Life is fast.  We use up our internal “stuff” very quickly.

What “stuff”?  Anything involving energy, materials, and all that passes information.

And what happens to it?  It gets recycled.

Without recycling, we don’t live.  Not so surprisingly, improving or speeding that recycling appears to create positive health outcomes.  They include changes from long life to fighting off diabetes and weight gain.

Just like in any ecosystem, it pays to recycle.

After Birth

A large part of cellular recycling has become actively studied as “autophagy” – literally “self eating.”

Research done quite some years ago stopped autophagy in animals recently born.

They died.

Some argued that this simply led to an increase in toxins.  Other felt quite differently – that the materials required for life had to be reused.

So what happens when you don’t have enough materials?

Caloric Restriction

Lots of people want to live long – a lot longer.

They’re excited by many studies of animals of caloric restriction – cutting down the amount of food energy and materials that comes into a body over a lifetime.

Restrict rats and mice to 2/3 of their normal calorie intake – keeping the proportion of protein, carbohydrates and fats stable, and making sure there’s enough required vitamins and minerals – and they live about 50% longer.

In other animals, similar results occur.  In worms and “small” animals, lifespans can be even more dramatically lengthened.  So far, various apes kept on smaller diets appear to physically age less quickly, and demonstrate lower lipid levels and blood pressure.

Will the same thing happen with humans?  In coming decades, we’ll have to ask that question of the many people presently trying to live on 1000-1300 calories.

In the meantime, we can see what caloric restriction does in cells.

One way it seems to work is to increase recycling.  Autophagosomes, organelles (cells have organelles, bodies have organs) that recycle materials – and sometimes “burn” them for fuel – markedly increase when caloric restriction is attempted.

When you don’t have enough material to get the job done, you recycle what you have.

Exercise

People have been asking me about an article I wrote on “Why Exercise Works?” They wonder what possibly could be the mechanism.

One answer – physical activity immediately increases autophagosomes.  Their number skyrockets when animals exercise.

Much like it does with caloric restriction.

Why could that be?

When you exercise, you use up a lot of energy.  You may quickly use up pumping proteins in the heart, and glucose and fat molecules in your peripheral muscles.  More waste products are produced as you use more stuff.

Sounds like a perfect time for recycling – to reuse the materials you can, and then wall off and modify the “garbage” left that you can’t.

And unlike human communities, people don’t have large “garbage fills” to stick the stuff away for what we presume is forever.

There’s no Staten Island to stick your refuse – not in the human body.

So when you use more, you recycle more.  And the recycling machinery expands – and becomes more efficient.

Recycling and Regeneration

Use more, recycle more.  Have less to work with, recycle more.

You need to recycle in order to regenerate.  And you need to regenerate in order to survive.

And thrive.
Rest, sleep, Sarasota Sleep Doctor, well-being, regeneration, longevity, body clocks, insomnia, sleep disorders, the rest doctor, matthew edlund, the power of rest, the body clock, psychology today, huffington post, redbook, longboat key news

The American health care system is failing. As it falls, many get hurt.

One of the biggest groups are those without health insurance,  particularly those  who receive emergency medical care in hospitals – including “charity” hospitals.

An article in the Febuary 13^th New York Times what happens when people can’t pay emergency bills.

One nurse had a disabled son who needed emergency brain surgery.   The son had been suddenly dropped from her regular health insurance in 2007 – without explanation.

There was no choice except to perform an immediate procedure.  Since that time, his mother has tried to negotiate a payment plan for the $41,000 bill.

By law she can file for financial aid.  Yet in her case, as in others, NY hospitals have declared the paperwork “unfinished.” Their paperwork somehow never qualifies.

Now the $41,000 bill has been sold to a collection agency.  The person who answers the phone calls?  Their brain damaged son, now 24.

Laws and Obfuscations

The old saying there’s a “right way, a wrong way, and the Army way” is particularly true in health care.  Different insurers pay different amounts on what would otherwise be the same bills – every day.  Hospitals doing charity care find themselves deeply in arrears.

So they charge the people without insurance through the nose – often much higher amounts than they charge insurance companies.

People often can’t afford them.  Yet many still have some assets.

One way to collect?  Put a lien on your home.

An emergency medical bill on a relative can then became the way to bankruptcy – and loss  of your  domicile.

Enforcement of financial aid laws for charity cases has been lax, to say the least.  Many hospitals receiving tens of millions a year for “charity care” continue to dun patients who are on disability and welfare.

