Functional Performance Systems

Functional Performance Systems updated their business hours.

FPS' "Master List: Ray Peat, PhD Interviews" blog is done with the help of Dropbox's public links which are about the phased out on September 1st. This means the links to the audio interviews will not be functional if something isn't done.

If anyone can offer assistance to FPS with regards to a workaround or an alternative to Dropbox public links please contact FPS at [email protected].

Thanks for your help.

Two Reasons Conventional Medicine Will Never Solve Chronic Disease

Medicine is great for acute problems, trauma, emergencies, and surgery. It's subpar for chronic health problems.

#1: The wrong medical paradigm
"Today things aren’t quite so simple. The average patient sees the doctor not for an acute problem, but for a chronic one (or in many cases, more than one chronic issue). Chronic diseases are difficult to manage, expensive to treat, require more than one doctor, and typically last a lifetime. They don’t lend themselves to the “one problem, one doctor, one treatment” approach of the past.

Unfortunately, the application of the conventional medical paradigm to the modern problem of chronic disease has led to a system that emphasizes suppressing symptoms with drugs (and sometimes surgery), rather than addressing the underlying cause of the problem."

"Recognizes the mismatch between our genes and our behavior and environment as the primary driver of chronic disease; and
Focuses on preventing and reversing the underlying causes of disease, rather than just suppressing symptoms"

#2 The wrong delivery model
"First, it’s not structured to support the most important interventions. As I mentioned above, the primary causes of the chronic disease epidemic are not genetic, but behavioral. It boils down to people making the wrong choices about diet, physical activity, sleep, stress management, etc.—over and over again, throughout a lifetime.

This makes it clear that one of the most important roles healthcare providers should play is supporting our patients in making positive behavior changes.

Unfortunately, the conventional medical system makes this extremely difficult. The average patient visit with a primary care provider (P*P) lasts about 10 to 12 minutes, and the average P*P has about 2,500 patients on his roster. If a patient has multiple chronic conditions, is taking several medications, and presents with new symptoms, it is nearly impossible to provide quality care during that 10-minute visit.

Once the initial intake and review of medications has taken place, there’s just barely enough time to prescribe a new drug for the new symptoms—and no time at all for a detailed discussion of diet and lifestyle factors that might be contributing. And since the P*P has 2,499 other patients and is already overworked, there’s no other time or place for that kind of discussion."

"What’s more, if 95 percent of the appointment is spent talking about symptoms and medications and only the last 5 percent on potential diet and lifestyle causes and solutions—what do you think the patient will take more seriously?"

chriskresser.com Chronic disease is shortening our lifespan, destroying our quality of life, bankrupting governments, and threatening the health of future generations.

The Colossal Hoax Of Organic Agriculture

Forbes rips into the organic food industry.

"Many people who pay the huge premium—often more than 100%—for organic foods do so because they’re afraid of pesticides. If that’s their rationale, they misunderstand the nuances of organic agriculture. Although it’s true that synthetic chemical pesticides are generally prohibited, there is a lengthy list of exceptions listed in the Organic Foods Production Act, while most “natural” ones are permitted. However, “organic” pesticides can be toxic. As evolutionary biologist Christie Wilcox explained in a 2012 Scientific American article (“Are lower pesticide residues a good reason to buy organic? Probably not.”): “Organic pesticides pose the same health risks as non-organic ones.”"

"Speaking of trust and faith—or lack thereof--in organic foods, there was the example of holier-than-thou Whole Foods importing large amounts of its supposedly “organic” produce from China, of all places. Those imports even included Whole Foods' house brand, “California Blend.” (Yes, you read that correctly.)

Organic agriculture is an unscientific, heavily subsidized marketing gimmick that misleads and rips off consumers, both because of the nature of the regulations and cheating. The old saying that you get what you pay for doesn’t apply when you buy overpriced organic products."

forbes.com Organic agriculture is an unscientific, heavily subsidized marketing gimmick that misleads and rips off consumers. The federal government should stop promoting and subsidizing it.

Metabolic switch may bring on chronic fatigue syndrome

Youthful, healthy people are using carbohydrate predominantly for energy. This is efficient, high energy, and low stress for cells. The diseased, starving, diabetic, fatigued, and old are using less carbohydrate for energy and depend more on other substrates, like fats, for energy. This is inefficient, low energy, and high stress for cells.

Ketosis and low carb strategies are denying people optimal wellness for the sake of fat loss (i.e. using stored fat for energy); but this ultimately results in fatigue cells and, in turn, fatigued people.

Correcting fatigue and degenerative issues, as Dr. Peat's work suggests, involves coaxing the metabolism back to using carbohydrate for energy. If you're intentionally avoiding carbohydrate in the diet, your body has no choice but to go the inefficient route.

