#coping with isolation using mammals

[gav-san]

A Vintage Bouquet Chapter 4

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Chapter Title: How to Win Friends and Influence Mandrills Length: 2 K+

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You found the fertilizer first.

Or rather, it found you.

It started with a shriek from the tree line, sharp and guttural, like nature had decided to file a complaint. You barely had time to blink before something steaming and horrifying thudded at your feet in a splat so wet, so immediate, that your soul briefly tried to leave your body.

You stared at it.

Another came.

Then another.

As the barrage intensified, you dove behind a half-shattered wheelbarrow, clutching your compost bucket like a shield. You’d seen war zones with better air quality. And then you saw them.

Looming in the trees—massive, moss-colored mandrills. Bigger than any primate you’d seen in the Blue. Muscles like stone. Faces like judgmental grandmothers. And expressions that made it very clear you were not welcome.

Your first thought was, “That bastard husband didn’t mention this.”

Your second was: “I swear if I survive this, I’m making wine so strong it’ll kill joy.”

They didn’t attack. Just jeered, hooted, and flung more steaming insults through the air like wild performance art. One even seemed to shrug at you. Or wink. Which, frankly, was worse.

That’s when it clicked: Mihawk had told them.

Not much. But just enough.

You weren’t prey.

You were just… unfortunate.

Honestly, this was the most affection he’d shown since handing you the servant’s room and vanishing like a cryptid.

By the end of the week, you were collecting their “gifts” into barrels, mixing them with ash and whatever compost you could scrounge. It smelled like death’s armpit. Your eyes watered daily. Your boots had to be burned. But your seeds needed it. The earth needed it. And you needed something to fight.

You rigged a rain catchment system out of snapped gutters, shattered wine casks, and an overturned stone basin you yanked from the ruins of the chapel. It took two days, a pulled shoulder, and a yelling match with a squirrel, but when the first storm came, you stood in the garden, soaking wet, watching brown water swirl into barrels like salvation.

You raised your arms to the heavens and hissed, “Victory,” through a mouthful of hair.

But the real triumph came later.

You were digging behind the old stables, wrist-deep in ash and hope, when your trowel struck warmth. Not heat. Not light.

Warmth.

You clawed into it barehanded, heart hammering, and sank your fingers into something you hadn’t dared to believe was real—rich, black, living soil. Volcanic.

You froze.

Then brought it to your nose. Inhaled.

And laughed.

And cried.

And nearly kissed it.

Because this cursed island—the same one that threw poop at you, hissed at night, and possibly hated joy—had volcanic bedrock.

You collapsed to your knees, stained in rot, spite, and old hope, and wept soft, stunned tears—not out of sadness, not from defeat.

But because you’d found it.

Life.

This place could grow vines.

Good ones.

Wine-worthy ones.

The kind that would ruin a sommelier’s day and make Mihawk choke on his regret.

You laughed again—sharp and cracked, the sound of a woman on the verge of reinvention or arson. Possibly both.

You’d clawed through haunted halls, fungal walls, mandrill diplomacy, and a haunted toilet room. You’d slept with a knife, cleaned with vinegar, and used broken altar pieces as shelving. You didn’t need lace. You didn’t need vows.

You had soil.

And vengeance.

It takes six months.

Six long, bloody-knuckled, wind-scoured, fungus-bitten, near-starved months.

The kind that chew you up and spit you back out with worse posture and an attitude problem. The kind where you stop wondering if Mihawk abandoned you and start hoping he did—because if he walks through that gate now, you’ll need bail money.

But the vineyard grows.

It starts like most miracles do: pitiful and unimpressive. Three green shoots barely clinging to volcanic soil, fed on composted insults and sheer, undiluted rage. But they live. They thrive. The ash works. The janky rain catchment groans like a dying beast but does its job. The monsters keep their distance—likely due to your signature scent: “Rotting Hope.”

And you?

You don’t just survive. You build.

Trellises rise again. Lopsided. A little cursed. One’s held together with wire and an old spoon. But they stand. The vines follow your hands like they know who you are. Like they’re choosing you.

The garden stops hating you. Mostly. It even gives up a few squat tomatoes, resentful beans, and bitter greens so angry they bite back unless you boil them into submission. You eat them anyway. Victory has a flavor, and it’s aggressive.

But the real breakthrough comes at dusk.

You’re mid-harvest, covered in dirt and dried mandrill piss, holding a bucket of radishes and muttering death threats to a slug, when you feel it—a presence.

You look up.

And see it.

A creature. Massive. Fur like waterlogged hay. Teeth, like some god gave up halfway through making them. It doesn’t growl. Doesn’t charge. It stares at you from the edge of the vineyard, glowing eyes fixed like it’s deciding whether you’re worth the trouble.

You stare back, because what the hell else are you going to do?

Then, without ceremony, you toss it a carrot.

It catches it midair. Crunches twice. Spits out the greens. Then turns and leaves without fanfare, like a bad date.

It returns the next day.

You offer turnips.

It accepts.

No screaming. No hurling.

A win.

You name it Rude Bastard, because frankly, it earns it. By the third visit, it comes when you whistle. You don’t pet him. You’re not suicidal. But the fact that he doesn’t try to end you? That’s basically love around here.

And when some other abomination—something with too many legs and teeth in deeply incorrect places—slithers near your compost, Rude Bastard obliterates it. No warning. Just violence. Efficient. Beautiful.

You give him a squash that night. A big one. No questions asked.

By now, your vines reach your hips. The garden feeds you. The wine ferments in the cellar, each barrel cataloged, cleaned, blessed with the salt of your labor and the judgment of your ancestors.

You are sunburned. Bruised. Your knuckles bleed weekly. You talk to walls. You sing to radishes. You haven’t screamed at a ghost in three days. Progress.

And when Mihawk returns—if he returns—you’ll be ready.

Not grateful. Not humbled. Not interested in praise.

You’ll be waiting with a bottle marked yours, poured into the finest dusty cup you can find. You won’t say a word. You’ll just sit by the hearth you rebuilt, in the castle you tamed, and hand that man a glass.

Because if he’s stupid enough to ask how you’ve fared?

The wine will answer.

And it will say:

“You left a wife.

You came back to a problem.”

By the end of the first year, you had stopped screaming when something growled behind you.

You were crouched low in the dirt, whispering threats and compliments to a struggling vine like a deranged horticulturalist, when a deep snort puffed warm air across the back of your neck. You froze mid-pep-talk.

Rude Bastard had returned.

With company.

Three of them—two larger, one smaller, all bristling, fanged, and far too intelligent. Their eyes tracked you the way a bored noblewoman tracked gossip—sharp, hungry, and waiting to be offended. They didn’t charge, but they didn’t leave either.

Still crouched, you slid your eyes toward your bucket of produce and whispered, very gently:

“I’ll share. Just don’t fling anything this time.”

They didn’t. The largest female took the bucket and dumped it out like a toddler with opinions. It was, by monstrous jungle-creature etiquette, a declaration of truce.

By the end of the week, you had four unwilling gardening assistants.

They didn’t know what spacing was. They didn’t prune. They did, however, chase crows, throw rocks at shrieking bats, and carry full barrels like gravity had personally insulted them.

They weren’t obedient, but they responded to tone—and more importantly, bribes.

Sweet potatoes? Worship.

Boiled pumpkin? Vanished.

Rotten vegetables? Hurled directly at your face, with disturbing accuracy.

Rude Bastard—your original tormentor, now the unofficial foreman—took up position near the south trellis like an angry lawn ornament. He occasionally helped by ripping out invasive roots with the same tenderness one might use on an enemy’s spine.

You gave up trying to understand their boundaries. Instead, you made a system:

Offer food at dawn.

Never interrupt their sunbathing.

If they hiss at a shadow, you hiss too. Don’t ask questions.

Don’t garden without permission. Ever.

One time, you forgot to feed them first? They unionized. Refused to move the compost barrel. Made a show of lying down dramatically in the mud until you apologized with parsnips.

They weren’t pets. They weren’t servants.

They were colleagues.

Ill-tempered, unsanitary, terrifying colleagues.

But when the vines finally began to climb—when the leaves turned that impossibly decadent green, full of volcanic promise and stubborn will, you stand at the edge of your patch of miracle and rot and beam.

This is working.

You.

The mandrills.

The shit and ash and bribes and broken bones of your pride—

It was working.

Two weeks later, another crate of insult rations crashed onto the dock.

Before you could sigh, one of the younger mandrills ambled over, picked through the beans, and chucked a fistful of dried lentils at the skiff with a guttural screech of disapproval.

You didn’t stop him.

You folded your arms. Smiled. And said, “Good boy.”

That night, you made a stew.

With your own onions. Your own herbs. Your own bitter little carrots that had survived locusts, salt winds, and your wrath.

You fed yourself.

You fed Rude Bastard.

You fed his judgmental crew.

You took a bite. Swallowed and closed your eyes.

And whispered:

“Come home, Mihawk.”

“Come see what your not-quite-wife did with your haunted little death trap.”

“Come and see what happens when you don’t kill something—”

You stirred the pot.

Smiled.

“—and it refuses to be forgotten.”

The duel was nearing its third hour. Salt wind stung their coats, and the sea below roared its applause. Their blades clashed and sparked, steel on steel, skill on skill—until Shanks pulled back just long enough to smirk.

“So,” He said, feigning lazily, “how’s the murder mansion?”

Mihawk didn’t answer. Parry. Slash. Silence.

Shanks tilted his head. “Still brooding on your scenic little death island? Lotta ghosts, not much conversation?”

Mihawk’s eye twitched. “Peaceful.”

“Right, right. Peaceful.” Shanks grinned. “Y’know, someone at port mentioned your region’s been really lively lately. Said the monsters on your island have stopped attacking passing boats. Even heard talk of a garden.”

Mihawk struck harder. Just once. Shanks danced back, laughing.

“I’m serious! Garden beds, new trellises, and some scarecrow thing that bites. Thought maybe you got a dog.”

“I didn’t.”

Shanks grinned wider. “Maybe I should stop by. Check it out myself.”

“No.”

The word came too fast.

Shanks raised a brow. “That so?”

“You’re not invited.”

Mihawk’s brutal next swing only makes Shanks smile more.

“Oh, I’m never invited. Doesn’t stop me. Besides, that's not the only thing I’ve heard.”

Mihawk exhaled slowly through his nose. His parries got sharper.

“I mean,” Shanks continued, casually circling, “I did hear a funny little rumor. Some Celestial asshole losing their powdered wig over a missing bride. Vanished right around the time a pirate with a bad attitude was spotted near a certain convent.”

No response.

Shanks doubled down.

“And word is she didn’t vanish alone. Something about a pirate. Dangerous. Miserable. Bit of a recluse. Carries a really big sword.”

Mihawk didn’t look up. “Rumors are untrustworthy.”

Shanks let the silence hang a beat longer. “Yeah, but they’re fun.”

Another clash. Mihawk nearly took his ear off. Shanks only grinned harder.

“Tell you what,” Shanks said. “If I swing by and find some barefoot nun, I’ll just assume I’m trespassing, yeah?”

“You are trespassing regardless.”

“Oh, I know,” Shanks said brightly, “But at least I didn’t abandon a wife in a haunted house full of cryptids and bad kitchenware.”

Mihawk lunged with lethal intent.

“Hit a nerve, did I?”

“You’re insufferable.”

“I am. And yet you keep sparring with me,” Shanks said, fending off a particularly vicious blow. “Almost like you missed me.”

Mihawk’s blade rang against his with a force that would’ve snapped lesser steel. “I didn’t.”

“Sure. Just like you didn’t accidentally marry a woman and forget to mention it.”

“I didn’t.”

“Uh-huh.” Shanks snorted. “Guess I’ll go find out for myself. Bring wine.”

“If you set foot on that island—”

“You’ll what? Scowl at me harder? Send your little wife after me?”

There was a pause.

Mihawk said nothing.

“So it’s true!” Shanks cried, delighted.

[o-craven-canto]

Selected recurrent patterns or "laws" of evolution, of potential use for speculative biology. List compiled by Neocene's Pavel Volkov, who in turn credits its content to Nikolay Rejmers (original presumably in Russian). These are guidelines, and not necessarily scientifically rigorous.

Dollo's Law, or irreversibility of evolution: organisms do not evolve back into their own ancestors. When mammals returned to the sea, they did not develop gills and dermal scales and change back into fish: they became whales or seals or manatees, who retain mammalian traits and show marks of land-dwelling ancestry.

Roulliet's law, or increase of complexity: both organisms and ecosystems tend to become more complex over time, with subparts that are increasingly differentiated and integrated. This one is dodgier: there are many examples of simplification over time when it is selected for, for example in parasites. At least, over very large time scales, the maximum achievable complexity seems to increase.

Law of unlimited change: there is no point at which a species or system is complete and has finished evolving. Stasis only occurs when there is strong selective pressure in favor of it, and organism can always adapt to chaging conditions if they are not beyond the limits of survival.

Law of pre-adaptation or exaptation: new structures do not appear ex novo. When a new organ or behavior is developed, it is a modification or a re-purposing of something that already existed. Bone tissue probably evolved as reserves of energy before it was suitable to build an internal skeleton from, and feathers most likely evolved for thermal isolation and display before they were refined enough for flight.

Law of increasing variety: diversity at all levels tends to increase over time. While some forms originate from hybridization, most importantly the Eukaryotic cells, generally one ancestor species tends to leave many descendants, if it has any at all.

Law of Severtsov or of Eldredge-Gould or of punctuated equilibrium: while evolution is always slow from the human standpoint, there are moments of relatively rapid change and diversification when some especily fertile innovation appears (e.g. eyes and shells in the Cambrian), or new environments become inhabitable (e.g. continental surface in the Devonian), or disaster clears out space (e.g. at the end of the Permian or Cretaceous), followed by relative stability once all low-hanging fruit has been picked.

