Health Hacks

There's lots of excess deaths this year, and little being done to investigate. Our health is the last of TPTB concern. So let's outsmart them. It's not too hard. Simple lifestyle changes can radically improve our health, but for the most part we are not informed about them. No, the solution to ill health is a script or a knife. Even where health care is provided (like the UK) the system is broken. This doctor, trained and practiced in the UK before coming to the US.
Why this Doctor is COMPLETELY disillusioned with Public Health and Modern Medicine

Dr Kory has had his own issues with big pharma and our medical system.

The two discuss the Vioxx scandal and Big Pharma among other topics.

There's something weird going on with public health. We've got lots of excess deaths happening right now. http://greeknewsondemand.com/2022/07/06/just-unheard-of-another-insuranc...

Another life insurance CEO has come forward and admitted that unexplained deaths in the US are off the scale, with Lincoln National reporting a 163 percent increase in death benefits paid out under group life insurance policies.

Meanwhile, as athletes and children continue dropping dead in unprecedented numbers, mainstream media is trying to convince the world that people are dying of heart attacks, blood clots and strokes due to previously unknown dangers such as “soil” and “sleeping.”

First it was CEO Scott Davison of OneAmerica who in January disclosed that deaths were up 40% among people ages 18-64:
“We are seeing, right now, the highest death rates we have seen in the history of this business – not just at OneAmerica. The data is consistent across every player in that business.”

And now we have the CEO of Lincoln National, the fifth largest life insurance company in America, corroborating the 40% surge in all-cause mortality.

These are one-in-a-trillion-year type events. You could add the mortalities from WW1 and WW2 and still not get such increases in death. This is staggering.

Why isn't this being discussed?

Well, Dr John brought it up this week. Why are people dying more than normal? (18 min)

Hundreds more people than usual are dying each week in England and Wales...and Not from Covid
Why?
John offers the following possibilities...
Pandemic response
Lockdown and restrictions stress
Reduced physical activity
Lack of access to healthcare
Delayer referrals for diagnosis and treatment
Cost of living crisis
People whose health was / is weakened by covid
Known increase risk of stroke and heart attacks
Vaccination
Increasing autoimmune disease
New medications used as covid treatments
(I have a hypothesis, I'll be interested in your thoughts in the comments.)

What to do?
“When in danger, When in doubt, Run in circles, Scream and shout”
was printed in the Infantry Journal in 1929.

Sorry that just isn't my approach. I suggest optimizing our health to promote long lives and feeling well. There are many techniques and the ones I want to focus on are inexpensive for the most part and don't require a doctor, they are self administered.

Dr Dhand is back with some studies describing the positive effects of lifestyle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy0HVzCw3Zg (12 min)
Drugs and Therapeutics have TINY percentage HEALTH benefits, compared to THIS. Let me go over some published studies on what will really produce the biggest health benefits for most people

Of course what we eat has a major effect on our health . I like to think of Food as Medicine.
Food As Medicine - Full Movie - Free
Food As Medicine is a documentary film that follows the growing movement of using food to heal chronic illness and disease.

Food As Medicine Preventing & Treating | Dr. Mark Hyman
In this video, Dr. Mark Hyman dives into Functional Medicine, gene expression, how greatly not just food, but our social spheres, affect our overall health and biology, and much more.
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Introduction
00:48​ Wonders of biology
04:09​ Model of describing disease is backward
06:00​ Fundamental factors of driving disease
08:53​ Optimizing biological sectors
09:28​ Functional Medicine Matrix
11:50​ The Super Gene
12:46​ Gene Expos-ion
14:54​ Dr. Mark Hyman’s Gene Analysis
20:56​ Food—the most powerful drug
23:56​ The power of Social Connection

Much of the importance of good diet is the effect on our gut microbiome (6.7 min)

The importance of the microbiome has really come to the fore in the last five years. Viome, a company that analyzed the feces of 100,000 people, has discovered 10,000 new types of gut bacteria.
Additionally, Improved imaging technology led scientists to discover you don't have just one microbiome, you have two. The second one is in your brain, populated by the same bacteria that live in your gut.
Simple habits can foster healthy gut and brain bacteria, which can help you live longer and age more slowly. Eat mostly vegetables, take fiber and prebiotics, and practice intermittent fasting, says Dave Asprey. https://bigthink.com/health/healthier-microbiome/

There is a connection between your gut biome and your brain.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/gut-brain-connection#TOC_TITLE_HDR_5
Millions of nerves and neurons run between your gut and brain. Neurotransmitters and other chemicals produced in your gut also affect your brain. By altering the types of bacteria in your gut, it may be possible to improve your brain health. Omega-3 fatty acids, fermented foods, probiotics and other polyphenol-rich foods may improve your gut health, which may benefit the gut-brain axis.

