Some Thoughts About Food

Upon re-reading the last newsletter, I may have given the impression that I'm some kind of picture of perfect health.  Not so!  Sorry if I gave that misleading impression!  I'm just doing what I can here in my mid-60s to improve my health through diet and exercise.  In recent years I've had scary symptoms, fearing that the end was near.  And I'm constantly playing "whack a mole" with new symptoms.  I can attest that we all have to be proactive about our health, to get ahead of problems before they overtake us.  I didn't do too bad over the years but could have done better starting decades ago.  I encourage everyone in their 30s, 40s and 50s to start now and don't wait for problems to arise.

Like many other modern Americans, I'm a lifelong addict of fake food loaded with all sorts of artificial junk.  This is by design.  The "agri-biz" corporations intentionally create their products to be addictive, to drive sales.  Their products are chemically engineered to be smooth and creamy to appeal the palette.  They taste yummy because the chemical ingredients have been manufactured to stimulate the taste buds in the intended manner.    

This would be lots of fun for everyone if only these "food" products were nutritious, or at least harmless.  But they are not.  These fake ingredients raise inflammation that creates all manner of preventable chronic disease.  But it's a slow poison.  If you keeled right over after polishing off a bag of Doritos, everyone would be tipped off.  It takes decades for the cumulative damage to take its toll.  

They say "you are what you eat" but what are we when we eat monosodium glutamate, maltodextrin, cottonseed oil and yellow dye #5?  Lately I walk through the grocery store with new eyes, bombarded by aisle after aisle of garishly-packaged "inflammation in a box."  Our food should primarily supply our tissues with the necessary constituents for sustaining life and secondarily to have a yummy taste.

So here's the bigger point: it's not just our food.  Everything in modern American life is fake.  And all this fakery is just as harmful, not only to our bodies, but to our souls.  We live an artificial indoor existence surrounded by a cocoon of technology that insulates us from the LORD's beautiful creation and from each other.  It's nice to turn on the heat when it's cold and the AC when it's hot, but when do we ever shiver or sweat?  It's good to watch the news to learn what's going on in the world, but what's going on with the neighbors on our street?  Some people interact more with screens than with each other.  And just wait until AI really kicks in.   

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the modern world like everybody else.  I'm not saying that technology is necessarily bad or that we should all live in teepees, but it gets in the way of having genuine experiences.  This is one reason I like Classical Astronomy.  It is a visible part of the LORD's creation over our heads, the cycles of the Sun, Moon, stars and planets continuing in their courses as they have done since the beginning, untouchable by human interference but unnoticed by nearly everyone. 

Here's an insightful column called Fiat Everything by Josh Stylman, a Brownstown Institute fellow speaking at the upcoming Brownstown Retreat.  Josh explains how the concept of "fiat currency" applies to everything else in the modern world.  It's heartening that so many different voices are saying similar things and finding ways to connect.  If you're like-minded, please learn more about Brownstone and consider attending the Retreat this September.

Among the health issues that arise from living in the modern world, one biggie is sleep, and this is the subject of the current newsletter -- how our health is regulated by the daily and seasonal cycles of the Sun. 

Followup on "The Astronomy of Good Health" - Dopamine

As mentioned in the last newsletter, the health benefits of Vitamin D include improvement of mood, curing seasonal depression and even helping to improve mental health problems and overall well being.  As part of my ongoing research and discovery, I've since found that Vitamin D specifically assists in the production and regulation of the neurotransmitter dopamine.  This relates to the main subject of this newsletter below which discusses the neurotransmitter serotonin.  

Dopamine has entered the public consciousness these days as its release produces the brain's pleasure response.  This happens artifically from interacting with computers.  Computer games give "dopamine hits" when you accomplish game objectives.  Social media users get "dopamine hits" from receiving "likes" and comments on their posts.  This is an unnatural way to release dopamine, and computer users become dopamine junkies.  Moreover, there's a dark side to dopamine since it is responsible for all types of addiction, including computer addiction.  

According to this article, dopamine is made from the amino acid tyrosine (which is also responsible for thyroid health).  Dopamine "plays a crucial role in motivation, helping us to initiate and persevere in goal-directed behaviors. It’s also involved in motor control, with dopamine deficiency being a key factor in movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease. Additionally, dopamine influences cognitive functions such as attention, working memory, and decision-making."  