Law of environmental conformity: changes in the structure and functions of organisms follow the features or their environment, but the specifics of those changes depend on the structural and developmental constraints of the organisms. Squids and dolphins both have spindle-shaped bodies because physics make it necessary to move quickly through water, but water is broken by the anterior end of the skull in dolphins and by the posterior end of the mantle in squids. Superficial similarity is due to shared environment, deep structural similarity to shared ancestry.

Cope's and Marsh's laws: the most highly specialized members of a group (which often includes the physically largest) tend to go extinct first when conditions change. It is the generalist, least specialized members that usually survive and give rise to the next generations of specialists.

Deperet's law of increasing specialization: once a lineage has started to specialize for a particular niche, lifestyle, or resource, it will keep specializing in the same direction, as any deviation would be outcompeted by the rest. In contrast, their generalist ancestors can survive with a marginal presence in multiple niches.

Osborn's law, or adaptive radiation: as the previous takes place, different lines of descent from a common ancestor become increasingly different in form and specializations.

Shmalhausen's law, or increasing integration: over time, complex systems also tend to become increasingly integrated, with components (e.g. organs of an organism, or species in a symbiotic relationship) being increasingly indispensable to the whole, and increasingly tightly controlled.

[tribbetherium]

The Early Glaciocene: 100 million years post-establishment

From Dusk Till Dawn: Duskmice Diversity in the Early Glaciocene

Duskmice, a group of hamsters that have remained very basal throughout the Rodentocene, lived up to their name as small, crepuscular mouse-like rodents. Indeed, many species still remain small, unassuming and unremarkable. However, three of its branches have gained tremendous success as of the Glaciocene, and taken on forms far unlike their ancestral lineage-- the burrowing molemice, the aquatic pondrats, and the carnivorous hammibals.

Many other lineages aside from these three have emerged, many being basal in form, as small, stout, short-tailed rodents akin to the founding hamster. These include the hampters and their pointed-nosed cousins the nholes: in an almost comical irony, the hampter is one of the only hamsters of this world that still resembles what one would recognize as a hamster very closely-- virtually unchanged for a hundred million years. Yet despite its mundanity it is a winning formula, and the hampter thrives in the niche it has held all the while, of seed-hoarding desert rodent, while all else changes around it.

Other lineages of basal duskmice not part of the three aforementioned clades would include the arctic fluffball, polar rodents that nest and migrate in enormous numbers, the herbivorous gwinnie that lives in a wide range of habitats feeding on foliage, and the prickly heckhogs whose bristly fur has been modified into sharp defensive spines.

But it is the three lineages of the molemice, hammibals and pondrats that have reached the greatest levels of diversity, morphing into forms defying the basic shape of a rodent --or mammal, even, and are barely recognizeable as being related to the primitive hamsters they coexist with. Evolution is not a ladder with "evolutionary levels", but a complex and often chaotic process, and here on HP-02017, hamsters basically unchanged live side-by-side with their other, distant cousins who are unimaginably different in form and function.

Yet this illusion of levels is quite visible among the molemice: a group of duskmice that had evolved subterranean adaptations. Small, furry members of this clade still thrive, with different means of burrowing, such as the insectivorous shovelsnout and its spade-shaped nose, or the long-toothed molrus that excavates dirt with long incisors to search for roots and tubers.

Yet among these molemice is one very special clade: a hairless, ectothermic group called the molrocks. Adapted for living in deep, underground burrows, they evolved slower metabolisms to better cope with decreased oxygen levels in their subterranean tunnels. Their eyes had dwindled in the dark, and instead feel their way through sensitive whiskers all over their body, like the gregarious, colonial ruffrus, while its insectivorous cousin, the stellasnoot, developed fleshy tendrils on its snout that can feel, smell, and even "hear" the vibrations of small prey.

Not all molrocks had poor eyesight, however. Some molrocks, the surface molrocks, began living above ground again, in small populations along Easaterra where they lived as insectivorous ambush hunters. Their eyesight had re-emerged, with larger eyes better adapted to daylight vision, and it is this lineage that would give rise to one of the most unusual rodent species of all: the rattiles.

Rattiles became so successful on the continent of Fissor that they would end up outcompeting all the basal surface molrocks, leaving only the armadiles, large molrocks that were Fissor's top predators, and the noodnoots, which thrived on some forest habitats on the Easaterran mainland.

The rattiles would diversify to dozens of species, thanks to various adaptations. Their pangolin-like protective scales, fat-storing tails, and their r-strategist reproduction would give them an edge: bearing well-developed young that could fend for themselves at birth, they would recieve minimal care from the parent--little more than the beneficial microbiota passed to them as they exited the birth canal-- and thus saving energy, could instead invest in many self-sufficient young, where few will survive to adulthood.

These strategies allowed the rattiles to fill most of Fissor's small-animal niches, be it the herbivorous gwannas, the arboreal hameleons, the aquatic monisaurs or the burrowing sninks. Their unique anatomy allows them to fill unusual ecological roles-- but at the same time, constrains them in other ways that true reptiles weren't, and forces them to evolve in niches far removed from those of the squamates they so closely mimic.

The carnivorous hammibals, meanwhile, would become HP-02017's first predators, preying upon smaller hamsters in the days of the Early Rodentocene. Tiny predators like those still exist in the Glaciocene, filling a niche akin to small mustelids, such as the tiglets, which chase small prey down their burrows, or the social gamsters, which hunt in groups of about three to five to take down prey as big as a small hamtelope.

This clade, in the Late Rodentocene, would bring about the carnivorous hamyenas, a clade of predators that, unlike the ferrats, would adapt their upper incisor into a single stabbing point while whetstone-like lower incisors kept them sharp and lethal. The hamyenas would be devastated, however, by competition from beelzeboars and fearrets as the continents collided in the Therocene, and today a few species remain, such as the hamsanians of a few isolated islands off the Ecatorian mainland, and the vulweirines of the continent of North Ecatoria.

But one lineage of the hamyenas would survive: the zingos. Gracile, canine-like cursorial hunters, they would come to dominate most predator niches by their adaptability and greater social intelligence, more quickly pushing aside the carnohams in retaking the carnivore niches after the Glaciocene mass extinction. Today they dominate nearly all continents except Borealia and Peninsulaustra, and are found in an array of diverse and unusual forms.

Some zingos are small and fox-like, filling omnivorous mesopredator niches, such as the omnivorous fawndogs that supplement their diet with plants and fruit, the zingdings that specialize on small, bite-sized prey and sometimes carrion, and the specialized insectivorous moundhounds that feed primarily on ants, termites and the numerous grubs and beetle larvae that nest under rocks and logs.

Another clade of zingos, in the meantime, would become larger and more akin to wolves and coyotes, being large-scale predators that chase after bigger prey such as ungulopes. Some are solitary or pair-hunters like the rintins while others such as the zingerwolves hunt in bigger packs to subdue larger prey, and one genus, the nearly horse-sized marewolf, has turned to powerful jaws and brute force to tackle Easaterra's largest herbivores, the scruffalo.

And the marewolves are not the only zingos to specialize in hunting the enormous ice-age giants, as on Ecatoria and Westerna, the saber-toothed daggarats have done the same with the local megaherbivores of their continent: the hammoths. Of the basal one-fanged lineage are the slaybers, with their fang being utilized as a stabbing weapon designed to puncture vital organs for a quick kill, and the lycanines, smaller, shorter-fanged forest hunters that target smaller ungulope prey. This one-fanged lineage had long been driven from their role as slashing-toothed plains predators by their cousin the double-sabered dark mauler, which now reigns as top predator of the Westernan plains, targeting ungulopes, drundles, and small-to-medium sized hammoth species.

And last, but definitely not the least, are the aquatic pondrats: a group of semi-aquatic duskmice that, lacking tails, instead came to use their hind feet as propulsion in the water. Small diving species such as the puddlemouse and the riverat, which feed on small invertebrates at the bottom of ponds and streams and inflate their cheek pouches as flotation, are similar to the ancestral forms of the entire clade back in the Rodentocene.

From these, bigger otter-like and beaver-like species arose, such as the shrish-eating lutrons and the herbivorous capstors, which are primarily found in freshwater rivers and lakes. Some of their relatives would later head out to sea, becoming the bayvers, pinniped-analogues such as the arctic poleroles that live in the freezing northern sea, and the more tropical yurf that frequents equatorial beaches. This clade would further specialize to life in the sea, and are now very clumsy on land, the fusion of their pelvis and hind limbs facilitating better swimming, but leaving them unable to properly walk and having to awkwardly flop along on their foreflippers and stomachs.

Impeded on land, the bayvers would spend more time in the ocean, and some would leave the land entirely to live their whole lives in the sea. These would include the herbivorous hamatees, which feed voraciously on the sea-dwelling grass known as coast kudzu, and the highly-unusual jousting bayver whose asymmetrical upper incisors would come to form a single forward-pointing tusk used for both self-defense and for stirring up bottom sediment to search for the seafloor invertebrates that comprise much of its diet.

But most abundant and successful of these fully-aquatic bayvers would be the cricetaceans, and in the Glaciocene would find greater levels of diversity due to the more nutrient-rich cold seas. With the formation of the land bridge Junctus the Centralic Ocean has become one giant bay of sorts: and while inside the bay small leviahams flourish as porpoise-like hunters, on the outside of the Centralic and up to the polar seas the cricetaceans would instead prosper, like the small, speedy shrish-eating blippers that travel in cooperative pods, and the more solitary, predatory phorcas that feed on other marine hamsters as well as larger shrish and floating carrion. And, to conclude the list of the duskmice's diverse and fascinating descendants, are the seavers-- giant, filter-feeding marine hamsters that, in the colder seas of the Glaciocene, have since grown into the biggest creatures ever to grace the surface of this spectacular, seeded planet.

▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪▪

[misophoniainternational]

  Dr. Porges suggests that when we hear high-pitch sounds we become on alert, this could contribute to the brain's defense system and be what causes misophonia. When Dr. Stephen Porges talks about misophonia and the state of fight/flight and immobilization he notes, "The irony of all this is that the anticipation of all this may be much worse than actually re-experiencing it". Because of this, the calmness of misophonia sufferers isn't necessarily enough to help misophonia. Listen to the full interview podcast now. Available on Youtube and iTunes     Note: Apologies for sound quality! Unfortunately, this was the best we could manage at the time, but are working on solutions for the next podcast!  With it, the body becomes vulnerable. In his work, Dr. Porges has studied why some sounds cause harm and why other sounds are pleasing. "It amazes me how we talk to each other, and how intuitively correct we are when we talk to our pets". Dr. Porges explains that our nervous system has embedded triggers that promote safety. Composers such as mozart started with lullabies, and once the they are comfortable with the noise, the expansion of pitch becomes less abrasive to listeners. Dr. Porges explains that humans have developed our voices to communicate distress with other mammals, and offers singing as a reassuring behaviour that can be calming, especially through 'lullaby'. Sharon, a suffer of misophonia, recently wrote a piece on how singing helps her cope with misophonia. While singing has been intuitively used throughout human history to calm, he asserts there is neurophysiology working behind the scenes that accounts for this phenomenon. This idea also includes listening to music. Music, or calming sounds help increase the vagal influence, and is calming for persons. The polyvagal theory suggests that sounds that trigger misophonia are "uniquely different than music and different than other biological sounds", they are also different than "most bodily sounds". Dr. Porges, in his work, is revere-engineering sounds that are displeasing to misophonia sufferers. By creating a disruptive sound, they will be able to understand it more. While the polyvagal theory is still a theory, it offers interesting discussion for misophonia causes. Dr. Brout, who has been on the forefront of auditory over-responsivity research for 20 years and has the disorder, notes, "We're not talking about different sounds. Most people are complaining about similar sounds, and the same sounds". Through acoustic anaylsis, Dr. Porges can isolate sounds that bother misophonia and reconstruct the sounds and find the core disruptive signal, in order to understand the misophonic reaction.   "I think misophonia may be very very specific. Very specific sounds that the body reacts to when you're in a certain state... If you are in a very calm psychological state, then certain sounds will literally be bouncing off your ear drums and not penetrating".   With this theory, either repetition or the anxiety of a sound causes an upsetting state for misophonic individuals. Because the nervous system treats 'triggers' with 'high valence' they have become important.Once sounds have been interpreted as noxious, they can no longer be "background noises". Through this model, the polyvagal theory sheds understanding on the capability of misophonics to "learn new triggers".   "We tend to think we are safe when there is no threat, but our nervous system may not be safe when there is no threat."   According to Dr. Porges, for misophonia intervention, the physiological state must be shifted. Lowering arousal is not enough, you must also retain a feeling of safety. It is both the psychological state, and the emotional connection. Safety allows us to remain calm and regulate our emotional response, however, this is not possible in a 'chronic fight/flight state'. We may appear calm in a fight/flight state, but that does not mean that we are not defensive. Sufferers of misophonia are living in a constant state of fear. Even when we seem calm, our nervous systems, like a computer with a stuck "shift" key, is essentially screaming, just like the ever-dreaded ALL CAPS.   "The nervous system is very smart, but when it gets stuck in certain states it is smart for that state of defending but the ability to engage and to calm and to calm another is really off the table. The system can't do it."   Dr. Porges goes on to say that this state is not only disruptive for fight flight, but it disrupts over-all health. When we're safe, our body is ready to 'optimize our health'. We feel tired all the time, get sick more, and we are "not being rejuvenated through our interactions with others, instead they are being exhausted by it". Living in a state of fear, particularly in a desocialized world, is beyond anger or anxiety, it physically hurts. Dr. Porges

[wisdomrays]

TAFAKKUR: Part 121

Trypanosomes: Creatures with One Thousand and One Sheaths: Part 2

Trypanosome and the immune system

The case of trypanosome vs. the immune system is somewhat exceptional. The abovementioned almost universal immunity principle does not work against trypanosome. Even though parasites are constantly exposed to the mammalian immune system in the blood, they constantly change the antigen that forms the surface sheath. They thwart the host's defense, as if rapidly changing their password so that it can never be guessed. Until the immune system produces new antibodies to bind to new antigens, some of the trypanosomes discard their sheaths and drape themselves in another one. If this condition persists, the immune system of the host cannot cope with the infection and may succumb to it.

