Weather you believe in a cheat day or not there are some points here that are spot on when it comes to developing a diet plan that is congruent with longevity and better living.

Tim attempts to hack away at the core principles of nutrition and develop a system that not only helps you lose weight but control dangerous spikes in blood glucose. This is not revolutionary, Tim just made a timely entrance to a well-documented idea that a slow carb lifestyle coupled with smart supplementation can be a very good weight loss (and quite possibly life extending) solution.

The Slow Carb Diet is all about optimizing blood glucose. But just what is too much blood glucose? You may be surprised that what your doctor has told you may not be what you really need to know.

Over the next several weeks I am going to make you sick of glucose. But you are going to see that the 4-Hour Body is just a starter kit on your way to understanding and optimizing your life (as well as your blood glucose levels).

If you are serious about your health and enhancing your 4 hours of life there are some fascinating new advances that might surprise you.

Today we are going to look at glucose by the numbers and then over several posts we are going to hack away to improve on what you have already learned in the 4 Hour Body.

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GLUCOSE: THE SILENT KILLER

The deadly effects of even slightly elevated glucose are fatally misunderstood.

One reason for this calamity is as medical professionals we continue to rely on obsolete blood glucose ranges. We fail to recognize that any excess glucose creates lethal metabolic pathologies that are underlying factors behind multiple age-related diseases.

People today thus suffer and die from diabetic-like complications without knowing their blood sugar (glucose) levels are too high!

For quite some time researchers have argued that most aging people have elevated blood glucose. This position has been vindicated as mainstream medicine consistently lowers the upper-level threshold of acceptable (safe) fasting blood glucose.

As new evidence accumulates, it has become abundantly clear that maturing individuals need to take aggressive actions to ensure their fasting and after-meal glucose levels are kept in safe ranges.

Glucose Is Like Gasoline

Our body’s primary source of energy is glucose. All of our cells use it, and when there is not enough glucose available, our body shuts down in a similar way that a car engine stops when the gasoline tank is empty.

When glucose is properly utilized, our cells produce energy efficiently. As cellular sensitivity to insulin diminishes, excess glucose accumulates in our bloodstream. Like spilled gasoline, excess blood glucose creates a highly combustible environment from which oxidative and inflammatory fires chronically erupt.

Excess glucose not used for energy production converts to triglycerides that are either stored as unwanted body fat or accumulate in the blood where they contribute to the formation of atherosclerotic plaque.

If you were filling your automobile with gasoline and the tank reached full, you would not keep pumping in more gas. Yet most people keep fueling their bodies with excess energy (glucose) with little regard to the deadly consequences.

As an aging human, you face a daily onslaught of excess glucose that poses a greater risk to your safety than overflowing gasoline. Surplus glucose relentlessly reacts with your body’s proteins, causing damaging glycation reactions while fueling the fires of chronic inflammation and inciting the production of destructive free radicals.

The Evolving Definition of Type 2 Diabetes

Medical dictionaries define diabetes as a condition whereby the body is not able to regulate blood glucose levels, resulting in too much glucose being present in the blood. The debate is over what level of blood glucose is considered “too high.”

Nearly four decades ago, many experts began emphatically stating that fasting blood glucose should be below 100 (mg/dL). Yet from 1979 to 1997, the medical establishment dictated that one of the criteria for a diagnosis of diabetes was fasting glucose readings of 140 mg/dL or higher on two separate occasions.

In 1997, the medical establishment revised the fasting glucose threshold for a diagnosis of diabetes to 126 mg/dL. In addition, the medical establishment (American Diabetes Association), characterized the so-called impaired fasting glucose threshold level at 110 mg/dL, which was subsequently lowered in 2003 to what was originally postulated, i.e. that no one should have fasting glucose 100 mg/dL or higher.

The problem is that we now know that the optimal fasting glucose ranges are 70-85 mg/dL based upon the totality of the scientific evidence.

Those with glucose above 85 mg/dL are at increased risk of heart attack. This was shown in a study of nearly 2,000 men where fasting blood glucose levels were measured over a 22-year period. The startling results showed that men with fasting glucose over 85 (mg/dL) had a 40% increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease.

