WEBVTT

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>> Living in harmony with
your evolutionary past Part 1.

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This is an asynchronous presentation.

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As we all know, we are part of parcel of nature.

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And it always reminds me when
we look at our genetics and DNA.

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Remember, genetically, we're -- And even to
bananas, we are 60% genetically similar to a cow

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about 80%, to a mouse 85, to a cat 90,
to a chimpanzee 96% genetically similar.

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And all modern humans are
99.9% genetically similar.

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So in a way, we are almost controlled in a
way or modulated by our evolutionary past.

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And no -- And any variation of that
may make life more challenging.

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But anyway, it sometimes then helps to ask
the question, on reflection, how did we evolve

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and how did we live for those
thousands of generations?

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Go back 50,000 years ago, how did we live?

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We were hunting, gatherers.

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We ate all variety of foods.

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We lived in small clans.

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Yes, people died in childbirth,
people died in accidents,

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but some lived till the age 90 just as much.

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There may have been a deduction in some
of the illnesses we now so commonly have,

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such as our inflammatory illnesses, you know.

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And what kind of foods did people
eat by which they allowed themselves

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to survive, by which we survived?

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How did we move?

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How do we take rest?

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What constitute our social systems
which is probably a small claim.

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All those factors still are
seen in our behavior today.

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We still react.

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We still live and optimally when we accept and
live in harmony with our evolutionary past.

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So this presentation will focus more on this.

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And part of it is that I look around and
I'm also shocked of how many young children

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and adults have now autoimmune illnesses, have
cognitive disorders such as ADHD or, you know,

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or how many have other illnesses is listed here.

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And how come many of these -- Those
diseases were mainly absent in rural Africa

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and much more common in the
industrialized first world.

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And we see this kind of epidemic of
autoimmune illnesses, of allergies increasing

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and increasing all around the world.

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And then how come one third of
American children are now prediabetic,

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which is really a horrible
prediction for the future?

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How come there's such an
increase in nearsightedness?

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How come cancer, Alzheimer's disease, appears
to be occurring earlier than ever before?

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And how come these diseases are occurring
more frequently and were almost absent

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in your grandparents' generation or
in our non-industrialized people?

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These are the interesting questions to me
because they ask not just what can we do

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to treat these disorders, what
can we do to treat allergies.

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And it's remarkable that we can do some of that.

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But what is it that we need to do to
potentially prevent it and optimize our health?

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So that is really the sense
of trying to understand,

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living in harmony of our evolutionary past.

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And statistically, as you can see very well
on this slide, that many of the illnesses

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which are infectious disease is either by
viruses or by bacteria have now been reduced.

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Look at hepatitis A going down.

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TB has been going down, mumps and measles.

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I know that looks like it's
only due to vaccinations,

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but many of these were already going
down before vaccinations ever occurred.

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And look how we have this epidemic, in a
way, of these more autoimmune-like illnesses.

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You know, whether it's Crohn's disease,
that's a gastrointestinal disorder,

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or type 1 diabetes, asthma, multiple sclerosis.

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You know, it's really -- It's shocking when you
think of that, you know, of this radical change.

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You can also see that it's so interesting.

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It says mainly those diseases,

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those inflammatory diseases are
those from the Western hemisphere.

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If you look at the graph underneath and
look at Western Europe and the Canada

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and the United States, and you see
it's almost totally absent in --

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or much less in the other parts of the world.

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You know, and then -- You can
look at a rate of the increase

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in autism from very low to now very high.

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It's true that some of this is more
powerful diagnostic ways of doing it.

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We may recognize it when in the past
it was not recognized as a disorder,

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but it also looks like a real phenomenon.

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OK? And then you look at many of
the allergies we have, you know,

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just think, -- I keep thinking of that.

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You know, I used to remember flying, and when I
flew people would be serving peanuts and nuts.

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And the concept of having peanut allergy
just wasn't part of my awareness.

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And if you ask your grandparents, when they go
back and think of their childhood and they were

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in school, how many of them
knew people who had allergies?

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And many will say, maybe only one in 40.

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Now our students, one third of us will
say, gosh, I have some reactivity allergic.

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And it may because we have been
changing our world so much,

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we are now living away from
our evolutionary past.

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You know, look at it, for
example, about hay fever.

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Hay fever was first described
in 1819 by John Bostock.

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And, you know -- And it occurred really among
people of higher class and living in cities.

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Part of it is that if you were a
farm child or living in the farms,

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you would be continually exposed to
these, the materials from the hay,

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and therefore you would not
develop this allergy.

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And similar phenomena seems to be has occurred
for irritable bowel disease and Crohn's disease.

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That was first described in
1932 by Burrill Crohn, you know,

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in which he described this necrotizing
inflammation scarring of the intestines.

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However, this disease clearly is associated
with social class and wealth and the more --

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And being more and more removed
from any part of nature.

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It used to be one little per 10,000.

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Now it's even one per 200.

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It's just shocking to think about it.

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And then why is it that these
have all increased?

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I am not saying I know the answers at
all, but I'm looking at possible causes.

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I don't think we can say it's genetics.

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I think genetics, in many
cases, you look at that

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and we can find a genetic,
you know, link that is clear.

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But in most cases, genetics, you know,
only provides the possibility, you know,

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and it's the environment that it
pulls the trigger to expose it.

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So you may have a genetic
predisposition to gain weight

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and thereby potentially get
more type 2 diabetes.

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But if you don't eat the foods that
do this, you most likely won't get it.

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OK? So look at it over the last 30 years,
we have now increased in allergies.

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Now, how come all this may occur?

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Well, there are many factors.

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I'm only listing a few.

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I'm sure many of you can add many more.

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And they are all probably correct.

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It is very difficult to identify that
because if you do animal studies, you know,

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we're not totally the same as animals.

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We sometimes can't eat the same foods.

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And so, it is not totally the same.

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There are hidden at least.

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Well, let's just list a few.

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One, it's during pregnancy, the fetus experience
either a kind of alcohol malnutrition,

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but it's affluent malnutrition
in the Western world.

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But it really means probably inappropriate
amount of essential nutrients or an exposure

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to endocrine dysregulating chemicals.

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These are all the plastics.

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The -- These are all the pesticides, herbicides,
and the many things we ingest without knowing

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which in fact act as endocrine there's,
you know, systems dysregulation.

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Then because of finance, in many cases
socioeconomic inequality during the first year

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of life, we don't allow babies to
breastfeed and bond and possibly

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to concurrent malnutrition by giving formula.

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And by giving formula, you also
miss the transmission of immune --

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appropriate immune cells which you
have gotten from the breast milk.

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And then during early childhood and life, we get
exposed to endocrine dysregulating substances,

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the plastics, which you're all exposed to
often act as estrogens, the pesticides,

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the herbicides, they all may
affect our immune system.

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You know, then we have this
massive exposure to antibiotics.

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Antibiotics are great.

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I mean, gosh, if you have a bacterial
infection, you're going to die.

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Please get the appropriate antibiotic.

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However, in so many cases
it's used inappropriately.

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And what antibiotics do to you is they basically
remove or kill whole groups of bacteria

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which are essential for our health.

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So in fact, we have an impoverished human biome.

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And then we have excessive hygiene by
which in many ways we are no longer exposed

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to some viruses or bacteria which
in the past would have immunized us.

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And we see this now coming
up in the post-pandemic

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that many people have been
separated from each other.

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And now when we meet again, all of a
sudden, we have an increase in flus.

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There's nothing new to this.

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This has been observed before in
the expeditions to the Antarctica.

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When people in the Antarctica would go a
scientist, they would then be living there.

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And then the Antarctica winter would occur
they would no new people meeting them.

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And first upon -- When they first got together,
there were a number of flus and illnesses.

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Now they were all exposed,
no new bacteria came in.

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And for the next six months or however
much time it is, none of them got sick.

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People did get sick of other diseases, but not
of bacterial or viral infections, basically.

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And then the first visitor came and all

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of a sudden people would get
their colds or flus again.

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So by not being exposed, we
put ourselves more at risk.

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And that our lifestyle in a
way has really shifted so much.

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You know, we're so much -- We sit so
much, we have so much lack of movement.

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We have lights that interfere
in fact with our health.

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Light at night, for example,
maybe -- may affect, not only may,

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does affect our diurnal rhythms,
our daily rhythms, because light,

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especially blue component of
light, tends to suppress melatonin.

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And it's one of the factors people have
hypothesized is why young girls are developing

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earlier menarche immediately.

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The first menstruation occurred
because they have lights on at night

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which disturbs their biological rhythms
as well as increased weight and fat.

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There are many other factors.

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OK? But overall, you could
argue that a number of this kind

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of newer illnesses are the
result of our lifestyle.

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Namely, we have disrespected our evolutionary
origins without realizing that we are part

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of this intrinsic web that
includes diet, movement, parasites,

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biological rhythms, bacteria,
you name it, viruses.

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They're all part of us.

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And in many cases, some are -- Or in
many cases dysfunction can be reversed

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or maybe even prevented by respecting and
returning to our evolutionary origins.

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The data is overwhelming.

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You have people, for example, who get up
and do significant amount of movement tend

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to have less cardiovascular disease.

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Notice that's a dysfunction
which can be reversed.

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Eating less sugar and simple carbohydrates,
which is not part of our evolutionary past,

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would mean that they would not develop
type 2 diabetes or much less likely.

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So in a way, it goes right back to
the simple rules of health, but --

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Which we described earlier by Nassim Taleb.

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Anything that was not part of our
evolutionary past is probably harmful.

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I want to underline again,
anything that was novel and not part

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of our evolutionary past is probably harmful.

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And probably we don't need evidence
of harm to claim that a drug

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or any unnatural procedure is dangerous,
even if that harm does not yet exist.

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Therefore, the easiest way to
optimize health is to remove the,

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what he would call via negativity,
remove the unnatural, the unfamiliar.

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You know, just think of reducing lung cancer

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which is what people have demonstrated
very clearly by stopping smoking

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which is the function and the
irritation of the airways.

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All of a sudden, lung cancer is decreased and
a number of other illnesses are increased.

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Although right now we are seeing an
increased epidemic of the use of e-cigarettes,

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which will again lead to a future epidemic.

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OK. Remember, from an evolutionary
perspective, let me outline.

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Genes survive and prosper if their
reproductive fitness increases.

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And the changes in our external environment
continually impacts the natural selection

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of genes named our reproductive fitness.

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Novel and increased inputs
reduces our reproductive fitness.

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And you could say act as an allostatic load.

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And nature and natural selection
favors those mutations, those genes,

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those behaviors that enhance the
reproductive fitness with these novel stimuli.

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Therefore, by -- Thereby you
lose the allostatic load.

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And you keep in mind that is
especially true for younger people

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and people, you know, in their 20s and 30s.

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But once you have given birth or an older adult,
remember, you're not going to reproduce anymore.

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So then those illnesses have much -- are much
less affected by this evolutionary perspective.

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So I would not expect that
Alzheimer's is impacted by this

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because there's no natural selection.

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We have already reproduced.

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OK? But remember to underline
this again, natural selections.

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Individuals best adapted to their surroundings
enjoy increased reproductive success.

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They pass on the traits adaptive or
sometimes even maladaptive or neutral

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to their descendants, who gradually constitute
a greater proportion of the population.

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Remember, we carry this imprint
of our biological heritage in us.

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So, it's useful to say how and what were we
doing earlier on that allowed us to be us now.

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And now I want to underline this even
more, but this is very important.

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Let's have that selection.

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We are wired for whatever
habitat we are involved in.

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Biologists who study animals in the wild
describe this as habitat selection theory.

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And the general rule is that animals who
are in their natural habitat do much better.

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They thrive both physically and psychologically
and social behavior compared to animals

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that are placed in unnatural
habitat such as a zoo.

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They most likely evolved in the forest of
Africa without the presence of digital displays.

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And so, by just sitting in front
of digital displays the whole time,

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or just sitting the whole time, we
probably are reducing our health.

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And people have called sitting the, you know,
our -- The new epidemic of smoking, basically.

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And what I've said many times before is that
genetics only loads the gun, but our behavior

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and environment pulls the trigger.

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And I like that phrase a lot.

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So let me look at it give an example how our
environment may cause us to develop illness.

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This is called -- The concept is
evolutionary or ecological traps.

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Evolutionary/ecological traps occur

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when formerly adaptive habitat preference
become maladaptive, meaning they become harmful.

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Because the cues they individually
preferentially use

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in selecting habitat may now lead to
lower fitness than other alternatives.

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It means that whatever adaptive
habits of preference we evolve for,

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and now we allow that to happen
too much, it may lead to illness.

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But let me give a remarkable example of this.

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This is with the birds in the
Pacific called the albatross.

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And when you go to Midway
Island, it's just shocking.

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In Midway -- On Midway Island, you see
these many carcasses of these birds.

00:16:45.926 --> 00:16:50.496
You can see the skeletons, you can see
the feathers, and you see what was left

00:16:50.496 --> 00:16:52.716
over in a gastrointestinal tract.

00:16:52.716 --> 00:16:55.446
Look at all the pieces of plastic, how was that?

00:16:55.746 --> 00:16:58.226
How come? And so many are dying.

00:16:58.776 --> 00:17:03.536
Well, think of the albatross
going over the ocean from Midway.

00:17:03.536 --> 00:17:08.686
There -- That's an island which is
2,000 miles away from any other islands.

00:17:08.786 --> 00:17:11.816
And the bird lives, you know -- Eats the fish.

00:17:11.816 --> 00:17:14.586
So it goes -- It is flying over the ocean.

00:17:14.586 --> 00:17:16.716
It sees some shimmering in the water.

00:17:16.716 --> 00:17:18.366
It looks like a fish.

00:17:18.366 --> 00:17:22.126
And those birds for evolution,
who, you know, who have adopted

00:17:22.126 --> 00:17:27.506
and could identify this the quickest and the
most, they would then dive, they would eat it,

00:17:27.506 --> 00:17:32.216
swallow it, and then possibly
regurgitate it to their chicks.

00:17:32.216 --> 00:17:38.686
Now, however, that same shimmering in the
water now is our small piece of plastic

00:17:38.686 --> 00:17:40.886
which are coated also by the algae.

00:17:40.886 --> 00:17:43.586
So it has some of the similar
outer taste initially.

00:17:43.756 --> 00:17:50.886
So now what happens is the birds now
take this plastic and swallow it as food.

00:17:50.886 --> 00:17:56.736
Now, do we say these birds are stupid or are
we at fault that we have created this world

00:17:56.736 --> 00:18:00.226
where these birds, we made such a radical shift?

00:18:00.226 --> 00:18:04.096
So, these birds were evolved to
be able to see that shimmering,

00:18:04.306 --> 00:18:09.036
they would then go at it and now they would die.

00:18:09.036 --> 00:18:13.456
And that is a very, you know
-- It looks really challenging.

00:18:13.616 --> 00:18:20.896
And as Professor E.O. Wilson stated, organisms
when housed in unfit habitats undergo social,

00:18:20.896 --> 00:18:23.476
psychological, and physiological breakdown.

00:18:23.476 --> 00:18:27.536
Here then you see that the
habitat radically changed.

00:18:27.536 --> 00:18:34.676
The animal cell is wired to find
that shimmering object as food.

00:18:35.946 --> 00:18:37.406
But now it's no longer food.

00:18:38.926 --> 00:18:41.496
I want to keep this down because are we --

00:18:41.496 --> 00:18:46.166
What other evolutionary or environmental
traps are there for people today?

00:18:46.166 --> 00:18:50.286
You know, just if you took out a piece
of paper, think of things that may --

00:18:50.476 --> 00:18:58.106
you may be doing which you automatically do,
but basically are triggered by the environment

00:18:58.106 --> 00:19:00.776
because you have evolved for that to respond?

00:19:02.086 --> 00:19:03.466
Pause. I'll pause.

00:19:03.466 --> 00:19:04.346
I won't pause.

00:19:04.346 --> 00:19:07.046
Pause the computer for write
them down and let's check it out.

00:19:07.046 --> 00:19:07.926
Let me just think a few.

00:19:08.046 --> 00:19:11.286
One, we react to cues of food automatically.

00:19:11.286 --> 00:19:12.956
We see food, we may become hungry.

00:19:12.956 --> 00:19:15.036
We smell it, we become hungry.

00:19:15.036 --> 00:19:16.366
We, you know -- automatically.

00:19:16.426 --> 00:19:17.166
Well, why?

00:19:17.166 --> 00:19:19.336
Because we need food for survival.

00:19:20.456 --> 00:19:26.256
You know, for millions of years probably,
you know, food was only challenging.

00:19:26.256 --> 00:19:27.776
We always had to hunt for food.

00:19:28.516 --> 00:19:33.006
Therefore, we have really no
mechanisms easily to stop eating.

00:19:33.006 --> 00:19:35.766
And this is especially true for sugars.

00:19:35.766 --> 00:19:40.486
Almost all foods that are sweet
are usually not poisonous.

00:19:40.796 --> 00:19:46.146
Yes, I knew that -- know that the
paint, you know, lead paint is sweet

00:19:46.146 --> 00:19:48.926
when you chew it, the pieca it is called.

00:19:48.926 --> 00:19:50.736
However, that's not the rare things.

00:19:50.736 --> 00:19:56.566
Most other things in nature that
are sweet are -- represent calories.

00:19:56.566 --> 00:20:00.256
Therefore, we want to eat them because
we need the calories for survival.

00:20:00.396 --> 00:20:01.976
And we don't have an off switch easily.

00:20:02.076 --> 00:20:05.626
The same thing will be true for fats.

00:20:05.626 --> 00:20:11.846
So we -- When the cue of food is shown to
us, we react to eat or want to eat or hunger.

00:20:11.846 --> 00:20:13.626
And I'll show that in a moment.

00:20:14.326 --> 00:20:20.216
OK? And the similar part is I think for
reproduction, you know, we, you know --

00:20:20.216 --> 00:20:22.786
That's probably the drive
by pornography is such --

00:20:22.786 --> 00:20:26.916
is probably the biggest bandwidth on
the Internet because there are cues

00:20:26.986 --> 00:20:31.926
which said survival that leads to --
maybe because we want for reproduction.

00:20:32.016 --> 00:20:35.686
And then we have all the cues
around us for protection.

00:20:35.686 --> 00:20:39.676
We remember are -- we're historically prey.

00:20:40.256 --> 00:20:42.646
There were other animals that saw us for food.

00:20:42.646 --> 00:20:44.176
So we always had to be very careful.

00:20:44.246 --> 00:20:46.296
We had to look around and be vigilant.

00:20:46.296 --> 00:20:47.976
We still all are.

00:20:49.036 --> 00:20:54.696
And now however all those cues which of
sounds, of changing objects around cause us

00:20:54.696 --> 00:20:59.426
to react all the time and where
-- which captures our attention.

00:21:00.056 --> 00:21:03.026
You know, no wonder we tend to
get addicted to computer games.

00:21:03.026 --> 00:21:05.966
Once we sit and we watch one next, you know --

00:21:05.966 --> 00:21:10.026
We start to watch a Netflix series
automatically we keep sitting there,

00:21:10.026 --> 00:21:15.906
and then the next sequence pops up and we
don't change because we're captured by it.

00:21:15.906 --> 00:21:19.916
And then for survival in small groups, for --

00:21:20.096 --> 00:21:23.836
In clans, we need to know
who the power structure was.

00:21:23.836 --> 00:21:28.186
Because as we, you know, mature, we
want to be part of the power structure.

00:21:28.186 --> 00:21:29.176
We don't really exclude.

00:21:29.176 --> 00:21:30.406
We need to know what's going on.

00:21:30.406 --> 00:21:34.116
So in some sense, you could say
that's our social media addiction.

00:21:34.596 --> 00:21:38.156
You know, it's basic and
it's triggered that way.

00:21:38.156 --> 00:21:41.166
And then our bodies really want to rest.

00:21:41.266 --> 00:21:45.446
Why expend energy when there's not
enough energy you have or calories?

00:21:45.446 --> 00:21:47.556
So anytime you could rest, you would do it.

00:21:47.836 --> 00:21:51.306
So that quickly leads to excess
sitting and lack of movement.

00:21:51.306 --> 00:21:55.226
In the past, we didn't have to go to
the gym, we didn't have to go jogging.

00:21:55.476 --> 00:21:58.406
Our whole world included that physicalness.

00:21:58.576 --> 00:22:01.566
And so now, however, it doesn't.

00:22:01.566 --> 00:22:03.566
And then there are many other things that occur.

00:22:03.566 --> 00:22:06.046
Light, we want to be active,
we want to be involved.

00:22:06.046 --> 00:22:12.466
However, light, artificial light which keeps us
awake, keeps us active, also reduces our rest,

00:22:12.466 --> 00:22:17.076
interferes with melatonin, affects
our circadian rhythms, et cetera.

00:22:17.826 --> 00:22:25.386
And then the final pieces, from my
perspective, the brain cannot, I would say,

00:22:25.386 --> 00:22:30.596
discriminate between actual
and visual auditory images.

00:22:30.896 --> 00:22:39.106
So when we watch a film in front of
us for our brain this is really real.

00:22:39.706 --> 00:22:45.746
I know you, we all would say, yes, I know it's
a -- It is a drama, it's a play, it isn't real.

00:22:45.746 --> 00:22:53.556
And yet for our body, this is the first
time in our evolutionary past, well, really,

00:22:53.556 --> 00:22:58.576
since cameras were, you know -- since
you could do film in late 19th century,

00:22:58.756 --> 00:23:06.546
then we could have a picture which was not real
in the past, everything we saw was always real.

00:23:06.546 --> 00:23:07.866
We could touch.

00:23:07.866 --> 00:23:14.726
And so, when things go into our eyes, our
brains say, that's real, and we react this way.

00:23:14.726 --> 00:23:20.916
And even though we may want to argue
that, I think most of you, if not all,

00:23:20.916 --> 00:23:28.146
have had the experience that if you
watch a horror movie or horrible scenes

00:23:28.146 --> 00:23:32.166
where the horrible things happened
in a series and then you go outside,

00:23:32.166 --> 00:23:36.836
all of a sudden that little noise behind
you triggers a massive autonomic response.

00:23:36.836 --> 00:23:38.526
In the past, that would not have done that.

00:23:39.316 --> 00:23:44.466
Because we are -- Our bodies saw what
we saw on the film react as real.

00:23:44.466 --> 00:23:49.846
And I think we have really underestimated
that how powerful that phenomenon is.

00:23:49.846 --> 00:23:53.526
And part of the reason we
have these economic we are --

00:23:54.216 --> 00:24:04.646
We react all the time is because our commercial
industry uses these cues which are really traps

00:24:04.646 --> 00:24:07.746
for us to capture our eyeballs
and that's the whole basis

00:24:07.746 --> 00:24:10.646
of our social media, of all
the many of the Internet.

00:24:10.646 --> 00:24:13.256
It's really people don't
get paid for the content.

00:24:13.256 --> 00:24:17.116
They get paid for our attention,
hijacking our attention.

00:24:17.116 --> 00:24:24.936
And equally for many industries, it is the
profit margin that doesn't ask, is it healthy?

00:24:24.936 --> 00:24:28.256
It just asks can be, can
you, will you buy the object?

00:24:28.256 --> 00:24:34.156
Just think of the, all the cereals with high
laden with sugar, all the candies in front

00:24:34.826 --> 00:24:42.106
of the counters, you know, and do we then
blame children that they have no control?