This extraordinary phenomenon astonishes the scientific community and many scientists are investigating the molecular structure of antigen diversity extensively in African, European, and US laboratories. These parasites are only 0.015–0.030 mm in size, and its two most notorious species are Trypanosoma rhodesiense and Trypanosoma gambiense, which inflict serious damage on the human body.

Like many other parasitic species, the life cycle of trypanosomes is very complex. In each phase of this life journey, the parasite takes different forms and exhibits different characteristics in such an unusual way that generates curiosity. The life cycle can be summarized as follows: when the tsetse fly bites a disease-bearing mammal, the trypanosomes in the mammal’s blood are sucked up and settle in the middle intestine of the fly. They undergo a series of complex processes including several structural and biochemical changes. After about three weeks, the trypanosomes appear in the fly's salivary glands in a disease-bearing form. Meanwhile, they are also draped in new surface sheaths.

When the secondary host fly bites a healthy person, the disease-causing trypanosomes enter the blood of the new host. In this new stopover, parasites are transformed into a form in which they can rapidly multiply. First, they wreak havoc in blood vessels and on lymph nodes, causing fever, marks and swelling in the body. At this stage, a constant struggle with the host's immune system ensues. A likely invasion the patient's central nervous system by the trypanosomes can cause intense drowsiness, coma, and eventually death.

In years of research on the trypanosomes, the thick surface sheath covering the cell membrane of the parasite was first described in 1965 by Keith Vickerman of the University of Glasgow. Shortly thereafter, different surface sheaths were discovered in different trypanosome clones. In 1968, Richard W. F. Page from the Molteno Parasitic Research Institute in Cambridge analyzed and decoded the isolated antigenic surface proteins from several clones, revealing that each clone had a biochemically different protein. The clarity of these differences suggests that each antigen is expressed by a different gene. In the 1970s, George Cross and his colleagues found evidence supporting Le Page's proposal. These antigens are now called Variable Surface Glycoproteins (VSG). As a result of subsequent research, the picture became even more clear.

Once the infection has begun, antibodies are formed in the host's immune system that bind to the variable surface glycoproteins that appear on the surface sheath of the invading parasites. These antibodies kill most of the initial trypanosomes. Yet interestingly, on a few remaining trypanosomes a new sheath to which antibodies cannot bind is built, and the trypanosomes evade the immune system’s grasp. The survivors induce a new population producing new variable surface glycoproteins. This time, the immune system produces new antibodies against these freshly constructed antigens. Meanwhile, the parasitic population grows. Newly produced antibodies are able to kill 99% of new parasites again. However, until that time, the parasitic group constituted by about 1% of the survivors has already changed its sheath. Hence, another population begins to multiply. This process of life being a struggle unfortunately continues until the host mammal dies.

The mechanisms of antigen diversity in trypanosomes are very complex and variable, and the total capacity to produce varieties is not clearly known. Recombinant DNA technology is used to investigate the structure of the genes for producing variable surface glycoproteins, the mechanism of cell membrane binding, and the selection and expression of one of the codes. In addition to the four licensed medicines produced for the treatment of parasitic diseases, new drugs are being developed.

It is astonishing that this tiny window of invisible dimensions has such a huge potential opening to different branches of science. Many such exceptional and precise situations exist in the universe that may showcase contradicting mechanisms with general principles and procedures. Sometimes we may wonder why God creates such harmful parasites. Since we do not know the performance at every point of an entire ecosystem with our insufficient scientific knowledge, limited sensory organs and temporary observation, we tend to see any seemingly harmful being as futile and devoid of wisdom and immediately raise our voices in protest. However, with new discoveries in science, thousands of wise meanings may be extracted from a creature we generally take for granted.

[kwameafrica]

Gaining Muscle on a Vegan Diet

“When I began my vegan journey after 20 years of being a vegetarian athlete, the transition was surprisingly smooth relative to my power output, performance, and overall strength and mechanics.

From Bodybuilder to Fighter

As a teenage bodybuilder, weight training had always been a large part of my regimen and who I am as an athlete. When I transitioned into fight sports around 19, I learned that my muscle power needed to be explosive without hindering my speed and agility. Fluid movement is a must: turning angles, abruptly snapping your right hand, and shifting your hips in one fast motion to drop your opponent. My body also had to be hardened to cope with the punishment I’d receive in the ring and in the cage.

When I decided to completely cut out animal products in my early 30s, I never second-guessed my decision to go vegan, because it was an ethical choice to abstain from using any animal product. Nonetheless, I wanted a body based on symmetrical science and to still be the strongest guy in the cage. I hoped my mission to go plant-based would be a plus and not a hindrance to developing powerful muscles.

When I won my first USA Boxing Metro fight at 34 years old and went on to win several MMA matches, including Extreme Cage Fighting bouts, I knew veganism wasn’t a weak man’s diet.

Emphasizing Protein

In America, and much of the Western world, veganism is generally thought of as a weakling’s diet — not just in the strength community.

Science holds that protein is not only a source of regenerating new cells but also the primary source for building muscle tissue. In the late 1900s the “father of nutrition”, Carl Voit, established 52 grams of protein as the requirement for adequate consumption. Nonetheless, Voit recommended 120 grams a day for the average person. During this time, animal protein was associated with physical strength and body size and a higher biological value. This notion of animal protein being the best source for our bodies continues to this day.

Are Plant-Based Proteins Incomplete?

To the strength community, a plant-based or vegan lifestyle is sometimes seen as inferior when it comes to “complete protein,” a term that indicates a protein has all of the essential amino acids in roughly equal amounts. But the notion of “complete protein” is irrelevant for two significant reasons.

Firstly there are plenty of “complete” vegan proteins, like soy, quinoa, and buckwheat. But all plant foods contain all the essential amino acids, including the branched chain amino acids — just not always in equal amounts.

But there’s a solution. Plant-based meals like Mexican bean burritos, Jamaican rice and peas, chana saag (chickpeas, spinach, and Basmati rice) are complete meals in terms of amino acids. Legumes tend to be low in methionine and high in lysine, while rice is low in lysine and high in methionine, so combining them makes a “complete” protein.

These meals also provide an excellent source of fiber, iron, B-vitamins, and other vitamins and minerals while being complete protein meals.

Are Plant-Based Proteins Less Digestible?

For power and strength athletes, plant protein is normally written off as useless protein because of the myth about plant protein’s lack of digestible indispensability. In a 2015 rodent study conducted for the American Society for Nutrition, Shane M. Rutherford, et al compared the digestible indispensable amino acid quality of several plant and animal proteins. The study produced scores for each protein from both the ileum (small intestine) and fecal matter.

Interestingly, they found that pea protein concentrate, roasted peanuts, and soy protein isolate were all comparable to animal proteins, landing scores in the mid-to high 90-percentage in both ileum and fecal tests. Not only did the study show high digestibility as protein sources, but pea protein concentrate and soy protein isolate produced higher scores of true nitrogen digestibility in both ileum and fecal matter tests than whey protein concentrate and milk protein concentrate.

Cooked peas and cooked rolled oats scored 88% in their ileum tests, only 11 points lower than whey protein isolate. Rice protein concentrate produced a 95% score in fecal tests. Kidney beans and rice protein ranged from 70% to 88% in both ileum and fecal matter tests. Although, whey protein isolate produced a relative score of 99% and 102% in ileum and fecal tests, is it really worth using whey when it edges out pea protein by a measly 2-3 percentage points?

The Rutherford study suggests that plant-based amino acids can provide mammals with mostly usable protein.

B-12, Iron, Calcium & Vitamin D

Can a plant-based diet be a long-term solution? Regardless of the misinformation, vitamin B12 derives from bacteria and can be sourced straight from rich soil, mushrooms, nutritional yeast and seaweed, but in any case, vitamin supplements are cheap and easy to obtain.

Most legumes such as lentils, black beans, and kidney beans have above sufficient amounts of iron. For your calcium and numerous phytonutrients, dark leafy greens rank among the highest food sources per 100-gram serving. With regards to another nutrient thought to be missing from a vegan lifestyle, vitamin D, we can be absorb it just like a plant or Superman: directly from the sun.

Plant-Based Recipes

Here are a couple of my favorite recipes when I need carbs and protein to fuel a workout.

Pea Patty (sandwich) recipe

Grab a cup of cooked peas, mix in seasonings, mash them, add to a pan on medium-high with a little olive oil. Top with lightly cooked red onions, kale and tomato and slide it in-between breads made from whole grain, kamut, spelt, oat, or teff flour. Now you have enough delicious protein to match a monster workout.

Calories: 134 Carbohydrates: 25 grams (76%) Fat: 0.4 grams (2%) Protein: 8.6 grams (22%)

Sweet Plantains & Spinach

Choose a large darkened yellow plantain and slice several pieces and a cup of spinach cut down. On medium-high, fry the plantains in a little coconut oil on both sides until brown. After draining the excessive oil on a paper towel or napkin toss them in sea salt, black pepper and garlic powder. In a separate pan on medium stir-fry onions and a little garlic. Add a cup of chopped spinach.

Calories: 225 Carbohydrates: 193 grams (76%) Fat: 8.5 grams (6%) Protein 19.5 grams (18%)

Wrapping Up

It is possible as an athlete focused on developing better power and strength to incorporate a healthy diet and not miss a step in maintaining strength. Just increase your healthy macros, get plenty of rest, and kill it in the gym.

Featured image via @omowaleadewale on Instagram.”

https://omowale.org/

source

[askthelama]

We Are All Alone Together

"When outer borders are being closed we can begin again to open up our inner borders. And the borders we have built between the inner and outer world. We can devote ourselves again to the feminine wisdom inside of all of us that shows us how to communicate, to be in relationship to each other and to the inner worlds."     ~Angela Fischer

 If ever there was a time to use the phrase “we are in this together” it is now. Coronavirus has plunged the world into uncertainty, spreading fear and anxiety. Constant news about the pandemic can feel relentless and overwhelming. What time is the Good News on, I wonder?

Fear and doubt lead us to withdraw into ourselves and veil our natural abilities to connect meaningfully, cooperate and collaborate, and commune together. Yet, it is essential, at this precious moment, that we watch out for each other, practice loving-kindness, and think positive---we will walk the Path together in person again. For now, we are alone together in spirit (and virtually) with wonderful woke friends and family while practicing spacious social distancing. Meanwhile, paramitas—Buddhist virtues—like patient forbearance and mindful attentiveness, energetic perseverance and keen discernment are coming in mighty handy around here! What a useful lesson in cultivating mindfulness to not touch ones face constantly throughout the day.

We suddenly find ourselves in a worldwide moment of pause, an unusual time-out. The earth has presented us with an opportunity to reflect on life as usual and to consider our unmistakable interconnectedness. Talk of freedom, liberation, and independence is fine, as far as it goes, and nothing new; perhaps now we can begin to genuinely understand that self-knowledge and inner self-mastery is the key, and we realize autonomy within interdependence and interbeing.

History has taught us that when the astronauts first saw our planet from space there was a shift in consciousness due to that greater perspective. There is one Earth, one planet, utterly precious. We are all inter-related like kin on this beautiful blue marble. One destiny, one heart & soul.

But decades later we as humanity find ourselves caught even more in an afflicted mindset of separation, extreme partisanship, xenophobia, and world-dominating tendencies, yet are interconnected in ways we do not realize and may have even completely forgotten. Interconnected, of course, over the whole planet: not merely as consumers or as multinational corporations, or  mammals, squawking bipeds; but as vulnerable human beings on a vulnerable Earth amidst the endangered species amidst the abundant green flora and fauna of our home planet.

There are many ways to respond to this emergent crisis. The virus brings sickness and even death, and miserable suffering. If we allow for actually feeling and experiencing the pain reaching us, instead of quickly contracting in fear, anxiety, and despair, we will feel it in our hearts and be able to grok it. And then, with the dawn of awakened awareness, we may be able to choose how to respond, not just blindly react---hopefully with warm empathic compassion, generosity and unselfish love. As my late great teacher, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche taught, “Obstacles can arise from good as well as bad circumstances, but they should never deter or overpower you. Be like the earth, which supports all living creatures indiscriminately, without distinguishing good from bad. The earth is simply there.” Remember, the same clear light is shining through each and all of us. So much is actually subjective.

I’m coping by social spaciousness or spacing, and not just distancing or isolation; noble silence, noble solitude, noble self-care, noble Netflix and exercise; moderation; noble facetime and Skype; and staying attentive and informed, without becoming a news junkie.

One reason for the present state of the world is that we have focused on the material world in a way that we have forgotten the immaterial, the inner worlds, and how matter and spirit belong and co-merge together, like yin and yang. In other words: We as humanity have become consumers and human doers at the expense of our very human and extraordinary Being, and forgotten how to rest at ease and just be amidst it all. The light, the soul, pure spirit: mystics know and experience that we can 'meet in the night' -- which means not in our physical bodies. We are not separated through space, nor through time. Join us, in spirit if not physically and in place. To live inseparable from this knowing can and will heal and transform us in these times of self-quarantine.

Humans are social animals, and coronavirus threatens those connections. Human beings evolved to feel safest in groups, and as a result, we experience isolation as a physical state of emergency. If stress is a certain pathway by which fear and loneliness damages health, then even beyond its direct dangers, coronavirus is a dual-threat and anxiety can spread like a pathogen.

The physical retreat and isolation which is necessary from a medical point of view, does not mean we are really separated nor alone. We are all alone together. To respond with love and care requires us to witness what is happening, to face it consciously and not to ignore or deny it. We are asked to grow up which means to be able to witness suffering and darkness without wallowing in collective despair and anxiety. This, we can do.

