Saturday silliness: Astrology & Abuse.

Now there's a curious mixture of subjects.

Piss-keys or Pie-sees?

John Cassis said:- "It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice."

I'm Piscean and Pisceans don't believe in astrology ;-) My logical brain tells me that it's a load of cobblers, but when I read an astrological assessment for my birth date, my mind was blown by how it had my personality down to a T. I asked a friend to read a print-out. When she'd finished reading, I asked her what she thought. She said that it was accurate in terms of personality and likes. How does that work?

A Piscean trait manifested itself last Wednesday. A blogger (who I'm not going to name) posted a status on his blog's Facebook page, calling a female science blogger a fat c*nt, along with a link to an edited sound file of an interview she did years ago in which she was nervous, lampooning her.

I commented, saying that he wasn't qualified to judge people on matters of science and that the woman's physical characteristics were irrelevant to science (the ad hominem fallacy). He commented, telling me to f*ck off. I commented, saying that he was funny when he was drunk. A while later, he blocked me from leaving further comments on his Facebook page. Hmph!

To cut a long story short, I de-liked his Facebook page, blocked him personally on Facebook, blocked all email addresses containing his website name or surname on my ISP's email server and blocked him from leaving comments here. I removed him from my life.

This time, it's forever. No hard feelings, it's how I roll.

Update: The offending post has been removed. If you ever read this, thank you for doing that.

It's not Friday the 13th, but... Part 2

In It's not Friday the 13th, but..., I had a picture of my then new Solar PV installation.

1.35kWp Solar PV using Kyocera 135W panels + 2kWp Solar thermal using 100W Thermomax tubes.

As the Solar thermal tubes were no longer heating the hot water much (they were installed in 1991), I decided to upgrade my system. It now looks like this...

3.5kWp Solar PV, using Hyundai 250W panels.

Of the twenty 100W Thermomax evacuated heat-pipe solar collector tubes, only one still worked.

The limescale-coated bulb at the bottom is very hot!

Hot water is now heated by the immersion heater in the tank in the airing cupboard, using spare electricity that's been generated but not used. This is controlled by a gizmo called an immerSUN. See below. The immerSUN is at top left. The inverter is at bottom right.

The current-sensing transformer is the black thing around the red wire, sitting on the black fuse.

The water from the hot tap is now hot enough to make instant coffee!

As the company that installed the upgrade had previously only installed systems to properties previous without Solar PV, they thought that I would receive the current Feed-In Tariff rate, which is 16.56p/kWh, including 50% export Tariff. This is much lower than the Feed-In Tariff rate that I was receiving for my 1.35kWp installation, which was 47p/kWh, including 50% export Tariff. They suggested that I phone ScottishPower (my energy supplier) for clarification.

The good news is that I will receive 47p/kWh for 1.35kW and 16.56p/kWh for the additional 2.15kW, making a net Feed-In Tariff of 28.3p/kWh, including 50% export Tariff. That's 71% more than I thought I'd get.

Based on PVGIS data (postcode-dependent), the system should generate 3,210kWh/annum. That's £908/annum in Tariffs + ~£240/annum in saved electricity consumption + ~£50/annum in saved gas consumption = ~£1,198/annum. The system cost £7,700 including VAT, so ROI is 15.6%. Feed-In Tariffs increase by ~5%/annum and energy prices increase by ~14%/annum, so the system should pay for itself in ~5 years.

Resistance is useless!

...said the Vogon guard. If that means nothing to you, watch this...


You probably know all about Insulin Resistance (IR) if you've read my blog for some time, as I may have mentioned it once or twice ;-) There's also Leptin Resistance (LR) in the brain, which reduces the amount of appetite suppression that leptin is supposed to produce. Robb Wolf's just written about Adrenaline Resistance (AR?) and chronically-high serum cortisol seems to induce Cortisol Resistance (CR?) in the hippocampus, resulting in poor short-term memory.

