Beliefs

Week 120 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with sprouts

gettingwell4 4-5 stars Advanced knowledge, Beliefs, Epigenetics, Immune system ,

It was time for an annual physical last Wednesday. My focus was to see whether reducing sulforaphane intake per Week 87 had the desired effect on thyroid measurements.

That and other adjustments did! Readings of TSH 2.91 (0.45 – 4.50 uIU/mL), free T4 1.22 (0.82 − 1.77 ng/dL), and free T3 2.4 (2.0 – 4.4 pg/mL) were all in-range. 🙂

thyroid

I won’t repeat the Week 63 workbook calculations done after last year’s annual physical. To me, that’s another form of magical thinking.

Every one of those reference ranges, and optimal ranges built from all-cause mortality statistics, requires a suffix “of people who didn’t positively change their healthspan and lifespan.” What value is there in optimizing (pick a measurement) against those outcomes? Why compare my efforts, or results, or any other aspect of my life, to people who didn’t actionably care about their one precious life?

I’m not deflecting with poor measurements:

  • 3 of the 5 values in last year’s optimal ranges got better, and the other 2 stayed the same; and
  • 2 of the 4 values that weren’t in last year’s optimal ranges came into those ranges, and the other 2 got better but stayed outside an optimal range.

We each have a lot at stake. Bad things like diseases of old age happen on their own. If we want good things to happen, we have to make them happen.

Consider this from The impact of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance and early life experiences:

“Every disease is connected to the immune system.”

Are people making good choices every day for their immune systems?

PXL_20220731_093534095.NIGHT

Year Two of Changing to a youthful phenotype with sprouts

gettingwell4 4-5 stars Advanced knowledge, Beliefs, Epigenetics, Immune system, Primal Therapy, Stress

1. I’ve eaten clinically-relevant doses of sulforaphane every day for 104 weeks now with microwaved 3-day-old broccoli, red cabbage, and mustard sprouts. That’s 8+ times longer than any sulforaphane clinical trial.

I continue to:

  • Eat Avena nuda oats for breakfast;
  • Eat 3-day-old hulled Avena sativa oat sprouts twice a day;
  • Eat AGE-less chicken vegetable soup twice a day;
  • Take supplements that promote healthspan twice a day;
  • Exercise at least 30 minutes daily;
  • Take yeast cell wall β-glucan daily, with nothing else an hour before or after; and
  • Avoid undue stress by working from home 40 hours a week in my 25th year as a professional software developer.

I’ve experienced many positive effects described in studies. Researchers keep exploring new aspects of their fields, and I look forward to more evidence on youthening during Year Three.

2. I’m not especially scientific or maniacal about the above practices, other than weighing sprouting seeds. I pay attention to people who measure everything, but won’t turn my life into a series of unfeeling experiments. As Dr. Arthur Janov said:

“What is the point of life if we cannot feel and love others? Without feeling, life becomes empty and sterile. It, above all, loses its meaning.”

3. Beginning last month, our world was subjected to yet another wave of propaganda, with predictable oppression of those who reported obvious lies and distortions. Previously exposed agendas took a back seat to regain their venom, as their effects waned in herding people toward personally devastating cliffs.

Meme perpetrators don’t care about you or me. Spending our time on their ideas, beliefs, and behaviors takes us further away from dealing with our individually motivating causes and individual truths, with real consequences: a wasted life.

Value your own one precious life. Winter is over, spring is here.

PXL_20220322_191200562

Does sulforaphane treat autism?

gettingwell4 2-3 stars Required further work, Beliefs, Epigenetics, Glutamate, Immune system, Neurochemicals, Oxytocin, Primal Therapy, Stress ,

A 2021 human study investigated sulforaphane treatments of autistic 3-to-12-year-olds:

“Sulforaphane (SF) led to non-statistically significant changes in the total and all subscale scores of the primary outcome measure. Several effects of SF on biomarkers correlated to clinical improvements. SF was very well tolerated and safe and effective based on our secondary clinical measures.

13229_2021_447_Fig1

Clinical response to SF was associated with changes in mitochondrial function, and large intrasubject variability in this study was linked to underlying biological responses. The increase in ATP [adenosine triphosphate]-Linked Respiration associated with improvement in ABC [Aberrant Behavior Checklist] scores suggests that those individuals who showed improvements in behavior also had improved mitochondrial capacity to produce ATP.