00:24:42.106 --> 00:24:48.906
So in a child who is wired from an evolutionary
perspective for survival to eat more calories,

00:24:48.906 --> 00:24:52.866
when it sees the sweets, it wants those.

00:24:55.136 --> 00:24:56.466
Do we blame the child?

00:24:57.796 --> 00:25:01.936
Or should we blaming the corporate
culture, the world around us?

00:25:02.046 --> 00:25:07.746
And maybe we really need to be careful with
this and say, oops, you may need to define that

00:25:07.746 --> 00:25:11.436
and we may need to set, you
know, social constraints

00:25:11.436 --> 00:25:15.356
that we don't trigger these
dysfunctional behaviors.

00:25:15.356 --> 00:25:20.646
And remember, even watching pictures of food
and smelling it will activate your brain.

00:25:20.646 --> 00:25:24.026
You know, it is most interesting.

00:25:24.026 --> 00:25:25.646
I think I have a slide in that later.

00:25:25.646 --> 00:25:33.396
OK? So the solutions really are that the
society may need to protect its own population

00:25:33.396 --> 00:25:39.006
from the commercial exploitation of
these evolutionary ecological traps.

00:25:39.006 --> 00:25:41.476
Now this is a great difficult
discussion because we think

00:25:41.476 --> 00:25:44.186
of the freedom of speech in a very broad sense.

00:25:44.566 --> 00:25:46.606
But yes, I think it is a critical issue.

00:25:46.606 --> 00:25:54.886
We cannot depend upon self-regulation
to reduce our sugar content in our Coke,

00:25:54.886 --> 00:25:58.126
in our foods around us or anything else.

00:25:58.226 --> 00:26:01.386
And you can already see the
effect in human physiology

00:26:02.566 --> 00:26:06.486
by having been exposed to
these environmental traps.

00:26:06.486 --> 00:26:11.846
If you look at the brainwave activity,
the quantitative electroencephalography,

00:26:11.846 --> 00:26:18.046
the brain activity, the brains of
normal students today look more

00:26:18.046 --> 00:26:23.076
like an ADHD student than 20 years ago.

00:26:23.076 --> 00:26:28.816
If you look at the spine of young people
today, as colleagues of mine in Canada observed

00:26:28.816 --> 00:26:33.676
in the athletics department that compared
to 20 years ago, the spine just --

00:26:33.676 --> 00:26:36.866
The upper spine, these people
are slightly more curved forward

00:26:37.026 --> 00:26:41.666
because our whole world is looking down at
our cell phone or looking at our screens.

00:26:41.666 --> 00:26:46.886
The pandemic only, you know, accelerated
this trend that was already going on.

00:26:47.866 --> 00:26:52.866
And then there's so many other qualities,
things that we have, increase of pesticides,

00:26:52.866 --> 00:26:58.526
of plastics, of BPA, all of that
which may lead to pathology.

00:26:58.756 --> 00:27:01.976
So we may need to control our -- By the --

00:27:01.976 --> 00:27:07.656
With our legal system, be
exposure to protect ourselves.

00:27:07.656 --> 00:27:08.706
It's a challenge.

00:27:08.706 --> 00:27:12.866
OK? But just for fun, let me go
back for a moment what I said

00:27:12.866 --> 00:27:15.686
about what you see and smell affects your body.

00:27:15.966 --> 00:27:20.436
The brain and visual system, remember, are
intimately linked to the acquisition of food.

00:27:20.436 --> 00:27:22.216
It is necessary for survival.

00:27:23.216 --> 00:27:27.836
And when we get an image of
food and the smell of food,

00:27:27.836 --> 00:27:30.976
our physiological neurological changes respond.

00:27:31.286 --> 00:27:35.256
And it may even be a danger
in our growing exposure.

00:27:35.256 --> 00:27:41.436
These beautiful presented images of foods, which
we do each time I go to Facebook or Instagram

00:27:41.436 --> 00:27:46.926
or TikTok and I make a short video on
TikTok about the delicious food I'm eating,

00:27:47.146 --> 00:27:50.756
or I take a picture and post it on
Facebook or Instagram on the food.

00:27:52.146 --> 00:27:55.006
What happens is it will induce
this in the person.

00:27:55.006 --> 00:27:58.116
Here, I take the picture and
then I can look at the brain,

00:27:58.116 --> 00:28:00.546
what happens to the person does this is work.

00:28:01.946 --> 00:28:06.896
And you can see by weighing it all, and you
can see that if you show the food inside a,

00:28:06.896 --> 00:28:13.636
you know, PFT [inaudible] imaging where you can
see how the blood flow goes through the brain,

00:28:13.636 --> 00:28:19.636
basically, or metabolism, then you see
all of a sudden that there's a 24 increase

00:28:19.636 --> 00:28:25.826
in the brain metabolism by just showing the
images of foods while lying in a scanner.

00:28:25.826 --> 00:28:29.706
Now, this is a very complicated study
where you don't only saw the image,

00:28:29.706 --> 00:28:32.896
they brought the smell in, they
put it on your tongue as well.

00:28:32.896 --> 00:28:35.656
So it's a very -- It's -- It is a complex one.

00:28:35.656 --> 00:28:42.016
However, imagine -- Imagination
and seeing it affects physiology.

00:28:43.056 --> 00:28:48.876
And so next time you send that great meal to
your friend, you may be helping them to want

00:28:48.876 --> 00:28:51.246
to eat more and increase their obesity.

00:28:51.706 --> 00:28:55.846
So really, you know, our diet
and exercise do change it.

00:28:55.846 --> 00:29:00.266
You've been sitting here for a little while now,
so just for a moment, once again, just get up.

00:29:00.686 --> 00:29:01.966
Just get up and move.

00:29:02.366 --> 00:29:04.226
I know it's so hard, but get up.

00:29:04.226 --> 00:29:05.706
Just wiggle and move.

00:29:05.886 --> 00:29:06.496
Just move.

00:29:06.656 --> 00:29:08.136
I'm swinging, I'm swinging.

00:29:08.446 --> 00:29:10.416
I reach up and then I look up.

00:29:10.416 --> 00:29:12.576
I look up again and I look up again.

00:29:12.636 --> 00:29:21.576
I take a big breath and then --
and I let my sit myself down again.

00:29:22.636 --> 00:29:27.756
And just note again, when you
have done that, note two things.

00:29:28.046 --> 00:29:34.136
One, how hard it was to get up and do it,
how much we want to just keep sitting.

00:29:34.136 --> 00:29:40.056
And two, that after you did it,
how your energy slightly went up.

00:29:40.056 --> 00:29:46.186
OK. So really remember, what I want to point
out is health is living your evolutionary roots

00:29:46.186 --> 00:29:49.396
and whatever increases reproductive
fitness predominates.

00:29:49.396 --> 00:29:53.566
And then remember our past
that we are wired to be preyed.

00:29:53.566 --> 00:29:59.216
And finally, we start regenerating
when we feel safe.

00:29:59.216 --> 00:30:01.976
And if you look at that more,
it means you may look at diet.

00:30:02.046 --> 00:30:05.196
We'll look at that much later
in the semester but have a lot

00:30:05.196 --> 00:30:08.286
of greens, tubers, nuts, organic foods.

00:30:08.636 --> 00:30:16.206
And then we can see that the absence of some of
the vitamins may lead to significant illnesses.

00:30:16.206 --> 00:30:18.126
And I'll talk about this in a moment.

00:30:18.246 --> 00:30:23.676
The lack of Omega 3, which we now have
massively up because we mainly have Omega 6s

00:30:23.676 --> 00:30:27.316
because of the massive amount of
corn products we eat, you know,

00:30:27.316 --> 00:30:33.876
may inhibit embryological development,
increase eczema, others, the folic acid,

00:30:34.106 --> 00:30:36.046
which is part of food -- of healthy eating a lot

00:30:36.046 --> 00:30:38.836
of veggies may increase the
risk of spina bifida.

00:30:39.296 --> 00:30:42.646
And then we have all the cases where
people are no longer doing breastfeeding.

00:30:42.646 --> 00:30:44.326
I'll talk about that in a moment.

00:30:44.366 --> 00:30:46.756
That increase the risk of
celiac disease and asthma.

00:30:46.756 --> 00:30:51.126
And then we have the whole light
night melatonin suppression by light.

00:30:52.096 --> 00:30:57.406
And then our relationship of
our body's bacteria, parasites.

00:30:57.406 --> 00:31:01.426
And I'll talk about that in a moment
about Crohn's disease, et cetera.

00:31:01.426 --> 00:31:04.906
OK, let me just see in detail
a little bit what happens

00:31:04.906 --> 00:31:07.676
when you disregard your evolutionary background.

00:31:07.676 --> 00:31:09.876
And I'll go through the following
fairly quickly.

00:31:10.056 --> 00:31:15.516
Living in isolation constantly formula, versus
breastfeeding or breastfeeding versus formula,

00:31:15.516 --> 00:31:20.166
eating processed foods or really
being having affluent malnutrition.

00:31:20.166 --> 00:31:27.906
Feeding an animal a carnivore a herbivore
diet, feeding a herbivore a carnivore diet,

00:31:27.906 --> 00:31:31.716
feeding rats milk protein casein
that we have never been used to,

00:31:31.716 --> 00:31:36.926
possibly how come we can get food
poisoning, et cetera, et cetera.

00:31:36.926 --> 00:31:39.246
OK. So let me first go back to isolation.

00:31:39.246 --> 00:31:40.406
It's most interesting.

00:31:40.406 --> 00:31:45.826
This was the study at Kaiser which I really
liked where they looked at the adults

00:31:45.826 --> 00:31:50.236
without children who contract COVID
19 versus those who had children.

00:31:50.236 --> 00:31:56.246
And notice that for equivalent ages,
this is before you're vaccinated,

00:31:57.106 --> 00:32:03.766
that adults who had no -- who are not
around little children were 49% were likely

00:32:03.766 --> 00:32:08.286
to be hospitalized and 76% more likely
to have intensive care unit admissions

00:32:08.286 --> 00:32:13.106
than infected adults of similar ages and health
histories who had young children at home.

00:32:13.546 --> 00:32:15.636
This really is a very impressive data.

00:32:15.636 --> 00:32:22.456
It suggests both social isolation is harmful
or it really says, gosh, for all our evolution,

00:32:22.456 --> 00:32:27.306
we lived in little clans that included
grandparents, great grandparents,

00:32:27.536 --> 00:32:30.246
parents, children and even babies.

00:32:30.246 --> 00:32:35.886
And all together and what the -- And you
could possibly argue is that little babies

00:32:35.886 --> 00:32:41.396
and toddlers continually have snotty
noses, they have flus, and these are --

00:32:41.396 --> 00:32:45.256
They are all by different most cases by viruses.

00:32:45.436 --> 00:32:49.296
And by being exposed to that
continuously or episodically,

00:32:49.426 --> 00:32:51.996
we're getting a kind of natural vaccination.

00:32:51.996 --> 00:33:02.746
And that may then protect us from the COVID
virus because 30% of flus are coronavirus

00:33:02.746 --> 00:33:04.756
which is in a similar family as the COVID.

00:33:05.876 --> 00:33:06.906
So that's possibly.

00:33:06.906 --> 00:33:12.596
And when we have looked at what happened with
COVID is that the greatest deaths occurred

00:33:12.596 --> 00:33:16.376
with elderly who were in locations
where there were no little kids

00:33:16.376 --> 00:33:19.516
around and had comorbidities.

00:33:19.516 --> 00:33:22.126
OK. But, you know, let me
shift to different ones.

00:33:22.526 --> 00:33:24.266
Reflect on the statement.

00:33:24.266 --> 00:33:27.046
Think of the risk and benefits
of feeding a baby.

00:33:27.046 --> 00:33:30.796
Formula is better because it allows
the mother to sleep and regenerate.

00:33:30.796 --> 00:33:36.286
It involves the partner in the baby's
care, right, pros and cons on that.

00:33:36.286 --> 00:33:40.006
Just stop it and think about it.

00:33:40.006 --> 00:33:45.866
Now I'll just argue a few reasons why maybe
breastfeeding is normal, natural, and healthier.

00:33:45.866 --> 00:33:50.966
And this data I'll talk about can be very
much criticized because you could argue

00:33:50.966 --> 00:33:55.606
that by definition people who can
breastfeed may be more affluent

00:33:55.606 --> 00:33:57.396
and different socioeconomic factors.

00:33:57.396 --> 00:34:01.876
And when you control from those the risk
-- these data may slightly disappear.

00:34:02.546 --> 00:34:08.236
OK? But there's no way I can be
persuaded from an evolutionary perspective

00:34:08.236 --> 00:34:14.066
and Polyp's perspective as well that
a formula can better than breast milk,

00:34:14.226 --> 00:34:18.976
unless there's some specific
cases of sickness or others.

00:34:19.616 --> 00:34:25.076
OK? But basically, the data is overwhelming
from this perspective that children,

00:34:25.076 --> 00:34:30.236
babies who are breastfed have a reduced
risk of asthma, obesity, type 2 diabetes,

00:34:30.236 --> 00:34:33.626
ear and respiratory infections,
and sudden infant death syndrome.

00:34:34.266 --> 00:34:36.556
It also -- It lowers the mother's risk

00:34:36.556 --> 00:34:41.036
of hypertension type 2 diabetes,
ovarian and breast cancer.

00:34:41.036 --> 00:34:46.256
You know, what is so sad is that this is
mainly the challenge of economic disparity.

00:34:46.256 --> 00:34:53.096
And in the US, it's our public health policies
or public policies which basically do not allow

00:34:53.156 --> 00:34:55.756
or give women time to breastfeed.

00:34:56.366 --> 00:35:00.776
Namely in some European countries, you
can have a year off or two years off

00:35:00.776 --> 00:35:04.956
where after you give birth you can
be at home and get your salary paid.

00:35:05.046 --> 00:35:07.716
And I think we need to do that.

00:35:07.716 --> 00:35:08.586
Basically.

00:35:08.586 --> 00:35:12.166
in the US what we want to do is we want
to not have costs at the beginning,

00:35:12.166 --> 00:35:16.606
and then we're stuck with these
very high costs as we get older.

00:35:16.606 --> 00:35:20.766
I would recommend we should do the
cost up front and support the women

00:35:20.766 --> 00:35:24.256
so their jobs are kept being
that they have equality

00:35:24.256 --> 00:35:26.336
and they can go back to their job afterwards.

00:35:26.336 --> 00:35:29.896
But if you look at the data,
the data I think is clear.

00:35:30.636 --> 00:35:34.996
Most children, most mothers -- If
they can, in some cases you can't.

00:35:34.996 --> 00:35:36.656
There's no harm in that.

00:35:36.656 --> 00:35:37.786
You do the best one can do.

00:35:37.786 --> 00:35:41.486
But in those cases, you can.

00:35:41.716 --> 00:35:44.636
Most mothers want to breastfeed
and try to continue to.

00:35:44.856 --> 00:35:46.716
However, it's very difficult.

00:35:46.716 --> 00:35:49.746
If you go to work and then
you have to pump the breast

00:35:49.746 --> 00:35:52.396
and do other things, the
system is just against it.

00:35:52.396 --> 00:35:53.646
It's too much work.

00:35:53.646 --> 00:35:55.906
And notice by, you know, after three months,

00:35:55.906 --> 00:35:58.796
only half the babies were
exclusively breastfeeding.

00:35:58.796 --> 00:36:04.846
And by 12 months, only one third, you
know, and most supplemented with formula.

00:36:04.846 --> 00:36:07.596
The key is you don't want to
supplement this with formula.

00:36:07.806 --> 00:36:10.796
At best, what you do is you
want to breastfeed continuously

00:36:10.796 --> 00:36:13.636
and keep supplementing other foods enter --

00:36:13.796 --> 00:36:19.126
other foods continually to it than you also
reduce a massive rate of any allergies to.

00:36:19.126 --> 00:36:23.066
The data is clear that if
you do both at the same time,

00:36:23.666 --> 00:36:26.316
then there's very low allergy rates to foods.

00:36:26.506 --> 00:36:29.316
However, in the United States
this is really an issue

00:36:29.316 --> 00:36:33.066
of economic disparity and to me it's immoral.

00:36:33.066 --> 00:36:37.006
But the quick summaries and I'll give
some data on these for the mother,

00:36:37.006 --> 00:36:41.186
it distinctly reduces the breast cancer
risk, reduces stress, enhance bonding.

00:36:41.186 --> 00:36:45.066
For the baby enhanced bonding,
reduces allergy, reduces obesity,

00:36:45.066 --> 00:36:46.796
probably enhances immune function.

00:36:46.796 --> 00:36:52.676
But look for the mother in detail if you study
breast cancer for 10 years after pregnancy,

00:36:53.166 --> 00:36:56.396
then you see those who had 34 more weeks

00:36:56.396 --> 00:37:00.586
of breastfeeding had a cancer
risk drop by 13%, you know.

00:37:00.846 --> 00:37:05.446
There is distinct, and this is
probably much higher than that if the --

00:37:05.446 --> 00:37:07.656
One gives birth in your early 20s.

00:37:07.656 --> 00:37:11.146
There's a consensus at early
first birth an increased number

00:37:11.146 --> 00:37:15.576
of full-time births shows you a significantly
long term reduction of breast cancer risks.

00:37:16.426 --> 00:37:21.596
OK? And I think this is really
something we don't talk about

00:37:21.756 --> 00:37:23.906
and for the benefits for the baby as a group.

00:37:23.906 --> 00:37:27.876
And again, like I said, the data
is very difficult because this is

00:37:27.876 --> 00:37:32.036
so confusing by socioeconomic inequalities.

00:37:32.176 --> 00:37:35.776
Babies who are breastfed have higher
IQs as adults than formula fed.

00:37:36.196 --> 00:37:40.086
You know, the people born in
1920s and '30s who were breastfed

00:37:40.086 --> 00:37:44.066
as babies achieved significantly upward
mobility when they were in the 60s

00:37:44.066 --> 00:37:46.726
and 70s compared to formula-fed babies.

00:37:46.726 --> 00:37:50.186
Men and women who were part
of this study in 1937,

00:37:50.186 --> 00:37:53.786
'39 had a 50% reduction developing
celiac disease.

00:37:53.786 --> 00:37:55.796
That seems to be very common.

00:37:55.796 --> 00:38:00.986
So as if by being breastfed and then
slowly adding food to it, you don't --

00:38:00.986 --> 00:38:04.166
You can continue to be able to eat glutens

00:38:04.166 --> 00:38:09.926
and not develop celiac disease
compared to breastfed babies.

00:38:09.926 --> 00:38:15.816
And formula-fed babies are fatter
as children and skinnier as adults.

00:38:15.816 --> 00:38:20.086
I'm going to underwrite that,
formula babies are fatter as babies.

00:38:20.086 --> 00:38:20.606
I'm sorry.

00:38:20.846 --> 00:38:22.856
And as children and adults, they're skinnier.

00:38:22.856 --> 00:38:23.696
That's an error there.

00:38:23.696 --> 00:38:28.786
OK? But remember, the formula are
incomplete for the first couple of months.

00:38:28.786 --> 00:38:33.436
It doesn't have all the appropriate fatty acids
which are necessary for neural development.

00:38:33.436 --> 00:38:35.876
Although after a while the
brain will replace its all --

00:38:35.876 --> 00:38:40.196
Again, our body place itself
so that we can all do it.

00:38:40.476 --> 00:38:45.766
But it still means that for the first
four months the baby is getting basically

00:38:45.766 --> 00:38:50.536
inappropriate products, as well as all
the immune cells and other things it gets

00:38:50.536 --> 00:38:53.346
from the mother via the breast milk.

00:38:53.346 --> 00:38:58.626
And then even when one is very conscientious
about pumping milk and sharing this,

00:38:58.626 --> 00:39:03.816
and it's just great that can be done that the
milk is different at different times of day.

00:39:03.816 --> 00:39:07.436
So when the mother is going to sleep,
the breast milk has a different quality,

00:39:07.436 --> 00:39:10.706
has different substances which
allows the baby to go to sleep more

00:39:10.706 --> 00:39:12.776
and the same thing in the morning.

00:39:13.516 --> 00:39:16.036
And now what happens when you
mix these up for the baby?

00:39:16.036 --> 00:39:17.606
So life is more complex.

00:39:18.806 --> 00:39:21.836
And remember, babies that are fed on
formula may be slightly disadvantaged.

00:39:21.836 --> 00:39:23.186
I've already looked at that.

00:39:23.226 --> 00:39:28.666
Babies born in 1970 in formula-fed are twice
likely to have neurological problems at age nine

00:39:28.666 --> 00:39:32.076
as compared to exclusive breastfed
for the first three weeks.

00:39:32.156 --> 00:39:37.336
Premature babies who are formula-fed achieve
significantly low IQ scores at age eight.

00:39:37.336 --> 00:39:40.146
And premature babies are breastfed.

00:39:40.146 --> 00:39:44.276
Is this due to the breastfed milk,
due the absence of body contact?

00:39:44.276 --> 00:39:47.506
Is it due because by having the
privilege to be able to breastfeed,

00:39:47.506 --> 00:39:50.746
it means you're already in
a more upper social class?

00:39:50.746 --> 00:39:52.556
There are many of those, you know.

00:39:52.556 --> 00:39:56.156
And I can keep going on these
if you look at formula.

00:39:56.346 --> 00:40:00.976
Maternal milk is better than formula for
preterm babies, that date is quite good.

00:40:01.096 --> 00:40:05.266
OK. And then finally, which is the
most interesting part when you think

00:40:05.266 --> 00:40:13.846
of the evolutionary perspective, it
isn't only the baby at this point,

00:40:13.846 --> 00:40:16.076
we need to also think of the epigenetics.

00:40:16.076 --> 00:40:21.666
And I'm not going to talk about that today
or much, but remember that the mother --

00:40:21.876 --> 00:40:30.726
The pregnant mother's lifestyle has an
impact on the fetal -- fetus development.

00:40:30.726 --> 00:40:38.046
If the mother is anxious, is stressed, taking
drugs, takes alcohol, it affects the development

00:40:38.046 --> 00:40:40.676
of the baby and that is a
burden the baby will carry.

00:40:40.816 --> 00:40:44.956
However, it gets even more
significant that in fact the sense

00:40:44.956 --> 00:40:50.326
that people say illnesses skip a generation,
they're sort of right in a very funny way.

00:40:50.326 --> 00:40:57.616
Because a pregnant mother -- woman impacts
her baby, but also her future grandchild.

00:40:57.936 --> 00:41:04.286
Because the little fetus that's
developing, all the fetuses' eggs

00:41:04.286 --> 00:41:10.226
that are developing during the time
it's a fetus are impacted by the mother.

00:41:10.226 --> 00:41:14.326
And that means that when that
-- The child becomes the mother,

00:41:14.696 --> 00:41:18.806
its eggs are also have already
been shaped by her mother.

00:41:18.806 --> 00:41:21.686
So the grandmother in fact impacts the mother.

00:41:21.686 --> 00:41:24.546
And once you look at that, you
can really see how we do --

00:41:24.976 --> 00:41:27.926
How our past transcends into the future.

00:41:28.566 --> 00:41:33.416
And then let's look at totally about some
whole other areas about food, when we --

00:41:33.696 --> 00:41:44.536
I cannot say enough about how I would say
how bad in many ways the US food supply is.

00:41:44.896 --> 00:41:49.876
Bad is the wrong word to use how
unnutritious in any way it is.

