You Are What You Don't Eat (Part 1)

I cannot stress this enough: a good diet won't add much time to your life. Exercising and eating clean might add, on average, a couple of months to your life span. However, what it can do for you is something of an unparalleled importance. It might add life to your years by extending your health span. This in itself is a great achievement. Who wouldn't want to be in tip-top shape and enjoy life's offerings for as long as possible? Also, by maintaining your body as young as you can or, at least, by not prematurely aging it, you're giving yourself higher chances to benefit from the rejuvenation therapies that are bound to exist in the near future.

An optimal longevity-promoting diet is certainly a very personalized diet, which takes into account a lot of individual factors, like one's most recent blood tests and medical check-ups, personal and family medical history, the output of genome and microbiome sequencing. In spite of being very self-contradictory when it comes to human nutrition, research does point to a certain general direction which might lead to an overall boost in the quality of our diets. Apart from eating vegetables, there is little consensus on what else we should be consuming. Nonetheless, there is much more agreement when it comes to the bad guys, to those compounds that we should either eliminate or reduce. Here is a small list focused on the things that we should cut back on in order to enhance our chances for exceptional longevity.

Calories

There are many studies related to the effects of calorie restriction (CR) on the aging process. Some of them dismiss  CR as capable of slowing down aging. Most opinions, however, converge around the idea that CR is probably the most powerful tool that we have right now in the fight against senesence. The evidence in this latter direction is also quite compelling.

Calorie restriction (CR), which entails reduced calorie consumption without malnutrition, is the only natural regimen shown to extend maximum and mean lifespan, as well as healthspan in a wide range of organisms. Although the knowledge about the biological mechanisms underlying CR is still incipient, various approaches in biogerontology research suggest that CR can ameliorate hallmarks of aging at the cellular level including telomere erosion, epigenetic alterations, stem cells depletion, cellular senescence, mitochondrial dysfunction, genomic instability, proteostasis imbalance, impaired nutrient sensing and abnormal intercellular communication. Currently, the NAD + /sirtuin pathway is one of the few mechanisms described to mediate CR effects and sirtuin-activating compounds (STACs) mimic many effects of CR. (S. Michan, 'Calorie restriction and NAD+/sirtuin counteract the hallmarks of aging', Front Biosci, 2014)

In order to embark on a CR regimen, you'd have to first calculate your daily caloric requirements and then reduce your actual caloric intake by 20% or even 30% from this previous figure. You can use a calorie counter to estimate your caloric needs, as well as your daily caloric intake. My favorite one is My Fitness Pal. You can learn more about CR regimens from the CR Society website and materials.

Glycemic index and glycemic load

The glycemic index (GI) is a measurement of the rise in circulating blood sugar triggered by a carbohydrate. Basically, a GI value tells one how rapidly a particular carbohydrate turns into sugar, without taking into account how much of that carbohydrate is in a serving of a particular food. Here is where the glycemic load (GL) comes into play and it is meant to fill this gap. Thus, GL accounts for both the carbohydrate content of the food, as well as for how much each gram of carbohydrate in the food raises blood glucose levels.

High-glycemic load diets and, to a certain extent, high-glycemic-index diets are associated with a host of chronic diseases, ranging from diabetes and cardiovascular disease to obesity and are conducive towards inflammation, oxidative stress and other markers of aging. Thus, a longevity-promoting diet should aim at eliminating as much as possible high GI and GL foods and at consuming medium GI and GL foods in moderation.

Here is a rating chart for both GI and GL values.

Source: http://www.mendosa.com/gilists.htm

You can find at this link a chart that offers the GI and GL values for more than 100 foods.

Stay tuned for part two of this post, where I'm going to write about two other nutritional problem-makers: AGEs and methionine.

Books that I Like: Josh Waitzkin's 'The Art of Learning'

Josh Waitzkin is no stranger to excellence. An International Chess Master and a Tai Chi Push Hands World Champion, Waitzkin has a tremendous insight into what excellence presupposes and into what it requires. Moreover, he manages to expose this insight brilliantly in The Art of Learning. Many of his stories are so deeply intimate and so vividly described that it is impossible not to produce a strong reaction in both the mind and the heart of his readers. There is so much that one can take from this book, but I guess that what really stuck with me was the idea that excellence can only be achieved when one stays true to one's nature. Know thyself. Yet again, this is the key.

