READERS SUMMARY: WHAT DID YOU LEARN ABOUT YOUR YOURSELF IN 2011? WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO BUILD INTO YOU IN 2012? HOW ARE YOU GOING TO DO IT? WHAT ARE THE PRIMAL PRINCIPLES TO OPTIMAL LIVING?   Today is the last day of 2011 and I have written over 60,ooo words for the new book that I agreed to write with Mark Sisson since 12/23/2011. The book has just flowed from me. As I wrote one chapter today, it occurred to me that I have neglected the blog. I thought about what I learned the most about me this year in 2011. I learned that I spent an entire lifetime feeding my left hemisphere and subjugated the talents I had in my right hemisphere. You can’t become an oral surgeon and a neurosurgeon if you pander constantly to your more creative side. In fact, you need to use and develop the skill set in your left hemisphere. It has helped me become who I am today. I realized in the process of writing the book that like a body builder who works on their upper body to the detriment of their other body parts, you can become unbalanced in whoContinue Reading

READERS SUMMARY: 1. WHAT I WISH FOR EVERY READER OF MY BLOG THIS HOLIDAY SEASON. 2. CONSIDER GIVING A RANDOM STRANGER THE GIFT OF PAYING IT FORWARD ONCE A DAY FOR THE NEXT 12 DAYS 3. FOCUS ON THOSE WHO MATTER TO YOU THE NEXT 12 DAYS 4. EXPAND THE GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO MATTER TO YOU WHILE YOU CAN 5. SHARE YOUR STORIES OF PRIMAL GROWTH WITH YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS THIS HOLIDAY SEASON The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree are the presence of a happy family and friends all wrapped up in the rapture of each other. I hope that these 12 thoughts might make the coming days that you spend with your loved ones the beginning of how you chose to spread the Primal Spirit. Christmas is not the sparkling glitter, lights and outward display of commercialism. The secret of the season lies in burning a bright inner primal glow for everyone to see. It’s about re-lighting a fire inside our heart, and sharing that flame to light those who you touch. Sharing that good will and joy are a vital part of finding peace of mind. It’s will lead us to higher thoughts,Continue Reading

READERS SUMMARY: 1. SOMEWHERE WITHIN IS OUR PRIMAL SENSE. 2. HOW MIGHT YOU OPEN YOUR MIND BEFORE THE LEPTIN RX RESET IS BEGUN AND FIND YOUR PRIMAL SENSE? I recently did a video interview with a former patient and friend of mine, Mrs. Jodi Wibel, from New Orleans, who sustained a massive change to her life recently. This will be chronicled in an informal video testimonial on my site shortly. Her story inspired me on many levels to write this blog. Much of what she said to me that day really resonated with me. She told me after the interview that I needed to write more about how I think, and how I motivate and seek to help people change themselves when they are at a crossroads. Too often, we and the people around us, become creatures to how we think chronically, without ever realizing it. This thinking is what creates ruts and plateaus in our life. Change is best carried out, not when we are in a rut, but when we are at the edge of our comfort zone. Even our friends and family can be enablers to our bad habitual thinking about change. People who lack the clarity,Continue Reading

READERS SUMMARY: HOW MIGHT I CORRECT A CORTISOL PROBLEM? HOW MIGHT I DEAL WITH A LOW CORTISOL? HOW MIGHT I DEAL WITH A HIGH CORTISOL?   Cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone. It is the most important one in humans, produced by the adrenal cortex and participates in the body’s homeostasis and stress responses. Cortisol concentrations also follow a circadian rhythm.  It is a more complex rhythm than the human melatonin rhythm. Unlike the melatonin rhythm, human cortisol rhythms do not seem to be totally associated with day and night per se, but seem to be more closely tied to the “transition periods” from dark to light and to a lesser extent, from light to dark. Transitioning light levels play a tremendous role in cortisol rhythms in humans.  In addition to its circadian rhythm exhibiting a predictable peak in the morning, cortisol levels typically elevate sharply in the morning, 30 minutes to an hour after awakening.  The glucocorticoid levels synthesized by the adrenal gland across the 24 hour day appear to be under the control of two distinct systems, one governed by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and one controlled by the autonomic nervous system through the adrenal medulla.  Evidence supports that cortisolContinue Reading