My first tool is fasting. This has powerful effects on our system and improves health in a multitude of ways. I came across this documentary which delves into the therapeutic use of fast over the last 100 years or so. (56 min)

Examines the growing interest in fasting as a treatment for cancer, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and other diseases. Journeying to the Goryaschinsk Spring Sanatorium on the shores of Lake Baikal, in southern Siberia, the film shows how decades of secret clinical studies conducted by Soviet and post-Soviet doctors have led to new applications for fasting and caloric restriction. Shows case studies of liver damage reversal and arthritis mitigation at Germany's Buchinger Clinic, as well as the findings of an innovative gerontologist at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

For those of you who have not fasted, I know it sounds difficult. But it really isn't once you dive into it. Day 2 is the most challenging to me, but thereafter I can cruise through. YMMV.

Women, obviously, have different hormones and require other considerations when fasting. Here's an excellent conversation about those concerns.

Dr Mindy Pelz. She is a functional health expert. She specializes in women's health, fasting, and detoxing. There is so much info for men and women, although we are talking alot about Women fasting, and diet health relating to their cycle. Having data on women is helpful and is usually less available. We talk about coffee. We talk about wine and chocolate. We talk about so many different things that can really help with your health and help with your hormones. At the route of all of it are these sex hormones. This is information is something that will serve you well for the rest of your life. There is so much benefit in fasting. I am about ready to go do myself a long fast, because she talked me into it.

In 1973 a 27 year old male fasted for 382 days (over a year) under the supervision of researchers from a Scotland University. This is the longest fast ever been recorded. This patient weighted in 456 pounds (~207 kg) and weighted out 180 pounds (~82 kg). So, he lost 276 pounds (~125kg) during his fast. Five years after the fast ended, the patient’s weight has been constantly around the values of 196 pounds. A.B. had no ill symptoms during and after the fast.
https://cristivlad.com/total-starvation-382-days-without-food-study/

My fasting guru is Jason Fung

(8 min)
I can't sing the praises of fasting enough. I feel better than I did 20 years ago. When you eat is perhaps more important than what we eat.

It appears our bodies respond positively to periods of the stress hunger as well as temperature extremes. Dr. Rhonda Patrick: Hormetic Stressors - Health Benefits of Sauna and Cold Exposure (42 min)

Sauna
(2.3 min)

Here are a few good reasons.
It’s relaxing. Face it, we live in a stressful world, one which can be uncomfortable and even unhealthy. In fact, locking out the world for a few minutes to decompress, sweat, and meditate provides a tranquility that is at the top of most people’s list. It can quite literally melt away the cares of the day.
Recent research has verified that major health benefits from sauna time are not just “feeling good” or a simple placebo, but real, tangible health boosting that can even be lifesaving. It appears that the more time spent in the glorified sweat box the better the result. Daily for at least 20 minutes seems to provide the maximum benefit. Middle aged men who sauna daily cut their chances of dying from a heart condition in half. Even a couple sessions a week lowered the incidence by over 25%. What’s more impressive is the finding that death from all causes is decreased by 40%. The Journal of the American Medical Association verifies these claims, though the actual mechanism is not fully understood.
Here’s an incomplete list of a number of documented health benefits that can be derived by regular sauna sessions.
- Heat is analgesic and helpful in dealing with the pain and stiffness of arthritis as well as relaxing tight muscles.
- Relieves stress and encourages tranquility, making for a deeper more restful sleep.
- Boosts metabolism and burns calories encouraging healthy weight loss.
- Can double the normal heart rate adding to cardiovascular health.
- Increases core body temperature, effectively giving you a short term fever helping to fight illnesses like colds and flues.
- Adding aromatherapy helps clear the sinuses and open the lungs.
- Provides a great time for social interaction or meditation.
- And finally, saunas just plain old feel good.
There are a many different ways to provide heat in a sauna: coals, hot rocks, heaters, and the newer forms of infrared that are touted to provide even more benefits. To some the sauna is a cure-all, a way of life, an addiction, almost a religion. Dr Weston simply says, “Give it a try, because heat does a body good.”

10 Proven Clinical Health Benefits of Sauna Use

1. Supercharge your cell power. Heat has been proven to positively impact your mitochondria, the ‘batteries’ powering your cells, helping your body naturally produce more energy and stay fit.

