Recently, an article with typical stupifying conclusions that only the New York Times could fumble to such a degree, was commented on by one Matt Stone. No dickweeds, it is not okay that body temperatures are falling across the nation, that they typically fall as we age, and that it is “normal” to be low. If I’ve learned anything about being an American citizen, the last thing you want to be is “normal” when it comes to diagnostic tests. Anyway, here’s my response to the article:
Ladies and gentlemen, what you’re talking about here is the epidemic of modern man. There is scarcely a single health problem that cannot be traced to a hypometabolic state. Just because body temperatures are low, and they typically fall with age, doesn’t mean that it is our destiny or no big deal. The last thing you want to be in this day and age, and in this country, is diagnostically ?normal. That merely means you will most likely die a normal death of heart disease, cancer, while carrying arthritis and a load of excess body fat with you all the way.
The entire focus of my life’s work is raising body temperature through diet and lifestyle – mostly by controlling inflammation and therefore lowering cortisol – the hormone that blocks the action of thyroid hormones and causes body temperature to fall. People from all walks of life are raising their body temperatures and having health problems clear up following my simple advice every day.
Body temperature is so significant that it is virtually impossible to develop heart disease or type 2 diabetes while maintaining a healthy, albeit abnormal body temperature of 98.6 F into old age. Whatever your health problems are, don’t give up until you’ve brought that temperature back to normal. There are countless tips and strategies to do this, and it certainly doesn’t require starvation dieting, overexcercing, and the like, which lower body temperature like nothing else can.
The most cutting-edge info. on bringing body temperature up can be found at:
http://180degreehealth.com/
? Matt Stone
Link to Article:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/whats-your-temperature-rethinking-986/
Link to comment:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/whats-your-temperature-rethinking-986/?apage=4#comment-456657
Nice work, Matt. You tell 'em!
Gina
Good job, Matt. I also plugged your blog over at Whole Health Source on Stephan's post about body fat set-point regulation. I tried to explain the idea behind raising the metabolic rate through overeating. Most readers will probably scoff at such a primitive approach to health improvement!
Scott
Thanks amigos!
Great posts Matt. Good to see you kicken it up a notch here post holiday. Podcast soon?
-Drew
Coming in a few hours tops.
Matt, I followed the link from your last podcast email where you say to collect all the 2009 ezines (I seem to only have through august) but it takes me to an admin log in screen. Do you have a better link?
Matt, you should go over Stephan's Whole Health Source comments and respond to Richard Nikoley's comment.
In your description of the e-book 180 Degree Metabolism: The Smart Strategy for Fat Loss…you say the following:
"Not only will you lose excess body fat ? especially the harmful fat that accumulates around the torso (visceral fat), but once you’ve been on this program long enough you’ll find it more difficult to gain body fat than ever before."
But what if you don't have any excess weight to lose? I'm already too skinny. And I already eat a lot to keep what I have. (I'm in my sixties)
So how is eating the "180 degree way" going to affect my situation? I'm quite healthy but have blood sugar concerns and found that since going LOWER carb, my fasting BS is now between 99-108 (down from around 115-125) but will spike up to 180 if I eat foods like brown rice or pasta or an apple, etc.
I already eat plenty of fat (butter, coconut/olive oil) and animal protein incl. eggs, but have learned recently (by frequent testing) that if I choose my carbs carefully I can avoid most BS spikes.
I know that you don't think this is necessary. Therefore I'm looking forward to your diabetes book and hope that it will include suggestions for skinny people as well.
I left this comment Trix…
180 doesn't advocate indefinite overfeeding. It's a temporary measure taken to achieve a specific goal, which is a reduction in insulin resistance and a rise in basal metabolism. This is due to both caloric and nutritional superabundance. Eventually, appetite comes to a standstill.
I don't feel like pigging out like Nikoley does, nor do I have "hypometabolism" written all over my puffy, mucin-saturated face. I can now barely eat 3,000 calories per day. My fasting blood sugar is 70 mg/dl. I can eat 2 baked russet potatoes and have a postprandial glucose reading of 75 mg/dl.
But you know, you can do your intermittent fasting and reach a basal body temperature of 96 degrees if you want. Apparently the NY Times thinks that's just 'normal.'
How's that?
