Out of rhythm, out of health!

I know, I know. I have been very lazy on the blog lately.

Honestly my mind has just been racing lately with a lot (and I mean a shitload) of thoughts.

I have evolved from a strength coach/physical therapist into a extremely holistic human being, and practitioner. I am now at a stage of putting everything together to 1) make me a better person, and in turn love myself and find out what my purpose in this universe is, so that 2) I can in turn help others, and show them love also.

I have been studying my different fields and disciplines outside of human performance, such as, functional nutrition, and functional medicine, health and wellness, biology, spirituality, philosophy, agriculture (its all connected), and many more. I am of course still staying in touch with my roots by still studying strength and conditioning, and physical therapy.

So out rhythm, out of health! What do I mean by today's blog title?

I recently finished a book called "Lights Out" by TS. Wiley, and Brent Formby. The moral to the story is we humans now as of the last century are completed out of sync with our circadian rhythm. This in turn is leading us to complete hormonal disaster. Our ancient physiology has evolved to a feast/famine, light/night, summer/winter cycle, but now we never have a famine anymore, because we never have night anymore because we have the lights on 24/7, 365 days of the year.

According to Wiley and Formby, weight gain, insulin-resistance, and high cholesterol are completely normal! Yep! These were the needed adaptations that we humans had to have going into the long hard winters ahead, were food was going to be a lot more scarce. Over this winter period the weight gained in the summer would normalize, and we would start running our bodies on ketones as their were no carbs present in the winter, so the insulin resistance would be reversed.

But now as we know,there is no winter to prepare for anymore. Its ALWAYS SUMMER. We always have the lights on!! This in turn stimulates the stress response which stimulates sugar/carb cravings, and now thanks to modern technology, carbs are in abundance all year round. Starting to get the picture.

Everything in this universe is dualistic - Yin/Yang, Man/Women, Hot/Cold, Good/Bad, Right/Left, Day/Night!

In the summer we were meant to feast more than fast, and in the winter we were meant to fast more than feast. But now the famine NEVER comes.

Even more recently I have come across the work of Dr.Jack Kruse. Part of Kruse's work is on something called Cold Thermogensis. Basically Dr. Kruses talks about the fact that we humans have now lost our ability to be cold adapted creatures that our ancestors were, and this is greatly affecting our metabolism, and tries in with the hormone leptin.

He also tries this cold adaptation in with circadian Biology that Wiley and Formby wrote about in "Lights Out", and a seasonal/Paleo type diet, that Wiley and Formby also spoke about to a degree. Dr. Kruse though has gone a step further with the Cold Thermogensis.

A lot of Dr. Kruse's writings on his blog are very scientific and can be hard to follow fully, but are without question fascinating. He calls what he has discovered "the ancient pathway". He has been getting unbelievable results with patients in his clinic apparently, and his own weight loss story is nothing sort of amazing. Dr. Kruse dropped 133lbs in 11 months using his leptin prescription.

Take away points:

-Circadian Biology seems to be a critical area to consider in health, and longevity

-Eating seasonal seems to be something else to consider. Dr. Kruse gives examples of what he terms "Mis-Matches", like eating banana's in the middle of winter in a country like Canada.

-Cold adaptation and leptin = Very interesting

Links:

JackKruse.com

TS Wiley

Underground Wellness Podcast Interviews:

Jack Kruse

TS Wiley

Stay Strong,
RB