When the level of "X" in the blood is low most of the time, "X" receptors in the body up-regulate, so when the level of "X" in the blood goes high, it has an effect. When the level of "X" in the blood is high all of the time, "X" receptors in the body down-regulate, so when the level of "X" in the blood goes higher, it has a reduced effect.

The above suggests that regularly "grazing" on food is not a good idea, as this results in a fairly constant slightly elevated serum insulin level. Eating a meal, not eating for a few hours then eating another meal results in high serum insulin while the meal is being absorbed and low serum insulin for the rest of the time.

Paleo diet: Dr. Loren Cordain's rebuttal to the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Loren Cordain is considered by many to be the founder of the Pal(a)eolithic diet.

From http://thepaleodiet.com/dr-loren-cordain/

He wrote this:- Rebuttal to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences June 2013 Papers

"In summary, recent comprehensive analyses (1-3) of δ13C values in the enamel of African hominins from 4.1 to 1.5 MYA support the conclusion that plants of C4 origin were ultimately responsible for this isotopic signature. Nevertheless, when the isotopic data is triangulated from archaeological, physiological and nutrition evidence, it is apparent that the C4 signature in ancestral African hominin enamel almost certainly is resultant from increased consumption of animals that consumed C4 plants."

EDIT: Hat-tip to Robb Wolf.

Why: blogging is great, my brain is like Kefir and you don't have to be slightly insane.

I'm Torn between two images from Google Image Search, so here's both of them.

From bloggersinspiration.com

and

From www.corephp.com

Blogging is stimulating. Someone blogs about something. That gives me a new idea, so I blog about that. That gives other bloggers a new idea, so they blog about that. And so on, ad infinitum. It's great!

Kefir takes hard-to-digest milk proteins and ferments them into something more easily digestible. My brain takes hard-to-digest concepts and "ferments" them into something more easily understandable.

Another blogger said "You May Think I'm a Nutter. But I'm not the only one." You don't have to be slightly insane to be a blogger...but it helps! ;-)

Completing the trine: Which are the safest fats?

First, watch this video by Chris Masterjohn.

Diets very high in pufas (polyunsaturates) are not beneficial to heart health or longevity. Flora? No thanks!

Here's a chart. The beige & grey bars represent pufas (omega-6 & omega-3).

Comparison of dietary fats

The yellow bars represent monounsaturates and the orangey-red bars represent saturates. I consider these to be harmless, as long as you don't go mad and eat them in such large amounts that you gain weight.

Bearing in mind the information in the video, plus the information in Fats: Spawn of Satan or Dogs' Doodads? , I use only fats from the bottom 6 for cooking (olive oil and butter, actually).

Flaxseed oil can be used as an omega-3 supplement for vegetarian/vegan women, as omega-3 pufas are as rare as rocking-horse poo in most foods (apart from oily fish).

Non-vegetarian/vegan people can get their long-chain omega-3 pufas (EPA & DHA) from oily fish. As vegetarian/vegan men barely produce any DHA from the omega-3 in flaxseed oil, they should get it from algal DHA supplements. See Extremely Limited Synthesis of Long Chain Polyunsaturates in Adults: Implications for their Dietary Essentiality and use as Supplements.

Defending the indefensible: Gary Taubes and *that* statement about gluttony.

Here's another "video" (it has sound and static images only). As I haven't learned how to embed a YouTube video that starts at a specific time, here's a link to it and a picture of it:- Gary Taubes' "Why We Get Fat" IMS Lecture On August 12, 2010 (Part 8 of 8), starting at 8 minutes and 13 seconds in.

To quote: "You can basically exercise as much gluttony as you want, as long as you're eating fat and protein."

Itsthewoo told me that Taubes was being ironic i.e. he was joking. I call bull-shit on that, for the following reasons.

1) You don't joke about something as important as diet, in a video that's likely to be heard by many people.

