Low HbA1c is as bad or worse than high HbA1c in non-diabetics

Low Hemoglobin A1c and Risk of All-Cause Mortality Among US Adults Without Diabetes

This study looked at roughly 14,000 NHANES III participants that were not diabetic.  I think this is an important distinction because it looks at differences in normal range, "free", if you will, of what the frank hyperglycemia associated with metabolic dysfunction might do to mean and/or median values.  Here is the hazard ratio plot:  

Adjusted hazard ratios for the association between HbA1c and all-cause mortality among participants without diabetes using a quadratic spline with knots at the 2.5, 10, 50, 90, and 97.5 percentiles. Adjusted for age, race-ethnicity, sex, lifestyle factors (education, income, current smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, body mass index, and aspirin use), cardiovascular factors (systolic blood pressure, antihypertensive medication use, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, log triglycerides, elevated C-reactive protein, and history of CVD), metabolic factors (prior diagnosis of thyroid disease, thyroid-stimulating hormone, estimated glomerular filtration rate, and albuminuria), red blood cell indices (hemoglobin, red blood cell distribution width, mean cell volume, and serum folate), iron storage indices (serum albumin, ferritin, and transferrin saturation), and liver function indices (hepatitis C seropositivity, AST, and ALT). Knots were placed at 4.3%, 4.7%, 5.3%, 5.9%, and 6.2%, representing HbA1c levels at the 2.5, 10, 50, 90, and 97.5 percentiles; shaded area represents 95% CI.

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A tale of two "Wheat Bellies"

Before Dr. William Davis' name became synonymous with the elusive* Wheat Belly, he was well known for his subscription Track Your Plaque website.   This website currently charges $90 (all prices rounded) for the first year with yearly renewals at $72, for the basic membership ... more for shorter "contracts".  That's just the membership fee, that basically affords you discounts on various TYP products such as your Basic Membership Kit for $70 (reg. $110) or a Supplement Kit for $175 (reg. $215) or the testing kit for a cool $530 (reg. $570).   In the marketplace you can purchase all manner of testing supplies, etc.  

Now Davis is a huge backer of Jimmy Moore's Cholesterol Clarity book.  He contributed to it as an expert, provided an Editorial Review for Amazon.com and, as if that weren't enough, offered up a glowing 5 Star review on same, entitled Cholesterol bashing at its finest.  In it he writes:

Widely-held beliefs, many of them propagated by "official" agencies like the FDA, USDA, American Heart Association, Academy of Dietetics and Nutrition, American Diabetes Association, etc., are crumbling under the scrutiny of informed people uninfluenced by the pharmaceutical industry, agribusiness, or the excessive profiteering ways of modern "healthcare."

Uninfluenced by them, but influenced by profiteers and profiteers in their own right nonetheless.

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Where do triglycerides come from? Part I (Updated)

This post contains sufficient updates from the original (dated 5/11/11) that I consider it more of a fully updated version vs. a bump.   This began with my intent to link to this post in an upcoming discussion of triglycerides, when I noticed that Dr. Ronald Krauss was amongst the authors.   This study originally caught my eye because of   Marc Hellerstein's name, he of DNL not a major pathway in humans fame, that I've blogged on previously.

Now I have excerpted copiously from the discussion because the authors make several points relevant to the discussion of what comprises a healthy lipid profile.  As part of updating, I am breaking those excerpts up a bit more and adding some/more emphasis and additional commentary.

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The Vascular Functions of Insulin

Random Replay

Was having a discussion on FB about insulin this morning and while going through some blog posts this one popped up.  I find reading some old stuff interesting at times ... this is over 3 years old.  

If someone goes on a low carb diet and this manages their hyperglycemia, this is a classic example of treating symptoms while not addressing the cause of the problem which is pancreatic beta cell dysfunction, and in the case of the T2, coupled with hepatic insulin resistance.  

What low carb doesn't do is restore normal insulin secretion and signaling, and insulin plays many roles in the body beyond glucose transport.  For one, it also assists amino acid transport (and protein synthesis) which is why the IR often have elevated circulating levels of the most insulinogenic (e.g. insulin requiring) amino acids, the BCAAs.  

This post is a flashback of some of the other things insulin does.  Further it discusses the role of NEFA in all of this ... the forgotten biomarker I think most low carbers with whacky lipids should have measured as they are likely elevated.  

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Jimmy Moore's Cholesterol Clarity ~ Ongoing Review and Information ~ Most Recent Update 9/19/13

The original opening to this post can be read by scrolling to the end or using your browser search function to find ##### .