Individuals who showed an improvement in ABC scores also showed a decrease in Proton Leak Respiration, suggesting that their mitochondria were better able to regulate oxidative stress. It is also possible that the increase in ATP production was related to improvement in the ability of mitochondria to handle oxidative stress.

SF had significant positive effects on oxidative stress, cytoprotective markers and cytokines, as well as mitochondrial function. These were promising findings that require further investigation of both clinical effects and mechanisms of action of SF.”

https://molecularautism.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13229-021-00447-5 “Randomized controlled trial of sulforaphane and metabolite discovery in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder”

Differences between this clinical trial and its pilot study curated in Autism biomarkers and sulforaphane included:

“HO-1 [heme oxygenase 1] functions to couple activation of mitochondrial biogenesis to anti-inflammatory cytokine expression. It was initially increased in the pilot study, then paradoxically decreased in the main study, on continued treatment for longer periods with SF.

Increased HO-1 is consistent with decreases in proinflammatory cytokines we observed initially in IL-6, IL-1β and TNF-α. Decreased levels of cytokines continued after HO-1 returned to baseline with longer duration of treatment and suggest a decreased inflammatory state.

These cytokines are usually elevated in children with ASD, but were decreased on treatment with SF: IL-6 and TNF-α at 15 (but not 30) weeks.”

This study made a good effort with autistic children. Its insignificant effects of sulforaphane treatments pointed toward an understanding that human experiences when we are fetuses can override many subsequent events, treatments, and life experiences.

Measuring bioavailability

gettingwell4 2-3 stars Required further work, Beliefs

This 2017 review challenged snapshot measurements of biological availability:

“There is a general belief that anthocyanins, flavanones, and other polyphenols are poorly bioavailable with only relatively small amounts of ingested dose entering systemic circulation in the form of metabolites. When lower molecular weight phenolic and aromatic ring-fission catabolites produced primarily by colonic microbiota are taken into account, it is evident that anthocyanins and flavanones are much more bioavailable than previously envisaged.

Although plasma pharmacokinetic measurements provide a snapshot of absorbed circulating metabolites, 0–24-h urinary excretion of both metabolites absorbed in the small intestine and catabolites of distal gastrointestinal (GI) origin that are products of bacterial processing provide a more quantitative reflection of polyphenol absorption. Overall 0–48-h urinary recovery of phenolic compounds – after baseline subtraction – was 43.9 ± 8.0 μmol, which is equivalent to 15% of ingested anthocyanins.

raspberries

With orders of magnitude higher plasma/serum Cmax levels and significantly longer half-lives, evidence points toward lower molecular weight phenolic and aromatic catabolites being the primary bioavailable products of anthocyanin consumption. Gut-derived catabolites can often exert higher bioactivity than their precursor flavonoid structures.”

https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-food-030216-025636 “Anthocyanins and Flavanones Are More Bioavailable than Previously Perceived: A Review of Recent Evidence” (not freely available)

Much of this review’s anthocyanin section was dedicated to a coauthor’s 9-person study where they ate a huge amount of raspberries. Its flavanone section was similarly influenced by another coauthor’s human orange juice studies.

I’d like to see stronger evidence before reviewer statements become faits accomplis, elevated through citations to become indisputable facts. Its underlying point that studies could take more and varied measurements over extended periods seems amenable to evidence.

I arrived at this review through its citations in Colorize your diet and Red cabbage pigments and the brain.

How will you feel?

gettingwell4 4-5 stars Advanced knowledge, Amygdala, Beliefs, Brain development, Cerebrum, Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, Immune system, Lower brain, Memory, Neurochemicals, Oxytocin, Serotonin, Stress , , , , , ,

Consider this a partial repost of Moral Fiber:

“We are all self-reproducing bioreactors. We provide an environment for trillions of microbes, most of which cannot survive for long without the food, shelter and a place to breed that we provide.

They inhabit us so thoroughly that not a single tissue in our body is sterile. Our microbiome affects our development, character, mood and health, and we affect it via our diet, medications and mood states.

