upright & seeking nutrition

I was asked recently whether alpha-lipoic-acid might help neuropathy in the feet. The research showed that it did but that the improvement is temporary, about 3 – 7 months. Since neuropathy is common in diabetes and diabetes is a model of an inability to burn glucose for nutrient support, I supposed that neuropathy in non-diabetics is a model of ineffective metabolism that burns mostly fatty acids because it can no longer use glucose at a fast enough rate to prevent nerve impairment, even without a diabetic diagnosis. Because diabetics are more vulnerable to cancer than non-diabetics it seems clear to me that not supplying the metabolism with glucose by not eating dense carbs, eating polyunsaturated fats, forcing the body into burning fatty acids is dangerous even though the cultural messaging is exactly the opposite, especially in the medical community. It is risky the same way radon in the basement or arsenic in well water is: everyone seems to think its harmless while the dama...

What has come to be called “peating” is really “you-ing” and is a new, but also old, way of being embedded and developing continually in one’s environment.  Many people have questions that mostly revolve around being stuck at some point in the process of trying to switch from a lifelong stress metabolism to a better state.  It wouldn’t be unusual to think only, “I want to be not anxious, not depressed, not fatigued.”  But they have nothing much more to say about it.  This is instructive because persons in this state have an idea that things could be better, but they aren’t sure exactly what “better” might feel like.  This is a good example of the oppressiveness of a low physiological state, low metabolism and the intelligence to improve.  If a person says, “I want to lose weight,” or, “I want to have more sex,” then these are good goals in a given context, but they are limited by the very metabolic constraints of stress that make it hard to think better, ...

"Bad food and other stressors can degrade the whole system, producing functional rigidities similar to those resulting from a bad up-bringing, but if a person has a hint of the way things could be, the system can recover, sometimes with a change of diet, or climate, or of mental context-possibilities, or a missing hormone. If a person has a very rigid idea of how existence is supposed to be, the changed metabolism from taking thyroid, for example, making energy flow strongly, can seem as unpleasant as being in a foreign culture." -Raymond Peat When you discover that you can genuinely de-stress your metabolism from the inside out, you could expect many good effects.  Depending on how long you have had an adrenalin/cortisol-and-inflammation dominant metabolism, your shift from frenetic to esthetic can be smooth and relatively short, or it can be a long-term project, like getting a whole new education from the beginning.  A whole new education is not always possible becau...

It’s a common misconception that suicides spike in the winter months because of the depressing effects of dark and cold.  They actually spike in April, May and June, the late spring and early summer.   The rate is lowest in winter.   This is true in the northern hemisphere.   In the southern hemisphere suicides spike in September and October, which is springtime there.   Maybe the spike is the result of accumulating stress over winter.   If there were available, inexpensive nutrition and supplements that mitigated the accumulation of stress over the winter, then these substances would be valuable.   If these could be used well with the least amount of expert advice, then wouldn’t this lead people to improve their confidence in themselves as the agents of their own well-being?   Might what winter contributes to the alienation of sensitive people be tamed enough to encourage thriving rather than cutting, burning, bulimia, suicide?   If mitig...