2. Slow down Father Time (aka: aging!). Cell regeneration means you slow the aging process. And if you’re not quite convinced, check out the 20 year study of Finnish men that links two to three sauna sessions per week with a 23% decreased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

3. Detoxify heavy metals and chemicals. Everyday exposure to potentially toxic heavy metals through a variety of sources means even the most health conscious people still have toxins in the body. Regular sauna bathing helps excrete toxins such as arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.

4. Make your heart happy and healthy. A 2018 study found that sauna bathing four to seven times per week reduces the risk of death from cardiovascular disease by as much as 58%.

5. Reduce blood pressure. Sauna heat helps widen blood vessels and improve circulation, which reduces blood pressure.

6. Optimize athletic performance. Blood flow improvements from hyperthermic conditioning (heat conditioning) sends more blood to the heart, leading to an increase in plasma and red blood cell volume. That process delivers more oxygen throughout the body, fueling athletic performance.

7. Improve muscle function and recovery. As more blood flow and oxygen is delivered throughout the body, muscles increase in size and muscle breakdown is diminished. One study showed that two, one-hour sauna sessions for seven days straight increases production of the human growth hormone (HGH) by two to five times.

8. Fuel weight loss. Regular sauna use is shown to regulate the appetite, increase metabolism, and improve oxygen utilization, helping to fuel weight loss along with a reduction in body fat.

9. Boost brain function. The brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF increases with regular sauna use, activating the growth of new brain cells, better maintaining existing cells, and improving neuroplasticity, the brain’s process for forming new neural connections.

10. Ignite your immune system. Heat exposure from sauna use increases the heat shock protein, stimulating antigen-presenting cells, along with releasing cytokine, thus stimulating the body’s natural immune system.

11. BONUS BENEFIT: improve emotional health and mood. When your body and brain are healthy, detoxified, and destressed, and you’ve boosted endorphins, your overall mood and emotional health improves.

If (like me) you don't have access to a sauna, it isn't too difficult to build a sweat lodge.
https://www.youthwork-practice.com/games/Build-sweat-lodge-Sauna.html
How To Build A Sweat Lodge (For Free!)video here.
The first nations peoples used sweat lodges as a ceremony to promote physical and spiritual health.
https://www.doyou.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-sweat-lodge-ceremonies/

Cold treatment...
The health benefits of cold exposure
In this 6 min video, I discuss some of the benefits of cold to at least have you consider cold showers, ice baths and other methods of cold exposure. Click to learn more about potential improvements in fat and fat loss, immune function, stress, depression, circulation and much more. Always talk to your doctor before trying this or any other health treatment. If you are interested in cold exposure, try it and see how it works for you.
https://www.doctorkiltz.com/ice-bath/
https://michaelkummer.com/health/ice-bath-benefits/

In response to cold-water immersion and similar techniques like cryotherapy, the body increases circulation of norepinephrine. This physiological response sets off a cascade of adaptive effects with extreme rapidity that affects metabolism, the brain, and genetic expression.
https://www.foundmyfitness.com/topics/cold-exposure-therapy
video here

The most extreme is Wim Hof (43 min)
BECOMING SUPERHUMAN WITH ICE MAN - Wim Hof

We've admired the pioneering work of Wim Hof for years now from afar. This January however we got an opportunity to spend four days with him in the mountains of Poland. We didn't know what to expect. We had no idea that Wim was at a place in his life where he wanted to push his findings to the next level....we had no clue that we were his experiments in proving just how powerful the mind is.
If you want to learn more about Wim's method, go visit:
https://www.wimhofmethod.com

In the short term, stress quickens your heart rate and breathing and increases your blood pressure. When you're constantly under stress, your adrenal glands overproduce the hormone cortisol. Overexposure to this hormone can affect the function of your brain, immune system, and other organs. Chronic stress can contribute to headaches, anxiety, depression, heart disease, and even premature death.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/what-meditation-can-do-fo...

Types of meditation

Meditation comes in many forms, including the following:
Concentration meditation teaches you how to focus your mind. It's the foundation for other forms of meditation.
Heart-centered meditation involves quieting the mind and bringing the awareness to the heart, an energy center in the middle of the chest.
Mindfulness meditation encourages you to focus objectively on negative thoughts as they move through your mind, so you can achieve a state of calm.
Tai chi and qigong are moving forms of meditation that combine physical exercise with breathing and focus.
Transcendental Meditation is a well-known technique in which you repeat a mantra—a word, phrase, or sound—to quiet your thoughts and achieve greater awareness.
Walking meditation turns your focus to both body and mind as you breathe in time with your footsteps.

Forest Bathing

Shinrin-Yoku, (Forest Bathing) Try out a digital version in the 6 minute video below

The practice originated in Japan where it is called shinrin-yoku (森林浴). Proven by scientists to benefit physical as well as mental health Shinrin-Yoku helps to lower heart rate, blood pressure, reduce stress hormone production, boost immunity and mood and improve overall feelings of wellbeing.