READERS SUMMARY:   WHAT ARE SOME OF THE CLINICAL SIGNS ONE MIGHT FIND WITHOUT TESTING OR A DOCTOR? WHAT THINGS MIGHT I LOOK FOR AT HOME ? WHAT VITAMIN OR SUPPLEMENT SIGNS SHOULD I PAY ATTENTION TO AS I ADAPT TO A PALEO TEMPLATE?     Do you think you may be deficient in Vitamin D? Might you also not be able to afford to see a doctor or get testing done? I think you might find this blog helpful until you can get a doctor’s help and blood testing and salivary testing done. There is a pretty easy “home testing” you can do by yourself if you know what to look for. Use an eating utensil like a knife or spoon handle or a screw driver shaft to roll over your tibia bone in your anterior lower leg. This is the part of your leg commonly known as the shin. People who are Vitamin D deficient usually have a lot of pain when it is rolled over their shin using directed compression of the hard instrument over the length of the tibia. If you have that symptom, you might be Vitamin D deficient and you may need to supplementContinue Reading

READERS SUMMARY   1. HOW DOES THE LEPTIN RX EVOLVE INTO THE PERMANENT PALEO TEMPLATE? 2. WAS FINDING OUT ABOUT ULTRADIAN RYTHMS WERE KEY TO DESIGNING THE LEPTIN RX? 3.  HOW IMPORTANT ARE ULTRADIAN RHYTHMS TO A DEVELOPING FETUS? 4. HOW DOES A FETUS HANDLE CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS WHEN ITS LEPTIN RECEPTOR IS NON FUNCTIONAL? 5.  WHAT IS THE POSTSCRIPT FOR THE LEPTIN RX? 6. HOW DOES ONE GET TO OPTIMAL LIVING USING CIRCADIAN CYCLES?   Once you have added the Leptin Rx to your paleo/primal template and you have successfully experienced all the “small wins” that I mentioned in the Leptin FAQ’s blog, what should you do next?  If you recall reading the blog on how the leptin Rx works, it basically is a plan to make your gastrointestinal tract perform visceral exercises that it is not accustomed to performing, in order to cause neuroplastic changes in your hypothalamus’ arcuate nucleus.  It uses the vagus nerve as the “stimulator” to send these new messages to the brain.  After a period of time, the inflammation will slowly dissipate at the median eminence, and these afferent signals will force expression of certain genes that have been repressed since we were in utero.  TheseContinue Reading

READERS SUMMARY: 1. IS OSTEOPOROSIS TIED TO LEPTIN BIOCHEMISTRY? 2. DOES YOUR SPINE SURGEON KNOW WHAT REALLY CAUSES BAD BONE? 3. WHAT DIETARY FACTORS ARE TIED TO OSTEOPOROTIC RISK? 4. DOES YOUR GUT CONTROL YOUR BONE MASS? 5. WHAT LITTLE KNOWN HORMONES CONTROL YOUR BONE MASS?   In my day job as a neurosurgeon, I operate on a lot of diseased spines.  In the last 12 years, I have repaired over 1000 vertebral fractures from osteoporosis.  If you remember back to my podcast with Jimmy Moore, I mentioned in the talk that the changes I had seen in osteoporosis incidence and prevalence is what made me look for the underlying cause.  This ultimately led me to leptin and our diet.  Many people think since bones are hard and used for support that they are not an active tissue.  Bone is a very active tissue in the body that is constantly turned over. We constantly lay down new bone to stressors and resorb bone from areas that are not stressed.  Since bone is so active, it uses massive amounts of energy.  This is where leptin comes in.  Any tissue that requires a ton of energy is coupled to leptin biochemistry.  The story on bones and osteoporosis, however, isContinue Reading

