One of those things you probably don’t need to know (but I am going to tell you anyway) is that there are more bacterial cells in your gut than there are cells in your body. This may seem weird, but remember much of your body, like water, is not cellular. And, of course, there is more than just one type of bacteria, indeed according to a Naturearticle from last year, there more than one hundred times the number of genes in the gut than there are in the human host. That, of course, gives a lot of scope for studying, er, colonic material. And yes, some people apparently do that, and there are some “interesting outputs”.
With such a range of “starting material” to study, the first step was to break the bacteria into four enterotypes. One of those sets, labeled Bacteroides 2, is associated with inflammation. Thus 75% of those with inflammatory bowel disease have this enterotype, while fewer than 15% of those who do not have the disease harbor it. This enterotype has another problem: if you have this enterotype it suppresses the manufacture of butyric acid, which is argued to preserve the barrier function of the epithelial cells lining the gut. In short, too little butyric acid and you get more inflammation. This suggests a corrective measure: eat butter, various fats, milk, parmesan cheese, and some rather unpleasant sources. The problem is that such foods still do not give enough. As an aside, butyric acid is quite foul smelling, and is a significant component of vomit. This suggests that supplements are unlikely to be chosen.
Gut bacteria can make trimethylamine oxide, which is claimed to accelerate atherosclerosis and lead to adverse cardiovascular outcomes, and the article adds, “including death”. Yes, that could be described as an adverse effect. Apparently a research group made a study on 2000 individuals and sorted out something like 1400 variables. For me that is far too small a number of subjects for that number of variables, but nevertheless they came out with the claim that a higher prevalence of this Bact-2 enterotype led to a higher probability of cardiovascular disease, but also it correlated with a higher body-mass index and with obesity. Note that correlation does not imply causation, and excess weight has been correlated with cardiovascular difficulties before.
But there was more. If we consider only the obese, it was found that those taking statins have a pronounced reduction in this Bact-2 enterophyte, in which case they presumably help build up butyric acid. Statins also inhibit an enzyme on the route for making cholesterol, leading to cells to boost low-density lipoprotein (LDL), which in turn captures more cholesterol, which is supposed to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Statins also have anti-inflammatory action.This leads to a problem that in my opinion confounds medical research. We have an observation from a study in which there were almost as many variables as subjects that in one very small subset statins reduced the level of a gut bacteria group that can be correlated with cardiovascular problems. It seemed particularly effective at doing this in obese patients. Do you notice some rather tenuous links? In this study there were a huge number of variables that were not separated. Could we argue that we have been on the wrong track and something else is the cause of this effect, assuming the effect is real and not an accidental outcome of a small subset? How can we be sure that those taking statins were not better treated or more health conscious? On the other hand, if the effect is real, should not statin consumption, under proper medical prescription, be encouraged? What I hope this shows is how easy it is to find correlations, with the risk you are misleading everybody, which is why there are so many articles on medical issues that seem to contradict other ones. It is not an easy subject to analyse data, but we all have an interest in delaying death and misery.
ianmillerblog 
Knowledge of the biology of the human body is slowly turning increasingly scientific, rather than primitive, erratic, anecdotal, epidemiological, and chimp-like methods used in present medecine.
There is progress on many fronts. For example why do different cancers find “different soils” to grow on (the observation dates from the 19C)? Lung cancer goes to brain cancer. Breast cancer goes to the liver and ovaries. Prostate cancer goes to bones. More than 70% of lung cancer is caused by smoking. After diagnosis, more than 50% of lung cancer patients keep on smoking. They have poorer outcomes. It was just discovered that nicotine neutralizes the main anti-cancer mechanism in the body (in a complicated fashion).
The question of diet is not obvious. For decades, the “pyramid” of the FDA and NIH ruled. Plenty of carbohydrates at the bottom, a few animal fats at the top. But Japan underwent a spectacular reduction in strokes after 1960. Japan had the highest number of strokes in the world. What changed? Hamburgers, cholesterol. More of it. It is now a consensus that the Japanese vegan diet of the last 12 centuries made for fragile arteries, by not providing with enough cholesterol.