The microbiome:

  • Affects our thinking and our mood;
  • Influences how we develop;
  • Molds our personalities;
  • Our sociability;
  • Our responses to fear and pain;
  • Our proneness to brain disease; and
  • May be as or more important in these respects than our genetic makeup.

Dysbiosis has become prevalent due to removal of prebiotic fibers from today’s ultra-processed foods. I believe that dietary shift has created a generation of humans less able to sustain or receive love.

They suffer from reduced motivation and lower impulse control. They are more anxious, more depressed, more selfish, more polarized, and therefore more susceptible to the corrosive politics of identity.“

Other recent blog posts by Dr. Paul Clayton and team include Skin in The Game and Kenosha Kids.

Image from Thomas Cole : The Consummation, The Course of the Empire (1836) Canvas Gallery Wrapped Giclee Wall Art Print (D4060)

Week 37 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts

gettingwell4 4-5 stars Advanced knowledge, Beliefs, Cerebrum, Cortisol, Dopamine, Glutamate, Limbic system, Lower brain, Memory, Neurochemicals, Primal Therapy, Stress , , , , , , ,

1. Been wrong about a few things this past week:

A. I thought in Week 28 that extrapolating A rejuvenation therapy and sulforaphane results to humans would produce personal results by this week. An 8-day rat treatment period ≈ 258 human days, and 258 / 7 ≈ 37 weeks.

There are just too many unknowns to say why that didn’t happen. So I’ll patiently continue eating a clinically relevant 65.5 gram dose of microwaved broccoli sprouts twice every day.

PXL_20201015_105645362

The study’s lead researcher answered:

“Depends, it might take 37 weeks or more for some aspects of ‘youthening’ to become obvious. It might even take years for others.

Who really cares if you are growing younger every day?

For change at the epigenomic/cellular level to travel up the biological hierarchy from cells to organ systems seems to take time. But the process can be repeated indefinitely (so far as we know) so by the second rejuvenation you’re already starting at ‘young’. (That would be every eight to ten years I believe.)”

His framework is in An environmental signaling paradigm of aging.

B. I thought that adding 2% mustard seed powder to microwaved broccoli sprouts per Does sulforaphane reach the colon? would work. Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn’t, but my stomach and gut said that wasn’t for me.

C. I thought I could easily add Sprouting whole oats to my routine. I ran another trial Sprouting hulled oats using oat seeds from a different company and Degree of oat sprouting as a model.

2. Oat sprouts analysis paired studies were very informative, don’t you think? One study produced evidence over 18 germination-parameter combinations (hulled / dehulled seeds of two varieties, for 1-to-9 days, at 12-to-20°C).

Those researchers evaluated what mix of germination parameters would simultaneously maximize four parameters (β-glucan, free phenolic compounds, protease activity, and antioxidant capacity) while minimizing two (enzymes α-amylase and lipase). Then they followed with a study that characterized oat seeds sprouted under these optimal conditions.

I doubted PubMed’s “oat sprout” 20 search results for research 1977 to the present. Don’t know why they didn’t pick up both of these 2020 studies, but I’m sure that .gov obvious hindrances to obtaining relevant information like this won’t be fixed. What other search terms won’t return adequate PubMed results?

3. The blog post readers viewed this week that I made even better was Do delusions have therapeutic value? from May 2019. Sometimes I’ve done good posts describing why papers are poorly researched.

4. I’ve often changed my Week 4 recipe for an AGE-less Chicken Vegetable Soup dinner (half) then the next day for lunch. The biggest change brought about by 33 weeks of behavioral contagion is that I now care more about whether vegetables are available than whether or not they’re organic. Coincidentally, I’ve developed a Costco addiction that may require intervention.

  • 1/2 lemon
  • 4 Roma tomatoes
  • 4 large carrots
  • 6 stalks organic celery
  • 6 mushrooms
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 6 oz. organic chicken breast fillet
  • 1 yellow squash, alternated with 1 zucchini
  • 1 cup sauvignon blanc
  • 32 oz. “unsalted” chicken broth, which still contains 24% of the sodium RDA

Pour wine into a 6-quart Instant Pot; cut and strain squeezed lemon; cut chicken into 1/4″ cubes and add; start mixture on Sauté. Wash and cut celery and stir in. Wash and cut carrots and stir in.

