Julie G wrote: ↑Sun Mar 20, 2022 2:19 pm
Also, I’m curious to hear your thoughts about this approach.
While I'm 3/4 and not eligible, I would be interested in better understanding Dr. Longo's specific research aim here. What endpoints does Dr. Longo plan to examine: chronological age, biological age, development of MCI/AD, brain imaging, specific biomarkers … ?
While his diet is really high carb, and I'm completely sympathetic with Theresa's concerns and n=1 success stories, I think it may be a stretch to characterize Dr. Longo's research as unethical. Someone (not me) might even say that of encouraging 4/4's to eat a ketogenic diet for life when there are no long-term studies (that I know of) showing that it will independently slow or prevent 4/4 incidence of AD (although my bet is that it will?).
I wonder if Dr. Longo is, maybe in part, digging deeper into questions about how regular use of the FMD might alter the 4/4's handling of the higher carb LD. If I were eligible, I would personally focus more on the very wholistic incorporation of net carbs in the context of a high, whole plant phytochemical load, very high fiber, daily fasting (if that's part of the LD), exercise (if that's part of LD), stress reduction (if that's part of LD), along with—perhaps crucially—regular use of the FMD.
Lately I've continued my 12-14 hour daily fasts but lower fat and increased my carbs with unprocessed, gluten free oatmeal, lentils, brown rice, occassionally quinoa and other grains/seeds, and fruit. I've also added pastured low fat cottage cheese to my other animal proteins (two eggs and one serving of fish, seafood, or lean poultry and very occasional red meat, an shot glass or two of goat milk keifer). I replaced dinnertime animal protein with beans and grains. For now I feel a lot better than I've felt eating more ketogenically for years. I'm not currently testing ketones at the end of my fast, but my glucose stays in what I
think is respectable territory, with two hour post-prandial glucose 120 or usuall well below that, often below 100. (I realize this doesn't tell me how much insulin currently keeps it there.) These days I tend to think that—perhaps especially for 3/4 (and sorry to muddy this thread's waters with that)—one diet for too long might be like doing the exact same exercise program for too long and lead to imbalances. It takes a toll. Switching up is good.
I noticed that Dr. Fitzgerald's "Younger You" diet that slowed biological age in a small group omits grains, legumes, and dairy. I suspect this is to ensure a low inflammatory environment that must be important to healthy methylation, but I wonder whether the same diet including these foods also would be effective. How big a part did the low carb, low lectin variables play in the results compared with the inclusion of dietary methylation promoters and adaptogens? If you include enough of the latter, can you afford more of the former?
Theoretically adding to the Blue Zone epidemiological data that provides some support for the Mediterranean diet but in populations with lower levels of APOE 4,
Being Patient just
reported about some research into Chinese centenarians (not published?) done by a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner (38th generation). What's needed is more information about the centenarians' genetics:
From 1985 to 2005, Mao researched the habits of over a hundred centenarians in China, focusing extensively on what foods they ate…
[The] meals should be composed of primarily organic, plant based foods like vegetables, fruits, grains, beans, legumes, seaweeds, nuts and seeds, with fish and poultry playing a supplementary role…
Mao recommended eliminating fast foods, refined sugar and [refined] carbohydrates, because they can “stimulate the production of toxins in the body, leading to inflammation and the build-up of plaques in the brain.”
Assuming these centenarians all had decent cognition (an assumption that probably shouldn't be made!), he must have found that, as with the Blue Zone populations, in these 100 Chinese centenarians unprocessed carbs were safe. Unfortunately, I doubt there was any APOE genetic testing, but I'm curious whether his group of centenarians share the low level of APOE4 found in the Blue Zones. The article doesn't mention whether the 100 people were from across China and genetically heterogenous or shared sub-population, lower levels of APOE 4 from the south.
Does the geographical gradient of ApoE4 ... opulations (2010) concludes:
Systemic comparison among multiple Chinese populations revealed that positive correlation existed between the e4 allele frequency distribution and latitude north (r = 0.586, P = 0.008), but no correlation of the e4 allele frequency distribution with longitude east was found (r = −0.018, P = 0.942). We conclude that there is a south-to-north, but not an east-to-west gradient for the apoE4 allele in China.
How might the (perhaps optional) addition of
ketone salts or esters influence some prospective participants' decisions whether to join Dr. Longo's 4/4 research?
I wonder why he fixes carbs at 200/day rather than using macro percentages that could accomodate individual caloric needs better.
I offer these thoughts humbly, since you three are all far more versed in the literature than I am. I appear to be better at asking questions and editing my posts than drawing firm conclusions.