
5. When one changes diet to PBWF, BP goes down within weeks and achieving a target of 150/90 or 140/90 depending upon your age is the easiest of all health goals.

• Vitamin-C vs Ascorbic Acid •

Most vitamin C supplements are Ascorbic acid extracted from genetically modified corn. I have repeatedly said that we should try to get all nutrients from plant based whole food and not from food supplements ( the only exception being vitamin B-12).
The purpose of this post is to explain this with reference to vitamin-C.

Vitamin C found in plants does have ascorbic acid but it is not just ascorbic acid. Vitamin-C is Ascorbigen and Bioflavonoid complexes which play multiple roles in overall functions. In addition there is an enzyme called Tyrosinase which activates trace minerals which get white blood cells going. Then we have P-Factors, K-Factors and J-Factors. P-Factors, also known as Rutins are responsible for Collagen which provides strength to blood vessels, K-Factors are involved in the clotting mechanism of the blood and J-Factors enhance the red blood cell’s oxygen carrying capacity. Ascorbic acid is the package that preserves these factors and plays a role in the functioning but by itself it is not vitamin C complex and does not provide the functions mentioned above. As Dr. Collin Campbell describes in his talks, nutrients in food play a role like instruments in a symphony. It is difficult for them to function in isolation and impact on human body is not the same.

••••• Vitamin-C •••••

In my previous post I had discussed how we can take some steps, food wise, to boost our immunity.
Consumption of vitamin C rich foods is another way to boost immunity. Generally those who are on 100% plant based whole food and IF program already have highest level of immunity. Those who have been considering changes but not quite have made those, can try boosting their immunity by eating foods rich in vitamin C.
I recommend that most of these foods should be consumed uncooked. Here is a list of foods richest in vitamin C.
Fruits:
1. Amla or Indian Gooseberry
2. Guava
3. Kiwi fruit
4. Papaya
5. Strawberry
6. Grapefruit or Pomello
7. Orange
8. Lemon
9. Pineapple
10. Cantaloupe

Vegetables:
1. Red Bell Peopers
2. Kale
3. Spinach
4. Broccoli
5. Green Bell Peppers
6. Tomato
7. Brussels Sprouts
8. Cauliflower
9. Chili
10. Green peas

• Emotional & Spiritual Health •

The last two pillars of health are emotional health and spiritual health. We all have heard stories of positive thinking and mind over matter. For a long time it was believed that our consciousness resides in the brain and psychic health has little to do with the trillions of cells in the body. We now know this to be incorrect. Every cell in our body is a living organism and behaves as if it has a mind of its own. The Nobel prize in physiology for 2017 was awarded to J.C.Hall, M. Rodash and M.W.Young for research that showed how our circadian clock works at the cellular level. The Nobel prize for 2019 was given to W.G.Kaelin, G.L.Semenza and P.J.Ratcliff for research that demonstrates how each cell responds to the level of oxygen in our blood.

Hormones determine our emotional health and emotions determine the functioning of our endocrine glands that release hormones. This interdependence plays major role in our health and science has only scratched the surface so far. There is lot more to be learned about it.

Human pursuit to know the nature of things has been eternal. Some 2500 years ago this hunt for knowledge split into two disciplines philosophy and science. Takshshila was the worlds largest university at the time with scholars coming from all over the world. Credit given to Thales of Miletus as father of modern science may only be due to western bias. In any case it is interesting to note the convergence of modern science and Indian philosophy after 2,500 years. On matters of health and psychology medical science is still trying to catch up to Ayurveda and teachings of Upanishads and Geeta. If it wasn’t for greed of food, Pharma and health care industries, we may have seen the light many decades ago.

We have known about the placebo effect for over hundred years and the whole field of homeopathy relies on it. Placebo in Latin means “I shall be acceptable or pleasing”. When we take a pill that is given to us as medicine we get cured even if the pill only had sugar in it. Obviously the sugar did not cure the illness it is the conscious belief, that I will be cured now, that heals the body. The reverse of it called Nocebo has only recently captured the imagination of researchers. Nocebo in Latin means “I shall cause harm”. A negative thought is equally powerful as a positive thought is in affecting our body but in opposite direction. If you believe that something bad is going to happen to you it is quite likely that it would. The whole concept of curse or shrap in Hindu mythology works on that principle.
Happy people have happy thoughts that lead to healthy bodies. The emotions of sorrow and self pity lead to poor health.

The whole discussion in Gita about the three types of personalities (gunas) ; Satwic (purity), Rajsic (passion) and Tamsic (inertia) makes sense. The whole chapter 14 is devoted to this subject. In Ayurveda also people are classified into three main types; Vata, Pitta and Kapha. In western medicine they now recognize that people can be divided into three types depending upon their gut microbiome. I am not saying they are same. I am only making a point that the differentiations among types of people is finally gaining acceptance. Our gut- brain connection is now well recognized and gut is now even called the second brain.

In our younger days we had learned about the concept of various ras in Hindi literature. These were:

1.Shanti: peace
2.Bhakti: devotion
3.Karuna: pathos
4.Hasya: laughter
5.Sringaar: love, romance, beauty
6.Veer: courage and bravery
7.Adbhut: wonderment
8.Raudra: anger
9.Bhayanak: fear
10.Vibhatsya: hatred

It is easy to see the satvic, rajasic and tamsic gunas express themselves in these rasas.

We now know that these feelings impact the functioning of our hormonal glands which release different hormones into blood affecting our physical health.
This is what we mean by power of positive thinking and negative thinking.

Laughter is the best medicine. We have heard this time and again but what we may not realize is that every single emotion has an impact on our body or in other words all feelings have physical consequences. Here are some examples which all have been proven by various studies:

-When we are in love even water tastes sweet. Love is also a potent pain killer. Being in love also improves memory.
-Anger leads to insomnia. Anger increases blood circulation to lymphs and heart which in turn doesn’t let you fall asleep. Anger also results in high BP, Heart disease, Diabetes and a weak immune system.

-Powelessness makes everything feel heavy.
-Loneliness and sadness makes people feel cold. It also increases appetite and makes one gain weight.
-Feeling offended can cause Acne.
-Disgust upsets stomach.
-A fit of giggles can reduce stress hormone level.
-Laughter reduces the stress hormone which reduces the risk of heart attack.
-Jealousy, a mix of anger, stress and fear, increases adrenal level increasing heart rate and blood pressure and weakening the immune system.
-Crying gets rid of stress chemicals (but not tears due to onion chopping). When we suppress tears we ruin digestion and weaken immune system.
-Fear makes us pale because it sends blood to muscles to fight or flight.
-Praising your partner lowers your cholesterol level.
-Shame increases stress hormone cortisol which can constrict arteries and increase one’s heart rate.
-Arguing produces more Cytokins which can slows down healing process. High levels of Cytokins can lead to cancer, heart disease and arthritis.
-Short term stress can strengthen immune system and help fight cancer but chronic stress can impair memory and even lead to diabetes and heart disease.

The power of prayer has also now been accepted widely in the scientific community. That you pray is important; who you pray to, is irrelevant. What is important is that your mind should get flooded with a sense of reverence and gratitude. Feelings of gratitude triggers Oxytocin as a result blood pressure decreases and immune system becomes stronger and healing processes in the body speed up.

I will use my favorite couplet from Sant Kabir to make my point.

“Dukh me sumiran sab karen, Sukh me karen na koi ,
Jo sukh me sumirun kare, so dukh kahe ko hoi.”

This verse is often misunderstood because we attribute sukh to material gain and people get unhappy when that material gain they were praying for are not realized. We often forget that we seek material gain only because we think that will give us happiness and absence of it will lead to unhappiness. Happiness is our true wish that we are seeking. When we pray in true spirit seeking nothing but happiness it comes to us naturally. It is like that five year old who runs feverishly to catch a butterfly but it escape him and when he sits down tired, the butterfly comes and sits on his hand. My two penny worth of suggestion is that while praying never ask for quantitative gains; simply ask that results (outcomes) lead you to the path of happiness. Or if you are blessing someone, bless that they find happiness in what the life has in store for them.

Let me end here. This post is already getting too long as this is my favorite topic. (Health is only my second favorite.) Next week we will start focusing on Chronic Diseases.
•••••••••••••••••••• LMK

• Dry Fasting: A Russian Experiment

The most striking study on prolonged fasting is one done in Russia by Dr. Perfecta Y. S. Nicholaia,
120 mice were split into 4 group of 30 each. Each group was inoculated with Sarcoma.

• Group-1 before starting dry fast,
• Group-2 during dry fast,
• Group-3 upon termination of dry fast and
• Group-4 was control group which did not fast.

The survival rates in these groups were as following:
Group-1: 50%
Group-2: 66%m
Group-3: 100%
Group-4: 0% I have two recommendations for people:

•• Therapeutic Fast (2) ••

Extended fasting should be practiced slowly. Those who have been doing intermittent fasting will find it easy to extend fast to 24 hrs by skipping breakfast and lunch only and eating dinner at the regular time.

Once you are able to do 24 hr. fast comfortably skip the dinner also and eat at your regular time breakfast or brunch (whatever is your daily routine). This way you have achieved 40 hrs. fast. When you are doing water only fast you would be urinating a lot and it is recommended to add some Himalayan salt to your water. That salt does not harm you. At True North Clinic one is under medical supervision and doctors decide for you based on your blood chemistry.

I advise against fasting for over 72 hours without supervision. People who are suffering serious illnesses should consult their physicians before starting the practice of fasting.

The fruit fasting I mentioned was to include the most common form of fast practiced in India where on the fasting day you skip breakfast and lunch and only eat dinner but that dinner is Falahar (no cereals or beans or legumes).
When we fast for therapeutic purposes and not for weight loss purposes the goal is to achieve autophagy which starts when body runs out of protein and it also typically starts after 24 hours. Fruits such as apple are the lowest in protein (only 2%). So even while breaking the fast at night the autophagy is maintained for another 12-16 hours till next day breakfast.

I will be sending more posts on the subject.

Reverse Chronic Diseases - NO SUGAR

1. Recommendation one is for people who are trying to reverse one or more chronic conditions. For them no sugar at all at any time is allowed.

2. Recommendation two is for those who have already reversed their chronic diseases and are on no drugs any more or never had any chronic disease. This allows two teaspoons per day. This option also applies to those who are on chronic medications but feel comfortable with the level of disease and medication and just want to maintain it at that levels and not reverse it.

Similarly there is an allowance for two teaspoons of oil/ghee per day for group-2.

Now coming back to your question about exceptions. There are two ways of handling exceptions:
1. Try to maintain weekly average at target so if one day you have eaten 4 teaspoons of sugar the next day have zero. Or if your lunch had two teaspoons of oil/ghee for dinner have none.

As regards to items that are prohibited like dairy or eggs or fish or meat, (or sugar and oil for group-1) it is best not to make an exception but if you do make an exception one day try to offset it by keeping a 24 hour water fast the next day. You can keep up to 72 hour fast without any problem. For any longer fasts it is advisable to do it under a doctor’s supervision. I do a 24 hr. fast every Monday and a 48 hr. dry fast once a month and a 72 hr. dry fast every third month.

Wheat in itself is very healthy. Gluten is good for you and we have eaten it for centuries. If one has Celiac disease or gluten allergy then don’t eat it. The genetically modified wheat is high in gluten and does not suit many people. The bigger problem with wheat is how it is harvested. To make the harvesting easy they spray a chemical called RoundUp on the crop to make it dry uniformly. That helps large combine machines to harvest the crop. There are many lawsuits pending on the company that produces Round-Up. Many problems assigned to gluten are actually due to (1) Round-Up or (2) GMO variety. If one is using non GMO variety and organically grown wheat, it is the tastiest of all grains and that is why it is harvested for thousands of years.

The idea is that grains should be an integral part of your diet it doesn’t matter what grains. If one likes corn or rice or Bajra or Ragi; they all are fine.

I meet many people who tell me that they have stopped eating wheat flour but I find that they are still consuming dairy, eggs, sugar and oil. This is being penny wise and pound foolish; putting emphasis on wrong items. Most diets are deficient in micronutrients. We all are getting enough macro nutrients; it is those trace minerals that we need to worry about which are only available in green leafy vegetables and berries.

•••. GRAS & CRISCO •••

When we buy packaged food from market, we assume that it is safe to eat. The assumption is that some governmental or other organization must have ensured that the product is safe to eat. This is a wrong assumption. There is a concept called “GRAS”. This stands for “Generally Recognized as Safe”. Many foods and food additives fall into this category. You will be surprised to know that the burden of proof for the safety for these products lies with the food company.

The best example of GRAS is “Vegetable Shortening” also known as Hydogenated Fat. In America the best known brand is “Crisco” and in India it used to be “Dalda”. The story goes like this:

William Proctor and his stepbrother James Gamble many many years ago used to make soap and Candles. Tired of paying high prices for their raw materials tallow and lard they developed a process to hydrogenate oils which are liquid at room temperature to convert them to solids so that candles and soaps can be manufactured from waste products like cotton seeds. At the turn of the 19th century with the advent of electricity and light bulb the demand for candles collapsed. Faced with this crises and in the light of growing health concerns of consuming animal fat (tallow and lard) they came up with a brilliant strategy to introduce “Crisco” as a healthy alternative to tallow and lard for cooking and baking. The rest is history. Crisco became an overnight success.

It is only after 100+ years the scientific community realized, the fatal consequences of this product and it was banned in many states. The product is still legal in India. The status trans fats had enjoyed was GRAS.
Please watch this video on the subject.

•Major Sources of Toxins•

1. The Food we eat
2. The Water we drink and bathe with
3. The Air we breathe
4. The Lotions we apply to our body
5. The Cleaners we use

Major Sources of Toxins In Food

1. Hydrogenated Oil also called vegetable shortening (Dalda)
2. Artificial sweeteners
3. Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG)
4. Preservatives in Packaged foods (Generally Recognized As Safe “GRAS”)
5. Pesticides in fresh produce
6. Traces of growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticides (which are fed to dairy cows ) and Pus in cow’s milk.
7. Refined Sugar and/or High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). All soft drinks and 82% of the packaged items in grocery store have added sugar or HFCS.
8. Refined Oils with excessive Omega-6.
9. Excessive Animal Protein.
10. Municipal Water Supply
11. Alcohol and Tobacco

I need to clarify as to what is meant by GRAS.
GRAS stands for “Generally Recognized as Safe”.

Many foods and food additives are widely assumed to be safe and therefore do not have to be proven safe. When such food additives are added to processed food there is no burden of proof on the manufacturer. The best example of this food is “Vegetable Shortening” sold in India as Dalda. Please see the next post.

• Modern vs. Alternate • How Medicine Changed

The fact that human body is self healing may not have been as well understood as we know now. As a result beneficial results of different forms of medicines and treatments were often credited to the type of medicine and treatment as opposed realizing that this may be due to placebo effect. This led to many theories and hypothesis and many different forms of treatments evolved. Today we (the so called educated people) call these unconventional forms of treatment as quackery at worst or Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) (Complimentary word was added much later) at best. Traditional alternative medicine include:

* Acupuncture
* Ayurveda
* Chiropractic
* Homeopathy
* Hydrotherapy h
* Magnetic Therapy
* Naturopathy
* Yunani Medicine
* Chinese & Oriental medicine.
* Gem Therapy
* Spiritual: Tabiz and Vibhuti

I am sure there are many more that can be added to this list.

All these therapies were commonly practiced in different parts of the world till the turn of the 20th century. So the question one may ask is, when did these therapies become alternative?

In America at the time, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were the two richest men. Rockefeller had monopoly in oil business controlling 90% of it and Carnegie in steel business. Both were active in many charitable causes. In 1908 they proposed to AMA and the US government that it would be nice to study the state of educatio in health care, various health care practices prevalent at the time and formalize and standardize the medical education. It seemed like a noble cause. Mr. Carnegie hired a bright educator named Abraham Flexner and assigned him the task. (Abraham was a brother of Simon Flexner who worked for Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.)

After spending over a year and traveling throughout the US and Canada Abraham Flexner submitted a book length report in 1910 titled “Medical Education in U.S. and Canada”, commonly called “The Flexner Report”.

The report suggested closing all 2 year diploma programs and standardizing on a 4 year program, curriculum for which was also established. Surprisingly this curriculum did not include a single course in nutrition considering that herbal medicine accounted for half of all medicine at the time.

The US government adopted these recommendations and the medicine as we know now evolved.

The result was banning of all alternate treatment practices unless practiced by an MD doctor. Small medical schools were either closed or merged into universities which were financially supported by large business houses. In less than 10 years the number of medical colleges dropped from 650 to 50 and the number of medical students decreased from 7,500 to 2,500. Many forms of alternate practices were classified as quackery and banned.

The doctors were taught medicine for 4 years and only they were allowed to prescribe medication, that also after obtaining a license to practice medicine.

Abraham Flexner was later made the first director of the Rockefeller philanthropy programs in medical education.

In 1928 the first antibiotic, Penicillin was developed and it became a magic cure all for the infectious-diseases which were most prevalent at the time. Discovery of vitamins also happened during this period.

Within a few decades a psyche evolved that if you are ill go see a doctor he will prescribe you a pill and you will be fine.

In this story what I have not told you so far is the fact that Rockefeller and Carnegie were some of the largest chemical/drug producers at the time Flexner Report was produced and there business boomed. They were also the contributors to many medical colleges and sat on the governing boards of these medical colleges often disguised through their charitable institutions.

PS: Couple of footnotes to this post:

1. When Dr. Collin Campbell participated in the documentary “Forks over Knives” his course in nutrition (the most popular course at Cornell) was cancelled.

2. Dr. McDougall and other PBWF doctors have been urging to introduce a single course in nutrition in the medical program but AMA has fought it every time as a result there is still no course in the 4 year medical program.

We have discussed how rich industries like Food, Pharma and Health Care influence the information that flows to us. Now let us talk about the Government and the Media.

In government I am talking about both the elected politicians and the administrative officials.

The politicians need money to win elections every 4-5 years and the money comes from rich industries so it is natural for them to support industry. This is achieved by the lobbyists working with the staff of politicians.

The administrative officials are also looking for their future after retirement and there are plenty of cushy jobs available within these industries to absorb them post retirement. As a result most (not all) senior administrative officials are happy to oblige the the lobbyists. All they need is some science to support their actions and as we saw in my earlier posts, it is easily provided to them by the researchers who more likely than not were funded by the industry.

Now let us look at Educational institutions where bulk of the research is done.

Just imagine you are applying for a PhD program at a leading university in USA, you need financial assistance. This assistance comes in the form of a research grant from, say, a soft drink manufacturer who is interested in undertaking a research to show that consumption of sugary sodas in moderation can be part of a balanced healthy diet.

The funding the company provides is on an annual basis. You opt to work on this project and by the end of one year you know if your conclusions are negative the research project may get cancelled and the funding may be terminated. You are careful in the choice of your words in the report you submit. The data we all know can be statistically manipulated to achieve the desired goal. No body has asked you to falsify the data and most likely you are not doing that (we will see later that even omitting some data can lead to false conclusions). So you prepare your report choosing your words carefully showing the affect of sugary soda in neutral enough fashion that it can be construed to be healthy. This research paper when published in a medical journal has a brief attached to it, because most doctors do not have time to read the whole paper so they only read the brief. The lobbyists are quite aware of that and they play a key role in choosing the words in the brief.

Now let us talk about the media or the medical journal. Any editor has multiple choices for the material for his next issue. He is free to chose any one of them. Now I want to explain that there is something called reprints of an article. If you like an article in a magazine say “TIME” and you want to get some reprints of that article, the magazine will be happy to provide those at a cost of something like 3-5 dollars each. The front page of the reprint will be the cover page of that issue of TIME but inside will be the article you have requested as reprint. It is a common practice.

Now if you are the editor and you are debating about which of the multiple articles on health you should pick for the next issue and the lobbyist for the Dairy industry suggests that if you print the one mentioning that butter is good for health he would be interested in getting 400,000 reprints. (He wants those reprints to hand out to all the doctors in the US ). What would you do as the chief editor of the TIME magazine? You will choose that article. That is almost one million dollars of extra income for your magazine. Your personal compensation has a profit sharing component so you may see an extra bonus of 50,000 for that month.

Please understand that in this whole example there is no conspiracy. No body is bribed. No body has broken any law. Every body’s conscience is clean but you the consumer is mislead. This happens all the time every day.
Here is the issue of TIME I am referring to.

•• Intermittent Fasting ••

As I have discussed earlier, our body evolved over millions of years eating mostly fruits and vegetables with some beans, cereals and nuts&seeds. Another observation about our evolution is that we finished our dinners by sunset in the day light and next morning we went in search of food to return by late morning or early afternoon and prepared our lunch. The gap between the two meals was any where from 12-16 hours. It is only in last 10,000 years, when we settled down and started farming and keeping animals for milk and meat, that food became readily available to have morning breakfast. Prior to these 10,000 years, we faced periods of feasts and famine regularly. The result is that our body evolved to store surplus food in the form of fat in our fat cells. The number of fat cells stops increasing after certain age but each cell has almost unlimited capacity to store fat. Human body is very efficient in converting carbohydrates into fat and this is happening all the time. However the conversion of fat into energy, which again is a straight forward process, does not happen as easily any more. The reason for this is that we do not face any periods of famine any more. This is as if our body has forgotten how to burn fat to produce energy.
This happens because before we can burn all the calories from the previous meal we eat another meal that supplies fresh batch of calories. Many of us eat five meals a day; bed tea, breakfast, lunch, evening tea and dinner. Some take additional snacks in between. The result is that our pancreas are releasing insulin all the time and the only rest they get is for 8 hours during sleep. This constant presence of insulin in our body from 7:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night leads to many chronic problems which we will discuss later but for now please understand the presence of insulin interferes with the ability to burn fat.

It is highly recommended to compress our eating window from 16 hours to a lower number and increase the fasting window to a longer period. This concept is called Chauvihar in the Jain community and “Intermittent Fasting” in the modern scientific community. In addition it helps the body heal better and develop better immunity if we subject it to periods of famine by fasting for a period of 16 hours or longer.

The concept of intermittent fasting (IF) and extended fasting has gained momentum in the western world only recently.

Based on research on mice, we have known for over five decades that regular fasting improves health and increases life expectancy. However the reasons for this were not clear. The Nobel prizes in physiology I 2016 and 2018 have been awarded for research on this subject.
I strongly recommend IF to all.

The other term used to describe the practice of IF is “Eating Window”.

The goal in intermittent fasting is to reduce your eating window to as narrow as possible. The ultimate in intermittent fasting is “One Meal a Day” (OMAD) in which your fasting window becomes 23 hours. Many Indian spiritual masters practice this.

In intermittent fasting the idea is to finish your dinner early and delay your first caloric meal of the day to as late as possible. This helps in two main ways: firstly it gets the body used to the idea of burning fat to produce energy in the form of ketones by a process called Ketosis. Secondly it promotes autophagy which has many detoxing benefits and builds immunity. During this fasting period one can consume any beverage which does not have any calories eg. black coffee or tea or water with ginger, lemon or tumeric, or amla extract etc.(no diet sodas).

Intermittent fasting can be started slowly by first observing a 12 hour fasting and then increasing it to 14 hrs. and 16hrs. or more. Walking or exercising during the fasting period enhances the effect of IF. One mile walk is equivalent to one additional hour of fasting.

When we eat frequently and for longer periods,
our blood sugar stays elevated for longer than normal since insulin can’t efficiently clear it – this leads to the formation of Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs). This process accelerates aging by triggering inflammation, neuropathy, fine lines and wrinkles and much more.

•• IF SCORE ••

I recommend that you compute your intermittent fasting score and track it.

