Gyroscopic Investing

MachineGhost wrote:

Reub wrote:So are all of you going to lace on your running shoes right now?

I "ski" in place for 20 minutes a day, 5x a week to target the optimal mortality reduction. I'm a fan of MEMR: minimum effort, maximum results.

If you don't like running, you can do the HIIT: 2 minutes slow, 30 seconds all out, repeat three times, for a total of 10 minutes a day. I posted that study somehwere else.

Reub wrote:Do you use a Nordic Track for the skiing? I used to have one before it got destroyed in Hurricane Sandy.

Benko wrote:How does one get a "gut analysis" done i.e. what company do you use and what is the test called?

Obesity and type 2 diabetes are characterized by altered gut microbiota, inflammation, and gut barrier disruption. Microbial composition and the mechanisms of interaction with the host that affect gut barrier function during obesity and type 2 diabetes have not been elucidated. We recently isolated Akkermansia muciniphila, which is a mucin-degrading bacterium that resides in the mucus layer. The presence of this bacterium inversely correlates with body weight in rodents and humans. However, the precise physiological roles played by this bacterium during obesity and metabolic disorders are unknown. This study demonstrated that the abundance of A. muciniphila decreased in obese and type 2 diabetic mice. We also observed that prebiotic feeding normalized A. muciniphila abundance, which correlated with an improved metabolic profile. In addition, we demonstrated that A. muciniphila treatment reversed high-fat diet-induced metabolic disorders, including fat-mass gain, metabolic endotoxemia, adipose tissue inflammation, and insulin resistance. A. muciniphila administration increased the intestinal levels of endocannabinoids that control inflammation, the gut barrier, and gut peptide secretion. Finally, we demonstrated that all these effects required viable A. muciniphila because treatment with heat-killed cells did not improve the metabolic profile or the mucus layer thickness. In summary, this study provides substantial insight into the intricate mechanisms of bacterial (i.e., A. muciniphila) regulation of the cross-talk between the host and gut microbiota. These results also provide a rationale for the development of a treatment that uses this human mucus colonizer for the prevention or treatment of obesity and its associated metabolic disorders.

http://www.pnas.org/content/110/22/9066.long

SelfDecode has 6400 SNPs from the new 23andme chip and 700 SNPs with custom made content (and counting).

SelfDecode can analyze ~8700 SNPs in total (but the new 23andme chip only has 6400).

MachineGhost wrote:Best of the best. The rest of the analyzers only look at less than 100 SNP's.

SelfDecode has 6400 SNPs from the new 23andme chip and 700 SNPs with custom made content (and counting).

SelfDecode can analyze ~8700 SNPs in total (but the new 23andme chip only has 6400).

https://www.selfdecode.com/

MachineGhost wrote:http://s19.postimg.org/g1k7tggkz/screen ... _15_30.png[/img]https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jo ... b7e4b4.pdf

Mountaineer wrote:

MachineGhost wrote:http://s19.postimg.org/g1k7tggkz/screen ... _15_30.png[/img]https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jo ... b7e4b4.pdf

So, what is the bottom line of this picture and related hundreds (thousands?) of words in the link? What do I do with this information?

Benko wrote:Thanks for the info MG.

Mountaineer,

Complicated stuff and you could spend a book chapter if not a book on each of the nine areas*. If you look at the different boxes (as a place to start) you'll see a number of things that you're probably already familiar with e.g. inflammation and gut flora (bottom right box) as well as other topics e.g. DNA repair, teleomerases, autophagy (benefit from killing off damaged cells), mitochondria (powerplant for cells), NAD+ and Sirt 1 relevant to health/improved aging, etc.

*MG knows way more about this stuff than I. But all the complicated stuff doesn't supercede the basics e.g. sufficient sleep/rest and stress reduction, diet, exercise (aerobic, lifting), "basic supplementation", etc.

MachineGhost wrote: Curing cancer would only add three years to your lifespan, so it's much ballyhoo over nothing.

Maddy wrote:

MachineGhost wrote: Curing cancer would only add three years to your lifespan, so it's much ballyhoo over nothing.

MG, Would you mind explaining this statement? I take it to mean that statistically (i.e., averaged over large populations) cancer does not contribute meaningfully to shortened lifespan. This seems counter-intuitive. Is this because most cancers arise in older or sicker people who aren't going to live more than a few years more in any event?

While eliminating smallpox and curtailing cholera added decades of life to vast populations, cures for the chronic diseases of old age cannot have the same effect on life expectancy. A cure for cancer would be miraculous and welcome, but it would lead to only a three-year increase in life expectancy at birth. A cure for heart disease would be equally welcome, but we would gain only four-and-a-half years as a result. Gains in longevity from cures for diseases are much smaller today than one might expect because aging bodies face multiple lethal conditions—an effect known as competing causes. Competing causes in aging bodies means that those saved from dying from one condition will eventually face an elevated risk of dying from something else. Death is a zero sum game for which there is no cure.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technolog ... _time.html

Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the 400+ ingredients found in marijuana and is not psychoactive. Many states have passed laws allowing for the use of a CBD extract, usually in oil form, with minimal tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and often for the treatment of epilepsy or seizures in seriously ill children.

http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view ... eID=006473

A spectrum of illnesses afflict the children coming to Colorado for medical marijuana: cancer, autism, Crohn’s disease. Most, though, are seeking help for incurable forms of childhood epilepsy — diseases with names taken from medical-journal bylines: Dravet syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Doose syndrome.