When pot boils around 8 minutes, add chicken broth and stir. Wash mushrooms, slicing into spoon sizes.

Wash and slice yellow squash / zucchini. Crush and peel garlic, tear but don’t slice. Turn off pot when it boils again around 15 minutes.

Wait 2-3 minutes for boiling to subside, then add yellow squash / zucchini, mushrooms, garlic, whole tomatoes. Let set for 20 minutes; stir bottom-to-top 5 and 15 minutes after turning off, and again before serving.

AGE-less Chicken Vegetable Soup is tasty enough to not need seasoning.

Reverberations, harmonics, history

gettingwell4 2-3 stars Required further work, Beliefs, Memory

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

Sulforaphane in the Goldilocks zone

gettingwell4 2-3 stars Required further work, Beliefs, Epigenetics, Immune system, Memory, Stress , , , , ,

This 2020 paper reviewed hormetic effects of a broccoli sprout compound:

“Sulforaphane (SFN) induces a broad spectrum of chemoprotective effects across multiple organs that are of importance to public health and clinical medicine. This chemoprotection is dominated by hormetic dose responses that are mediated by the Nrf2/ARE pathway and its complex regulatory interactions with other factors and pathways, such as p53 and NF-κB.

The stimulatory zone for in vitro studies proved to be consistently in the 1-10 μM range. Hormetic studies of SFN strongly targeted activation of Nrf2.

Capacity to activate Nrf2 diminishes with age, and may affect capacity of SFN to effectively enhance adaptive responses.

A 4-hour exposure induced a 24 hour Nrf2-mediated increase in enzymes that reduce free-radical damage in neurons and astrocytes. Repeated 4-hour treatment for four days affected an accumulation along with a persistent protection.

In the case of continuous exposure to SFN, such as taking a daily supplement, SFN treatment did not result in an accumulation of HMOX1 [heme oxygenase (decycling) 1 gene] mRNA or protein. This suggested that HMOX1 response may experience feedback regulation, avoiding possible harmful overproduction.”

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1043661820315917 “The phytoprotective agent sulforaphane prevents inflammatory degenerative diseases and age-related pathologies via Nrf2-mediated hormesis” (not freely available)

One coauthor has been on a crusade to persuade everybody of this paradigm. Hormesis’ hypothesis isn’t falsifiable in all circumstances, however.

Hormetic effects may be experimental considerations. But what’s the point of performing sulforaphane dose-response experiments in contexts that are physiologically unachievable with humans? Two examples:

  1. Autism biomarkers and sulforaphane:

    “There was no concentration-dependence in induction of any genes examined, with the higher (5 μM) concentration of SF even showing a slightly diminished effect for induction of AKR1C1 and NQO1. Although this concentration is achievable in vivo, more typical peak concentrations of SF (and its metabolites) in human plasma are 1-2 μM.”

  2. Human relevance of rodent sulforaphane studies:

    “Over two-thirds of the animal studies have used doses that exceed the highest (and bordering on intolerable) doses of sulforaphane used in humans. The greater than 4-log spread of doses used in mice appears to be driven by needs for effect reporting in publications rather than optimization of translational science.”

This paper cited many hormetic effects that were human-irrelevant without making a distinction. But it also had parts such as:

“The capacity for high concentrations of AITC [allyl isothiocyanate] to enhance genetic damage is not relevant since such high concentrations are not realistically achievable in normal human activities.

Humans ingest only the R-isomer of SFN via diet. Their dosing strategy adopted concentrations of R-SFN that were less than those employed to induce cytotoxic effects in cancer cells and that simulated its consumption as a dietary supplement.”

Landing eagle

Sleep

gettingwell4 2-3 stars Required further work, Acetylcholine, Amygdala, Beliefs, Brainstem, Cerebrum, Cortisol, Epigenetics, Hippocampus, Hypothalamus, Immune system, Limbic system, Lower brain, Memory, Neurochemicals, Stress, Testosterone, Vasopressin , , , , , , ,

If you can stand the woo of two Californians trying to outwoo each other, listen to these five podcasts with a sleep scientist.

https://peterattiamd.com/matthewwalker1/

“Ambien, sedation, hypnotives, are not sleep.

Sleep is a life support system. It’s the Swiss army knife of health.