The researchers who conducted this study stated “fasting blood glucose values in the upper normal range appears to be an important independent predictor of cardiovascular death in non diabetic apparently healthy middle-aged men.”

So pull out your latest blood test result and see where you stand. At a minimum, you want to see your fasting glucose below 86 mg/dL.

WHERE DOES BLOOD GLUCOSE COME FROM?

Glucose accumulates in the blood primarily from carbohydrate foods we eat.

Less understood is the role of saturated fats that impair insulin sensitivity. When cells lose their sensitivity to insulin, glucose levels increase because it is not able to be utilized by energy producing cells. When people take compounds that block fat absorption and carbohydrate breakdown, fasting glucose levels plummet, along with triglycerides and cholesterol.

Digested carbohydrate foods are the primary source of blood glucose. We can control blood glucose by reducing calorie intake, blocking calorie absorption, and/or enhancing the ability of our cells to efficiently utilize glucose for energy production.

Why Any “Excess” Glucose is Dangerous

Sugar damages cells via multiple mechanisms and is a causative factor in common diseases of aging.

In a group of humans who reduced their food intake to calorie restriction levels, fasting glucose declined to an average of 74 mg/dL. This corresponds to animal studies in which caloric restriction induced significant reductions in blood glucose in conjunction with extension of life span.

It is well established that cutting calorie intake reduces one’s risk of age-related diseases and slows markers of aging.  One reason for this may be the reduction in blood glucose (and insulin) levels that occurs in response to ingesting fewer calories.

In a study of 33,230 men, high glucose was independently associated with a 38%increase in deaths from digestive tract cancers.  Other studies show that diabetics have even greater increased cancer risks.

Diabetics suffer such horrific incidences of vascular disorders that some experts believe that coronary artery occlusion and diabetes should be classified as the same disease. In other words, if you are diabetic, you are almost certainly going to suffer coronary atherosclerosis.

In a recent study involving 1,800 people, coronary disease rates were the same over a 10-year period in pre-diabetics compared to those with full-blown diabetes. The authors of the study commented that impaired fasting glucose significantly increased risk in comparison with the normal glucose group and concluded:

“Early control of blood glucose is essential to prevention and control of coronary heart disease.”

As people age, their fasting glucose levels usually increase as their health declines.

Standard laboratory reference ranges allow an upper-limit of fasting glucose of 99 mg/dL. Yet the most effective anti-aging therapy—caloric restriction—lowers fasting glucose levels to the 70-85 mg/dL range.

Recent studies indicate that keeping fasting glucose levels in the range of 70-85 mg/dL and not allowing after-meal glucose levels to spike higher than 40 mg/dL over your fasting value, favorably influences our longevity genes.

The take-home lesson is that one can slash their risks of age-related diseases and possibly slow their rate of aging by tightly controlling blood glucose levels.

Shield Your Body From Excess Glucose Moving Beyond PAGG/AGG

I cannot emphasize the critical importance for those with glucose levels above 85 mg/dL to develop a method to help shield one’s bloodstream against dangerous glucose-insulin spikes.

There are several well documented ways that one can protect against postprandial (after meal glucose spikes) that go well beyond those mentioned by Tim Ferriss in the 4-Hour Body.

We will begin focusing on these in the next post. In the meantime call your doctor’s office and get a copy of your last fasting glucose level. You may be surprised by what you see!

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I will be attempting to answer this question: “Is it safe?” and “Does it work?”

Several major barriers stop most people, including myself,  from beginning these protocols mentioned in the book:

1. Confusion: Where do I purchase these supplements? Which are the best? Which actually have the ingredients mentioned?
2. Safety concerns : Side effects and drug/drug interactions.
3. Cost vs. Actual benefit: Is it effective enough to justify the often high cost?
4. Sustainability: How long can I use these products and are they safe in the long term? What does a long term dosing schedule look like? Would I benefit from “Medication Holidays”?

Most have very little access to high quality evidence based reviews of these Natural Medicines.  Also in the United States most of us do not have much interaction with Natural Medications. It is important that we do view these as “Medications”.  They need to be treated, reviewed, dosed and taken as such.