===============

"It’s as if a switch has been flicked. Evidence is mounting that chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) is caused by the body swapping to less efficient ways of generating energy."

"But several lines of investigation are now suggesting that the
profound and painful lack of energy seen in the condition could in many cases be due to people losing their ability to burn carbohydrate sugars in the normal way to generate cellular energy.

Instead, the cells of people with CFS stop making as much energy from sugar as usual, and start relying more on lower-yielding fuels, such as amino acids and fats. This kind of metabolic switch produces lactate, which can cause pain when it accumulates in muscles.

Together, this would explain both the shortness of energy, and why even mild exercise can be exhausting and painful."

"The result is not unlike starvation, says Armstrong. “When people are facing starvation, the body uses amino acids and fatty acids to fuel energy for most cells in the body, to keep glucose levels vital for the brain and muscles as high as possible.”"

"Both s*xes had high levels of several enzymes known to suppress pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH), an enzyme vital for moving carbohydrates and sugars into a cell’s mitochondria – a key step for fully exploiting sugar for energy."

“We don’t think it’s just PDH,” says Chris Armstrong at the University of Melbourne in Australia, whose research has also uncovered anomalies in amino acid levels in patients. “Broadly, we think it’s an issue with sugar metabolism in general.”

newscientist.com CFS, also known as ME, may be caused by the body switching from fully breaking down carbohydrates to using other energy sources, bringing on pain and exhaustion

Unsaturated Fats and Heart Damage – Functional Performance Systems (FPS)

The coconut oil hate train has started in the media recently due to the continued stupidity of the American Heart Association, which resurrected old dumb ideas about saturated fat causing heart disease by raising "bad" cholesterol, use statin drugs, blah, blah, blah.

Medicine for chronic disease is in a sad state of affairs. Where are the droves of physicians calling BS on this charade?

J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol. 1986 Mar-Apr;6(3-4):115-21.
Medium chain triglycerides (MCT) in aging and arteriosclerosis.
Kaunitz H.
"The Demographic Yearbook of the United Nations (1978) reported that Sri Lanka has the lowest death rate from ischemic heart disease. Sri Lanka is the only of the countries giving reliable data where coconut oil (containing over 50% medium chain fatty acids) is the main dietary fat."

Unsaturated Fats and Heart Damage
http://www.functionalps.com/blog/2012/01/31/unsaturated-fats-and-heart-damage/

Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2017/06/15/CIR.0000000000000510

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Ray Peat, PhD Quotes on Coconut Oil
http://www.functionalps.com/blog/2012/03/19/ray-peat-phd-on-coconut-oil/

Coconut Oil
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/coconut-oil.shtml

Cholesterol, longevity, intelligence, and health.
http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/cholesterol-longevity.shtml

functionalps.com Also see:Israeli Paradox: High Omega -6 Diet Promotes DiseaseUnsaturated Fats, Oxidative Stress, and AtherosclerosisThyroid Status and Cardiovascular Disease“Normal” TSH: Marker for Increased Risk of Fatal Coronary Heart DiseaseA Cure for Heart DiseaseHypothyroidism and A Shift in Death PatternsArac...

Common food additive promotes colon cancer in mice

A simple way to lessen cancer chances is to avoid carcinogens in food.

This article describes how two food emulsifiers, polysorbate 80 and carboxymethylcellulose, make mice susceptible to colon cancer. Check your labels!

Don't depend on your doctor for advice like this; cancer patients are often provided Ensure shakes which are an emulsifier-rich toxic soup (containing carageenan, soy lecithin, cellulose gum, and cellulose gel), not to mention corn oil and canola oil.

"Overall, these findings support the concept that agitating host-microbiota interactions to cause low-grade gut inflammation can promote colon carcinogenesis."

"The findings, published in the journal Cancer Research, show regular consumption of dietary emulsifiers in mice exacerbated tumor development."

"In this study, the team fed mice with two very commonly used emulsifiers, polysorbate 80 and carboxymethylcellulose, at doses seeking to model the broad consumption of the numerous emulsifiers that are incorporated into the majority of processed foods. Researchers observed that consuming emulsifiers drastically changed the species composition of the gut microbiota in a manner that made it more pro-inflammatory, creating a niche favoring cancer induction and development. Alterations in bacterial species resulted in bacteria expressing more flagellin and lipopolysaccharide, which activate pro-inflammatory gene expression by the immune system.