2) If you are foolish enough to joke about something as important as diet, you make 100% certain that listeners know that you're joking, by stating in the very next sentence that the preceding sentence was a joke. Taubes didn't do that.

3) I didn't hear chortling or any other audible clue that Taubes was joking. Did you?

I therefore conclude that itsthewoo is hearing (and seeing) the world through "cognitive bias" Weird Filters , resulting in her hearing what she wants to hear. Sorry!

The proteins are the problem: Safe proteins for people with compromised gut integrity.

First, Matt Lalonde Ph.D's video "The Science Behind the Paleolithic Diet."

The title of this post comes from Matt Lalonde. As mentioned in Keep 'em tight., about 10% of healthy blood donors have antibodies in their blood to something that shouldn't be in their blood - gliadin. How do gliadin fragments get into the blood? Compromised gut integrity (a.k.a. Leaky gut).

It's possible to repair compromised gut integrity, as mentioned in the above post. In the meantime, it's advisable to avoid "problem proteins" and eat only "safe proteins". Which proteins are the problem?

1) Prolamines: Prolamines are a group of plant storage proteins having a high proline content and found in the seeds of cereal grains: wheat (gliadin), barley (hordein), rye (secalin), corn (zein), sorghum (kafirin) and as a minor protein, avenin in oats.

2) Casein: Of the six major protein types in cow's milk, four are casein proteins and the other two are whey proteins. The caseins usually make up about 80% of the protein in cow's milk. Cheese is ~100% caseins. As Matt said, caseins are also high in proline. Whey is rapidly digested (which is why it's used by bodybuilders post-workout) so it's pretty safe.

3) Anything that makes you feel ill: As everyone is different, this could be anything (peanuts, eggs, shellfish, tomatoes etc). If "X" makes you feel ill, stop eating "X" until your gut is working 100% correctly. There's a possibility that your gut will never work 100% correctly. Which proteins are safe?

Rice, quinoa & amaranth contain generally safe proteins. Properly-cooked legumes (peas, beans & lentils) contain generally safe proteins. Seeds contain generally safe proteins, but most types are very high in omega-6 fats (except for chia & linseeds). Tubers, root veggies & buckwheat contain pretty safe proteins. Meats & fish contain pretty safe proteins.

Pigging-out on safe proteins, (resulting in significant amounts of incompletely-digested proteins reaching the lower intestine) is asking for trouble. Ditto for eating excessive amounts of fruit with or shortly after eating safe proteins, as this increases the speed of peristalsis, which increases the amount of incompletely-digested proteins reaching the lower intestine.

That's all for now. If anything else comes to mind (or if you come up with a bright idea), I'll add it.

Grains & soyabeans: more bad news.

Jamie Scott (THAT PALEO GUY) has been doing some digging and found more dirt on...

From http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Various_grains.jpg

See Wheat amylase trypsin inhibitors drive intestinal inflammation via activation of toll-like receptor 4.
"We identify the α-amylase/trypsin inhibitors (ATIs) CM3 and 0.19, pest resistance molecules in wheat, as strong activators of innate immune responses in monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. ATIs engage the TLR4-MD2-CD14 complex and lead to up-regulation of maturation markers and elicit release of proinflammatory cytokines in cells from celiac and nonceliac patients and in celiac patients' biopsies. Mice deficient in TLR4 or TLR4 signaling are protected from intestinal and systemic immune responses upon oral challenge with ATIs. These findings define cereal ATIs as novel contributors to celiac disease. Moreover, ATIs may fuel inflammation and immune reactions in other intestinal and nonintestinal immune disorders."

See Impact of antinutritional factors in food proteins on the digestibility of protein and the bioavailability of amino acids and on protein quality.
"Examples of naturally occurring antinutritional factors include glucosinolates in mustard and canola protein products, trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinins in legumes, tannins in legumes and cereals, gossypol in cottonseed protein products, and uricogenic nucleobases in yeast protein products."