My favorite quotes & guidelines to achieving excellence

[A]ll situations can be handled as long as presence of mind is maintained.

The key to pursuing excellence is to embrace an organic, long-term learning process, and not to live in a shell of static, safe mediocrity. Usually, growth comes at the expense of previous comfort or safety.

Disappointment is a part of the road to greatness.

The fact of the matter is that there will be nothing learned from any challenge in which we don't try our hardest. Growth comes at the point of resistance. We learn by pushing ourselves and finding what really lies at the outer reaches of our abilities.

When uncomfortable, my instinct is not to avoid the discomfort but to become at peace with it.

Problems set in if the performer has a brittle dependence on the safety of absolute perfection or duplication. Then an error triggers fear, detachment, uncertainty, or confusion that muddies the decision-making process.

I believe that one of the most critical factors in the transition to becoming a conscious high performer is the degree to which your relationship to your pursuit stays in harmony with your unique disposition. There will inevitably be times when we need to try new ideas, release our current knowledge to take in new information - but it is critical to integrate this new information in a manner that does not violate who we are. By taking away our natural voice, we leave ourselves without a center of gravity to balance us as we navigate the countless obstacles along our way.

Depth beats breadth any day of the week, because it opens a channel for the intangible, unconscious, creative components of our hidden potential.

One thing I have learnt as a competitor is that there are clear distinctions between what it takes to be decent, what it takes to be good, what it takes to be great, and what it takes to be among the best. If your goal is to be mediocre, then you have a considerable margin for error. You can get depressed when fired and mope around waiting for someone to call with a new job offer. If you hurt your toe, you can take six weeks watching television and eating potato chips. In line with that mind set, most people think of injuries as setbacks, something they have to recover from or deal with. From the outside, for fans or spectators, an injured athlete is in purgatory, hovering in an impotent state between competing and sitting on the bench. In my martial arts life, every time I tweak my body, well-intended people like my mother suggest I take a few weeks off training. What they don't realize is that if I were to stop training whenever something hurt, I would spend my whole year on the couch. Almost without exception, I am back on the mats the next day, figuring out how to use my new situation to heighten elements of my game. If I want to be the best, I have to take risks others would avoid, always optimizing the learning potential of the moment and turning adversity to my advantage. That said, there are times when the body needs to heal, but those are ripe opportunities to deepen the mental, technical, internal side of my game.

The unconscious mind is a powerful tool, and learning how to relax under pressure is a key first step to tapping into its potential.

Dirty players were my best teachers.


I learned from this book that...

... the unconscious mind, which can be tapped through conscious effort, is our biggest ally in the search for excellence.
... the biggest potential for growth comes from adversities.
... excellence requires self-introspection and psychological finesse.
... excellence, which in itself is very close to perfection, can be achieved once one becomes at ease with imperfection. 

Claim Your Happiness

If you ask a random person on the street if she'd be happier after winning the lottery, finding the perfect partner or landing the job of her dreams, chances are that the answer is yes. If you ask yourself the same question, you might just say the same thing, provided that you are unacquainted with the emerging field of positive psychology, also known as the science of happiness. According to positive psychologists, people do get happier after winning the lottery. But this happiness lasts only for a short period of time and they soon return to their initial state. Similarly, indiviuals who experience traumatic events and major personal losses, like the amputation of a limb or the death of a dear one, have a period of adjustment to the new situation in which their level of happiness decreases. However, after a certain amount of time, these levels  bounce back to what they used to be. 

Positive psychologists trace the roots of happiness or lack of to three major components: external circumstances, intentional behavior and genetics. Now, believe it or not, external circumstances, like winning the lottery or going through an unexpected divorce, are accountable for only 10% of your happiness. 50% of it is explained by genetics, while the remaining 40% can be attributed to intentional behavior. As we don't have much control over external events and genetics (at least right now), we should aim to increase our happiness set points by working on our thoughts, attitude and overall behavior. 