* IF score is calculated weekly.
* Compute the time gap between you last caloric food intake in the evening and the first caloric food intake of the morning
* Add to this total miles walked or equivalent exercise, during this period (after dinner and before breakfast). This is your score for the day.
* Now add this score for the 7 days of the week.

A. Over 140 Excellent
B. 120-140 Very Good
C. 100-120 Good
D. 80-100 Fair
F. Under 80 Poor

•••• Green Juicing ••••

I had discussed in the dietary guidelines that we need to consume a minimum 1% of our body weight in vegetables and half of that in green leafy vegetables. In fact Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn recommends 6 servings of green leafy vegetables each day to all his heart patients including Bill Clinton.

We Indians don’t know how to eat these leafy vegetables without adding ghee or oil. It is for this reason I recommend juicing them and adding some other essential ingredients to make juice both healthier and palatable.
I do want to make it very clear that juicing is only the second best option to eating greens as raw or boiled.

In the two documentaries on juicing you must of observed how by going on a juicing diet, people were able to loose weight, lower blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol and get off all or most medications. What they did was rather drastic. 60 day juice fast in “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead” and 30 day juice fast in “Super Juice Me”. After seeing the first documentary I ordered my juicer the same day and started green juicing. We did only five day juice fast to kick off our dietary changes. The results were remarkable. That was 7 years ago but what I have learned since then is an even more miraculous method that on the surface appears draconian but is supported by the research that has won two Nobel prizes (2016 and 2018) in physiology.

In this approach the juice is replaced with water. (More on this later)

The main goal is to consume large quantities of green leafy vegetables (fruits should be eaten as a whole or to just make vegetable juice tastier). Juicing makes it easy. Think of juice recipe as comprising of three groups.

-The first group is " Granny Smith (or any other juicing apples) apples(4), lemon(2) and ginger(2 thumb size pcs.)
-The second group is " Celery (one bunch), cucumber (one large English or two medium regular) and/or lettuce )
-The third group is any of the following green leafy vegetables like kale, chard, spinach, mustard greens, turnip greens, collard greens, beet root greens, cabbage etc. (2 bunches)

The third group can also be replaced with carrots and beetroots.

You want to start with a juice fast for 3 to 5 days at least. The longer the better. You will be drinking only juice for these days. Try four to five glasses (10-12 ounces ) per day or more if you wish.

After that continue with three glasses per day; 20 minutes before each meal till you are off all medications. After that one or two glasses a day is sufficient.

The two juicers I recommend are Angel 5500 and Green Star. These are cold pressed juicers. For India Hurom is a good choice. Others may also be good. I just do not know about them.

A better quality juicer gives you better yield and you recover the extra costs within the first year.

You can go to Utube and type in green juicers. You will get lot of videos comparing different brands. Angel juicer costs around $1,400, Greenstar around $ 500. These are not available in India. A good juicer in India will cost around Rs. 20,000.

The best blender on the market is Vitamix but it is not good for juicing.

* Juice vs. Smoothy
There is a difference between smoothies and juice.

- The problem with smoothies is that they have lot of air mixed in the juice as a result it doesn’t have shelf life and you must make it fresh every time.
- Smoothies make one feel bloated after drinking because one is consuming air along with the juice and fiber.
- Smoothies stay in the stomach for a few hours of digestive cycle. Clear juice passes through in minutes and nutrients get absorbed into blood within minutes thereby reaching every nook and cranny of the body.

Juice prepared in slow speed juicers does not have these problems and can be stored in refrigerator for upto 3 days easily. That makes it easy for busy folks, as you only need to make it twice a week.

A question often asked is “ aren’t you removing fiber in juicing?” The answer is that there are two types of fiber soluble and insoluble. Juicing preserves all the soluble fiber and some of the insoluble fiber as well.

One should eat fruits as a whole and juice only vegetables. You can add some fruit to enhance the taste and yes Granny Smith apples because they have enzymes that help digest green leafy vegetables.

* Fresh vs. Frozen

It is always better to eat fresh tree ripened fruits and vegetables. However this debate is not as simple as it appears. Fresh fruits and vegetables are often picked before they reach their peak in terms of ripeness and nutrients to allow for shipping time. Frozen foods are picked at their peak and frozen immediately.In the absence of fresh produce frozen is a satisfactory option.

* Organic vs. Non-Organic

The other question that arises is that if organic produce is not available, should one skip it or eat it any way.

Barring some cases of extreme foul play, most vegetable even if they are not organic are better to eat than not eat at all. Wash them well and feel free to peel if you are overly concerned. You can also use a brush to wash them better.

I do not know much about Indian conditions but there is a list called dirty dozen which lists 12 produce items which you should seek out in organic versions.

It is a good idea to strain the juice through a fine sieve.

Most people would see improvement in their bowl movement after going on a PBWF diet. It is not uncommon to have multiple bowl movements each day. Some people do experience loose motions initially. Situation mostly stabilized to a new normal routine.

There is a saying: First thing in the morning, if you poop before you finish peeing; you are in good health.You soon will experience that. Happy

Based on my experience in several health groups, I want to share four observations:

1. Somethings are easier said than done. Eating green leafy vegetables and not eating oil/ghee is one such advice. The only way we Indians know how to eat green leafy vegetables is by making saag which cannot be made without ghee.

2. It is often difficult to give up our favorite foods even after we have learned that they are unhealthy. It is lot easier to add foods and specially foods that are tasty. When we add healthy food it crowds out the unhealthy food.

3. When we make changes slowly the improvements are not noticeable and one often looses confidence. So it helps to make some changes which are dramatic and remain in our conscious mind.

4. One conscious change often leads to many unconscious changes and benefits accrue. To give you one example, once I started walking for an hour every day I started rejecting caloric dense food like cookies and donuts because I was conscious that it would wash off my one hour worth of effort.

Before we move on to the subject of “ How to Eat”, I request all to watch a documentary “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead”. This is available on Netflix.

The second documentary is available on Utube and linked below.

•••. Fiber as Nutrient •••

Fiber as an important nutrient was recognized much later than most other nutrients. Dr. Burkitt was the first to emphasize it’s importance in a book titled “Don’t Forget Fiber in Your Diet” published in 1979.

For many years fiber was thought only to improve your bowl movement and satiety. Both of which are true but latest research has brought many more important benefits to our attention.

There are two types of fiber; soluble and insoluble. The two comments above are true for insoluble fiber.

The microbes in our gut microbiome feed on fiber to produce metabolites which help protect us from high BP and in many other ways. Active research is on going in this field.

Soluble fiber helps reduce blood glucose levels and thereby reduces the risk of diabetes. Some of the other benefits are:

* control body weight
* control and possibly prevent hypertension
* help balance cholesterol levels in blood
* regulate bowel movements and prevent hemorrhoids
* regulate your body’s satiation signals, which let you know when you’re full
* lower risk of colon cancer
* lower risk of breast cancer
* require more chewing, which slows down your meals and aids digestion

••• Nutrients We Need •••

Human body needs nutrients to survive. Besides water all nutrients can be subdivided into two categories:

1.Macronutrients: These provide energy. There are three macronutrients:
- Proteins: 1gm = 4 calories
- Carbohydrates: 1gm = 4 cal.
- Fats: 1gm = 9 cal.

2.Micronutrients: Theses do not provide energy but are essential to human body. These include:
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Fiber
- Antioxidants
- Phytochemicals

Proteins are chains of amino acids. Certain amino acids can not be made by the body and must be consumed and that is why they are called essential amino acids.The protein we consume is first broken down to amino acids and different cells of the body use these amino acids to make new proteins each day. Human body is good in making proteins and it makes all the different protein (over 2 million) it needs from the various amino acids. All essential amino acids are made only by plants and move up the food chain.

Similar to proteins human body is good at making fats (fatty acids). In fact all excess energy, whether it was consumed as fat, protein or carbs, is converted into fat in our liver and stored in our fat cells throughout the body but specially around the belly. The number of fat cells after adulthood do not change, only the amount of fat in each cell changes as one gains or looses weight. The only fats our body can not make are Omega fats and therefore they need to be consumed daily. Of various Omega fats Omega-3 is only available in limited amounts and therefore requires special attention. Human body needs Omega-3 and Omega-6 in equal amounts but in nature Omega-6 is available in plentiful Human body has preference in absorbing Omega-3 as a result some variance can be accommodated. The disproportionate consumption of Omega-6 over Omega-3 is believed to be the cause of many illnesses. It is recommended that this ratio should be in 2-3 range. Most vegetable oils have this ratio in 1,000 to 100,000 range. Among cooking oils (as opposed to non cooking oils like olive, flaxseed, walnut etc.) Mustard oil is one exception where this ratio is under 3. Ghee also has significant amount of Omega-3.

Among Vitamins, most are available in plenty in plant based food. There are two that require special attention:

- Vitamin B-12 is found in nature in soil. It is in natural streams and rivers; when we work with dirt with our hands and legs or walk bare feet the body absorbs it. As we have moved away from such activities and chlorinated our municipal water, all natural sources have been blocked. That is why this is the only food supplement that pbwf doctors recommend.

* Vitamin D-3 is made by human body under sunshine. As we have reduced venturing out in the sun some people face deficiency in this vitamin by the time they reach their 40s. If you are deficient and you do can not spend some time in the sun, this would be the second supplement you would need. Besides these two supplements PBWF doctors do not recommend any other food or nutrient supplements.

Fiber should be of concern to those who are eating diets rich in oil, sugar and dairy or animal food. None of these foods have any fiber. US fiber guidelines are less than half of what an average African native eats and even than 97% Americans fall short. Do not think we Indians get enough fiber because of our daal, roti, rice because most Indians are still getting almost half their calories from ghee, oil sugar and dairy.

•••• Diet & Lifestyle ••••
Guidelines

1. No animal food. No Sea food. No eggs. No milk or milk products.
2. No refined or processed foods. No Ghee, Oil or Sugar. If one is on no chronic medications then two tsp. of ghee/oil and two tsp. of sugar maximum allowed per day.
3. Eat from all five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes and nuts& seeds (spices are recommended).
4. Eat a minimum of 1% of your body weight in fruits every day. Include one cup of berries.
5. Eat a minimum of 1% of your body weight in vegetables (at least half of those in green leafy) every day.
6. For Omega-3: Eat 1 tbsp. Flaxseed (ground) and five walnuts every day.
7. Take vitamin B-12 supplement. Vitamin D-3 supplement only if you are deficient and you don’t get in the sun much.
8. Keep your body hydrated at all times. Drink minimum 1/2 liter warm water first thing in the morning before brushing your teeth. Eat your water as much as possible (from fresh fruits and vegetables).
9. Start Intermittent Fasting. Slowly reduce your eating window to 8 or even 6 hrs.
10. Do extended, water only, fast of 3-5 days twice a year.
11. Walk 10,000 steps or more every day.
12. Love your family and friends unconditionally and stay connected.
13. Pray regularly and have a positive attitude full of gratitude.
14. No other restrictions. Eat variety; everything you like and some of what you don’t like. Eat as much as you feel like. No portion control is necessary. Your body knows when to stop

•••• Protein Myth. ••••

Of the various food myths discussed earlier, the one I want to further elaborate is misconceptions about protein.
In the 1950’s , my grandfather insisted I take a glass of milk every morning and night. In the morning he would add one egg yolk to my milk (not to mention the sugar which was always added to milk in India in those days). While I hated drinking it, I had to have it. Little did I know then that he was causing me lot of harm but wasn’t aware of it. He had the best of intentions.

Most people know about a project called the “Human Genome Project” which was undertaken during 1990 to 2003 to map genes in the human body. Few people are aware that few years later a project called the “Human Proteome Project”was undertaken to study all the proteins in human body. The science emerging from this ongoing project is called Proteomics. For reasons unknown to me, the finding of the Proteomics project are not picked up by the mass media or social media. I believe it may have something to do with its potential impact on the food industry, especially in regards to meat, poultry and dairy consumption.

The human body of a grown up individual makes about 200 grams of new proteins every day and also breaks down about the same amount daily due to wear and tear. The body is very efficient in recycling this protein back into amino acids to make new proteins. Some proteins cannot be recycled such as nails, hair dead skin etc. . New research has shown that about 85% of these proteins gets recycled, leaving only a shortfall of 30 grams that we need to consume daily to supplement these lost proteins.

In 1947 the US Government established the minimum protein requirements for an adult at 5-6% of our daily caloric intake (25-30gm). However, they established the recommended daily allowance at 8-10% amounting to 46-56 grams. The bias for higher protein consumption was so pervasive that even the government felt the need to recommend twice the minimum level. This was due to popular beliefs at the time that physical labor and gym enthusiasts need more protein from higher wear and tear on the body.

Distorting these minimum and recommended guildelines are not coincidence. A google search on “protein” will reveal these distortions even on prestigious sites such as Healthline, WebMD and Harvard Health Blog which I quote below:

“The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is a modest 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. The RDA is the amount of a nutrient you need to meet your basic nutritional requirements. In a sense, it’s the minimum amount you need to keep from getting sick — not the specific amount you are supposed to eat every day.”

It may surprise you to note that there is not a single recorded case of protein deficiency in the Western World. 97% of all Americans eat too much protein while at the same time 97% of all Americans are deficient in dietary fiber in their diets.The nutrient of concern therefore should be fiber and not protein. Sadly press coverage on dangers of excessive protein consumption does not exist and the topic is conveniently ignored by mass media, in-spite of doctors such as Dr. Collin Campbell and Dr. Janice Stanger speaking about it at conferences, in various documentaries and on YouTube videos.

Contrary to this pervasive obsession with high protein, the Nobel Prizes for 2016 and 2018 point out that occasional periods of protein deficiency detoxes our body and helps build immunity by a process called autophagy. (We will discuss more about it later.) Dr. Honzo (2018 Nobel Laureate) has demonstrated that prolonged fasting or feeding cancer patients diet devoid in protein for stretches of 5-10 days can help build immunity to fight cancer.

Protein is so abundant in nature that almost all natural foods have it. Potatoes have 5-6 percent, rice has 7-8 percent, watermelon has 7 percent.

The importance of this lesson is this:

“One should just stop worrying about protein while on pbwf diet and focus on fiber instead.”

Human body can store sugar up to 2,000 calories (as Glycogen in liver and muscles). It can store fat in unlimited amounts. But there is no storage provision for excess protein. As a result it has to be processed in liver to remove nitrogen and converted into sugar. The nitrogen thus removed combines with hydrogen to form Ammonia ( NH3) which is very toxic and needs to be eliminated from the body. This is achieved by converting Ammonia into Uric acid and excreting as Urine. This taxes both our critical organs; kidney and liver. A leading cause for kidney and liver diseases in the civilized World.

Please watch the talk about dangers of excessive protein in the following video by Dr. Janice Stanger who is a Professor at the University of California, SanFrancisco (UCSF).

••• FOOD MYTHS •••

As we grow from a 2 year old child who has just been weaned, we are exposed to foods that our parents and/or grand parents thought was healthy. The information they inherited from their parents or acquired through education or through media or through interactions with their doctors. The doctors in their education learn a lot about diseases and medicines but are not taught much about nutrition. In US, medical college provides less than few hours of lectures on the subject of nutrition. The result is often blind leading a blind.

There are many myths about nutrition and there are lot of vested interests in propagating these myths.
Some common myths about food are :

1. Everything in moderation is good.
2. You can wait to change your diet.
3. Exercise can make up for unhealthy diet.
4. A little bit can’t hurt.
5. If a little is good, more is better.
6. One should eat more protein. Protein builds muscles.
7. Carbs are fattening. Low carb diets are healthy.
8. Carbs raise insulin level while protein lowers it.
9. Cow’s Milk is the best source of Calcium.
10. Calcium is what makes your bones strong.
11. You need to eat meat for iron.
12. Chicken is healthier than Beef or mutton meat.
13. Fish have good fat. Fish or fish oil is your best source for Omega-3.
14. Grilling Animal food makes them healthy.
15. A glass of Red Wine is good for you.
16. Artificial sweeteners are good for diabetics and overweight people.
17. We should dissect our food into protein, fat, carbs, vitamins and minerals and monitor their consumption.

Please watch UCSF Professor Dr. Janice Stanger’s Utube video on the subject.

Health and Reversing Lifestyle Disease to Get Off Medications6/2/2020

Lalit has many interests, namely Gita, Vegan cooking & Practice, Healthcare, Following Vegan Doctors and Indian Gurus, Started Several WhatsApp Groups, Lectures & Writing on these subjects. Some of his writing on WhatsApp are as follows:

Clear Health from NIH
 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

TESTIMONIALS

I am 73 years old and type 2 diabetic for 30+ years. I had triple bypass surgery on 16th October 2019. Started Rehab on 15th Nov in Berkeley for 4 months.

I joined this group on Feb 1 and started practice on Feb 3. Stopped drinking milk, started greens smoothie (kale, spinach, mixed greens, orange, apple etc); IF; continued Heartfulness.org meditation.

I have been taking 12 pills a day including metformin, glimepiride, levothyroxine, atrovastatin, metoprolol etc. I used to have shooting pain in my feet because of neuropathy.

Now I am free from all medicines, shooting pains and blood sugar is in acceptable limits.

Thanks to Hari Lamba Ji who connected me to this program and extremely grateful to Lalit M Kapoor Ji for establishing this program. This is a great service to tha society. Thanks and best regards. Som Soni

I read annual report of many it was quite encouraging. I was waiting for my test results which arrived today
I heard Lalit almost a year back when he addressed us in Delhi. I was not really convinced but his confidence was very motivating. I am diabetic and had CVD ( Cardio Vascular Desease) Hypothyroidism. I was consuming 1990 my Glucephase plus 7 other drugs to lower BP, to cut LDL, nitrate to address angina and 100 mcg eltroxin to address Hypothyroidism.

I am surrounded by Doctors in my family of most of specialities. To break their conviction was difficult. Though I started PBWF diet almost immediately after Delhi meeting. But IF was not acceptable especially my BMI was 23.
Still I was member of WhatsApp group encouraging reports of many and conviction of Lalit over powered. I started IF in May.

Today I am off Glucephase, my nitrate / day is halfed. BP medicine is out.
My blood parameters are below:
Total cholesterol 150
Triglycerides 69
HDL 73
VLDL 63
HbA2C 6.7
Createnine 0.86
SGOT 21
SGOT 24.
BP 132/67 pulse 63

All results are normal. I hope I am on track to lower even other medicines.

In about 3 months after starting PBWF ,I could get rid of

1.My medication for Hypertension from which I had been suffering for about 30 years.
2.Four tablets out of six that I had been taking for diabetes from which I had been suffering for the past 23 years.
I had been suffering from Asthma also for the past 23 years.To remain alright,I had to take a maintenance dose of two puffs of steroid per day.Whenever my condition deteriorated,I had to increase the no. of puffs to 4 ,6 or even 8 per day but thankfully,I never had to be hospitalised for this ailment.

Soon after starting PBWF,I realized that even when I forgot to take puffs,I didn't have much problem in walking, climbing stairs which was not the case earlier.So,I started decreasing the no of puffs slowly and gradually.

The good news is that now I don't have to take puff's ordinarily.I take one or two puffs only when Delhi's air quality is extremely bad and I have some breathing problem.

Such days are not more than 20 in a year.

I am a living testimony to what Lalit has stated above..

I break my fast at 12 pm with a glass of juice, followed by fruits at 1 pm , some salad at 2 pm and regular lunch at 2:30 pm..Green tea at 4 pm and a light dinner between 7-7:30 pm..We as family make it a point to have atleast one meal in a day together..

My fasting window is between 8pm to next day 12 pm..I try to walk 10000 steps during my fasting window between 4-7am followed by Yoga , Pranayam and Meditation..This way I have enough time to do what I want to during my fasting window..It reminds me of my school days ,when I used to get up at 4am , and study at while walking for 2-3 hrs on our terrace until it was time to go to school..Today I read or listen to WhatsApp messages while walking..And most of my WhatsApp messages are posted in the morning during my fasting window.. The morning time for me is the best time when I can work without any interruption and before our two very young grandsons get up and need attention..

The benefits I have derived from IF and following the above schedule are immense and for this *my whole family is thankful to Lalitji*

1. I am off all medication except for a few drops of Brimolol in my eyes for Glucoma..One year back I was on BP and cholestrol medication and my weight was 65 kgs..Today I am comfortable 54.4 kgs with BMI of 21 and my walking speed is almost 6 kms/ hr...I am the fastest walker in our condominium consisting of 5000 residents among the 60+ age group..I have a prize to prove that. So conclusion is that at 70+ ,I feel and walk like a 50+..

In my 70 years ,I had only one operation under general anaesthesia and that was when I had developed some strictures in my urethra ..During the operation a well known surgeon Dr NP Gupta Padma Bhushan and Chairman Urology Deptt Medanta Hospital who operated on me also cut a few blood veins near to my prostrate or supplying blood to the prostrate gland...And he charged extra for this additional surgery...Post operation He warned me that these strictures( they have stopped urine flow completely) may again come back and I must get urine flowmetery test done every month..This test measures the urine flow with time and charges are US$ 20 for such a simple test...I got hold of a 1 liter calibrated plastic mug and used to check average urine flow once a month or sometimes once a week..And thank God during the last 9 years after that lone surgery my urine flow rate has remained the same 600+ cc/ minute..

Why the above is important to narrate here is because of the *libido improvement* that I have noticed and experienced during the last 6 months after following the fasting regimen ( again thanks to Lalit) that I have described above...

Post prostrate gland operation ,I had developed retrograde ejaculation ,and that was some 9 years back..But its gone .. That's a wonder...Again thanks to Lalit...

PROGRESS NOTES FROM PBWF (PLANT-BASED WHOLE FOOD)

PART I. My Condition

On Nov 13, 2018, my hba1C was 10.9. I was taking 2000 mg of metformin and 40 mg of Glipizide and 10 units of insulin, just to maintain the hba1C at this very high value. The road ahead was quite clear, and it was not good, and it was cause for some despair.

I always thought we generally ate "healthy." We don't have very active social lives that involve Indian parties with heavy meals, we do the usual eating plenty of leafy greens, eat brown rice or whole wheat flour-based products, we don't remember when we last touched ghee or butter, for at least the past ten years, yogurt and milk were always low fat or skim, a meal included no more than 2 rotis (phulka, with no oil or ghee) or its equivalent in brown rice, and so on. I have never smoked in my life, and I don't drink much. I never drink at home, and never have any alcohol at home. The only times I drink is at an official dinner, banquet, etc., or a conference with professional colleagues. I have rarely had a "guys night out" to go drink. Even on occasions when I drink, it is beer, and if good quality beer is unavailable, I don't drink. Once in a while, I have some red wine at these official dinners. It has also been about 25 years since I had any coke or such soft drink, with sugar or with fake sugar. And whether it is tea or coffee, it has been over ten years since I added any sugar to it, and if I added milk, it was very little. I never liked milky sweet coffee or tea.

This was the most frustrating aspect of my condition because I was "doing all the right things." The only explanation I could give for my fast deteriorating condition was that I was never really able to maintain a regular exercise regimen. But it seemed almost cruel that this one thing led to a condition that was worsening month by month, with no abatement in sight. The other thing I could attribute it to was a family history. There has been a family history of both diabetes and heart issues on both sides of my family. So, I was resigned to blaming my genes for it and viewed diabetes as an inevitable condition over which I would never have any control.

I never tried any fad diets, weight watchers, paleo, keto, stuff your face with ghee or bacon diet, and so on. I am not that stupid. I would never have tried anything of that nature even if my diabetes kept worsening.

[10:10 AM, 8/4/2019] Lalit Kapoor: PART 2. Enter Lalit

In our WhatsApp group of 1977-82 IIT graduates, it was mentioned by Saurabh Anand Prakash that there was this guy Lalit who had started a health group and he came across as very serious, not biased, not peddling anything, no-nonsense, and no crazy crap miracle cures. He had met this Lalit in Delhi and was impressed with the no-nonsense approach, and the significant changes he had been able to bring about in various IIT graduates and their families already through simple lifestyle changes. It still seemed too good to be true, and I have a congenital aversion to babas, sadhus, swamis, miracle cures, magic pills, etc.