The intent of a single post is that for as long as this content is relevant, I will add new information to this post and "bump" it to the top of the feed.  If it grows to be unmanageable, I'll have sections with search strings for easy navigation.  For now, each update will get popped to the top of the feed reader.  New "entries" will be at the top, and will be separated from prior content with "▼▼ Content added XX/XX/XX ▼▼".    Different topics within each update will be separated by ***** and a horizontal line ... like this:

***** ▼▼ Content added 9/19/13 ▼▼ 

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Interpreting Cholesterol Panels?

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When Size Matters (and when it doesn't) ...

Off the bat notice:  This will not be one of my usual referenced posts.  It's off the top of my head but based on research and the statements of others made in the past.  So if I get something wrong please let me know, if you want links and references, please ask and as soon as time permits I will get to them.  I am very busy with other matters besides this blog at the moment so please be patient.  Thanks!  

I think it is fair to say that Dr. Dayspring is "the particle number guy".  For good reason.  Of the various lipoprotein biomarker predictors these days, apoB and LDL-P seem to be the leaders of the pack.  But what of LDL-C?   For all the caution expressed by those clinging to TWICHOO about not throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater, these same people seem more than willing to throw out the bathtub, fixtures and attached plumbing!

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Today is a very special day ...

... no longer does the name Gary Taubes hold a position in the five most popular posts of all time here.  

I think that's a good thing.  His ill-conceived hypothesis that is unsupported by a plethora of solid scientific evidence is no longer a hot topic in the carb-wars on the internet.  I see that as a good thing, because despite convincing some hedge fund guys to fund NuSI, it never was much of a hot topic in the real world.  

My work here is done.

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11 Unexpected Health Hazards Of The Atkins Diet Besides Weight Gain

Random Repost

Well, I don't know how many of my regular blog readers follow that Twitter update over there on the sidebar, or check me out on Facebook, but the past day or so has been quite interesting!  Apparently Jimmy Moore is very upset that anyone would dare to post anything other than a stevia coated endorsement of Cholesterol Clarity and he's marshaled the troops!   On Friday, within a matter of hours the number of reviews almost doubled because he was very upset that there were negative reviews there!  I guess sales aren't so hot so he needed his friends to post even more 5-star platitudes to drown out the few negatives.  More on that at some point....  But one of his fans seemed especially bothered that I might give the book a mere 2 stars (one more than the book itself deserves).  This would be Dr. Bill Wilson of The CARB Syndrome Project!  Most folks probably haven't heard of him, and they are probably better off keeping it that way.  Basically he believes that carbs scramble and fry your brains and I have now been diagnosed as being in the latter stages.  He wrote a post all about it.  He emailed me the link.  He linked to it in comments here.  He posted it on Facebook.  

In his keen diagnosis, and he reminds us he's been a doctor for 35 years now, Dr. Wilson cites (without linked attribution) two comments of mine, one of which came verbatim from this post, the other probably from a comment, but I mention insomnia here.  I've kept the post as is, but bolded in red the symptoms he cites.  Perhaps the good doctor should address Diane Sanfilippo, or any one of the other various and sundry low carb and/or paleo zombies out there suffering from insomnia and the ensuing fatigue ... due to their sugar detoxes!    Yes, doctor,  “I was fatigued from time to time from sleep deprivation as I had raging insomnia” ... WHEN I WAS LOW CARB.  Checking those off your list.  You're barking up the wrong tree for sure looking at me.

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Heat, Entropy & Thermogenesis

A summary post of ideas here, that I've likely stated elsewhere on the blog but wanted to gather in one place.  

Last week on Facebook, to the detriment of his credentials and credibility, Jason Boehm posted and deleted a post about calories and the Second Law of Thermo.  I queried what it had to do with the original point which was more of a 500 cals spinach vs. 500 cals Coke type nonsense, so he did address that in a second FB post that stands (minus lots of relevant input from people he deleted, labeled hateful and pretty much had a kitten over ... nobody called him a moron BTW, that's a clever tactic of those that can't hold up their end of an intellectual debate on the science ... can't leave the self-incriminating evidence).   But I digress.

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JimKKKins: The Saga of Jimmy Moore and David Duke

Random Replay:

I had just recently updated this post to put the summary and links but didn't think it was necessary to bump.  As far as I was concerned, this whole sad saga was in the past, and the members of the paleo and low carb communities spoke with their actions, for better or worse.  Newbies will find it pinned on the sidebar as the most popular post here ... not exactly sure what that means in the end.  I still can't for the life of me figure out why people continue to promote this guy, but to each their own.    Just they can't say they didn't know ... and Jimmy can't claim to be wrongfully accused ... and I still think the Paleo community could learn a thing or two from the Paula Deen story ... 

But then this past week,  Jimmy Moore is at it again bringing up this issue.  Why I have no idea, because one would think he would rather this faded away into the archives.  But in a really strange turn of events, Joe Salama of The Paleo Movement interviewed Jimmy Moore and Jack Kruse:  Jimmy Moore and Jack Kruse discuss controversy within the Paleo community.  

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