The migration began just over a year ago, when CNN aired a documentary featuring a Colorado girl named Charlotte Figi, whose constant seizures caused her to stop speaking for months. While taking a form of the marijuana treatment, the seizures subsided, and she bloomed anew into a happy child seen laughing and playing in video clips. News stories began reporting that other children were seeing similarly miraculous results. To parents of kids with severe disorders, the articles seemed almost out of a storybook. So it was fitting that the brothers who grew the marijuana for the kids named their product Charlotte’s Web.

Smaller numbers of children in California and other states have also begun to use marijuana to treat seizures. But what makes Colorado the epicenter is the state’s large medical marijuana system, which allows for kids to be registered patients; the growing community of families with sick children; and the feedback loop of publicity that surrounds the treatment. Every happy story about a family seeing success with cannabis in Colorado pushes another family to move here.

Today, there are 427 children under 18 on the state’s medical marijuana registry, including 13 under 2 years old. That total number is up from just 60 in August 2013, when the documentary aired. More arrive every month.

http://extras.denverpost.com/stateofhope/#part1

Our next several blogs will catalogue the various ways drug companies have ruthlessly promoted our nation’s deadly opioid epidemic. This first installment on just the latest outrage- political lobbying to block the legalization of medical marijuana. Future blogs will each tell other aspects of this sordid story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allen-fra ... 87182.html

MachineGhost wrote:Here's clarity on CBD oil legality...

Cannabidiol (CBD) is one of the 400+ ingredients found in marijuana and is not psychoactive. Many states have passed laws allowing for the use of a CBD extract, usually in oil form, with minimal tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and often for the treatment of epilepsy or seizures in seriously ill children.

http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view ... eID=006473

And a human interest story...

A spectrum of illnesses afflict the children coming to Colorado for medical marijuana: cancer, autism, Crohn’s disease. Most, though, are seeking help for incurable forms of childhood epilepsy — diseases with names taken from medical-journal bylines: Dravet syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Doose syndrome.

The migration began just over a year ago, when CNN aired a documentary featuring a Colorado girl named Charlotte Figi, whose constant seizures caused her to stop speaking for months. While taking a form of the marijuana treatment, the seizures subsided, and she bloomed anew into a happy child seen laughing and playing in video clips. News stories began reporting that other children were seeing similarly miraculous results. To parents of kids with severe disorders, the articles seemed almost out of a storybook. So it was fitting that the brothers who grew the marijuana for the kids named their product Charlotte’s Web.

Smaller numbers of children in California and other states have also begun to use marijuana to treat seizures. But what makes Colorado the epicenter is the state’s large medical marijuana system, which allows for kids to be registered patients; the growing community of families with sick children; and the feedback loop of publicity that surrounds the treatment. Every happy story about a family seeing success with cannabis in Colorado pushes another family to move here.

Today, there are 427 children under 18 on the state’s medical marijuana registry, including 13 under 2 years old. That total number is up from just 60 in August 2013, when the documentary aired. More arrive every month.

http://extras.denverpost.com/stateofhope/#part1

And surprise, surprise! Big Pharma is lobbying hard against medical marijuana. It's not just "law and order" narco-political apologist cronies like craigr and Reub that are against it.

Our next several blogs will catalogue the various ways drug companies have ruthlessly promoted our nation’s deadly opioid epidemic. This first installment on just the latest outrage- political lobbying to block the legalization of medical marijuana. Future blogs will each tell other aspects of this sordid story.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allen-fra ... 87182.html

MachineGhost wrote: EDIT: I found the source...

While eliminating smallpox and curtailing cholera added decades of life to vast populations, cures for the chronic diseases of old age cannot have the same effect on life expectancy. A cure for cancer would be miraculous and welcome, but it would lead to only a three-year increase in life expectancy at birth. A cure for heart disease would be equally welcome, but we would gain only four-and-a-half years as a result. Gains in longevity from cures for diseases are much smaller today than one might expect because aging bodies face multiple lethal conditions—an effect known as competing causes. Competing causes in aging bodies means that those saved from dying from one condition will eventually face an elevated risk of dying from something else. Death is a zero sum game for which there is no cure.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technolog ... _time.html

WiseOne wrote:

MachineGhost wrote: EDIT: I found the source...

While eliminating smallpox and curtailing cholera added decades of life to vast populations, cures for the chronic diseases of old age cannot have the same effect on life expectancy. A cure for cancer would be miraculous and welcome, but it would lead to only a three-year increase in life expectancy at birth. A cure for heart disease would be equally welcome, but we would gain only four-and-a-half years as a result. Gains in longevity from cures for diseases are much smaller today than one might expect because aging bodies face multiple lethal conditions—an effect known as competing causes. Competing causes in aging bodies means that those saved from dying from one condition will eventually face an elevated risk of dying from something else. Death is a zero sum game for which there is no cure.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technolog ... _time.html

And I wonder what their source is!

The numbers are probably about right, although increases in life expectancy from a starting point of, say, age 60 would be a better piece of information than life expectancy from birth.

It's a good point though. You gotta die of something, so the idea that a preventative regimen of some sort (statin, cancer screening etc) can "save lives" is just stupid, because no one's life can be "saved" in the end - only extended.

I once trolled through the literature looking for reports of how much life is extended by CABG (coronary artery bypass graft). A colleague wanted to compare life extension by CABG to that from epilepsy surgery. Turns out that CABG extends life expectancy by just 3 months. For epilepsy surgery, the calculation was 5 years. Not to mention that CABG actually has a worse cognitive impact than epilepsy (brain) surgery, because of the shower of microemboli to the brain that inevitably occurs during a CABG. This of course has no bearing on how likely a particular treatment is recommended, or reimbursed by insurance.

Reub wrote:Well, thanks for the compliment!