Lack of sleep is like a broken water pipe in your home that leaks down into every nook and cranny of your physiology.

Sleep research is not being transmitted to clinical practice.”

I live on the US East Coast. Hyperbole in normal conversations outside of urban centers is an exception.

It’s different on the West Coast. For example:

  • Interviewer assertions regarding heart rate variability should be compared and contrasted with Dead physiological science zombified by psychological research evidence that:

    “A broad base of further evidence was amassed within human cardiac, circulatory, and autonomic physiology such that the hypotheses do not work as described.”

  • Interviewer favorable comments for MDMA (Ecstasy) “to deal with issues of underlying trauma, anxiety, and depression.”

Are sulforaphane supplements better than microwaved broccoli sprouts?

gettingwell4 4-5 stars Advanced knowledge, Anterior cingulate cortex, Beliefs, Cerebrum, Epigenetics, Glutamate, Hippocampus, Immune system, Limbic system, Lower brain, Memory, Neurochemicals, Stress, Thalamus , , , , ,

Armando asked a good question in Upgrade your brain’s switchboard with broccoli sprouts:

“Is there any way to consume sulphorafane in a supplement form? Rather than have to jump so many hops to consume it from broccoli.”

That blog post referenced a 2017 study, whose sulforaphane amount was:

“100 µmol [17.3 mg] sulforaphane as standardized broccoli sprout extract in the form of 2 gel capsules.”

One answer in A pair of broccoli sprout studies was No:

  • “Plasma and urinary levels of total SFN [sulforaphane] metabolites were ~3–5 times higher in sprout consumers compared to BSE [broccoli sprout extract] consumers.
  • In sprout consumers, plasma concentrations were 2.4-fold higher after consuming the second dose than after the first dose.
  • Calculated SFN bioavailability from broccoli sprouts exceeded 100%.”

That study was from 2015, though. Are better products than broccoli sprout extracts available now?

Image from the US Library of Congress

During Week 5 of Changing an inflammatory phenotype with broccoli sprouts, back in May when I still believed impossible things like we would:

I contacted a distributor of a dried broccoli sprout powder for evidence of their claim:

“Independent assays confirm that EnduraCELL yields more Sulforaphane per gram and per dose than any other broccoli sprout ingredient available! These assays showed that EnduraCell yields around 3.5 times more SULFORAPHANE than the next highest broccoli sprout product.”

I’ve asked three times for the lab assays. They declined each time to provide the data. In correspondence the company founder said:

“Each 700 mg capsules yields around 15mg sulforaphane.”

The company founder has written several reviews, one of which is entitled Sulforaphane and Other Nutrigenomic Nrf2 Activators: Can the Clinician’s Expectation Be Matched by the Reality? In Section 6.5 Sulforaphane it stated:

“By calculation, MYR [myrosinase]-active whole broccoli sprout supplement yielding 1% SFN could deliver 10 mg SFN per gram of powder, corresponding to ~12 grams of fresh broccoli sprouts (dried powder retains ~8% moisture).“

The 2017 study’s dosage of “100 µmol [17.3 mg] sulforaphane as standardized broccoli sprout extract” weighed a gram or less, for a 1.73% sulforaphane yield. A broccoli sprout powder may have a 15 mg / 700 mg = 2.14% sulforaphane yield.

Using calculations from Estimating daily consumption of broccoli sprout compounds and Our model clinical trial for Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts, I eat 131 grams of 3-day-old broccoli sprouts daily. That would be 131 g / 12 = 10.9 grams of a broccoli sprout powder.

The equivalent sulforaphane dosage would be 10.9 g x 21.4 mg per gram = 233.3 mg! That’s obviously too high. What isn’t right?

Subsequent investigation of a distributor’s site found this table:

autism sprout powder

The study referenced for equivalence was Sulforaphane treatment of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Calculations:

  • The 100 µmol sulforaphane amount for 90 kg participants weighed 17.73 mg per https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/sulforaphane.
  • The equivalent broccoli sprout powder sulforaphane yield is 0.01773 / 3.6 g = 0.4925%. That’s 5 mg of sulforaphane per gram of broccoli sprout powder.
  • 0.4925% / 2.14 % = 0.23. Decrementing the above sulforaphane weight gives 233.3 mg x .23 = 54 mg.