So, what kind of behavioral changes should one consider? The answer suggested by the scientists of happiness is strikingly simple: imitation. More specifically, the imitation of the behavioral patterns that happy people usually exhibit. After several studies in this direction, compassion, gratitude and mindfulness appear as favorites in the search for happiness. Many practices revolving around the cultivation of these three traits have already been shown to work, so let me give you a few examples from Sonja Lyubomirsky's The How of Happiness:

• expressing gratitude
• cultivating optimism
• avoiding overthinking and social comparison
• practicing acts of kindness
• nurturing social relationships
• learning to forgive
• increasing flow experiences
• savoring small joyful moments
• committing to your goals
• practicing spirituality
• meditation
• physical activity 
• acting like a happy person

The science of happiness and its focus on the cultivation of compassion have managed to capture the attention of the Dalai Lama himself, who has even co-authored a book in the positive psychology vein, called 'The Art of Happiness'. Now, this book might come as a surprise, given that Buddhism has its own theory of happiness and of happiness boosting practices, which focuses on a deeper understanding of the self and which does not really look for much help from the outside. Thus, while positive psychology asks us to be happy by imitating happy people, Buddhism asks us to reflect on the source of our unhappiness and try to eliminate it. The Buddhist philosophy identifies attachment as the main obstacle to true happiness. As this thinking goes, happiness is the lack of unhappiness and unhappiness results from being attached to material things, other people, ideas and even to your self and to your body. Once you get rid of attachments, nothing can hurt you and, thus, all that remains is an unhappiness-free state, which might as well be called happiness.

The search for happiness is not easy and, at points, it might even get confusing. The tenets of positive psychology and Buddhism, which represent the main directions in this field, do not exactly overlap and it could even be argued that they aim for different goals. The happiness pursued by psychologists is of a more joyful kind, while the one referred to in Buddhism is focused more on individual peace and calmness. In spite of this, the science of happiness and the Buddhist philosophy agree on one major thing: happiness is not outside of you, but inside. Unless you're among the lucky few who just happen to be born happy, you have to decide to be happy, to be willing to be happy and to get ready to work for it. This is the first step and everything else will just follow naturally.

So go ahead and claim your happiness!

Is There Such a Thing as Autoimmunity?

Autoimmunity occurs whenever the immune system attacks host tissue. The number of autoimmune diseases is believed to have reached the staggering figure of 80 and, mind, this is only according to the most conservative counting. The reason for the wide spread of autoimmune conditions is that any part of the body can become a potential target for destruction: from organs like kidneys and hearts, to glands like the thyroid and the pancreas, and even individual cells, as in the case of the red blood cells.

Now, the dominant framework for understanding the pathology of autoimmunity used to rely very much on the idea that, due to a certain environmental trigger and genetic predisposition, the immune system gets a bit confused and wrongly attacks certain parts of its host's body. Thus, autoimmunity was conceived as a malfunctioning of the immune system and most therapies have been designed as a way to fight against the activation of the immune response and to neutralize its effects on the body. Like inflammation, for instance. According to this perspective, the immune system, in its ignorance, is the villain.

But what if this was not the case? What if the immune system didn't wrongly attack the host tissue? What if it had a reason to do it? So many 'what ifs', but actually recent research does emphasize more and more the correlation between viral and bacterial triggers and what we call autoimmunity. In this sense, what falls under the label of autoimmunity is essentially a normal immune response, in which the body is expected to build a defense against external pathogens.

Fujinami et al. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360274/) present three mechanisms through which infections may initiate immunoreactivity: 

1. Molecular mimicry: shared immunologic epitope (the part of an antigen which is recognized by the immune system) between the microbe and the host.
2. Bystander activation: activation of antigen-presenting cells, which leads to a T-cell response.
3. Viral persistence: constant presence of the viral antigen driving the immune response.

The most compelling evidence, however, for rethinking the concept of autoimmunity and for accommodating better the role that infections play in relation to it is to look at the long and non-exhaustive list of autoimmune conditions that are correlated with bacterial and viral triggers. 