This might explain the classic gamer profile, the unemployed, unambitious male who lives in his mom's basement playing computer games all day.  Or the isolated female who posts every random thought, seeking constant attention on social media.  Or the neverending "infinite death scroll" of video watchers who cannot put down their phones -- an endless stream of computer-generated dopamine. 

Imbalance of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin is related to a host of mental health and other cognitive issues.  Such an imbalance might explain the generally increasingly screwball quality of American life that has unfolded in the last 30 years since the widespread rollout of personal computers and the internet in the 90s and the rise of smartphones and social media in the 2010s.  America's collective dopamine levels are all out of wack.

The good news is that Vitamin D, especially from sunlight, can help with establishing and maintaining a healthy dopamine balance and improve mood and overall physical and mental health. The same foods rich in dietary Vitamin D including eggs and cheese are also rich in tyrosine, the dopamine precursor.  According to this other article, Vitamin D is important for pregnant moms since a a maternal Vitamin D deficiency might affect the neurological development of the baby in utero, and the baby's eventual ability to regulate dopamine and susceptibility to schizophrenia.  

No matter how you approach it, Vitamin D is necessary for good health, and the best way to get it is from controlled exposure to sunshine.  

Better Living Through Astronomy

The more I learn, the more it becomes clear that our bodies are designed by our Creator at the molecular level to exist outdoors and synch up with the natural cycles of the Sun.  Getting good sleep is the most important thing that one can do to reduce inflammation and maintain good health, which is linked to the 24 hour circadian rhythm, which is in turn linked to the Sun.   

I've come to the conclusion that our bodies are designed to observe the sunrise every day, to be outside for a long while during daylight hours, and then to turn in for sleep shortly after sunset.  This is all theoretical for me, since I've been a nightowl for most of my life, always awake for hours after dark and rarely rising before the Sun.  And I have a lifetime of messed up sleep patterns to show for it.  But I'm trying to learn a new way in my old age.

It's incredible how perfectly our bodies are fine tuned for living in daylight.  You might have heard that the retinas of our eyes include rods and cones which are light-sensitive nerve bundles responsible for vision.  But I never knew that our eyes also include intrinsically photosensitive Retinal Ganglion Cells or ipRGCs.  These are not directly involved in eyesight but neverless are designed to detect blue light having a wavelength of 480 nm, the color of the blue sky.  These ipRGCs establish our circadian rhythm.  Blind people with intact retinas also have ipRGCs so they can synch up to the daylight cycle even without actually perceiving the blue sky.

The whole reason why we sleep is because our bodies produce melatonin.  This is a neurotransmitter that makes us drowsy and causes us to fall asleep.  Our bodies heal and are replenished during sleep.  A host of health issues arise due to insomnia or reduced sleep quality. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter precursor to melatonin.  And tryptophan is an amino acid precursor to serotonin.  Turkey is rich in tryptophan which is why everyone is drowsy and wants to take a nap after Thanksgiving dinner.  Melatonin is produced from serotonin in the pineal gland.

So in the morning, as the Sun comes up and the sky brightens, the ipRGCs in our eyes send a signal to our hypothalmus, a structure in our brain that governs hormonal function, which in turn sends a signal to the pineal gland, instructing it to STOP making melatonin.  The 480 nm blue sky signal from the ipRGCs is the OFF switch for melatonin in our brain, so that we can wake up and start a new day.  

The OFF switch is not instantaneous.  The ipRGC signal needs to accumulate in our brains.  Our eyes need to soak up about an hour of early morning blue light in order to completely turn off melatonin production in the pineal gland and commence the day's activities. At sunrise and in the early morning hours the Sun is low and the sky is pure blue, which is best for ipRGC function.  But later in the morning is less ideal as the Sun gets higher and the sky brighter.  So it's more compatible with human biochemistry to rise early and be active outside in the early morning.  

At the other end of the day, when the Sun is going down, the blue light is more heavily scattered and absorbed by atmospheric dust and dirt.  For this reason, sunsets tend to be more colorful with shades of yellow, orange and red.  And after the Sun sets and night falls, our ipRGCs stop detecting 480 nm blue sky wavelengths altogether.  So our hypothalmus flips the ON switch to our pineal gland to start making melatonin again.  So at nighttime our brains send us the message that it's time to get ready for bed.