But the stars seemed to have aligned, and I had only recently resigned myself to a monotonous deterioration of my condition, which as time progressed, would start having ugly manifestations such as sores in feet, blindness, amputation, insulin pumps, etc.

So, I decided that I waste so much time on bak bak WhatsApp groups, what the hell, I will join that group and see what the fuss is about, fully expecting to leave the group in a week or two.

Well, I am still here!
I listened to what was going on and decided to try out PBWF. Bought a Nutribullet blender, and started blending veggies on Feb 15. I also cut out all dairy and eggs. I was never a meat eater anyway. These changes were no big deal for me. I am not a typical south Indian who must have curd rice to think that the meal is complete. So, this was an easy set of changes to make. And I very quickly adopted Lalit's recipe for oatmeal with some minor modifications. I have been used to eating oatmeal for years anyway, so again, this was no real change.

The biggest shock was that within about three days, my glucose levels started going down. It was insane. How could these small changes show such an effect when such powerful drugs and insulin had met their match in my diabetes? The only thing I could attribute it to was cutting out dairy and eggs. This, on the surface, does not seem to be the kind of change that would yield such dividends. But I was simultaneously reading the China Study book, which I think is one of the top ten most important books I have read in my life. And I watched many of the movies Lalit recommended, in addition to watching little video clips by some of the doctors Lalit follows. It all started making sense, and to a person with a science and engineering background like me, that mechanistic explanation from the China Study book and the other sources was essential. It made sense.

I kept at it and monitored my glucose levels carefully, poking myself about 4 times a day, drawing Excel graphs religiously, and charting the steady and relatively fast decline in numbers. At some point, I also got myself the Continuous Glucose Monitoring System, which has been an amazing tool to manage my condition. When the levels fell to a certain extent, I backed off on the medications, first getting rid of insulin, I think within about one month or starting PBWF. Then I backed off on the meds by 50%, all on my own, without consulting the doctor. I knew the doctor would not budge if I just showed up and asked for a lower dosage. Instead, I chose the approach of backing off on meds, and still showing low levels, and presenting that evidence to the doctor to leave him no choice but to reduce the dosage.

I continued with this low dosage, through a month-long trip to Japan, ten days in Italy, etc., sticking as closely as I could to the new diet in conditions not too conducive to such a diet.

Then about 2-3 weeks ago, I started incorporating 16/8 Intermittent Fasting into my routine, and it was not too difficult to do, even though I am an early riser who for most of his life has finished breakfast by about 6:30 AM. And this was the second big lever I was adding to the system. And it started showing a decrease in glucose levels again. Finally, about a week ago, I started incorporating exercise into the routine, essentially walking about 8000 steps on average per day, all during the fasting window. This again started decreasing the levels further.

[10:10 AM, 8/4/2019] Lalit Kapoor: PART 3. The latest Push

Then I decided to do something bold/foolhardy/risky. On Tuesday, Jul 30, I decided to try an experiment and suspended ALL medications, including the 1000 mg of metformin, the 20 mg of Glipizide, the statin and the ACE inhibitor Lisinopril. I wanted to see what that would do, whether my glucose levels would shoot up immediately, whether they would increase a bit, etc.

It has now been five full days since I have taken no meds (except for the B-12 and D supplements.) I am happy to report that my levels did not rise at all, maybe just a hair. Based on 7-day averages of the glucose levels from the CGM, July 28 and 29 equivalent hba1c values were 6.96, they rose to 7.34 on Aug 1, and are now (Aug 3) back to 7.1. Remember, this is with no medications. This is quite a pleasant development.

I am certainly not declaring victory, and constant vigilance, blood tests (scheduled for next week) and doctor consultation will all be in the mix. I am quite confident that I will be able to maintain the diet, and even Intermittent Fasting does not seem to challenge. My worry is whether I will stick to enough exercise to keep the levels low. That is where I will have to exercise will power. And I am hoping that the positive reinforcement of continued low glucose levels will keep me on the straight and narrow path. The longer I go, the easier it will get.

But already, this is a far cry from the full dose of meds plus insulin just to keep the hba1c below 11!

[10:10 AM, 8/4/2019] Lalit Kapoor: PART 4. Some Reflections.

I believe that the main cause of the improvement is that I am not punishing myself with animal products like dairy and eggs and keeping on scratching the scabs, as Lalit explained, but adding new doses of inflammation every day.
The stimulus to the body through bad and excessive food has decreased, so it is a smaller challenge to the body to handle it.

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, some actual repair has happened. It is not just that the stimulus is lower with a better diet, the diet has repaired and enhanced the body's capability to handle the stimulus. I think there is some rejuvenation of cells happening here.

The overall system has improved.

Also, the influx of fresh vegetables and fruits (over what I used to eat) has improved the body's capability to handle adverse situations. There is some cleansing that has happened.

Also, I am beginning to understand the influence of nebulous gut biome. I believe that the fiber intake (over and above what I used to ingest) is helping to refresh and diversify this essential source of the body's capabilities to fight danger.

I have said before that weight loss has not been one of my goals, but I have lost about 16 lbs. since I started on this path. I feel far more energetic, and my stamina has improved. I can walk all day on cobblestone streets of Europe in the blazing sun with a lot of humidity and can easily average 20,000-25,000 steps a day exploring those cities of Europe. I walk faster, my knee pain due to mild arthritis has gone away (I forgot to mention that I used to take glucosamine pills for about 12 years and I dropped that in March, and still no knee pain.) Arthritis is an inflammation caused condition, and this is one sure indicator that the inflammation has decreased. I am standing more erect, no stooping, etc.

Overall, some increase in self-esteem and a sense of greater control of myself has also been achieved. I am hoping that this continues, and I can say I have stopped all medications instead of suspended all medications. That day is not here yet, it is too early to declare that, but I hope I will be able to do so shortly. (Clearly, people like KNS and others in India whom I don't know have been far stricter and more disciplined about all this, and have achieved even more drastic results faster, but I am quite happy with what I have been able to do, without disrupting my professional and personal life too much.

Sincere thanks to Lalit for his selfless and untiring help and inspiration, and to all of you for being such a good support group.

Written Lectures
Table of Contents

Herbs & Spices
Kidney Disease
Type 1 Diabetes
Arthritis
Cardiovascular Disease (CVD)

Osteoporosis
Sugar: The Bitter Truth
Metabolic Syndrome
Diet of Indian Gurus
Placebo & Nocebo
Ancel Keys & The 7 Country Study
Here is the issue of TIME I am referring to.
FATS Omega 3 & 6 ALA, DHA, EPA
Meal Timing
Aging & Anti Aging
Hypertension (1)
Aggressive vs Moderate Approach to Treatment
Hypertension (2)
Vitamin-C vs Ascorbic Acid
Emotional & Spiritual Health
Dry Fasting: A Russian Experiment
Reverse Chronic Diseases - NO SUGAR
GRAS & CRISCO
Major Sources of Toxins
Modern vs. Alternate - How Medicine Changed
Intermittent Fasting
Green Juicing
Fresh vs. Frozen
Organic vs. Non-Organic
Fiber as Nutrient
Nutrients We Need
Diet & Lifestyle Guidelines
Protein Myth.
FOOD MYTHS
Five Pillars of Health
Eating at Different Times of The Day
STROKE & Cerebrovascular Diseases
Wheat in itself is very healthy.
Weekly Synopsis-wk2
Emotional & Spiritual Health
Physical Activity
Therapeutic Fast (2)

•••• Herbs & Spices ••••

Human body is made up of over 10 trillion cells. Cells are the fundamental building blocks of all organisms. A cell consists of a cell membrane, nucleus and the rest of the stuff inside called cytoplasm. The cell membrane which is made of cholesterol, separates the cytoplasm and nucleus from its external environment. The external environment contains the nutrients that the circulating blood provides every second. Our heart beats once each second bringing fresh nutrients to every cell. After nutrients penetrate the cell membrane, they are metabolized and turned into energy that fuels the cell’s life functions. The by-products of this metabolic activity are waste that needs to be removed from the cell through the same cell membrane. Some of this waste is collected by the lymphatic fluids in our body which flow through a complex web of vessels kind of like blood vessels. I had discussed this in my post on the importance physical activity.

Some of the waste released by the cells is in the form of unstable atoms and molecules which are formed when they gain or loose electrons. These are called Free Radicals. These are very unstable; typically highly reactive and short-lived. They are capable of damaging the surrounding cells if not removed quickly. The Lymphatic system is not suitable for removal of this kind of waste. To handle this problem body utilizes a mechanism that neutralizes these free radicals right then and there. Certain nutrients in our food have this capability and these are called Antioxidants.

When the cell’s environment, which is the blood supplied by the heart every second, is rich in antioxidants the free radicals released by the cell are immediately neutralized before they can cause any damage to the adjoining cells.
One criteria by which one measures this antioxidant capacity of the food is called Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity or ORAC Value.

Their are certain foods which are extremely high in ORAC value. These are known as super foods. They do not have much food value in terms of calories but when combined with typical food they add lot of nutritious value to the meal. Herbs and spices fall into this category and that is why I recommend them strongly. Besides adding antioxidant value to the meal, they are also rich in trace minerals. By adding herbs and spices to a meal one improves the nutrition value of the meal. Many Indian spices have some of the highest ORAC values. Some examples: Clove (314,446), Cinnamon (267,537), Turmeric (102,700), Cumin (76,800), Tulsi (67,553), Ginger (28,811)

A typical person who consume an average of about 2,000 calories a day needs at least 8,800 ORAC value per day. Of course this number would depend upon what kind of food you eat. Non vegetarian food has a higher free radicals activity than vegetarian food. But many will be surprised to find that food they thought was healthy and sufficient doesn’t offer enough ORAC value. The following videos by Dr. Greger discusses this in detail and also provide the various research findings on the subject.

••• KIDNEY DISEASE •••

When you Google Chronic Kidney Diseases you will find many articles which all imply that CKD has many causes like

* High BP
* Diabetes
* Obesity
* Hear Disease
* Other CVDs

None of them tell you the true cause. Kidney disease is caused by the same foods that cause the above diseases and it is often made verse by the medications that you take to cure the above diseases. If instead of medication you cured your above diseases by diet modification, you are not likely to develop kidney disease. The research clearly shows that animal protein, animal fat and cholesterol are highly implicated with the decline in kidney health.

Human body has a preference for conserving protein and as a result very little new protein is required each day. Due to the protein myth we consume excessive protein and all extra protein we consume has to be converted into fat by removing the nitrogen from the protein. (except for nitrogen element, the protein, fat and carbohydrates are all nothing but a combination of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen). This nitrogen combines with hydrogen to form ammonia (NH3) which is very toxic and needs to be removed from the body quickly. This is achieved by converting that ammonia into uric acid (C5H4N4O3) and filtered into urine and peed out. There is no association between kidney function decline and intake of protein or fat from plant based sources.

The data indicates that in US less than 50% of all adults have normal kidney function and over 50% are likely to develop CKD during their lifetime.

Kidney’s main function is to filter blood of toxins and waste products and it achieves that by filtering blood. Kidneys auxiliary function is to maintain electrolyte balance, fluid balance and acetate balance.

A healthy kidney filters 6 liters of blood every hour removing 60 ml. of urine. When kidney fails one has to go on dialysis which is one of the fastest growing industry today. You see dialysis centers popping up on every corner shopping strip mall. One of the leading cause of of this growth is our obsession with the protein consumption as we saw in Dr. Janice Stanger’s discussion on protein in her video “Dangerous Truth about Protein”. The second problem is our over reliance on medications. All medications are toxic and require to be processed in the liver and kidney to achieve their desired effect.

The rate of filtration by the kidney is called Glomerulas Filtration Rate (GFR) which is about 6 liters per hour. When kidney is damaged it is not able to filter at the full rate. This decline is classified into
several stages of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

Stage1: GFR 90-100%
Stage 2: GFR 60-89%
Stage 3: GFR 30-59%
Stage 4: GFR 15-29%
-Fluid begins to accumulate
-Need to limit phosphorus, potassium and sodium.
Stage 5: Nausea, Vomiting, Swelling and Bloating. Almost no urine production.

Since kidney damage is caused by toxic exposure from processed foods, animal foods, alcohol, tobacco and drugs, it’s cure is simply to stop consumption of these foods and substances. and restore normal function.
Kidney cleanse is also very beneficial and should be practiced by doing water fasting weekly or bimonthly.

There are certain habits which hurt our kidneys and should be corrected or modified early in life and definitely after diagnosis:
1. Not drinking enough water
2. Delaying going to bathroom
3. Too much salt in our diet
4. Eating high animal protein diet
5. Lack of sleep
6. Using painkiller medications
7. Excessive caffeine intake
8. Alcohol consumption
9. Smoking

Kidney Stones:
The other problem associated with Kidneys is kidney stones.
Most kidney stones consist of Calcium Oxalate. People who are predisposed to kidney stones are born with higher Intestinal Oxalate absorption; so called super absorbers (a condition called Hyperoxiluria).
Spinach, Swiss Chard and Beetroot Greens are very rich in Oxalates and should be avoided by those who have advanced stage CKD (stage 4). These patients should also avoid excessive consumption of almonds and cashews.

Dietary Restraints:
Many doctors advise kidney patients to consume animal food and avoid foods rich in potassium and phosphates. They advise against consumption of green leafy vegetables and many fruits. They also advise patients to manage their other conditions like Hypertension, Diabetes, Cholesterol and Heart Disease by aggressive medication. This is somewhat flawed because of two reasons:

(1) fruits and green leafy vegetables help mitigate other diseases and
(2) the medications taken to manage other diseases are much more harmful to kidney than a little bit of sodium, potassium or phosphates in fresh fruits and vegetables. Please watch Dr. Greger’s video on the subject

••• Type-1 Diabetes •••

I have not discussed much about type-1 diabetes except the fact that it is caused by auto immune disfunction. We all know that the food after digestion is absorbed by the body and goes first to the liver where it metabolizes. The protein consumed is converted into amino acids and sent in the blood to all parts of the body. Cells in various parts of the body use these amino acids to replicate themselves.

Some children who are fed cows milk face a situation where the milk protein breaches the gut lining (leaky gut) and enters the blood stream directly before being converted to amino acids. The body perceives these protein cells as a threat and builds anti bodies to kill these foreign proteins. The structure of some of the proteins in the milk is very similar to beta cells in pancreas. The anti bodies produced by the body to kill milk protein cells, confuses these beta cells also into foreign cells and attacks them and kills them. This affects the pancreas ability to produce insulin. This condition is called diabetes type-1.

I have not come across studies that show that this condition can be cured. But I do know that plant based whole food combined with intermittent fasting can reduce the requirement of insulin greatly (less than one fourth) and thereby also reducing the risk of hypoglycemia.

There is also some evidence that suggests that prolonged fasting can help rebuild beta cells in pancreas. Prolonged fasting increases the stem cells in the body and these stimulate the production of new cells. It is called Pancreatic Regeneration. It is one of the most contentious topics in modern biology. More research is needed in this area.
Dr. Valter Longo of University of Southern California is doing research in this field.

••••• ARTHRITIS •••••

Studies have shown that over 70% of the people over age 65 suffer from Degenerative or Osteoarthritis. It is commonly believed that it is normal part of growing old. This is an incorrect understanding. In today’s world where we do very little physical labor compared to 100 years ago why should we suffer from arthritis of wear and tear when people in rural Africa, Asia, South America and also around the world in many blue zones are living a healthy active life late into their 70s, 80s and 90s.

Inflammatory Arthritis is a modern disease. There was not a single case of Rheumatoid arthritis in Africa till 1957.

When we consume food rich in oil or cholesterol, the internal lining in our intestines gets damaged and the food leeks into the gut (leaky gut). The leakage of foreign protein (Wheat, Barley, Rye, dairy or animal protein ) in the gut leads body’s defense mechanism to produce in antibodies which are specifically directed to the foreign proteins. However if certain human proteins in the body resemble this foreign protein, the antibodies attack those also and this leads to many Auto Immune Diseases. This process is called molecular mimicry. Rheumatoid arthritis is one of them which is caused by the cow’s milk. The cow’s milk protein is very similar in structure to the human protein in cartilage between the joints. As a result the anti bodies formed in the human body to attack the leaked cow’s protein start to attack the cartilage causing inflammation and pain in joints. Please watch Dr.John McDougall’s talks on the subject.

••••••• CVD •••••••
Cardiovascular Disease

Cardiovascular Disease is the leading cause of death globally, killing over 18 million people annually. Cardiovascular Disease is a generic name for following conditions:

1. Hypertension
2. Coronary Artery Disease (Heart Disease).
3. Congestive Heart Failure
4. Stroke
5. Peripheral Artery Disease
6. Arrhythmia
7. Cardiac Arrest
8. Congenital Heart Disease

Of these with the exception of the congenital heart disease, all others are caused by diet and lifestyle. The first five are caused by the plaque buildup in the blood vessel walls through a process called atherosclerosis. Cardiac arrest and Arrhythmia are caused by malfunctioning of electrical impulses.

When coronary arteries get blocked not enough blood is available to heart muscles and the heart is not able to pump enough blood. This is called coronary artery disease. When the plaque ruptures and clogs the artery it is called heart attack. When heart stops beating altogether, it is called cardiac arrest.

In my post on Hypertension I had discussed how once a child is weaned of mother’s milk the inflammatory food he is fed begins to cause atherosclerosis. Autopsy of many young soldiers during Vietnam war showed that the clogging of arteries was already quite advanced by the time they reached age 18.

The internal lining of blood vessels is made of endothelial cells and the total surface area of all 70,000 miles of blood vessels lining is over 6-8 tennis courts in size. Together this (internal lining) is called the endothelium and constitutes the largest organ in the human body.

Every cell in the body needs nutrition and oxygen and this is provided every second by the blood, pumped by the heart. These endothelial cells have a unique property of releasing Nitric oxide gas and this makes the blood flow smoothly through the blood vessels. When a plaque is formed on this surface it reduces the area of nitric oxide release. As a result there is double whammy; not only the effective opening is reduced in size reducing blood flow, the surface available to release nitric oxide is reduced increasing friction. So the reduced opening and higher friction makes the heart pump harder and reduces the blood supply.

To cure this problem one needs to do two things:

1. Stop hurting the endothelium (atherosclerosis) more by stopping the consumption of inflammatory foods.
2. Increase consumption of anti inflammatory foods; specially those foods that release nitric oxide. All green leafy vegetables have nitrates in them which release nitric oxide. This helps by not only making blood flow smoother, it also removes the plaque already existing. This was first demonstrated by two doctors independently in 1980s; Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn of Cleveland clinic and Dr.Dean Ornish of UCSF.

Dr. Esselstyn covers this subject well in the documentary “ Forks over Knives”. Out of 199 patients Dr. Esselstyn treated, 198 survived for many years and many are still alive today. All these patients were severely ill with multiple heart events in the prior years. Except one (who did not follow the instructions) none had any heart event following dietary changes. Bill Clinton became his patient after going through a quadruple by pass surgery in 2004 and three stents in 2008. He was advised another bypass surgery in 2010 but Dr. Dean Ornish, a personal friend of his, advised against it and asked him to follow Dr. Esselstyn.

After many years of efforts, Dr. Dean Ornish succeeded in persuading the medical insurance companies including Medicare (offered to all US senior citizens) to agree to pay for diet and lifestyle change program for cardiovascular patients. His program includes yoga and meditation.
Please watch the following videos on the subject.

I think for children a 12 hour eating window should be a good practice. Considering that they have to go to school early, one can keep a 7:00AM to 7:00 PM schedule. The adults can delay breakfast and have dinner at 7:00PM with children. It is common in US to finish dinner by 7:00 PM.

It is a good idea to let them participate in some religious 24 hour fasts also.

Our IIT schedule can also be brought in line to within 12 hour eating window.

We as a family have cut down dinner parties and prefer to host lunches more. It also avoids serving alcohol. However the debate continues, as to should one serve guests food that guests like knowing very well how unhealthy it is. Papli has started making some exotic vegan dishes that are within a budget of 2 tsp ghee/oil.

Fortunately in US the restaurants open for dinner at 5:30 and close by 9:00. In India this is a problem and requires a social change.

•• OSTEOPOROSIS ••

Osteoporosis is weakening of bones as we age and is more common among post menopausal women in White and Asian communities. It worsens with age and can result in multiple fractures. It is more common among thin, petite women and also dependent on family history.

Women generally loose 1% of bone mass each year after menopause.

There are many risk factors that can lead to bone loss and osteoporosis; some, like gender, ethnicity, body size and age are out of one’s control but others are reflective of one’s diet and lifestyle and can be modified at any age.
One common myth about osteoporosis is that, one is not getting enough calcium in diet. The second myth is that milk is the best source of calcium. Both of which are untrue.

1.The bones do not become strong by eating calcium. Calcium is actually very brittle as any body who has ever used a chalk to write on a black board would know. Bones are made of collagen which are fibrous proteins comprising a honeycomb structure, and an inorganic bone mineral in the form of small crystals. The strength in bones comes from putting stress on this honeycomb structure which we do when we exercise. The more stress we put on the bones the stronger they get.

2.Milk is not a good source of calcium. On the contrary milk is acidic in nature like all animal foods and causes acidosis. To neutralize this acid the calcium in the body is utilized and this leads to depletion of calcium. Osteoporosis is most common among the countries that consume most dairy. These include US, Canada, Denmark and Sweden.

3.In addition to macro minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium which have well-known roles in bone health, trace elements such as boron, iron, zinc, copper, and selenium also impact bone metabolism. These are often neglected in diet and specially among vegetarians who do not consume enough leafy green vegetables, nuts and seeds. Green leafy vegetables, berries, prunes and nuts & seeds are the best sources of trace minerals. One should also replace manufactured salt with natural rock salts like Himalayan salt which is rich in trace minerals.

4.Other factors that contribute to osteoporosis are:

- Consumption of calcium is not enough because everything we consume doesn’t necessarily get absorbed in the blood. Vitamin D-3 plays an important role in absorption of calcium into blood. Lack of vitamin D-3 obtained through sun exposure can contribute to osteoporosis. Taking vitamin D-3 as supplements is not without controversy and jury may still be out.

- Lack of vitamin K-2. Consuming calcium and absorbing it into blood is not enough. It can cause harm if absorbed in heart muscles or blood vessels. Vitamin K-2 is critical as it directs calcium into bones. The richest source of vitamin K is in green leafy vegetables and bacteria in our gut convert that to vitamin K-2.

- Excessive consumption of Sodium found in processed and prepared frozen foods.
- Consumption of diet Colas and tea and coffee with sugar substitutes are also associated with osteoporosis.
- Consumption of medications
- Consumption of alcohol and smoking.

Here are some videos worth watching that deal with the subject.
••• OSTEOPOROSIS •••

Osteoporosis is weakening of bones as we age and is more common among post menopausal women in White and Asian communities. It worsens with age and can result in multiple fractures. It is more common among thin, petite women and also dependent on family history.

There are many risk factors that can lead to bone loss and osteoporosis; some, like gender, ethnicity, body size and age are out of one’s control but others are reflective of one’s diet and lifestyle and can be modified at any age.
One common myth about osteoporosis is that, one is not getting enough calcium in diet. The second myth is that milk is the best source of calcium. Both of which are untrue.

1.The bones do not become strong by eating calcium. Calcium is actually very brittle as any body who has ever used a chalk to write on a black board would know. Bones are made of collagen which are fibrous proteins comprising a honeycomb structure, and an inorganic bone mineral in the form of small crystals. The strength in bones comes from putting stress on this honeycomb structure which we do when we exercise. The more stress we put on the bones the stronger they get.