The answer to my question What isn’t right? I relied on private correspondence rather than what a vendor publicly disclosed.

I’m not particularly concerned about analytical uncertainties for myself. Whatever the numbers are, microwaving techniques for fresh broccoli sprouts increase them.

I immerse 3-day-old broccoli sprouts in 100 ml distilled water, then microwave them on 1000W full power for 35 seconds to ≤ 60°C (140°F) per Microwave broccoli to increase sulforaphane levels. Worst-case estimates are 52 mg sulforaphane with microwaving.

My answer to Armando’s question would be No for sulforaphane supplements. I’d consider a whole broccoli sprout powder after lab assays were personally verified.

Week 10 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts

gettingwell4 4-5 stars Advanced knowledge, Beliefs, Cerebrum, Epigenetics, Glutamate, Immune system, Limbic system, Lower brain, Neurochemicals, Thalamus , , , , ,

To follow up Week 9 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts:

1. I increased three of eight upper body exercises by 50% through adding another set. I did it because I didn’t feel muscle exhaustion after two sets like I’d previously felt. 🙂

Cognitively, see A claim of improved cognitive function and its follow on Upgrade your brain’s switchboard with broccoli sprouts.

2. It’s been inspirational at times, and at other times, dull, duller, dullest, to do what’s necessary and keep on track. But efforts paid off when Week 9 was unlike any previous week!

I expressed appreciation in Our model clinical trial for Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts because scientific evidence provides great bases for intentional behavior. It’s still up to me to voluntarily carry out my part.

And why wouldn’t I act when my healthspan and lifespan are consequences? Except…

What if I’d been:

  • Tired of the hassle, or bored with self-imposed discipline, or lazy, and quit?
  • Projecting personal problems onto others, such that improving my present and future became less important than present act-outs?
  • Distracted by, or believed propaganda, or participated in Madness of Crowds behavioral contagion, and missed day after day of required actions?

I may not have ever experienced Week 9’s intermediate-term benefits!

If I keep going past ten weeks, what long-term benefits could be expected?

Our model clinical trial didn’t say how researchers decided on a ten-week period for subjects to consume broccoli sprouts every day. I asked a study coauthor about trial duration, but no answer yet.

A few of the same coauthors answered generally in Reviewing clinical trials of broccoli sprouts and their compounds:

“Biomarkers of effect are early stage end-points, for instance modulation of phase 2 enzymes by glucosinolates. They need more time than biomarkers of exposure to be influenced by dietary treatment.

Hence, length or duration of the study must be defined according to the biomarker measured to be modified, that is, to define perfectly the time of exposure to observe changes in relevant parameters. Gene expression is one important target for glucosinolates, and it requires a sufficient period of exposure to (de)activate signaling pathways involved.

It is crucial to find appropriate biomarkers of effect that are linked to later disease outcomes, and more investigation is needed in this sense. Post-study follow-up can be of great value in assessing persistence of certain effects, or in discovering those that appear more long-term.”

3. I’ll go into a clinic on Sunday for Day 70 truth tests. Here they are: Day 70 results from Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts!

Living beings – thousands of years old – living together

Week 9 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts

gettingwell4 4-5 stars Advanced knowledge, Beliefs, Brain hemispheres, Cerebrum, Epigenetics, Immune system, Limbic system, Lower brain, Memory, Neurochemicals, Primal Therapy, Stress , , , ,

To follow up Week 8 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts:

1. This week has really been different.

A. Physically, on Friday Eve I worked out per my usual upper-body-workout-every four-days routine. I felt strong, and on one exercise I increased the weight by 33%. No problem doing the same number of reps and sets! Keeping good form was challenging.

Per Week 7, I eight-count each concentric rep slowly, then perform each eccentric rep to the same count, with a goal to reach muscle exhaustion during each set. Then pause and do another set.

What changed? Could I have done all this before?

No. I’d tried, making baby steps with increasing weight and keeping good form. But now I can, and I’ll do it again, along with other physical challenges.

B. Seven blog posts this week show improved cognitive function. Is A claim of improved cognitive function sufficient evidence?

Awakening was how it felt. Waking up to what I didn’t see before.