00:41:49.876 --> 00:41:52.556
It's remarkable that we get plenty of calories

00:41:52.556 --> 00:41:55.336
and that's very important
if you don't have calories.

00:41:55.336 --> 00:42:02.476
However, we are now becoming a world
of malnutrition, affluent malnutrition.

00:42:02.926 --> 00:42:07.366
And we often spend lots of money's
time on foods that are not nutritious.

00:42:07.366 --> 00:42:11.916
Here's a single case study as
we're about to look out for fun.

00:42:11.916 --> 00:42:17.006
If you drink 10 Cokes a day for a month --
Now, it's not a study, it's a case report.

00:42:17.736 --> 00:42:19.026
But I think it makes perfect sense.

00:42:19.026 --> 00:42:25.156
When you drink a can, a £12 can of
Coke, you're drinking 39 grams of sugar.

00:42:25.156 --> 00:42:26.106
That's a lot.

00:42:26.106 --> 00:42:27.846
What happened?

00:42:27.846 --> 00:42:33.446
Outcome after one month, increased
weight by 23 pounds, insulin levels,

00:42:33.446 --> 00:42:39.296
the person became prediabetic, blood pressures
increased, the body fat increased by 9%.

00:42:39.296 --> 00:42:42.656
And this -- And later on the
Harvard study has also shown this,

00:42:42.656 --> 00:42:48.616
drinking one can of soda can lead to
a five-pound weight gain in a year.

00:42:48.616 --> 00:42:53.926
And also drinking soda daily is strongly
to early death and increased likelihood

00:42:53.926 --> 00:42:55.466
of having a heart attack or stroke.

00:42:55.466 --> 00:43:01.656
It's also linked in women with an increase
in osteoarthritis even with athletes.

00:43:01.656 --> 00:43:07.296
OK? So I'm not recommending drinking Cokes
by definition, but just when we don't listen

00:43:07.296 --> 00:43:13.876
to our evolutionary diet or background and
we now do changes, it may backfire on us.

00:43:13.876 --> 00:43:14.956
And I'm going to use a few.

00:43:14.956 --> 00:43:18.876
I'm going to give three examples of this.

00:43:18.876 --> 00:43:23.976
You can think of many more, but I'm trying
to think of a way of thinking about this.

00:43:23.976 --> 00:43:27.516
OK. So what I look for is may you
feed carnivores or herbivore diet,

00:43:27.516 --> 00:43:30.076
when you feed herbivores a carnivore diet.

00:43:30.076 --> 00:43:33.936
And when you feed rats foods they were
totally unfamiliar with in their history.

00:43:33.936 --> 00:43:37.266
So that's an allostatic load.

00:43:37.366 --> 00:43:40.826
OK? This goes back to 1985.

00:43:41.236 --> 00:43:44.966
This is in the US zoos, cheetahs
were not doing well.

00:43:45.586 --> 00:43:48.546
They had many deaths, only
18 births, seven died.

00:43:48.656 --> 00:43:51.146
Six percent cheetahs had liver damage.

00:43:51.226 --> 00:43:54.296
Only 10% of females produce cups.

00:43:54.296 --> 00:43:56.076
You could argue well, because they're in a zoo.

00:43:56.366 --> 00:43:58.766
It worked out is not the
case because in the zoos

00:43:58.766 --> 00:44:00.666
in South Africa, the cheetahs were doing well.

00:44:00.666 --> 00:44:04.206
Remember, the cheetahs are one of the
fastest animals in the world, you know,

00:44:05.186 --> 00:44:09.706
and so they had -- But in South
African zoos they had no problem.

00:44:09.706 --> 00:44:13.466
Why? Well, what is the food we're feeding?

00:44:13.466 --> 00:44:16.626
Who knows what it totally is,
but what the major factors appear

00:44:16.626 --> 00:44:19.396
to be the diet of cheetah's health.

00:44:19.396 --> 00:44:24.426
In South African -- In South Africa, the
cheetahs ate whole carcasses, whole meat,

00:44:24.996 --> 00:44:28.216
just like they did for their evolutionary past.

00:44:28.216 --> 00:44:32.806
In the US the cheetahs start to eat commercial
prepared cat food because it's much cheaper.

00:44:32.856 --> 00:44:34.066
There was horse meat, that's OK.

00:44:34.066 --> 00:44:38.346
But they include a lot of soya bean
products were added for protein.

00:44:39.366 --> 00:44:43.946
Soy contains diazine and genistein
which acts as weak estrogens.

00:44:44.036 --> 00:44:48.736
And estrogens can affect liver and increase
the size of uterus, possibly also carcinogenic

00:44:48.736 --> 00:44:52.826
and excessive if you're estrogen
sensitive for breast cancer patients.

00:44:53.926 --> 00:44:58.846
What is so interesting, when they got rid of
the soy and they gave the animals only meat,

00:44:59.376 --> 00:45:01.936
their health improved and
their fertility improved again.

00:45:02.146 --> 00:45:04.826
I'm not saying that eating
soy causes this at all.

00:45:04.826 --> 00:45:09.016
In human beings because we are
not carnivores, we are omnivores.

00:45:09.016 --> 00:45:17.506
Although I have my questions
about, you know, nonorganic soy,

00:45:17.506 --> 00:45:19.356
so I would not quite recommend that.

00:45:19.586 --> 00:45:21.426
But then look at the opposite one.

00:45:22.126 --> 00:45:27.116
This is the mad cow disease episode
that occurred about 20, 25 years ago.

00:45:27.316 --> 00:45:29.826
And this was happened mainly in Britain.

00:45:29.826 --> 00:45:35.386
And what happened is that the animals
developed something called mad cow disease,

00:45:35.576 --> 00:45:42.436
bovine spongy form encephalopathy,
essentially degenerate brain disease.

00:45:42.436 --> 00:45:46.746
It's a similar disease that is seen in
human beings as Creutzveldt-Jacob disease.

00:45:46.746 --> 00:45:48.186
It's a prion disease.

00:45:48.406 --> 00:45:52.186
It's transmitted by eating
part of the brain tissue.

00:45:52.186 --> 00:46:00.016
And that's also true in human beings because
the way, you know -- When you go to New Guinea,

00:46:00.556 --> 00:46:05.116
where historically there was a large
episode of this kind of disorder is

00:46:05.156 --> 00:46:11.646
because when the people would fight
each other in New Guinea, the tribes,

00:46:11.646 --> 00:46:14.946
then the winning tribe would
eat the brains of their --

00:46:14.946 --> 00:46:19.516
of the person they had beaten in the battle.

00:46:19.726 --> 00:46:25.666
And if they were now infected with this
prion, they would then get the same disease.

00:46:25.666 --> 00:46:31.216
OK? So we know if you eat the nervous
tissue, then that could be an issue.

00:46:31.726 --> 00:46:36.906
Most likely, people hypothesize that
mad cow disease in Britain started

00:46:36.906 --> 00:46:44.606
when they changed the way the meat
waste products were distributed.

00:46:44.866 --> 00:46:51.066
Namely, what the people did is you would collect
meat products and that could be from cows,

00:46:51.066 --> 00:46:57.006
from sheep, from all others, you know, and then
you would process this to make a meat powder

00:46:57.006 --> 00:47:01.756
which you would then feed to the cows to quickly
have them gain weight and produce more milk.

00:47:01.756 --> 00:47:06.196
OK? So now basically you are
giving the cows who are --

00:47:06.196 --> 00:47:14.106
whose GI tract has really evolved to eat
grass very low quality, you could say food,

00:47:14.456 --> 00:47:19.356
low caloric food, you now
feed it a carnivore diet.

00:47:19.356 --> 00:47:24.776
And most likely in that process, when you now
fed them these waste products all ground up

00:47:24.776 --> 00:47:31.076
and processed, they contained the prions from
the sheep which in sheep is called scrapy.

00:47:31.076 --> 00:47:33.556
And then that let it be expressed in cows.

00:47:33.556 --> 00:47:37.646
And then when these cows were slaughtered
again, you would then take their waste products

00:47:37.646 --> 00:47:40.696
as fish holders and you would
again feed it to other cows.

00:47:41.476 --> 00:47:45.206
And so that's most likely
how mad cow disease started.

00:47:45.206 --> 00:47:48.206
And the quickest way this was
stopped by not doing that anymore.

00:47:49.246 --> 00:47:53.666
But it's, you know -- I'm not saying
that eating meat would be harmful,

00:47:53.866 --> 00:48:00.076
but possibly if you never were exposed to it
then your GI tract may not be able to cope

00:48:00.076 --> 00:48:04.266
with the scrapy or with the prion or
other things that may be occurring.

00:48:04.926 --> 00:48:08.766
So that's when you step outside of it
and then let me do a different one.

00:48:09.696 --> 00:48:12.976
This is a very interesting one about rats.

00:48:12.976 --> 00:48:21.336
It's an old study by Campbell and Campbell
or it's really by Wells even older in 1976.

00:48:21.336 --> 00:48:25.286
You take rats and you give
them a low doses aflatoxin,

00:48:25.286 --> 00:48:30.796
which is a very powerful carcinogenic
agent developing these tumors and cancer.

00:48:30.846 --> 00:48:34.796
In most people if a dosage high enough,
but you give them a very low dose.

00:48:34.796 --> 00:48:39.646
And what is interesting is you get
to normal rats, you get this low dose

00:48:40.086 --> 00:48:44.076
and then you haven't eaten normal rat show.

00:48:44.076 --> 00:48:47.436
And then cancer is expressed in all the animals.

00:48:49.286 --> 00:48:54.016
Now what you do is you change --
And you change the rat child of food

00:48:54.016 --> 00:48:57.136
because basically what is the rat food?

00:48:57.136 --> 00:49:01.296
It's a little rat pellets, but it
often has a lot of milk products in it,

00:49:01.296 --> 00:49:03.576
milk protein called casein in it.

00:49:03.636 --> 00:49:09.116
But I think from an evolutionary perspective,
rats never drank milk or milk products.

00:49:09.116 --> 00:49:11.316
I mean they eat everything, probably not milk.

00:49:11.506 --> 00:49:16.846
So their body probably did not die to process
this well then it's an allostatic load.

00:49:17.046 --> 00:49:23.586
What is so interesting is when you reduce the
consumption of -- in the foods to 5% of casein,

00:49:23.846 --> 00:49:28.126
then when you give them this
aflatoxin, it would induce cancer.

00:49:28.126 --> 00:49:29.656
The cancer does not occur.

00:49:29.826 --> 00:49:38.126
So, you can see as if the casein
increases or reduces the immune response

00:49:38.126 --> 00:49:41.266
or ability and allows the cancer to occur.

00:49:42.196 --> 00:49:49.216
Again, from my simplistic perspective is
that rats never ate milk or milk products.

00:49:49.216 --> 00:49:51.066
So this is a novelty.

00:49:51.066 --> 00:49:54.326
And then there's a long-term cost.

00:49:54.326 --> 00:49:57.566
There's some evidence in human
beings that eating lower animal --

00:49:57.726 --> 00:50:01.426
Lower levels of animal protein is
associated with lower cancer rates.

00:50:01.426 --> 00:50:04.976
So the more veggies and fruits you
eat, the probably better it is.

00:50:05.046 --> 00:50:11.106
It is not as clear because the Inuit
people in the Arctic eat mainly,

00:50:11.106 --> 00:50:17.296
historically ate mainly animal
products, lots of fats

00:50:17.296 --> 00:50:21.226
and blubber, and they did not develop cancer.

00:50:21.496 --> 00:50:23.886
So that it may not be as clear as it all looks.

00:50:25.666 --> 00:50:26.976
But, you know, living in harmony

00:50:26.976 --> 00:50:29.716
with your evolutionary past may
give hope for a number of disorders.

00:50:29.716 --> 00:50:32.026
I'm going to make a whole
long list for a moment.

00:50:32.026 --> 00:50:38.676
There's some suggestive evidence -- Some
suggestions that even epilepsy in children,

00:50:39.106 --> 00:50:45.136
and epilepsy is a complex disease, it's not
simple, but for some can be at least controlled

00:50:45.136 --> 00:50:47.056
by eating a total ketogenic diet.

00:50:47.056 --> 00:50:48.486
This is very hard to do.

00:50:48.486 --> 00:50:52.536
And just eating -- And for them, if
you put them on a ketogenic diet,

00:50:52.906 --> 00:50:57.386
then if they just eat one cupcake which would
then be refined flour would trigger seizures.

00:50:57.386 --> 00:51:01.966
There are many other factors, but this is at
least one the person could have control over.

00:51:02.116 --> 00:51:05.706
Two, I already alluded to the cancer
as giving a low dose about autotoxin.

00:51:05.706 --> 00:51:11.786
But this may also suggest that
possibly what the foods were now eating,

00:51:12.226 --> 00:51:16.516
some of them are so strange and not
part of our evolutionary background

00:51:16.666 --> 00:51:19.846
that it may do something
for us in a similar way.

00:51:19.846 --> 00:51:21.536
We just don't know.

00:51:21.536 --> 00:51:27.876
And then there's a case of, again, which you
all watch by multiple sclerosis by Terry Wahl,

00:51:27.876 --> 00:51:28.996
who had severe multiple sclerosis.

00:51:28.996 --> 00:51:34.926
She adopts a hunting and gathering diet
and then thereby reverses her MS totally.

00:51:34.976 --> 00:51:38.046
You know, there are case examples,
but I think they give hints.

00:51:38.046 --> 00:51:40.866
And then we need to think of foods.

00:51:40.866 --> 00:51:44.226
I mean, we, you know -- When you look at
your tissue, look at your hand for a moment,

00:51:44.916 --> 00:51:48.386
look at -- Remember every cell in your body,

00:51:48.886 --> 00:51:54.926
everything your whole body is built,
created from the foods we ate.

00:51:54.926 --> 00:51:58.766
If you eat, you know -- Think
of building a house.

00:51:58.796 --> 00:52:04.146
If you have very good materials and you have a
very good plan then the house were very strong.

00:52:04.266 --> 00:52:06.956
The plan could be your genetics
and the epigenetics.

00:52:07.856 --> 00:52:14.346
But even with a very good plan,
if you have poor materials,

00:52:14.576 --> 00:52:19.716
the house or the building you're making will not
be as good and would be in danger of collapse.

00:52:19.716 --> 00:52:21.716
And think of it this way.

00:52:21.716 --> 00:52:26.096
And now much of our foods we're eating and
partly because of the green revolution,

00:52:26.096 --> 00:52:31.246
which has been great, that allows all
of us to have enough plenty of foods.

00:52:31.246 --> 00:52:33.166
So there is always a balance.

00:52:33.376 --> 00:52:40.076
But our monoculture and our processed foods
may eliminate many important micronutrients.

00:52:41.356 --> 00:52:42.996
You know, we're not aware of what we need.

00:52:43.776 --> 00:52:48.416
Two, our pesticides and herbicides --
I'm just thinking of Monsanta's Roundup,

00:52:48.416 --> 00:52:54.726
we'll do this later when we talk about food, are
carcinogenic and immune suppressant, you know.

00:52:54.896 --> 00:53:00.656
And then there's lots of evidence that
we -- That our -- The foods we eat may --

00:53:01.216 --> 00:53:05.736
Or the lack of foods we eat may be
a cause of a number of illnesses.

00:53:05.816 --> 00:53:08.946
Just think of going back
during the ages of, you know --

00:53:08.946 --> 00:53:19.126
just think back of the age of sailing
where sailors got scurvy, you know.

00:53:19.246 --> 00:53:20.716
But why did they get scurvy?

00:53:20.896 --> 00:53:25.086
Scurvy? Because the foods they
were eating was even pickled.

00:53:25.356 --> 00:53:29.006
They were not getting enough
vitamin C so they lost their teeth.

00:53:29.006 --> 00:53:32.666
There's massive death rate
of sailors due to scurvy.

00:53:32.666 --> 00:53:38.176
It was until the observation was made
that when they ate limes, citrus fruit,

00:53:38.176 --> 00:53:42.746
which contained vitamin C, there are many foods
that have more vitamin C that once they start

00:53:42.746 --> 00:53:45.846
to eat those, then they could
solve that disease.

00:53:45.846 --> 00:53:53.476
And then in the late 19th century, you know,
with the advent of the result of colonization

00:53:53.476 --> 00:54:01.246
in the -- in much of the world and the
idea that brown rice was sort of, well,

00:54:01.246 --> 00:54:04.636
that's for common people
that white rice was best.

00:54:04.886 --> 00:54:11.536
But the trouble was by eating white rice
you get rid of the vitamin B1, thiamine.

00:54:11.536 --> 00:54:15.936
And that led then to a very serious
neurological disease very, very.

00:54:15.936 --> 00:54:20.276
You know, it was because we
started not eat the whole foods.

00:54:20.276 --> 00:54:22.536
There's so many of these we can't think of it.

00:54:22.536 --> 00:54:25.986
OK? Let me do another one
here about spina bifida.

00:54:25.986 --> 00:54:32.316
Spina bifida, you know, is really that the spine
does not close of the little -- of the fetus.

00:54:32.806 --> 00:54:36.736
However, it can totally be almost
avoided, at least decreased

00:54:36.876 --> 00:54:40.686
if the food contains enough folic acid.

00:54:40.686 --> 00:54:42.616
But what do you get folic acid by?

00:54:42.616 --> 00:54:48.286
By eating spinach, asparagus, turnips,
greens, legumes, many of these and organ meats

00:54:48.286 --> 00:54:50.976
such as liver and kidney all contain folate.

00:54:51.256 --> 00:54:52.296
You don't need to take a pill.

00:54:53.186 --> 00:54:54.526
You need the right foods.

00:54:54.526 --> 00:54:59.006
So when I see these, that we need to
add these substances to the foods,

00:54:59.006 --> 00:55:01.756
it's really telling me we're
eating the wrong foods.

00:55:04.046 --> 00:55:07.546
OK? And I already talked
about the vitamin C or think

00:55:07.546 --> 00:55:12.586
of Omega 3 or fatty, you know -- fish oils.

00:55:13.406 --> 00:55:19.016
You know, this then -- The data looks very
good that mothers who are at high risk,

00:55:19.166 --> 00:55:21.506
that's genetic for allergic disease.

00:55:21.506 --> 00:55:26.336
When they got Omega 3s from 21
weeks of gestation to birth,

00:55:27.436 --> 00:55:32.596
that there was a significant decrease
in eczema, egg allergies and others.

00:55:32.596 --> 00:55:39.026
Notice almost it went from 12% for the
controls who didn't get it to 7%, 15 to 9.

00:55:39.366 --> 00:55:45.156
Most likely if the mothers had it from
the at the beginning of pregnancy,

00:55:45.406 --> 00:55:48.176
maybe these numbers would even be much better.

00:55:48.176 --> 00:55:49.966
And this is the result at age one.

00:55:50.276 --> 00:55:56.916
So notice the long lasting cost by having
a diet that's low in Omega 3 at least.

00:55:56.916 --> 00:56:03.076
And our diet right now is massively weighted
to Omega 6s, which is highly inflammatory

00:56:03.076 --> 00:56:07.356
because so much of the foods we
eat are it include corn, oils,

00:56:07.356 --> 00:56:09.356
et cetera, which are all omega 6s.

00:56:10.386 --> 00:56:15.796
OK? It even changes behavior if you
give Omega 3 supplements for six months.

00:56:16.106 --> 00:56:19.976
And that's a double-blind
study for 8- to 16-year-olds.

00:56:20.836 --> 00:56:28.556
You know, overall, what you see is that it's a
reduction in significantly in behavior problems.

00:56:28.556 --> 00:56:29.766
It's just really remarkable.

00:56:30.286 --> 00:56:36.956
OK? And now I'm going to shift again to diet one
more time, going back to the exposure of getting

00:56:37.096 --> 00:56:43.646
to food poisoning which so often occurs in our
modern diet, whether all of a sudden thousands

00:56:43.926 --> 00:56:47.946
of people die or hundreds of people
die and some or get sick and a few die

00:56:47.946 --> 00:56:51.336
because they ate hamburgers
or even the romaine lettuce.

00:56:51.336 --> 00:56:52.886
Here's one of romaine lettuce.

00:56:52.966 --> 00:56:56.376
But the question really is what caused it?

00:56:56.376 --> 00:57:02.466
And in most cases, we would see as
caused basically, you know, by e. coli.

00:57:02.466 --> 00:57:07.126
Right? But look at -- But I would want to
argue that it's really what we have done

00:57:07.126 --> 00:57:09.476
with the -- with our cows and our animals.

00:57:09.476 --> 00:57:16.846
So let me take you through a little story why we
get possibly one pathway, we get food poisoning

00:57:16.846 --> 00:57:18.706
in one case and not in the other.

00:57:20.046 --> 00:57:25.096
OK. The normal diet of a cow is
basically somehow grass us is on the left,

00:57:25.126 --> 00:57:28.456
but now we bring them to a feedlot
where they're getting a lot of grains.

00:57:28.456 --> 00:57:31.196
The reason you do this, because
they'll bulk up very quickly.

00:57:31.196 --> 00:57:37.846
However, the gastrointestinal tract of a
cow is not really -- It did, you know --

00:57:37.846 --> 00:57:41.036
From an evolutionary perspective
did not have to process it.

00:57:41.036 --> 00:57:46.036
And it changes the pH in
the cow in the fecal mass.

00:57:46.676 --> 00:57:49.946
OK? And so, if you look at that
-- If you look at the manure

00:57:49.946 --> 00:57:52.906
of cattle eating grass, it's about 7.7.3.

00:57:52.906 --> 00:58:01.006
While the manure of cattle at feedlots wheat
grain, which is very high caloric value is 5.3.

00:58:01.006 --> 00:58:04.606
Now why is this important?

00:58:04.606 --> 00:58:10.316
OK, all the manure in cows contain e. coli, but
there are many different versions of e. coli.

00:58:10.446 --> 00:58:17.246
And the one that lets us get sick,
really get sick is the e. coli 0157.

00:58:17.426 --> 00:58:22.616
That is the e. coli that survives at a
very low pH and much more acidic condition.

00:58:22.616 --> 00:58:28.996
And notice that if the manure of
the cow is that eats grass is 7.3,

00:58:28.996 --> 00:58:33.136
there will be a very low number of this e.
coli because they wouldn't really survive well

00:58:33.136 --> 00:58:39.186
at this higher pH. And then when that cow gets
slaughtered, keep that in mind, then probably --

00:58:39.186 --> 00:58:42.286
Sometimes the intestinal
content contaminates the meat.

00:58:44.246 --> 00:58:48.526
Now you eat your hamburger
with the contamination in it.

00:58:48.576 --> 00:58:52.286
But since it is the e. coli
that survives at 7.3 when it --

00:58:52.286 --> 00:58:58.626
but you now eat it goes into your
stomach, but the stomach is a ph of 2

00:58:58.626 --> 00:59:04.446
and all those e. coli essentially all
get killed and so you don't get sick.

00:59:04.446 --> 00:59:10.096
Now on the other hand, if you're eating
meat from the cattle from a feedlot

00:59:10.096 --> 00:59:16.826
that has been eating the mainly grain,
its manure is 5.3 and then it's in --

00:59:16.826 --> 00:59:23.356
And you see a thousand times more e.
coli, you know, 0157 which is the one

00:59:23.356 --> 00:59:27.426
that is really makes us very
sick as I point out.

00:59:27.426 --> 00:59:31.126
And when you now -- And they
now multiply in the meter or so

00:59:31.586 --> 00:59:34.676
and now when you eat them
they go through your stomach.