"Among common food and feed protein products, soyabeans are the most concentrated source of trypsin inhibitors. The presence of high levels of dietary trypsin inhibitors from soyabeans, kidney beans or other grain legumes have been reported to cause substantial reductions in protein and amino acid digestibility (up to 50 %) and protein quality (up to 100 %) in rats and/or pigs."

"Normally encountered levels of phytates in cereals and legumes can reduce protein and amino acid digestibility by up to 10 %. D-amino acids and LAL formed during alkaline/heat treatment of lactalbumin, casein, soya protein or wheat protein are poorly digestible (less than 40 %), and their presence can reduce protein digestibility by up to 28 % in rats and pigs, and can cause a drastic reduction (100 %) in protein quality, as measured by rat growth methods. The adverse effects of antinutritional factors on protein digestibility and protein quality have been reported to be more pronounced in elderly rats (20-months old) compared to young (5-weeks old) rats, suggesting the use of old rats as a model for assessing the protein digestibility of products intended for the elderly."

I eat grains, also peas, beans & lentils, but not as a dietary staple. I make sure that they're thoroughly cooked at 100°C.

Organic is best!

I'm not talking about vegetables, though.

The above display panel is 4mm thick. Wow! There are 0.3mm thick panels in development. Double-wow!

OLEDs can also be used for lighting.

For more information, see OLED-Info. When I first heard about organic LED's, I thought "They'll have too short a life to catch on." Oh, whoops!

EDIT: I've just spotted Organic Light Emitting Transistors (OLETs). Oh, Myyy!

Trilayer OLET device and chemical structure

Rigid diets & taking loadsa supplements to compensate for them.

I do not believe you want to be doing that!

This post was inspired by a recently-published study by Alan Aragon & Brad Schoenfeld, as bodybuilders are a group of people who often eat a rigid diet (some eat skinless chicken breasts, broccoli & brown rice for several meals each day).

See Nutrient timing revisited: is there a post-exercise anabolic window?
"Collectively, these data indicate an increased potential for dietary flexibility while maintaining the pursuit of optimal timing."

This post is also aimed at people who eat severely restricted diets in the (often mistaken) belief that something's making them ill.

People with type 1 diabetes who struggle to keep their blood glucose within reasonable limits (3 to 8mmol/L, or 24 to 144mg/dL) benefit from restricting their intake of high-GL carbohydrates, so this post is not aimed at them. See The problem with Diabetes.

People with type 2 diabetes who severely restrict their intake of carbohydrates must be in caloric deficit, otherwise the physiological insulin resistance caused by high serum NEFAs will mess up just about everything in their body if they are in caloric balance or caloric excess. I've read (so it could be false) that a certain non-skinny blogger who I'm in conflict with (who has type 2 diabetes and who eats a VLC diet) has heart problems and is taking medication(s) for high blood pressure. Hmmm.

People who suffer from gastrointestinal problems after eating gluten-containing foods, or mucus after eating casein-containing foods may have impaired gut integrity. See Gluten - more than just a pain in the guts?

Supplements that I consider of positive value are:-

Fish oils: If the diet is low in oily fish (tinned tuna is not an oily fish), there may be insufficient EPA & DHA (especially in men, children & post-menopausal women). Women of reproductive age can get away with taking flaxseed oil.

Magnesium: If the diet is low in veg/high in dairy, there may be too much Calcium relative to Magnesium.

Vitamin D3: If the lifestyle results in sun-avoidance, insufficiency in Vitamin D is highly likely.

Vitamin K2: If the diet is low in animal fats and/or fermented foods, insufficiency in Vitamin K2 is highly likely.

Supplements that I consider of negative value are:-

Vitamin A: If there's an insufficiency in Vitamin D, supplementing with Vitamin A/β-carotene may exacerbate it. As Vitamin D + Calcium may reduce cancer risk, supplementing with Vitamin A absent Vitamin D3 may increase cancer risk.

