Reverberations, harmonics, history

Catching up with Martin Armstrong from 2012:

“Corruption within the Roman Republic was certainly at its peak during the first century BC. There was a brewing debt crisis in Rome and the oligarchy was determined to keep power at any cost. Corruption was so widespread that interest rates doubled from 4% to 8% for the elections of 54 BC because there was so much bribery going on to gain votes.

Caesar was clearly a Popularis, a man of the people who stood against the corruption of the Republic. Like today, we have no real voting control over the fate of the nation. Those who are in charge of the political machine control the real political state.

Caesar knew who his enemies truly were. He clung to his belief that if the majority of the Senate were free of the Oligarchy of Cato and Cicero, they would surely see the light. To persuade them, Caesar wrote his seven books on his truly remarkable conquest of Gaul.

Cato and his Oligarchy were so intensely anti-Caesar that they were willing to do anything to anybody. But this was a moment in time where the corruption had simply gone too far.

By September 29th, 51 BC, Caesar ran out of civilized options. Crossing the Rubicon became the only option.


Janus was the symbol of a cyclical change, the departing of one era and the birth of another. His shrine consisted of two doorways that traditionally were left open in time of war and kept closed when Rome was at peace. Leaving the doors open in time of war symbolized the new era that was possible.

Property values were collapsing. Debts were excessive. Those who held mortgages refused to accept just the property back.

Caesar dealt with this major extraordinary situation in a truly astonishing manner, realizing that assets and money are in a union of opposing forces, yet bound together. Value of property is not a constant relationship for money itself is not like a ruler.

Money is more akin to a rubber band even when it may be gold or silver. Money is like everything else – subject to the whims of supply and demand.

The economy is a dynamic relationship between everything with no real constant. We are at a tremendous disadvantage because we have grown up thinking in a flat linear world that does not exist. We limit ourselves by thinking in money,

Caesar explained that he had to borrow to fund the war and it was unethical for him to cancel all debts since he himself would benefit. Generals come and go, but true economic reformers of the state to save the nation are rare indeed. Caesar paid for his economic reform with his life.

There can be no greater example of political corruption that required desperate reform than the calendar. Caesar replaced the typical lunar year and introduced his new calendar based on 365¼ solar days on January 1st, 45 BC.

Sulla [138 – 78 BC] was a highly original, gifted and skillful general, never losing a battle. His rival described Sulla as having the cunning of a fox and the courage of a lion – but that it was the former attribute that was by far the most dangerous. This mixture was later referred to by Machiavelli in his description of the ideal characteristics of a ruler.

Sulla was more interested in retaining institutes of government while eliminating people occupying them whereas Caesar was far more compelled to act to restore institutions and to spare people, even his more threatening enemies. These are not actions of a man interested in personal power, but a man interested in saving his country.

You live in an oligarchy no different today than what Caesar faced back then. One maxim always holds true; Absolute power, corrupts absolutely!”

It appears that only Julius Caeser ever understood

100-44 BC


A normal distribution

Does sulforaphane reach the colon?

This 2020 study subject was antimicrobial activity of sulforaphane:

“This study explored the role that digestion and cooking practices play in bioactivity and bioavailability, especially the rarely considered dose delivered to the colon.

A broccoli powder soup was prepared which contained 26.5 µmol of sulforaphane per 200 ml portion. Addition of 2% mustard seed powder at the cooling stage of the soup preparation process (~ 60 °C) increased the level of sulforaphane by nearly fourfold, 102 µmol per 200 ml.

Recovery of sulforaphane in ileal fluids post soup consumption was < 1% but the addition of mustard seeds increased colon-available sulforaphane sixfold. Analysis of glucosinolates composition in ileal fluids revealed noticeable inter-individual differences.

Consumption of sulforaphane-enriched broccoli soup may inhibit bacterial growth in the stomach and upper small intestine, but not in the terminal ileum or the colon.”