READERS SUMMARY:   HOW DOES THE LEPTIN RX WORK? DO WE HAVE ALTERNATIVE PATHWAYS THAT LEPTIN USED TO USE? WHY IS LEPTIN AND LIGHT YOKED? DOES TIMING MATTER MORE THAN MACRO-NUTIRENTS IN A LEPTIN RESET?   Many people have contacted me about “why” the leptin Rx works and “how” does it work.  Many people in the blogosphere have made some claims that much of what is in the leptin Rx is a rehash of the work found in some diet books.  Well, today’s post is being done to show you the science underneath my recommendations were formulated and made.  None of the underlying science I will mention to you about neuroplasticity will be found in any diet book mentioned in any blog post that I know of.  Most of you know I am a neurosurgeon, and as such, I was dramatically influenced by two world famous neurosurgeons named Wilder Penfield and David Kline.  Dr. Penfield was the first neurosurgeon to use electrodes on the brain to map it prior to surgeries to avoid neurologic damage during tumor removal.  Dr. Kline was and still is the pre eminent world expert in peripheral nerve surgery.  I happened to train with Dr. KlineContinue Reading

READERS SUMMARY: 1. WHY ARE MEN AND WOMEN REALLY FROM MARS AND VENUS REGARDING LEPTIN? 2. WHY HAVING A BABY SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETELY IS DEPENDENT UPON LEPTIN? 3. HOW DOES LEPTIN CONTROL FERTILITY? 4. HOW DOES LEPTIN STATUS AFFECT EPIGENETIC SIGNALING? 5. WHY DR. LUSTIG’s NEW HYPOTHESIS MIGHT BE LEAKING SOME FRUCTOSE? Continuing on in the Central leptin series we will resume in Orlando, Florida. In Orlando Dr. Myers, went on to say, “In addition to examining the molecular details and importance of specific LRb signals, we are dissecting the regulation and function of individual populations of LRb-expressing neurons and examining the role of leptin in the development of neural circuits. By understanding the totality of leptin action in this way we hope to decipher the mechanisms by which leptin regulates the predisposition to diabetes and other aspects of the metabolic syndrome.” This statement carries huge implications. He has found that not only is leptin neurons somatotopically organized in the brain, but the leptin receptor also appears to be somatotopically organized into certain regions that wire and select certain neurons in the brain that modulate all parts of the obesity physiologic response. It also appears that this organization is different inContinue Reading

READERS SUMMARY: 1. WHY IS LEPTIN THE LYNCHPIN TO HEALTH? 2. HOW DOES THE BRAIN CONTROL 20 TRILLION CELLS ENERGY NEEDS? 3. WHO ARE DRS. MARTIN MYERS and LUIS DE LECEA AND WHAT DOES THEIR WORK SAY ON LEPTIN? 4. IS LEPTIN DYSREGULATION THE CAUSE OF OBESITY, NEOLITHIC DISEASE, AND AGING? Today we are going to cut deeper into the leptin story. Today we need to look at the leptin receptor because its biology will explain why studying macronutients at a dietary level just becomes a confusing mess with seemingly multiple paradoxes. I recently commented on this in Paul Jaminet’s blog on August 24th 2011. The comment was very detailed but not written well so I am going to lay out the reasoning in the next few blogs. As most of you know leptin is the lynchpin in my QUILT and sits at position two. Many people might not realize how important it is for health, in sickness, and for optimal endocrine function. It is the dominant factor in obesity and this series is out to show you why this is the case based upon the data coming out of some labs who specialize in this neurobiology. Now would beContinue Reading

READERS SUMMARY: 1. What can we use a VAP test for? And WHY you should ask your doc for it instead of a regular lipid test? 2. Should our diet be static or dynamic endeavor? 3. How does the brain gut axis function and sustain health or promote disease? 4. How do hormones tie this all together? 5. How does HS CRP, thyroid and the brain all make love and not war? When most people get a VAP they think heart and lipid study. I do not. I use this test to assess levee 5. Most people in the paleo world associate a leaky gut with a gluten problem. I do not. The VAP test is the best test to use to assess the function of our gut and how leaky it is based upon the fuels we are feeding it now. If you really dissect your VAP you can learn a lot about what you should be eating and you should not be eating based upon your current cellular homeostasis. Most people think a diet is static. I believe a diet must be dynamically altered based upon the testing feedback we receive from our body. As most of youContinue Reading