	These are valid concerns that need to be addressed. To do this I have referenced the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database. Probably the best source of information on Natural Medicines in the world.

	They rank each Natural Medicine on The Natural Medicines Brand Evidence-based Rating or “NMBER”. You can read about the NMBER Here.

I will be using this detailed review process with each Vitamin or Supplement mentioned in the 4 Hour Body. Linking both efficacy with safety. Presenting you with a complete monograph of each “Medicine” and a product link to several purchasing options (beyond those made by Tim Ferriss) that have the highest NMBER.

To make this easier I have created a chart with each of the protocols mentioned in the 4 Hour Body.

This Chart will be evolving over the next several weeks as I go into further detail of each of the protocols and the supplements that make up each protocol.

Since we will be constantly referring back to this chart I have decided to include this as a link which can be found directly on the home page. This way you can refer back to this as needed, to review the dosing schedules and link back to the individual supplements.

Tomorrow we will be looking specifically at Policosanol as it shows up in two different protocols in the Four Hour Body.

I chose this first because it has some potential side effects that I think are extremely important and it intrigues me as a viable natural therapy in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia.

Let’s take a look at the individual recommendations as seen in the 4 Hour Body.  Remember this Chart will be the basis of our upcoming reviews and is still in it’s infancy.

Each product I have linked to (besides Body Quick and N.O.-Xplode as they are not listed) has a very high NMBER and is dosed according to Tim’s Guidelines. I was happy to see that most of these were the actual products Tim recommended himself. This goes to show he has done his research!

I will be making more recommendations soon. This chart will be continuously updated and always available here.

Make sure you return tomorrow as we begin our comprehensive review of the Four Hour Body vitamins and supplements with a look at Policosanol.

But for now Good Day and Good Luck!

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In his book The Four Hour Body Tim Ferriss describes a short list of three protocols he is currently using to provide body composition benefits and extend life:

Just about every form of life has a thing for iron. Humans need iron for nearly every function of our metabolism. Iron carries oxygen from our lungs through the bloodstream and releases it in the body where it’s needed. Iron is built into the enzymes that do most of the chemical heavy lifting in our bodies, where it helps us to detoxify poisons and to convert sugars into energy.

Because iron is so important, most medical research has focused on populations who don’t get enough iron. Some doctors and nutritionists have operated under the assumption that more iron can only be better. The food industry currently supplements everything from flour to breakfast cereal to baby formula with iron.

You know what they say about too much of a good thing?

Although iron is essential it also provides a proverbial leg up to just about every biological threat to our lives. Almost all life on earth needs iron to survive.

Parasites hunt us for our iron; cancer cells thrive on our iron. Finding, controlling and using iron is the game of life. For bacteria, fungi, and protozoa, human blood and tissue are an iron gold mine. Add to much iron to the human system and you may just be loading up the buffet table.

Research has proven that access to iron helps nearly all bacteria multiply almost unimpeded

A healthy adult usually has between three and four grams of iron in his or her body. Given that iron is not only crucial to our survival but can be a potentially deadly liability it shouldn’t be surprising that we have iron related defense mechanisms as well.

In adults without wounds or broken skin the gateway to infections are our eyes, noses, ears and genitals. And because infectious agents need iron to survive all those openings have been declared iron no fly zones by our bodies.

On top of that, those openings  are patrolled by chelators-proteins that lock up iron molecules and prevent them from being used. Everything from tears to saliva to mucus; all the fluids found in those bodily entry points are rich with chelators.

Theres more to our iron defense system. When we’re first beset by illness, our immune system kicks into high gear and fights back with what is called the acute phase response. The blood stream is flooded with illness-fighting proteins, and, at the same time, iron is locked away to prevent biological invaders from using it against us. It’s the biological equivalent of prison lockdown-flood the halls with guards and secure the guns.

Cancer cells require iron to grow, so the body attempts to limit it’s availability. New pharmaceuticals mimic this response by limiting their access to iron.