2.Milk is not a good source of calcium. On the contrary milk is acidic in nature like all animal foods and causes acidosis. To neutralize this acid the calcium in the body is utilized and this leads to depletion of calcium. Osteoporosis is most common among the countries that consume most dairy. These include US, Canada, Denmark and Sweden.

3.In addition to macro minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium which have well-known roles in bone health, trace elements such as boron, iron, zinc, copper, and selenium also impact bone metabolism. These are often neglected in diet and specially among vegetarians who do not consume enough green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds. Green leafy vegetables, berries and nuts & seeds are the best sources of trace minerals. One should also replace manufactured salt with natural rock salts like Himalayan salt which is rich in trace minerals.

4.Other factors that contribute to osteoporosis are:

- lack of vitamin D-3 obtained through sun exposure. Taking vitamin D-3 as supplements is not without controversy and jury may still be out.
- consumption of medications
- Consumption of alcohol and smoking.
Here are some videos worth watching that deal with the subject.

•Sugar: The Bitter Truth•

“The last 50 years of nutrition information in America is a big fraud and that is why diabetes has continued to increase.”

This is a statement by Dr. Robert Lustig who teaches medical students at University of California at San Francisco with reference to impact of refined sugar on Coronary Heart Diseases (CHD).

Dr. Lustig’s YouTube video “Sugar: The Bitter Truth” released in 2011 went viral with over 10million viewings. He collaborated with Katie Couric of CBS to make the documentary “Fed Up” in 2014, which I strongly recommend.

When a sugar molecule binds to a fat or protein molecule, it is called glycation. When we roast food at high temperatures it turns reddish brown quickly. The same phenomenon (glycation) happens in our body at 98.6 degrees, slowly over long periods and leads to aging. When we eat sugar or fructose in refined form without the fibers it results in rapid glycation. The faster you brown the quicker you die.

Sugar molecules when combined with oxygen produce energy and release an oxygen element which leads to oxidative stress. This oxygen element is neutralized by antioxidants in our food.

The glucose structure is mostly in the ring form and thereby very stable but fructose structure has more linear form and therefore less stable. As a result the fructose gets glycated at a much more rapid rate (seven times more) than glucose. This is why processed foods and sugary sodas which use high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to sweeten foods and drinks are more harmful than sugar. Added sugar is also harmful but sugar and fructosein natural food form are not harmful.

Dr. Lustig’s main hypothesis is that sugar when consumed as added sugar (instead of natural sugar in food) is responsible for diabetes, high cholesterol and heart diseases. He demonstrates that the same amount of calories when consumed in sugary soda are responsible for 11 fold increase in diabetes. He also demonstrates that refined sugar and HFCS consumption is responsible for liver fat.

Dr. Lustig explains that there are three metabolic syndromes
1. Subcutaneous Fat: this is the fat under the skin. This is called the “bucket” hypothesis meaning when we eat more than what we spend the extra calories are stored as fat.
2. Visceral Fat: this a fat inside the body that surrounds the vital organs. When we are under stress and depression this results.
3. Liver Fat: this is known as the non alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Please watch the two videos linked below if you are interested in knowing more technical details. They both are rather long and not a required viewing.

•• Metabolic Syndrome ••

Metabolic Syndrome is a condition that represents one’s state of health based on five markers. These are :
1. Waist (abdomen) size more than half of one’s height.
2. Blood pressure over 130/85.
3. Triglycerides over 150.
4. HDL cholesterol under 40.
5. Fasting glucose over 100.

When one has three of the above five conditions he is referred to as having Metabolic Syndrome. When one does not have any of these conditions, he is generally in good health.

So far what I have said is well recognized and established. What is not recognized is that each of the above five conditions is caused by resistance to insulin.

1. As fasting insulin levels rise the body mass index also rises. The presence of insulin restricts body from burning fat. Glucose is stored in the liver as Glycogen which when combined with fatty acids makes triglycerides; which is stored in fat cells. The reverse of this process is utilized when body runs out of glucose. However presence of insulin doesn’t allow this to happen and body is unable to burn fat.

2. Insulin stimulates kidneys to retain salt which increases fluid volume in blood and thereby increasing BP.

3. Human liver can store glycogen only up-to 100 grams. After that liver goes through a process called De Novo Lipogenesis which means formation of new fat. Three molecules of fatty acids combine with one molecule of glycogen to form triglycerides. That increases the level of triglycerides in blood.

4. Increase in triglycerides also leads to reduction in High Density Lipoproteins (HDLs).

5. Insulin resistance reduces body.’s ability to store sugar in muscle cells, liver cells and in fat cells as triglycerides This gives rise to higher sugar levels in blood. Which results in diabetes.

So the main cause of metabolic syndrome is insulin insensitivity.

Reduced sensitivity results from two causes; (1) over consumption of refined carbs and (2) prolonged consumption of carbs. Long eating window from 7:00 AM to 11:00PM of 16 hours keeps the presence of insulin in the body longer, making the body less sensitive to insulin.

•• Diet of Indian Gurus ••

In all my health groups, at some point or other a discussion about the merits of our rich cultural heritage of yoga, pranayama and meditation comes up. Add to that the undisputed nutritional richness of our spices. One would expect that our yoga and spiritual masters must have lived a long and healthy life. Generally this discussion comes up on account of my criticism of dairy and ghee. So I decided to research the life of yoga masters of the last 150 years and found that, of the sixteen masters, the life span ranged from 39 to 100 years. The average life span was 78 years and the median was 77.5 years. Even if we exclude the two extremes, for the remaining 14 the average was 79.2 years.

Here is the raw data. I was fortunate to be blessed by three of them and I have cooked for two of them many meals.

1.Mahavtara Babaji: 74
2.Vivekananda: 39
3.Shivananda: 76
4.Ramana Maharshi: 71
5.Kuvalyananda: 82
6.T. Krishnamacharya100
7.ParmhansYogananda59
8.Anandmayi Ma: 86
9.Dhirendr Brahmchari70
10.Mahesh Yogi: 90
11.BKS Iyangar: 96
12.Patabhi Joyce: 94
13.TKV Desikachar: 78
14.Chinmayananda: 77
15.Swami Rama: 71
16.Dayanand Sarswati:85
——————————--
Total 1,248 : Avg. 78
——————————--

••• Placebo & Nocebo •••

We have known for some time that a patients belief in a certain medication or treatment plays an important role in his recovery. Many alternate forms of treatments practiced for centuries or even millenniums have produced surprising results. Even I have memories of visiting Hakims and Vaidyas 60+ years ago. Such care providers (incorrectly called doctors) always had good bedside manners and asked many questions as to what was your diet, how was your pea and poop, any aches or pains, color of tongue and eyes etc. . After thorough examination they gave a medication in small paper packages (pudia). They also prescribed some restrictions (parhej) on food; what to avoid and what to take while on that medication. In most cases the health improved within a week or two. Now the only thing that was not clear was: what healed the body?

1. Was it the medication or
2. Was it the changes in diet or
3. The body healed by itself or
4. The positive belief of the mind healed the body.

What I have learned from my PBWF doctors is that our body is a very sophisticated organism and it is always trying to heal itself. So most likely the body healed because of 1, 2,3 and 4 above but what was in that paper pudia was probably immaterial.

All drug trials for new drugs have to go through rigorous double blind studies where the test group is divided into two equal groups and one group is administered the actual drug being tested and the other group is given an inactive substance with no therapeutic value. Both the groups are told that they are receiving the drugs. Generally the patients in both groups see some benefits. For the drug to be approved the study needs to demonstrate that the group receiving the drug had statistically better results than the placebo group. These are called the double blind studies because neither the patient nor the doctor knows which group is getting real medication and which group is getting placebo.

Interestingly what we have learnt in recent years is that the reverse of placebo is also true called Nocebo; when we believe something bad is going to happen to us it often does.
In old Indian Puranic stories, there is often a reference to curse being put on someone. The principal by which this curse probably worked was same as what we call Nocebo effect. Please watch the linked videos below on the subject.

••• Ancel Keys & The 7 Country Study •••

Ancel Keys was a famous American physiologist who had formulated a balanced meal for combat soldiers called K-rations during second World War.

Ancel Keys hypothesized that dietary saturated fat causes heart attack. He had presented this diet-lipid-heart disease hypothesis in 1955 to the World Health Organization (WHO). He undertook a study popularly known as “Seven Country Study” which proved his hypothesis and it became the basis of US government’s recommendation to reduce fat consumption. This is what led to the proliferation of low fat foods beginning in 1960s. After his death in 2004 the data discovered from his house and lab showed that the the study was actually conducted in 22 countries and he had eliminated 15 countries to manipulate the data to prove his hypothesis. It is probably the biggest lie of the 20th sanctuary. It shows how researchers can stoop so low (to prove their hypothesis) for fame and money. His picture was printed on the cover of the TIME magazine.

️We have discussed how rich industries like Food, Pharma and Health Care influence the information that flows to us. Now let us talk about the Government and the Media.

In government I am talking about both the elected politicians and the administrative officials.

The politicians need money to win elections every 4-5 years and the money comes from rich industries so it is natural for them to support industry. This is achieved by the lobbyists working with the staff of politicians.

The administrative officials are also looking for their future after retirement and there are plenty of cushy jobs available within these industries to absorb them post retirement. As a result most (not all) senior administrative officials are happy to oblige the the lobbyists. All they need is some science to support their actions and as we saw in my earlier posts, it is easily provided to them by the researchers who more likely than not were funded by the industry.

Now let us look at Educational institutions where bulk of the research is done.

Just imagine you are applying for a PhD program at a leading university in USA, you need financial assistance. This assistance comes in the form of a research grant from, say, a soft drink manufacturer who is interested in undertaking a research to show that consumption of sugary sodas in moderation can be part of a balanced healthy diet.

The funding the company provides is on an annual basis. You opt to work on this project and by the end of one year you know if your conclusions are negative the research project may get cancelled and the funding may be terminated. You are careful in the choice of your words in the report you submit. The data we all know can be statistically manipulated to achieve the desired goal. No body has asked you to falsify the data and most likely you are not doing that (we will see later that even omitting some data can lead to false conclusions). So you prepare your report choosing your words carefully showing the affect of sugary soda in neutral enough fashion that it can be construed to be healthy. This research paper when published in a medical journal has a brief attached to it, because most doctors do not have time to read the whole paper so they only read the brief. The lobbyists are quite aware of that and they play a key role in choosing the words in the brief.

Now let us talk about the media or the medical journal. Any editor has multiple choices for the material for his next issue. He is free to chose any one of them. Now I want to explain that there is something called reprints of an article. If you like an article in a magazine say “TIME” and you want to get some reprints of that article, the magazine will be happy to provide those at a cost of something like 3-5 dollars each. The front page of the reprint will be the cover page of that issue of TIME but inside will be the article you have requested as reprint. It is a common practice.

Now if you are the editor and you are debating about which of the multiple articles on health you should pick for the next issue and the lobbyist for the Dairy industry suggests that if you print the one mentioning that butter is good for health he would be interested in getting 400,000 reprints. (He wants those reprints to hand out to all the doctors in the US ). What would you do as the chief editor of the TIME magazine? You will choose that article. That is almost one million dollars of extra income for your magazine. Your personal compensation has a profit sharing component so you may see an extra bonus of 50,000 for that month.

Please understand that in this whole example there is no conspiracy. No body is bribed. No body has broken any law. Every body’s conscience is clean but you the consumer is mislead. This happens all the time every day.

Here is the issue of TIME I am referring to.

It was cooked in pressure cooker. The dish is a dopyaza meaning it uses onions twice. First stir fry grated onions with Khada masala; cloves, cinnamon sticks,badi ilaychi, whole black peppers and bay leaves in ghee then one by one add ginger, garlic paste while stirring constantly. Now add whole potatoes (make sure you have punched some wholes in them with a fork), whole onions and garlic cloves, keep stirring for few more minutes. Now add ground masalas mixed separately in 1/2 cup of water: Haldi, Dhania, red peppers; keep stirring. Add tomato paste or purée and finely chopped heirloom tomatoes. Add another 1/2 cup water and salt, put cauliflower in the middle pour gravy with a spoon to cover cauliflower. Pressure cook to two whistles.

Prepare white khichri separately (thick consistency). Serve cauliflower on a bed of khichri.

•• FATS Omega 3 & 6 ••
ALA, DHA, EPA

Human body is good at converting all excess calories we consume into fat. Fat is a way for body to store enerhgy during periods of feasts so that we would have it available during periods of famine. Fat is found in all plant based foods. So consumption of 10-15% of total daily calories as fat is more than sufficient. There are three types of fats;

1. Saturated Fats: All animal fats are saturated fats. Among plants, coconut and palm kernel are good examples.
2. Mono Unsaturated Fats: these are found in nuts, avocados, olives and mustard seeds
3. Polyunsaturated Fats: Omega-3 found in dark leafy greens, walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds and Omega-6 found in corn oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil and cotton seed oil etc.

Of all these fats there are only two fatty acids that our body can not make and they therefore are known as essential fatty acids. These are Omega-3 and Omega-6 and they need to be consumed daily. Besides these there really isn’t any essential fat.

Omega fats are of three types; ALA, DHA and EPA. Plants are rich in ALA; animal food and specially fish is rich in DHA and EPA.

Human body can convert ALA into DHA and EPA. Food sources like Flaxseed, Chiaseed, Walnuts etc. are good sources of Omega-3 and provide plenty of ALA.

A question sometimes raised is that based on some studies it appears that this conversion by human body may not be sufficient and therefore DHA & EPA supplements should be taken regularly. Dr. Greger who reviews all medical and nutritional research papers has discussed this subject in great detail. I want to state that I do not agree with this argument for following reasons:

1. My whole premise about nutrition and health is that human body evolved over millions of years and knows how to handle food as long as we feed it natural food in whole form. Based on this rational I say that food supplements are not required and are often more harmful than helpful. The only exception Vitamin B-12 is because of chlorination of water in municipal supply which eliminates vitamin B-12. The argument that human body can not make enough DHA and EPA is inconsistent with this premise.

2. There are many Giants in the field of PBWF and they do not always agree on some issues. Under those situations I have to make a call and pick one view over the other. I had discussed the issue of DHA and EPA with Dr. Collin Campbell and Dr. John McDougall three years ago and they both feel against taking these supplements. I quote below Dr. Collin Campbell.

“If I must answer the DHA question, I would only say that we can get plenty of that type of chemical from the consumption of the omega-3 fatty acids that are found in certain plants–certain nuts, flaxseed, etc. Indeed, it also is related to a dietary balance of omega-3 to omega-6 fatty acids and this balance can be readily met with a good quality diet of wholesome vegetables, fruits, grains and nuts.”

Please read the two articles posted below by these two doctors.

The question Azhar has asked is at a level of complexity that I generally avoid getting deeper into in such groups. Of all recommendations I make a WHY question can be asked and to every answer another WHY can be asked. The answers keep getting more technical and complicated from a level of educated consumers as we are to a college student of nutrition to a masters student to a PhD scholar in micro biology to a post doctoral to a Nobel Prize winner.

In the movie Forks over Knives Dr. Collin Campbell states clearly that it is flawed to dissect food into its nutrients and focus on isolated nutrients. This is because all nutrients in the food work like various instruments in a symphony. However this recommendation is at odds with the “Food Supplements” industry which is a 125 billion dollar industry and growing at the rate of 8% per year. They can’t let their business stop growing. As we will see later in my future posts, food and supplements industries are funding more and more research to create a confusion in the minds of consumers.

Research so funded tries to make a case why plant based food is not complete and why one needs to take supplements.

The processed food industry keeps removing fiber and nutrients from their foods to increase shelf life. This makes people ill and they go to doctors who prescribe them medicines as they have been taught in medical colleges. These medicines make people more sick with side effects and food supplements industry is quick to oblige.

The question Azhar is asking one such result. There is some research that suggests that Omega-3 found in vegetable sources is not good enough and must be supplemented either by eating animal food or by taking supplements. Here is my response to that argument.

• Diabetes cutoff point •
An example of how greed influences treatment of our chronic diseases.

In 1997, the Expert Committee on the Diagnosis and Classification of Diabetes Mellitus, established the cutoff point for diagnosing diabetes and it was lowered to fasting plasma glucose (FPG) of 126 mg per dl (7.0 mmole per L).
Fasting glucose in the range 110-125 was classified as prediabetic (further lowered to 100-125 since). Prior to 1997 the cutoff for diabetes was 140.

This one change doubled the number of diabetic patients overnight also doubling the income for diabetes doctors, endocrinologists and Pharma companies.

Some of the doctors that I consider as my teachers like Dr. John McDougall had questioned the efficacy of this move and had been fighting the ADA treatment guidelines. The American College of Physicians (ACP) which is a much larger forum of doctors than ADA (American Diabetes Association) or AACE (American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists), finally conceded in March 2018 and recommended revised guidelines for treatment. However the doctor, most of you, who are diabetic, visit for your treatment is either a member of ADA or AACE, so it is easy for him to refute ACP recommendations by simply saying that they are not governed by those guidelines.
This is a subject I have been pushing hard repeatedly in this group.

I am attaching a link to an article that was published at the time two decades ago. I hope those of you who are still not convinced and unable to contradict your doctor will read this.

••••• Meal Timing •••••

The time at which we consume food, plays a role more important than we would otherwise imagine. The food we eat in the morning is less likely to be converted into fat than the food consumed at night. Human body has over 40 trillion cells and these work on a circadian clock. Because during day time our body is physically more active it has evolved to keep more food in sugar form during daytime. All excess calories always get converted into fat as that is our way of storing energy for occasional periods of famine which were quite frequent thousands of years ago.

In today’s society we rarely experience famine.

The latest research published in 2017 has shown that meal timing and frequency are associated with changes in Body Mass Index. Please watch the linked video below.

••• Aging & Anti Aging •••

I want to cover the subject of Aging and what latest research findings are on the subject. Every cell in human body has a nucleus and inside that nucleus we have chromosomes which have the genetic code. Each end of these chromosomes has a tail called Telomeres. As human cells split and create new cells the telomere’s length shrinks. Also oxidative stress reduces telomere length. When a conception takes place the telomere length is 15,000 base units. By the time a child is born the telomere length reduces to 10,000 base units. As the child grows and more cells are reproduced the telomere length reduces and when it reaches 5,000 base units we die. Every unhealthy action we expose our body to, the telomeres get chopped down and our biological age advances. Smoking, drugs, alcohol, sugar, junk food etc. etc. is affecting the telomeres in our body reducing their length and advancing our biological age. By testing we can determine the length of an individual’s telomeres and thereby determine his biological age. Biological age is obviously different from chronological age and may be more or less, depending upon the individual’s lifestyle.

Recent research has shown that it is possible to lengthen the telomeres by changing lifestyle and thereby reducing your biological age.

It won’t be incorrect to say that everything we have been discussing in this group from day one is about increasing your telomeres. If there is a single measure of good health it is your biological age. Here are some videos explaining the concept and anti aging findings.

••• Hypertension (1) ••••

The Human body has over 70,000 miles of blood vessels. The inner lining of these blood vessels is made of a single layer of cells called Endothelial cells. The total surface area of these inner linings is equivalent to 6-8 tennis courts and together this constitutes the Endothelium. Endothelium is the largest organ in the body.

When a baby is weaned off mother’s milk his Endothelium is absolutely clean. As a baby starts to consume foods that are inflammatory to the body the Endothelium starts getting damaged. The body’s self healing mechanism deposits a localized coating of cholesterol to heal the damage to Endothelium. As we grow older, more of our Endothelium gets spotty deposits of cholesterol. (During growth years from 2 to 16, the size of Endothelium also increases. However after the age of 16-18 this growth comes to an end)

The result of continuing deposits of Cholesterol is that the effective inside opening of our blood vessels reduces. This process is called Atherosclerosis. Also, the surface resistance to blood flow increases. Endothelial cells have a unique ability to release Nitric Oxide gas which makes blood flow smoother. The area affected by cholesterol deposits can not release Nitric Oxide.

Now, if we apply the simple scientific principle to achieve the same flow rate the pressure difference between two ends of a tube has to increase when (a) the friction inside is increased and (b) the effective opening is reduced. This is how our body adapts and increases blood pressure (BP). The second principle at play here is that our blood vessels are malleable and they inflate (ever so slightly) when heart pumps blood. With age and calcification this capacity also diminishes. This process is known as Arteriosclerosis. Those parts of the blood vessels which have narrowed openings normally would expand allowing the blood to go through. However, after blood vessels are hardened, the body can’t do that anymore and blood pressure has to be increased further to pass the same amount of blood. This is what happens to our bodies as we age into our 60’s and 70’s. High blood pressure is actually a healthy sign that our body is functioning as it should.

Factors affecting the blood pressure are blood volume and resistance. The resistance is a function of the flexibility of the artery wall, artery diameter and blood viscosity.

One leading cause of the problem is the inflammatory foods that we eat. Unfortunately the medical science’s total focus is on treating the symptom and they find different mechanisms to lower the BP. Starting with Diuretics to Antihypertensive drugs to ACE Inhibitors to Beta Blockers to Calcium Channel Blocker to Vasodilators. No body tells you to stop eating inflammatory foods. Your wife tells you not to get angry and not to stress out but she doesn’t realize the problem is in the food she is cooking. You both go out for dinner to calm you down and have a nice evening out, not realizing that the food that restaurant is serving is causing more harm.

When you change the food the body begins to heal. This process of recovery is a function of the changes in diet and lifestyle that you are making. The drastic the change the faster the recovery. In Dr. McDougall’s 10 day program here in the suburb of Santa Rosa a drop in BP of 17/11 points is achieved and 90% participants get off or reduce their medication.

Some other points to note are:

1. Average blood pressure in a new born child is 64/41. When child is one month old the pressure increases to an average of 95/58 and stays around that till the child is weaned at age of say 2 or so.
2. As child grows and starts eating inflammatory foods the blood pressure increases and by the time he reaches the age of 10 his average BP reaches 110/70. A normal range being 102-120 over 61-80.
3. By the age of 16-18 the average is 120/80 and the normal range is 110-131 over 64-83.
4. After this age the guidelines for normal do not change. (Why? We will discuss this separately)
5. Blood pressure goes up with excitement, physical activity (like weight lifting or running) and pain.
6. Blood pressure goes up when we add volume to our blood supply which happens with water and salt.
7. But the main reason for increase in BP is Atherosclerosis and Arteriosclerosis as described earlier.
8. Dr. Kempner in 1950s successfully treated his patients with rice diet. Patients with BP as high as 240/120 came down to normal.
9. Many people on BP medication feel elated when their BP goes below 140/90. This is a flawed thinking. The goal of all BP medications should be 140/90 and not any lower. For people over 60 it should be 150/90. If you are taking BP medications and your BP is lower than 140/90 or 150/90 depending upon your age, you should reduce medications.
10. When you start doing aggressive BP treatment what happens is you develop many side effects including increased risk of dying of heart disease called J.Phenomenon mortality.
11. A very large study was published in Jan. 2018 by the name “The J Curve between Diastolic BP and risk of all-cause and cardiovascular deaths”. This showed that reducing diastolic BP to very low levels had higher all-cause mortality than those who had diastolic BP of 70-80.
12. A financial conflict exists between study investigators and Pharmaceutical companies. From Pharma company’s point of view an aggressive intervention is more profitable, as a result, lobbyists apply subtle pressures on investigators. Lead investigators have been found to receive large consulting fees from Pharma companies.
13. The guidelines for Hyper Tension are issued by the “Joint National Committee on Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood Pressure”. JNC was first constituted in 1977 and there have been 8 task forces constituted since then. It is quite revealing to analyse their recommendations.