Vitamin E: If there's an insufficiency in γ-tocopherol, supplementing with α-tocopherol may exacerbate it. As γ-tocopherol may reduce CHD mortality risk, supplementing with α-tocopherol absent γ-tocopherol may increase CHD mortality risk. Most Vitamin E supplements contain α-tocopherol only. Some Vitamin E supplements contain mixed tocopherols and these are O.K.

Gizmag: Injectable nanoparticles maintain normal blood-sugar levels for up to 10 days.

Fascinating technology featured in Gizmag & posted by someone HERE.

The nano-network that releases insulin in response to changes in blood sugar

"The injectable nano-network is made up of a mixture that contains nanoparticles with a solid core or insulin, modified dextran (which is commonly used to reduce blood viscosity), and glucose oxidase enzymes. When exposed to high levels of glucose, the enzymes convert glucose into gluconic acid, which breaks down the modified dextran to release the insulin. The gluconic acid and dextran, which are biocompatible, dissolve in the body, while the insulin brings the glucose levels under control.

The nanoparticles are given a positively or negatively charged biocompatible coating so that when they are mixed together, they are attracted to each other to form a “nano-network.” The positively charged coatings are made of chitosan, a material found in shrimp shells that has also found applications in self-healing car paint, while the negatively charged coatings are made of alginate, a material normally found in seaweed."

Wow! Cool bananas!

When the only tool in the box is a hammer...

Everything that needs fixing looks like a nail.

People with diabetes mellitus are issued with blood glucose meters - and nothing else.

For people with type 1 diabetes, that's fine. They lack insulin, so they have to inject insulin in the right amounts & types to keep their blood glucose levels within reasonable limits. Applying Bernstein's Law of small numbers by reducing glycaemic load to a minimum keeps blood glucose levels within reasonable limits (between 3 & 7mmol/L) most of the time. See also The problem with Diabetes.

For people with type 2 diabetes and excessive visceral (belly) fat (~85% of people with type 2 diabetes), that's not fine. Their disease is a disease of chronic excess intake relative to oxidation, causing fasting dyseverythingaemia
(hyperglycaemia, hypercholesterolaemia, hyperNEFAaemia, hypertriglyceridaemia, hyperuricaemia, etc). People who have type 2 diabetes don't have only postprandial hyperglycaemia - they also have postprandial hypertriglyceridaemia. See Lifestyle Intervention Leading to Moderate Weight Loss Normalizes Postprandial Triacylglycerolemia Despite Persisting Obesity. Postprandial hypertriglyceridaemia is atherogenic. See Ultra-high-fat (~80%) diets: The good, the bad and the ugly.

However, because the only tool in the box of someone with type 2 diabetes is a blood glucose meter, their disease looks like one of only hyperglycaemia. Applying Bernstein's Law of small numbers by reducing carbohydrate intake to a minimum keeps blood glucose levels within reasonable limits, but makes other things worse if energy from carbohydrates is replaced by energy from fats.

Only if energy from carbohydrates is reduced AND energy from fats isn't increased to compensate (i.e. eat a LCLF PSMF or Modified PSMF until sufficient visceral fat has been lost), does carbohydrate restriction help people with type 2 diabetes.

Cybernetic Serendipity.

I went to this exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1968.

Featuring Bruce Lacey’s ROSA BOSOM with MATE

I remember being pinned against a wall by Bruce Lacey’s ROSA BOSOM with MATE, as I was so short, the robot didn't detect my presence. Happy days! See also http://cyberneticserendipity.net/

The above reminiscence is a ploy to talk about serendipity, or happy accident. See Role of chance in scientific discoveries, and List of discoveries influenced by chance circumstances. Aspartame & saccharin get a mention for being discovered by the accidental tasting of chemicals. But there's more!