00:59:34.676 --> 00:59:41.216
But now, they can survive this
pH's acid of and 10% survive that

00:59:41.216 --> 00:59:44.726
and then they start multiplying this
lethal infection in your intestines.

00:59:45.806 --> 00:59:48.036
So that is really the big difference.

00:59:49.016 --> 00:59:55.146
So the cure is probably not to try
to give antibiotics or anything else.

00:59:55.146 --> 00:59:58.366
It would say maybe we should
think of the evolutionary backup.

00:59:58.366 --> 01:00:02.956
What should cattle be eating
to reduce their health?

01:00:03.046 --> 01:00:11.756
So we fed the cows hay or grass then the pH
would stay up to 7.3 and would reduce the odds

01:00:11.756 --> 01:00:16.306
of having this e. coli 0157
be present in the foods.

01:00:16.306 --> 01:00:20.816
Because now if the cattle that has the
-- is from the feedlot is slaughtered

01:00:20.966 --> 01:00:24.786
and the meat is contaminated, now when
you eat it, you potentially get sick.

01:00:24.856 --> 01:00:32.606
But moreover, the manure of this
cattle at 5.3 drifts over fields

01:00:32.606 --> 01:00:38.256
where there may be spinach is grown or other
foods are grown or a worker carries this

01:00:38.256 --> 01:00:41.506
on their boots and goes to those
fields or goes for the water.

01:00:41.506 --> 01:00:47.936
Then all of a sudden, you're spraying some
fields of vegetables with this e. coli 0157

01:00:48.376 --> 01:00:51.896
and then you can get sick by
eating even the vegetables.

01:00:52.026 --> 01:00:53.706
OK, I think that's enough.

01:00:54.756 --> 01:00:57.466
OK? And then there's so many other factors,

01:00:57.466 --> 01:01:03.166
I can keep going that the foods
we eat also change our bacteria.

01:01:03.166 --> 01:01:09.936
Remember, the foods we eat affect which
colonies of bacteria increase or decrease.

01:01:09.966 --> 01:01:14.636
But most of the foods we now eat look
the same and are totally different.

01:01:14.636 --> 01:01:19.746
Almost all the grain, corn, soy,
processed foods and meats contain low level

01:01:19.746 --> 01:01:24.816
of Monsanta's produced herbicides, Roundup
and other herbicides and pesticides.

01:01:25.926 --> 01:01:33.336
And those -- And they in fact suppress
some of the healthy human biome bacteria

01:01:33.576 --> 01:01:40.176
and allow the more pathological ones to
continue possibly as this we may have messed up.

01:01:40.176 --> 01:01:42.916
We need to go back and think how
we're living in the first place.

01:01:43.326 --> 01:01:46.236
And remember, we are an ecological system.

01:01:46.806 --> 01:01:48.216
I want to underline this.

01:01:48.426 --> 01:01:52.856
We -- And now I move even more to a
slight different perspective on this,

01:01:52.856 --> 01:01:58.656
to some illnesses that they evolved with
parasites, bacteria, and viruses, you know.

01:01:58.656 --> 01:02:04.736
And when we eliminate some of those bacteria
or parasites, the balance is disrupted.

01:02:04.736 --> 01:02:06.026
The pathology can occur.

01:02:06.026 --> 01:02:10.406
Some of you have experienced that
already when you have taken antibiotics.

01:02:10.406 --> 01:02:15.206
Often more women may have experienced that
more when they had no problems at all,

01:02:15.206 --> 01:02:18.506
then they took antibiotics even maybe for acne.

01:02:18.506 --> 01:02:22.816
And then the antibiotic not only
killed a whole class of bacteria

01:02:22.816 --> 01:02:25.516
in their GI tract but also
in the vaginal barrel.

01:02:25.916 --> 01:02:28.076
And then they've developed a yeast infection.

01:02:29.026 --> 01:02:34.206
Because when you remove certain groups
of bacteria, others will take over.

01:02:34.726 --> 01:02:37.116
So what is critical is the balance.

01:02:37.116 --> 01:02:38.106
And I want to talk about.

01:02:38.106 --> 01:02:41.156
And that's all what you'll be
reading in the book by Blazer,

01:02:41.446 --> 01:02:42.766
which really looks at the human biome.

01:02:42.766 --> 01:02:47.626
But I want to go back now for a moment
about our parasites, bacteria, and viruses.

01:02:47.626 --> 01:02:49.296
We've lift those forever.

01:02:49.766 --> 01:02:51.176
We live in symbiosis.

01:02:51.176 --> 01:02:53.966
That is really where the bacteria are mutual.

01:02:54.536 --> 01:02:57.406
You know, we live together and
they're in different categories.

01:02:57.616 --> 01:02:59.476
In mutualism, they both benefit.

01:02:59.476 --> 01:03:04.226
And many bacteria benefit by living
with us, and we benefit from them.

01:03:04.226 --> 01:03:08.896
Then there's commensal, which is where one
benefits but not the other one doesn't.

01:03:08.896 --> 01:03:10.306
There's no harm, you know.

01:03:10.306 --> 01:03:15.326
And the final one is basically a parasite
where one benefits and the other one is harmed.

01:03:15.446 --> 01:03:17.176
And the harm can be very minimally.

01:03:17.176 --> 01:03:23.186
If you're intrigued in parasites specifically,
a great older book which I really like,

01:03:23.186 --> 01:03:26.676
is by Rob Dunn, the Wildlife of Our Bodies.

01:03:26.676 --> 01:03:28.976
It's really the epidemic of absence.

01:03:28.976 --> 01:03:32.966
It's a way of understanding
autoimmune illnesses, you know.

01:03:33.036 --> 01:03:34.786
But let me give this as an example.

01:03:35.266 --> 01:03:40.146
In the 1930s and '40s, nearly
half American children had worms.

01:03:40.146 --> 01:03:47.936
And if you go all around the world in third
world countries, except in our weird world,

01:03:47.936 --> 01:03:52.466
that's Western, educated,
industrialized, rich, democratic countries,

01:03:54.076 --> 01:03:59.436
many people had little worms, you know,
sometimes like whip worms and others.

01:03:59.606 --> 01:04:03.286
In most cases, they were very benign
unless you had too many of them.

01:04:03.286 --> 01:04:06.376
There are some bits you never want to get.

01:04:06.866 --> 01:04:10.456
OK? And one way that -- In the
1930s, most of people had it just

01:04:10.456 --> 01:04:13.486
like your dog has worms at times.

01:04:13.486 --> 01:04:17.396
OK? But usually, the way you
would avoid getting worms is

01:04:17.396 --> 01:04:19.696
that you would not have to
walk on human fecal mass.

01:04:19.696 --> 01:04:22.366
So what you then did is but
you -- If you wore shoes

01:04:22.366 --> 01:04:26.146
and used an indoor toilet,
you're less likely to get it.

01:04:26.466 --> 01:04:32.546
But what is so interesting is that a disease
called Crohn's disease did not exist in places

01:04:32.546 --> 01:04:36.186
where people generally didn't
have people at intestinal worms.

01:04:36.186 --> 01:04:41.186
But as the intestinal worms have become
very rare, which we have done in the US

01:04:41.186 --> 01:04:45.826
and many other places, all of a
sudden, we get this -- The much more --

01:04:45.826 --> 01:04:48.946
And whole serious illness
called Crohn's disease.

01:04:49.046 --> 01:04:50.806
Now, worms is always relevant.

01:04:50.806 --> 01:04:55.046
Having a few worms in you,
many of them that you would --

01:04:55.226 --> 01:04:59.286
You intake them, they would multiply
in you, you would excrete the eggs

01:04:59.286 --> 01:05:01.666
and it would be one cycle
till you get reinfected.

01:05:01.666 --> 01:05:02.976
Others could be very harmful.

01:05:03.066 --> 01:05:08.946
But in many cases of -- They could be more,
you know -- They would just do a tiniest harm.

01:05:08.946 --> 01:05:11.076
It's only if you're a highly malnutrition

01:05:11.076 --> 01:05:14.026
that other issues were going
on that it was very harmful.

01:05:14.026 --> 01:05:19.376
And remember, I want to underline again,
most people had experience of worms

01:05:19.376 --> 01:05:23.906
until the 20th century, but by
having better hygiene, wearing shoes,

01:05:24.076 --> 01:05:27.676
and children are now growing up
without ever having had worms.

01:05:28.706 --> 01:05:32.636
And the worms can live in our,
you know, GI tract or bloodstream.

01:05:32.636 --> 01:05:34.216
I'm not recommending it in a bloodstream.

01:05:34.216 --> 01:05:40.896
And to survive -- However, to survive
within the host, worms must interact with

01:05:40.896 --> 01:05:43.326
and change the host immune system.

01:05:43.326 --> 01:05:47.546
You see. And some worms can cause disease,
but many are not, possibly even harmful

01:05:47.546 --> 01:05:50.576
and may even beneficial for our immune system.

01:05:50.576 --> 01:05:52.416
That's hard to believe, I know conceptually.

01:05:53.566 --> 01:06:01.836
But you could argue if we live for as
long as we know with some parasites,

01:06:02.156 --> 01:06:05.436
our immune system would then
be in a kind of balance

01:06:05.436 --> 01:06:09.306
with these parasites or this
-- with these worms.

01:06:09.656 --> 01:06:12.906
And all of a sudden, if you
take these worms away,

01:06:13.416 --> 01:06:15.326
then our immune system may not know how to cope.

01:06:15.326 --> 01:06:20.076
So it is now believed that the
inflammatory bowel diseases,

01:06:20.076 --> 01:06:24.466
such as Crohn's disease is really partial --

01:06:24.466 --> 01:06:30.156
is partially caused by dysregulation
of mucosal immune system, you know.

01:06:30.156 --> 01:06:34.186
So, we see this massive increase
in Crohn's disease.

01:06:34.816 --> 01:06:40.856
If, on the other hand, if during childhood
you get exposures to Helmuth, that's worms,

01:06:40.976 --> 01:06:44.496
they somehow talk to your immune
system or they produce something

01:06:44.496 --> 01:06:47.046
which tells the immune system, hey, slow down.

01:06:47.246 --> 01:06:48.826
I'm just here as a passenger.

01:06:48.826 --> 01:06:49.746
I won't do too much.

01:06:49.746 --> 01:06:51.406
Just keep it cool.

01:06:51.406 --> 01:06:52.476
I'm making this up.

01:06:52.476 --> 01:06:58.696
And then as if -- It stamps
down the inflammation.

01:06:59.416 --> 01:07:04.756
But without that experience, the
immune system has no way to change.

01:07:04.786 --> 01:07:07.886
And this is one of the hypotheses
by Joel Weinstock

01:07:07.886 --> 01:07:10.106
and he has done some very interesting studies

01:07:10.106 --> 01:07:13.606
on using Helmuth parasitic
worms to help the immune system.

01:07:14.036 --> 01:07:16.976
As I pointed out earlier, the disease,

01:07:16.976 --> 01:07:22.296
Crohn's disease is a very
difficult illness on our GI tract.

01:07:22.296 --> 01:07:26.986
It's where our immune system is attacking and
causes horrible abdominal pain, skin rash.

01:07:26.986 --> 01:07:28.946
It's just truly difficult.

01:07:30.066 --> 01:07:32.726
OK? It's just a disaster.

01:07:32.726 --> 01:07:39.156
And now estimates 1/3 million people
have this, at least in the United States.

01:07:39.156 --> 01:07:44.286
And one of the ways -- If you think about
it, how come Crohn's disease does not exist

01:07:44.286 --> 01:07:46.456
in third world countries
because people have worms.

01:07:46.456 --> 01:07:48.456
That's a hypothesis, by the way.

01:07:48.456 --> 01:07:52.936
But people have been doing
episodic experiments on this.

01:07:53.366 --> 01:07:56.436
And now in a more systematic
study by Joel Weinstock,

01:07:56.436 --> 01:07:59.376
he took chronic people with
chronic Crohn's disease.

01:07:59.826 --> 01:08:01.816
They now gave them worms.

01:08:01.816 --> 01:08:04.176
Now, you know, with worm, it's just benign.

01:08:04.176 --> 01:08:05.636
It doesn't do any harm.

01:08:05.886 --> 01:08:07.056
You know, you put little eggs in it.

01:08:07.056 --> 01:08:08.326
You don't even know you're swallowing in.

01:08:08.806 --> 01:08:11.326
And what happened in this
study of these 29 patients?

01:08:11.326 --> 01:08:13.426
Four patients, yuck, worms.

01:08:13.426 --> 01:08:14.336
I don't want to do this.

01:08:14.336 --> 01:08:16.806
So they got a medication
to get rid of the worms.

01:08:17.246 --> 01:08:22.486
But in 24 weeks, all but one patient was
doing, 21 patients were in remission.

01:08:23.906 --> 01:08:25.886
Now that is remarkable.

01:08:26.746 --> 01:08:31.356
Their bodies were much healthier than
when they had -- now they had parasites.

01:08:31.356 --> 01:08:34.246
And so, you know, this is very suggestive.

01:08:34.246 --> 01:08:38.026
And it's a similar model you see later, as
you'll be reading in the book by Blaser,

01:08:38.026 --> 01:08:43.906
about the whole part of our human biome that
when they're empty -- when there's absence.

01:08:43.906 --> 01:08:50.786
And remember to underline, going back
again to the inflammatory GI disorders,

01:08:50.786 --> 01:08:55.496
one of the promising remedial acts
against irritable bowel disease

01:08:55.496 --> 01:08:58.796
and other allergic autoimmune
illnesses is helminth therapy.

01:08:58.796 --> 01:09:04.516
It can also be probably bacterial
therapy or human biome therapy.

01:09:04.516 --> 01:09:07.836
Cure of helminth therapy seems
to be the most effective therapy

01:09:07.836 --> 01:09:10.816
in the irritable bowel disease
currently proposed.

01:09:11.476 --> 01:09:17.176
OK? And now I'll jump even more
that the human biome is active

01:09:17.176 --> 01:09:18.766
and a vital participant in our lives.

01:09:18.766 --> 01:09:25.216
Remember, more than half of your -- of the DNA
in your body are bacteria, are human biome.

01:09:25.746 --> 01:09:26.516
And that's critical.

01:09:26.516 --> 01:09:28.246
So do look at the book by Blaser.

01:09:28.816 --> 01:09:33.016
And we get these exposures to these
different -- once in many different ways.

01:09:33.016 --> 01:09:34.466
You know, kids play in the dirt.

01:09:34.466 --> 01:09:39.286
Eating dirt is very helpful, you know?

01:09:39.286 --> 01:09:44.606
You know, our GI tract, these bacteria produce
serotonin and many, in fact, interestingly,

01:09:44.606 --> 01:09:51.346
many of our antibiotics are derived
from material, you know, grown in dirt.

01:09:51.826 --> 01:09:52.686
So, play the dirt.

01:09:52.686 --> 01:09:53.446
It's much better.

01:09:53.446 --> 01:09:59.146
OK? And maybe we shouldn't be using
so many antimicrobial soaps, you know?

01:09:59.146 --> 01:10:00.386
Possibly, yes.

01:10:01.136 --> 01:10:06.796
If you know someone is infectious do wash your
hands and after bathroom use wash your hands

01:10:07.026 --> 01:10:12.836
but most likely don't use antimicrobial
soaps because basically you are developing --

01:10:12.836 --> 01:10:17.746
You get rid of the healthy bacteria and
maybe leave a place for unhealthy bacteria.

01:10:18.186 --> 01:10:25.016
And as I said earlier our human body is made of
many cells at least half of those in our bodies

01:10:25.016 --> 01:10:27.986
or more our bacterial nonhuman cells.

01:10:28.276 --> 01:10:29.576
It's most interesting.

01:10:29.576 --> 01:10:36.336
And there's so many factors that affect the gut
bacteria which includes the birthing process,

01:10:36.336 --> 01:10:42.066
the breastfeeding, exposure dirt, antibiotic
exposures, diet and they all are interactive.

01:10:42.546 --> 01:10:47.456
And I think on that note I
will stop but keep thinking

01:10:47.456 --> 01:10:52.896
of the evolutionary background what are
you doing now that your great, great,

01:10:52.896 --> 01:10:57.036
great grandparents would have no idea about?

01:10:57.566 --> 01:11:05.956
And it's likely that those novelties could
be harmful or increase an allostatic load

01:11:05.956 --> 01:11:10.976
and could be a co-contributor to many of
these inflammatory diseases we now have.

00:00:03.046 --> 00:00:07.316
>> Living in harmony with our
evolutionary past, Part 1.

00:00:07.316 --> 00:00:09.256
This is an asynchronous presentation.

00:00:09.256 --> 00:00:15.326
As we all know, we are part of parcel
of nature, and it always reminds me,

00:00:15.326 --> 00:00:17.206
when we look at our genetics and DNA.

00:00:17.206 --> 00:00:23.386
Remember, genetically we're, even to
bananas, we are 60% genetically similar.

00:00:23.386 --> 00:00:26.426
To a cow, about 80%.

00:00:26.516 --> 00:00:28.426
To a mouse, 85.

00:00:28.856 --> 00:00:30.116
To a cat, 90.

00:00:30.116 --> 00:00:34.746
To a chimpanzee, 96% genetically similar.

00:00:34.746 --> 00:00:39.586
And all modern humans are
99.9% genetically similar.

00:00:39.586 --> 00:00:49.276
So in a way, we are almost controlled, in a
way, or modulated by our evolutionary past.

00:00:49.276 --> 00:00:53.726
And know any variation of that
may make life more challenging.

00:00:53.726 --> 00:01:00.456
But anyway, it sometimes then helps to ask the
question on a reflection: how did we evolve,

00:01:00.656 --> 00:01:04.336
and how did they live for
those thousands of generations?

00:01:04.396 --> 00:01:06.876
Go back 50,000 years ago.

00:01:06.976 --> 00:01:07.996
How did they live?

00:01:08.486 --> 00:01:10.486
We were hunters and gatherers.

00:01:10.586 --> 00:01:12.326
We ate all variety of food.

00:01:12.326 --> 00:01:14.946
We lived in small clans.

00:01:14.946 --> 00:01:19.136
Yes, people died in childbirth,
people died in accidents,

00:01:19.136 --> 00:01:22.446
but some lived until the age 90, just as much.

00:01:22.496 --> 00:01:27.786
There may have been a deduction in some
of the illnesses, we now so commonly have,

00:01:27.786 --> 00:01:31.136
such as our inflammatory illnesses.

00:01:31.316 --> 00:01:35.426
You know, and what kind of foods people
eat, by which they are allowed themselves

00:01:35.426 --> 00:01:37.176
to survive, by which we survived?

00:01:37.176 --> 00:01:38.836
How did we move?

00:01:38.836 --> 00:01:40.376
How did we take rest?

00:01:40.376 --> 00:01:43.726
What constitute our social systems,
which is probably a small thing.

00:01:44.096 --> 00:01:49.726
All those factors still are
seen in our behavior today.

00:01:49.726 --> 00:01:51.376
We still react.

00:01:51.376 --> 00:01:59.136
We still live, and optimally, when we accept any
and live in harmony with our evolutionary past.

00:01:59.136 --> 00:02:02.236
So this presentation will focus more on this.

00:02:02.236 --> 00:02:07.186
And part of it is that I look around, and
I'm also shocked of how many young children

00:02:07.186 --> 00:02:15.236
and adults have now autoimmune illnesses, have
cognitive disorders, such as ADHD, or you know,

00:02:16.756 --> 00:02:20.006
you know, or how many other
illnesses is listed here?

00:02:20.006 --> 00:02:26.286
And how come many of this those diseases
are mainly absent in rural Africa,

00:02:26.286 --> 00:02:29.536
and much more common in the
industrialized first world.

00:02:29.536 --> 00:02:36.106
And we see this kind of epidemic of
autoimmune illnesses, of allergies increasing

00:02:36.106 --> 00:02:38.056
and increasing all around the world.

00:02:38.056 --> 00:02:42.726
And then, how come 1/3rd of American
children are now pre-diabetic,

00:02:42.726 --> 00:02:45.626
which is really a horrible
prediction for the future.

00:02:45.626 --> 00:02:49.496
How come there's such an
increase in nearsightedness?

00:02:49.636 --> 00:02:56.086
How come cancer, Alzheimer's disease, appears
to be occurring earlier than ever before?

00:02:56.316 --> 00:03:01.416
And how come these diseases are occurring
more frequently, and were almost absent

00:03:01.416 --> 00:03:05.416
in your grandparents generation or
in our non-industrialized people.

00:03:05.416 --> 00:03:09.456
These are the interesting questions
to me, because they ask not just,

00:03:09.456 --> 00:03:15.686
what can we do to treat these disorders,
what can we do to treat allergies?

00:03:15.686 --> 00:03:19.106
And it's remarkable that we can do some of that.

00:03:19.166 --> 00:03:22.986
But what is it that we need to do to things
to prevent it, and optimize our health.

00:03:22.986 --> 00:03:26.046
So that is really the sense
of trying to understand living

00:03:26.046 --> 00:03:28.226
in harmony of our evolutionary past.

00:03:28.226 --> 00:03:32.926
And statistically, as you can see very well
on this slide, that many of the illnesses,

00:03:32.926 --> 00:03:38.676
incidence of infectious diseases, either by
viruses or by bacteria, have now been reduced.

00:03:38.676 --> 00:03:40.356
Look at hepatitis A going down.

00:03:40.356 --> 00:03:41.756
TB has been going down.

00:03:41.996 --> 00:03:43.186
Mumps and measles.

00:03:43.186 --> 00:03:46.216
I know that looks like it's
only due to vaccinations,

00:03:46.216 --> 00:03:50.416
but many of these were already going
down before vaccinations ever occur.

00:03:50.416 --> 00:03:58.026
And look how we have this -- this epidemic, in
a way, of these more autoimmune like illnesses.

00:03:58.376 --> 00:04:02.666
You know, whether it's Crohn's disease,
that's the gastrointestinal disorder,

00:04:02.806 --> 00:04:06.606
or type one diabetes, asthma,
multiple sclerosis.

00:04:07.116 --> 00:04:12.596
You know, it's really, it's shocking to me to
think of that, you know, of this radical change.

00:04:12.596 --> 00:04:16.576
You can also see that it's so
interesting, it says, mainly those diseases,

00:04:16.576 --> 00:04:20.446
those inflammatory diseases, are
those from the Western Hemisphere.

00:04:20.446 --> 00:04:24.206
So you look at the graph of
[inaudible], look at Western Europe,

00:04:24.206 --> 00:04:27.446
and Canada, and the United States.

00:04:27.446 --> 00:04:31.956
And you see it's almost totally absent, or
much less in the other parts of the world.

00:04:32.306 --> 00:04:35.466
You know, and you can even look at
a rate of their increase in autism,

00:04:35.466 --> 00:04:37.356
you know, from very low to now very high.

00:04:37.356 --> 00:04:43.466
It's true that some of this is more
powerful diagnostic ways of doing it.

00:04:43.466 --> 00:04:48.456
We may recognize it when, in the past,
it was not recognized as a disorder,

00:04:48.456 --> 00:04:50.776
but it also looks like a real phenomenon.

00:04:51.726 --> 00:04:52.976
Okay?

00:04:53.046 --> 00:04:56.226
And then you look at many
of the allergies we have.