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-020-02322-0 “Sulforaphane-enriched extracts from glucoraphanin-rich broccoli exert antimicrobial activity against gut pathogens in vitro and innovative cooking methods increase in vivo intestinal delivery of sulforaphane”


My son has often asked me about adding mustard seeds to broccoli sprouts. Papers citing one of this study’s coauthors’ series of mustard seed studies include:

I bought a 74 gram container of mustard seeds at the local grocery store, and ground down a third as pictured. A level scoop of mustard seed powder weighs 1.5 grams.

1.5 g divided by my twice-daily 65 g of microwaved broccoli sprouts = 2%, matching this study’s methods. That’s a 24-day mustard seed supply for $2.19.

I’ll add mustard seed powder immediately after microwaving broccoli sprouts when they’re ≤ 60°C (140°F). Allowing the mixture to process for five minutes potentially facilitates myrosinase hydrolization of glucoraphanin and other glucosinolates into healthy isothiocyanate compounds.


Other aspects of this study:

1. I don’t consider overcooking broccoli an “innovative cooking method.” It’s more like researchers creating an effect in order to publish “increased the level of sulforaphane by nearly fourfold” which was presented numerically and emphasized twice in text.

2. A perspective on these types of studies from Epigenetic mechanisms of muscle memory:

“Underpowered studies may only be useful to check if the experiment works, but not as much for testing and estimating effects.

3. I didn’t agree with this study’s treatment of individual differences.

I read three other papers’ study design recommendations for researchers regarding inter-individual variability, but didn’t see markedly better ideas. Most of their verbiage concerned how to reduce heterogeneous effects rather than to understand individual causes and signals.

Where are thoughtful counters to meaningless averages / standard deviations / p values?

4. “Addition of mustard seeds increased colon-available sulforaphane sixfold” was presented numerically and emphasized thrice in text. Too often for a n=11 study.

What needed further explanations were detailed causes for each individual’s responses or lack thereof. Stratifying subgroups into unresponsive:

  • What happened in Subjects 6’s and 10’s lives to make them unresponsive to any sulforaphane dose?
  • Were Subjects 1, 2, 5, and 7 instances of zero sulforaphane actually errors in measuring or processing? If not, what were individual causes for instances of no response?

And responsive:

  • Were Subjects 4, 8, 9, 11, and 12 averages meaningful? Excluding Subject 4’s 3.14 μmol, was the four remaining subjects’ 0.19 to 0.63 μmol average 332% increased response meaningful when the sulforaphane dose increased 392%?
  • What caused Subject 4’s 872% increased response when the sulforaphane dose increased 392%?

Findings of sulforaphane in 11 g broccoli powder not reaching the colon may not apply to twice-daily 65.5 g microwaved broccoli sprouts due to mass and quantity differences. Broccoli sprouts definitely pass into the colon, like any other fibrous vegetable. Unhydrolyzed products are hydrolyzed by microflora there.

I create sulforaphane from broccoli sprouts shortly before eating them, and don’t depend on metabolism after the stomach to produce isothiocyanates. Did this study’s findings assist with that effort?

Eat oats today!

This 2020 food chemistry review provided phenolic-compound reasons to eat oats:

“Phenolamides result from the conjugation of hydroxycinnamic acids with amines. These products contain a variety of metabolic, chemical, and functional capabilities due to the large number of possible combinations among the parent compounds.

Of the currently known phenolamides, the most common are avenanthramides (AVAs), which are unique in oats. AVAs possess anti-inflammatory, anti-itch, anti-atherosclerosis, antioxidant, anti-cancer, anti-obesity, anti-fungal, anti-microbial, and neuroprotective properties.

Twenty-nine C-type AVAs have been identified in oats, and twenty-six A-type AVAs.

  • C-type AVAs in commercially available oat products range from 36.49-61.77 mg/kg (fresh weight).
  • A-type AVAs represent approximately 22.5% of total AVA levels in regular oats and 24.7-33.0% in commercial sprouted oats.

Steeping raw groats increased AVA concentrations.”

These reviews were referenced:

“Since publication of these two reviews, a few new studies reported AVAs’ beneficial health effects, mainly related to their anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer activities. AVAs can:

  • Significantly decrease IL-6, IL-8, and MCP-1 in endothelial cells;
  • Inhibit IL-1β- and TNF-α-induced NF-κB activation; as well as
  • Expression of adhesion molecules; and
  • Adhesion of monocytes to endothelial cell monolayer.