In 1997 JNC-6 guided that HT cut off should be 140/90.

In 2004 JNC-7 guided that anything above 120/80 and up to 140/90 is to be considered PreHT and therefore watched.

In 2014 caving in to demands by a group of experts who had maintained all along that aggressive treatment of HT by medications is harmful and leads to increased all-cause mortality, the guidelines were relaxed as following: for adults under age 60 normal is 140/90 and for adults over age 60 normal is 150/90 (unless they are suffering from CKD or Diabetes in which case it remains 140/90).

As a result of 2014 guidelines the drug industry and Doctors suffered and their incomes dropped. The American College of Cardiologists in collaboration with American Heart Association decided to issue there own guidelines in 2017 conflicting the JNC-8 guidelines. They reduced the HT thresh hold to 130/80.
For people over 60 our goal should be to maintain a BP of 150/90 without any medication.

The doctors I follow in the Plant Based Whole Food movement have always maintained that aggressive treatment by drugs causes more harm than good and that is my position also.

You as a consumer will have to make your own call.
•••••••••••••••••••• LMK

•Aggressive vs Moderate•
Approach to Treatment

Many doctors today are just too keen to put you on medication. When we reach our 40s we some time feel tired and sluggish and go see a doctor. Doctor orders a blood test and on any chemistry that is outside the range (the so called normal), he prescribed a medication. Now that medicine has side effects and it has adverse drug reactions (remember the difference we discussed earlier) so few months later you visit the doctor again and he does more tests and finds more abnormality and gives you more medications and he also scares you to never stop medication with out consulting him.

A person who was a perfectly normal person 6 months ago has now become a patient for life.

This is what is happening all around you. Deviations on your blood chemistry from normal range will not kill you. Your medication is more likely to kill you. We saw that in the documentary “Death by Medicine”.

Many doctors who are conscientious people are beginning to realize this and are voicing their concerns. The PBWF doctors I follow are in that group. There are many others who are not in the PBWF group but conscientious never the less. They are beginning to realize that specialization in medical field has become so prevalent that no one is looking after the overall health of the patient. Lesser and lesser number of doctors are choosing to be a GP (General Practitioner). There isn’t enough money in it. The effect of one specialized drug on other diseases is not being researched properly. For example we have known for some time that many diabetes drugs cause heart diseases and statin drugs cause diabetes. Also we saw in Dr. Veerapan’s confession how Eli Lilly’s psychiatric does was causing diabetes.

This has led to a type of research where they study large group patients to understand their mortality rates. Mortality for any reason; it is called “All Cause Mortality”. The research is beginning to suggest that when we treat patients very aggressively, often on the pretext of defensive medicine, more patients die compared to those on whom such aggressive approach was not taken.

This has resulted in many guidelines for treatment to be revised. Quite often practitioners of the medical specialty which is effected by these revisions feel threatened by such revisions and refuse to follow the revised guidelines. It has happened in two specialties that I was personally affected by. Hypertension and Diabetes. It must be happening in other fields also. I have not yet researched them. But one effect is that the social media is now being bombarded by the lobbyists to create a fear and doubt in your mind.

If you are going to die sooner with aggressive treatment suffering more side effects and discomforts than WHY go that route?

Think ! And Think again!

Did Rishi Kapoor really had to suffer in NewYork hospital for 11 months ?

••• Hypertension (2) •••

What is normal blood pressure and what is the cutoff point for Hypertension. There is lot of confusion about it and I will attempt to clarify that in this post.

The blood pressure was first measured in 1733 and the term essential hypertension was first coined in 1911 to describe elevated blood pressure for which no cause could be identified. For few decades BP was categorized as malignant (severe over 210/100) or benign.

John Hay, Professor of Medicine at Liverpool aUniversity, wrote that "wthere is some truth in the saying that the greatest danger to a man with a high blood pressure lies in its discovery, because then some fool is certain to try and reduce it". This view was echoed by the eminent US cardiologist Paul Dudley White in 1937, who suggested that "hypertension may be an important compensatory mechanism which should not be tampered with, even if we were certain that we could control it". Charles Friedberg's 1949 classic textbook "Diseases of the Heart", stated that "people with 'mild benign' hypertension ... [defined as blood pressures up to levels of 210/100 mm Hg] ... need not be treated".

So as you can see there has always been a debate whether to treat high BP with medications or not.

Over the next decade evidence accumulated from actuarial reports and longitudinal studies, such as the Farmingham Heart Study that "benign" hypertension increased death and cardiovascular disease. This was in spite of the fact that both those studies only pointed to association and not the causation. As drugs became available in 1960s and 70s more and more doctors started prescribing drugs. Mahatma Gandhi’s BP was 200/100. His doctors were more worried than him.

In 1976 a joint national committee was established by the National Institute of Health( NIH) called “Joint National Committee (JNC) on the prevention, detection, evaluation, and treatment of high blood pressure” in the US to come up with the guidelines for treating Hypertension. This is one of the foremost American regulatory bodies on the management of hypertension. The first JNC report was released in 1977 and since 7 more JNCs have been constituted and the most recent JNC8 released its guidelines in June of 2014.

The members of JNC come from various disciplines like, health care, health education, Pharma, Food, Government and consumer advocates. While the consumer advocate’s interest is to serve us by providing the most current and honest findings, the same can not be said about others. Pharma and Health Care industries have too much money riding on the outcome of these committees. The government should bat for us but politicians need donations for re-election and bureaucrats are hoping for a cushy job after retirement. As a result the decision making process is quite convoluted.

Between 1977 and 2003 under the direction of NIH, JNC issued 7 reports.

Despite 5 years in preparation, NIH did not release a JNC 8 report and recently made the decision to withdraw from issuing guidelines. The responsibility for issuing hypertension-related guidelines was transferred to the American Heart Association (AHA) and the American College of Cardiology. (Like asking the fox to guard the henhouse.) Without the endorsement of the AHA or the ACC, JNC 8 committee members published their guideline report in 2014. The table below summarizes some recent JNC guidelines.

You can see from this table that based on JNC-6 guidelines a blood pressure reading of 120/&0 was defined as optimal and 140/90 as Hypertension. These are the numbers etched in the minds of most doctors and patients.

There has been a growing debate over past three decades that with increased specialization in the medical field the health of the patients is not improving and all cause mortality rates are on the rise. From patients point of view he wants to live healthier and longer and he really doesn’t care what the markers for BP or Blood Sugar or cholesterol are. Some of the senior doctors have come to realization that medical care is going haywire and have become vocal. PBWF movement is out come of that dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Going back to the JNC table you can see that these consumer advocates finally won out. The JNC-8 guideline recommends that for people over the age of 60 no treatment should be prescribed up to a BP reading of 150/90 and the goal medication should be to achieve a BP of under 150/90. For younger people the normal is 140/90.
When one is not on BP medication, lower BP is sign of good health. But when you are taking BP medications, maintaining a BP way below 150/90 or 140/90 (for younger folks) is a mistake. You are unknowingly harming yourself.

As a result of JNC’s 2014 guidelines the drug industry and Doctors suffered and their incomes dropped. The American College of Cardiologists in collaboration with American Heart Association decided to issue there own guidelines in 2017 conflicting the JNC-8 guidelines. They reduced the HT thresh hold to 130/80. You can now understand the politics at play. ACC and AHA represent the interest of their members (doctors) and not the consumers like you and I. ACC/AHA guidelines make 31 million more people subject to hypertension treatment with medications. At 300 dollars a year that is 9 billion dollars a year in doctors fees and roughly the same for Pharma companies.

For people over 60 our goal should be to maintain a BP of 150/90 without any medication.

I have come across
many people in my health groups who were taking BP medications and maintaining BP at levels far below 150/90 and were proud of the fact that their BP was 120/80 or 125/75. Clearly these people were harming themselves and increasing their chances of all cause mortality.

•Blood Pressure Measurement

To further complicate the issue of diagnosis of Hypertension is the fact that the doctors and their staff are very poor in measuring BP.

Most common practice is measurement at the doctor’s office but these readings are often taken incorrectly and there is also the anxiety factor known as the white coat effect.

In a recent study called Systolic BP Intervention Trial (SPRINT), it was found that the proper measurement (called research grade; 5 minute rest, 3 automated measurements and no other human in the room) was 12.7 mm lower than routine office measurement.

When you measure at home, you are likely to get lower readings.

Ambulatory monitor that gives average of 24 hours, is the best reading.

There are 19 different elements that constitute an accurate BP measurement. Some of these are:
- need to be seated for 5 minutes.
- Back supported and feet on the ground.
- No caffeine, smoking or exercise for for 1/2 hour prior to reading.
- No talking by patient or observer.
- No clothing under the cough.
- Support arm horizontally at the level of heart.
- Cuff should be right size; not too small.
- Repeat measurements with results averaged of lowest two readings. Or take the lowest reading.
- Failure to adhere to these guidelines may lead to higher readings.

A recent study in 20 clinics showed that of all readings that were over 140/90, 36% had normal second measurement.

To summarize:
1. The drugs for hypertension have adverse drug reactions and dangerous side effects and should be taken with caution to avoid kidney problems.
2. Most measurements of BP are taken improperly and lead to higher than actual readings.
3. There is confusion about guidelines due to vested interests of big Pharma and Health Care Providers.
4. It is best for people over 60 to maintain BP below 150/90 without taking medications.
5. When one changes diet to PBWF, BP goes down within weeks and achieving a target of 150/90 or 140/90 depending upon your age is the easiest of all health goals.

• Vitamin-C vs Ascorbic Acid •

Most vitamin C supplements are Ascorbic acid extracted from genetically modified corn. I have repeatedly said that we should try to get all nutrients from plant based whole food and not from food supplements ( the only exception being vitamin B-12).
The purpose of this post is to explain this with reference to vitamin-C.

Vitamin C found in plants does have ascorbic acid but it is not just ascorbic acid. Vitamin-C is Ascorbigen and Bioflavonoid complexes which play multiple roles in overall functions. In addition there is an enzyme called Tyrosinase which activates trace minerals which get white blood cells going. Then we have P-Factors, K-Factors and J-Factors. P-Factors, also known as Rutins are responsible for Collagen which provides strength to blood vessels, K-Factors are involved in the clotting mechanism of the blood and J-Factors enhance the red blood cell’s oxygen carrying capacity. Ascorbic acid is the package that preserves these factors and plays a role in the functioning but by itself it is not vitamin C complex and does not provide the functions mentioned above. As Dr. Collin Campbell describes in his talks, nutrients in food play a role like instruments in a symphony. It is difficult for them to function in isolation and impact on human body is not the same.

••••• Vitamin-C •••••

In my previous post I had discussed how we can take some steps, food wise, to boost our immunity.
Consumption of vitamin C rich foods is another way to boost immunity. Generally those who are on 100% plant based whole food and IF program already have highest level of immunity. Those who have been considering changes but not quite have made those, can try boosting their immunity by eating foods rich in vitamin C.
I recommend that most of these foods should be consumed uncooked. Here is a list of foods richest in vitamin C.
Fruits:
1. Amla or Indian Gooseberry
2. Guava
3. Kiwi fruit
4. Papaya
5. Strawberry
6. Grapefruit or Pomello
7. Orange
8. Lemon
9. Pineapple
10. Cantaloupe

Vegetables:
1. Red Bell Peopers
2. Kale
3. Spinach
4. Broccoli
5. Green Bell Peppers
6. Tomato
7. Brussels Sprouts
8. Cauliflower
9. Chili
10. Green peas

• Emotional & Spiritual Health •

The last two pillars of health are emotional health and spiritual health. We all have heard stories of positive thinking and mind over matter. For a long time it was believed that our consciousness resides in the brain and psychic health has little to do with the trillions of cells in the body. We now know this to be incorrect. Every cell in our body is a living organism and behaves as if it has a mind of its own. The Nobel prize in physiology for 2017 was awarded to J.C.Hall, M. Rodash and M.W.Young for research that showed how our circadian clock works at the cellular level. The Nobel prize for 2019 was given to W.G.Kaelin, G.L.Semenza and P.J.Ratcliff for research that demonstrates how each cell responds to the level of oxygen in our blood.

Hormones determine our emotional health and emotions determine the functioning of our endocrine glands that release hormones. This interdependence plays major role in our health and science has only scratched the surface so far. There is lot more to be learned about it.

Human pursuit to know the nature of things has been eternal. Some 2500 years ago this hunt for knowledge split into two disciplines philosophy and science. Takshshila was the worlds largest university at the time with scholars coming from all over the world. Credit given to Thales of Miletus as father of modern science may only be due to western bias. In any case it is interesting to note the convergence of modern science and Indian philosophy after 2,500 years. On matters of health and psychology medical science is still trying to catch up to Ayurveda and teachings of Upanishads and Geeta. If it wasn’t for greed of food, Pharma and health care industries, we may have seen the light many decades ago.

We have known about the placebo effect for over hundred years and the whole field of homeopathy relies on it. Placebo in Latin means “I shall be acceptable or pleasing”. When we take a pill that is given to us as medicine we get cured even if the pill only had sugar in it. Obviously the sugar did not cure the illness it is the conscious belief, that I will be cured now, that heals the body. The reverse of it called Nocebo has only recently captured the imagination of researchers. Nocebo in Latin means “I shall cause harm”. A negative thought is equally powerful as a positive thought is in affecting our body but in opposite direction. If you believe that something bad is going to happen to you it is quite likely that it would. The whole concept of curse or shrap in Hindu mythology works on that principle.
Happy people have happy thoughts that lead to healthy bodies. The emotions of sorrow and self pity lead to poor health.

The whole discussion in Gita about the three types of personalities (gunas) ; Satwic (purity), Rajsic (passion) and Tamsic (inertia) makes sense. The whole chapter 14 is devoted to this subject. In Ayurveda also people are classified into three main types; Vata, Pitta and Kapha. In western medicine they now recognize that people can be divided into three types depending upon their gut microbiome. I am not saying they are same. I am only making a point that the differentiations among types of people is finally gaining acceptance. Our gut- brain connection is now well recognized and gut is now even called the second brain.

In our younger days we had learned about the concept of various ras in Hindi literature. These were:

1.Shanti: peace
2.Bhakti: devotion
3.Karuna: pathos
4.Hasya: laughter
5.Sringaar: love, romance, beauty
6.Veer: courage and bravery
7.Adbhut: wonderment
8.Raudra: anger
9.Bhayanak: fear
10.Vibhatsya: hatred

It is easy to see the satvic, rajasic and tamsic gunas express themselves in these rasas.

We now know that these feelings impact the functioning of our hormonal glands which release different hormones into blood affecting our physical health.
This is what we mean by power of positive thinking and negative thinking.

Laughter is the best medicine. We have heard this time and again but what we may not realize is that every single emotion has an impact on our body or in other words all feelings have physical consequences. Here are some examples which all have been proven by various studies:

-When we are in love even water tastes sweet. Love is also a potent pain killer. Being in love also improves memory.
-Anger leads to insomnia. Anger increases blood circulation to lymphs and heart which in turn doesn’t let you fall asleep. Anger also results in high BP, Heart disease, Diabetes and a weak immune system.

-Powelessness makes everything feel heavy.
-Loneliness and sadness makes people feel cold. It also increases appetite and makes one gain weight.
-Feeling offended can cause Acne.
-Disgust upsets stomach.
-A fit of giggles can reduce stress hormone level.
-Laughter reduces the stress hormone which reduces the risk of heart attack.
-Jealousy, a mix of anger, stress and fear, increases adrenal level increasing heart rate and blood pressure and weakening the immune system.
-Crying gets rid of stress chemicals (but not tears due to onion chopping). When we suppress tears we ruin digestion and weaken immune system.
-Fear makes us pale because it sends blood to muscles to fight or flight.
-Praising your partner lowers your cholesterol level.
-Shame increases stress hormone cortisol which can constrict arteries and increase one’s heart rate.
-Arguing produces more Cytokins which can slows down healing process. High levels of Cytokins can lead to cancer, heart disease and arthritis.
-Short term stress can strengthen immune system and help fight cancer but chronic stress can impair memory and even lead to diabetes and heart disease.

The power of prayer has also now been accepted widely in the scientific community. That you pray is important; who you pray to, is irrelevant. What is important is that your mind should get flooded with a sense of reverence and gratitude. Feelings of gratitude triggers Oxytocin as a result blood pressure decreases and immune system becomes stronger and healing processes in the body speed up.

I will use my favorite couplet from Sant Kabir to make my point.

“Dukh me sumiran sab karen, Sukh me karen na koi ,
Jo sukh me sumirun kare, so dukh kahe ko hoi.”

This verse is often misunderstood because we attribute sukh to material gain and people get unhappy when that material gain they were praying for are not realized. We often forget that we seek material gain only because we think that will give us happiness and absence of it will lead to unhappiness. Happiness is our true wish that we are seeking. When we pray in true spirit seeking nothing but happiness it comes to us naturally. It is like that five year old who runs feverishly to catch a butterfly but it escape him and when he sits down tired, the butterfly comes and sits on his hand. My two penny worth of suggestion is that while praying never ask for quantitative gains; simply ask that results (outcomes) lead you to the path of happiness. Or if you are blessing someone, bless that they find happiness in what the life has in store for them.

Let me end here. This post is already getting too long as this is my favorite topic. (Health is only my second favorite.) Next week we will start focusing on Chronic Diseases.
•••••••••••••••••••• LMK

• Dry Fasting: A Russian Experiment

The most striking study on prolonged fasting is one done in Russia by Dr. Perfecta Y. S. Nicholaia,
120 mice were split into 4 group of 30 each. Each group was inoculated with Sarcoma.

• Group-1 before starting dry fast,
• Group-2 during dry fast,
• Group-3 upon termination of dry fast and
• Group-4 was control group which did not fast.

The survival rates in these groups were as following:
Group-1: 50%
Group-2: 66%m
Group-3: 100%
Group-4: 0% I have two recommendations for people:

•• Therapeutic Fast (2) ••

Extended fasting should be practiced slowly. Those who have been doing intermittent fasting will find it easy to extend fast to 24 hrs by skipping breakfast and lunch only and eating dinner at the regular time.

Once you are able to do 24 hr. fast comfortably skip the dinner also and eat at your regular time breakfast or brunch (whatever is your daily routine). This way you have achieved 40 hrs. fast. When you are doing water only fast you would be urinating a lot and it is recommended to add some Himalayan salt to your water. That salt does not harm you. At True North Clinic one is under medical supervision and doctors decide for you based on your blood chemistry.

I advise against fasting for over 72 hours without supervision. People who are suffering serious illnesses should consult their physicians before starting the practice of fasting.

The fruit fasting I mentioned was to include the most common form of fast practiced in India where on the fasting day you skip breakfast and lunch and only eat dinner but that dinner is Falahar (no cereals or beans or legumes).
When we fast for therapeutic purposes and not for weight loss purposes the goal is to achieve autophagy which starts when body runs out of protein and it also typically starts after 24 hours. Fruits such as apple are the lowest in protein (only 2%). So even while breaking the fast at night the autophagy is maintained for another 12-16 hours till next day breakfast.

I will be sending more posts on the subject.

Reverse Chronic Diseases - NO SUGAR

1. Recommendation one is for people who are trying to reverse one or more chronic conditions. For them no sugar at all at any time is allowed.

2. Recommendation two is for those who have already reversed their chronic diseases and are on no drugs any more or never had any chronic disease. This allows two teaspoons per day. This option also applies to those who are on chronic medications but feel comfortable with the level of disease and medication and just want to maintain it at that levels and not reverse it.

Similarly there is an allowance for two teaspoons of oil/ghee per day for group-2.

Now coming back to your question about exceptions. There are two ways of handling exceptions:
1. Try to maintain weekly average at target so if one day you have eaten 4 teaspoons of sugar the next day have zero. Or if your lunch had two teaspoons of oil/ghee for dinner have none.

As regards to items that are prohibited like dairy or eggs or fish or meat, (or sugar and oil for group-1) it is best not to make an exception but if you do make an exception one day try to offset it by keeping a 24 hour water fast the next day. You can keep up to 72 hour fast without any problem. For any longer fasts it is advisable to do it under a doctor’s supervision. I do a 24 hr. fast every Monday and a 48 hr. dry fast once a month and a 72 hr. dry fast every third month.

Wheat in itself is very healthy. Gluten is good for you and we have eaten it for centuries. If one has Celiac disease or gluten allergy then don’t eat it. The genetically modified wheat is high in gluten and does not suit many people. The bigger problem with wheat is how it is harvested. To make the harvesting easy they spray a chemical called RoundUp on the crop to make it dry uniformly. That helps large combine machines to harvest the crop. There are many lawsuits pending on the company that produces Round-Up. Many problems assigned to gluten are actually due to (1) Round-Up or (2) GMO variety. If one is using non GMO variety and organically grown wheat, it is the tastiest of all grains and that is why it is harvested for thousands of years.

The idea is that grains should be an integral part of your diet it doesn’t matter what grains. If one likes corn or rice or Bajra or Ragi; they all are fine.

I meet many people who tell me that they have stopped eating wheat flour but I find that they are still consuming dairy, eggs, sugar and oil. This is being penny wise and pound foolish; putting emphasis on wrong items. Most diets are deficient in micronutrients. We all are getting enough macro nutrients; it is those trace minerals that we need to worry about which are only available in green leafy vegetables and berries.

•••. GRAS & CRISCO •••

When we buy packaged food from market, we assume that it is safe to eat. The assumption is that some governmental or other organization must have ensured that the product is safe to eat. This is a wrong assumption. There is a concept called “GRAS”. This stands for “Generally Recognized as Safe”. Many foods and food additives fall into this category. You will be surprised to know that the burden of proof for the safety for these products lies with the food company.

The best example of GRAS is “Vegetable Shortening” also known as Hydogenated Fat. In America the best known brand is “Crisco” and in India it used to be “Dalda”. The story goes like this:

William Proctor and his stepbrother James Gamble many many years ago used to make soap and Candles. Tired of paying high prices for their raw materials tallow and lard they developed a process to hydrogenate oils which are liquid at room temperature to convert them to solids so that candles and soaps can be manufactured from waste products like cotton seeds. At the turn of the 19th century with the advent of electricity and light bulb the demand for candles collapsed. Faced with this crises and in the light of growing health concerns of consuming animal fat (tallow and lard) they came up with a brilliant strategy to introduce “Crisco” as a healthy alternative to tallow and lard for cooking and baking. The rest is history. Crisco became an overnight success.

It is only after 100+ years the scientific community realized, the fatal consequences of this product and it was banned in many states. The product is still legal in India. The status trans fats had enjoyed was GRAS.
Please watch this video on the subject.

•Major Sources of Toxins•

1. The Food we eat
2. The Water we drink and bathe with
3. The Air we breathe
4. The Lotions we apply to our body
5. The Cleaners we use

Major Sources of Toxins In Food

1. Hydrogenated Oil also called vegetable shortening (Dalda)
2. Artificial sweeteners
3. Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG)
4. Preservatives in Packaged foods (Generally Recognized As Safe “GRAS”)
5. Pesticides in fresh produce
6. Traces of growth hormones, antibiotics, pesticides (which are fed to dairy cows ) and Pus in cow’s milk.
7. Refined Sugar and/or High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). All soft drinks and 82% of the packaged items in grocery store have added sugar or HFCS.
8. Refined Oils with excessive Omega-6.
9. Excessive Animal Protein.
10. Municipal Water Supply
11. Alcohol and Tobacco

I need to clarify as to what is meant by GRAS.
GRAS stands for “Generally Recognized as Safe”.

Many foods and food additives are widely assumed to be safe and therefore do not have to be proven safe. When such food additives are added to processed food there is no burden of proof on the manufacturer. The best example of this food is “Vegetable Shortening” sold in India as Dalda. Please see the next post.