[warmbeebosoftbeebo]

opinions on cgl?

in a nonsexual or sexual context? male cg or female? is the caregiver, if male, daddy or a big brother? mommy or big sis if female? esp with daddy, is it sexualized? comfort, care, companionship, guidance or domination, punishment, infantilizing rules, ? is it an adults fantasy of what a child that age is like, or more grounded in reality/experience/how you were genuinely like or wished you were able to be like at that age? they all get diff answers from me. 

i’ve talked about it some here https://warmbeebosoftbeebo.tumblr.com/post/172974546760/ok-thoughts-on-b-calling-u-mommy and the whole thread here https://warmbeebosoftbeebo.tumblr.com/post/181177147415/warmbeebosoftbeebo-warmbeebosoftbeebo and https://warmbeebosoftbeebo.tumblr.com/post/181177707040/adult-regressedage-bden in reference to b n the reader or b n sarah. i also think their dynamic is often big sis n lil bro https://warmbeebosoftbeebo.tumblr.com/post/181184192520/brendon-on-periscope-feat-sarahs-fingers . i also think b is legit a mama’s boy with grace https://warmbeebosoftbeebo.tumblr.com/post/177715767520/b-being-little-spoonand-him-wanting-to-feel-safe is my ficcing about it but here’s a rl example https://warmbeebosoftbeebo.tumblr.com/post/165579915475/heavenlybrendon-brendon-urie-talks-about-his-mom n https://warmbeebosoftbeebo.tumblr.com/post/179826848005/warmbeebosoftbeebo-heavenlybrendon-brendon-on 

i talk about it more generally in the first two answers for daddy/little in sexual contexts, but graphically with that issue n others here https://warmbeebosoftbeebo.tumblr.com/post/181208523015/answers-to-responses-on-my-last-couple-posts-on i’ve copy pasted the less graphic responses below, dealing more with nonsexual cgl 

I think *NON sexual* playing at being younger or even actual age regression with an adult caretaker who supports and loves without dominating, punishing, turning it sexual, etc can be a decent way of coping. With him, I imagine this could have happened post split to vices era when things were so up in the air, stressful. I also think he shouldn’t have to give up his dress up box from childhood dammit :P The only way I’d be ok with deaged roleplaying sexually is if they were both pretending to be peer aged kids. Same with the use of mommy: my interest in it isn’t sexual. As a comfort thing, feeling safe, loved, warm, squishy, or sad or hurt and needing care, love, “mothering”… I can see the word “mommy” coming out from one partner to the other in needy, loving ways. I feel a fairer male comparison to mommy being used that way would be “big brother.” Possibly even uncle. Even if you look at how daddy and mommy kinks are generally practiced, there is a stark difference. Daddy involves much more violence, domination, controlling, roughness, “take it bitch,” see also my above discussion of daddy kink vs mommy tends to be much more caretaking, gently dominating, guiding, focused on the male’s pleasure and comfort as much as but usually more than mommy’s.

“Daddy” and “mommy” aren’t comparable because

1) patriarchy literally means rule of the fathers, and male domination of women and children is the basis of it, along with male control of female reproduction and sexuality. It’s why we call this system of male supremacy, female subordination, enslavement, hierarchy, etc by the terms meaning father rule. This isn’t an accident in feminist theory, it’s the foundation of it.

2) fatherhood is a patriarchal invention (who the sperm donor was can only be known if women are sexually and reproductively controlled, isolated). fatherhood was unsure and of little to no import for most of human (and many other species generally) history, and the family revolved around a mom, her children, her mom, and her siblings. Male caretakers would have been any older brothers of the child or any brothers that mom had.

3) the mother-child bond is the most basic, elemental mammalian tie there is. mothers and their young children are the basis of any grouping, and the mother-child tie needs to be strong in mammals, especially humans, who have the most protracted babyhoods and childhoods of any animal.  

[xtruss]

The sound of army planes can be traumatic for Colorado checkered whiptail lizards, which have a small range in southeastern Colorado. Photograph By Ken Holtgrewe Getty Images

How Wild Animals Cope With Stress—From Overeating To Sleepless Nights

​We’re not the only Animals that Suffer Anxiety. From Lizards to Song Sparrows, Challenging Situations can have Long-lasting Impacts on Species.

— By Liz Langley | April 25, 2023

Many of us react to stressful situations by drinking too much coffee, sleeping too much or not enough, or overeating.

As it turns out, several wild animals also experience physical reactions to stress. The main challenges faced by wild animals are whether they’ll find enough food or whether they become someone else’s food. But sometimes, it’s people that cause the trauma.

For instance, a new study shows the rare Colorado checkered whiptail lizard stress-eats in response to noise. Part of their habitat includes the Fort Carson Army Base, where low-flying aircraft regularly produce sounds louder than what they’d experience naturally.

After observing some of the wild reptiles and taking their blood, the scientists found that during flyovers, the lizards released more of the stress hormone cortisol, as well as moved less and ate more. Eating more likely compensated for the energy lost while experiencing stress, the authors say.

Here are some other ways animals react to challenging situations.

Sleep Troubles

Sleep, for all mammals, is key—and not having enough can be harmful.

“Sleep deprivation, a form of stress, can elicit increased eating in humans and some non-human animals alike,” says Barrett Klein, an entomologist at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse who also studies sleep biology.

In lab studies, fruit flies subjected to social isolation slept less and ate more, and sleep-deprived mice ate more during their recovery. Some butterflies that don't get enough rest forage poorly and lay their eggs on the wrong types of plants.

If some bee species don't get enough sleep, they'll perform their waggle dances, the bee equivalent of GPS, "with a less precise direction component," Klein says via email, giving their spectators less helpful information on where to find food.

Passing on Trauma

Scott Heppell, a fish ecologist at Oregon State University, stops short of saying other animals react to stress like we do.

“That’s a bit too anthropomorphic for me,” Heppell says via email. “But I might say that other animals have somewhat analogous responses,” for example, when stressful events experienced by parents “can affect performance of their offspring.” In humans, that concept is called generational trauma.

Small freshwater fish called sticklebacks appear to pass trauma down to their babies, though the impacts are different among males and females.

In research published in the Journal of Animal Ecology, scientists showed that sons of stickleback fathers who had been exposed to predators were risk takers, but the trauma had no effect on daughters. Mothers exposed to predators had anxious offspring of both sexes—but why remains unknown.

Predator Danger

The mere presence of predators can make animals anxious. Take the song sparrow, a study subject of Liana Zanette, a population ecologist at Western University in Ontario, Canada.

In a 2022 study, Zanette studied wild song sparrows on British Columbia’s Gulf Islands National Park Reserve, where they have few predators. During the study, she put up barriers to ensure that nothing would happen to the birds.

For 18 weeks Zanette’s team intermittently played recordings half of the study birds of friendly animals like Canada geese. No harm, just fowl.

The other half of the birds heard recordings of crows and ravens, which eat sparrow eggs and nestlings.

The results showed that a fear of phantom predators caused these birds to produce 53 percent fewer offspring than the birds that didn’t hear the scary soundtrack.

“The parents are really skittish when they think there are predators around,” Zanette says, so instead of spending their time incubating their eggs or feeding chicks, they flush from the nest.

That all might sound like a bad thing, but evolutionarily the birds’ response is just right. Surviving and producing fewer offspring beats dying and producing none, Zanette says.

Such predator-induced fear can also cause lasting changes similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, she says. In a 2019 study, Zanette found that black-capped chickadees exposed to predators had elevated brain activity and a heightened sensitivity to danger for at least seven days afterward.

Snowshoe hares are the primary prey of Canada lynx. Photograph By Robbie George, National Geographic Image Collection

An Ancient Dance

In Canada’s Yukon Territory, snowshoe hares don’t need simulations—they have very real predators to worry about. The animals are the main prey of Canada lynx, and the dance between them has been evolving for millions of years, says Rudy Boonstra, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, who has been studying both species for four decades.

Both species go through a 10-year cycle during which each species’ population fluctuates. When the hare population is high, lynx have a lot to eat and their population goes up as well.

But as the hare population declines the hares are not just being killed by lynx, they’re being stressed by being pursued, even if they escape. These hares produce fewer offspring and their offspring produce fewer offspring, until there are so few hares the lynx begin to starve and their population plummets as well.

Boonstra and colleagues showed that when lynx numbers were high and hares were in decline, levels of cortisol in snowshoe hare blood spiked. This stress takes a toll on female hares’ physical condition, which leads to weaker offspring.

This decade-long prey-predator cycle is a truly wild phenomenon, Boonstra notes, with no human creating the stress.

That’s partly why, like Heppell, Boonstra also doesn’t think human and wild animal stress responses can be compared.

“Their environment has been the same or similar for many, many generations, and ours changes all the time, every day.”

[anthropos-misanthropos]

In humans there is a collective component to cognition that cannot be contained entirely within the individual brain. It is the accumulated product of individually-acquired knowledge that has initially been expressed in a form comprehensible to other members of a society, tested in the public domain, filtered, and transmitted across generations. The gradual process of embedding separate minds in an evolving culture, so that individuals increasingly fall under the sway of that culture, might be called 'emergent enculturation'. This process is the reverse face of the evolution of representational skill at the species level. The byproduct of such a development is the public representational domain; that is, a realm of expression where knowledge and custom can be created through the interaction of individual minds, and thenceforth shared by all members of the culture. The story of human cognitive evolution revolves around this radical shift from the 'isolated minds' of other mammals, towards the 'collective' mind that typifies humans living in symbol-using cultures. Collectivity depends ultimately on indi¬ vidual capacity; but this is a reciprocal relationship; enculturation has become more and more important in setting the parameters of human capacity at the individual level. Galloping hominid enculturation undoubtedly interacted with brain evolution; it is self-evident that the ability of individuals to cope with a rapidly-evolving representational culture would have had immediate, and at times drastic, fitness implications. Thus the hominid brain and cognition evolved in symbiosis with an emerging process of enculturation.

-  Merlin Donald, Hominid enculturation and cognitive evolution  

[adamdow95]

E-ZINE RESEARCH (4) Biodiversity Deforestation

The human destruction of tropical forests has dramatically increased in recent decades, and the threat to tropical ecosystems is now a pressing issue. The most important impact of deforestation to biodiversity is the loss of habitat, but the loss of these ecosystems also leaves a lasting legacy with which plants and animals remaining in these fragmented systems must cope in the future. The degradation of forests results from two main processes: the division of forests into patches due to clearance for agriculture, and the degradation of habitat following removal processes, such as selective logging.

Tropical trees are thought to be particularly vulnerable to the effects of habitat degradation, because of their ecological characters. These characteristics include low population density (i.e. individual trees may be kilometers apart), complex mating systems (often meaning that trees need big, genetically diverse populations to reproduce), and the intimate relations between trees and their pollinators and seed vectors (which are easily disrupted due to loss of habitat). These changes may also impact upon population health. In the short term, disturbed tree populations often suffer increased disease and pest vulnerability. In the long term, the loss of variation is likely to reduce the ability of forest trees to respond to future environmental changes, such as a shifting climate or new diseases.

The impact of fragmentation or disturbance on genetic diversity (the number of different genes within a population) has been explored in several scientific studies over the last thirty years. From these studies we know that tree populations in small patches of forest undergo a range of genetic changes, which include; a loss of genetic diversity (due to smaller population size), increased differences between populations (due to a reduced interbreeding between trees in isolated patches), and increased inbreeding (i.e. matings between closely related individuals due to a lack of choice of mates).

Interestingly, research shows that many trees in fragmented or degraded forests have dealt surprisingly well with their new circumstances, and show surprisingly little reduction in genetic diversity or increase in genetic differences between isolated populations. This is because trees have a long life span, and an ability to disperse pollen and seeds over long distances using insects, birds and mammals.

For many species an extensive network of gene flow (up to 10 km) exists across landscapes (including those that are fragmented and degraded) that helps slow the loss of genetic diversity and thereby assist the longer -term survival of populations. In this context, forest fragments and isolated trees may be important stepping-stones for gene flow between forest fragments, connecting and enhancing population variability. This view is far from the idea that remnant isolated trees are only the ‘living dead’, persisting due to their long life span but contributing little to forest revival or the evolution of future species.

[tribbetherium]

The Early Glaciocene: 100 million years post-establishment

Scaling Up: The Rise of the Rattiles

It is a warm afternoon in the thick, lush forests of Fissor. The last ten million years have been significantly warmer, and on this equatorial paradise the local plants have flourished: giving rise to a tropical forest that is home to hundreds upon thousands of species of flora and fauna, the likes of which hasn't been seen since the coming of the ice: and this sceneic landscape has since become the cradle of a brand-new clade.

On a rotting log laying upon the forest floor, numerous hard-shelled beetles are hard at work gnawing on the decaying bark. But the activity of the ravenous swarm has not gone unnoticed, for a small, lithe predator has caught wind, and, scurrying in for the kill on splayed, sprawling legs, the six-inch long, scaly-skinned creature lunges, grabs one of the beetles in its wide, toothy jaws as the rest flee for cover, and scampers away with its prize, with a flick of its long, thick tail.

This unassuming creature, to human eyes, would simply look, in a familiar way, just like the lizards common and abundant on planet Earth. But at a closer look, this 'lizard' is far more remarkable than what it would appear at first glance: it is a rattile, and like all vertebrates on HP-02017, is a descendant of the hamster, and thus a rodent and by extension a mammal-- even though, after a hundred million years of evolution, it no longer even resembles one.

Rattiles are a member of a group of molemice known as the molrocks, which evolved sprawled limbs for digging through soil, and an ectothermic metabolism to cope with low-oxygen levels and scarce food deep underground. Upon returning to the surface, however, these adaptations proved useful in other ways: their sprawling limbs, at their small size, helped them cling to branches and clamber up tree trunks, while their cold-blooded metabolism allowed them to conserve energy and go longer without food than similar-sized warm-blooded mammals. Unlike other molrocks, however, their vestigial hairs, no longer needed for insulation, gradually evolved into hard, overlapping scales, akin to a pangolin's but smaller and finer, protecting its bare skin from predators, parasites and the environment.