Good response Matt. Maybe in the future he can take the time to understand the recommendations in between sucking off cavemen.
^ Oh no he di'nt!
Matt, I hope I did not misrepresent your advice when I commented on WholeHealthSource. Stephan is more open-minded than other bloggers, but the paleotypes that read his blog always blow their load when someone advocates something that is definitely not paleo.
I still read Free The Animal, PaNu, Primal Wisdom, Mark's Daily Apple, Protein Power, and Hyper-Lipid not for the information, but more like I'm rubber-necking at a car accident. I want to see the carnage.
"I fast for twelve hours, then work out with weights, then fast another 2 hours before eating because Paleoman did the same thing and our bodies are designed to do that, we can only maximize health if we adopt exactly the same eating habits as a true paleoman…"
Have fun!
Grass fed beef is the only beef they eat. I bet they all sneak in fast food meals but don't dare to tell anyone about it or risk losing serious paleo cred.
Scott
@paleoRD
Hi there, I already wrote this once, but I'm just gonna do it again, in case you haven't read it yet:
I'd really appreciate it if you would eMail me (madMUHHH@gmx.net), because I've got some health/diet related questions to you, which I believe would give me good insights on my current situation.
Scott, Kirk, you are some funny dudes.
Great quote too Scott. It's funny what people believe about 'Paleo Man!' Give me a break. The only time Weston A. Price even mentions voluntary exercise is with a Tai Chi-type exercise routine done by the Maori. I mean, of course humans were active. They had to do basic chores to survive, but to think that they didn't have the basic skills and know-how to avoid long periods of starvation, or that they had to do anything but "grab a spear or two" when a "Saber-toothed tiger" approached them is silly – not to mention the fact that the less they had to "intermittenly fast," the healthier and more prolific they were – a theme with all creatures of the earth.
RMarie –
The discussion in 180 Diabetes was truly meant for you. I know that lowering carbs can lower your fasting and postprandial glucose. So can eating a vegan diet. Instead, 180 Diabetes encourages you to think of it like this…
If eating 3 eggs with 1 cup of brown rice and a side of veggies in butter sends your glucose to 180, then what steps can you take to get your glucose to peak at 170 in response to that meal, then 160, then 150 – all the way down to 100 or less? That's the ultimate solution that is sought after in that book. I know it's not achievable by everyone, but I think insulin resistance can be lessened, and that the root of the problem can be tremendously improved upon no matter what you age, heredity, or current blood sugar levels are.
I'd love for you to choose a baseline meal – like the meal I just mentioned above, and record your postprandials right now. Let's say it comes out to a nice, even number – like 180 (wink, wink).
Then, for two weeks, eat as mach starch, fat, protein, and vegetables that you can. Go big. As many calories as possible. It's perfect that you want to GAIN weight, as the fear of gaining is often the biggest deterrent to exploring this concept. And yes, there's no reason to remain relatively low-carb 180 Metabolism-style if you don't want to lose weight.
After 2 weeks, eat your baseline meal and take your postprandials. I'm willing to be that it will be lower, perhaps significantly so. And we're only talking about 2 weeks here, not a year, not chemo. I'd love for you to try that experiment and report back. I need all the feedback I can get to help validate (or refute, so that I can improve upon my understanding and recommendations on glucose metabolism), the concepts laid out in 180 Diabetes. Can't wait to hear from you. E-mail me if you have any questions.
I still follow all the sites as well like PaleoRD, some people have read them and are stuck in that view, I was too for over a year.
After spending 1.5yrs reading/researching health and reading lots of blogs; ZC, VLC, Paleo, WAPF, Adrenal Fatigue, Stop Thyroid madness, Animal Pharm, Free the Animal, Jimmy, Hyperlipid, leangains, Bodyrecompostion, NephroPal, PaNu… list goes on and on, finally linked somehow to 180, can't remember how I found 180, but when I did I read every post, comment and ezine til my eyes bugged out. And all this info finally started to make sense. I will add that I am on the starch glucose path, but Diet-Fucked and Chew On Food are a wealth of info as well.
My thoughts now are; don't fix broken health from years of eating high-refined, low-fat, high-veggie oil, plus over-exercising, minimal sleep, thus getting overweight by going Paleo. Paleo is just another weight-loss fad, that people will be getting rich off soon, as the mainstream gets duped. I agree with Matt though, it is far better the SAD.