The human body is inherently, fundamentally designed to be diurnal, not nocturnal.  We are wired up at the biochemical level to be active in the daytime and to sleep at night.  Now somebody out there reading this is saying, "but I work third shift and am not on a daytime schedule."  This may be so in your case and I hope it works out for you.  I'm not the Creator, just the messenger.  Your life shows that humans are very adaptable, capable of functioning in a wide range of climates, habitats and environmental conditions.  But many people (like me) cannot adapt to third shift.  At the basic level, I don't believe humanity as a whole is designed for the artificial modern American 24/7/365 lifestyle, which contributes to our overall poor health picture.  

Given the ipRGC/melatonin connection, it should be unsurprising that farmers and other rural folk seem healthier and happier than city dwellers.  Most of humanity's problems arise in the artificial urban environment where fallen humans cluster together in close quarters.  In Scripture, Babel was the first city and Sodom was another early city, and look what befell them.  In contrast, the early patriarchs of Israel were bronze age goat herders who lived close to the land.  The model of life set forth in Leviticus is one of subsistence farming, that you worked the land and offered your sacrifices to the LORD from your agricultural bounty.  I do believe this was how the LORD intended humanity to live.

Circadian Distruption

I've often joked that "if I didn't have sleep disorders, I wouldn't get any sleep at all."  But it's not a joke when you have trouble falling asleep and staying asleep.  Insomnia has been a constant feature of my life, the result of a lifetime of staying up late, sleeping late, eating late and otherwise violating the circadian cycle.  Many Americans are in the same boat, but word is getting out and people are learning.

Some are taking oral melatonin supplements available at the drugstore to fall asleep.  But we shouldn't have to take a fake product that our body should produce on its own.  I have a range of non-pharma supplements that help in a pinch, including valerian root, lavender oil, mulungu root, GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) veg caps, passion flower (a GABA promoter) and various sleep teas.  Tumeric root helps me relax and fall asleep if my aging body is sore.  I especially like using herbal supplements in powder form, without the veg caps.  I highly recommend Prepper Nutrients.  If you live in Northeast Ohio, drop in and talk to Vince, the owner, he's a real character!  And he ships to 126 nations of the world so you can order online.

I also occasionally take tryptophan in a veg cap.  But you have to be careful with ingesting tryptophan.  Our bodies each have a unique "Goldilocks" sweet spot level of serotonin and no two people are alike.  Taking oral tryptophan can create too much serotonin which can be just bad as not enough.  You can end up groggy all day the next day and possibly tip the neurotransmitter balance in the wrong direction, which can be very bad.   

It's sad that the drug store sells sugar-sweetened melatonin gummies for little kids.  Small children should not require sleep aides like their sick and elderly grandparents.  Childhood should be the healthiest time in their lives.  Also, the sugar in the gummies interfere with tryptophan uptake, thereby defeating the purpose.  This is why having a "midnight snack" messes up sleep and should be avoided.  

There is a dietary component to circadian rhythm.  Food in the belly raises blood sugar, providing energy to the cells and sending a message to the brain that it's still the active part of the day.  Eating late messes up your sleep cycle.  Sugar is the worst and eating sweets before bed will throw your body a curveball.  "Intermittent fasting" is all the rage lately where you do all your eating within 8-12 hours and have 12-16 hours each day without eating.  This allows your belly to be empty well ahead of bedtime which helps establish a proper circadian rhythm.  

Another major circadian disrupter is daylight savings time, especially "spring forward" in March.  Study after study has shown that there are more car wrecks in the morning when sleepy drivers hit the road an hour earlier than usual.  But worse, there are actually more heart attacks and strokes at DST clock changes as a result of this jolting of our internal circadian clocks.  This is a real, tangible distruption to our bodies and not a figment of our imagination.

People always tell me, "but I like that extra hour of sunlight in the evening."  I understand this argument very well since I've argued this myself for my entire adult life.  But the DST switchover gets harder and harder every year as you age.  Ideally, we should rise with the varying time of sunrise that ebbs and flows with the seasons, as did our pre-industrial ancestors.  Given that our bodies are hard-wired to rise with the Sun, consider what you actually do with that extra hour in the evening.  Pull weeds?  Take a walk?  You could do that in the cool of the morning before work instead of the hot evening.  You could instead jump start your day by saturating your ipRGCs with those 480 nm blue sky wavelengths before work rather than after.

