I'm back with some miscellaneous ramblings.

I'm not dead! Who knew?


I saw https://twitter.com/JimJohnsonSci/status/468745252170248192 and read Modeling type 2 diabetes in rats using high fat diet and streptozotocin.

What I find a bit sad is the "cure > prevention" attitude. The cause of pre-diabetes & type 2 diabetes is pretty well known now, i.e. it's basically the inability of bodily stores (liver/muscle glycogen stores & fat masses) to accommodate any more, resulting in excessive amounts of various things (e.g. glucose, fat, cholesterol, NEFAs etc) in the blood, with varying degrees of beta cell dysfunction.

The degree of fatness at which bodily stores become full depends on the degree of adipocyte hyperplasia, so it's possible for slim people to become type 2 diabetic, though ~85% of type 2 diabetics are over-fat. Some slim people are misdiagnosed with type 2 diabetes, as they have LADA or signalling abnormalities. Some have acquired endocrine abnormalities.

I've been pre-diabetic twice to my knowledge, the most recent occasion being last year when I became slightly manic after mum died and got into a large number of arguments on various blogs. I "took my eye off the ball" diet-wise and ended up gaining too much body-fat, even though my belt didn't feel noticeably tight. I blogged about feeling too hot last year. When I had blood tests in September to find out why I was overheating so much, the results revealed hyper****aemia, where **** = glucose, total cholesterol & triglycerides. The doctor recommended that I take a statin. I declined, stating that I knew what had caused the problem and that I would deal with it. I was told to have repeat blood tests in 3 months time.

I subsequently "kept my eye on the ball" diet-wise (using bathroom scales to monitor progress), lost 8kg (some of it fat mass & some of it muscle mass) and when I was retested 3 months later, the previously abnormal blood test results were back to completely normal. That's twice I've gone from pre-diabetes to normal, which suggests that deterioration from pre-diabetes to type 2 diabetes is not inevitable, provided that the cause is dealt with before excessive irreversible beta cell dysfunction occurs.

The main reason why the incidence of over-fatness & type 2 diabetes is increasing is the overconsumption of "Crap in a bag/box/bottle" by increasing numbers of people. How to reverse this trend? Damned if I know!

Back to black, CIAB, pharmaceutical drug deficiencies & nerds.

First, a song by someone who should be alive, but isn't...

The above video was inspired by a Facebook friend who had an accident with Schwartzkopf black hair dye and spent ages getting the stains off her skin. You know who you are!

I may have mentioned that nutrient deficiencies can adversely affect mental (and/or other) function. Nowadays, many people live on a diet of Crap-In-A-Bag (CIAB). There's just enough essential amino acids (EAAs), essential fatty acids (EFAs), minerals & vitamins to keep their bodies alive. However, Alive ≠ Working properly.

To compensate for one (or more) nutrient deficiencies, many people are prescribed one (or more) pharmaceutical drugs to tweak how their brains work e.g. fluoxetine, citalopram/escitalopram, venlafaxine, quetiapine, risperidone, valproate etc. There are no pharmaceutical drug deficiencies!

There are people who suffer from mental (and/or other) illnesses, despite having diets & lifestyles that provide sufficient amounts of all nutrients. This post isn't about them. There are people who suffer from depression due to traumatic & inescapable events/situations. This post isn't about them, either.

Finally, nerds! We nerds love to compile information. For an interesting interview with a top compiler of useful information, see Examine's Supplement Goals Reference Guide.

For an excellent article with a mere 148 references, see Why Calories Count. To sum up:-

Where body weight is concerned, calories count (but don't bother trying to count them).
Where body composition is concerned, partitioning counts.
Where health is concerned, macronutrient ratios, EFAs, minerals, vitamins & lifestyles count.

N.B. Poor health can adversely affect body weight and/or body composition, by increasing appetite and/or by adversely affecting partitioning.

Continued on Chow on chow, Parkinson's Law, two ways of doing something, and love.