When using a well established model of colorectal cancer, the researchers observed that dietary emulsifier consumption was sufficient to make the animals more susceptible to developing colonic tumors because this created and maintained a pro-inflammatory environment associated with an altered proliferation/apoptosis (cell death) balance. The researchers observed that enhanced tumor development was associated with an altered intestinal microbiota, characterized by an increased pro-inflammatory potential."

sciencedaily.com Emulsifiers, which are added to most processed foods to aid texture and extend shelf life, can alter intestinal bacteria in a manner that promotes intestinal inflammation and colorectal cancer, according to a new study.

Aspirin May Prevent Cancer from Spreading, New Research Shows

Aspirin v. Cancer

"If ever there was a wonder drug, aspirin might be it."

"In recent years scientists have discovered another possible use for aspirin: stopping the spread of cancer cells in the body after an initial tumor has already formed."

"During the past century researchers demonstrated that aspirin inhibits the production of certain hormonelike substances called prostaglandins. Depending on where in the body these prostaglandins are produced, they may trigger pain, inflammation, fever or blood clotting."

"Researchers often inject tumor cells into the bloodstream of mice to approximate what happens during metastasis when cancer cells must navigate the bloodstream to find a new home in the body. When Battinelli and her team fed aspirin to certain strains of mice and then injected them with malignant cells, the investigators discovered that the platelets did not shield breakaway cancer cells from the immune system or produce the necessary growth factors that allow cancer cells to grow and divide in a new location. Thus, aspirin appears to fight cancer in two ways: its anti-inflammatory action prevents some tumors from forming, and its antiplatelet properties interfere with some cancer cells' ability to spread."

scientificamerican.com In addition to relieving headaches and preventing heart attacks, the drug seems to keep malignant cells from spreading

This doctor says he can ”reverse” abortions.

A controversial use of progesterone for apparent reversal of pill-induced abortion via mifepristone (RU486).

"So-called crisis pregnancy centers are well known for trying to convince women not to end their pregnancies. But George Delgado, a physician with a crisis pregnancy center called Culture of Life Family Services clinic in San Diego, California, takes the practice a step further: He claims to have developed a technique to reverse the effects of a pill-induced abortion."

"The abortion pill reversal protocol was born in 2009, when Delgado got a call about a woman in Texas who changed her mind after taking mifepristone. Then the medical director of Culture of Life Family Services, Delgado reasoned that progesterone, a hormone given to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage, might help. He found a Texas physician who agreed to give the woman progesterone injections. According to Delgado, it worked, and the woman carried the pregnancy to term.

After that, says Delgado, more requests started coming in. In 2012, Delgado co-authored a case study reviewing the experiences of six women who’d contacted him for abortion reversals after taking mifepristone. Each were given doses of progesterone, which latches onto the same hormone receptors as mifepristone, and four of the six carried pregnancies to term. Through the study, Delgado got in touch with a North Carolina doctor, Matthew Harrison, who claims he oversaw the first successful reversal in 2007. Together they created the Abortion Pill Reversal group, which boasts foundational principles such as, “It is reasonable and appropriate to respect a woman’s right to choose to reverse a medical induced abortion.”"

"In a review of the literature on mifepristone, Dr. Daniel Grossman and others point out that Delgado’s study did not have approval from an institutional review board, which usually monitors research involving human subjects. Nor does the study actually make the case that the women’s pregnancies continued because of the mifepristone; as Grossman explains, taking mifepristone alone—without misoprostol—can result in a continued pregnancy up to 46 percent of the time, depending on the dosage and the gestational age of the fetus. In other words, doing nothing after taking mifepristone might be as effective as the progesterone doses."

"Delgado counters that the method makes “biologic sense” and that “further criticism of our work isn’t warranted.” In an interview with Mother Jones, Delgado pointed to what he called the “three pillars” that back up abortion pill reversal: first, the fact that progesterone interacts with the same hormone receptors as mifepristone, thereby, at least theoretically, canceling out the effects of the abortion drug. (Grossman points out that mifepristone is known to bind more tightly to those receptors than progesterone.) Second, Delgado points to a Japanese study involving pregnant rats that were given mifepristone and progesterone and did not abort. The third pillar, Delgado says, are the two new studies his team is publishing this year. One of those studies, which has not yet been submitted for peer review, will look at the hundreds of cases the group has documented since 2012, according to Delgado."

motherjones.com And pro-life lawmakers are taking notice.

How Do Hormones Affect Emotions?

If too much estrogen makes menstruating women feel poorly, then why is it deemed the "female hormone"? If there was a "female hormone," progesterone is it, not estrogen.