• Cardiomyopahty: coxsackievirus B; Streptococcus pyogenes; Trypanosoma cruzi, Borrelia burgdorferi
• Herpetic stromal keratitis: herpes simplex virus
• Uveitis: Escherichia coli
• Type 1 diabetes: rubella
• Guillain-Barre syndrome: Campylobacter jejuni; Mycoplasma pneumoniae,; Haemophilus influenzae
• Multiple sclerosis: Chlamydia pneumoniae; herpes simplex virus; human papillomavirus; adenovirus
• Alopecia areata: H1N1 virus; Epstein-Barr virus; hepatitis B vaccine; Helicobacter pylori 
• Atopic dermatitis: Staphylococcus aureus 
• Celiac disease: rotavirus
• Hashimoto's thyroiditis: hepatitis C virus; human parvovirus B19; coxsackievirus B; herpes simplex virus
• Narcolepsy: H1N1 virus
• Psoriasis: human immunodeficiency virus; streptococcal infections in the upper respiratory tract; an uncommon strain of human papillomaviruses, called EP-HPVl; Helicobacter pylori 
• Rheumatoid arthritis: Epstein-Barr virus; human herpes virus 6
• Systemic lupus erythematosus: Epstein-Barr virus

I have presented only some of the most spread or well-known autoimmune conditions. The complete list, however, is much larger than this.  What it shows, nonetheless, is a certain direction in the study of autoimmunity. Thus, any successful advancement in the treatment of autoimmunity would have to rely on the following considerations:

1. Focus on really treating autoimmune conditions and not only on the alleviation of their symptoms. This can only be achieved if we understand their root cause, which brings me to points 2 and 3.

2. Map out the exact environmental triggers for each autoimmune condition.

3. Find out which genetic markers are associated to autoimmunity.

4. Deliver personalized medical advice to the people that present a certain genetic marker, especially relevant when it comes to the types of vaccinations that these people could receive or not. It is especially tricky nowadays to manifest any concerns related to the effects of vaccinations or refuse to be vaccinated, when there are so many organizations and individuals militating against vaccinations on pseudo-scientific or even completely non-scientific grounds. In spite of this and looking at the available evidence, people suffering form autoimmune conditions or having the genetic predisposition for autoimmunity should have personalized vaccination schemes. Which means that, in some cases, they would have to forego vaccines.

Further reading:

L. G. Delogu et al., 'Infectious diseases and autoimmunity' (2011)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21997935

A. M. Ercolini and S. D. Miller , 'The role of infections in autoimmune disease' (2009)  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2665673/

R.S Fujinami et al., 'Molecular Mimicry, Bystander Activation, or Viral Persistence: Infections and Autoimmune Disease' (2006)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1360274/

V. Molina and Y. Schoenfeld, 'Infection, vaccines and other environmental triggers of autoimmunity' (2005)
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16126512

Caffeine-Free and Headache-Free

If giving up caffeine without experiencing headaches or too big of a fatigue is your Rome, then let me tell you that it can be built in a day. Now, the question is why would anyone want to give up their favorite caffeinated beverages, which apart from the energy boost that they provide, are also pretty delicious. I won't argue here in favor or against the health benefits of our top caffeinated drinks, coffee and tea. There are both pros and cons related to their consumption and, most importantly, the balance is always individually tilted for each of us, depending on many factors that we need to take into account.

However, taking a break from caffeine might prove to be beneficial.  I, for one, like to do this every once in a while because I am pretty sensitive to the effects of caffeine and I really enjoy rebooting my  response to it whenever I get the chance. I don't believe in reducing my daily caffeine intake gradually. It's supposed to help us cope with the withdrawal effects better, but honestly I still feel lightheaded and unable to focus. Apart from this, the entire withdrawal symptoms are prolonged as compared to just going caffeine free cold turkey. So, if I have to choose between a gradual or a radical approach to a decaffeinated lifestyle, I'd certainly opt for the latter. Until recently, I would just give up tea and coffee without doing anything that would alleviate the lack of energy and general dizziness that I would experience. I just bit the bullet, ignorant of the many effective caffeine replacements that would restore my usual relatively energetic self. 

So, without further ado, I will proceed now to outlining the structure of a typical caffeine-free day, emphasizing those moments when I would normally have a cup of tea or coffee, but choose instead caffeine-free energy boosters.

1. Waking up in the morning: ginseng drink (do not choose ginseng teas; they are not  nearly as efficient as a concentrated ginseng drink) 

2. Before work (which, in my case, amounts to reading and writing a lot): ginkgo biloba 

3. Before physical exercise: turmeric and cinnamon drink (the more concentrated, the better)

4. During physical exercise: coconut water

These drinks can be consumed anytime throughout the day, but I've noticed that for me they work the best in this format. Also, they might come in handy when your aim is to reduce and not completely give up caffeine.

Good luck, dear ones, and may caffeinated beverages be a pleasure and not a painfully unshakeable habit!