• Modern vs. Alternate • How Medicine Changed

The fact that human body is self healing may not have been as well understood as we know now. As a result beneficial results of different forms of medicines and treatments were often credited to the type of medicine and treatment as opposed realizing that this may be due to placebo effect. This led to many theories and hypothesis and many different forms of treatments evolved. Today we (the so called educated people) call these unconventional forms of treatment as quackery at worst or Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) (Complimentary word was added much later) at best. Traditional alternative medicine include:

* Acupuncture
* Ayurveda
* Chiropractic
* Homeopathy
* Hydrotherapy h
* Magnetic Therapy
* Naturopathy
* Yunani Medicine
* Chinese & Oriental medicine.
* Gem Therapy
* Spiritual: Tabiz and Vibhuti

I am sure there are many more that can be added to this list.

All these therapies were commonly practiced in different parts of the world till the turn of the 20th century. So the question one may ask is, when did these therapies become alternative?

In America at the time, John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie were the two richest men. Rockefeller had monopoly in oil business controlling 90% of it and Carnegie in steel business. Both were active in many charitable causes. In 1908 they proposed to AMA and the US government that it would be nice to study the state of educatio in health care, various health care practices prevalent at the time and formalize and standardize the medical education. It seemed like a noble cause. Mr. Carnegie hired a bright educator named Abraham Flexner and assigned him the task. (Abraham was a brother of Simon Flexner who worked for Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research.)

After spending over a year and traveling throughout the US and Canada Abraham Flexner submitted a book length report in 1910 titled “Medical Education in U.S. and Canada”, commonly called “The Flexner Report”.

The report suggested closing all 2 year diploma programs and standardizing on a 4 year program, curriculum for which was also established. Surprisingly this curriculum did not include a single course in nutrition considering that herbal medicine accounted for half of all medicine at the time.

The US government adopted these recommendations and the medicine as we know now evolved.

The result was banning of all alternate treatment practices unless practiced by an MD doctor. Small medical schools were either closed or merged into universities which were financially supported by large business houses. In less than 10 years the number of medical colleges dropped from 650 to 50 and the number of medical students decreased from 7,500 to 2,500. Many forms of alternate practices were classified as quackery and banned.

The doctors were taught medicine for 4 years and only they were allowed to prescribe medication, that also after obtaining a license to practice medicine.

Abraham Flexner was later made the first director of the Rockefeller philanthropy programs in medical education.

In 1928 the first antibiotic, Penicillin was developed and it became a magic cure all for the infectious-diseases which were most prevalent at the time. Discovery of vitamins also happened during this period.

Within a few decades a psyche evolved that if you are ill go see a doctor he will prescribe you a pill and you will be fine.

In this story what I have not told you so far is the fact that Rockefeller and Carnegie were some of the largest chemical/drug producers at the time Flexner Report was produced and there business boomed. They were also the contributors to many medical colleges and sat on the governing boards of these medical colleges often disguised through their charitable institutions.

PS: Couple of footnotes to this post:

1. When Dr. Collin Campbell participated in the documentary “Forks over Knives” his course in nutrition (the most popular course at Cornell) was cancelled.

2. Dr. McDougall and other PBWF doctors have been urging to introduce a single course in nutrition in the medical program but AMA has fought it every time as a result there is still no course in the 4 year medical program.

We have discussed how rich industries like Food, Pharma and Health Care influence the information that flows to us. Now let us talk about the Government and the Media.

In government I am talking about both the elected politicians and the administrative officials.

The politicians need money to win elections every 4-5 years and the money comes from rich industries so it is natural for them to support industry. This is achieved by the lobbyists working with the staff of politicians.

The administrative officials are also looking for their future after retirement and there are plenty of cushy jobs available within these industries to absorb them post retirement. As a result most (not all) senior administrative officials are happy to oblige the the lobbyists. All they need is some science to support their actions and as we saw in my earlier posts, it is easily provided to them by the researchers who more likely than not were funded by the industry.

Now let us look at Educational institutions where bulk of the research is done.

Just imagine you are applying for a PhD program at a leading university in USA, you need financial assistance. This assistance comes in the form of a research grant from, say, a soft drink manufacturer who is interested in undertaking a research to show that consumption of sugary sodas in moderation can be part of a balanced healthy diet.

The funding the company provides is on an annual basis. You opt to work on this project and by the end of one year you know if your conclusions are negative the research project may get cancelled and the funding may be terminated. You are careful in the choice of your words in the report you submit. The data we all know can be statistically manipulated to achieve the desired goal. No body has asked you to falsify the data and most likely you are not doing that (we will see later that even omitting some data can lead to false conclusions). So you prepare your report choosing your words carefully showing the affect of sugary soda in neutral enough fashion that it can be construed to be healthy. This research paper when published in a medical journal has a brief attached to it, because most doctors do not have time to read the whole paper so they only read the brief. The lobbyists are quite aware of that and they play a key role in choosing the words in the brief.

Now let us talk about the media or the medical journal. Any editor has multiple choices for the material for his next issue. He is free to chose any one of them. Now I want to explain that there is something called reprints of an article. If you like an article in a magazine say “TIME” and you want to get some reprints of that article, the magazine will be happy to provide those at a cost of something like 3-5 dollars each. The front page of the reprint will be the cover page of that issue of TIME but inside will be the article you have requested as reprint. It is a common practice.

Now if you are the editor and you are debating about which of the multiple articles on health you should pick for the next issue and the lobbyist for the Dairy industry suggests that if you print the one mentioning that butter is good for health he would be interested in getting 400,000 reprints. (He wants those reprints to hand out to all the doctors in the US ). What would you do as the chief editor of the TIME magazine? You will choose that article. That is almost one million dollars of extra income for your magazine. Your personal compensation has a profit sharing component so you may see an extra bonus of 50,000 for that month.

Please understand that in this whole example there is no conspiracy. No body is bribed. No body has broken any law. Every body’s conscience is clean but you the consumer is mislead. This happens all the time every day.
Here is the issue of TIME I am referring to.

•• Intermittent Fasting ••

As I have discussed earlier, our body evolved over millions of years eating mostly fruits and vegetables with some beans, cereals and nuts&seeds. Another observation about our evolution is that we finished our dinners by sunset in the day light and next morning we went in search of food to return by late morning or early afternoon and prepared our lunch. The gap between the two meals was any where from 12-16 hours. It is only in last 10,000 years, when we settled down and started farming and keeping animals for milk and meat, that food became readily available to have morning breakfast. Prior to these 10,000 years, we faced periods of feasts and famine regularly. The result is that our body evolved to store surplus food in the form of fat in our fat cells. The number of fat cells stops increasing after certain age but each cell has almost unlimited capacity to store fat. Human body is very efficient in converting carbohydrates into fat and this is happening all the time. However the conversion of fat into energy, which again is a straight forward process, does not happen as easily any more. The reason for this is that we do not face any periods of famine any more. This is as if our body has forgotten how to burn fat to produce energy.
This happens because before we can burn all the calories from the previous meal we eat another meal that supplies fresh batch of calories. Many of us eat five meals a day; bed tea, breakfast, lunch, evening tea and dinner. Some take additional snacks in between. The result is that our pancreas are releasing insulin all the time and the only rest they get is for 8 hours during sleep. This constant presence of insulin in our body from 7:00 in the morning to 11:00 at night leads to many chronic problems which we will discuss later but for now please understand the presence of insulin interferes with the ability to burn fat.

It is highly recommended to compress our eating window from 16 hours to a lower number and increase the fasting window to a longer period. This concept is called Chauvihar in the Jain community and “Intermittent Fasting” in the modern scientific community. In addition it helps the body heal better and develop better immunity if we subject it to periods of famine by fasting for a period of 16 hours or longer.

The concept of intermittent fasting (IF) and extended fasting has gained momentum in the western world only recently.

Based on research on mice, we have known for over five decades that regular fasting improves health and increases life expectancy. However the reasons for this were not clear. The Nobel prizes in physiology I 2016 and 2018 have been awarded for research on this subject.
I strongly recommend IF to all.

The other term used to describe the practice of IF is “Eating Window”.

The goal in intermittent fasting is to reduce your eating window to as narrow as possible. The ultimate in intermittent fasting is “One Meal a Day” (OMAD) in which your fasting window becomes 23 hours. Many Indian spiritual masters practice this.

In intermittent fasting the idea is to finish your dinner early and delay your first caloric meal of the day to as late as possible. This helps in two main ways: firstly it gets the body used to the idea of burning fat to produce energy in the form of ketones by a process called Ketosis. Secondly it promotes autophagy which has many detoxing benefits and builds immunity. During this fasting period one can consume any beverage which does not have any calories eg. black coffee or tea or water with ginger, lemon or tumeric, or amla extract etc.(no diet sodas).

Intermittent fasting can be started slowly by first observing a 12 hour fasting and then increasing it to 14 hrs. and 16hrs. or more. Walking or exercising during the fasting period enhances the effect of IF. One mile walk is equivalent to one additional hour of fasting.

When we eat frequently and for longer periods,
our blood sugar stays elevated for longer than normal since insulin can’t efficiently clear it – this leads to the formation of Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs). This process accelerates aging by triggering inflammation, neuropathy, fine lines and wrinkles and much more.

•• IF SCORE ••

I recommend that you compute your intermittent fasting score and track it.

* IF score is calculated weekly.
* Compute the time gap between you last caloric food intake in the evening and the first caloric food intake of the morning
* Add to this total miles walked or equivalent exercise, during this period (after dinner and before breakfast). This is your score for the day.
* Now add this score for the 7 days of the week.

A. Over 140 Excellent
B. 120-140 Very Good
C. 100-120 Good
D. 80-100 Fair
F. Under 80 Poor

•••• Green Juicing ••••

I had discussed in the dietary guidelines that we need to consume a minimum 1% of our body weight in vegetables and half of that in green leafy vegetables. In fact Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn recommends 6 servings of green leafy vegetables each day to all his heart patients including Bill Clinton.

We Indians don’t know how to eat these leafy vegetables without adding ghee or oil. It is for this reason I recommend juicing them and adding some other essential ingredients to make juice both healthier and palatable.
I do want to make it very clear that juicing is only the second best option to eating greens as raw or boiled.

In the two documentaries on juicing you must of observed how by going on a juicing diet, people were able to loose weight, lower blood pressure, glucose and cholesterol and get off all or most medications. What they did was rather drastic. 60 day juice fast in “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead” and 30 day juice fast in “Super Juice Me”. After seeing the first documentary I ordered my juicer the same day and started green juicing. We did only five day juice fast to kick off our dietary changes. The results were remarkable. That was 7 years ago but what I have learned since then is an even more miraculous method that on the surface appears draconian but is supported by the research that has won two Nobel prizes (2016 and 2018) in physiology.

In this approach the juice is replaced with water. (More on this later)

The main goal is to consume large quantities of green leafy vegetables (fruits should be eaten as a whole or to just make vegetable juice tastier). Juicing makes it easy. Think of juice recipe as comprising of three groups.

-The first group is " Granny Smith (or any other juicing apples) apples(4), lemon(2) and ginger(2 thumb size pcs.)
-The second group is " Celery (one bunch), cucumber (one large English or two medium regular) and/or lettuce )
-The third group is any of the following green leafy vegetables like kale, chard, spinach, mustard greens, turnip greens, collard greens, beet root greens, cabbage etc. (2 bunches)

The third group can also be replaced with carrots and beetroots.

You want to start with a juice fast for 3 to 5 days at least. The longer the better. You will be drinking only juice for these days. Try four to five glasses (10-12 ounces ) per day or more if you wish.

After that continue with three glasses per day; 20 minutes before each meal till you are off all medications. After that one or two glasses a day is sufficient.

The two juicers I recommend are Angel 5500 and Green Star. These are cold pressed juicers. For India Hurom is a good choice. Others may also be good. I just do not know about them.

A better quality juicer gives you better yield and you recover the extra costs within the first year.

You can go to Utube and type in green juicers. You will get lot of videos comparing different brands. Angel juicer costs around $1,400, Greenstar around $ 500. These are not available in India. A good juicer in India will cost around Rs. 20,000.

The best blender on the market is Vitamix but it is not good for juicing.

* Juice vs. Smoothy
There is a difference between smoothies and juice.

- The problem with smoothies is that they have lot of air mixed in the juice as a result it doesn’t have shelf life and you must make it fresh every time.
- Smoothies make one feel bloated after drinking because one is consuming air along with the juice and fiber.
- Smoothies stay in the stomach for a few hours of digestive cycle. Clear juice passes through in minutes and nutrients get absorbed into blood within minutes thereby reaching every nook and cranny of the body.

Juice prepared in slow speed juicers does not have these problems and can be stored in refrigerator for upto 3 days easily. That makes it easy for busy folks, as you only need to make it twice a week.

A question often asked is “ aren’t you removing fiber in juicing?” The answer is that there are two types of fiber soluble and insoluble. Juicing preserves all the soluble fiber and some of the insoluble fiber as well.

One should eat fruits as a whole and juice only vegetables. You can add some fruit to enhance the taste and yes Granny Smith apples because they have enzymes that help digest green leafy vegetables.

* Fresh vs. Frozen

It is always better to eat fresh tree ripened fruits and vegetables. However this debate is not as simple as it appears. Fresh fruits and vegetables are often picked before they reach their peak in terms of ripeness and nutrients to allow for shipping time. Frozen foods are picked at their peak and frozen immediately.In the absence of fresh produce frozen is a satisfactory option.

* Organic vs. Non-Organic

The other question that arises is that if organic produce is not available, should one skip it or eat it any way.

Barring some cases of extreme foul play, most vegetable even if they are not organic are better to eat than not eat at all. Wash them well and feel free to peel if you are overly concerned. You can also use a brush to wash them better.

I do not know much about Indian conditions but there is a list called dirty dozen which lists 12 produce items which you should seek out in organic versions.

It is a good idea to strain the juice through a fine sieve.

Most people would see improvement in their bowl movement after going on a PBWF diet. It is not uncommon to have multiple bowl movements each day. Some people do experience loose motions initially. Situation mostly stabilized to a new normal routine.

There is a saying: First thing in the morning, if you poop before you finish peeing; you are in good health.You soon will experience that. Happy

Based on my experience in several health groups, I want to share four observations:

1. Somethings are easier said than done. Eating green leafy vegetables and not eating oil/ghee is one such advice. The only way we Indians know how to eat green leafy vegetables is by making saag which cannot be made without ghee.

2. It is often difficult to give up our favorite foods even after we have learned that they are unhealthy. It is lot easier to add foods and specially foods that are tasty. When we add healthy food it crowds out the unhealthy food.

3. When we make changes slowly the improvements are not noticeable and one often looses confidence. So it helps to make some changes which are dramatic and remain in our conscious mind.

4. One conscious change often leads to many unconscious changes and benefits accrue. To give you one example, once I started walking for an hour every day I started rejecting caloric dense food like cookies and donuts because I was conscious that it would wash off my one hour worth of effort.

Before we move on to the subject of “ How to Eat”, I request all to watch a documentary “Fat Sick and Nearly Dead”. This is available on Netflix.

The second documentary is available on Utube and linked below.

•••. Fiber as Nutrient •••

Fiber as an important nutrient was recognized much later than most other nutrients. Dr. Burkitt was the first to emphasize it’s importance in a book titled “Don’t Forget Fiber in Your Diet” published in 1979.

For many years fiber was thought only to improve your bowl movement and satiety. Both of which are true but latest research has brought many more important benefits to our attention.

There are two types of fiber; soluble and insoluble. The two comments above are true for insoluble fiber.

The microbes in our gut microbiome feed on fiber to produce metabolites which help protect us from high BP and in many other ways. Active research is on going in this field.

Soluble fiber helps reduce blood glucose levels and thereby reduces the risk of diabetes. Some of the other benefits are:

* control body weight
* control and possibly prevent hypertension
* help balance cholesterol levels in blood
* regulate bowel movements and prevent hemorrhoids
* regulate your body’s satiation signals, which let you know when you’re full
* lower risk of colon cancer
* lower risk of breast cancer
* require more chewing, which slows down your meals and aids digestion

••• Nutrients We Need •••

Human body needs nutrients to survive. Besides water all nutrients can be subdivided into two categories:

1.Macronutrients: These provide energy. There are three macronutrients:
- Proteins: 1gm = 4 calories
- Carbohydrates: 1gm = 4 cal.
- Fats: 1gm = 9 cal.

2.Micronutrients: Theses do not provide energy but are essential to human body. These include:
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Fiber
- Antioxidants
- Phytochemicals

Proteins are chains of amino acids. Certain amino acids can not be made by the body and must be consumed and that is why they are called essential amino acids.The protein we consume is first broken down to amino acids and different cells of the body use these amino acids to make new proteins each day. Human body is good in making proteins and it makes all the different protein (over 2 million) it needs from the various amino acids. All essential amino acids are made only by plants and move up the food chain.

Similar to proteins human body is good at making fats (fatty acids). In fact all excess energy, whether it was consumed as fat, protein or carbs, is converted into fat in our liver and stored in our fat cells throughout the body but specially around the belly. The number of fat cells after adulthood do not change, only the amount of fat in each cell changes as one gains or looses weight. The only fats our body can not make are Omega fats and therefore they need to be consumed daily. Of various Omega fats Omega-3 is only available in limited amounts and therefore requires special attention. Human body needs Omega-3 and Omega-6 in equal amounts but in nature Omega-6 is available in plentiful Human body has preference in absorbing Omega-3 as a result some variance can be accommodated. The disproportionate consumption of Omega-6 over Omega-3 is believed to be the cause of many illnesses. It is recommended that this ratio should be in 2-3 range. Most vegetable oils have this ratio in 1,000 to 100,000 range. Among cooking oils (as opposed to non cooking oils like olive, flaxseed, walnut etc.) Mustard oil is one exception where this ratio is under 3. Ghee also has significant amount of Omega-3.

Among Vitamins, most are available in plenty in plant based food. There are two that require special attention:

- Vitamin B-12 is found in nature in soil. It is in natural streams and rivers; when we work with dirt with our hands and legs or walk bare feet the body absorbs it. As we have moved away from such activities and chlorinated our municipal water, all natural sources have been blocked. That is why this is the only food supplement that pbwf doctors recommend.

* Vitamin D-3 is made by human body under sunshine. As we have reduced venturing out in the sun some people face deficiency in this vitamin by the time they reach their 40s. If you are deficient and you do can not spend some time in the sun, this would be the second supplement you would need. Besides these two supplements PBWF doctors do not recommend any other food or nutrient supplements.

Fiber should be of concern to those who are eating diets rich in oil, sugar and dairy or animal food. None of these foods have any fiber. US fiber guidelines are less than half of what an average African native eats and even than 97% Americans fall short. Do not think we Indians get enough fiber because of our daal, roti, rice because most Indians are still getting almost half their calories from ghee, oil sugar and dairy.

•••• Diet & Lifestyle ••••
Guidelines

1. No animal food. No Sea food. No eggs. No milk or milk products.
2. No refined or processed foods. No Ghee, Oil or Sugar. If one is on no chronic medications then two tsp. of ghee/oil and two tsp. of sugar maximum allowed per day.
3. Eat from all five food groups: fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes and nuts& seeds (spices are recommended).
4. Eat a minimum of 1% of your body weight in fruits every day. Include one cup of berries.
5. Eat a minimum of 1% of your body weight in vegetables (at least half of those in green leafy) every day.
6. For Omega-3: Eat 1 tbsp. Flaxseed (ground) and five walnuts every day.
7. Take vitamin B-12 supplement. Vitamin D-3 supplement only if you are deficient and you don’t get in the sun much.
8. Keep your body hydrated at all times. Drink minimum 1/2 liter warm water first thing in the morning before brushing your teeth. Eat your water as much as possible (from fresh fruits and vegetables).
9. Start Intermittent Fasting. Slowly reduce your eating window to 8 or even 6 hrs.
10. Do extended, water only, fast of 3-5 days twice a year.
11. Walk 10,000 steps or more every day.
12. Love your family and friends unconditionally and stay connected.
13. Pray regularly and have a positive attitude full of gratitude.
14. No other restrictions. Eat variety; everything you like and some of what you don’t like. Eat as much as you feel like. No portion control is necessary. Your body knows when to stop

•••• Protein Myth. ••••

Of the various food myths discussed earlier, the one I want to further elaborate is misconceptions about protein.
In the 1950’s , my grandfather insisted I take a glass of milk every morning and night. In the morning he would add one egg yolk to my milk (not to mention the sugar which was always added to milk in India in those days). While I hated drinking it, I had to have it. Little did I know then that he was causing me lot of harm but wasn’t aware of it. He had the best of intentions.

Most people know about a project called the “Human Genome Project” which was undertaken during 1990 to 2003 to map genes in the human body. Few people are aware that few years later a project called the “Human Proteome Project”was undertaken to study all the proteins in human body. The science emerging from this ongoing project is called Proteomics. For reasons unknown to me, the finding of the Proteomics project are not picked up by the mass media or social media. I believe it may have something to do with its potential impact on the food industry, especially in regards to meat, poultry and dairy consumption.

The human body of a grown up individual makes about 200 grams of new proteins every day and also breaks down about the same amount daily due to wear and tear. The body is very efficient in recycling this protein back into amino acids to make new proteins. Some proteins cannot be recycled such as nails, hair dead skin etc. . New research has shown that about 85% of these proteins gets recycled, leaving only a shortfall of 30 grams that we need to consume daily to supplement these lost proteins.

In 1947 the US Government established the minimum protein requirements for an adult at 5-6% of our daily caloric intake (25-30gm). However, they established the recommended daily allowance at 8-10% amounting to 46-56 grams. The bias for higher protein consumption was so pervasive that even the government felt the need to recommend twice the minimum level. This was due to popular beliefs at the time that physical labor and gym enthusiasts need more protein from higher wear and tear on the body.

Distorting these minimum and recommended guildelines are not coincidence. A google search on “protein” will reveal these distortions even on prestigious sites such as Healthline, WebMD and Harvard Health Blog which I quote below:

“The Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for protein is a modest 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight. The RDA is the amount of a nutrient you need to meet your basic nutritional requirements. In a sense, it’s the minimum amount you need to keep from getting sick — not the specific amount you are supposed to eat every day.”

It may surprise you to note that there is not a single recorded case of protein deficiency in the Western World. 97% of all Americans eat too much protein while at the same time 97% of all Americans are deficient in dietary fiber in their diets.The nutrient of concern therefore should be fiber and not protein. Sadly press coverage on dangers of excessive protein consumption does not exist and the topic is conveniently ignored by mass media, in-spite of doctors such as Dr. Collin Campbell and Dr. Janice Stanger speaking about it at conferences, in various documentaries and on YouTube videos.

Contrary to this pervasive obsession with high protein, the Nobel Prizes for 2016 and 2018 point out that occasional periods of protein deficiency detoxes our body and helps build immunity by a process called autophagy. (We will discuss more about it later.) Dr. Honzo (2018 Nobel Laureate) has demonstrated that prolonged fasting or feeding cancer patients diet devoid in protein for stretches of 5-10 days can help build immunity to fight cancer.

Protein is so abundant in nature that almost all natural foods have it. Potatoes have 5-6 percent, rice has 7-8 percent, watermelon has 7 percent.

The importance of this lesson is this:

“One should just stop worrying about protein while on pbwf diet and focus on fiber instead.”

Human body can store sugar up to 2,000 calories (as Glycogen in liver and muscles). It can store fat in unlimited amounts. But there is no storage provision for excess protein. As a result it has to be processed in liver to remove nitrogen and converted into sugar. The nitrogen thus removed combines with hydrogen to form Ammonia ( NH3) which is very toxic and needs to be eliminated from the body. This is achieved by converting Ammonia into Uric acid and excreting as Urine. This taxes both our critical organs; kidney and liver. A leading cause for kidney and liver diseases in the civilized World.