According to Sucralose: "Sucralose was discovered in 1976 by scientists from Tate & Lyle, working with researchers Leslie Hough and Shashikant Phadnis at Queen Elizabeth College (now part of King's College London). While researching ways to use sucrose and its synthetic derivatives, Phadnis was told to test a chlorinated sugar compound. Phadnis thought Hough asked him to 'taste' it, so he did. He found the compound to be exceptionally sweet."

Sodium Cyclamate was also discovered by accident. "Cyclamate was discovered in 1937 at the University of Illinois by graduate student Michael Sveda. Sveda was working in the lab on the synthesis of anti-fever medication. He put his cigarette down on the lab bench, and, when he put it back in his mouth, he discovered the sweet taste of cyclamate." Smoking in the lab? Naughty, naughty!

Acesulfame potassium was...yeah you guessed! "After accidentally dipping his fingers into the chemicals that he was working with, Clauss licked them to pick up a piece of paper."

So, be careful out there...but not too careful!

Good criticism, bad criticism.

Yes. I know it's an axe (slang name for guitar). Blame Google Image Search!

From http://scottberkun.com/essays/35-how-to-give-and-receive-criticism/

I wondered from where "Mr Messiah" got his arguments against Vitamin D and calcium supplementation reduces cancer risk: results of a randomized trial. They came from Vitamin D and Cancer Prevention: Strengths and Limits of the Evidence.

"Randomized clinical trials designed to investigate the effects of vitamin D intake on bone health have suggested that higher vitamin D intakes may reduce the risk of cancer. One study involved nearly 1,200 healthy postmenopausal women who took daily supplements of calcium (1,400 mg or 1,500 mg) and vitamin D (25 μg vitamin D, or 1,100 IU―a relatively large dose) or a placebo for 4 years. The women who took the supplements had a 60 percent lower overall incidence of cancer (6); however, the study did not include a vitamin D-only group. Moreover, the primary outcome of the study was fracture incidence; it was not designed to measure cancer incidence. This limits the ability to draw conclusions about the effect of vitamin D intake on cancer risk."

1) The women who took the supplements had a 60 percent lower overall incidence of cancer. Yeah, so? The following result was ignored: When analysis was confined to cancers diagnosed after the first 12 mo, RR for the Ca+D group fell to 0.232 (CI: 0.09, 0.60; P&lt: 0.005). The women who took the supplements had a 77 percent lower overall incidence of cancer, if they didn't already have cancer. Incomplete data dismissed.

2) The study did not include a vitamin D-only group. Yeah, so? It was looking at the effect of Ca+D on cancer risk, not D only. Ca+D greatly reduced cancer risk. Argument dismissed.

3) Moreover, the primary outcome of the study was fracture incidence; it was not designed to measure cancer incidence. Yeah, so? It measured cancer incidence. There's a little clue in the title of the study. Argument dismissed.

4) This limits the ability to draw conclusions about the effect of vitamin D intake on cancer risk. See 1), 2) and 3). Argument dismissed.

Do you get the feeling that someone, somewhere is more interested in collecting loadsa money than trying to reduce cancer risk?

A new skill and whoops there goes another rotator cuff.

I bought this last Thursday...

Yes, I am using a sofa as a guitar stand!

Last Sunday, I took it to an open mic night and played it - very slowly! So far, I've learned the following chords:- C, Dm, Em, F, G & Am. As my fingertips are like cushions (big & soft), I have to finger chords as triads, with my fingers coming down onto the strings nearly vertically, to minimise the area of my fingerprint. Dm is particularly difficult for me. I'm going to learn the CAGED system, so that I can play any chord using any pattern.

Due to the sunny weather, I've been putting the soft top down on my MX-5. Unfortunately, I've been raising it from the driver's seat position. I forgot that this puts enormous strain on my left shoulder. The pain in my left shoulder when I woke this morning reminded me to not do that again!

I see stupid people - Part One: Live to take the p*ss.

This is a take on I See Weak People – Part Three: Live to add, not subtract.

Dunning-Kruger strikes again!