A good guidance would be to eat like humans are supposed to eat, namely as our ancestors did, for hundreds of thousands of years. Hence the “paleo diets”. But what did the ancestors eat? Clearly, lots of meat: we are the carnivorous ape. That means much animal muscle and fat. Lots of nuts too, with their fat. But it turns out that our ancestral Neanderthals also cooked vegetables, and ate them (more recent discovery). What sort of vegetables and tuber? That’s not clear: our present grains, wheat, rice, corn, etc. have been bioengineered by humans (as dogs, cattle, chicken and pigs were). Guided by these discoveries, I eat, think and feel, increasingly prehistoric.
People taking statins occasionally, like yours truly, are aware that they can destroy muscle: all human cells are surrounded by cholesterol, like the mRNA vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are surrounded by nano lipid envelopes.
Those mRNA tech vaccines fixed Ebola in 2020 and are fixing COVID. The spectacular regression of COVID in the last few weeks is caused by the COVID vaccination of dozens of millions of superspreaders known as medical personnel, in the last two months. (Hail to Trump’s Operation Warp Speed!) The mRNA vaccines were initially researched and developed as anti-cancer vaccines: it remains to see if they can work that way.
Statins are naturally occurring antibiotics, naturally occurring ones have been around for more than a billion years. They have plenty of various effects, including immune suppression against inflammation, and a school of thought is that their positive effects dominate that way (that’s mostly how I use them nowadays). The effect is similar to hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and that’s why both have been used to regulate immune storms of COVID (timing is very delicate). HCQ works very well for rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and SARS-CoV 1. It is increasingly becoming clear that COVID is mostly an auto-immune disease by the third week (as COPD is…)
In most human diseases though, one thing is clear: they are related to aging. Fighting them piecemeal will not work. What has to be fought is aging. It turns out that just three genes can rejuvenate neurons (at least in mice). By the way COVID gets in neurons, than to the olfactory bulb, at the contact of which SARS CoV 2 can stagnate in air slowed down enormously by mask wearing… Causing “Long Covid” in children…
To the surprise of specialists, hydroxychloroquine, which stops SARS 1, and in vitro against many viruses, does not work well against COVID (if at all; results are not clear, some MDs being strongly for it, others MDs against it). Similarly, the masks may have contributed more to the pandemic, as they provided a false sense of security, while preventing to prevent the aerosols, by making the naive believe they were the solution… when actually they hindered the real solution: ventilation, HEPA filters, distanciation…
Applying the so-called “scientific method” is the way out. What is the scientific method? Common sense on steroids. For the masks, for example, there were no serious studies. But supposing the masking worked would of course lead to spreading, if in truth it did not work. And this is exactly what happened.
The scientific method also revealed that COVID was aerosol, as top Japanese specialists got it on the cruise ship, while fully, tightly, and thoroughly masked. The only explanation was that the virus was an aerosol.
Meanwhile COVIDIOTS started to wear two masks, egged on by the covidiotic CDC: they will develop “mask lung”.
By the way, I am Moderna mRNA vaccinated… That works. And I wear a mask only when forced to (although I would not breathe around people, until my vaccine kicked in…)
I am not into a paleo diet, in part because I have no idea what they ate, but most likely I can’t get it. They would not have eaten grain-fed antibiotic dosed beef – more like mammoth and I haven’t found any in local stores. As for death from old age, my clock has probably been set by now, so my view is enjoy what is around.
My concern about masks is that nobody has done a study as to their effectiveness, although in fairness they probably do reduce the virus load. But I gather they are more required to prevent/minimize someone with the virus from sharing with a sneeze.
So far, here, only border workers have been vaccinated – vaccine was only delivered for the first time last week.
Masks are, in general, way worse than nothing… although they work in the particular. The pandemic is going down from vaccinating the superspreaders… the medical personnel. More than 20 million were vaccinated at the end of December 2020 in the US alone.
I wrote several anti-masks articles. Here is one below. Most masks were outlawed in Europe in January.
https://patriceayme.wordpress.com/2020/12/03/mask-masquerade-kills/
Reblogged this on Patrice Ayme's Thoughts and commented:
Knowledge of the biology of the human body is slowly turning increasingly scientific, rather than primitive, erratic, anecdotal, epidemiological, and chimp-like methods used in present medecine.