Their protective scales, fat-storing tail and increased fecundity has given the rattiles an edge over the other basal molrocks and thus have begun to dominate and diversify in Fissor's isolated ecosystem. As of now nearly a hundred species of rattiles are extant, long since having outcompeted their more basal cousins, with only a few, such as the large predatory armadiles, having persisted the onslaught of their unexpectedly-successful cousin.

Many species are insectivores, such as the speckos (Saurorodentus spp.), which specifically feed on poisonous insects, sequester their toxins, and express them in their saliva, delivering painful, swelling bites to attackers that they advertise as a warning with conspicuous color patterns. Others, such as the gwannas (Argentosauromys spp.) are omnivorous, eating insects and other invertebrates but supplementing their diet with generous helpings of plant matter, and often prefer to run and hide from enemies, bearing dull, silvery-gray coloration to conceal themselves from predators.

Plenty of other species have also begun experimenting with novel new niches, such as the hook-tailed hameleon (Caudatonychus arborii), a tree-dwelling insectivore that has developed graspinng feet, and a prehensile tail equipped with a claw-like hook derived from fused scales that it uses to cling to branches. Others, such as the sninks (Ophiomimomys spp.) have become flexible and elongated with short but strong limbs, allowing them to easily infiltrate the nests of tunneling insects. And one genus has even begun to take to the water, the foot-long monisaurs (Cricetosuchus spp.), semi-aquatic species that feed mostly on shrish, as well as bottom-dwelling invertebrates.

Being such extremely derived rodents, the rattiles have evolved plenty of unusual, divergent adaptations from the typical mammal, most notably their cold-blooded metabolism that allows them to utilize less energy, an adaptation that may seem counterintuitive during an era of glaciation, but here on warm tropical Fissor, especially in the recent few millions of years, is a boon to their survival. Though despite their heavy convergence on a form akin to lizards, the rattiles retain many key mammalian traits--their jawbone is fused into a single piece, preventing them from swallowing large food items, and thus many species only hunt prey smaller than themselves, or first tear bite-size pieces of their food instead of gulping down whole meals as squamates do. They also retain thoracic muscles and diaphragms, allowing them to do one thing no lizard can: run continuously for a lengthly period without having to pause to take a breath.

Another key feature they retain is live birth, but unlike their ancestral rodent ancestors that invest parental care on a few helpless offspring, the rattiles have adapted to bear numerous small young that are already very well-developed and able to fend for themselves right away. The evolution of a slower metabolism in turn meant a less energy availability to expend on raising young, and thus was in their best interest to produce large numbers of precocial infants that require little further attention. Some rattile parents stick around for a few days after birth, passively protecting their offspring and leading them to food as they forage, while others abandon them right away with no need for further contact-- and in these species, the one defining mammalian characteristic of nursing their young with milk has been entirely lost. Parental bonds to offspring among rattiles is weak, with parents merely tolerating their babies' presence and rather quickly losing interest within days-- and in the case of carnivorous species, the mother instinctively heads away as far as she can as soon as giving birth, while her hormonal surges still suppress her hunger, to reduce the chances of her encountering her own children-- and indiscriminately making a meal of them like she would any smaller creature.

Within the span of a hundred million years, the hamsters of this planet have become so far removed from the form and figure of a recognizable rodent. While this process is most dramatically seen in the largest of the Glaciocene's megafauna, the smaller species have been changing very dramatically as well. For now, the rattiles are landlocked on the continent of Fissor: but as landmasses shift with the eons and separate worlds are brought together, the rattiles will face a level of great success like no clade has ever had before.

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[misophoniainternational]

  Dr. Porges suggests that when we hear high-pitch sounds we become on alert, this could contribute to the brain's defense system and be what causes misophonia. When Dr. Stephen Porges talks about misophonia and the state of fight/flight and immobilization he notes, "The irony of all this is that the anticipation of all this may be much worse than actually re-experiencing it". Because of this, the calmness of misophonia sufferers isn't necessarily enough to help misophonia. Listen to the full interview podcast now. Available on Youtube and iTunes     Note: Apologies for sound quality! Unfortunately, this was the best we could manage at the time, but are working on solutions for the next podcast!  With it, the body becomes vulnerable. In his work, Dr. Porges has studied why some sounds cause harm and why other sounds are pleasing. "It amazes me how we talk to each other, and how intuitively correct we are when we talk to our pets". Dr. Porges explains that our nervous system has embedded triggers that promote safety. Composers such as mozart started with lullabies, and once the they are comfortable with the noise, the expansion of pitch becomes less abrasive to listeners. Dr. Porges explains that humans have developed our voices to communicate distress with other mammals, and offers singing as a reassuring behaviour that can be calming, especially through 'lullaby'. Sharon, a suffer of misophonia, recently wrote a piece on how singing helps her cope with misophonia. While singing has been intuitively used throughout human history to calm, he asserts there is neurophysiology working behind the scenes that accounts for this phenomenon. This idea also includes listening to music. Music, or calming sounds help increase the vagal influence, and is calming for persons. The polyvagal theory suggests that sounds that trigger misophonia are "uniquely different than music and different than other biological sounds", they are also different than "most bodily sounds". Dr. Porges, in his work, is revere-engineering sounds that are displeasing to misophonia sufferers. By creating a disruptive sound, they will be able to understand it more. While the polyvagal theory is still a theory, it offers interesting discussion for misophonia causes. Dr. Brout, who has been on the forefront of auditory over-responsivity research for 20 years and has the disorder, notes, "We're not talking about different sounds. Most people are complaining about similar sounds, and the same sounds". Through acoustic anaylsis, Dr. Porges can isolate sounds that bother misophonia and reconstruct the sounds and find the core disruptive signal, in order to understand the misophonic reaction.   "I think misophonia may be very very specific. Very specific sounds that the body reacts to when you're in a certain state... If you are in a very calm psychological state, then certain sounds will literally be bouncing off your ear drums and not penetrating".   With this theory, either repetition or the anxiety of a sound causes an upsetting state for misophonic individuals. Because the nervous system treats 'triggers' with 'high valence' they have become important.Once sounds have been interpreted as noxious, they can no longer be "background noises". Through this model, the polyvagal theory sheds understanding on the capability of misophonics to "learn new triggers".   "We tend to think we are safe when there is no threat, but our nervous system may not be safe when there is no threat."   According to Dr. Porges, for misophonia intervention, the physiological state must be shifted. Lowering arousal is not enough, you must also retain a feeling of safety. It is both the psychological state, and the emotional connection. Safety allows us to remain calm and regulate our emotional response, however, this is not possible in a 'chronic fight/flight state'. We may appear calm in a fight/flight state, but that does not mean that we are not defensive. Sufferers of misophonia are living in a constant state of fear. Even when we seem calm, our nervous systems, like a computer with a stuck "shift" key, is essentially screaming, just like the ever-dreaded ALL CAPS.   "The nervous system is very smart, but when it gets stuck in certain states it is smart for that state of defending but the ability to engage and to calm and to calm another is really off the table. The system can't do it."   Dr. Porges goes on to say that this state is not only disruptive for fight flight, but it disrupts over-all health. When we're safe, our body is ready to 'optimize our health'. We feel tired all the time, get sick more, and we are "not being rejuvenated through our interactions with others, instead they are being exhausted by it". Living in a state of fear, particularly in a desocialized world, is beyond anger or anxiety, it physically hurts. Dr. Porges

[getsomehole]

pg. 3

Of course, solitary confinement—“the hole”—was never completely eliminated. Most prisons and jails retained special cells in which prisoners could be kept for relatively brief periods of time to separate them from others for safety reasons, or as a form of punishment for disciplinary infractions.

described as a “low-slung brick-and-concrete bunker in the middle of a former cotton field, surrounded by four guard towers, two razor-wire fences, and a series of electric gates” that housed the state’s new gas chamber and a solitary confinement unit. The latter was used “for the isolation and punishment of disruptive convicts” that one prisoner recalled as a place “where they just beat the living crap out of you. . . . Nobody left there without bumps and busted bones.”

pg. 10

However, even those prisoners who survive the experience of solitary confinement often suffer long-lasting physical and psychological damage.

pg. 14 

Moreover, as they observed, unlike the experience of physical pain, which is largely transitory, social pain is more susceptible to being relived. Indeed, although persons who experience physical pain can recall the qualities and degree of intensity of the painful experience, they are largely unable to reexperience the sensation. Social pain, on the other hand, engages the affective pain system and can be actually relived months, or even years, later.

pg. 16 

These studies have found that social isolation actually alters the brain’s neurochemistry, structure, and function. Thus, social isolation operates as a chronic stressor that can change the brain chemistry of animals in ways that negatively affect the cellular mechanisms of aging, precipitate depression-like behavior in mammals, and suppress the animal immune response to illness. Social isolation also leads to anxiety-like behavior in animals, impairs their working memory, and disrupts their brain activity. It also modifies their neuroendocrinal responses in ways that exacerbate the effects of stress, which suggests that isolation is not only stressful in its own right, but also compromises an organism’s ability to tolerate and manage stress more generally.

pg. 23

Researchers have also documented the fact that excluding persons from contact with others is not only “painful in itself,” but also “undermines people’s sense of belonging, control, self-esteem, and meaningfulness, . . . reduces pro-social behavior, and impairs self-regulation.” Indeed, the subjective experience of social exclusion can result in what have been called “cognitive deconstructive states,” which include emotional numbing, reduced empathy, cognitive inflexibility, lethargy, and an absence of meaningful thought. Social exclusion also has been shown to heighten people’s feelings of physical vulnerability and increase the expectation that they will experience physical harm in the future. It may also precipitate aggressive behavior— “action-oriented coping”—in response. Two authors summarized these overall effects this way: Social exclusion is detrimental and can lead to depression, alienation, and sometimes even to violent behaviour. Laboratory studies show that even a brief episode of exclusion lowers mood, causes social pain, which is analogous to physical pain, and elicits various behavioural responses, such as aggressive behaviour or affiliation‐seeking behavior.

pg. 29

greatly restricted access to social and environmental stimulation can have a “profoundly deleterious effect,” including adversely impacting “patients in intensive care units, spinal patients immobilized by the need for prolonged traction, and patients with impairment of their sensory apparatus (such as eye-patched or hearing impaired patients).” Of course, prisoners are not placed in solitary confinement to receive treatment or be administered to in caring ways.

pg. 30

Interactions with staff are “fraught with resentment and recrimination” and an “ecology of cruelty” subjects prisoners in solitary confinement to the implements of forceful subjugation, including “handcuffs, belly chains, leg irons, spit shields, strip cells, fourpoint restraints, canisters of pepper spray, batons, and rifles,” often wielded by flak-jacketed, helmeted officers

pg. 31

These dynamics, in turn, may lead to even more painful and extended stays in solitary confinement. For example, several studies have found that the experience of loneliness leads naturally to hypervigilance about perceived social threats which, in turn, can produce overreactions to potentially threatening external stimuli. This helps to explain why prisoners in solitary confinement are susceptible to a form of “institutional paranoia” in which they come to distrust literally everyone with whom they interact.

Relatedly, researchers have found that loneliness reduces the amount of pleasure persons derive from rewarding social stimuli. This means that even the extraordinarily rare forms of positive social stimulation that might occur in solitary confinement may have only limited beneficial or ameliorating effects because the effects of extreme isolation have numbed the prisoners’ capacity to enjoy or benefit from it.

pg. 35 

Moreover, the experience of imprisonment is so stressful that it adversely affects prisoners’ physical health. Having been in prison can increase rates of morbidity, especially the likelihood of contracting infectious and stress-related illnesses.

pg. 44

If human beings are “wired to connect,” then solitary confinement acts to disconnect those wires. Many people struggle to reconnect them long after returning to a social world and to the routine presence of others in their life.

Solitary Confinement Article

https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1431&context=nulr

[gethealthy18-blog]

329: How to Slow Aging, Fight Inflammation, & Improve Cellular Signaling With Brian Dixon

New Post has been published on https://healingawerness.com/news/329-how-to-slow-aging-fight-inflammation-improve-cellular-signaling-with-brian-dixon/

329: How to Slow Aging, Fight Inflammation, & Improve Cellular Signaling With Brian Dixon

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

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This podcast is brought to you by Wellnesse, a new company I co-founded to bring the best personal care products from my family to yours. Our whitening toothpaste is based on my DIY formula that I have been making and perfecting for over a decade. Now, after almost 100 rounds of tweaking the formula and thousands of positive reviews, I could not be more proud to share this with your family. Have you ever read a tube of normal toothpaste? I did when my older kids were little, and I found a warning that said, “Warning, keep away from children. Do not swallow. If ingested contact Poison Control or seek medical attention immediately.” That seemed a little extreme for something that I was putting in my mouth and my children’s mouth multiple times a day. And I didn’t want my kids using something that often that I would need to call a poison control center if they accidentally swallowed. I set out to create a truly safe and effective alternative. And the Wellnesse Whitening toothpaste is just that. It’s designed to support the oral microbiome and the natural process of saliva and teeth so that teeth can stay white and strong. This dentist approved formula is safe for the whole family and will leave your teeth shiny and your breath fresh. You can check out our toothpaste and our completely natural hair food hair care products at wellnesse.com. An insider tip, if you grab an essentials bundle or try autoship, you will lock in a discount so that you can try everything at a great price.

Katie: Hello, and welcome to the Wellness Mama Podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com, and this episode is all about how we can slow the aging process, fight inflammation and improve cellular signaling. I’m here with Brian Dixon who is a Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology from Oregon State University and is affiliated with the Linus Pauling Institute where his research focused on the underlying biochemical and cellular mechanisms of aging. And this is an area I’ve been fascinated with since I had to do a final project on some of these things and work with the Linus Pauling Institute when I was younger as well. He and his work have been featured on, among others, “The Dr. Oz Show”. And he’s authored a number of scientific peer-reviewed manuscripts on topics such as cancer, antioxidants, cellular signaling, gene regulation, stress coping mechanisms, Nrf2, weight management, sports nutrition and recovery.