00:04:56.226 --> 00:05:00.026
You know, I just think, I keep thinking of
that, you know, I used to remember flying.

00:05:00.026 --> 00:05:02.976
And when I flew, people would
be serving peanuts and nuts,

00:05:02.976 --> 00:05:07.456
and the concept of having peanut allergy
just wasn't part of my awareness.

00:05:07.456 --> 00:05:11.946
And if you ask your grandparents, when
they go back and think of their childhood,

00:05:11.946 --> 00:05:15.866
and they were in school, how many of
them knew people who had allergies?

00:05:15.966 --> 00:05:18.966
And many will say, maybe only one in 40.

00:05:18.966 --> 00:05:24.256
Now our students, 1/3rd of us will say,
gosh, I have some reactivity emerge.

00:05:24.256 --> 00:05:28.126
And it may be because we have
been changing our world so much.

00:05:28.126 --> 00:05:33.366
We are now living away from
our evolutionary past.

00:05:33.366 --> 00:05:35.896
You know, look at it, for
example, about hay fever.

00:05:35.896 --> 00:05:42.196
Hay fever was first described in 1819, by John
Bostock, and, you know, and it occurred, really,

00:05:42.196 --> 00:05:45.066
among people of higher class
and living in cities.

00:05:45.126 --> 00:05:49.476
Part of it is that if you were a
farm child, or living in the farms,

00:05:49.476 --> 00:05:55.006
you would be continually exposed to
these -- the materials from the hay,

00:05:55.006 --> 00:05:58.706
and therefore you would not
develop this allergy.

00:05:58.706 --> 00:06:03.336
And the similar phenomena seems to be it
has occurred for irritable bowel disease

00:06:03.336 --> 00:06:10.726
and Crohn's disease, that was first
described in 1932 by Burrill Crohs, you know,

00:06:10.726 --> 00:06:17.586
in which he described this necrotizing
inflammation, scarring of the intestines.

00:06:17.736 --> 00:06:25.556
However, this disease clearly is associated
with social class, and wealth, and being more

00:06:25.556 --> 00:06:28.916
and more removed from any part of nature.

00:06:29.056 --> 00:06:32.066
It used to be one, literally, per 10,000.

00:06:32.066 --> 00:06:34.056
Now it's even one per 200.

00:06:34.056 --> 00:06:36.716
It's just shocking to think about it.

00:06:36.716 --> 00:06:39.706
And then, why is it that
these have all increased?

00:06:39.706 --> 00:06:44.586
I am not saying I know the answers at
all, but I'm looking at possible causes.

00:06:44.586 --> 00:06:47.176
I don't think they can say it's genetics.

00:06:47.596 --> 00:06:53.756
I think genetics, in many cases, we look at
that, and they can find a genetic, you know,

00:06:53.756 --> 00:07:00.956
link that is clear, but in most cases, genetics,
you know, only provides the possibility,

00:07:01.246 --> 00:07:06.336
you know, and it's the environment
that it pulls the trigger to expose it.

00:07:06.336 --> 00:07:12.296
So you may have a genetic
predisposition to gain weight, and thereby,

00:07:12.296 --> 00:07:15.026
potentially get more type two diabetes.

00:07:15.026 --> 00:07:19.526
But if you don't eat the foods that
do this, you most likely won't get it.

00:07:19.526 --> 00:07:24.606
Okay? So look at over the last 30 years,
we have now increased in allergies.

00:07:24.606 --> 00:07:26.076
And how come all this may occur?

00:07:26.076 --> 00:07:28.176
Well, there are many factors.

00:07:28.176 --> 00:07:29.516
I'm only listing a few.

00:07:29.516 --> 00:07:33.266
I'm sure many of you can add many more,
and they are all probably correct.

00:07:33.266 --> 00:07:35.556
It is very difficult to identify that.

00:07:35.556 --> 00:07:40.776
Because if you do animal studies, you know,
we're not totally, totally the same as animals.

00:07:40.776 --> 00:07:44.886
We still getting the same foods,
and so it is not totally the same.

00:07:45.126 --> 00:07:46.636
There are hints at least.

00:07:46.636 --> 00:07:48.436
Well, let's just list a few.

00:07:48.436 --> 00:07:54.046
One, it's during pregnancy, the fetus experience
either a kind of, I'll call malnutrition,

00:07:54.046 --> 00:07:56.686
but it's [inaudible] malnutrition
in the Western world,

00:07:56.686 --> 00:08:02.966
but it really means probably
inappropriate amount of essential nutrients,

00:08:02.966 --> 00:08:06.096
or an exposure to endocrine
dysregulating chemicals.

00:08:06.096 --> 00:08:11.196
These are all the plastics, the these
are all the pesticides, herbicides,

00:08:11.196 --> 00:08:13.596
and the many things we ingest without knowing,

00:08:13.816 --> 00:08:21.236
which in fact act as endocrine
in our system's dysregulation.

00:08:21.846 --> 00:08:27.986
Then because of finance, in many cases,
socioeconomic inequality, during the first year

00:08:27.986 --> 00:08:32.386
of life, we don't allow babies
to breastfeed and bond,

00:08:32.576 --> 00:08:37.046
and possibly to concurrent
malnutrition by giving formula.

00:08:37.046 --> 00:08:41.516
And by giving formula, you also
miss the transmission of immune --

00:08:41.516 --> 00:08:45.596
appropriate immune cells, which you
have gotten from the breast milk.

00:08:46.336 --> 00:08:52.076
And then during early childhood and life, we get
exposed to endocrine dysregulating substances.

00:08:52.076 --> 00:08:55.936
The plastics which are all
exposed to often act as estrogens.

00:08:55.936 --> 00:09:00.286
The pesticides, the herbicides, they
all may affect our immune system.

00:09:00.286 --> 00:09:03.016
You know, then we have this
massive exposure to antibiotics.

00:09:03.016 --> 00:09:05.136
Antibiotics are great.

00:09:05.136 --> 00:09:08.216
I mean, gosh, if you have bacterial
infection, you're going to die,

00:09:08.216 --> 00:09:10.896
please get the appropriate antibiotic.

00:09:10.896 --> 00:09:14.336
However, in so many cases,
it's used inappropriately.

00:09:14.336 --> 00:09:22.016
And what antibiotics do do is they basically
remove or kill whole groups of bacteria,

00:09:22.016 --> 00:09:24.546
which are which are essential for our health.

00:09:24.766 --> 00:09:27.176
So in fact, we have an impoverished human biome.

00:09:27.176 --> 00:09:33.436
And then we have excessive hygiene by which,
in many ways, we are no longer exposed

00:09:33.506 --> 00:09:39.576
to some viruses or bacteria, which
in the past, would have immunized us.

00:09:39.576 --> 00:09:43.026
And we see this now coming
up in the post-pandemic,

00:09:43.026 --> 00:09:47.446
that many people have been separated from
each other, and now when we meet again,

00:09:47.446 --> 00:09:49.996
all of a sudden, we have an increase in flus.

00:09:49.996 --> 00:09:51.146
There's nothing new to this.

00:09:51.146 --> 00:09:56.016
This has been observed before in
the expeditions to the Antarctica.

00:09:56.016 --> 00:09:59.996
When people in the Antarctica would go, a
scientist, they would then be living there.

00:09:59.996 --> 00:10:02.546
And then the Antarctica winter would occur.

00:10:02.546 --> 00:10:05.396
They would now have no new people meeting them.

00:10:05.396 --> 00:10:08.096
And first upon -- when they
first got it together,

00:10:08.236 --> 00:10:10.336
there were a number of flus and illnesses.

00:10:10.336 --> 00:10:12.006
Now they were all exposed.

00:10:12.006 --> 00:10:13.976
No new bacteria came in.

00:10:14.066 --> 00:10:17.506
And for the next six months, or however
much time it is, none of them got sick.

00:10:17.506 --> 00:10:23.646
People did get sick of other diseases, but not
of bacterial or viral infections, basically.

00:10:23.646 --> 00:10:26.746
And then the first visitor came, and all

00:10:26.746 --> 00:10:29.546
of a sudden people would get
their colds or flus again.

00:10:30.046 --> 00:10:34.386
So by not being exposed, we
put ourselves more at risk.

00:10:34.526 --> 00:10:39.516
And then our lifestyle, in a
way, has really shifted so much.

00:10:39.516 --> 00:10:42.266
You know, we're so much -- we sit so much.

00:10:42.356 --> 00:10:45.306
We have so much lack of movement.

00:10:45.306 --> 00:10:49.156
We have lights that interfere,
in fact, with our health.

00:10:49.156 --> 00:10:55.866
Light at night, for example, may --
maybe -- may affect, not only may,

00:10:55.866 --> 00:11:00.486
does affect our diurnal rhythms,
our daily rhythms, because light,

00:11:00.486 --> 00:11:04.096
especially a blue component of
light, tends to suppress melatonin.

00:11:04.096 --> 00:11:11.146
And it's one of the factors people have
hypothesized is why young girls are developing

00:11:11.176 --> 00:11:16.616
earlier menarche, meaning the first menstruation
occur, because they have lights on at night,

00:11:16.616 --> 00:11:22.546
which disturbs their biological rhythms,
as well as increased weight and fat.

00:11:22.546 --> 00:11:24.246
There are many other factors.

00:11:24.246 --> 00:11:27.526
Okay? But overall, you could
argue that a number of these kind

00:11:27.526 --> 00:11:31.216
of newer illnesses are the
result of our lifestyle.

00:11:31.216 --> 00:11:37.136
Namely, we have disrespected our evolutionary
origins without realizing that we are part

00:11:37.136 --> 00:11:42.616
of this intrinsic web, that includes diet,
movement, parasites, biological rhythms,

00:11:42.616 --> 00:11:47.786
bacteria, you name it, viruses,
they're all part of us.

00:11:47.786 --> 00:11:53.846
And in many cases, some -- or in many
cases, dysfunction can be reversed,

00:11:53.846 --> 00:11:59.066
or maybe even prevented, by respecting
and returning to our evolutionary origins.

00:11:59.066 --> 00:12:03.106
The data is overwhelmed that people, for
example, who get up and do significant amount

00:12:03.106 --> 00:12:06.446
of movement, tend to have
less cardiovascular disease.

00:12:06.446 --> 00:12:10.526
Notice that's a dysfunction
which can be reversed.

00:12:10.736 --> 00:12:15.786
Eating less sugar and simple carbohydrates,
which is not part of our evolutionary past,

00:12:15.786 --> 00:12:19.536
would mean that they would not develop
type two diabetes, or much less likely.

00:12:19.536 --> 00:12:22.716
So in a way, it goes right back
to the simple rules of health,

00:12:22.716 --> 00:12:25.276
which we described earlier by Nassim Taleb.

00:12:25.576 --> 00:12:30.066
Anything that was not part of our
evolutionary past is probably harmful.

00:12:30.166 --> 00:12:32.336
I want to underline it again.

00:12:32.336 --> 00:12:36.446
Anything that was novel, and not part of
our evolutionary past is probably harmful.

00:12:36.446 --> 00:12:40.816
And probably, we don't need
evidence of harm to claim that a drug

00:12:40.816 --> 00:12:46.616
or any unnatural procedure is dangerous,
even if that harm does not yet exist.

00:12:46.616 --> 00:12:53.366
Therefore, the easiest way to optimize health
is to remove what he would call via negativity,

00:12:53.366 --> 00:12:55.786
remove the unnatural, the unfamiliar.

00:12:56.526 --> 00:12:58.646
You know, just think of reducing lung cancer,

00:12:58.646 --> 00:13:03.066
which is what people have demonstrated very
clearly, by stopping smoking, which is pollution

00:13:03.066 --> 00:13:05.776
and the irritation of the airways.

00:13:06.196 --> 00:13:09.766
All of a sudden, lung cancer is
decreased, and a number of other illnesses.

00:13:09.766 --> 00:13:14.486
Although right now, we are seeing an
increased epidemic of the use of e-cigarettes,

00:13:15.396 --> 00:13:19.036
which will again lead to a future epidemic.

00:13:19.036 --> 00:13:23.436
Okay, remember, from an evolutionary
perspective, let me outline, genes survive

00:13:23.436 --> 00:13:27.166
and prosper if their reproductive
fitness increases.

00:13:27.896 --> 00:13:32.996
And the changes in our external environment
continually impacts the natural selection

00:13:32.996 --> 00:13:36.136
of genes, named reproductive fitness.

00:13:36.136 --> 00:13:40.646
Novel and increased inputs
reduces our reproductive fitness,

00:13:40.646 --> 00:13:42.696
they could say, act as an allostatic load.

00:13:42.886 --> 00:13:48.886
And nature and natural selection favors those
mutations, those genes, those behaviors,

00:13:48.886 --> 00:13:53.316
that enhance the reproductive fitness
with these novel stimuli, therefore by --

00:13:53.436 --> 00:13:55.116
thereby reduce the allostatic load.

00:13:55.216 --> 00:13:59.636
And you keep in mind that that is
especially true for younger people,

00:13:59.876 --> 00:14:04.586
and people, you know, in their 20s and 30s.

00:14:04.586 --> 00:14:08.046
But once you have given birth,
or an older adult, remember,

00:14:08.046 --> 00:14:09.616
you're not going to reproduce anymore.

00:14:09.616 --> 00:14:15.676
So then those illness that have much -- are much
less affected by this evolutionary perspective.

00:14:15.676 --> 00:14:19.656
So I would not expect that
Alzheimer's is impacted by this,

00:14:19.656 --> 00:14:21.636
because there's no natural selection.

00:14:21.766 --> 00:14:23.176
We have already reproduced.

00:14:23.286 --> 00:14:26.696
Okay? But remember to underline this again.

00:14:26.696 --> 00:14:28.156
Natural selections.

00:14:28.416 --> 00:14:33.556
Individuals best adapted to their surrounds
enjoy increased reproductive success.

00:14:33.556 --> 00:14:38.306
They pass on the traits, adaptive versus even
maladaptive, or neutral, to their descendants,

00:14:38.306 --> 00:14:42.556
who gradually consider a greater
proportion of the, of the population.

00:14:42.946 --> 00:14:48.196
Remember, we carry this imprint
of our biological heritage in us.

00:14:48.646 --> 00:14:54.976
So it's useful to say how and what were we
doing earlier on that allowed us to be us now?

00:14:54.976 --> 00:14:58.756
And now, I want to underline this even more.

00:14:59.456 --> 00:15:01.776
But this is very important.

00:15:01.776 --> 00:15:02.976
That's habitat selection.

00:15:03.346 --> 00:15:06.276
We are wired for whatever
habitat we are involved in.

00:15:06.926 --> 00:15:11.366
Biologists, who study animals in the wild,
describe this as "habitat selection theory".

00:15:11.366 --> 00:15:16.346
And the general rule is that animals who
are in their natural habitat do much better.

00:15:16.346 --> 00:15:21.276
They thrive, both physically, and
psychologically, and social behavior compared

00:15:21.276 --> 00:15:24.796
to animals that are placed in
unnatural habitat, such as a zoo.

00:15:24.796 --> 00:15:29.556
They most likely evolved in the forest of
Africa without the presence of digital displays.

00:15:29.556 --> 00:15:32.186
And so by just sitting in front of
digital displays the whole time,

00:15:32.186 --> 00:15:37.476
or just sitting the whole time, we
probably are reducing our health.

00:15:37.476 --> 00:15:44.226
And people have called sitting the -- you know,
our -- the new epidemic of smoking, basically.

00:15:44.226 --> 00:15:50.146
And what I've said many times before is that
genetics only loads the gun, but our behavior

00:15:50.146 --> 00:15:52.196
and environment pulls the trigger.

00:15:52.196 --> 00:15:54.186
And I like that phrase a lot.

00:15:54.186 --> 00:16:01.186
So let me look at it -- give an example how our
environment may cause us to develop illness.

00:16:01.236 --> 00:16:05.716
This is called, the concept is
evolutionary or ecological traps.

00:16:05.856 --> 00:16:08.246
Evolutionary/ecological traps occur

00:16:08.246 --> 00:16:14.256
when formally adaptive habitat preference
become maladaptive, meaning they become harmful,

00:16:14.256 --> 00:16:19.076
because the cues the individually preferentially
used in selecting habitat may now lead

00:16:19.076 --> 00:16:22.026
to lower fitness than other alternatives.

00:16:22.026 --> 00:16:27.526
It means that whatever adaptive
habits of preference we evolve for,

00:16:27.566 --> 00:16:31.406
and now we allow that to happen
too much, it may lead to illness.

00:16:31.406 --> 00:16:34.226
But let me give a remarkable example of this.

00:16:34.226 --> 00:16:38.086
This is the birds in the
Pacific called the "albatross".

00:16:38.086 --> 00:16:41.456
And when you go to Midway
Island, it's just shocking.

00:16:41.456 --> 00:16:45.926
In Midway -- on Midway Island, you see
these many carcasses of these birds.

00:16:45.926 --> 00:16:47.156
You can see the skeletons.

00:16:47.156 --> 00:16:48.046
You can see the feather.

00:16:48.466 --> 00:16:52.716
And you see the -- what was left
over in a gastrointestinal tract.

00:16:52.716 --> 00:16:54.666
Look at all the pieces of plastic.

00:16:54.666 --> 00:16:55.446
How was that?

00:16:55.746 --> 00:16:58.226
How come? And so many are dying.

00:16:58.776 --> 00:17:03.796
Well, think of the albatross going
over the ocean from Midway there.

00:17:03.896 --> 00:17:08.686
That's an island which is 2,000
miles away from any other islands.

00:17:08.786 --> 00:17:11.816
And the bird lives, you know, eats the fish.

00:17:11.816 --> 00:17:14.586
So it goes -- it is flying over the ocean.

00:17:14.586 --> 00:17:16.716
It sees some shimmering in the water.

00:17:16.716 --> 00:17:18.366
It looks like a fish.

00:17:18.366 --> 00:17:22.126
And those birds, through evolution,
who you know, who have adapted,

00:17:22.126 --> 00:17:25.086
and could identify this the
quickest and the most.

00:17:25.086 --> 00:17:28.786
They would then dive, they
would eat it, swallow it,

00:17:28.786 --> 00:17:32.216
and then possibly regurgitate
it to their chicks.

00:17:32.216 --> 00:17:38.686
Now, however, that same shimmering in the
water now is our small pieces of plastic,

00:17:38.686 --> 00:17:43.586
which are coated, also, by the algae, so it
has some of the similar outer taste initially.

00:17:43.756 --> 00:17:50.886
So now what happens is the birds now take
this plastic, and swallow it as food.

00:17:50.886 --> 00:17:56.736
Now, do we say these birds are stupid, or are
we at fault that we have created this world

00:17:56.736 --> 00:18:02.176
where these birds, we made such a radical
shift, so these birds were evolved to --

00:18:02.176 --> 00:18:07.096
to be able to see that shimmering, they
would then go at it, and now, they would die.

00:18:08.746 --> 00:18:13.456
And that is a very, you know,
it looks really challenging.

00:18:13.616 --> 00:18:20.896
And as Professor E.O. Wilson stated, "Organisms,
when housed in unfit habitats, undergo social,

00:18:20.896 --> 00:18:23.476
psychological and physiological breakdown."

00:18:23.476 --> 00:18:27.536
Here, then you see that the
habitat radically changed.

00:18:27.536 --> 00:18:34.056
The animal still is wired to
find that shimmering object

00:18:34.056 --> 00:18:37.416
as food, but now it's no longer food.

00:18:38.926 --> 00:18:41.946
I want to keep this down because our weak --

00:18:41.946 --> 00:18:46.166
our other evolutionary or environmental
traps are there for people today.

00:18:46.166 --> 00:18:50.286
You know, just if you look at a piece
of paper, think of things that may --

00:18:50.476 --> 00:18:57.086
you may be doing, which you automatically
do, but it basically are triggered

00:18:57.086 --> 00:19:00.776
by the environment because you
have evolved for that to respond.

00:19:02.086 --> 00:19:03.466
Pause -- I'll pause.

00:19:03.466 --> 00:19:04.346
I won't pause.

00:19:04.346 --> 00:19:07.046
Pause the computer for writing
down, and let's check it out.

00:19:07.046 --> 00:19:07.926
Let me just think a few.

00:19:08.046 --> 00:19:11.286
One, we react to cues of food, automatically.

00:19:11.286 --> 00:19:12.956
We see food, we may become hungry.

00:19:12.956 --> 00:19:15.036
We smell it, we become hungry.

00:19:15.036 --> 00:19:16.366
We -- you know, automatically.

00:19:16.426 --> 00:19:17.166
Well, why?

00:19:17.166 --> 00:19:19.336
Because we need food for survival.

00:19:20.456 --> 00:19:26.256
You know, for millions of years, probably,
you know, food was only challenging.

00:19:26.256 --> 00:19:27.776
We always had to hunt for food.

00:19:28.516 --> 00:19:33.006
Therefore, we have really no
mechanisms easily to stop eating.

00:19:33.006 --> 00:19:35.766
And this is especially true for sugars.

00:19:35.766 --> 00:19:40.486
Almost all foods that that are
sweet are usually not poisonous.

00:19:40.796 --> 00:19:47.006
Yes, I knew that -- know that the paint that,
you know, lead paint, is sweet when you chew it,

00:19:47.356 --> 00:19:48.926
the pikas [phonetic] that it's called.

00:19:48.926 --> 00:19:50.736
However, that's that rare things.

00:19:50.736 --> 00:19:56.566
Most other things in nature that
are sweet are -- represent calories.

00:19:56.566 --> 00:20:00.256
Therefore, we want to eat them, because
we need the calories for survival,

00:20:00.396 --> 00:20:02.636
and we don't have an off switch easily.

00:20:02.636 --> 00:20:04.576
The same thing will be true for fats.

00:20:05.206 --> 00:20:11.846
So we are -- when the cue of food is shown to
us, we react to eat, want to eat, or hunger.

00:20:11.846 --> 00:20:13.616
And I'll show that in a moment.

00:20:14.326 --> 00:20:17.876
Okay? And the similar part
is, I think, for reproduction.

00:20:17.926 --> 00:20:22.386
You know, we, you know, that's
probably the drive for pornography is

00:20:22.386 --> 00:20:27.376
such is probably the biggest bandwidth on the
Internet, because there are cues, which said,

00:20:27.376 --> 00:20:31.936
ah, survival that leads to, maybe
because, you know, for reproduction.

00:20:32.026 --> 00:20:35.686
And then we have all the cues
around us for protection.

00:20:35.686 --> 00:20:39.676
We remember our -- we're historically prey.

00:20:40.256 --> 00:20:44.176
There were other animals that saw us for
food, so we always had to be very careful.

00:20:44.246 --> 00:20:46.296
We had to look around and be vigilant.

00:20:46.296 --> 00:20:47.976
We still all are.

00:20:49.036 --> 00:20:54.136
And now, however, all those cues, which
-- of sounds, of changing objects around,

00:20:54.136 --> 00:20:59.426
cause us to react all the time, and
where -- which captures our attention.

00:21:00.056 --> 00:21:03.026
You know, no wonder we tend to
get addicted to computer games.

00:21:03.026 --> 00:21:08.206
Once we sit, and we watch one -- you
know, we start to watch a Netflix series.

00:21:08.206 --> 00:21:12.556
Automatically, we keep sitting there,
and then the next sequence pops up,

00:21:12.556 --> 00:21:15.906
and we don't change because
we're captured by it.