"3. Estrogen hormones are the female hormones. If they are normal and balanced by progesterone (from the corpus luteum in the second half of the menstrual cycle) a woman feels well. There is a condition called estrogen dominance where too much estrogen is circulating in relation to progesterone, and these women have the following symptoms:

Irregular or otherwise abnormal menstrual periods
Decreased s*x drive
Bloating (water retention)
Breast swelling and tenderness
Fibrocystic breasts.
Headaches (especially premenstrually)
Mood swings (most often irritability and depression)

If the ratio can be normalized between progesterone and estrogen by the use of bioidentical progesterone, these symptoms disappear and the woman feels normal."

forbes.com How do hormones affect emotions? This question was originally answered on Quora by Ray Schilling.

Could Eating More Fat Reduce Your Risk of Suicidal Tendencies?

Lower cholesterol linked to increased risk of suicidality, su***de attempt, and su***de completion. Brain-stabilizing (steroid) hormones are made from cholesterol. Your liver is the primary source of cholesterol.

"While conducting a meta-analysis of 65 studies and looking at data from over half a million people, researchers discovered a strong correlation between low cholesterol readings and suicidality. Specifically, people with the lowest cholesterol levels had a 112 percent higher risk of suicidal thoughts, a 123 percent higher risk of su***de attempts, and an 85 percent higher risk of actually killing themselves. This was especially true for people under 40 years of age. The people with the highest cholesterol readings, on the other hand, had the lowest risk of suicidal tendencies."

Serum lipid levels and suicidality: a meta-analysis of 65 epidemiological studies
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4688029/

"We identified an inverse association between serum lipid levels and suicidality."

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The Truth about Low Cholesterol
http://www.functionalps.com/blog/2012/04/23/the-truth-about-low-cholesterol/

shape.com Lower cholesterol levels have been linked to increased suicidal tendencies, according to new research

Why Fat In Women Goes Straight To Thighs, Butts

Hormones affect fat storage potential, fat storage sites, and cellular energy production. This article implicates estrogen in:

--promoting fat storage especially around the hip and thighs
--biasing cellular energy use towards fats (free fatty acids) instead of glucose (as in diabetics; women are more likely to be diabetic that men as a result)

What is your strategy to manage estrogen at each menstrual cycle? And with aging (both men and women)? Do you have one?

"Though women store fat more readily than men, they also use it more when energy is needed. Michael Jensen examined free fatty acids in blood after an overnight fast. He noticed that women were releasing 40 percent more fatty acids into their bloodstream than men to serve the body's energy needs. But at the same time, women were also able to store those fatty acids into fat tissue much more quickly after waking. In fact, women stored two to three times more fat per unit of tissue then men did. So although women burn fat more readily during times of energy need, their bodies are also very quick to create fat by storing circulating fatty acids.

Women also burn more fat than men during prolonged exercise. It appears that women's bodies are designed to reach for fat more quickly during exercise, while men burn more carbohydrate and protein. In studies, when men were given estrogen, the opposite occurred - they decreased their carbohydrate and protein metabolism during exercise and increased their use of fat."

"Gender affects not just how much fat we have, but also where our fat is distributed...

As women might expect, estrogen causes the preferential distribution of fat to the thighs and butt, causing the bottom-heavy pear shape that is the fate of many females, whereas testosterone sends it to the belly, bestowing the typically male round-apple gut. Genetics also influences how our bodies interact with hormones and ultimately where we store our fat.

The effects of s*x hormones on fat are so powerful that when men are given estrogen, as in the case of transs*xuals, they gain body fat overall, even though their caloric intake is the same as before. Not only do they gain fat but they gain it disproportionately in the same places as women - the thighs and buttocks. The same works in the reverse - women-to-men transs*xuals taking androgens (male hormones) lose fat in the hips, buttocks, and thighs and gain it disproportionately in the belly. Even small changes in hormone distribution can cause dramatically different effects on our fat."

ndtv.com Exclusive excerpt from Sylvia Tara's book, The Secret Life of Fat

Gut microbiota plays a key role in treatment with classic diabetes medication

Metformin, a diabetes medication, alters intestinal flora and helps with glucose control in some diabetic patients. The intestines are definitely a site to consider when dealing with blood glucose regulation.

"A clearer picture of how the classic diabetes medication metformin works has emerged. A recent study at Sahlgrenska Academy and University of Girona indicates that the clinical effect -- control of blood glucose -- is achieved through modulation of the gut microbiota."

""It is fascinating that it is not entirely clear how metformin works, although it has been used clinically for 60 years," says Fredrik Bäckhed, Professor of Molecular Medicine, and the leading researcher behind the study published in Nature Medicine."

""Transplantation of the gut microbiota from patients before and after treatment to bacteria-free mice showed that the metformin-modified microbiota may at least partially explain the good effects of metformin on blood glucose control," says Fredrik Bäckhed.""