Yes Paleo will help you lose fat, and get into size 32 pants, change insulin levels, and blood profile. But just because you lose weight and lower 'one' hormone it doesn't make you healthly.
If you eat whole unrefined carbs with goods fats and protein and get fat, 'you' are broken, and your hormones are not balanced.
My post prandials have been dropping as well from +110 pre-180 to 90 as of this week. This would be after a meal similar to; 3 large potatoes, 10oz turkey, 2Tbsp heavy cream, 3Tbsp Cultured Butter, sea salt, and 1 cup broccoli which I will eat 4 times/day.
At 3months, I find that my appetite is just starting to fall abit. I did Paleo for one year, so I will try 180 for year. So until Dec 31 2010, I will lurk in the corner with mound of mashed pototoes!
I will definitely keep Stephen @Whole updated with my progress, only been 3months now, so see where I am at next New Year's Eve.
And Matt, did the 180 Creamy Grits for Xmas breakfast, big hit with the family. But the 180 flourless gravy, had all the extended family in fits off joy as we consumed the Xmas turkey dinner. "Praise Jesus, what is in this gravy?" Believe me the gravy was fought over as the pot was getting low, until the last drops were soaked up with turkey scraps! That recipe is a keeper!! Thanks!
Boo-yah Undertow. BG of 90 after a meal like that is an accomplishment. Thanks for giving 180 a shot.
I'm wondering if the hypothyroidism that B. Barnes dealt with was just regular low thyroid or if it included Hashimoto's Disease, which is the more common version of it now.
Thanks.
Meighen
I don't think Hashimoto's is the most common form. I think the most common form is the type that Barnes generally treated that has later been coined "type 2 hypothyroidism" by Mark Starr. He calls it that because it is similar to type 2 diabetes – the hormones are there when you test the blood, but the symtpoms of having low levels of the hormone are still present.
But type 2 diabetes shouldn't be called "type to hypopancreatism," because the pancreas works just fine. It could be a similar situation with thyroid hormones. The gland itself may be fine and have nothing to do with it. Overriding low levels with desiccated thyroid hormones may be a big help, and a powerful medical discovery by Barnes and his modern day followers, but there is still much left to be explained for this strange phenomenon. And, more importantly, better and more comprehensive ways to overcome it.
Freetheanimal led me to a lot of better sites. De Vanny's did the same. But they're both pricks, and the sugar-deprivation induced brain damage is clearly evident in Nickoley's scattered, erratic, and aggressive writing.
Right now I'm experimenting with sucrose and fructose instead of starch, but I'm still always leaning on the 180 side of things. Keep up the good work, and maybe I'll even buy a book.
Thanks for your suggestions Matt. I'm actually doing something similar to what you're suggesting right now – except I'm using oat groats (coarsely ground), cooked with cinnamon and added blueberries – then an egg and sometimes a piece of bacon – every morning for breakfast. I've found the addition of the egg/bacon keeps my BS from spiking.
I'm not new to all this (been trying different things most of my life probably because my mother came down with rheumatoid arthritis at age 40 which made me very aware of the importance of good health) and I have been tracking what I eat and my BS for several years on a spread sheet – but recently started to enter it on cron-o-meter http://spaz.ca/cronometer/ to get a better idea of the amount of protein, fat, and carbs I'm consuming. To my surprise I saw that I'm not getting nearly the amount of calories I thought I was getting eating all that fat etc. Barely make it up to 1800 eating till I'm full. (I am very small just under 5ft weighing 87 lbs.) No wonder I'm not gaining any weight!!!
I just got your EBOOK on diabetes and am reading it now. Shouldn't take too long to finish. I'll get back to you in a couple of days with some comments and feed back.
Great R-Marie. I'm so eager to hear how things progress if you decide to embark upon a monster calorie load.
If I was more certain that others would respond as I had (a 26% in BG in 30 days), I would be going door to door letting everyone know about it, doing whatever kind of publicity stunts I could to insure that people find out about this.
D-
I'm curious to try the same thing sometime in 2010 – just do a carb-type substitution, not with refined sugars, but with nutritive simple sugars instead of starch. Let us know how it goes.