Forest Bathing | Shinrin-Yoku | Healing in Nature | Short Documentary (4.5 min)

Nature does calm us and improve our health in a variety of ways.

The Art and Science of Forest Bathing with Dr Qing Li
Forest Medicine expert, Dr Qing Li's research has proven that spending time around trees (even filling your home with house plants and vaporising essential tree oils) can reduce blood pressure, lower stress, boost energy, boost immune system and even help you to lose weight. In this video, filmed in Blackwood Forest, Dr Li introduces forest bathing, why it originated in Japan, and explains why you need to get out into the forest today.

The concept is to take a “bath” in the forest by letting nature enter all five senses. Qing Li, associate professor at the Nippon Medical School in Tokyo and president of the Japanese Society of Forest Medicine, argues that the sense of smell is most important.

“The effect of forest bathing is the total effect, but the biggest effect is from the olfactory, smell, we call them phytoncides. Also, people call them essential oil, aroma.” Li’s research has shown that trees’ aromas, known as phytoncides, boost our body’s NK (natural killer) cells which help fight tumors and virus-infected cells. Phytoncides are the medical equivalent of essential oils; the most effective aroma is Japanese Cypress.

Yoga is another approach for better health.
People often practice yoga to reduce stress and aid relaxation. Scientists are now learning the mechanisms behind how yoga lowers stress.

Exercise also has numerous health benefits.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/in-depth/exercise/a...

And we come full circle back to our gut microbiome.
Both bacterial diversity in the gut and regular exercise are important when it comes to health. But how are the two related? A new study uncovers the effect that exercise has on our health by adjusting the balance of the gut microbiome. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324465

Another benefit of of exercise and activity is it helps us sleep.

Good sleep improves your brain performance, mood, and health. Not getting enough quality sleep regularly raises the risk of many diseases and disorders. These range from heart disease and stroke to obesity and dementia.
There’s more to good sleep than just the hours spent in bed, says Dr. Marishka Brown, a sleep expert at NIH. “Healthy sleep encompasses three major things,” she explains. “One is how much sleep you get. Another is sleep quality—that you get uninterrupted and refreshing sleep. The last is a consistent sleep schedule.”...
“When we sleep, the brain totally changes function,” she explains. “It becomes almost like a kidney, removing waste from the system.” Her team found in mice that the drainage system removes some of the proteins linked with Alzheimer’s disease. These toxins were removed twice as fast from the brain during sleep.
Everything from blood vessels to the immune system uses sleep as a time for repair, says Dr. Kenneth Wright, Jr., a sleep researcher at the University of Colorado.

https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2021/04/good-sleep-good-health

There are a variety of strategies to improve sleep. Many people use melatonin. I like my homemade magnesium water. I drink 6 oz before bed.

Bottom line we need sleep to heal.

Speaking of healing, I wish we could heal our fraying society here and abroad. I heard an interesting conversation yesterday about the inevitable splintering of our society...

In his dystopian novel Splinterlands, John Feffer looks ahead to life on planet earth in the year 2050. The signs of societal breakdown in the not-so-distant future, if we look, are already apparent in our world today. Feffer follows them to their logical conclusion. The climate is at war with the human species and every other species. The European Union, overrun with climate refugees, has disintegrated. China and Russia have folded in on themselves, as has the United States, where fractious and violent militias and gangs battle over diminishing resources. Splinterlands, with wry, black humor, is told by the octogenarian geo-paleontologist Julian West, mortally ill from one of the latest pandemic variants. This is a Mad Max world of water wars, imitation foods made from seaweed, inequality, disease, and sleeper terrorists. In the latest installment of The Chris Hedges Report, Chris speaks with Feffer about his book, the climate crisis, and where we are headed as a species.

transcript here

We've been divided in so many ways...left, right - urban, rural - owners, workers - vaxed, unvaxed... We dehumanize those we consider "the other" - immigrants, trans, supremacists, and so on, in order to justify their mistreatment. Has it been created purposefully or is this state of 'othering' something we came by organically?

So it is much easier to tend to our individual health than our collective societal condition. I continue to hope for the collapse of the USD before we start a hot WWIII. If, or perhaps when, that happens I fear it will mark the disintegration of the society with have-nots pitted against those who still have something. At that point, something like the book Splinterlands seems inevitable.

It would be a good idea to be a member of a community for mutual support at that time. I'm glad to have this community at C99 to help see through the fog of the future and plot a course. Take care and be well! I look forward to your thoughts and ideas below. It is an open thread and the floor is open.