C. This 35th blog post for May comes after 30 posts in April. It wasn’t my goal to do one a day. It’s my goal to Surface Your Real Self. Did a few of them help?

I hope to do other things with my life in June. But the fact remains that humans are herd animals. We “think in herds, go mad in herds, while they [we] only recover their [our] senses slowly, one by one.” We’ll stay in the Madness of Crowds phase until enough people refuse to be propagandized.

2. As a result of reading A pair of broccoli sprout studies, I changed practices to start batches with one tablespoon of broccoli seeds twice a day so I could consume broccoli sprouts twice daily. Right now it’s a PITA task that requires optimization.

The two studies’ findings were:

  1. Broccoli sprouts are better than supplements.
  2. Eating sprouts twice a day is better than eating them once a day.
  3. When in doubt, refer back to Item 1.

3. I reordered broccoli seeds and will receive them next week. In the meantime, I introduced yet another unknown by consuming sprouts that came from a different vendor:

These seeds are smaller. Hundreds of seeds and seed coats annoyingly pass through my strainer, which didn’t happen with larger seeds. 3-day-old sprout sizes are smaller, and they smell and taste different.

This vendor put “seed” four times on their label. The other vendor didn’t bother to put “seed” even once on their broccoli seed package label.

Like other vendors, they prefer buzzword marketing with “microgreen” and “sprouting” rather than provide useful consumer information such as number of seeds and broccoli variety characteristics. Will people buy “Broccoli Sprouting Seeds” but won’t buy Broccoli Seeds? Do people say “Cool beans!” anymore?

My reorder states there are ~720,000 broccoli seeds in that 5 lb. package. I’ll update with its volume after it arrives.

See Week 10 of Changing to a youthful phenotype with broccoli sprouts for follow ups.

I’m kind of asleep right now

gettingwell4 2-3 stars Required further work, Beliefs

This should stay up on YouTube for a while since it uses satire. If it used informed opinions like:

YouTube would censor it.

“I’ll stay at home for the rest of my life if they tell me to. Who knows how to make the best choices for my health and my life? Definitely not me.

The last thing you want is for people to have the freedom to make their own choices and then experience the consequences of their choices.

This new scientific data is irrelevant to me. I already made up my mind when I was the most frightened, and I’m going to keep on believing what makes me the most frightened. Because it’s more congruent to my being that way.

The more scared I am, the more obedient I am.

Yes, I would like a mandatory vaccine. Sometimes the best medicine is like the best sex: non-consensual. They work on the same premise.

It’s pretty well proven that being proactive and taking care of your health won’t keep you healthy. Our only hope is in the pharmaceutical companies protecting us. They have a very good track record of never harming anyone.

I’d like two microchips please. Just to keep me extra safe. Or maybe we should just do a baby step, and use a mandatory tracking app on our phone to keep us safe and then go to the microchips.”

It was known to everybody that the lockdown would cause a catastrophe

gettingwell4 2-3 stars Required further work, Beliefs, Epigenetics, Immune system, Memory, Stress

To follow up If people don’t stand up for their rights, their rights will be forgotten which YouTube has taken down, here are excerpts from a subsequent interview which YouTube has also taken down:

“If you don’t present bad news, that’s not good news for the media.

On April 17, the Director of the CDC presented at the Presidential Briefing, this graph. Its a count of hospitals reporting some sort of symptom that might be influenza. If the number of people who show up at the hospital peaked around March 18th, that means the number of infections peaked around March 8th.

People don’t go to the hospital for their first symptoms. They give it three or four days, and if it doesn’t get better, then they go to the hospital.

If infections peaked around March 8th, then shutting down schools and the economy ten days later is totally absurd. Shutting down the economy ten days after the curve had already turned down is heartless.

New York hospitals were not overflowing. They were laying off people. 500 sick people is a drop in the bucket for the New York City hospital system.

It may have been unfortunate for the patients that there were so many respirators. That’s a different story.

Double-checking never happened with these models. You’re never off by orders of magnitude. You’re off by 10, 20, 30%. [The Imperial College model for UK deaths from COVID-19 changed from 510,000 to 20,000 IIRC] That was more than two orders of magnitude.

It was known to everybody that the lockdown would cause a catastrophe.