Metformin alters the gut microbiome of individuals with treatment-naive type 2 diabetes, contributing to the therapeutic effects of the drug
https://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.4345.html

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Endotoxin: Poisoning from the Inside Out
http://www.functionalps.com/blog/2011/11/20/endotoxin-and-liver-health/

sciencedaily.com The human body contains more bacteria than human cells. Most of these bacteria exist in the gut, which is the most densely populated ecosystem known today.

LED Light Therapy Could Radically Change Our Treatment of Brain Disease

Light therapy used with dramatic results on those with mild to moderately severe dementia or possible Alzheimer's disease.

Also of note is the importance of the enzyme cytochrome c oxidase and the harm of nitric oxide.

"As with the MIT results, preliminary data suggest that photons of light passing through the skull trigger a biochemical chain reaction in the brain that can potentially reverse the degenerative effects of Alzheimer's as well as treat a range of other brain maladies."

"These are people who haven't been able to speak in connected sentences for weeks or months who suddenly start having a conversation, speaking in full sentences, understanding and replying," Hamblin told Seeker. "People who had to be fed by caregivers can suddenly pick up a knife and fork and start eating their own meals. Remarkable changes."

Equally remarkable were the changes that occurred after the light treatments were stopped. The cognitive and behavioral benefits reversed almost immediately. The study called for a four-week period in which light treatments were suspended, but one patient's symptoms returned with such force that his family begged for the device back.

Scientists like Hamblin believe that PBM works by stimulating the mitochondria within cells to produce more ATP, the energy that powers cellular activity.

"The mechanisms are manifold," Hamblin explained. "Clearly you're boosting metabolism - ATP, oxygen consumption, brain energy. You're improving cerebral blood flow. But you're also stimulating the formation of new brain cells and the formation of new connections between existing brain cells. And together, these two processes comprise neuroplasticity, basically the brain's ability to reorganize itself, to repair itself."

"She explained that red light at 600 nm wavelengths and near-infrared light at 810 nm or 830 nm is absorbed by an enzyme inside cellular mitochondria called cytochrome c oxidase (CCO). In patients with brain injuries or disorders, the receptors on the CCO enzymes become clogged with nitric oxide.

"When you deliver near-infrared photons to that brain cell, the nitric oxide is pushed outside the cell wall, and that promotes increased blood flow, which is what you want in an area that's damaged," said Naeser. "And that's what we see on our MRI images, the increase in blood flow targeted to where we put the photons. I couldn't believe it. I was shocked.""

seeker.com Researchers are investigating the curious health benefits of shining light on the body, and the preliminary findings on illnesses such as...

Bees poisoned by pesticides could be saved by bursts of infrared light

Dr. Peat's work proving beneficial for bees as cheap infrared light provides bees the ENERGY needed to recovery from pesticide poisoning.

"The study, published in the journal PLOS One, found that two 15-minute bursts of infrared light were enough to reverse the effects of the neonicotinoid pesticide imacloprid on bumblebees. Bees that had been poisoned regained their ability to move and their survival rates improved significantly with the light treatment, the authors say."

"The infrared light acts on the mitochondria – the energy powerhouse of the cell – which are damaged by neonicotinoids, study author Glen Jeffery of UCL's Institute of Ophthalmology told IBTimes UK. A molecule in the mitochondria called cytochrome c oxidase is particularly affected by infrared light of the wavelength used in the study – 670 nanometers."

"The team poisoned some of the bees with imacloprid, treating some of them with infrared light and leaving others without. The consistency of the effects of the infrared light were startling, Jeffery says. "To be honest I nearly fell off my chair. We repeated it time after time after time – and time after time it worked.""

"Jeffery had previously done tests on old fruit flies with infrared light, and found that their mobility improves when exposed to infrared light. However he was original working on the effects of infrared light in human eyes, specifically in those who suffer from macular degeneration – a progressive condition that ends in loss of sight.

"All cells have got mitochondria supply the energy that cells generally need," Jeffery says. "I was working on the hypothesis that mitochondria in these eyes were suffering, there wasn't enough energy.""

"The effects of the infrared light on the mitochondria appear to last as long as the animals receive the pulses of light regularly. "It fits with the idea that if mitochondria decline, you're going to get systemic failure. And what the light does is get you over those problems. If you give it on a regular basis, certainly flies and mice remain perfectly happy for quite a period of time.""

"He adds that bees that have not been exposed to imacloprid also benefited from the infrared light. "They live longer. It's a win-win situation.""

ibtimes.co.uk Installing infrared lights in hives could help to save the plummeting bee population.