Dr. Dixon has also published research in the role of nutrition in recovery from surgery, how we can facilitate a healthy inflammation response, ways to support the immune system, the aging process and how various nutrients come into play with all of those. He has worked in the nutritional industry for over 10 years, and he has seven patents related to different supplements and things within the industry. And in this episode, we go deep on the science of aging, ways we can mitigate it and things like sulforaphane, Nrf2 sirtuins, and many others. If those are new to you, stay tuned and buckle up. This is a fascinating episode.

Brian, welcome. Thank you for being here.

Dr. Dixon: Thank you so much for having me.

Katie: Well, I know you’ve done a lot of research in a lot of different areas, including one that is of increasing importance to me every year that goes by, which is aging. And, unfortunately, it’s something I don’t think we can fully escape, but I know it is something that we can mitigate and do very gracefully in a lot of cases. And there are things that we can do on a cellular level as we age to help protect our bodies. So I’d love to start with aging as a broad topic and then go deeper on some tangents from there. So let’s talk about aging, in general. What factors come into play when we think about aging, both on a cellular level and then also, aesthetically?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, well, you’re absolutely right. You know, we can’t stop time. That’s that thing that’s just constantly ticking along. It’d be nice if we could stop time or even turn it back, but yeah, it’s kind of our destiny. You know, maybe to take a step back and maybe we’ll start with the bad news first, and then we’ll get into the good news of what people can do. There are currently over 300 different theories of aging. I mean, if you can believe that. So, people, you know, literally, since the beginning of time, have been interested in what we could do to stop the aging process.

I mean, that’s that whole sort of folklore around the fountain of youth. And Ponce de León coming to North America, heading to Florida, and looking for a physical fountain of youth with the notion that you could drink this water and basically, live forever. When we come into scientific circles, scientists have been studying this, you know, for hundreds of years. But it really caught a lot of attention in 1954 when an individual named Denham Harman first proposed the oxidative stress theory of aging. That’s really where a lot of aging research is focused. But I like to kind of lump those 300 theories of aging into just about five general categories.

And I think it’s interesting that we can get people thinking about these different categories, because I don’t doubt for a second that they’re all contributing. And so if we can think about these five individually, and what we can do to kind of check the boxes, you’re really gonna set yourself up for optimal health, and then possibly even extending more years to your lives. So those five general categories, I like to lump those 300 theories of aging in are, you know, very technically, we can talk about biochemical molecular and cellular theories of aging. So basically our biochemistry, our metabolism is just changing on that cellular level, and no one really knows why.

There’s also some really depressing theories of aging out there that’s called the programmed theories of aging. And that notion is, is that in our genes, right, in our DNA, we are literally programmed to die. So you think to yourself, “Well, gosh, why would we be programmed to die?” But if we look at other organisms around us out in nature, you know, it’s really every organism’s job on this planet to reproduce. And so once we’ve passed on our DNA to that next generation, there really is no true biological reason to keep us around. In fact, an organism gets past its reproductive years, all that individual or organism is doing is just consuming resources.

That doesn’t apply so much to humans. You know, we have that knowledge base that comes with age. And in fact, there’s a few higher mammals on this planet where it is evolutionarily beneficial to keep the elderly around. So obviously, humans is one great example. So think about all those things that we learned from our grandma and our grandpa. Whales, they keep the elderly around. In fact, it’s usually the grandmother orca whale that’s raising the young. The elephants are also one long-lived species where the oldest elephants are playing a huge role in their family circles. So programmed theories of aging, that’s number two. Then we can get into number three, the cycle social theories of aging. So basically, what that means is we just need to keep our minds sharp as we age.

A lot of individuals as we get older, we tend to isolate ourselves. We tend not to spend as much time with family and friends, and it really leads to that kind of rotting away of our brains. Number four, I put in a loss of cellular communication, and I throw that into the mix. So what does that mean? Well, basically, our cells, organs, and tissues just aren’t talking to each other as well as they used to. So think about hormonal changes occurring as we get older. So, you know, in men, testosterone levels can decline. Women when they hit menopause, I mean, their hormones are going all over the place until they can find that new normal … so hormonal signaling isn’t working as well as we age. And then just our ability to adapt and respond to our environment.

So if we’re exposed to, let’s say, environmental toxins or oxidative stress, we have these built-in systems to be able to deal with those stresses. But they’re just not sensing the signal and then communicating the potential trouble to the rest of the cell or even the other tissues and organs in our bodies. And then lastly is the damaged theories of aging. So just the different biological structures inside of our bodies and inside of our cells just start to accumulate this damage as we get older. So DNA becomes damaged, the proteins or enzymes inside of our cells get damaged. Even the cellular membrane, the integrity of that membrane gets damaged, and it doesn’t work as well to keep the outside world out and the inside world in.

Katie: Got it. So definitely, like, lots of different approaches, and you mentioned that there’s probably something to be learned from all of them. What view do you take personally when it comes the aging, and which of these are the most important to understand then and start to mitigate?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, it comes back to that research that I referenced by Professor Harman back in 1954. He postulated probably the most sound theory of aging, and that being the free radical or oxidative stress theory of aging. And in a lot of ways, many of these other theories of aging really kind of playoff of that oxidative stress theory of aging. So you can think about the damaged theories of aging, the loss of cellular communication and, especially those biochemical molecular and cellular theories of aging and really where that research is centered and what we can best do to protect ourselves and set ourselves up for optimal health in the long term is just really making sure that we’re eating a healthy diet. And then luckily, there’s been some great scientific advances in about the last 10 years that have shown us that there is even some pretty fun things that we can do around nutritional supplements to support, especially our body’s own inherent anti-oxidant detoxification defenses.

Katie: Got you. Okay. So I think that’s a perfect place to start diving in and going deeper, because there’s … When you start reading the research and, especially just reading sources online, there’s a lot of theories about different ways that we can do that. Of course, when you talk about free radicals, antioxidants come to mind. That’s a big buzzword with oxidative damage and free radicals. But I also know that there’s a lot of discrepancy in, like, the potential measurements and research related to antioxidants. And some people say, “Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.” So what’s your take on ways that we can reduce that cellular damage, and are antioxidants the answer?

Dr. Dixon: It’s a great question. And, you know, you’re absolutely right. The scientific literature is very muddy when it comes to taking, especially high doses of antioxidants. And can we really extend healthspan and even, lifespan. If you go on and read some of the research on the National Institutes of Health, specifically from the centers for complementary and alternative medicine, they talk about … There’s a line in one of their statements that just says, “In research studies that have been done in thousands and thousands of people, there is no scientific evidence that … especially high dose antioxidants supplementation is actually going to have a beneficial effect on human health and disease.”

My view, as I read the scientific literature and things I’ve incorporated into my life is that, you know, we absolutely have to get the basics, whether it’s from our diet or from our nutritional supplement, and that does include some antioxidants, and it’s what we call the vitamin antioxidant. So these antioxidants that are absolutely essential for life, right? They’re actually working as a vitamin. And then they have this sort of side effect, if you will, of actually being an antioxidant. So if we take vitamin C, for example, vitamin C is an essential nutrient because it’s playing a role, a direct role as a cofactor which means it’s absolutely required for the activity of an enzyme to work. And it’s required in at least 15 different mammalian enzymes.

So if we stop taking vitamin C, those enzymes stop working and that ultimately compromises cellular function. But when we’re thinking about antioxidant protection and really, what is the best strategy, you know, a strategy that I love to incorporate personally, things that I’ve researched in the laboratory for many, many years is really trying to unlock the power that our cells inherently have. So what do I mean by that? It turns out that in our DNA and, specifically in our genes, we have antioxidant enzymes, and we also have detoxification enzymes. If you set the clock back to about 2007, just kind of as the Human Genome Project was kind of wrapping up and people started to really dive into, “Okay. What are all of these genes now that we can map, what are they actually doing?”

Well, they came to discover about that same time, 2006, 2007, that actually there’s this massive interaction between the nutrients that we eat and our genetics. So basically nutrients can turn on genes, and then those genes are also affecting how we were metabolizing nutrients. And when you actually put these things in test tubes, whether it’s these enzymes that are encoded in our DNA or whether we just put these straight antioxidants into test tubes, it turns out that this enzymatic activity, these enzymes that are found in our DNA are significantly more effective at detoxifying antioxidants, free radicals, and those other toxins that may be entering our bodies.

Katie: That’s fascinating. Okay. So you mentioned that basically what we eat has the ability to turn on genes. And I’d love for you to explain this a little bit deeper. Basically I’m assuming that you’re talking about the idea of epigenetics essentially, but for anyone who’s not familiar with that concept, can you explain how that process works?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, maybe I’m hung up on my scientific circles. But yeah, epigenetics is definitely influenced by the diets that we eat. But another complicated science word that maybe better describes what we’re talking about here is nutrigenomics. So if you break that big word down into its two parts, nutri and genomics, it’s really how nutrition and your genes are interacting. Maybe I’ll take a step back. I mean, maybe scientists and medical professions in their arrogance, they love to break things down into as simple of pieces or parts as possible. A lot of this research really came out of the research that showed that high levels of fruit and vegetable consumption are actually incredibly beneficial for our health.

So in that scientific arrogance, scientists went into fruit and vegetables, and they tried to tease out and find the compound or compounds that might be responsible for that increase in health that we’re seeing in the highest fruits and vegetable consumers. So they pulled out things like vitamin C. They pulled out things like fiber. And definitely, you can supplement with vitamin C, and you see some health benefits. You can supplement with fiber, you see great health benefits. But when you look at the research, it never really equated to the full effect that we were seeing with this fruit and vegetable consumption. So scientists were scratching their heads, thinking to themselves, “Well, there must be something else in these fruits and vegetables that are also providing health benefits.”

So then instead of looking at the things that were present in the largest quantities in fruits and vegetables, they started to focus on compounds that were really present in really very small concentrations. If you think about what gives fruits and vegetables their bright vibrant colors, it turns out it’s a lot of those same compounds that we’re providing these health benefits. So in some studies that were conducted, they teased out these compounds from fruits and vegetables that give them their color. They start to test them in the test tube and yeah, in a test tube, they’re working as very potent antioxidants. But what happened when they gave these compounds to people is they found that they were incredibly poorly bioavailable.

That means they weren’t absorbed by our bodies or if they were absorbed, they were absorbed at a very low rate. More than that, when these compounds were actually getting into our bodies, our bodies were metabolizing them incredibly quickly and then excreting them incredibly quickly as well. So then how could these compounds that are one, present in incredibly low concentrations that we don’t absorb very well and then are metabolized and excreted very quickly, how could they possibly be having any sort of health benefit? Well, it turns out what researchers found is that a lot of these compounds are actually binding to what we call receptors that are either sitting on the outside of the cell membrane or are floating around inside of the cell.

An easy way to think about receptors is just being little sensor molecules. And so when you get the right compound that’s gonna bind to the sensor molecule, what ends up happening is we start a chain of events. A lot like knocking over, let’s say, like, a line of dominoes. So you push over the first domino, you get this chain of events that happens, and then at the end of that chain, something happens. So when we’re talking about what’s happening in our body, a lot of times, that’s actually a protein, right, going into the nucleus and actually flipping these switches on these genes that have been shown to have great health benefits. In fact, they’re known as either anti-stress genes or maybe even more aptly named survival genes.

Katie: Got it. Okay. That makes sense. And it seems like a lot of this also goes back to inflammation which is a big buzzword right now as well. Is that part of this equation and if so, like, what are some things on either side of that equation?

Dr. Dixon: Yep. That inflammatory axis absolutely can be influenced by the foods that we’re eating. Absolutely. So we can target them nutrigenomically. So maybe a lot of your audience might have heard of a protein called NF-kappa B. NF-kappa B really is the master regulator of our immune response. And it’s determining whether or not we have an up-regulated or even hyperinflammatory response, but then it’s also responsible for shutting down that immune response as well. And so when we’re talking about inflammation, what we’re really talking about is a balance. You know, think of a teeter-totter just kind of balancing there. If your immune system is completely shut off, then, you know, that’s gonna compromise us to this outside world that’s constantly trying to get in and invade our cells.

But then again, on the flip side, if you have too much inflammation going on, the scientific literature is incredibly solid on what hyperinflammation can do in its roles as it directly relates to health and then, especially, disease. You know, a few years back, there was a cover of “Time” magazine that just simply said, “The Silent Killer.” And it was really just this kind of furnace that is inflammation getting carried away in our bodies and so left unchecked, inflammation can go on and have just massive consequences to literally every system that’s inside of our bodies. So again, reaching for these compounds that can help regulate that protein NF-kappa B. And then there are some other things that we can do. We wanna make sure that we’re getting plenty of omega-3 fatty acids.

When you look at the biochemical pathway, the different fats that we consume in our diet are going down inside of the cell. They tend to either be pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory. And so with our modern diets and most of us tending to eat pretty unhealthy, we tend to reach for foods in a box. We’ve really skewed the balance of our fatty acids to saturated fats and then omega-6s and omega-9s. So when we look at, again, all that scientific literature about the health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, what’s most likely happening is that we’re bringing the balance of those pro and anti-inflammatory fats back into the balance that our bodies prefer to keep them at.

Katie: That’s a great point. What are your preferred sources of omega-3s? Because I know this is also a controversial topic in… People saying, “A lot of them can go rancid if they’re not carefully controlled, and some are not as potent as they claim to be.” Is this better to get from food, or what do you look at for omega-3?

