Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Full spectrum hormetic therapy

Why wouldn't it make sense to use the full spectrum of hormetic therapies, rather than just one side or the other? For example:

 •  Eating pro-oxidants as well as antioxidants
 •  Gorging as well as fasting
 •  Heat therapy in addition to cold therapy
 •  Minus lens and plus lens therapy for overcoming nearsightedness
 •  Relaxation and high intensity exercise

Presumably both extremes of the spectrum would be practiced intermittently.

Sunday, June 16, 2013

What is Ancestral Nutrition Really About?

The key concept of ancestral ("Paleo"/primal/evolutionary) nutrition is not to avoid foods that you thrive on just because they're on someone's list of "forbidden" foods, it's to eat what you thrive on--the foods your body is best adapted to within the context of your lifestyle, to maximize your overall health and fitness goals. Evidence from the archaeological record and observed hunter-gatherer and horticultural peoples are just clues in helping to form a basic template to start from, not final detailed answers for everyone.

It's not about blind nostalgic emulation for emulation's sake, nor is it about excessive reductionism or refusing to employ lessons from biomimicry because of rigid neomaniac ideology. Here are some terms used by proponents of various flavors of ancestral nutrition that give a sense of the basic overall concept:

> Weston Price: "living in accordance with inherited traditions" and "accumulated wisdom"
> Walter Voegtlin, MD: human ecology
> Boyd Eaton, MD: our ancient genome, biological discordance vs. adaptation, Paleolithic nutrition, evolutionary nutrition
> Loren Cordain, PhD: evolutionary template, Paleolithic nutrition, evolutionary nutrition
> Art DeVany: evolutionary fitness, new evolution diet
> Robb Wolf and Chris Kresser: Paleo template
> Mark Sisson: Primal Blueprint
> Kurt Harris, MD: evolutionary metabolic milieu (EM2)