They don’t have the money.

Power and Process

The convolutions of American health care could not have been invented.  They have evolved through a crazy quilt of insurers, hospitals, doctors, device companies, Big Pharma, Pharmacy Benefit Companies, and multiple government agencies that work more at cross purposes than together.

And now the money isn’t there.

At 2.7 trillion dollars, American health care takes in 17-18% of our GDP.

What will be the next evolution of the system?  That depends on who has the power and who has the cash – and how they use it.

Since the Citizen’s United decision, corporations and unions have carte blanche to launch devastating attacks on politicians they don’t like.  They can even do it in secret.

With at least 17% of the economy at stake, you can bet the campaign money will be there – when it’s needed.  Health insurers alone will be able to put a mere 1% of their annual revenues and spend $10 million to support or denigrate every person in Congress – and still have more than $2 billion left to spend on the media.

The upshot – don’t expect bold political experiments to make health care work.

You’ll have to protect yourself.  And your goal should be health, not health care.

Because affording health care will be harder than ever.

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The CDC reports that Americans are taking in large amounts of salt – on average 3266 mg – before the salt added at the dining room table.   Much of it is coming from processed foods and restaurant meals.

Why Should We Care?

The more salt you take in, the more high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease you see in a population.  Cardiovascular disease is the main cause of death in the country.

Where Did the Salt Come From?

Number 1 – Bread and rolls.  The rest of the CDC’s  top ten list:

2. Cold cuts/cured meats

3. Pizza

4. Poultry

5. Soups

6. Sandwiches

7. Cheese

8. Mixed pasta

9. Mixed meat dishes

10.  “Savory” snacks

Most of these food sources were processed foods.  We really do love them.

How much of the total salt intake came from processed food?

65%.

How much came from restaurants?

25%.

How many deaths would be prevented by decreasing salt intake by a third?

Present estimate – 81,000 a year.

How much Salt Do We Really Need?

It’s almost impossible to get an “American” diet with less than 1000 mg a day.  We perhaps require 70-90 mg a day through loss in urine and skin.

Why Do We Take In So Much Salt?

As with sugar it helps things taste good.  Restaurants without salt in their food are frequently restaurants that won’t stay in business.

Can We Be Trained to “Need” Less Salt?

Absolutely.  Olfactory nerves – a large part of taste – are completely replaced in around 6-8 weeks (internally they regenerate much faster.)  There is so much salt in many natural foods that we don’t need to add anything to get enough.

Are Kids Being Trained to Require Lots of Salt?

Curiously, most of the food categories – with the exception of “savory snacks”  and cheese – more popular than the young than the old – don’t vary much through the lifecycle.

Still,  it appears that kids are being conditioned to large amounts of salt – as they are to eating large amounts of sugar.

How Can We Fix the Problem?

Have people eat whole foods – and cook for themselves.

Why Won’t That Happen?

Heavily salted foods are often the cheapest – as in very long preserved cans of soup.  McDonald’s now cooks about 7% of American meals.  Their food contains lots of government subsidized high fructose corn syrup and very large amounts of salt.

Why Do Whole Natural Foods Help?

Data show that salt intake is not the only issue  – intake of potassium makes a big difference.

If people can eat lots of fruits and vegetables, they increase their potassium to sodium ratio.  Do that, and you can markedly decrease the risk of death from high blood pressure – even when people’s blood pressure remains higher than it should.

Why Is This Problem So Difficult?

According to government statistics, 31% of the population has high blood pressure.  Only about half have it in partially controlled.

High blood pressure is generally asymptomatic.  People respond far more directly to symptomatic diseases than silent ones – even if asymptomatic ones kill them.

How Could We Change All This?

Make health the national priority – not health care.  Educate kids about salt. Encourage and subsidize vegetable and fruit consumption.  Put salt contents next to menus in restaurants and schools.  Pay GPs to talk to patients about salt, sugar and diet – and pay them to control blood pressure.

Nature just ran an editorial about taxing sugar like we do alcohol.

There won’t be any legislation to tax salt.  Salt is too necessary to preserving food.

We love salt.  We should get what we need.

Just not that much more.Rest, sleep, Sarasota Sleep Doctor, well-being, regeneration, longevity, body clocks, insomnia, sleep disorders, the rest doctor, matthew edlund, the power of rest, the body clock, psychology today, huffington post, redbook, longboat key news