The relationship between iron and infection also explains one of the ways breast feeding helps to prevent infections in newborns. Mothers milk contains lactoferrin. You guessed it–a chelating protein that binds with iron and prevents bacteria from feeding on it.

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Now let’s go back in time:  It’s 1347, enter the bubonic plague. Somewhere between one-third and one half of the population was killed. No recorded pandemic before or since has come close to touching the plagues record.

There was no one who wept for death, for all awaited death. And so many died that all believed it was the end of the world

Well it wasn’t the end of the world, and it didn’t kill everyone on earth or even in Europe. It didn’t’ even kill everyone it infected. Why?

IRON! of course. And another player in the game, an iron storage disorder known as hemochromatosis.

Hemochromatosis is a condition in which the body stores too much iron. One in 3 people carry the gene for hemochromatosis, but it has low penetrance. Why would a gene so deadly be so ubiquitous?

The answer: Macrophages. What on earth is a macrophage? They are body’s personal police force. And what is amazing is that in people who suffer from hemochromatosis (a condition where most cells of the body have too much iron) they have macrophages that are extremely deficient in iron.

If your macrophages lack iron, as they do in people who have hemochromatosis, those macrophages have an additional advantage: they starve the infectious agents to death!

New research has shown that iron deficient (homochromatic) macrophages are indeed the  Bruce Lees of the immune system. Studies comparing homochromatic macrophages crushed the bacteria by limiting the availability of iron.

Why would you select for a gene that will kill us through iron loading by the time we reach middle age? Because it will protect us from a disease killing everyone else long before that.

So how do you survive the bubonic plague? You guessed it, you carry the gene for hemochromatosis.

______________________________

Which brings us full circle:

This new understanding of hemochromatosis, infection and iron has provoked a reevaluation of two long established medical treatments: The First Bleeding is back! The second iron dosing especially for individuals who suffer from anemia is being reconsidered in many circumstances.

Like everything else under the sun, when it comes to iron, it’s moderation, moderation, moderation.

Researchers traveling to foreign countries in an effort to help “cure”the indigenous populations discovered that once iron was introduced into their diet infection rates often nearly doubled.

We are told not to give infants honey, why? Because botulism spores can be found in honey, if the spores germinate the results can be fatal. A study of sixty-nine cases of infant botulism in California showed one key difference between fatal and nonfatal causes of botulism in babies: Babies who were fed with iron supplemented formula instead of breast fed  were the ones who became sick. In fact of the ten who died all had been fed with iron-enhanced formula.

As Tim Ferriss touches briefly upon in the Four Hour Body:

There is ample evidence that iron reduction through phlebotomy (donating blood) can not only improve insulin sensitivity, but also reduce cancer specific and all cause deaths. High iron stores have been correlated to an increased number of heart attacks in otherwise symptom free males, and blood donation has conversely been correlated to a decrease in “cardiovascular incidents”

What is the M.E.D (Minimum Effective Dose) for iron according to Tim:

Drs. Michael and Mary Dan Eades suggest aiming for blood ferritin levels of 50mg/dl, which, if your levels aren’t over 400, can usually be achieved with 1-4 whole blood donations spread two months apart.

Also according to Tim:

If you’d like to increase the removal of pesticides and other environmental toxins normally stored in fat, you can do two things:

1. Schedule to donate a double portion of plasma and
2. Drink a cup of caffeinated coffee about 60 minutes before going to the center.

Resources:

• Where do you donate blood? The American Red Cross has a list of donation sights all around the globe, you can search and find the nearest donation center here: http://www.redcrossblood.org/make-donation It really is that easy took me 2 minutes to register and schedule my appointment for May 5!
• Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well Forever by Ray Kurzweil (Ray takes about 15o supplements a day) If you haven’t yet seen his movie Transcendent Man you should. This is a topic for another great blog post!
• Survival of the Sickest: The Surprising Connections Between Disease and Longevity (P.S.) This book is amazing, the information you just read was from this book. The AuthorDr. Sharon Moalem was on the daily show in 2007. His theories on diabetes and a host of other medical mysteries are mind blowing.

If you have made it this far it means you are a curious person, you may be wondering why there is a barber shop pole at the beginning of this post. The answer …..

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