In 2020, the first evaluation of anti-inflammation effects of A-type AVAs was published from our own group. Fifteen A-type AVAs from commercial sprouted oat products interacted with lipopolysaccharide-induced nitric oxide production and iNOS expression.

Colloidal oatmeal’s natural components, AVAs, help to restore and maintain skin barrier function. AVAs are safe, well tolerated, and can be effective as adjuvant treatment in atopic dermatitis.

In one mouse model, a C-type AVA was able to mitigate many adverse effects of Alzheimer’s Disease. It restored hippocampal long-term potentiation and synaptic function, enhanced memory function, suppressed pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-α and IL-6 levels, reduced caspase-3 levels, and increased pS9GSK-3β and IL-10 levels.

AVAs downregulated expression of hTERT and MDR1, pro-survival genes for cancer cells, and COX-2 mRNA and PGE2 levels, known pro-inflammatory markers. AVAs induced apoptosis by activating caspases 8, 3, and 2.”

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jafc.0c02605 “The Chemistry and Health Benefits of Dietary Phenolamides” (not freely available)


Hadn’t thought about sprouting oats before this paper.

Measuring one dimension of health

This 2020 human study asserted:

“Our data provides the first epidemiological evidence supporting evidence obtained in preclinical models of metabolic syndrome and NAFLD that demonstrated hepatoprotective effects of phenolic acids.

  • High dietary intake of total phenolic acids is associated with a lower prevalence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and insulin resistance.
  • High intake of hydroxybenzoic acids, a class of phenolic acids, is associated with a lower prevalence of steatosis and clinically significant fibrosis.
  • High intake of hydroxycinnamic acids, another class of phenolic acids, is associated with a lower prevalence of insulin resistance.

Data on polyphenol content in foods was obtained from the Phenol-Explorer database (www.phenol-explorer.eu).”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7078532/ “Higher phenolic acid intake independently associates with lower prevalence of insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease”


It’s a bad weather day, so I investigated the phenolics database and ran some numbers:

coffee and tea phenolics

Phenolic contents of all the other food I eat is 9% of my coffee-and-tea 1,975 mg total phenolics. Microwaved broccoli sprouts contribute half of that 9%.

Subjects were grouped according to whether their phenolics daily intake was over 221 mg or not. The over 221 mg group drank 5 cups of coffee a day, whereas the other group drank 1 cup.

According to a phenolics dimension of health, all these researchers needed to do was ask subjects about their daily coffee intake. But then the study would be over, with few “is associated with” findings.

Do humans avoid insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease by drinking more than one cup of coffee and tea? Is an answer available from real people, not just from a statistics package?


A 2020 study that primarily sourced a database last updated in June 2015 selected a fertile ground for later hypothesis-seeking.

fitting data

Ignoring subsequent research helped when staking a claim of first for whatever niche provided a publication opportunity.

I didn’t upload a screenshot of the Excel workbook with entries for pictured items I eat every day. That June 2015 database was incomplete with respect to current science here in December 2020.

See Eat oats today! for current examples of phenolic compounds in my daily 81 grams of steel-cut oats.

In memory of freedom through February 2020

Photos taken in Milan and Lake Como, Italy, February 22-23, 2020. The same weekend during which ten towns were closed south of the city.

As I said in Train your immune system every day! my traveling companion and I were likely exposed, yet had no symptoms after two weeks. Take responsibility for your one precious life.


Are humans more enlightened now regarding:

“Inalienable rights; that among which these are life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

than in 1776?


Image from the US Library of Congress.

Have you given your silent obedient consent to the worldwide power grab?

Clearing out the 2020 queue of interesting papers

I’ve partially read these 39 studies and reviews, but haven’t taken time to curate them.

