Simple Science 🌿

A lot of the stuff they absolutely believe.

I have many colleagues who really want the best for children + it breaks their heart what they see as children being harmed by vaccines.

Can't vouch, of course for people I've never met like Prasad or RFK, though in years past his work seemed genuine.

They definitely strongly believe that giving a vaccine at birth for something people don't catch until they are teenagers makes no sense. That it put babies at risk.

On the other side is the explanation from public health that you have to grab the opportunity and that vaccines are not harmful.

Two cats sleeping on a chair. The gray cat is underneath and the black and white cat is stripped over him in a way that looks completely uncomfortable.

I assure you they are comfortable #caturday

Once you add sugar and artificial flavors and colors, I think then I would call it ultra processed.

But interestingly, yogurt you make it home has a higher diversity and abundance of beneficial bacteria.

That's a great question. Many of the added ingredients are harmful, but also useful aspects of food are stripped out in UPFs.

Eg. healthy food feeds our gut bacteria, which create critical substances that benefit all the organs in the body.

UPFs are lacking the components we need for this.

A blanket with the vague outlines of a cat

Gray and white cat with green eyes, looking at the camera, super cute

#caturday Visiting my niece-cat Emmy. You'll have to trust me, she is under there, her happy place these days 🥰

I don't know what this is trying to say, are we judging the healthfulness of a food by the number of calories per 100 g?

Yes, and a lot of it is mediated through the gut microbiome.

The problem is how difficult it is to avoid artificial light at night! I believe one way to reduce the impact is to get some exposure to the sun around sunset.

There are so many things you can do for blood pressure that get at the root of the problem. Stretching, isometric exercise, nitric oxide supplements.
All these are backed by decent research.

The lived effects of adversity are complex: sometimes virtue emerges, but not always, and for some, hardship brings harm rather than growth

Black and white cat settling down for a nap, looking up with her yellow eyes

#caturday Azalea taking it easy today. No zoomies yet. Done exploring the kitchen for stray treats.

The article multiplies the sense of awe and wonder. Thanks for posting.

What if Fluoride was Never Safe? The Bitter Truth About Fluoridation

What toxicologists (vs. dentists) think: open.substack.com/pub/blanphea...

Here, one of the leading third-party testers found 6/10 brands they tested did not contain any.

The ones that did were some of the more expensive ones costing $1.6-$10/day (similar to what you described since you need 1g/day).
TBF some contain a combination of mitochondrial nutrients.

broccoli, chick peas, walnuts, seeds, tofu

Can vegans build as much muscle as omnivores?
yes, but they need ~30% more total protein
plant proteins have lower bioavailability—you need more volume to match the anabolic response
1.5-1.6 g/kg vegan with proper leucine = 1.0-1.2 g/kg omnivore outcomes
shorturl.at/LYWIN

It's exciting this worked, but this is an extremely expensive supplement, and I wonder what other practices might provide similar benefits.

Urolithin A is a gut bacteria derived metabolite, but you need both the right bacteria and the right food intake.

young woman who doesn't need to lose weight is resistance training

During weight loss you need DOUBLE the protein
not "a bit more"—literally 1.6-2.4 g/kg instead of 0.8-1.2 g/kg
one study: 40% calorie deficit + 2.4 g/kg protein = GAINED muscle while losing fat
1.2 g/kg group lost muscle despite eating "enough"
shorturl.at/LYWIN

oats, broccoli, meat, cheese, eggs, nuts

Suprising fact:
active people need 0.8 g/kg protein to maintain muscle
sedentary people need MORE (1.6 g/kg) for the same result
exercise makes you 2x more efficient at using dietary protein
this is why online protein debates miss the point—context matters more than numbers
shorturl.at/LYWIN

beans, peas, nuts, avocado, meat, eggs, and milk

longevity researchers: eat less protein
muscle researchers: eat more protein
twist: they're both right
high protein in middle age → 4x cancer risk
high protein after 65 → lower mortality
same nutrient, opposite effects at different ages
nobody's explaining this
shorturl.at/LYWIN

That's my business, though, and I can tell you there's no country that really does proactive healthcare.

Anyways, public policy, agricultural policy, and the like do more for people's health overall. But we still need medical care, of course.

Other fun fact, we already pay more through various ways for patchy healthcare than people in other countries pay for universal healthcare.

Graphic showing the interaction of CRP with endothelial cells, macrophages, neutrophils, complement, and fibrosis. From Luan YY, Yao YM. The Clinical Significance and Potential Role of C-Reactive Protein in Chronic Inflammatory and Neurodegenerative Diseases. Front Immunol. 2018

CRP doesn't just measure inflammation—it actively damages blood vessels, worsens insulin resistance & accelerates disease. Lowering it isn't cosmetic, it's protective. This is why it's a key longevity marker you can actually change. shorturl.at/LYWIN

Graphic showing the interaction of natural killer cells with healthy or infected host cells. From; https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-biology2/chapter/t-and-b-lymphocytes/

Low lymphocyte % predicts 30-80% higher mortality risk. It signals immune aging—your body losing capacity to fight infections & cancer. Stress, poor sleep & malnutrition all suppress these critical cells. Measure it, improve it.
shorturl.at/LYWIN

Graphic showing 7 different aging clocks including PhenoAge. Image from: Li Piani L, Vigano' P, Somigliana E. Epigenetic clocks and female fertility timeline: A new approach to an old issue? Front Cell Dev Biol. 2023

Your real age is in your blood, not your birthday. PhenoAge uses 9 markers to show how fast you're aging. Unlike DNA tests, these respond to sleep, diet & exercise—changing in just 3-6 months. Biological age beats chronological age every time. shorturl.at/LYWIN

This arose in the context of LDL targets. People with higher LDL have a relative risk of all cause mortality that is lower than 1, but the 95% confidence interval crosses unity.

So, in practice, what should we tell people with higher LDL?

Interestingly, and this is not about your frustration, I was just reflecting on this statistical significance problem.

As a physician, if a treatment has a 75% chance of being helpful, I'm likely to recommend it. I don't need it to be 95% or 97% correct in order to recommend it.

It's always fascinating to me that some people think in ways that would never in 1 million years have occurred to me.

And they make it their *mission,* yes, it's self serving, but I think they deeply believe in it.

Well, they're surely the ones brilliant enough to see it.

This is a very serious philosophical argument and has serious pushback as well. Do you hold back society when you insist on justice, or lose the valuable contribution of all the people you oppress?

They believe that justice holds exceptional people back.

I've seen this discussed seriously on LinkedIn.

A new COVID wave, already spreading to other countries, likely to come to the US.

Evidently due to waning immunity and not to a new variant.

I got my booster this past week. Found Novavax at Costco and decided not to delay.