Isolating the nursing homes would have been the thing that would have prevented deaths, and would have prevented hospitals from becoming overloaded. Not letting children and young adults from becoming infected and developing immunity would not prevent the load on hospitals.

You don’t need to do anything to prevent a respiratory disease from running. What you should do – and what was not done in the United States – was to protect the elderly. From the experience in Italy, we already knew that the vast majority of people who died were people in their seventies, eighties, nineties, who had comorbidities.

We also had that in Seattle, people with comorbidities died in nursing homes. At that point in time, one should have isolated at least the nursing homes.

To isolate the children, who are not at risk, and put those at risk at risk, is a catastrophe. It’s a human catastrophe that should have never, ever, happened.

I don’t know where the government finds these so-called experts who don’t understand the very basics about epidemiology.

I have never heard of him and never read any publications on epidemiology by Bill Gates but maybe I overlooked some of his qualifications.

I don’t understand this mantra that ‘We will never go back to normal.’ Why not? The virus is gone. Let’s go back and have a life.

If people would be more active. If they would take part in political decisions. If they would be more awake. If they would fight for their democratic rights. This would never have happened.

It’s a failure of the people to take control of the government, and let the government take control of them.”

The Professor misunderstood the United States form of government. As a general principle, the federal government doesn’t order states to do such and such.

Florida, for example, did exactly what the Professor suggested, “protect the elderly.” Other states didn’t, like Washington, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and especially New York. Don’t know why those states’ residents don’t demand responsibility and accountability.

The Professor didn’t adequately present aspects of human behavior. For example, he cited a CDC chart of a drop in hospital reporting of influenza-like symptoms for his arguments without also citing the media frenzy to scare people away from hospitals for fear that they would catch COVID-19. So of course there were fewer instances of influenza-like symptoms reported by hospitals.

He also said “The virus is gone” but that statement had qualifications. Parts of this interview misplaced their relevant contexts.

We believe what we need to believe

gettingwell4 5+ stars Premium, Beliefs, Brain development, Cerebrum, Epigenetics, Limbic system, Lower brain, Memory, Primal Therapy, Stress , , , ,

While getting ready for bed tonight, I mused about how my younger brother had such an idealized postmortem view of our father. As he expressed six years ago in an obituary for our high school Literature teacher:

“I’ll remember my favorite teacher and how much he’s meant to my life. My father and Martin Obrentz were the two people who made me care about the things that make me the person I am today.”

Believe what you need to believe, David. But like I said five years ago in Reflections on my four-year anniversary of spine surgery:

“I don’t remember that my three siblings ever received a paddling or belting, although they were spanked. Even before he retired, 17 years before he died, the Miami-Dade County public school system stopped him and the rest of their employees from spanking, whipping, beating, and paddling children.”

It’s extremely important for a child to have a witness to their adverse childhood experiences. Otherwise, it’s crazy-making when these experiences aren’t acknowledged as truths by anyone else.

Especially by those who saw but disavow what they saw.

It didn’t really drum into my conscious awareness until tonight that I had such a witness. It wasn’t my mother, of course, since she directed most of my being whipped with a belt, and beaten with a paddle that had holes in it to produce welts. She has denied and deflected my childhood experiences of her ever since then.

It wasn’t my siblings, regrettably for all of us. It wasn’t our Miami neighbors.

When I was twenty, I ran across a guy 300 miles north in Gainesville, Florida, named David Eisenberg, if I remember correctly. A couple of weeks after we met, he asked if my father was Fred Rice, Dean of Boys, West Miami Junior High School. He said he had been beaten by my father several times!

Those weren’t early childhood memories like mine. Those were experiences of a young man during grades 7-9 that he remembered more than a decade later.

I was shocked. It came at a time when I wasn’t ready to face facts about my life, though. I needed fantasies, beliefs to smother what I felt.

I don’t expect that the impacts of my childhood experiences will ever go away. After three years of Primal Therapy that ended a decade ago, at least mine don’t completely control my life anymore.

Dr. Arthur Janov put self-narratives of several patients’ experiences into his May 2016 book Beyond Belief which I partially curated in February 2017. It was partial because I couldn’t read much past Frank’s horrendous story in pages 89 – 105, “The Myth of a Happy Childhood.”