Some groups want to skip the time change by switching to permanent DST year round.  In my area DST causes "high noon" to arrive at 1:27 PM.  In places like western Michigan, "high noon" arrives around 2:00 PM, the clock being two hours behind the Sun.  Other groups like SAVE STANDARD TIME want permanent standard time year round for various reasons.  All of these options are unnatural and decouple human timekeeping from the LORD's celestial lights.  

As I explained in this recent newsletter, I think we should revert altogether in every location to local time and use Universal Time (UT) to coordinate activities across disparate longitudes, such as plane flights and international conference calls.  Then the Sun would arrive at the meridian at "clock noon" for everyone.  Or, as I like to say, MAKE NOON NOON AGAIN.  But I don't expect to hold my breath for that ever happening in my lifetime!

Circadian Distruption From Artificial Light 

Perhaps the greatest source of circadian disruption is artificial light.  Our eyes, like the rest of the human organism, are created for living on a planet 93 million miles away from a yellow dwarf star.  That yellow dwarf emits a distinct continuous spectrum of wavelengths of visible light, with certain proportions of each color of the rainbow, and having a peak around the wavelength 600 nm, the yellow portion of the spectrum, hence the name "yellow dwarf."  While sunlight is a bit yellowish, it pretty much registers as white light.  Our eyes perceive "white" as the collective perception of all the colors in the continuous solar spectrum seen at the same time.   

Our eyes have three types of cones for detecting colors in different parts of the spectrum.  Each of these types of cones are most sensitive at their peak wavelength and less sensitive off to the sides of the curves.  The green cones are the most sensitive so our eyes have the strongest color response to green light.  The ipRGCs in our retinas help control pupil dilation which regulate the amount of light entering our eyes.  For this reason our pupils shrink in response to blue light and not red.

For many years incandescent lights were common, especially in the home.  These bulbs had a distinctly yellowish color and emitted very little blue light compared to other wavelengths.  Incandescents were better for circadian rhythm (though not ideal) since they did not emit as much light in the 480 nm range detected by the ipRGCs.  The incandescent bulb was the same basic design as Thomas Edison's original light bulb and was the standard indoor lighting for 150 years.

The longstanding problem of incandescent bulbs is that they are very inefficient, emitting much more infrared heat radiation than visible light and therefore more expensive to operate. This problem was widely discussed during the "energy crisis" of the 1970s and for decades thereafter.  

It had been common over the years to use fluorescent lights especially in offices and other commercial settings.  Fluorescents do not emit a continuous spectrum of white light like the Sun.  They only emit certain selective wavelengths having peaks that stimulate the 3 types of cones in our eyes.  So fluorescents emit a fake, simulated white light.  However, they are much more energy efficient, using about 1/4 of the energy of incandescents and emitting hardly no infrared heat radiation.

Many people (including me) find fluorescent lights to be hard on the eyes.  Plus the fixtures are more complicated and expensive than a simple screw-in incandescent fixture.  Moreover, fluorescents are rich in blue light and are thus significant circadian distruptors. So these are not ideal for home use.

Inefficient incandescent lights were banned during the Obama administration.  For a while the stores sold those "curly-cue"  cylindrical fluorescent lights (CFLs) but those were expensive and unpopular and had the same circadian problem.  

Commercial "cool white" LEDs hit the market during the Obama years and these have displaced most other light sources.  These lights have a strong peak in the high energy blue range around 450 nm but supposedly have a dip around 480 nm, so as to not disrupt circadian rhythms.  LEDs do a better job of imitating white light than fluorescents, but it's still a fake, unnatural spectrum clearly different from sunlight.

Since the blue peak is far into the high energy part of the visible spectrum, LEDs have a harsh, dazzling quality that tends to be hard on the eyes.  I don't care what they say about that 480 nm blue dip, LEDs tend to shock me awake no matter the hour of the day or night.  I especially hate them as headlights in oncoming vehiclea or as streetlights, and I try to avoid night driving for this reason.  They are "cool white" like icicles stabbing into my 60-some year old eyeballs.  I expect that someday they'll prove that white LEDs cause damage to the eyes.