00:21:15.906 --> 00:21:20.936
And then, for survival, in
small groups, for in clans,

00:21:20.936 --> 00:21:26.586
we need to know who the power structure
was, because as we, you know, mature,

00:21:26.626 --> 00:21:28.186
we want to be part of the power structure.

00:21:28.186 --> 00:21:29.286
We don't want to be excluded.

00:21:29.286 --> 00:21:30.406
We need to know what's going on.

00:21:30.406 --> 00:21:34.116
So in some sense, you could say
that's our social media addiction.

00:21:34.596 --> 00:21:38.156
You know, it's basic -- and
it's triggered that way.

00:21:38.156 --> 00:21:41.166
And then our bodies really want to rest.

00:21:41.266 --> 00:21:45.446
Why expend energy when there's not
enough energy you have, or calories?

00:21:45.446 --> 00:21:47.556
So anytime you could rest, you would do it.

00:21:47.836 --> 00:21:51.306
So that quickly leads to excess
sitting and lack of movement.

00:21:51.306 --> 00:21:53.786
In the past, we didn't have to go to the gym.

00:21:53.786 --> 00:21:55.226
We didn't have to go jogging.

00:21:55.476 --> 00:22:00.736
Our whole world included that
physicalness, and so now our -- it doesn't.

00:22:01.166 --> 00:22:03.566
And then there are many other things that occur.

00:22:03.566 --> 00:22:04.976
Light. We want to be active.

00:22:04.976 --> 00:22:06.046
We want to be involved.

00:22:06.046 --> 00:22:10.886
However, light, artificial lights,
which keeps us awake, keeps us active,

00:22:10.886 --> 00:22:16.136
also reduces our rest, interferes with
melatonin, affects our circadian rhythms,

00:22:16.456 --> 00:22:25.386
etc. And then the final piece is, from my
perspective, the brain cannot, I would say,

00:22:25.386 --> 00:22:30.596
discriminate between actual
and visual auditory images.

00:22:30.896 --> 00:22:39.106
So when we watch a film in front of
us, for our brain, this is really real.

00:22:39.706 --> 00:22:44.006
I know you -- we all would say,
yes, I know it's a, it is a drama.

00:22:44.006 --> 00:22:44.846
It's a play.

00:22:44.846 --> 00:22:45.746
It isn't real.

00:22:45.746 --> 00:22:53.556
And yet, for our body, this the first time
in our evolutionary past, well, really,

00:22:53.556 --> 00:22:58.576
since cameras were, you know, since
you could do film in late 19th century,

00:22:58.756 --> 00:23:03.146
then we could have a picture,
which was not real.

00:23:03.146 --> 00:23:06.546
In the past, everything we saw was always real.

00:23:06.546 --> 00:23:07.866
We could touch.

00:23:07.866 --> 00:23:14.726
And so when things go into our eyes, our
brains say that's real, and we react this way.

00:23:14.726 --> 00:23:20.986
And even though we may want to argue
that, I think most of you, if not all,

00:23:20.986 --> 00:23:28.146
have had the experience that if you
watch a horror movie, or horrible scenes

00:23:28.146 --> 00:23:30.806
where horrible things happen in a series.

00:23:30.806 --> 00:23:32.636
And then you go outside, all of a sudden,

00:23:32.636 --> 00:23:36.836
that little noise behind you
triggers a massive autonomic response,

00:23:36.836 --> 00:23:38.526
in the past, that would not have done that.

00:23:39.316 --> 00:23:44.466
Because we -- our bodies saw what
we saw in the film, we act as real.

00:23:44.466 --> 00:23:49.836
And I think we have really underestimated
that -- how powerful that phenomena is.

00:23:50.046 --> 00:23:53.526
And part of the reason we
have these -- we are --

00:23:54.216 --> 00:23:59.716
we react all the time, is because
our commercial industry uses these --

00:23:59.846 --> 00:24:06.636
these cues, which are really traps
for us to capture our eyeballs.

00:24:06.636 --> 00:24:10.696
And that's the whole basis of our social
media, of all the many of the [inaudible].

00:24:10.696 --> 00:24:13.256
It's really people don't
get paid for the content.

00:24:13.256 --> 00:24:17.116
They get paid for our attention,
hijacking our attention.

00:24:17.116 --> 00:24:24.926
And equally, for many industries, it is the
profit margin that doesn't ask is it healthy?

00:24:24.926 --> 00:24:28.256
It just asks can we -- will you buy the object?

00:24:28.256 --> 00:24:32.076
Just think of the, all the cereals,
with highlighting the sugar,

00:24:32.076 --> 00:24:36.996
all the candies in front
of the counters, you know.

00:24:37.166 --> 00:24:42.106
And do we then blame children
that they have no control?

00:24:42.106 --> 00:24:48.896
So in a child, who is wired from an evolutionary
perspective for survival to eat more calories,

00:24:48.896 --> 00:24:52.866
when it sees the sweets, it wants those.

00:24:55.136 --> 00:25:01.936
Do we blame the child, or should we be blaming
the corporate culture, the world around us?

00:25:01.936 --> 00:25:05.946
And maybe we really need to be
careful with this, and say, oops,

00:25:05.946 --> 00:25:11.436
you may need to define that, and we may
need to set, you know, social constraints

00:25:11.436 --> 00:25:15.356
that we don't trigger these
dysfunctional behaviors.

00:25:15.356 --> 00:25:20.646
And remember, even watching pictures of food,
and smelling it, will activate your brain.

00:25:20.646 --> 00:25:24.026
You know, it is most interesting.

00:25:24.026 --> 00:25:25.646
I think I have a slide in that later.

00:25:25.646 --> 00:25:26.026
Okay?

00:25:28.186 --> 00:25:33.396
So the solutions really are that the society
may need to protect its own population

00:25:33.396 --> 00:25:39.006
from the commercial exploitation of
these evolutionary, ecological traps.

00:25:39.006 --> 00:25:41.006
Now this is a great, difficult discussion,

00:25:41.006 --> 00:25:44.186
because we think of the freedom
of speech in a very broad sense.

00:25:44.566 --> 00:25:46.606
But yes, I think it is a critical issue.

00:25:46.606 --> 00:25:54.236
We cannot depend upon self-regulation
to reduce our sugar content in our Coke,

00:25:54.236 --> 00:25:58.126
in our in our foods around us, or anything else.

00:25:58.226 --> 00:26:01.386
And you can already see the
effect in human physiology

00:26:02.566 --> 00:26:06.486
by having been exposed to
these environmental traps.

00:26:06.486 --> 00:26:12.066
If you look at the brain wave activity,
the quantitative electroencephalograph,

00:26:12.066 --> 00:26:18.046
the brain activity, the brains of
normal students today look more

00:26:18.046 --> 00:26:23.076
like an ADHD student than 20 years ago.

00:26:23.076 --> 00:26:28.816
If you look at the spine of young people today,
as colleagues of mine in Canada have observed

00:26:28.816 --> 00:26:33.726
in the athletics department, that
compared to 20 years ago, the spines are --

00:26:33.726 --> 00:26:36.836
the upper spine of these people
are slightly more cured for,

00:26:37.026 --> 00:26:41.666
because our whole world is looking down at
our cell phone or looking at our screens.

00:26:41.666 --> 00:26:46.906
The pandemic only, you know, accelerated
this trend that was already going on.

00:26:46.906 --> 00:26:52.866
And then there are so many other qualities,
things that we have, increase of pesticides,

00:26:52.866 --> 00:26:58.526
of plastics, of BPA, all of that
which may lead to pathology.

00:26:58.746 --> 00:27:07.656
So we may need to control our -- our legal
system, the be exposure to protect ourselves.

00:27:07.656 --> 00:27:08.706
It's a challenge.

00:27:08.706 --> 00:27:12.416
Okay? But just for fun, let
me go back for a moment,

00:27:12.416 --> 00:27:15.686
what I said about what you see
and smell affects your body.

00:27:15.966 --> 00:27:20.436
The brain and visual system, remember, are
intimately linked to the acquisition of food.

00:27:20.436 --> 00:27:22.216
It is necessary for survival.

00:27:23.216 --> 00:27:27.836
And when we get an image of
food, and the smell of food,

00:27:27.836 --> 00:27:30.976
our physiological, neurological changes respond.

00:27:31.526 --> 00:27:35.256
Then it may even be a danger
in our growing exposure --

00:27:35.256 --> 00:27:39.846
these beautifully presented images of foods,
which we do each time I go to Facebook --

00:27:39.846 --> 00:27:43.206
to Facebook, or Instagram, or TikTok.

00:27:43.206 --> 00:27:48.386
And I make a short video on TikTok about the
delicious food I'm eating, or I take a picture

00:27:48.386 --> 00:27:50.756
and post it on Facebook or
Instagram on the food.

00:27:52.146 --> 00:27:55.006
What happens is, it will
induce this in the person.

00:27:55.006 --> 00:27:59.346
Here, I take the picture, and then I can look
at the brain, what happens to the person.

00:27:59.346 --> 00:28:00.536
This is their work.

00:28:01.946 --> 00:28:07.356
And you can see Wang et al, you can see that
if you show the food inside a, you know,

00:28:07.356 --> 00:28:12.926
PET [inaudible] imaging, where you
can see how the blood flow goes

00:28:12.926 --> 00:28:15.626
through the brain, basically, or metabolism.

00:28:15.716 --> 00:28:21.316
Then you see, all of a sudden, that there's
a 24% increase in the brain metabolism

00:28:21.736 --> 00:28:25.826
by just showing the images of
foods while lying in the scanner.

00:28:25.826 --> 00:28:29.706
Now this is a very complicated study,
you know, they only saw the image.

00:28:29.706 --> 00:28:31.076
They brought the smell in.

00:28:31.076 --> 00:28:32.896
They put it on your tongue as well.

00:28:32.896 --> 00:28:35.656
So it's a very -- it's -- it is a complex one.

00:28:35.656 --> 00:28:42.016
However, imagine -- imagination
and seeing it affects physiology.

00:28:43.056 --> 00:28:48.876
And so next time you sent that great meal to
your friend, you may be helping them to want

00:28:48.876 --> 00:28:51.246
to eat more and increase their obesity.

00:28:51.706 --> 00:28:55.846
So really, you know, our diet
and exercise do change it.

00:28:55.846 --> 00:28:57.486
You've been sitting here for a little while now.

00:28:57.486 --> 00:29:00.266
So just for a moment, once again, just get up.

00:29:00.686 --> 00:29:01.966
Just get up and move.

00:29:02.366 --> 00:29:03.636
I know, it's so hard.

00:29:03.636 --> 00:29:05.706
But get up, just wiggle and move.

00:29:05.886 --> 00:29:06.496
Just move.

00:29:06.666 --> 00:29:07.366
I'm swinging.

00:29:07.436 --> 00:29:08.136
I'm swinging.

00:29:08.446 --> 00:29:10.416
I reach up, and then I look up.

00:29:10.416 --> 00:29:12.576
I look up again, and I look up again.

00:29:12.626 --> 00:29:21.576
I take a big breath, and then, and
I let my sit myself down again.

00:29:22.636 --> 00:29:27.756
And just note it again, when you
have done that, note two things.

00:29:28.046 --> 00:29:34.136
One, how hard it was to get up and do it,
how much we want to just keep sitting.

00:29:34.136 --> 00:29:40.056
And two, that after you did it,
how your energy slightly went up.

00:29:40.056 --> 00:29:46.186
Okay? So really, remember, what I want to point
out is health is living your evolutionary roots,

00:29:46.186 --> 00:29:49.396
and whatever increases reproductive
fitness predominates.

00:29:49.396 --> 00:29:53.356
And then remember our past,
that we are wired to be prey.

00:29:53.356 --> 00:29:58.456
And finally, we start regenerating
when feel safe.

00:29:58.456 --> 00:30:02.156
Okay. And if you look at that more,
it means you may look at diet.

00:30:02.156 --> 00:30:04.036
We'll look at that much later in the semester.

00:30:04.036 --> 00:30:08.286
But have a lot of greens,
tubers, nuts, organic foods.

00:30:08.636 --> 00:30:16.206
And then we can see that the absence of some of
the vitamins may lead to significant illnesses.

00:30:16.206 --> 00:30:18.126
And I'll talk about this in a moment.

00:30:18.246 --> 00:30:23.346
The lack of Omega 3, which we now have massively
upped, because we mainly have Omega 6s,

00:30:23.346 --> 00:30:27.316
because a massive amount of
corn products we eat, you know,

00:30:27.316 --> 00:30:32.426
may inhibit embryological
development, increase eczema, others.

00:30:32.726 --> 00:30:36.836
Well, folic acid, which is part of food
of healthy eating, a lot of veggies,

00:30:37.006 --> 00:30:38.836
may increase the risk of spinal bifida.

00:30:39.296 --> 00:30:42.646
And then we have all the cases where
people are no longer doing breastfeeding.

00:30:42.646 --> 00:30:44.326
I'll talk about that in a moment.

00:30:44.366 --> 00:30:47.516
That increases the risk of
Celiac disease and asthma.

00:30:47.516 --> 00:30:51.126
And then we have the whole light/night,
melatonin suppression by light.

00:30:52.096 --> 00:30:57.406
And then our relationship of
our bodies, bacteria, parasites.

00:30:57.406 --> 00:31:01.796
And I'll talk about that in a moment,
like Crohn's disease, etc. Okay,

00:31:02.036 --> 00:31:04.906
let me just see in detail
a little bit what happens

00:31:04.906 --> 00:31:07.856
when you disregard your evolutionary background.

00:31:07.856 --> 00:31:11.406
I'll go through the following
fairly quickly, living in isolation,

00:31:11.406 --> 00:31:15.516
possibly formula versus breastfeeding,
or breastfeeding versus formula,

00:31:15.516 --> 00:31:20.166
eating processed foods, or really being
-- having [inaudible] malnutrition.

00:31:20.166 --> 00:31:25.296
Feeding an animal, a carnivore,
an herbivore diet.

00:31:25.296 --> 00:31:27.906
Feeding an herbivore a carnivore diet.

00:31:27.906 --> 00:31:31.716
Feeding rats milk protein, casein
that they have never been used to.

00:31:31.716 --> 00:31:37.256
Possibly, how come we can get
food poisoning, etc., etc. Okay.

00:31:37.436 --> 00:31:39.246
So let me first go back to isolation.

00:31:39.246 --> 00:31:40.406
It's most interesting.

00:31:40.406 --> 00:31:45.826
This was a study at Kaiser, which I really
liked, where they looked at the adults

00:31:45.826 --> 00:31:50.236
without children, who contract
COVID-19, versus those who had children.

00:31:50.236 --> 00:31:57.916
And notice that for equivalent ages, this
is before we were vaccinated, that adults,

00:31:57.916 --> 00:32:00.506
who had now -- who are not
around little children,

00:32:01.766 --> 00:32:04.746
were 49% were likely to be hospitalized.

00:32:04.746 --> 00:32:10.586
And 76% were likely to have Intensive Care Unit
admissions, than infected adults of similar ages

00:32:10.586 --> 00:32:13.106
and health histories, who
had young children at home.

00:32:13.546 --> 00:32:15.636
This really is a very impressive data.

00:32:15.636 --> 00:32:22.456
It suggests both social isolation is harmful,
or it really says, gosh, for all our evolution,

00:32:22.456 --> 00:32:28.136
we lived in little clans, that included
grandparents, great grandparents, parents,

00:32:28.406 --> 00:32:31.686
children, and even babies, and all together.

00:32:31.956 --> 00:32:35.886
And what it -- but you could
possibly argue is that little babies

00:32:35.886 --> 00:32:38.966
and toddlers continually have snotty noses.

00:32:38.966 --> 00:32:40.496
They have flus.

00:32:40.496 --> 00:32:45.256
And these are -- they're all by
different, in most cases, by viruses.

00:32:45.436 --> 00:32:50.206
And by being exposed to that continuously
or episodically, we're getting a kind

00:32:50.206 --> 00:32:57.096
of natural vaccination, and that may
then protect us from the COVID virus.

00:32:57.096 --> 00:33:04.756
Because 30% of flus are Coronavirus,
which is in a similar family as the COVID.

00:33:05.876 --> 00:33:10.536
So that's possibly -- and when we've
looked at what happened with COVID,

00:33:10.636 --> 00:33:15.276
is that the greatest deaths occurred
with elderly, who were in in locations

00:33:15.276 --> 00:33:18.886
where there were no little kids
around, and had comorbidities.

00:33:18.886 --> 00:33:18.976
Okay.

00:33:19.476 --> 00:33:22.126
But if we -- you know, let
me shift to different ones.

00:33:22.526 --> 00:33:24.266
Reflect on the statement.

00:33:24.266 --> 00:33:27.046
Thinking of the risk and
benefits of feeding a baby.

00:33:27.046 --> 00:33:30.796
Formula is better because it allows
the mother to sleep and regenerate.

00:33:30.796 --> 00:33:33.956
It evolves the partner in
the, in the baby's care.

00:33:34.386 --> 00:33:36.286
Right? Pros and cons on that.

00:33:36.286 --> 00:33:40.006
Just stop, and think about it.

00:33:40.006 --> 00:33:45.856
Now, I'll argue a few reasons why maybe
breastfeeding is normal, natural and healthier.

00:33:45.856 --> 00:33:51.146
And this data, I'll talk about, can be very
much criticized, because you could argue that,

00:33:51.146 --> 00:33:55.606
by definition, people who can
breastfeed may be more affluent,

00:33:55.606 --> 00:33:57.396
have different socioeconomic factors.

00:33:57.396 --> 00:34:01.876
And then you control from those, the
risk, these data may slightly disappear.

00:34:02.546 --> 00:34:08.236
Okay. But there's no way I can be
persuaded, from an evolutionary perspective,

00:34:08.236 --> 00:34:14.066
and Pallop's [phonetic] perspective as well,
that a formula can be better than breastmilk,

00:34:14.226 --> 00:34:18.976
unless there, obviously there's some
specific cases of sickness, or others.

00:34:19.616 --> 00:34:25.576
Okay? But basically, the data is overwhelming
from this perspective, that children, babies,

00:34:25.576 --> 00:34:30.236
who are breastfed, have a reduced risk
of asthma, obesity, type two diabetes,

00:34:30.236 --> 00:34:33.626
ear and respiratory infections,
and sudden infant death syndrome.

00:34:34.266 --> 00:34:37.406
It also, it lowers the mother's
risk of hypertension,

00:34:37.406 --> 00:34:41.036
type two diabetes, ovarian and breast cancer.

00:34:41.036 --> 00:34:47.166
You know, but it's so sad is that this is mainly
the chance of economic disparity, and in the US,

00:34:47.166 --> 00:34:53.096
it's our public health policies, or public
policies which basically do not allow,

00:34:53.156 --> 00:34:55.756
or give women time to breastfeed.

00:34:56.366 --> 00:35:00.936
Namely, in some European countries, you can
have a year off or two years off, where,

00:35:00.936 --> 00:35:05.826
after you give birth, you can be
at home and get your salary paid.

00:35:05.826 --> 00:35:07.716
And I think we need to do that.

00:35:07.716 --> 00:35:12.156
Basically in the US, what we want to do is
we want to not have costs at the beginning,

00:35:12.156 --> 00:35:16.606
and then we're stuck with these
very high costs as we get older.

00:35:16.606 --> 00:35:20.766
I would recommend we should do the
cost upfront, and support the women,

00:35:20.766 --> 00:35:24.256
so their jobs are kept being
-- that they have equality

00:35:24.256 --> 00:35:26.336
and they can go back to their job afterwards.

00:35:26.336 --> 00:35:29.896
But if you look at the data,
the data is, I think, is clear.

00:35:30.636 --> 00:35:34.996
Most children, most mothers, if
they can, in some cases you can't.

00:35:34.996 --> 00:35:36.656
There's no harm in that.

00:35:36.656 --> 00:35:37.786
You do the best one can do.

00:35:37.786 --> 00:35:39.546
But in those cases, you can.

00:35:41.716 --> 00:35:44.636
Most mothers want to breastfeed,
and try to continue to.

00:35:44.856 --> 00:35:48.766
However, it's very difficult if
you go to work and then you have

00:35:48.766 --> 00:35:50.666
to pump the breast, and do other things.

00:35:50.666 --> 00:35:51.926
The system is just against us.

00:35:51.926 --> 00:35:53.066
It's too much work.

00:35:53.066 --> 00:35:55.906
And notice by, you know, after three months,

00:35:55.906 --> 00:35:58.796
only half the baby is very
exclusive in breastfeeding.

00:35:58.796 --> 00:36:04.846
And by 12 months, only 1/3rd, you know,
and most supplemented with formula.

00:36:04.846 --> 00:36:07.596
The key is you don't want
to supplement with formula.

00:36:07.806 --> 00:36:10.796
At best, what you do is you
want to breastfeed continuously,

00:36:10.796 --> 00:36:15.816
and keep supplementing other foods,
enter other foods continually to it,

00:36:15.816 --> 00:36:19.236
then you also reduce a massive
rate of any allergies to food.

00:36:19.236 --> 00:36:23.066
The data is clear that if
you do both at the same time,

00:36:23.666 --> 00:36:26.316
then there's very low allergy rates to foods.

00:36:26.506 --> 00:36:29.316
However, in the United States,
this is really an issue

00:36:29.316 --> 00:36:33.066
of economic disparity, and to me, it's immoral.

00:36:33.066 --> 00:36:37.006
But the quick summaries, and I'll give
some data on these for the mother.

00:36:37.006 --> 00:36:42.076
It distinctly reduces the breast cancer risk,
reduces stress, enhanced bonding for the baby,

00:36:42.076 --> 00:36:46.796
hence, its body reduces allergy, reduces
obesity, probably enhances immune function.

00:36:46.796 --> 00:36:52.676
But look, for the mother in detail, if you study
breast cancer for 10 years after pregnancy,

00:36:53.166 --> 00:37:00.296
then you see those who, who had 34 more weeks
of breastfeeding had a cancer risk drop by 13%.

00:37:00.296 --> 00:37:04.756
You know, and there is distinct, and
this is probably much higher than that

00:37:04.756 --> 00:37:07.506
if that one gives birth in your early 20s.

00:37:07.506 --> 00:37:11.146
This is a consensus of early
first birth, an increased number

00:37:11.146 --> 00:37:12.536
of full-term birth are associated

00:37:12.536 --> 00:37:15.576
with significantly long-term
reduction of breast cancer risks.

00:37:16.426 --> 00:37:21.596
Okay? And I think this is really
something we don't talk about.

00:37:21.746 --> 00:37:25.146
And for the benefits, for the baby,
as a group, and again, like I said,

00:37:25.146 --> 00:37:32.036
the data is very difficult, because this is
so confusing by socioeconomic inequalities,

00:37:32.176 --> 00:37:35.776
babies who are breastfed have higher
IQs as adults than formula fed.

00:37:36.196 --> 00:37:40.616
You know, the people born in 1920s
and 30s, who are breastfed as babies,

00:37:40.616 --> 00:37:44.066
achieve significantly upward
mobility, and they were in their 60s

00:37:44.066 --> 00:37:46.726
and 70s, compared to formula fed babies.

00:37:46.726 --> 00:37:50.886
Men and women, who were part
of this study in 1937, '39,

00:37:50.886 --> 00:37:53.786
had a 50% reduction developing celiac disease.

00:37:53.786 --> 00:37:55.796
That seems to be very common.