Dr. Dixon: Well, the best and maybe most convenient source of omega-3s would be those traditional fish oil supplements, I think, that we’ve all heard so much about. But exactly, the points that you raised are very valid. And unfortunately, and the nutritional industry, I hate to say it, but it really is buyer beware. And you’re absolutely right that omega-3s are particularly prone to oxidation. So if they’re not handled correctly, you’ve basically changed the structure of those fatty acids, and you’re no longer getting what you think you’re getting. So, you know, I encourage people that you have to spend a little bit of money. Just buying the cheapest thing that might be on a supermarket shelf isn’t the best option.

Spend a little bit of money, make sure you’re buying your products from a reputable high-quality manufacturer to ensure that you’re getting those fatty acids. That’s the simplest way. And maybe a simple check if people want to, maybe go into their pantries and see if their fish oil might be appropriate or not. But simply break open the capsule and smell it because they go rancid so quickly. And I think we’re probably all familiar with what rotten fish smells like. So if you break open your fish oil capsule and it smells like rotten fish, then you’ve got a bad product on your hands. You know, there’s great sources of omega-3s. I know, you know, a lot of people are choosing to be plant-based these days. If not, straight vegetarian or even vegan.

And there are some great vegetarian and vegan sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Things like flaxseeds, walnuts, they’re fantastic sources of omega-3s. So we can get these from our diets as well if we wanna eat a lot of fatty fish. So it’s not just eating fish two to three times per week, but it specifically has to be fatty fish like salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines are a couple of examples. And then just making sure you’re getting as well a lot of … mostly, nuts tend to be very rich in, you know, omega-3 fatty acids.

Katie: I think those are all such great suggestions, and I love the fatty fish idea. That’s something I’ve adopted that I think is really inexpensive, easy way to get omega-3s is a few times a week, I will eat sardines, and I’ll just make lunch out of a bowl of sardines and veggies and nuts and hemp parts and all kinds of stuff and then just kind of put olive oil on it. And you mentioned fat sources and how the American diet definitely skews towards, not just saturated fats, but even just, like, really unhealthy forms of saturated fats and also, omega-6 oils. A lot of guests on this podcast and a lot of resources I’m seeing are recommending the monounsaturated fats in much higher amounts. Things like olive oil and avocado oil. Is that your take on it as well? Are those the kind of fats we should be prioritizing?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, it comes back to really what we were talking about initially with antioxidants. I think everything has to be in balance. So what I’m not a fan of is going to an extreme one-way or another. I mean, you can even make the argument that we need saturated fat as well. I mean, most of the fat that makes up our cell membrane is actually saturated fatty acids. But it’s very clear that we’ve just become over-consumers of, especially unhealthy saturated fatty acids. So my best recommendation is just to eat a variety of foods. You know, don’t really be afraid of anything but just eat things in moderation.

And then whenever possible, whenever time and convenience allows, reach for whole foods, so the actual original sources. You know, with our busy lives, that’s not always possible. And I think that’s a good time to start to consider nutritional supplements as the word suggests, right? The word supplement is supposed to be supplementing our diets, and if our diets aren’t healthy and well-balanced, then any nutritional supplement in the world is not going to fix those core problems.

Katie: I agree, and I wanna get to specifics on supplements in just a minute. But first, I wanna pick your brain on a couple of other things. So a few years ago, when I had nodules on my thyroid and had Hashimoto’s before I was able to get it in remission, one of the things my doctor suggested was to consume broccoli sprouts regularly which are a source of sulforaphane which, from what I’ve researched, is known to activate something called Nrf2. And I know this comes into play with this inflammation equation. And I’d love to really explain this, because I’ve never kind of teased this out on the podcast before. And I know this is something that you’ve done research in. So can you explain to us … first of all, is my understanding of this correct? And explain to us what Nrf2 is, and why it’s important?

Dr. Dixon: Absolutely. So Nrf2 is a protein. So it’s a protein that lives in our cell, and it’s an interesting protein, and how it behaves in that. It’s both…One of those center molecules or receptors that we were talking about. It’s also really the signaling molecule itself, and then it’s also the protein that can go into the nucleus, and it actually flips the switches of somewhere between 200 to 300 different survival genes or anti-stress genes. A lot of these tend to be antioxidant enzymes or detoxification enzymes. I’m impressed with your knowledge of sulforaphane, and, especially impressed with the source that you’re going to. So broccoli sprouts have been shown to be the highest sources of sulforaphane.

You know, my recommendation if that’s what some of your listeners are doing, you know, make sure you’re chewing them up. Sulforaphane itself actually comes with another little molecule stuck to it. So it turns out you actually have to really chew any source of cruciferous vegetable that you’re eating to release an enzyme that will remove that other molecule that’s stuck to it so that you can actually get the healthy compound. What’s so interesting and how this protein Nrf2 is working is normally it’s found anchored to the cell membrane. And it’s anchored by a very interesting set of chemical bonds. And the way that sulforaphane is working is that it’s actually interacting with that chemical bond, and it’s releasing Nrf2 from the cell wall, and it floats through the cell, gets into the nucleus, and turns on a bunch of genes like we’re talking about.

A compound that I’m even more familiar with dates back to, gosh, many years ago now. But back when I was doing my graduate work, I studied lipoic acid, if you’re familiar with that compound. That’s just an absolutely … another amazing inducer of Nrf2. We can look at things like Coricidin, green tea, ashwagandha, Bacopa. There are a whole host of compounds that actually are activating Nrf2. And so if activating Nrf2 and turning on these antioxidant and detoxification gene is the strategy you want to employ, then my recommendation would be to look for a mix of healthy compounds that are known to activate Nrf2.

Katie: Got it. Yeah. I love it that you brought that up about having to chew the broccoli sprouts to activate the sulforaphane correctly. You can verify this for me. But to my understanding, you’ve got glucoraphanin and myrosinase in that equation, and it does have to be broken up in certain … and temperature can come into play, and there are things that can help with that. So I don’t recommend it based on taste, but what I do to get enough of this is I will blend up a bunch of broccoli sprouts with some mustard seed powder which has some of those things that you need, and that help break down. And then the blending, I let it sit for a minute, and then drink it. From what I’ve read, that’s supposed to make the sulforaphane more readily available.

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, Katie, I’m incredibly impressed. You are exactly right on all that biochemistry.

Katie: Awesome. Well, I’ll put links, I’ve got posts on how to grow broccoli sprouts. I think that’s one of those easy things we can all do in our own kitchen, and it cost literally, like, 50 cents to grow if you do it yourself versus buying them in a store, so that’s an easy step.

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I’d love to now go a little deeper on the science of actually, like, slowing aging and fixing these processes, both in two ways. So I want to start practical and then move onto optimal. But when it comes to the practical side, I’m a big fan of 80/20 and doing the most effective important things that provide the biggest payoff. And I know that there are definitely some of these when it comes to the aging equation, both in supplements and other factors that come into play. So based on your research, if we were going to look at aging in kind of an 80/20 equation, what are those 20% of variables that we should focus on that have kind of 80% of the effects that we’re trying to achieve?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, the three things that are really at top of mind for me right now are still that free radical theory of aging like we were talking about. For me, it’s also the mitochondrial theory of aging. And if your listeners aren’t familiar with what the mitochondria are, it’s really where the vast majority of our energy production is happening inside of our cells. They’re literally these little nuclear powerhouses that are generating about 95% of all the energy that our body needs every second of every day.

And just to put in the context how important that energy production is, we basically make our body weight every single day in the energy currency, ATP that we need every single day. So think about how much energy is flowing through the mitochondria and all the work they’re doing. And then something else that’s caught a lot of attention for me lately is the molecule, NAD. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that or if your listeners are familiar with that. But some very interesting research around the health benefits of NAD and then, especially what’s happening to NAD as we get older.

Katie: Yeah, let’s talk about that. So I have some experience with NAD, and I know that there’s a lot of research and kind of some controversy about NAD versus NAD precursors. I have done NAD IVs, which for anyone who is not familiar with that, it’s an IV that contains NAD. And it’s somewhat uncomfortable going in, depending on how quickly you do it. I also, one time and will never again, did a push IV of NAD and wished I was dying for a short amount of time. But then I’ve also done research into NAD precursors, which from my understanding, are various forms of vitamin B3, if I’m remembering that correctly. But let’s talk about that. Explain what NAD is and also, what those precursors are in the body.

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, NAD, it’s an incredibly interesting molecule, and it’s absolutely essential for life. So you’re right. We do make NAD from various precursors and like you said, vitamin B3 or niacin is one of those precursors. NAD’s normal role inside of the cell turns out to be inside of the mitochondria, and it is intimately involved in all of that energy production that we need every second of every day. So normally what’s happening is as we’re eating food, our digestive system chops it up into its small little bits. It gets into circulation. Our cells ultimately end up absorbing these compounds.

And then the food tends to make it into the mitochondrial where most of our energy production is happening. It goes through something that’s called the Krebs cycle or the TCA cycle if maybe you’re as old as I am. And then basically the role of this Krebs or TCA cycle is to break the bonds of that food, and as you’re breaking those bonds, effectively you’re releasing the electrons from that chemical bond. One place those electrons end up is attached to NAD, and NAD acts as the shuttle molecule to get the electron into something known as the electron transport chain which is really trying to harness the power or the energy that’s in that electron so that we could ultimately make ATP, which is the energy currency for the cell.

So it’s vitally important if we were to shut off NAD synthesis, I mean, we would be dead in a matter of seconds. But some interesting research that has centered around what’s known as caloric restriction. So we’re talking about a diet, but we’re talking about maybe the most severe diet that anybody has ever been on. We’re talking about a restriction of 40% to 60% of the calories that we would consume every single day. So for me, at about 160 pounds, that would equate to eating right around about 800 calories per day. So I mean, incredibly calorically restricted. The research that has led to this kind of notion of caloric restriction initially started in yeast. Yeast is a fantastic experimental model, especially for geneticists.

So some geneticists embarked on these studies where they were calorically restricting yeast, and then they moved the studies into looking at worms or fruit flies, right, to more experimental models, mice, rats, even some primates. And then some people have even played with caloric restriction themselves. What’s so interesting is when they found that we restricted calories by this huge amount, you got about the same lengthening of lifespan, so around the same 40% to 60% actual increase in lifespan. And it’s really the only known non-pharmacological or nongenetic way that’s been shown to increase lifespan. So, of course, scientists in their inquisitive nature wanted to know, “Well, how is caloric restriction actually eliciting these effects?”

These geneticists went in, and they did a bunch of studies. And then a long scientific story short, they found that there was this family of proteins known as the sirtuins. And when they genetically manipulated or even pharmacologically inhibited this family of proteins or enzymes and then they still calorically restricted these experimental models, they completely lost that extension in lifespan. So scientists then went on to study what’s going on with these sirtuins and exactly how are they working. Well, it turns out the way that these sirtuin molecules are activated is by this molecule called NAD, so NAD is absolutely required for their function to occur. So if we kind of lumped together everything that’s been shown as we’re calorically restricting and you don’t have a lot of those electrons around, your relative levels of NAD actually increase.

And NAD is no longer working to generate energy but actually becomes a signaling molecule to activate this family of proteins called the sirtuins. And then downstream, right, or a better way to say it is that these sirtuin proteins are actually controlling a number of different pathways and factors and enzymes that have been shown to have all sorts of different health benefits, and that’s really why NAD has caught a lot of people’s minds. You throw on top of that that NAD levels declined significantly as we age, probably starting sometime in our late 20s or early 30s and then by the time we’re 60 or 70 years old, our levels can decline by as much as 60%.

Katie: Wow, yeah, that’s really drastic. So there are things … I’m so glad you brought up sirtuin as well. That was one of my questions that I was gonna ask, because I knew that was a factor in this. But so basically there are things that we can do, supplements that help increase the body’s NAD capacity essentially.

Dr. Dixon: Yeah, and you kind of alluded to one, and that’s the precursor approach. And there’s not just vitamin B3, but there are other related molecules that are out there that people are using as substrates. There are also intermediates. So when your cells are building NAD from scratch, it kind of has to go through this process. So people are also trying to incorporate, trying to kind of cheat the biochemical regulation that’s going on by feeding the so-called kind of intermediates which can still be considered precursors. And then some things that’s really caught our attention lately is leveraging also, a Nutrigenomix approach to look at the enzymes that are actually making NAD in our body. And are there ways that we can use nutrients to actually turn on those enzymes to ultimately increase the biosynthetic capacity of our NAD generating pathways.

Katie: That’s fascinating. And I know one concern I’ve heard with certain NAD precursors and taking them in too large of a dose is that some people speculate that it can use methyl groups for, like, that conversion to happen. So that if we take them in too large of amounts, we can deplete methylation factors which can, especially be an issue if people who have MTHFR. Are you seeing that, are you concerned about that, or do you think that’s only an issue with really big doses?

Dr. Dixon: Yeah. Again, it kind of comes back to the gist of most of the conversation we had. And that’s just that everything needs to be in balance, right? Too little of something is bad, right? Let’s use a simple analogy with water, right? Dehydration is terrible, but you can actually drink too much water and kill yourself. So we need to be within this sweet spot of the bell curve, and the bell curve lives everywhere in biology. When it comes to the precursor notion specifically, right, I’m just trying to make sure that I’m getting somewhere slightly elevated over kind of either the RDA or the recommended daily allowance or daily recommended intakes, however, you wanna say it. I’m not a fan or supporter of mega-dosing in any way.

But if we come back and look at the biochemistry with how a lot of these pathways are working, a pathway can only work as fast as its slowest enzyme. I hope that makes sense. So any biochemical pathway in our bodies can only work as fast as the slowest enzyme. So you can kind of think almost like you create a traffic jam in this biochemical pathway or maybe another way if you can think about it in your mind’s eye is think about a funnel. And if I were to pour water into the top of a funnel, water can only move to that funnel as quickly as its narrowest point.