Please watch the talk about dangers of excessive protein in the following video by Dr. Janice Stanger who is a Professor at the University of California, SanFrancisco (UCSF).

••• FOOD MYTHS •••

As we grow from a 2 year old child who has just been weaned, we are exposed to foods that our parents and/or grand parents thought was healthy. The information they inherited from their parents or acquired through education or through media or through interactions with their doctors. The doctors in their education learn a lot about diseases and medicines but are not taught much about nutrition. In US, medical college provides less than few hours of lectures on the subject of nutrition. The result is often blind leading a blind.

There are many myths about nutrition and there are lot of vested interests in propagating these myths.
Some common myths about food are :

1. Everything in moderation is good.
2. You can wait to change your diet.
3. Exercise can make up for unhealthy diet.
4. A little bit can’t hurt.
5. If a little is good, more is better.
6. One should eat more protein. Protein builds muscles.
7. Carbs are fattening. Low carb diets are healthy.
8. Carbs raise insulin level while protein lowers it.
9. Cow’s Milk is the best source of Calcium.
10. Calcium is what makes your bones strong.
11. You need to eat meat for iron.
12. Chicken is healthier than Beef or mutton meat.
13. Fish have good fat. Fish or fish oil is your best source for Omega-3.
14. Grilling Animal food makes them healthy.
15. A glass of Red Wine is good for you.
16. Artificial sweeteners are good for diabetics and overweight people.
17. We should dissect our food into protein, fat, carbs, vitamins and minerals and monitor their consumption.

Please watch UCSF Professor Dr. Janice Stanger’s Utube video on the subject.

•• Five Pillars of Health ••

There are five pillars of health:
1. Food
2. Detoxification
3. Physical Exercise
4. Emotional Support of Family and Friends
5. Spiritual Balance

Out of these food factor accounts for 80 percent and the rest of the remaining factors account for 20 percent. So, we will initially focus on the food.

There are two observations to be made about our human history.

1.Human beings have been in existence for 2 million years and have evolved over many more millions of years. Initially, our ancestors lived primarily on trees eating fruits and roots. As the climate changed and trees thinned out, our ancestors couldn’t just jump from tree to tree and had to start walking a few steps to get to the next tree. As the trees moved further apart, walking had to become more efficient and they started moving on hind legs. The grains growing on wild grasses, became part of our ancestors diet. Also, meat left over by carnivorous animals became part of the diet. We thus evolved to become gatherers and scavengers and small game hunters. It was much later, as our tools evolved and became more powerful, were we able to kill large animals.

As a result, our diet primarily consisted of wild plant based food with very small portions of animal food. The fossilized poop analysis has shown that the animal food comprised less than 5% of Paleo diet. It was only 10,000 years ago that we settled down and domesticated animals.

2. Throughout the bulk of this history, like all wild animals today, our body was self healing without any need for inorganic medicines or visits to doctors and hospitals. When we were indisposed our body told us what to do and it mostly involved:
- Resting
- Fasting
- Changing food
- Nature Cure

Even in the last two thousand years, doctors advised us “Let the food be Thy medicine”.

Plant Based Whole Food (PBWF) Doctors believe that root cause of all chronic illnesses is the food we eat today and the lifestyle we lead and when we change that all chronic illnesses disappear.

Our body has evolved, to self heal and when we interfere with that healing process by taking medications to suppress symptoms, additional complications develop and dependence on medications keeps on increasing. This puts us in a vicious circle, the end of which is organ failure and death.

What is PBWF diet ?
PBWF diet consists of following:

- No Animal Products including fish, eggs and dairy.
- No Refined or highly processed foods.
- No added sugar or oil/ghee

In the last 100+ years Food and Drug Industries have become very powerful and are able to influence the Government, Media and the Medical establishment. As a result, the information flowing to us is biased in their favor, and truth is often hidden from us or distorted. Many views we have today about food and health are a result of that distortion.

Our goal in this group is to understand the true picture .

My goal is to communicate to you what the new thinking is in a certain group of advanced medical doctors who have come to a realization, that greed has taken over common sense in the past century. The belief that when you are sick you should take medicine and the disease will be cured, started with the discovery of antibiotics. At that time, most diseases were infectious diseases and antibiotics worked like a charm. Over the years,we got accustomed to the idea of taking pills when ill.

As the world wars got over, and we became wealthier as a society and even the poor started eating like kings, the chronic diseases, which only affected the rich earlier, became common. It was natural for us to expect miracle drugs from our doctors and they, along with the pharmaceutical industry were quick to oblige. However, this time, the drugs did not cure the disease, so the doctors came up with the explanation that the lifestyle diseases are not curable and doctors can only help keep the symptoms in control through lifelong medications.

Some doctors, who had taken up medical career with a sincere desire to help humanity by curing the diseases, slowly became disenchanted and started looking for answers elsewhere. They observed that just like the wild animals todayand our ancestors of 10,000 years ago, human organism is self healing and symptoms are a natural response of the body. By depressing the symptoms, we are interfering in the body’s self healing mechanism. They further found, that over the years the profit motive of food industry had changed the nature of food to refined and processed food like products which were:

(a) Increasing the toxicity of the body.
(b) Creating deficiencies of nutrients.

Deficiencies of nutrients were reducing the body’s immunity by making it more susceptible to diseases. They also found that the abundance of animal food, which was only available to kings and aristocrats earlier, was now available to the masses and causing havoc with their health. These doctors started to speak out, but their voices were muffled by the powerful lobby of the food, drug and healthcare industries. The PBWF movement is the outgrowth of those pioneering voices.

In my next post we will discuss the common myths about food .

•••• Eating at Different Times of The Day ••••

There is a common belief that a calorie is a calorie how does it matter when you consume it. This is totally flawed thinking. There is lot of merit in some of the old proverbs you may have often heard. For example:

* “Eat breakfast like a king lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper”
* “Eat breakfast yourself, share lunch with a friend and give dinner away to your enemy”

The recent research has shown that calories eaten in the night time are significantly more fattening that those consumed in the morning. This science is called a called “Chronobiology”.

I have discussed the benefits of intermittent fasting earlier but at the time I did not discuss the difference in morning verses evening meals. We had discussed that breakfast should be delayed as much as possible. Also the green juice and bulk of the fruits should be consumed in the morning when we are taking our first meal of the day; which is technically breakfast. We also had talked about possibly combining breakfast and lunch into one meal. That would automatically make the brunch a heavier meal than dinner. One thing that I forgot to recommend is that dinner should be ideally only one third of ones total caloric intake for the day.

In India where it is common to eat a snack at the tea time upon coming back from office (5:30-6:30 PM) the dinner should even be lighter. The ideal practice would be to make that evening snack hour last meal. We do eat our dinner at 6:00 and it is quite common in US.

The research is quite convincing though the explanation is still unclear. One explanation proposed is that our body in the morning likes to store sugar in the muscle cells expecting a call for its use during the day and this process takes energy so effectively reducing the calories absorbed. During night time the body leaves the sugar in the blood and liver to be used up by the brain during resting period.
Please watch the attached videos on the subject.

•••••• STROKE ••••••
&
Cerebrovascular Diseases

Few weeks ago I had discussed how consumption of inflammatory foods causes atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis in arteries of the heart leads to heart attack. The same clogging of the blood vessels in the brain lead to stroke and other Cerebrovascular diseases.

Stroke and other Cerebrovascular diseases are the fifth leading cause of death in the US.
Cerebrovascular diseases include
- Stroke
- Transient Ischemic Attack
- Aneurysm
- Vascular Malfunction

The Cerebrovascular diseases is blockage of blood flow to certain parts of the brain. It’s leading cause is atherosclerosis. The blood vessels in the brain are very fine and when these get clogged the blood supply to that part of the brain reduces or stops. Also when a blood clot is formed or transported from other part of the body, the blood supply to that part of the brain stops causing brain cell damage. Depending upon the size of the blood vessel the damage can be to only a very tiny part of the brain or a larger part involving many more cells. These damages result in mini strokes which are often not noticeable or a major stroke. Tiny damages to cells affect memory resulting in vascular Dementia.

Research has shown that the consumption of foods rich in nitrates produce nitric oxide which not only help blood flow, and reduce blood pressure but also reduce clogging or atherosclerosis of blood vessels.

Green leafy vegetables and beetroots are the greatest source of nitrates in diet. In addition research has also shown that presence of sodium and potassium can hinder or enhance the release of nitric oxide. Where as Potassium increases the nitric oxide release, the sodium reduces nitric oxide release. One can therefore say that the ratio of potassium to sodium in the diet can affect cardiac and mental health. In olden days we used to consume ten times as much potassium then sodium because potassium is plentiful in fruits and vegetables but sodium is not. However in modern era we consume lot more sodium than potassium.

Please watch the attached videos on the subject.

Wheat in itself is very healthy.

Gluten is good for you and we have eaten it for centuries. If one has Celiac disease or gluten allergy then don’t eat it. The genetically modified wheat is high in gluten and does not suit many people. The bigger problem with wheat is how it is harvested. To make the harvesting easy they spray a chemical called RoundUp on the crop to make it dry uniformly. That helps large combine machines to harvest the crop. There are many lawsuits pending on the company that produces Round-Up. Many problems assigned to gluten are actually due to (1) Round-Up or (2) GMO variety. If one is using non GMO variety and organically grown wheat, it is the tastiest of all grains and that is why it is harvested for thousands of years.

The idea is that grains should be an integral part of your diet it doesn’t matter what grains. If one likes corn or rice or Bajra or Ragi; they all are fine.

I meet many people who tell me that they have stopped eating wheat flour but I find that they are still consuming dairy, eggs, sugar and oil. This is being penny wise and pound foolish; putting emphasis on wrong items. Most diets are deficient in micronutrients. We all are getting enough macro nutrients; it is those trace minerals that we need to worry about which are only available in green leafy vegetables and berries.

Weekly Synopsis-wk2

Today we completed two weeks of this group. During week 2 we covered following:

1. Need for detoxification: Just like every cell in human body needs nutrition, it also needs to excrete toxins which if not properly removed can accumulate in the body and cause illness. Major sources of toxins are in our food and environment.

2. Human body is continuously releasing toxins through breadth, sweat, urine, and feces but that may not be sufficient and other methods like fasting, water therapy, Shatkarma, pranayama can be very helpful in detoxing the body specially if diseased.

3. Fasting is the most powerful tool for detoxing and curing health. We must practice daily intermittent fasting by reducing our eating window to 8 hours or less. In addition a water fast every two weeks and a 5 day water fast every 6 months can go a long way in keeping us healthy. Fasting also has many other benefits in curing chronic diseases like cancer.

4. Human body is designed for movement and absence of activity can lead to many illnesses. Physical activity should be practiced daily and a good measurement is to walk 10,000 steps each day. In addition some cardio and spinal exercises are necessary.

5. Emotional health and spiritual health play an important role in our health than earlier recognized. The science is only beginning to catch up to many cultural practices in Indian tradition.

Now in the third week we will start covering various chronic illnesses like hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

• Emotional & Spiritual Health •

The last two pillars of health are emotional health and spiritual health. We all have heard stories of positive thinking and mind over matter. For a long time it was believed that our consciousness resides in the brain and psychic health has little to do with the trillions of cells in the body. We now know this to be incorrect. Every cell in our body is a living organism and behaves as if it has a mind of its own. The Nobel prize in physiology for 2017 was awarded to J.C.Hall, M. Rodash and M.W.Young for research that showed how our circadian clock works at the cellular level. The Nobel prize for 2019 was given to W.G.Kaelin, G.L.Semenza and P.J.Ratcliff for research that demonstrates how each cell responds to the level of oxygen in our blood.

Hormones determine our emotional health and emotions determine the functioning of our endocrine glands that release hormones. This interdependence plays major role in our health and science has only scratched the surface so far. There is lot more to be learned about it.

Human pursuit to know the nature of things has been eternal. Some 2500 years ago this hunt for knowledge split into two disciplines philosophy and science. Takshshila was the worlds largest university at the time with scholars coming from all over the world. Credit given to Thales of Miletus as father of modern science may only be due to western bias. In any case it is interesting to note the convergence of modern science and Indian philosophy after 2,500 years. On matters of health and psychology medical science is still trying to catch up to Ayurveda and teachings of Upanishads and Geeta. If it wasn’t for greed of food, Pharma and health care industries, we may have seen the light many decades ago.

We have known about the placebo effect for over hundred years and the whole field of homeopathy relies on it. Placebo in Latin means “I shall be acceptable or pleasing”. When we take a pill that is given to us as medicine we get cured even if the pill only had sugar in it. Obviously the sugar did not cure the illness it is the conscious belief, that I will be cured now, that heals the body. The reverse of it called Nocebo has only recently captured the imagination of researchers. Nocebo in Latin means “I shall cause harm”. A negative thought is equally powerful as a positive thought is in affecting our body but in opposite direction. If you believe that something bad is going to happen to you it is quite likely that it would. The whole concept of curse or shrap in Hindu mythology works on that principle.
Happy people have happy thoughts that lead to healthy bodies. The emotions of sorrow and self pity lead to poor health.

The whole discussion in Gita about the three types of personalities (gunas) ; Satwic (purity), Rajsic (passion) and Tamsic (inertia) makes sense. The whole chapter 14 is devoted to this subject. In Ayurveda also people are classified into three main types; Vata, Pitta and Kapha. In western medicine they now recognize that people can be divided into three types depending upon their gut microbiome. I am not saying they are same. I am only making a point that the differentiations among types of people is finally gaining acceptance. Our gut- brain connection is now well recognized and gut is now even called the second brain.

In our younger days we had learned about the concept of various ras in Hindi literature. These were:
1.Shanti: peace
2.Bhakti: devotion
3.Karuna: pathos
4.Hasya: laughter
5.Sringaar: love, romance, beauty
6.Veer: courage and bravery
7.Adbhut: wonderment
8.Raudra: anger
9.Bhayanak: fear
10.Vibhatsya: hatred

It is easy to see the satvic, rajasic and tamsic gunas express themselves in these rasas.
We now know that these feelings impact the functioning of our hormonal glands which release different hormones into blood affecting our physical health.

This is what we mean by power of positive thinking and negative thinking.

Laughter is the best medicine. We have heard this time and again but what we may not realize is that every single emotion has an impact on our body or in other words all feelings have physical consequences. Here are some examples which all have been proven by various studies:

-When we are in love even water tastes sweet. Love is also a potent pain killer. Being in love also improves memory.
-Anger leads to insomnia. Anger increases blood circulation to lymphs and heart which in turn doesn’t let you fall asleep. Anger also results in high BP, Heart disease, Diabetes and a weak immune system.
-Powelessness makes everything feel heavy.
-Loneliness and sadness makes people feel cold. It also increases appetite and makes one gain weight.
-Feeling offended can cause Acne.
-Disgust upsets stomach.
-A fit of giggles can reduce stress hormone level.
-Laughter reduces the stress hormone which reduces the risk of heart attack.
-Jealousy, a mix of anger, stress and fear, increases adrenal level increasing heart rate and blood pressure and weakening the immune system.
-Crying gets rid of stress chemicals (but not tears due to onion chopping). When we suppress tears we ruin digestion and weaken immune system.
-Fear makes us pale because it sends blood to muscles to fight or flight.
-Praising your partner lowers your cholesterol level.
-Shame increases stress hormone cortisol which can constrict arteries and increase one’s heart rate.
-Arguing produces more Cytokins which can slows down healing process. High levels of Cytokins can lead to cancer, heart disease and arthritis.
-Short term stress can strengthen immune system and help fight cancer but chronic stress can impair memory and even lead to diabetes and heart disease.

The power of prayer has also now been accepted widely in the scientific community. That you pray is important; who you pray to, is irrelevant. What is important is that your mind should get flooded with a sense of reverence and gratitude. Feelings of gratitude triggers Oxytocin as a result blood pressure decreases and immune system becomes stronger and healing processes in the body speed up.

I will use my favorite couplet from Sant Kabir to make my point.
“Dukh me sumiran sab karen, Sukh me karen na koi ,
Jo sukh me sumirun kare, so dukh kahe ko hoi.”

This verse is often misunderstood because we attribute sukh to material gain and people get unhappy when that material gain they were praying for are not realized. We often forget that we seek material gain only because we think that will give us happiness and absence of it will lead to unhappiness. Happiness is our true wish that we are seeking. When we pray in true spirit seeking nothing but happiness it comes to us naturally. It is like that five year old who runs feverishly to catch a butterfly but it escape him and when he sits down tired, the butterfly comes and sits on his hand. My two penny worth of suggestion is that while praying never ask for quantitative gains; simply ask that results (outcomes) lead you to the path of happiness. Or if you are blessing someone, bless that they find happiness in what the life has in store for them.

Let me end here. This post is already getting too long as this is my favorite topic. (Health is only my second favorite.) Next week we will start focusing on Chronic Diseases.
•••••••••••••••••••• LMK

•• Physical Activity ••

The third pillar of health is physical activity. An inactive lifestyle ranks as number five in terms of risk factors for death and number 6 in terms of risk factors for disability. Dietary risks and smoking are the top two factors for both these risks. The diet is the 800 pound gorilla in the room when it comes to health but after diet and detoxification, physical activity is the third most important factor for good health.

Exercise helps in areas such as mental health, cognitive health, sleep quality, cancer prevention, diabetes management, CVD, immune function, high blood pressure and lifespan extension.

The question that follows is ideally how much should one exercise. The 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans issued by the US Government recommend only 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic exercise which is actually down from previous recommendation which advised at least 30 minutes per day, by the Surgeon General.

Often these advisories fall victim to a frame of mind that, “why advise some thing which would not be followed”. So they tone down their advice to what they think is achievable rather than informing us what the science says. It is very common in issuance of dietary guidelines also.

I will not dwell too much on this subject. Most of you are aware of importance of exercise. My goal is to cover some basic minimum activities and exercises essential for good health.

1. Walking: There are many factors where the benefits lie on a continuum but to make a point it helps to pick a number. Walking is one such factor. It is fairly well established that more you walk each day the better it is for health.
Research shows that more you walk the lesser is your all cause mortality rate. Walking 90 minutes a day is better than walking 60 minutes a day which in turn is better than walking 30 minutes a day. Walking facilitates the flow of lymphatic fluids from our lymph nodes which are near our underarms and upper leg joints.

2.The speed of walking is important from cardiac workout point of view. I recommend a pace of 110-130 steps per minute. The body should achieve a stress level of 85% of it’s maximum capacity for some duration during the day. The way to compute our maximum pulse capacity is to subtract our age from the number 220. That gives us the maximum pulse rate. So for a 70 year old the maximum pulse rate is 150. It should be once goal to achieve 85% of that maximum for at least 5 minutes twice daily.

3.The third factor to consider is that we should not sit for long durations. The research has shown that sitting for long periods is almost as harmful as smoking.

To cover the three points mentioned above, I recommend five minutes of activity for every waking hour of the day. And two five minute sessions of cardiac workout where your pulse reaches the 85% of capacity. That adds up to about 10,000 steps each day. The best way to monitor this is by using a Fitbit or Apple Watch.

The study of various Blue Zones around the world where people live the longest disease free life has also shown that the average number of daily steps people walk there is over 13,000.

Of course the extreme of everything is bad.

Swimming, biking, tennis or badminton are other options.

4.Besides walking, it is important to provide movements to our vertebrae to exercise those muscles which are holding the back in place. It is important to do some exercises for the back which cover all four types of movements:
-Forward and backward bend
-Sideways bend to left and right
-Twist in both directions
-Compression and extension
Yoga is the best way to exercise these movements.

5.It is important for muscles and bone health, to do some stress training. This can be achieved by some basic exercises like: squats, pushups, pull-ups and sit-ups.

6.Practice of Pranayama can go a long way in improving and maintaining health. The role of patterns of breathing in health recovery is only now being recognized in the western world as shown by the award of 2019 Nobel Prize in physiology to research that shows how human cells respond to different levels of oxygen.

To summarize, the active lifestyle is key to good health and it is best to make a routine that can be followed regularly.
The attached video by Dr Greger discusses some research on the subject.
••••••••••••••••••• LMK

•• Therapeutic Fast (2) ••

Extended fasting should be practiced slowly. Those who have been doing intermittent fasting will find it easy to extend fast to 24 hrs by skipping breakfast and lunch only and eating dinner at the regular time.

Once you are able to do 24 hr. fast comfortably skip the dinner also and eat at your regular time breakfast or brunch (whatever is your daily routine). This way you have achieved 40 hrs. fast. When you are doing water only fast you would be urinating a lot and it is recommended to add some Himalayan salt to your water. That salt does not harm you. At True North Clinic one is under medical supervision and doctors decide for you based on your blood chemistry.

I advise against fasting for over 72 hours without supervision. People who are suffering serious illnesses should consult their physicians before starting the practice of fasting.

The fruit fasting I mentioned was to include the most common form of fast practiced in India where on the fasting day you skip breakfast and lunch and only eat dinner but that dinner is Falahar (no cereals or beans or legumes).

When we fast for therapeutic purposes and not for weight loss purposes the goal is to achieve autophagy which starts when body runs out of protein and it also typically starts after 24 hours. Fruits such as apple are the lowest in protein (only 2%). So even while breaking the fast at night the autophagy is maintained for another 12-16 hours till next day breakfast.

I will be sending more posts on the subject.

Recipes

Whole wheat Pao bread - Recipe

2¼ teaspoons Active dry yeast
2½ tablespoons Sugar
¼ cup Lukewarm water

Mix in yeast and sugar and water. Allow it to sit for 5 mins. It should be frothy and bubbly.

For the dough:
3 cups Whole Wheat Flour Atta
1½ teaspoons Salt
½ cup Oil (I used Coconut oil)
1¼ cup Water OR buttermilk (I used Amond milk with 1 teaspoon of vinegar).Start with 1 cup. If needed slowly add the ¼ cup.

Some ghee/butter to brush the top

Knead the dough with all the ingredients. Cover the dough with a damp cloth and let it rest for 2-3 hours in a warm place. The dough should double in size and become airy and puffy.

Remove the dough from the bowl and knead for 5-10 minutes. This step is important for dough elasticity and gluten formation. If the dough feels sticky dust it with some extra atta and you should be good.

Divide into equal parts and make round balls. Arrange the dough balls in a greased baking tray. Cover it with again with a wet cloth and let it rise for another 30 minutes to an hour.

Preheat over on 180 for 10
Mins. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes. If the top is not brown in the desired time, take the pavs closer to the top heating element and let it sit for 1-2 minutes until top is light brown in color.
Once done, brush them with some ghee/butter immediately after taking it out. They would turn red upon brushing.

This is my first post. A cake that can be enjoyed as a treat but it has eggs. I thought once in a way we can have this I usually go for 1/2 cup dates but if they are sweet you can go lower

4 eggs
4tbsp of olive oil
300 gms of almond flour(basically ground almonds to look like Maida)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
4 average size apples
1/2 - 3/4 cup pitted dates
Juice of 2 oranges

Chop up the apples
Add dates and orange juice to it. Boil the lot up and mush it up into a purée
Whisk eggs and oil. Whisk in the almond flour and baking powder. Fold in the purée.