There is progress on many fronts. For example why do different cancers find “different soils” to grow on (the observation dates from the 19C)? Lung cancer goes to brain cancer. Breast cancer goes to the liver and ovaries. Prostate cancer goes to bones. More than 70% of lung cancer is caused by smoking. After diagnosis, more than 50% of lung cancer patients keep on smoking. They have poorer outcomes. It was just discovered that nicotine neutralizes the main anti-cancer mechanism in the body (in a complicated fashion).
The question of diet is not obvious. For decades, the “pyramid” of the FDA and NIH ruled. Plenty of carbohydrates at the bottom, a few animal fats at the top. But Japan underwent a spectacular reduction in strokes after 1960. Japan had the highest number of strokes in the world. What changed? Hamburgers, cholesterol. More of it. It is now a consensus that the Japanese vegan diet of the last 12 centuries made for fragile arteries, by not providing with enough cholesterol.
A good guidance would be to eat like humans are supposed to eat, namely as our ancestors did, for hundreds of thousands of years. Hence the “paleo diets”. But what did the ancestors eat? Clearly, lots of meat: we are the carnivorous ape. That means much animal muscle and fat. Lots of nuts too, with their fat. But it turns out that our ancestral Neanderthals also cooked vegetables, and ate them (more recent discovery). What sort of vegetables and tuber? That’s not clear: our present grains, wheat, rice, corn, etc. have been bioengineered by humans (as dogs, cattle, chicken and pigs were). Guided by these discoveries, I eat, think and feel, increasingly prehistoric.
People taking statins occasionally, like yours truly, are aware that they can destroy muscle: all human cells are surrounded by cholesterol, like the mRNA vaccines of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are surrounded by nano lipid envelopes.
Those mRNA tech vaccines fixed Ebola in 2020 and are fixing COVID. The spectacular regression of COVID in the last few weeks is caused by the COVID vaccination of dozens of millions of superspreaders known as medical personnel, in the last two months. (Hail to Trump’s Operation Warp Speed!) The mRNA vaccines were initially researched and developed as anti-cancer vaccines: it remains to see if they can work that way.
Statins are naturally occurring antibiotics, naturally occurring ones have been around for more than a billion years. They have plenty of various effects, including immune suppression against inflammation, and a school of thought is that their positive effects dominate that way (that’s mostly how I use them nowadays). The effect is similar to hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and that’s why both have been used to regulate immune storms of COVID (timing is very delicate). HCQ works very well for rheumatoid arthritis, lupus and SARS-CoV 1. It is increasingly becoming clear that COVID is mostly an auto-immune disease by the third week (as COPD is…)
In most human diseases though, one thing is clear: they are related to aging. Fighting them piecemeal will not work. What has to be fought is aging. It turns out that just three genes can rejuvenate neurons (at least in mice). By the way COVID gets in neurons, than to the olfactory bulb, at the contact of which SARS CoV 2 can stagnate in air slowed down enormously by mask wearing… Causing “Long Covid” in children…
To the surprise of specialists, hydroxychloroquine, which stops SARS 1, and in vitro against many viruses, does not work well against COVID (if at all; results are not clear, some MDs being strongly for it, others MDs against it). Similarly, the masks may have contributed more to the pandemic, as they provided a false sense of security, while preventing to prevent the aerosols, by making the naive believe they were the solution… when actually they hindered the real solution: ventilation, HEPA filters, distanciation…
Applying the so-called “scientific method” is the way out. What is the scientific method? Common sense on steroids. For the masks, for example, there were no serious studies. But supposing the masking worked would of course lead to spreading, if in truth it did not work. And this is exactly what happened.
The scientific method also revealed that COVID was aerosol, as top Japanese specialists got it on the cruise ship, while fully, tightly, and thoroughly masked. The only explanation was that the virus was an aerosol.
Meanwhile COVIDIOTS started to wear two masks, egged on by the covidiotic CDC: they will develop “mask lung”.
By the way, I am Moderna mRNA vaccinated… That works. And I wear a mask only when forced to (although I would not breathe around people, until my vaccine kicked in…)
I am not sure about the effectiveness of masks, because I have seen no respectable studies. If you have a metal clip across the top and you have an absorber in the mask that kills viruses, it should help, but I am not sure that any mask currently available fills my requirements.