00:37:55.796 --> 00:38:00.986
So as if, by being breastfed, and then
slowly adding food to it, you don't --

00:38:00.986 --> 00:38:04.166
you can, you can continue
to be able to eat glutens,

00:38:04.166 --> 00:38:09.926
and not develop celiac disease,
compared to breastfed babies.

00:38:09.926 --> 00:38:15.816
And formula-fed babies are fatter
as children, and skinnier as adults.

00:38:15.816 --> 00:38:17.426
I'm going to underline that.

00:38:17.426 --> 00:38:20.086
And formula babies are fatter as babies --

00:38:20.086 --> 00:38:22.856
I'm sorry, and as children
and adults, they're skinnier.

00:38:22.856 --> 00:38:23.696
That's an error there.

00:38:23.696 --> 00:38:28.786
Okay. But remember, the formula are
incomplete for the first couple of months.

00:38:28.786 --> 00:38:33.436
It doesn't have all the appropriate fatty acid,
which are necessary for neural development.

00:38:33.436 --> 00:38:38.386
Although, after a while, the brain will
replace it's all -- our body replaces itself,

00:38:38.386 --> 00:38:43.566
so that we can all do it, but it still
means that for the first four months,

00:38:43.846 --> 00:38:49.436
the baby is getting basically inappropriate
products, as well as all the immune cells,

00:38:49.436 --> 00:38:53.346
and other things it gets from
the mother via the breastmilk.

00:38:53.346 --> 00:38:58.626
And then, even when mother is very conscientious
about pumping milk, and sharing this,

00:38:58.626 --> 00:39:03.816
and it's just great that can be done, that the
milk is different at different times of day.

00:39:03.816 --> 00:39:07.436
So when the mother is going to sleep,
the breastmilk has a different quality,

00:39:07.436 --> 00:39:10.706
has different substances, which
allows the baby to go to sleep more,

00:39:10.706 --> 00:39:12.776
and the same thing in the morning.

00:39:13.516 --> 00:39:16.036
And now what happens when you
mix things up for the baby?

00:39:16.036 --> 00:39:17.606
So life is more complex.

00:39:18.806 --> 00:39:21.806
And remember, babies, who are fed
formula, maybe a slight disadvantage.

00:39:21.806 --> 00:39:23.186
I've already looked at that.

00:39:23.226 --> 00:39:27.966
Babies born in 1970, and formula fed, are
twice likely to have neurological problems

00:39:27.966 --> 00:39:32.076
at age nine, as compared to exclusive
breastfed for the first three weeks.

00:39:32.156 --> 00:39:37.296
Premature babies who are formula fed achieve
significant lower IQ store scores at age eight

00:39:37.296 --> 00:39:40.146
than premature babies who are breastfed.

00:39:40.146 --> 00:39:42.576
Is this due to the breastfed milk?

00:39:42.576 --> 00:39:44.276
The absence of body contact?

00:39:44.276 --> 00:39:47.506
Is it due because by having the
privilege to be able to breastfeed,

00:39:47.506 --> 00:39:50.746
it means you're already in
a more upper social class?

00:39:50.746 --> 00:39:52.556
There are many of those, you know.

00:39:52.556 --> 00:39:57.396
And I can keep going on these if you
look at formula, maternal milk is better

00:39:57.396 --> 00:39:59.196
than formula for pre-term babies.

00:39:59.196 --> 00:40:01.346
That data is quite good.

00:40:01.346 --> 00:40:05.266
Okay? And then finally, which is the
most interesting part when you think

00:40:05.266 --> 00:40:13.846
of the evolutionary perspective, it
isn't only the baby at this point.

00:40:13.846 --> 00:40:16.076
We need to also think of the epigenetics.

00:40:16.076 --> 00:40:18.466
And I'm not going to talk
about that today, or much.

00:40:18.466 --> 00:40:26.446
But remember that the mother, the
pregnant mother's lifestyle has an impact

00:40:26.446 --> 00:40:30.726
on the fetal -- fetus development.

00:40:30.726 --> 00:40:38.046
If the mother is anxious, is stressed, taking
drugs, takes alcohol, it affects the development

00:40:38.046 --> 00:40:40.676
of the baby, and that is a
burden the baby will carry.

00:40:40.816 --> 00:40:44.476
However, it gets even more
significant that, in fact,

00:40:44.476 --> 00:40:49.156
the sense that people say illnesses
skip a generation, they're sort of right

00:40:49.156 --> 00:40:52.966
in a very funny way, because
a pregnant mother, woman,

00:40:52.966 --> 00:40:57.616
impacts her baby, but also
her future grandchild.

00:40:58.226 --> 00:41:04.286
Because the little fetus that's
developing, all the fetus's eggs,

00:41:04.286 --> 00:41:10.226
that are developing during the time it's a
fetus, are impacted by the, by the mother.

00:41:10.226 --> 00:41:14.326
And it means that when that --
the child becomes the mother,

00:41:14.696 --> 00:41:18.806
its eggs are also have already
been shaped by her mother.

00:41:18.806 --> 00:41:21.686
So the grandmother, in fact, impacts the mother.

00:41:21.686 --> 00:41:24.546
And once you look at that, you
can really see how we do --

00:41:24.976 --> 00:41:27.926
how our past transcends into the future.

00:41:28.566 --> 00:41:33.056
And then let's look at totally about
some whole other areas, about foods.

00:41:33.056 --> 00:41:44.536
And I cannot say enough about how, I would say
how bad, we know anyways, the US food supply is.

00:41:44.896 --> 00:41:46.596
"Bad" as the wrong word to use.

00:41:46.596 --> 00:41:49.876
How unnutritious [phonetic] in any way it is.

00:41:49.876 --> 00:41:52.556
It's remarkable that we get plenty of calories,

00:41:52.556 --> 00:41:55.336
and that's very important
if you don't have calories.

00:41:55.336 --> 00:42:02.476
However, we are now becoming a world of
malnutrition, [inaudible] malnutrition.

00:42:02.926 --> 00:42:07.366
And we often spend lots of money,
time, on foods that are not nutritious.

00:42:07.366 --> 00:42:11.916
Here's a single case study, as
we're about to look out for fun.

00:42:11.916 --> 00:42:13.656
If you drink 10 cokes a day for a month.

00:42:13.656 --> 00:42:19.026
Now, it's not a study, it's a case report,
but I think it makes perfect sense.

00:42:19.026 --> 00:42:25.136
When you drink a can, a 12-ounce can of
Coke, you're drinking 39 grams of sugar.

00:42:25.136 --> 00:42:26.106
Now, that's a lot.

00:42:26.106 --> 00:42:27.846
What happens?

00:42:27.846 --> 00:42:32.176
Outcome after one month,
increased weight by 23 pounds.

00:42:32.656 --> 00:42:34.826
Insulin levels, the person became prediabetic.

00:42:34.826 --> 00:42:36.286
Blood pressure's increased.

00:42:36.286 --> 00:42:39.296
The body fat increased by 9%.

00:42:39.296 --> 00:42:43.516
And this equal -- and later on, a Harvard
study has also shown this drinking one can

00:42:43.516 --> 00:42:48.616
of soda can lead to a five-pound
weight gain in the year.

00:42:48.616 --> 00:42:53.926
And also drinking soda daily is so linked
to early death and increased likelihood

00:42:53.926 --> 00:42:55.466
of having a heart attack or stroke.

00:42:55.466 --> 00:43:00.406
It's also linked in women with an increase
in osteoporosis, even with athletes.

00:43:01.046 --> 00:43:05.336
Okay. So I'm not recommending
drinking Cokes by definition.

00:43:05.336 --> 00:43:10.596
But just when we don't listen to our
evolutionary diet, or background,

00:43:10.596 --> 00:43:13.876
and we now do changes, it may backfire on us.

00:43:13.876 --> 00:43:18.876
And I'm going to use a few -- I'm
going to give three examples of this.

00:43:18.876 --> 00:43:23.976
You can think of many more, but I'm trying
to think of a way of thinking about this.

00:43:23.976 --> 00:43:27.496
Okay. So what I look for is, when
you feed carnivores a herbivore diet,

00:43:27.496 --> 00:43:30.076
or you feed herbivores a carnivore diet,

00:43:30.076 --> 00:43:33.936
and when you feed rats foods they were
totally unfamiliar with in their history.

00:43:33.936 --> 00:43:37.266
So that's allostatic load.

00:43:37.366 --> 00:43:40.826
Okay? This goes back to 1985.

00:43:41.236 --> 00:43:43.196
This is in the US zoos.

00:43:43.276 --> 00:43:44.956
Cheetahs were not doing well.

00:43:44.956 --> 00:43:46.706
They had many deaths.

00:43:46.756 --> 00:43:47.816
Only 18 births.

00:43:47.816 --> 00:43:48.506
Seven died.

00:43:48.506 --> 00:43:51.116
Sixty % of Cheetahs had liver damage.

00:43:51.236 --> 00:43:54.286
Only 10% of females produced cubs.

00:43:54.286 --> 00:43:56.076
You could argue, well, they
-- because they're in a zoo.

00:43:56.366 --> 00:43:58.766
It worked out it's not the
case, because in the zoos

00:43:58.766 --> 00:44:00.666
in South Africa, the cheetahs were doing well.

00:44:00.666 --> 00:44:04.206
Remember, the cheetahs are about the
fastest animals in the world, you know.

00:44:05.186 --> 00:44:09.706
And so they had -- but in South
African zoos, they had no problem.

00:44:09.706 --> 00:44:13.466
Why? Well, what does, what
is the food we're feeding?

00:44:13.466 --> 00:44:18.006
Who knows what it totally is, but what
the major factors appear to be the diet

00:44:18.006 --> 00:44:23.256
of cheetah's health in South African -- in
South Africa, the cheetahs ate all carcasses,

00:44:23.256 --> 00:44:28.216
whole meat, just like they did
for their evolutionary past.

00:44:28.216 --> 00:44:30.516
In the US, the cheetahs decide
to eat commercial,

00:44:30.516 --> 00:44:32.766
prepared cat food because it's much cheaper.

00:44:32.766 --> 00:44:33.536
That was horsemeat.

00:44:33.536 --> 00:44:34.066
That's okay.

00:44:34.066 --> 00:44:38.346
But they include a lot of soybean
products, are added for protein.

00:44:39.366 --> 00:44:43.946
Soy contains daidzein and genistein,
which acts as weak estrogens.

00:44:44.036 --> 00:44:48.806
And estrogens can affect liver, and increase
the size of uterus, possibly also carcinogenic

00:44:48.806 --> 00:44:52.826
in excessive, if you're estrogen-sensitive
for breast cancer patients.

00:44:53.926 --> 00:44:56.816
What is so interesting, when
they got rid of the soy,

00:44:56.816 --> 00:45:02.226
and they gave the animals only meat their health
improved, and their fertility improved again.

00:45:02.226 --> 00:45:04.826
I'm not saying that eating
soy causes this at all

00:45:04.826 --> 00:45:08.146
in human beings, because we are not carnivores.

00:45:08.146 --> 00:45:09.016
We are omnivores.

00:45:09.016 --> 00:45:17.306
Although, I have my questions
about, you know, non-organic.

00:45:17.306 --> 00:45:19.686
So I would not quite recommend that.

00:45:20.046 --> 00:45:21.426
But then look at the opposite one.

00:45:22.126 --> 00:45:27.116
This is the Mad Cow Disease episode
that occurred about 20, 25 years ago.

00:45:27.316 --> 00:45:29.816
And this was -- happened mainly in Britain.

00:45:29.816 --> 00:45:35.386
And what happened is that the animals
developed something called "Mad Cow Disease",

00:45:35.576 --> 00:45:42.436
Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy,
essentially degenerating brain disease.

00:45:42.436 --> 00:45:46.746
It's a similar disease that is seen in
human beings, as Creutzfeldt-Jacobs disease.

00:45:46.746 --> 00:45:48.186
It's a prion disease.

00:45:48.416 --> 00:45:52.186
It's transmitted by eating
part of the brain tissue.

00:45:52.186 --> 00:46:00.016
And that's also between human beings, because
the way, you know, when you go to New Guinea,

00:46:00.556 --> 00:46:04.626
where, historically, there was a large
episode of this kind of disorder,

00:46:04.736 --> 00:46:11.646
is because when the people would fight
each other in New Guinea, the tribes,

00:46:11.646 --> 00:46:15.596
then the winning tribe would
eat the brain of their --

00:46:15.596 --> 00:46:19.516
of the person they had beaten in the battle.

00:46:19.726 --> 00:46:25.666
And if they were now infected with this
prion, they would then get the same disease.

00:46:25.706 --> 00:46:31.226
Okay. So we know if you eat the nervous
tissue, then that could be an issue.

00:46:31.226 --> 00:46:36.906
And most likely people hypothesize
that Mad Cow Disease in Britain started

00:46:36.906 --> 00:46:44.606
when they changed the way, the way the
meat waste products were distributed.

00:46:44.876 --> 00:46:49.766
Namely, what that people did, is
you would collect meat products,

00:46:49.766 --> 00:46:53.456
and that could be from cows, from
sheep, from all others, you know.

00:46:53.796 --> 00:46:58.676
And then you would process this to make a meat
powder, which you would then feed to the cows

00:46:58.676 --> 00:47:01.756
to quickly have them gain
weight and produce more milk.

00:47:01.756 --> 00:47:06.196
Okay? So now, basically, you're
giving the cows who are --

00:47:06.196 --> 00:47:12.586
whose GI tract is really evolved to
eat grass, very low, low quality,

00:47:12.586 --> 00:47:15.856
you could say food, low-calorie food.

00:47:16.246 --> 00:47:19.356
You now feed it a carnivore diet.

00:47:19.356 --> 00:47:24.776
And most likely, in that process, when you now
fed them these waste products, all ground up

00:47:24.776 --> 00:47:31.076
and processed, that contains the prions from the
sheep, which, in sheep, it's called "scrapie",

00:47:31.076 --> 00:47:33.556
and then that let it be expressed in cows.

00:47:33.556 --> 00:47:37.646
And then when these cows were slaughtered
again, you would then take their waste products

00:47:37.646 --> 00:47:40.696
as placeholders [phonetic], and you
would then feed it to other cows.

00:47:41.476 --> 00:47:45.066
And so that's most likely
how Mad Cow Diseases start.

00:47:45.066 --> 00:47:48.206
And the quickest way is to
stop by not doing that anymore.

00:47:49.246 --> 00:47:53.666
But it's, you know, I'm not saying
that eating meat would be harmful.

00:47:53.866 --> 00:48:00.076
But possibly, if you never were exposed to
it, then your GI tract may not be able to cope

00:48:00.076 --> 00:48:04.266
with the scrapie, or with the prion
or other things that may be occurring.

00:48:04.926 --> 00:48:06.716
So that's when you step outside of it.

00:48:07.046 --> 00:48:08.766
And then let me do a different one.

00:48:09.696 --> 00:48:12.976
This is a very interesting one about rats.

00:48:12.976 --> 00:48:17.566
It's an old study by Campbell and
Campbell, or it's really about,

00:48:17.566 --> 00:48:21.336
it's really by Wells, even older, in 1976.

00:48:21.336 --> 00:48:25.286
You take rats and you give
them a low-dose aflatoxin,

00:48:25.286 --> 00:48:30.796
which is a very powerful carcinogenic
agent that will induce tumors in cancer

00:48:30.846 --> 00:48:33.376
in most people, if a dosage high enough.

00:48:33.376 --> 00:48:34.796
But you give them a very low dose.

00:48:34.796 --> 00:48:39.646
And what is interesting is you get these
normal rats, you get this low dose.

00:48:40.086 --> 00:48:47.436
And then you have them eat the normal rat Chow,
and then cancer is expressed in all the animals.

00:48:49.286 --> 00:48:54.016
Now what you do is you change --
and you change the rat chow to food.

00:48:54.016 --> 00:48:57.136
Because basically, what the
what is the rat food?

00:48:57.136 --> 00:49:01.296
It's a little rat pellets, but it's
also has a lot of milk products in it,

00:49:01.296 --> 00:49:03.576
milk protein called "casein" in it.

00:49:03.636 --> 00:49:09.116
But I think from an evolutionary perspective,
rats never drank milk or milk products.

00:49:09.116 --> 00:49:13.256
I mean they eat everything, probably not
milk, so their body probably did not know how

00:49:13.256 --> 00:49:16.846
to process this, then it's an allostatic load.

00:49:17.046 --> 00:49:23.586
What is so interesting is when you reduce the
consumption of -- in the foods to 5% of casein,

00:49:23.846 --> 00:49:28.126
then when you give them this
aflatoxin, it would induce cancer.

00:49:28.126 --> 00:49:29.656
The cancer does not occur.

00:49:29.826 --> 00:49:38.126
So you can see as if the casein
increases, or reduces the immune response,

00:49:38.126 --> 00:49:41.266
or ability, and allows the cancer to occur.

00:49:42.196 --> 00:49:49.216
Again, from my simplistic perspective, is
that rats never ate milk or milk products,

00:49:49.216 --> 00:49:54.326
so this is a novelty, and
then there's a long-term cost.

00:49:54.326 --> 00:49:57.566
There's some evidence, in human
beings, that eating lower animal --

00:49:57.726 --> 00:50:01.396
lower levels of animal protein is
associated of lower cancer rate.

00:50:01.396 --> 00:50:05.656
So the more veggies and fruits you
eat, the -- probably the better it is.

00:50:05.656 --> 00:50:11.106
It is not as clear because the Inuit
people, in the, in the Arctic, eat mainly,

00:50:11.106 --> 00:50:17.296
historically ate mainly animal
products, lots of fats

00:50:17.296 --> 00:50:21.226
and blubber, and they did not develop cancer.

00:50:21.496 --> 00:50:23.886
So that it may not be as clear as it all looks.

00:50:25.666 --> 00:50:27.976
But you know, living in harmony,
with your evolutionary past,

00:50:27.976 --> 00:50:29.716
may give hope for a number of disorders.

00:50:29.716 --> 00:50:32.026
I'm going to make a whole
long list for a moment.

00:50:32.026 --> 00:50:38.676
There's some suggested -- some
suggestions, that even epilepsy in children,

00:50:39.106 --> 00:50:45.126
and epilepsy is a complex disease, it's not
simple, but for some, can be at least controlled

00:50:45.126 --> 00:50:47.056
by eating a total ketogenic diet.

00:50:47.056 --> 00:50:48.486
This is very hard to do.

00:50:48.486 --> 00:50:52.536
And just eating -- and for them, if
you put them on a ketogenic diet,

00:50:52.906 --> 00:50:57.386
then if they just eat one cupcake, which would
then be a refined flour, would trigger seizures.

00:50:57.386 --> 00:51:01.966
There are many other factors, but this is at
least one, the person could have control over.

00:51:02.116 --> 00:51:05.676
Two, I alluded to the cancers,
giving a low dose of Aflatoxin..

00:51:05.676 --> 00:51:11.786
But this may also suggest that possibly,
what the foods we're now eating,

00:51:12.226 --> 00:51:16.516
some of are so strange, and not
part of our evolutionary background,

00:51:16.666 --> 00:51:19.846
that it may do something for
us as equally in a similar way.

00:51:19.846 --> 00:51:21.536
We just don't know.

00:51:21.536 --> 00:51:27.896
And then there's a case of, again, which you
will watch, multiple sclerosis, by Terry Wahls,

00:51:27.896 --> 00:51:28.996
who has severe multiple sclerosis.

00:51:28.996 --> 00:51:34.926
She adopts a hunting and gathering diet, and
then their diet reverses her M.S. totally.

00:51:34.976 --> 00:51:38.046
You know, there are case examples,
but I think they give hints.

00:51:38.046 --> 00:51:40.866
And then we need to think of foods.

00:51:40.866 --> 00:51:44.226
I mean, we, you know, when look at your
tissue, look at your hand for a moment.

00:51:44.916 --> 00:51:50.256
Look at -- remember, every cell in
your body, everything, your whole body,

00:51:50.736 --> 00:51:54.926
is built, created from the foods we ate.

00:51:54.926 --> 00:51:58.766
If you eat -- you know, think
of building a house.

00:51:58.796 --> 00:52:02.256
If you have very good materials,
and you have a very good plan,

00:52:02.776 --> 00:52:04.146
then the house will be very strong.

00:52:04.266 --> 00:52:06.956
The plan could be your genetics
and the epigenetics.

00:52:07.856 --> 00:52:15.146
But even with a very good map plan,
if you have poor materials, the house,

00:52:15.146 --> 00:52:19.716
or the building you're making, will not be
as good, and would be in danger of collapse.

00:52:19.716 --> 00:52:23.986
And think of it this way, and
now much of our foods for eating,

00:52:24.236 --> 00:52:27.026
and partly because of the greener
revolution, which has been great.

00:52:27.026 --> 00:52:29.786
It allows all of us to have
enough -- plenty of foods.

00:52:29.786 --> 00:52:36.066
So this is there is always a balance, but
our Mona culture, and our processed foods,

00:52:36.066 --> 00:52:40.076
may eliminate many important micronutrients.

00:52:41.356 --> 00:52:42.996
You know, we're not aware of what we need.

00:52:43.776 --> 00:52:46.366
Two, our pesticides and herbicides.

00:52:46.366 --> 00:52:50.446
I'm just thinking of Monsanto's Roundup,
we'll do this later when we talk about food,

00:52:50.446 --> 00:52:54.726
are carcinogenic and immune
suppressant, you know?

00:52:54.896 --> 00:52:58.126
And then there's lots of
evidence that we -- that our --

00:52:58.126 --> 00:53:05.726
the foods we eat may, or the lack of foods we
eat, may be a cause of a number of illnesses.

00:53:05.816 --> 00:53:08.846
Just think of going back
during the ages of the --

00:53:12.386 --> 00:53:19.126
-- you know, just think back of the age of
sailing, where sailors got scurvy, you know.

00:53:19.246 --> 00:53:20.716
But why did they get scurvy?

00:53:20.896 --> 00:53:23.986
Scurvy -- because the foods they
were eating was either pickled.

00:53:24.526 --> 00:53:29.006
They were they were not getting enough
vitamin C, so they lost their teeth.

00:53:29.006 --> 00:53:32.666
There's a massive death rate
of sailors due to scurvy.

00:53:32.666 --> 00:53:38.176
It wasn't until the observation was made
that when they ate limes, citrus fruit,

00:53:38.176 --> 00:53:42.146
which contained vitamin C, there are many foods
that have more Vitamin C, they don't say --

00:53:42.286 --> 00:53:45.846
they start to eat those, then
they could solve that disease.

00:53:45.846 --> 00:53:53.476
And then in the late 19th century, you know,
with the advent of the result of colonialization

00:53:53.476 --> 00:54:01.246
in the -- in much of the world, and the
idea that brown rice was sort of, well,

00:54:01.246 --> 00:54:04.636
that's for common people,
that white rice was best.

00:54:04.886 --> 00:54:11.536
But the trouble was, by eating white rice,
you get rid of the Vitamin B1, thiamine,

00:54:11.536 --> 00:54:15.936
and that led then to a very serious
neuro -- neurological disease, Beriberi.

00:54:15.936 --> 00:54:20.276
You know, it was because we
started not eat the whole foods.

00:54:20.276 --> 00:54:22.606
There's so many of these, we can think about.

00:54:22.606 --> 00:54:25.986
Okay? Let me do another one
here about Spina Bifida.

00:54:25.986 --> 00:54:32.306
Spina Bifida, you know, is really that the spine
does not close of the little -- of the fetus.