Bake at 170’C fir about 25-30 minutes. It’s yum

Herbs & Spices
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Sugar: The Bitter Truth
Metabolic Syndrome
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Ancel Keys & The 7 Country Study
Here is the issue of TIME I am referring to.
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Aggressive vs Moderate Approach to Treatment
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Fresh vs. Frozen
Organic vs. Non-Organic
Fiber as Nutrient
Nutrients We Need
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Protein Myth.
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Reduce Healthcare Costs and Increase Tacit Knowledge

PATENT PENDING

St. Louis College of Pharmacy, St. Louis

University Hospital - MU Health Care

About the patent Inventor: Umesh Bhargava, BS., B. Pharm., MS., Ph. D., R. Ph. is a first-generation Indian American who completed his MS in Pharmacy from St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 1961, shown above on the left. Then started Research Assistantship on Black Walnut with Missouri University Hospital at Columbia, shown on the right. While on Research Assistantship, he did his Ph. D. in Pharmacology in 1967 with the research on Pharmacology of Ellagic Acid from Black Walnut. Ellagic Acid is a polyphenolic compound present in many fruits and vegetables which works against diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc., that became popular on the internet between 1970 and 1990. Ellagic Acid might have popularized the consumption of fruits and vegetables in people who believed Vegan lifestyle. According to Oncologists, a published report, Ellagic Acid was the best discovery of the decades. Fruits like pomegranate, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, walnuts, and pecans are rich in ellagic acid.

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Programs & Services - HHS

HHS administers more than 100 programs across its operating divisions. HHS programs protect the health of all Americans and provide essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves.

Social Services - Programs and services such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Head Start, child care, and child support help individuals, families, and communities.	Prevention & Wellness HHS agencies offer resources to help you eat smart, exercise regularly, and get routine health screenings and vaccinations.	Providers & Facilities Locate health care providers and facilities, compare your options, and find resources for caregivers.
Public Health & Safety - HHS agencies offer resources to help you and your family stay safe by informing you about food, drugs, medical devices, violence prevention, and more.	Emergency Preparedness & Response - HHS leads the nation in preventing, preparing for, and responding to the adverse health effects of public health emergencies and disasters.	Research - Learn how HHS expands scientific understanding of health care, public health, human services, biomedical research, and availability of safe food and drugs.
Featured Topic Websites - Discover HHS websites on topics such as the flu, vaccines, tobacco, health care, mental health, food safety, bullying, HIV/AIDS, and more.	Education & Training Opportunities - Find HHS education and training opportunities for health professionals and students including loans, scholarships, and training programs.	Complaints & Appeals - Find out how to file a complaint or appeal a decision related to health information privacy, civil rights, Medicare, and more.

Health Literacy

"Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information needed to make appropriate health decisions.
Low health literacy is more prevalent among:

Older adults
Minority populations
Those who have low socioeconomic status
Medically underserved people"

What is our role in promoting health literacy?

Health literacy is a common thread through all of our programs. A large portion of the people we serve are poor and medically underserved.

They need help understanding and navigating a complex health care system. They require culturally competent providers who speak their language so they can make informed health care choices. A number of patients may be confused with certain medical language, have difficulty understanding English, struggle with filling out forms, or have limited access to health providers in their community. With the proper training, health care professionals can identify patients' specific health literacy levels and make simple communication adjustments."

The healthcare sector relies heavily on knowledge that is evidence-based information, diagnoses, and treatments that are implemented quickly in a patient’s best interests in treating patients. In the healthcare industry, the correct information can quite literally save lives—but only if professionals can have the ability to access it quickly from anywhere, at any time. HHS provides evidence-based, timely health information to the public participating through its main partners FDA, CDC, NCI, NIH, and NAID. A website containing such information would reduce overall healthcare costs in America by eliminating unnecessary expenses.

The Information and resources related to evidence-based programs and policies are shown below:

Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)
A group of medical and public health experts that develops recommendations on how to use vaccines to control diseases in the United States
CDC Guidelines and Recommendations
One-stop shop for guidelines or recommendations developed by CDC (and CDC collaborations with other organizations and agencies), or by CDC federal advisory committees; includes recommendations, strategies, and information to help decision makers choose courses of action in specific situations
Prevention of HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STDs, and TB Through Health Care Website
Information on policies and practices that leverage the healthcare system to help prevent HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, STD, and TB infections
Compendium of Proven Community-Based Prevention Programs External
Compendium of 79 evidence-based disease and injury prevention programs that have saved lives and improved health
Guide to Community Preventive Services (The Community Guide)External
Resource that helps users choose evidence-based programs and policies to improve health and prevent disease in communities
Prevention Status Reports
Reports that highlight—for all 50 states and the District of Columbia—the status of public health policies and practices designed to prevent or reduce 10 important public health problems
US Preventive Services Task Force External
Independent panel of nonfederal experts in prevention and evidence-based medicine that conducts scientific evidence reviews of a broad range of clinical preventive health care services and develops recommendations for primary care clinicians and health systems

With my experience in the hospital, this website is suitable for the hospitals. But it can be used by any industry that wants to reduce healthcare costs for their employees by improving health and educating them with health information. The website contains evidence-based healthcare information and tools when adopted on a large scale would reduce overall healthcare costs in America. The website also has a provision for users to enter their information on ten or more website pages if the user wants. The Department of Health and Human Services has launched Healthy People 2030, with the goals for this decade as follows:

Attain healthy, thriving lives and well-being, free of preventable disease, disability, injury, and premature death.
Eliminate health disparities, achieve health equity, and attain health literacy to improve the health and well-being of all.
Create social, physical, and economic environments that promote attaining full potential for health and well-being for all.
Promote healthy development, healthy behaviors, and well-being across all life stages.
Engage leadership, key constituents, and the public across multiple sectors to take action and design policies that improve the health and well-being of all.

The update addresses personal health literacy and organizational health literacy and provides the following definitions:

Personal health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the ability to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.
Organizational health literacy is the degree to which organizations equitably enable individuals to find, understand, and use information and services to inform health-related decisions and actions for themselves and others.

In 2015 the U.S. spent nearly $9,000 for the health of every American — far more than what the governments of other countries spend on the health of their citizens – yet life expectancy and health outcomes are generally worse for Americans than for citizens of other developed nations in North America and Europe.

For the reasons of the high cost to treat disease in America, "disease prevention should be woven into all aspects of our lives, including where and how we live, learn, work and play. Everyone—government, businesses, educators, health care institutions, communities and every single American—has a role in creating a healthier nation.

The website has five major sections. 1. User Section: The home page entitled hospital has many links to get health information quickly. The home page is like an independent website to learn anything about healthcare. If the hospital wants to add specific information for their departments, this is the place to provide it. 2. Most Economic Burden Diseases: Describe diseases like arthritis, diabetes, chronic diseases, health literacy, heart disease, and stroke. 3. CDC Main Categories: Data & Statistics, Diseases & Conditions, Emergency Preparedness, Environmental Health, Featured content, Global Health, Healthy Living, Injury, Violence, & Safety, State, Tribal, Local, & Territorial, Travel Health, Workplace Safety & Health, and Other. 4. Media Type: Infographics, Microsites, Videos, and Widgets & CDC TV. 5. Footer: The footer is also like an independent website available on every website page. Here employees can make comments after reading articles to get credit for CE.

About the patent Inventor: Umesh Bhargava, BS., B. Pharm., MS., Ph. D., R. Ph. is a first-generation Indian American who completed his MS in Pharmacy from St. Louis College of Pharmacy in 1961, shown above on the left. Then started Research Assistantship on Black Walnut with Missouri University Hospital at Columbia, shown on the right. While on Research Assistantship, he did his Ph. D. in Pharmacology in 1967 with the research on Pharmacology of Ellagic Acid from Black Walnut. Ellagic Acid is a polyphenolic compound present in many fruits and vegetables which works against diabetes, heart disease, cancer, etc., that became popular on the internet between 1970 and 1990. Ellagic Acid might have popularized the consumption of fruits and vegetables in people who believed Vegan lifestyle. According to Oncologists, a published report, Ellagic Acid was the best discovery of the decades. Fruits like pomegranate, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, cranberries, walnuts, and pecans are rich in ellagic acid.

The healthcare sector relies heavily on knowledge that is evidence-based information, diagnoses, and treatments that could be implemented quickly in a patient’s best interests. CDC and others have tried to record this knowledge and communicate through different mediums such as articles, prints, audios, microsites, videos, widgets, and other records that can be quickly and easily transmitted from one individual to another for easier use. But the healthcare industry is so complex that no matter what the delivery system is. It involves multiple professionals in diverse workplaces collaborating to deliver proper care to patients. In addition, it requires tacit knowledge in the form of expert opinion gained through years of experience. Learning is a continuous process, but the goal of this website is to increase this knowledge to provide decision-makers with the tools they need to turn information into a Permanent Tacit Health Knowledge Asset within the healthcare facility they use it.

A healthcare website can create a more efficient flow of information between all your doctors and staff; nurses, pharmacists, respiratory therapists, and dieticians, which could ultimately increase healthcare efficiency and productivity. Developing this type of Tacit Health Knowledge Asset would decrease Healthcare Costs when adopted in most hospitals in America. On this website, I have tried to bring information from many sources outside to gain users experience.

By using the Walnut Healthcare Global System creative tool, every hospital has a chance to achieve maximum productivity through increasing healthcare efficiency by involving multi-talented groups of people within the hospital and technology working together to reduce healthcare costs. This website provides a lifelong educational offerings experience that develops management competencies and improves professional skills vital to succeeding through this tool. A separate booklet on the Self Power Leadership is available to management upon request.

The Self Power Leadership: An introductory guide to The Self Power Leadership and how to succeed at it.
By Umesh C. Bhargava, Ph. D., Walnut Healthcare Global System Creative Business Tool

How to Grow the Tacit Health Knowledge Asset? This knowledge or know-how is embedded or rooted in the mind of talented people, acquired through years of experience, expanded by getting together with talented people, as it is hard to communicate on this subject, sometimes it may be better to let the minds of people speak to each other through socialization as it can increase creativity and innovation in your organization. START A DISCUSSION BETWEEN EACH OTHER PICK A TOPIC.

Generally, a royalty is an agreement between the inventor (the licensor) and manufacturer, publisher, agent, or user (the licensee). In this case, the licensor has permitted to let the other users, or the hospitals use the inventor's ideas and creations free of royalty fees, as long as the licensee keeps the intellectual property performing well by allowing the maximum benefit to both parties, the licensor, and licensee, who have interest in the success this creation. There is no single way to charge or not charge royalty rates at the beginning. When you know the value of the patents, trademark, or copyright, you’ll be able to calculate the royalty rates more accurately and decide what to do. In the beginning, a licensing agreement will be made between the licensor and the licensee, free of charge for at least one year. But each customer has to pay yearly operation fees to maintain the website. Walnut Healthcare Global System owns and will continue to develop the four websites. Customer services and educational advocacy are to be provided by Walnut Healthcare. Each hospital or business will build the Tacit Health Knowledge Asset by their plan using the website and the Walnut Healthcare Global System Creative Tools as appropriate. Walnut Healthcare is the facilitator and completes the contractual agreements to start the process. Walnut Healthcare Global System can also add information to the customer's portion of the website at a low cost to make the site more useful to the business. We have four different websites for customers to test. For more information or questions, please contact [email protected].

Walnut Healthcare Global System (WHCGS) Creative Tools

The Walnut Healthcare Global System developed the Creative Tools to achieve maximum productivity through increasing health literacy involving multi-talented groups of people and technology working together to achieve the best results to reduce healthcare costs. Together with discovering the drivers of spending and spending growth in US health care. How do the organization’s strategy and decision-making processes impact total spending and value, and how to control them? Lifelong educational offerings that develop management competencies and improve professional skills are vital to succeed through this tool.

You also need Self Power learned with experience; it is that kind of power that helps you see things through your inner eye. For “The Self Power” to work, organizations need to create an environment that encourages creativity and innovation. Creativity in art increases boundaries beyond norms; for example, in recent years, woodturning has become an artistic craving for Sarena Bhargava’s creative expression, allowing her to explore the organic splendor and diverse energy of wood to create her art. Each piece of wood has a story to share and how it is transformed into a distinctively inspired expression of beauty and function. The art in the movie can be seen in the filmography at the International Movie Database (IMBd) by clicking here. Creativity and innovations can benefit humankind in many ways – Linda Naiman, founder of Creativity at Work. Institutions should focus on bringing together multi-talented groups of individuals who collaborate to exchange ideas and knowledge to shape different directions of the future.

Our mind works like a global brain that connects with other people using the different systems without even knowing them. For a computer to work, it needs an internet connection, the global brain works using other methods, and your mind expands manifolds and handles complex problems without any personal interference. Organizations led by such leaders would have a higher success rate in innovation, employee engagement, for any change, and renewal.

This website is the result of three patent applications working on the following concepts:

The first patent application deals with Providing and Spreading Health Literacy in Unique ways through Websites using Phones, WhatsApp, and Computers Singularly or in Combination with the Public and Healthcare Professionals to Decrease Nation's Healthcare Costs. The patent shows a website can effectively spread healthcare information to the public and healthcare professionals in a cost-effective manner on a large scale using 10,250 healthcare articles from the CDC that can theoretically be increased to a maximum of 250,000.

The second patent application deals with "Our mind works like a global brain that connects with other people using the different systems without even knowing them. For a computer to work, it needs an internet connection but, the global brain works using other methods, and your mind expands manifolds and handles complex problems without any personal interference. Organizations led by such leaders would have a higher success rate in innovation, employee engagement, any change, and renewal."

"The Walnut Healthcare Global System is a creative tool to achieve maximum productivity through increasing health literacy involving multi-talented groups of people and technology working together to achieve the best results to reduce healthcare costs. Together with discovering the drivers of spending and spending growth in US health care. How do the organization’s strategy and decision-making processes impact total spending and value, and how to control them? Lifelong educational offerings that develop management competencies and improving professional skills are vital to succeed through this tool.

The Self Power can be learned, it is that kind of power that helps you see things through your inner eye. For “The Self Power” to work, organizations need to create an environment that encourages creativity and innovation. After that, they should focus on bringing together multi-talented groups of individuals who collaborate to exchange ideas and knowledge to shape the direction of the future."

The third patent application deals with the design of the website. The website was created by making hundreds of websites, doing research, and using art and creativity on making websites with colors for over six years. Design thinking draws upon logic, imagination, intuition, and systemic reasoning to explore all possibilities as shown on the following figure.

According to Linda Naiman, founder of Creativity at Work. creativity and innovations can benefit humankind in many ways "What if you could repair your body at the cellular level? Could food be grown right in the crowded cities where people live? How far can we extend the human life span?"

“Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower.” Steve Jobs

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Albert Einstein

Artist's mind works differently than other people woodturning has become an artistic craving for Sarena Bhargava’s creative expression, allowing her to explore the organic splendor and diverse energy of wood. Each piece of wood has a story to share and how it is transformed into a distinctively inspired expression of beauty and function. These creative expressions can be seen in her filmographic work at the International Movie Database (IMBd): by clicking here.

To learn about Art and Health Creative Innovations go to the following sites:

Artist Gallery (5 pages)
Complete Happiness to Cure for all Pain and Suffering
Creative Mind Expansion
How does the Global Brain Work?
What is Creativity? in Website: https://artandhealthadvocates.weebly.com/ (Use password 1234)
Who is Artist? in Website: http://www.communitycare.cc/
Zen Happiness

From Harvard 12 ways to cut health care costs

In the healthcare industry, the correct information can quite literally save lives—but only if professionals can have the ability to access it quickly from anywhere, at any time. The Internet has shifted toward more patient-centered care, enabling consumers to gather health-related information themselves; communicate with care providers, health plan insurance companies, and other consumers electronically; and even be willing to receive care in the home. Healthcare Knowledge in the form of links from many sources is shown below:

CDC A-Z Index 👈
👉A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #
CLEAR HEALTH FROM NIH 👈
👉A B C D E F   G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

NHS A-Z LIST OF COMMON ILLNESSES AND CONDITIONS INCLUDING THEIR SYMPTOMS, CAUSES AND TREATMENTS

👉A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

DAILYMED      MEDLINEPLUS®      MICROMEDIX      UPTODATE


A-Z INDEX (NIOSH) FOR WORKPLACE SAFETY & HEALTH TOPICS
👉 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U   V W X Y Z

👉OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION (OSHA'S) >> A TO Z INDEX👈

Diabetes Mellites👈

4 Steps to Manage Your Diabetes for Life
Diabetes and Women
Diabetes and Your Feet
Diabetes Features & Spotlights
Diabetes-Related Press Releases and Media Advisories
Evaluation Resources
Fact Sheets
Flu & People with Diabetes
Gestational Diabetes
Gestational Diabetes and Pregnancy
Health Care Providers 
How to Save Money on Diabetes Care
Infographics
Making Physical Activity a Part of a Child’s Life
Making Physical Activity a Part of an Older Adult’s Life
Managing Diabetes
Prediabetes: Your Chance to Prevent Type 2 Diabetes
Prevent Type 2 Diabetes in Kids
Reports and Publications
Social Media
Videos and Podcasts
Webinars and Videos

Heart Diseases👈

Additional Health & Medical Online Resources (See Disclaimer on Table below)

American Cancer Society - cancer.org
Fighting cancer with research, education, patient care, and rehabilitation.

CDC - cdc.gov
Fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.

Department of Health and Human Services - hhs.gov
Principal agency for protecting the health of U.S. citizens.

Drugs.com - drugs.com
Easy-to-read drug information and useful online tools including a pill identifier.

Epocrates - epocrates.com
Point of care diagnostic and treatment information for doctors. Subscription required.

Everyday Health - everydayhealth.com
Personalized health advice, tools, and communities.

Healthline - healthline.com
Condition and procedure topics, symptom checker, and pill identifier.

Mayo Clinic - mayoclinic.org
Award-winning medical and health information for healthy living.

MedicineNet - medicinenet.com
Authoritative medical information for consumers.

Medline Plus - medlineplus.gov
Diseases, symptoms, injuries, and more with photographs and illustrations.

Medpage Today - medpagetoday.com
Latest clinical and policy coverage geared towards health care professionals.

Medscape - medscape.com
Medical information for specialists, physicians, and industry professionals.

Merck Manuals - merckmanuals.com
The world's most widely-used medical guides, available online.

NIH - nih.gov
Focal point for medical research in the United States.

OpenMD - openmd - Also see: Health Site Directory
Health search engine spanning thousands of medical organizations and government databases.

RxList - rxlist.com
Drug information for consumers and medical health professionals.

UpToDate - uptodate.com
Evidence-based clinical decision support resource for health care providers.

WebMD - webmd.com

Thousands of medical entries from abdomen to zygote.

Doctor Reviews

CareDash - caredash.com
Provider ratings and patient reviews. Make informed decisions about your health.

Castle Connoly
Top doctors based on peer nomination and review by a physician-directed research team.
castleconnolly.com

Health Grades - healthgrades.com
Details on provider's experience, patient satisfaction and hospital quality.

U.S. News Health - health.usnews.com
Directory includes 750,000+ physicians and surgeons.

Vitals - vitals.com

Find, rate or check up on a doctor in the United States. Search by location, specialty or ailment.

Zocdoc - zocdoc.com
Find a doctor and book an appointment. Read verified doctor reviews and ratings by patients.

Medical Journals

BioMed Central - biomedcentral.com
Provides open access to hundreds of peer-reviewed medical journals.

Free Medical Journals - freemedicaljournals.com - Also see: Free Medical Books
Site that promotes and links to free full-text medical journals and resources.

JAMA - freebooks4doctors.com
The most widely circulated peer-reviewed medical journal in the world.

New England Journal of Medicine - nejm.org
Publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial opinion.

PubMed Central - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Free digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature.

Child and Teen Health

Girls Health - girlshealth.gov
Reliable, supportive health information for girls ages 10 to 16.

Partnership for a Drug Free America - drugfree.org
Answers and guidance on drug abuse, prevention, and treatment.

Pregnancy Helpline - thehelpline.org
Education and information for those experiencing pregnancy related issues.

Teen Health - kidshealth.org
Honest information and advice about health, relationships, and growing up.

DISCLAIMER: The following website links provide information relating to healthcare and education decisions. The website has these Internet links as a courtesy to our users. The website inventor does not take responsibility for the accuracy, availability, or content of these external site.

Medical Information web sites

AARP MedicareRx Plans United Healthcare
Antibiotics Dosing (Johns Hopkins)
DailyMed (Current Medication Information)
EMedicine (Online Medical Textbook)
F D A - US Food and Drug
GlobalRPh.Com
Institute For Safe Medication
Lexi-Comp
MedicineNet.com
Perinatology
PREVLINE (Prevention Online)
PubMeD Central Journal
ResourceClinical - Clinical & Prescribing
RPhWorld.com (Drugs, calculators)

DRUG/HEALTH CARE FOR CONSUMERS

CVS Caremark
Directory of Spine Specialists
Drug.Com
Free Medication Programs
Everyday Health
Healthline
Mayo Clinic Health Information Center
MedLine Plus Site - Drugs/Medical A-Z
National Library of Medicine (World's Largest Medical Library)
Preventive health Services
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (Healthfinder.gov)
Walgreens (Walgreens Website)
WebMD
Weight Watchers

HEALTH INFORMATION FOR PROFESSIONALS

C D C - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
www.emedicine.com
Hardin.MD
National Institute of Aging
Perinatology
UK National Health Service
W H O - World Health Organization: Health Topics

NURSING WEBSITES

PEDIATRIC WEBSITES

American Academy of Pediatrics
CHADD Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
KidsHealth
Medem
MedCalculater
Pediatric Dosage Calculator
Pediatric On Call
Perinatology

PHYSICIAN WEBSITES

Americal Medical Association
Am Academy Family Phys
British Medical Journal
DailyMed (Current Medication Information)
DocFinder
Family Doctor
Family Practice Notebook
Health Grades
Infectious Diseases Society of America
Medicare Participating Physician Directory
Medpage Today
MedScape (Free CME Resource For Physicians)
New England Journal Medicine
PDQ® – National Cancer Institute
Perinatology

Other Useful Links

SOURSE MEDICALNEWSTODAY owned by Healthline Media >>>	Medical & health news posted daily with advertisements on the right
Health Conditions Alzheimer's & Dementia Arthritis Asthma & Allergies Breast Cancer Cancer Cardiovascular Health COVID-19 Dermatology & Skincare Diabetes Environment & Sustainability Exercise & Fitness Epilepsy Flu Headache & Migraine	Health Conditions Health Equity HIV & AIDS Hypertension Inflammatory Bowel Disease LGBTQIA+ Men's Health Mental Health Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Nutrition Parkinson's Disease Psoriasis Rheumatoid Arthritis Sexual Health Women's Health
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HELPFUL LINKS

Clinical Resources and Tools

Clinical Tools:

Maternal Patient Safety Bundles developed by the former Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Health Care.
Maternal Early Warning Signs (MEWS) Protocol developed by the former Council on Patient Safety in Women’s Health Care.
Toolkit for Improving Perinatal Safety developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).
Guide to Patient and Family Engagement in Hospital Quality and Safety developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

Healthcare Professional Education:

POST-BIRTH Warning Signs Education Program developed by the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN).
Back to Basics: Foundations for Mindful Care developed by the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN).
Eliminating Preventable Maternal Mortality and Morbidity from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
Maternal Cardiac Conditions: Addressing a Leading Cause of Pregnancy-Related Death--Webinar hosted by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

Implicit Bias and Stigma:

March of Dimes’ Professional Education, including Implicit Bias Training focused on maternity care.
Beyond Labels: Reducing Stigma developed by March of Dimes.
SPEAK UP Program by the Institute for Perinatal Quality Improvement.
- Video: A Physician Shares Stories about Listening to Black Women
AWHONN Insights Podcast: The Impact of Implicit Bias in Healthcare
Healthy Equity, Implicit Bias, Stigma & Antiracism developed by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Health Equity and Cultural Awareness:

American Medical Association (AMA) Center for Health Equity.
Importance of Social Determinants of Health and Cultural Awareness in the Delivery of Reproductive Health Careexternal icon by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
Birth Equity developed by the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN).
Think Cultural Healthexternal icon developed by the Office of Minority Health.
The EveryONE Project™ developed by the American Academy of Family Physicians.

Additional resources related to maternal health and pregnancy-related complications.

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