So at some point, we’re gonna overload the system and those compounds that we’re thinking or we’re taking that we think is gonna have an effect on one end isn’t gonna make it into that biochemical pathway, and it’s gonna float around on our bodies, and who knows have what type of effect. So, you know, our approach is to look at it both ways, so providing precursors to some extent, not in massive megadoses. But then what are nutrients that we can utilize to leverage that genetic machinery, turn on that genetic machinery to increase really the biosynthetic capacity of the NAD so that the precursor that’s around will ultimately get consumed in the way that we want it to be consumed.

Katie: Got it. Okay. That makes sense. So then from there, we talked about the practical. What if you could create an optimal scenario for someone to slow aging and to improve all of the things that we’ve talked about, both with supplements, with diet, and with lifestyle, what would that look like?

Dr. Dixon: I think if we want to really increase, not just longevity, but the thing that I’m most focused on right now is healthspan. I think if we can keep ourselves healthier for longer, I think, the side effect is gonna be added years to the end of our lives. You know, the scientific literature is just incredibly discouraging. Every American especially, if not every individual living in a modern society tends to lead their last 10 years of life suffering from some sort of disease or disability. And I just think my best advice is not to accept that as our norm. So the things that we can do in our lives to shorten that length of morbidity or disease or disability, just think of the quality of life.

I mean, if we can take that 10 years and shorten it to 5 years or 5 years down to 1 year and not to get too morbid, but I love to take just a big nose dive into my grave, right? I don’t wanna scratch and claw my way there. But when we wanna look at what are the things that we know in humans that are having the best effects for our healthspan and our lifespan, there’s a lot of different names floating around for the concept. I’ve heard it referred to as Blue Zones. But really, what these Blue Zones are longevity hotspots. And it turns out that there is just a very small handful of them around the world. There’s one in Japan. There’s one in Greece. There’s one in Italy. I throw one in there in France as well. There’s one in Costa Rica, and there’s one in Southern California.

So researchers have gone in and they’ve looked at all of these different populations and ironically, they tend to be very isolated populations. So they don’t seem to be as affected by a lot of our kind of new-age cultural norms. But when they kind of look at the aspects of each of these populations, there’s definitely unique aspects to each and every one of them. In fact, a lot of the diet fads that we’ve seen in probably the last 10 or 20 years are because of these longevity hotspots. So if you take the one in Japan, for example, that’s where really, sushi got really popular and eating the fatty fish. If you look at the populations around Italy and Greece, that’s really where the Mediterranean diet came into play. We can talk about the French paradox also, coming out of France as well.

But some of those newer longevity hotspots that have been found in Costa Rica and California, what they’ve really focused on is really movement and also, decreasing stress. So when we lump all of this research together from these longevity hotspots, the things that they all do share is that they obviously don’t smoke. They tend to eat a very plant-heavy diet, if not, exclusively plant-based. They have constant moderate physical activity. So what does that mean? It means, they’re just constantly moving. They’re not doing extreme workouts but just moving their bodies, and it could be nothing more than just walking around town or walking to their friend’s house. This is a little bit different, but they also tend to eat a lot of beans or legumes.

So they’re, you know, great sources of protein but also, great sources of fiber. Coming back to one of those psychosocial theories of aging, they also make family and friends a huge priority. I don’t know if you or any of your listeners maybe have been to France or Italy. But goodness, it’s tough to get out of a restaurant in two hours for lunch, and you’re probably sitting down for dinner for three or four hours, right? They make a big ceremony around food, getting everyone around the table, and just having fun, laughing, joking.

Something else these populations have in common is they slow down, and they try to minimize the stress that they have in their lives. So when we really look at those basically, all six, seven, eight things, right, so family, no smoking, plant-heavy diet. They eat a lot of beans. They’re socially engaged in their environment. They’re constantly moving, and they just try to decrease the amount of stress and slow their lives down. So that’s my advice for your listeners.

Katie: I love that. And I love that it always comes back to community in some form. That’s something that I’ve talked about so much in the last couple of years, especially that when we look at the data, it really is astounding. How important having those really solid relationships and spending time with people. That really is a dramatic indicator of health like you mentioned, and so I think you’re right. I think it’s important to have all those dietary strategies in place. And in today’s world where our food system is so depleted, it’s also important to take supplements in certain cases. But also, we can’t minimize those lifestyle factors like just being outside and moving like we’re supposed to move and spending time with people and having great relationships. So I love that you tie those in as well. Where can people keep learning more about these topics and keep learning more about you?

Dr. Dixon: We have a wonderful blog on our website where we’re talking about all aspects of health. We talk a bunch about theories of aging and the different things that people can do to help set themselves up. You know, all those lifestyle, things that we’re talking about. When supplementation makes sense. What supplements you should be reaching for. So you can find that blog on our main website at LifeVantage, so L-I-F-E and then Vantage, V-A-N-T-A-G-E.com. Look for the blog link there and, you know, we encourage everyone to also, subscribe to really all of our social media channels where we’re literally everywhere, so Facebook, Instagram. You can just search LifeVantage, and you’ll be able to find us there. We’re constantly trickling out all sorts of content around healthy lifestyles and nutritional supplementation.

Katie: I will make sure that is linked in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm for any of you if you’re listening while you are driving or running or doing any other activities, you can find those there and also, link to my post on a lot of these topics that we have talked about. Another question I’d love to ask at the end, somewhat unrelated or it might be related is if there’s a book or a number of books that have had a really dramatic impact on your life. And if so, what they are and why?

Dr. Dixon: Gosh, mine tends to go back and forth to what I’m currently reading. But if I had to choose one book to recommend, I would have to go with “Influencer.” I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that book. But it’s actually “Influencer: The Power to Change Anything.” It’s such a fascinating book, and it really kind of breaks down really kind of the psychology of where people are at. If people aren’t familiar with that book, it really looks at a couple of just seemingly impossible life circumstances that humans have found themselves in and then really just trying to break down the human behavior that’s responsible for those behaviors, and then ultimately how people could intervene to completely reverse those behaviors.

And I think the lessons in that book are just so incredibly powerful for literally every aspect of our lives, so whether it’s eating healthy, exercising, if we want to maybe lose a couple of pounds, just thinking about those key decisions that we’re making, and how we can really set ourselves up to overcome really our own human psychology, I found that book to be incredibly powerful.

Katie: I love it. And that’s a new recommendation. I will make sure that that is linked in the show notes as well. But Brian, this has been a fascinating episode. I loved getting to deep dive with you into some of these topics, especially ones like Nrf2 and sirtuins that I haven’t talked about here before. And I’m really grateful for all the work you’re doing on spreading the word about how we can stay healthy as we age gracefully.

Dr. Dixon: Well, Katie, I appreciate that very much, and I’d like to applaud you as well for all that you’re doing to help get, you know, useful and practical information out to your listeners and really on the simple things that people can do to improve their lives in every sense of the word. So thanks for all you’re doing.

Katie: Thank you. And thanks as always to all of you for listening, for sharing one of your most valuable assets, your time, with both of us today. We’re so grateful that you did and that you were here, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of “The Wellness Mama Podcast.”

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/brian-dixon/

[bigyack-com]

In Coronavirus, a ‘Battle’ That Could Humble China’s Strongman

BEIJING — It took thousands of infections and scores of deaths from a mysterious virus for China’s authoritarian leader to publicly say what had become glaringly obvious to many in recent weeks: The country is facing a grave public health crisis.After his declaration, the leader, Xi Jinping, put China on a virtual war footing to cope with the unfolding epidemic of the coronavirus. He convened an extraordinary session of the Communist Party’s top political body, issuing orders for handling the crisis with the crisp, somber stoicism of a field marshal.“We’re sure to be able to win in this battle,” he proclaimed on Saturday before his six grim-faced colleagues on the party’s Politburo Standing Committee.Compared to the very low bar set by the Chinese leadership’s secrecy and inaction during the SARS epidemic in 2002 and 2003, Mr. Xi has responded with speed and alacrity to the latest health emergency, a pneumonialike virus that at last official count has killed 56, sickened thousands in China and spread around the world.But there are also signs that the government, especially at the regional level in Hubei Province, the source of the outbreak, was slow to recognize the danger and then mishandled the crisis once its gravity became clear.“Substantively, the response this time is more or less the same,” said Minxin Pei, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California. “Local officials downplayed the outbreak at the initial, but crucial, stage of the outbreak. The media was muzzled. The public was kept in the dark. As a result, valuable time was lost.”The turnaround from complacency to nationwide mobilization typifies how China can respond to unexpected crisis like a lumbering giant, reluctant to stir, but then capable of shattering urgency. It represents both sides of the authoritarian political bargain under Mr. Xi.A fear of upsetting the party’s protocols and leaders’ desire for unruffled stability can deter even officials who want to do well by the public. Conversely, the government can operate with brutal efficiency when it wants.It was only after a brief written statement under Mr. Xi’s name on Jan. 20, when he was touring a military base and shopping exposition in Yunnan Province, that the vast Chinese state bureaucracy began to shudder into action.Officials then quickly acknowledged the dangers of the coronavirus and ordered drastic measures to stop the spread — perhaps, experts said, belatedly — including the lockdown of much of the province where the epidemic emerged, penning in 56 million people. The government also ordered the construction of two hospitals in Wuhan to deal exclusively with patients afflicted with the coronavirus, which are expected to open within days, not months or years.“The thing about China is that they can mobilize agencies and resources faster than anybody else can,” said Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney and author of “Xi Jinping: The Backlash.” “The other side is that they can conceal things.”“In China there is no independent entity that can get on the front foot and disseminate information,” he added.From a localized medical mystery a few weeks ago, the coronavirus has erupted as one of the most complex and unpredictable tests for Mr. Xi since he came to power more than seven years ago. Over that time, he has by some measures established himself as the most formidable Chinese leader since Mao Zedong.The epidemic and the effectiveness of the government’s response remain subject to many unknowns, but the outbreak comes at a time when Mr. Xi has already been facing quiet whispers about his political acumen. In the past year, he has experienced repeated setbacks on some of the most vital issues on his agenda.Protests against China’s tightening grip continue to convulse Hong Kong. Rancor with Washington was only partly eased by a trade deal that some said required China to promise too many concessions. Two weeks ago, voters in Taiwan, the island democracy that Mr. Xi has made clear should join a greater China, resoundingly re-elected a president despised by Beijing.Mr. Xi’s sheer dominance, according to several experts and political insiders, may be contributing to his problems by hampering internal debate that could help avoid misjudgments. Beijing, for example, has underestimated the staying power of the protesters in Hong Kong and the public support behind them.“It’s a paradox,” said Rong Jian, an independent scholar of Chinese politics in Beijing. “It’s precisely because Xi is so powerful that policy problems often arise — nobody dares disagree, and problems are spotted too late.”While state and local officials have been criticized, the public health system has been credited with responding effectively, particularly compared to the response to the SARS crisis.In that case, officials covered up the extent of the viral outbreak for months, almost certainly abetting its spread and exacerbating the death toll, which reached nearly 800.This time, even as officials in Wuhan said nothing publicly, government scientists shared information with the World Health Organization on the last day of 2019, isolated the virus, and posted details about it on an international database 10 days later.That allowed experts from around the world to quickly conclude that the new coronavirus, like the one from SARS, had very likely originated in bats and made the leap to humans through infection of another mammal in a market in Wuhan.The Lancet, one of the leading medical journals, praised China’s handling of the outbreak so far in an editorial.“The lessons from the SARS epidemic — where China was insufficiently prepared to implement infection control practices — have been successfully learned,” it wrote. “By most accounts, Chinese authorities are meeting international standards and isolating suspected cases and contacts, developing diagnostic and treatment procedures, and implementing public education campaigns.”The journal went on to emphasize that the ultimate success of the response would “depend on maintaining trust between the authorities and the local population.”Mr. Xi’s government, despite its call to arms, may have already undercut that trust.On the local level in Wuhan, people have vented anger and frustration, which is percolating on social media despite censorship. In widely circulated, and then censored, comments, a senior journalist with The Hubei Daily, the province’s main party newspaper, called for a change of leadership in Wuhan.“With this extraordinarily grim situation worsening and expanding by the day, those currently in office lack that commanding leadership,” the journalist, Zhang Ouya, wrote on Sina.com Weibo, a popular Chinese social media service.There is evidence, too, that the local authorities kept a lid on the crisis in the first days of January so as not to upset cheerful tone for a provincial legislative session that is a highlight of the local political cycle.“This year will be a major landmark year,” Wang Xiaodong, the provincial governor, told the legislative members. “Let us unite even more closely around the party central leadership with Comrade Xi Jinping at the core.”Mr. Wang is now widely accused of underplaying the virus threat.“China is a much more decentralized place than it appears,” said David Cowhig, a former American diplomat who served 10 years in China and monitored health and science issues.“Local officials have great discretion; China is a coalition of ‘little’ Big Brothers,” he said. “Xi realizes this and is trying to re-centralize China.”Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations who studies China, said that the centralization of power since the SARS crisis did not appear to have strengthened expertise at the local level or the willingness of underequipped regional hospitals to report.“I think the central health authorities are trying to be more transparent,” he said, “but the local government remains loath to share disease related information in a timely and accurate manner.”Not all the blame can fall on the officials in Wuhan.The central authorities still control the political and propaganda apparatus, which has sought to minimize the severity of the crisis. Before the standing committee’s meeting on Saturday, Mr. Xi and other senior officials went about their business as if there were no crisis, appearing at a banquet on Thursday in the Great Hall of the People to celebrate the Lunar New Year.When he did speak, Mr. Xi emphasized the need for preserving public stability.The phrase alludes to the fear of popular unrest boiling over, which is, as ever, the party state’s highest priority. It could become a reality if the epidemic, as predicted, inflicts sustained hardship on the economy and people’s livelihood.“The truth is in a public-health emergency; it’s not just the medical professionals who matter,” Mr. McGregor said. “It’s the management of it in the government and in the public that matters, too. It’s hard to argue that they’ve done that well.”Steven Lee Myers reported from Beijing, and Chris Buckley from Wuhan, China. Claire Fu contributed research. Read the full article