00:54:32.786 --> 00:54:37.886
However, it can totally be almost
avoided, at least decreased, if the,

00:54:37.886 --> 00:54:40.686
if the food contains enough folic acid.

00:54:40.686 --> 00:54:42.616
But what do you get folic acid by?

00:54:42.616 --> 00:54:47.496
By eating spinach, asparagus, turnips,
greens, legumes, many of these.

00:54:47.496 --> 00:54:50.976
And organ meats, such as liver
and kidney, all can take folate.

00:54:51.256 --> 00:54:52.296
You don't need to take a pill.

00:54:52.526 --> 00:54:54.526
You have to eat the right foods.

00:54:54.526 --> 00:54:59.006
So when I see these, that we need to
add these, these substance to the foods,

00:54:59.006 --> 00:55:00.976
it's really telling me, we're
eating the wrong foods.

00:55:05.146 --> 00:55:12.586
Okay? And I already talked about Vitamin C. Or
think of Omega 3, or fatty, you know, fish oils.

00:55:13.406 --> 00:55:19.016
You know, the data looks very good,
that mothers, who are at high risk,

00:55:19.166 --> 00:55:26.336
that's genetic for allergic disease, when they
got Omega 3 some 21 weeks of gestation to birth,

00:55:27.436 --> 00:55:32.596
that there was a significant decrease
in eczema, egg allergies, and others.

00:55:32.596 --> 00:55:39.026
Notice, it almost -- it went from 12% for the
controls, who didn't get it, to 7%, 15 to 9.

00:55:39.366 --> 00:55:45.156
Most likely, if the mothers had had from the
beginning, at the beginning of pregnancy,

00:55:45.406 --> 00:55:48.176
maybe these numbers would leave me much better.

00:55:48.176 --> 00:55:53.636
And this a result at age one, so notice
the long-lasting cost by having a diet

00:55:53.636 --> 00:55:56.916
that is low in Omega 3, at least.

00:55:56.916 --> 00:56:03.056
And our diet right now is massively weighted
to Omega 6s, which is highly inflammatory,

00:56:03.056 --> 00:56:09.266
because so much of the foods we eat are --
include corn oils, etc., which are all Omega 6s.

00:56:09.266 --> 00:56:15.796
Okay? But even a changed behavior, if you
give Omega 3 supplements for six months.

00:56:16.106 --> 00:56:19.976
And that's a double-blind
study for 8 to 16 year olds.

00:56:20.836 --> 00:56:25.736
You know, overall, what you see
is that sort of reduction in --

00:56:25.736 --> 00:56:28.556
significantly in behavior problems.

00:56:28.556 --> 00:56:29.766
It's just really remarkable.

00:56:30.286 --> 00:56:30.846
Okay.

00:56:31.046 --> 00:56:36.956
And now I'm going to shift again to diet one
more time, going back to the exposure of getting

00:56:37.096 --> 00:56:43.016
to food poisoning, which so often occurs
in our modern diet, where all of a sudden,

00:56:43.016 --> 00:56:47.046
thousands of people die, or hundreds
of people die, and some -- or get sick.

00:56:47.046 --> 00:56:51.336
And a few die because they ate
hamburgers, or even the romaine lettuce.

00:56:51.336 --> 00:56:52.706
Here's one of romaine lettuce.

00:56:52.706 --> 00:56:56.376
But the question really is, what caused it?

00:56:56.376 --> 00:57:03.516
And in most cases, we would see it's caused,
basically, you know, by E. coli, right?

00:57:03.516 --> 00:57:07.126
But look at -- but I would want to
argue that it's really what we have done

00:57:07.126 --> 00:57:09.476
with the -- with our cows and our animals.

00:57:09.476 --> 00:57:13.516
So let me take you through a
little story, why we get --

00:57:13.626 --> 00:57:18.706
possibly one pathway, we get food
poisoning in one case, and not in the other.

00:57:20.046 --> 00:57:25.116
Okay. The normal diet of a cow is
basically somehow grass, as is on the left,

00:57:25.116 --> 00:57:28.456
but now we bring them to a feedlot
where they're getting a lot of grains.

00:57:28.456 --> 00:57:31.196
The reason you do this, because
they'll bulk up very quickly.

00:57:31.196 --> 00:57:36.076
However, the gastrointestinal
tract of a cow is not really --

00:57:36.076 --> 00:57:41.036
it did, you know, from an evolutionary
perspective, it does not to have to process it.

00:57:41.036 --> 00:57:46.036
And it changes the pH in the
cow, in the in the fecal mass.

00:57:46.676 --> 00:57:48.696
Okay. And so if you look at that, at the --

00:57:48.696 --> 00:57:52.446
if you look at the manure cattle
eating grass, is about 7.3.

00:57:52.766 --> 00:58:01.006
Well, the manure of cattle at feedlots, with
grain, which is very high caloric value, is 5.3.

00:58:01.006 --> 00:58:04.606
Now why is this important?

00:58:04.606 --> 00:58:07.876
Okay. All the manure in cows contain E. coli,

00:58:07.996 --> 00:58:10.316
but there are many different
versions of E. coli.

00:58:10.446 --> 00:58:14.836
And they're the one that lets
us get sick, really get sick.

00:58:14.836 --> 00:58:17.246
is the E. coli 0157.

00:58:17.426 --> 00:58:22.616
That is an E. coli that's survives at a
very low pH, a much more acidic condition.

00:58:22.616 --> 00:58:27.006
And notice, that if the manure of the cow is --

00:58:27.006 --> 00:58:31.656
that eats grass is 7.3, there will
be a very low number of this E. coli,

00:58:31.656 --> 00:58:35.786
because they would really survive
well at this higher pH. And then

00:58:35.786 --> 00:58:38.686
when that cow gets slaughtered,
keep that in mind,

00:58:38.726 --> 00:58:42.286
then probably sometimes the intestinal
contents contaminates the meat.

00:58:44.246 --> 00:58:48.526
Now you eat your hamburger,
with the contamination in it.

00:58:48.576 --> 00:58:51.856
But since it is the E. coli
that survives at 7.3,

00:58:52.006 --> 00:58:55.996
when you now eat it, it goes into your stomach.

00:58:55.996 --> 00:59:02.846
But the stomach is a pH of two, and
those E. coli essentially all get killed.

00:59:02.846 --> 00:59:04.446
And so you don't get sick.

00:59:04.446 --> 00:59:08.936
Now, on the other hand, if you're eating
-- if you're eating meat from the cattle,

00:59:08.936 --> 00:59:15.586
from a feedlot, that has been eating
the mainly grain, its manure is 5.3.

00:59:15.586 --> 00:59:22.316
And then it's in -- and you see a thousand
times more E. coli, you know, 0157,

00:59:22.316 --> 00:59:27.426
which is the one that is really --
makes us very sick, as I pointed out.

00:59:27.426 --> 00:59:31.126
And when you now -- and then I
multiply in the meter [phonetic] or so.

00:59:31.606 --> 00:59:37.056
And now when you eat them, they go through
your stomach, but now they can survive this pH,

00:59:37.056 --> 00:59:41.216
this acid [inaudible], and 10% survive that,

00:59:41.216 --> 00:59:44.726
and then they start multiplying this
lethal infection in their intestines.

00:59:45.806 --> 00:59:48.036
So that is really the big difference.

00:59:49.346 --> 00:59:55.096
So the cure is probably not to try
to give antibiotics or anything else.

00:59:55.096 --> 00:59:58.236
We would say maybe we should think
of the evolutionary background.

00:59:58.236 --> 01:00:02.686
What should cattle be eating
to reduce [inaudible]?

01:00:02.686 --> 01:00:10.356
So if we fed the cows hay or grass,
then the pH would stay up to 7.3,

01:00:10.356 --> 01:00:16.306
and we would reduce the odds of having
this E. coli 0157, be present in the foods.

01:00:16.306 --> 01:00:19.196
Because now, if the cattle that has the --

01:00:19.316 --> 01:00:22.836
is from the feedlot is slaughter,
the meat is contaminated.

01:00:22.836 --> 01:00:24.786
Now, when you eat it, you potentially get sick.

01:00:24.856 --> 01:00:32.606
But moreover, the manure of this
cattle, at 5.3, drifts over fields

01:00:32.606 --> 01:00:38.256
where there may be spinach is grown, or other
foods are grown, or a worker carries this

01:00:38.256 --> 01:00:41.506
on their boots and goes to those
fields, or goes through the water.

01:00:41.506 --> 01:00:47.936
Then all of a sudden, you are spraying some
fields or vegetables with this E. coli 0157,

01:00:48.376 --> 01:00:51.896
and then you can get sick by
eating even the vegetables.

01:00:52.026 --> 01:00:53.706
Okay, I think that's enough.

01:00:54.756 --> 01:00:58.456
Okay? And then there's so many
other factors, I can keep going,

01:00:58.456 --> 01:01:03.166
that the foods we eat also change our bacteria.

01:01:03.166 --> 01:01:09.936
Remember, the foods we eat affect which
colonies of bacteria increase or decrease.

01:01:09.966 --> 01:01:14.636
But most of the foods, we now eat, look
the same, and are totally different.

01:01:14.636 --> 01:01:19.746
Almost all the grain, corn, soy,
processed foods and meats contain low level

01:01:19.746 --> 01:01:24.816
of Monsanto's produced herbicides, Roundup,
and other herbicides and pesticides.

01:01:26.286 --> 01:01:33.336
And those -- and they, in fact, suppress
some of the healthy human biome bacteria,

01:01:33.576 --> 01:01:37.376
and allow the more pathological
ones to continue.

01:01:37.646 --> 01:01:40.986
Possibly, this, we may have
messed up, they go back

01:01:40.986 --> 01:01:43.556
and think how we're living in the first place.

01:01:43.556 --> 01:01:46.236
Remember, we are an ecological system.

01:01:46.806 --> 01:01:48.216
I want to underline this.

01:01:48.426 --> 01:01:52.856
We -- and now move even more to a
slight different perspective on this,

01:01:52.856 --> 01:01:58.656
to some illnesses that evolved with
parasites, bacteria and viruses, you know.

01:01:58.656 --> 01:02:04.726
And when we eliminate some of those bacteria
or parasites, the balance is disrupting.

01:02:04.726 --> 01:02:06.026
The pathology can occur.

01:02:06.026 --> 01:02:10.406
Some of you have experienced that
already when you've taken antibiotics.

01:02:10.406 --> 01:02:15.206
Often more women may have experienced that
more -- when they have no problems at all,

01:02:15.206 --> 01:02:18.506
then they took an antibiotics
even, even maybe for acne.

01:02:18.506 --> 01:02:24.026
And then the antibiotic not only killed a
whole class of bacteria in their GI tract,

01:02:24.026 --> 01:02:28.076
but also in the vaginal barrel, and
then they developed a yeast infection.

01:02:29.026 --> 01:02:34.206
Because when you remove certain groups
of bacteria, others will take over.

01:02:34.726 --> 01:02:38.106
So what is critical is the
balance, and I want to talk about.

01:02:38.106 --> 01:02:41.156
And that's all that you'll be
reading in the book by Blaser,

01:02:41.446 --> 01:02:42.766
which really looks at the human biome.

01:02:42.766 --> 01:02:47.626
But I want to go back now for a moment
about our parasites, bacteria and viruses.

01:02:47.626 --> 01:02:49.296
We've lived with those forever.

01:02:49.766 --> 01:02:51.176
We live in symbiosis.

01:02:51.176 --> 01:02:55.646
That is really where the bacteria are
mutual, you know, we live together.

01:02:55.646 --> 01:02:57.406
And they're in different categories.

01:02:57.616 --> 01:03:01.366
In mutualism, we both benefit, and
many bacteria benefit by living

01:03:01.366 --> 01:03:04.226
with us, and we benefit from them.

01:03:04.226 --> 01:03:08.896
Then there's commensal, which is where one
benefits, but not the other one doesn't.

01:03:08.896 --> 01:03:10.306
There's no harm, you know.

01:03:10.306 --> 01:03:15.326
And the final one is very truly a parasite,
where one benefits and the other one is harmed,

01:03:15.446 --> 01:03:17.106
and the harm can be very [inaudible].

01:03:17.106 --> 01:03:23.566
If you're intrigued in parasites, specifically,
a great older book, which I really like is

01:03:23.566 --> 01:03:26.676
by Rob Dunn, "The Wildlife of our Bodies".

01:03:26.676 --> 01:03:28.976
It's really the epidemic of absence.

01:03:28.976 --> 01:03:32.966
It's a way of understanding
autoimmune illnesses, you know.

01:03:33.036 --> 01:03:34.786
But let me give this as an example.

01:03:35.266 --> 01:03:40.146
In the 1930s and 40s, nearly
half American children had worms.

01:03:40.146 --> 01:03:46.246
And if you go all around the
world, in third-world countries,

01:03:46.246 --> 01:03:50.406
except in a weird [phonetic] world, that's
Western, educated, industrialized, rich,

01:03:50.816 --> 01:03:57.166
democratic countries, many people
had little worms, you know,

01:03:57.166 --> 01:03:59.436
sometimes like whipworms and others.

01:03:59.606 --> 01:04:03.286
In most cases, they were very benign,
unless you had too many of them.

01:04:03.286 --> 01:04:06.376
There are some bits you never want to get.

01:04:06.866 --> 01:04:11.956
Okay. And one way that, in the 1930s, most of
people had it, just like your dog has worms

01:04:12.446 --> 01:04:17.396
at times, okay, but to it -- but usually
the way you would avoid getting worms is

01:04:17.396 --> 01:04:19.696
that you would not have to
walk on human fecal mass.

01:04:19.696 --> 01:04:22.366
So what you then did is,
but you, if you wore shoes

01:04:22.366 --> 01:04:25.076
and used indoor toilet, you're
less likely to get it.

01:04:26.466 --> 01:04:32.546
But what is so interesting is that a disease
called "Crohn disease" did not exist in places

01:04:32.546 --> 01:04:36.186
where people -- generally didn't have
place where people have intestinal worms.

01:04:36.186 --> 01:04:41.186
But as the intestinal worms have become
very rare, which we have done in the US,

01:04:41.186 --> 01:04:44.856
and many other places, all
of a sudden, we get this --

01:04:44.856 --> 01:04:48.956
much worse, and the whole serious
illness called "Crohn's disease".

01:04:49.046 --> 01:04:50.806
Now worms is always relevant.

01:04:50.806 --> 01:04:55.046
Having a few worms in you, and
many of you -- they would --

01:04:55.226 --> 01:04:59.286
you would intake them, and they would
multiply you, you would excrete the eggs,

01:04:59.286 --> 01:05:01.666
and it would be one cycle
till you get reinfected.

01:05:01.666 --> 01:05:03.026
Others could be very harmful.

01:05:03.026 --> 01:05:09.006
But in many cases, they could be more, you
know, they would just do a tiniest harm.

01:05:09.006 --> 01:05:11.146
It's only if you're highly malnutritioned,

01:05:11.146 --> 01:05:14.026
and other issues were going
on, that it was very harmful.

01:05:14.026 --> 01:05:19.376
And remember, I want to underline again,
most people had experience of worms

01:05:19.376 --> 01:05:23.956
until the 20th century, but by
having better hygiene, wearing shoes,

01:05:23.956 --> 01:05:27.676
and children are now growing up
without ever having had worms.

01:05:28.706 --> 01:05:32.636
And the worms can live in our, you
know, GI tract, or a bloodstream.

01:05:32.636 --> 01:05:34.216
I'm not recommending them in a bloodstream.

01:05:34.216 --> 01:05:40.896
And to survive, however, to survive
within the host, worms must interact with,

01:05:40.896 --> 01:05:43.996
and change those immune system, you see.

01:05:43.996 --> 01:05:47.546
And some worms can cause disease, but
many are not possibly even harmful,

01:05:47.546 --> 01:05:50.576
and may even be beneficial
for our immune system.

01:05:50.576 --> 01:05:52.416
That's hard to believe, I know, conceptually.

01:05:53.566 --> 01:06:01.836
But you could argue, if we live for as
long as we know, with some parasites,

01:06:02.156 --> 01:06:06.076
our immune system would then be
in a kind of balance with the,

01:06:06.376 --> 01:06:09.306
with these parasites, or with these worms.

01:06:09.656 --> 01:06:15.326
And also, if you take these worms away, then
our immune system may not know how to cope.

01:06:15.326 --> 01:06:22.096
So it is now believed that the inflammatory
bowel diseases, such as Crohn's disease,

01:06:22.096 --> 01:06:29.636
is really partial -- is partially caused
by dysregulation of mucosal immune system.

01:06:29.836 --> 01:06:34.186
You know, so we see this massive
increase in Crohn's disease.

01:06:34.816 --> 01:06:40.856
If, on the other hand, if during childhood,
you get exposures to helminths, that's worms,

01:06:40.976 --> 01:06:44.496
they somehow talk to your immune
system, or they produce something

01:06:44.496 --> 01:06:47.046
which tells the immune system, "Hey, slow down.

01:06:47.246 --> 01:06:48.826
I'm just here as a passenger.

01:06:48.826 --> 01:06:49.746
I won't do too much.

01:06:49.746 --> 01:06:51.406
Just keep it cool."

01:06:51.406 --> 01:06:52.476
I'm making this up.

01:06:52.476 --> 01:06:58.696
And then the as if it -- it
dampens down the inflammation.

01:06:59.416 --> 01:07:04.756
But without that experience, the immune
system has no, has no way to change.

01:07:04.786 --> 01:07:07.886
And this is one of the hypothesized
Joel Weinstock,

01:07:07.886 --> 01:07:11.226
and he has done some very
interesting studies on using helminth,

01:07:11.226 --> 01:07:13.606
parasitic worms, to help the immune system.

01:07:14.036 --> 01:07:17.836
As I pointed out earlier,
the disease, Crohn's disease,

01:07:17.836 --> 01:07:22.296
is a very difficult illness on our GI tract.

01:07:22.296 --> 01:07:24.416
It's where our immune system is attacking,

01:07:24.416 --> 01:07:27.576
and when it causes horrible
abdominal pain, skin rashes, right?

01:07:27.576 --> 01:07:28.946
It's just truly difficult.

01:07:30.066 --> 01:07:32.116
Okay? It's just a disaster.

01:07:32.116 --> 01:07:39.156
And it now estimates 1/3rd, three million
people have this, at least in the United States.

01:07:39.156 --> 01:07:44.286
And one of the ways, if you think about
it, how come Crohn's disease does not exist

01:07:44.286 --> 01:07:46.456
in third world countries,
because people have worms?

01:07:46.456 --> 01:07:52.936
That's a hypothesis, by the way, but people
have been doing episodic experiments on this.

01:07:53.366 --> 01:07:57.776
And now in a more systematic study by
Joel Weinstock, he took chronic people,

01:07:57.846 --> 01:08:01.816
with chronic Crohn's disease,
they now gave them worms.

01:08:01.816 --> 01:08:04.176
Now, you know, whipworm, it's just benign.

01:08:04.176 --> 01:08:05.636
It doesn't do any harm.

01:08:05.886 --> 01:08:07.056
You know, you put little eggs in it.

01:08:07.056 --> 01:08:08.316
You don't even know you're swallowing them.

01:08:09.046 --> 01:08:13.426
And what happened in this study of these 29
patients, four patients, "Oh, yuck, worms.

01:08:13.426 --> 01:08:14.306
I don't want to do this."

01:08:14.306 --> 01:08:16.786
So they got a medication
to get rid of the worms.

01:08:17.246 --> 01:08:22.496
But in 24 weeks, all by one patient was
doing -- 21 patients were in remission.

01:08:23.906 --> 01:08:25.886
Now, that is remarkable.

01:08:26.746 --> 01:08:31.356
Their bodies were much healthier than
when they had -- now, they had parasites.

01:08:31.356 --> 01:08:36.386
And so, you know, this is very suggestive,
and it's a similar model you see later,

01:08:36.386 --> 01:08:41.696
as you'll be reading in the book by Blaser,
about the whole part of our human biome,

01:08:41.696 --> 01:08:43.906
that when they're empty, then there's absence.

01:08:43.906 --> 01:08:51.066
And remember to underline, going back
again to the inflammatory GI disorders,

01:08:51.066 --> 01:08:55.496
promising remedial acts against
irritable bowel disease,

01:08:55.496 --> 01:08:58.796
and other allergic autoimmune
illnesses, is helminth therapy.

01:08:58.796 --> 01:09:04.516
It can also be probably bacterial
therapy, or human biome therapy.

01:09:04.516 --> 01:09:07.836
Cure with helminth therapy seems
to me that was effective therapy

01:09:07.836 --> 01:09:10.816
in the irritable bowel disease
currently proposed.

01:09:11.496 --> 01:09:17.176
Okay? And now I'll jump even more
that the human biome is active

01:09:17.176 --> 01:09:18.766
and a vital participant in our lives.

01:09:18.766 --> 01:09:25.216
Remember, more than a half of your -- of the
DNA in your body are bacteria, our human biome.

01:09:25.706 --> 01:09:26.516
And that's critical.

01:09:26.516 --> 01:09:28.246
So do look at the book like Blaser.

01:09:28.816 --> 01:09:33.016
And we get these exposures to these
different ones, in many different ways.

01:09:33.016 --> 01:09:34.466
You know, kids play in the dirt.

01:09:34.466 --> 01:09:36.876
Eating dirt is very helpful.

01:09:38.806 --> 01:09:43.276
You know, you know, our GI tract,
these bacteria produce serotonin.

01:09:43.276 --> 01:09:47.896
And many, in fact, interestingly,
many of our antibiotics are derived

01:09:47.896 --> 01:09:51.346
from material, you know, grown in dirt.

01:09:51.826 --> 01:09:52.686
So play the dirt.

01:09:52.686 --> 01:09:53.446
It's much better.

01:09:53.446 --> 01:09:58.356
Okay? And maybe we shouldn't be
using so many antimicrobial soaps.

01:09:58.826 --> 01:10:03.726
You know, possibly, yes, if you know
someone is infectious, do wash your hands.

01:10:03.726 --> 01:10:06.796
And after bathroom, use -- wash your hands.

01:10:07.026 --> 01:10:12.836
But most likely, don't use antimicrobial
soaps, because basically, you are developing --

01:10:12.876 --> 01:10:17.746
you get rid of the healthy bacteria, and
maybe leave a place for unhealthy bacteria.

01:10:18.186 --> 01:10:24.886
And as I said earlier, our human body is made of
many cells, at least half of those in our body,

01:10:24.886 --> 01:10:27.986
so more are bacterial, non-human cells.

01:10:28.256 --> 01:10:29.566
It's most interesting.

01:10:30.206 --> 01:10:36.336
And there's so many factors that affect the gut
bacteria, which includes the birthing process,

01:10:36.336 --> 01:10:40.116
the breastfeeding exposure,
dirt, antibiotic exposures, diet.

01:10:40.566 --> 01:10:42.066
And they all are interactive.

01:10:42.546 --> 01:10:45.606
And I think, on that note, I will stop.

01:10:46.176 --> 01:10:49.396
But keep thinking of the
evolutionary background.

01:10:49.776 --> 01:10:57.036
What are you doing now, that your great, great,
great grandparents would have no idea about?

01:10:57.926 --> 01:11:05.956
It -- and it's likely that those novelties could
be harmful, or increase in allostatic load,

01:11:05.956 --> 01:11:11.926
and it could be a co-contributor to many
of these inflammatory diseases we have now.