Early Life

  1. Intergenerational Transmission of Cortical Sulcal Patterns from Mothers to their Children (not freely available)
  2. Differences in DNA Methylation Reprogramming Underlie the Sexual Dimorphism of Behavioral Disorder Caused by Prenatal Stress in Rats
  3. Maternal Diabetes Induces Immune Dysfunction in Autistic Offspring Through Oxidative Stress in Hematopoietic Stem Cells
  4. Maternal prenatal depression and epigenetic age deceleration: testing potentially confounding effects of prenatal stress and SSRI use
  5. Maternal trauma and fear history predict BDNF methylation and gene expression in newborns
  6. Adverse childhood experiences, posttraumatic stress, and FKBP5 methylation patterns in postpartum women and their newborn infants (not freely available)
  7. Maternal choline supplementation during the third trimester of pregnancy improves infant information processing speed: a randomized, double‐blind, controlled feeding study
  8. Preterm birth is associated with epigenetic programming of transgenerational hypertension in mice
  9. Epigenetic mechanisms activated by childhood adversity (not freely available)

Epigenetic clocks

  1. GrimAge outperforms other epigenetic clocks in the prediction of age-related clinical phenotypes and all-cause mortality (not freely available)
  2. Epigenetic age is a cell‐intrinsic property in transplanted human hematopoietic cells
  3. An epigenetic clock for human skeletal muscle
  4. Immune epigenetic age in pregnancy and 1 year after birth: Associations with weight change (not freely available)
  5. Vasomotor Symptoms and Accelerated Epigenetic Aging in the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) (not freely available)
  6. Estimating breast tissue-specific DNA methylation age using next-generation sequencing data

Epigenetics

  1. The Intersection of Epigenetics and Metabolism in Trained Immunity (not freely available)
  2. Leptin regulates exon-specific transcription of the Bdnf gene via epigenetic modifications mediated by an AKT/p300 HAT cascade
  3. Transcriptional Regulation of Inflammasomes
  4. Adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells protect against CMS-induced depression-like behaviors in mice via regulating the Nrf2/HO-1 and TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathways
  5. Serotonin Modulates AhR Activation by Interfering with CYP1A1-Mediated Clearance of AhR Ligands
  6. Repeated stress exposure in mid-adolescence attenuates behavioral, noradrenergic, and epigenetic effects of trauma-like stress in early adult male rats
  7. Double-edged sword: The evolutionary consequences of the epigenetic silencing of transposable elements
  8. Blueprint of human thymopoiesis reveals molecular mechanisms of stage-specific TCR enhancer activation
  9. Statin Treatment-Induced Development of Type 2 Diabetes: From Clinical Evidence to Mechanistic Insights
  10. Rewiring of glucose metabolism defines trained immunity induced by oxidized low-density lipoprotein
  11. Chronic Mild Stress Modified Epigenetic Mechanisms Leading to Accelerated Senescence and Impaired Cognitive Performance in Mice
  12. FKBP5-associated miRNA signature as a putative biomarker for PTSD in recently traumatized individuals
  13. Metabolic and epigenetic regulation of T-cell exhaustion (not freely available)

Aging

  1. Molecular and cellular mechanisms of aging in hematopoietic stem cells and their niches
  2. Epigenetic regulation of bone remodeling by natural compounds
  3. Microglial Corpse Clearance: Lessons From Macrophages
  4. Plasma proteomic biomarker signature of age predicts health and life span
  5. Ancestral stress programs sex-specific biological aging trajectories and non-communicable disease risk

Broccoli sprouts

  1. Dietary Indole-3-Carbinol Alleviated Spleen Enlargement, Enhanced IgG Response in C3H/HeN Mice Infected with Citrobacter rodentium
  2. Effects of caffeic acid on epigenetics in the brain of rats with chronic unpredictable mild stress
  3. Effects of sulforaphane in the central nervous system
  4. Thiol antioxidant thioredoxin reductase: A prospective biochemical crossroads between anticancer and antiparasitic treatments of the modern era (not freely available)
  5. Quantification of dicarbonyl compounds in commonly consumed foods and drinks; presentation of a food composition database for dicarbonyls (not freely available)
  6. Sulforaphane Reverses the Amyloid-β Oligomers Induced Depressive-Like Behavior (not freely available)