George Henderson recently said in a comment to flip:- "If you're one of the sensible ones, as Nigel seems to think you might be, it's easy to see why he won't post on "that" blog again.
Myself, I wonder how Nigel does it. Everywhere he goes he seems to start a fight these days. We are thinking of locking him inside when we go out in future."

How do I do it? Simples! I make sure that my brain is properly nourished with Vitamin D3 for razor-sharp wit & biting sarcasm, EPA & DHA for stable mood and Magnesium to stay cool, calm and collected when all around me are behaving like complete and utter tosspots & twats (UK usages and not meant affectionately!).

Metabolic Inflexibility: What it really means.

Here's a picture from Metabolic Flexibility and Insulin Resistance.

The Metabolically-Inflexible (MI) & Insulin Resistance

Here's another picture.

Fig 2. ● = Metabolically-Flexible (MF). ○ = Metabolically-Inflexible (MI).

Salient points:
1) Excessively high serum FFA a.k.a. NEFA is bad.
2) Respiratory Quotient (RQ) a.k.a. Respiratory Exchange Ratio (RER) changes due to dietary changes are more sluggish in the MI than in the MF.
3) Under Insulin Clamp conditions, RQ/RER is lower in the MI than in the MF, due to impairment of glucose oxidation and non-oxidative glucose disposal.

I have posted this because of Danny Roddy's post Is Supplemental Magnesium A Surrogate For Thyroid Hormone? , which leads onto A Bioenergetic View of High-Fat Diets.

In the first article, Danny Roddy writes:-
"Additionally, taking magnesium while actively engaging in a diet or lifestyle that reduces the respiratory quotient (e.g., high-fat diet, light deficiency, excessive exercise) seems pretty silly. For example, as a rule, diabetics have a reduced respiratory quotient (Simonson DC, et al. 1988), tend to have higher levels of free fatty acids or NEFA (Kahn SE, 2006), and are often deficient in magnesium (De Valk HW, 1999)."

The second sentence (diabetics have a reduced respiratory quotient...and are often deficient in magnesium) seems to contradict the first sentence (...taking magnesium while actively engaging in a diet or lifestyle that reduces the respiratory quotient seems pretty silly).

Simonson DC, et al. 1988 is Oxidative and non-oxidative glucose metabolism in non-obese type 2 (non-insulin-dependent) diabetic patients.
"In conclusion, during the postabsorptive state and under conditions of euglycaemic hyperinsulinaemia, impairment of glucose oxidation and non-oxidative glucose disposal both contribute to the insulin resistance observed in normal weight Type 2 diabetic patients. Since lipid oxidation was normal in this group of diabetic patients, excessive non-esterified fatty acid oxidation cannot explain the defects in glucose disposal."

Impaired glucose oxidation with normal lipid oxidation lowers RQ/RER. Therefore, lower RQ/RER must be bad, right? Wrong. From the above study:-
"...euglycaemic insulin clamp studies were performed..."
Remember Salient point 3)? Simonson DC, et al. 1988 is an insulin clamp study, the results of which don't apply to free-living people (who aren't insulin clamped).

See also Determinants of the variability in respiratory exchange ratio at rest and during exercise in trained athletes. RER/RQ increases & decreases with increases & decreases in exercise intensity. This is Metabolic Flexibility (MF). Sorry, Danny.

The danger of science denial: It happens even on Science-Based blogs.

Poor Benjamin Franklin. I know how he felt! ;-)

I do not believe that he wanted to be doing that!

This post will be highly critical of Dr. David Gorski MD, as some of his comments have been either trolling, downright stupid, or both. They're definitely in denial of science. This post is intended to encourage Dr Gorski to leave comments here, as I will never leave any further comments on any blogs that he edits, for reasons mentioned previously. I will be copying comments from his blogs and pasting them here, with my comments after. If this is considered to be "bad form", I really don't care. Leaving derogatory comments about me on blogs on which the commenters know that I will never return (because I told them so) is definitely "bad form".

I will also be quoting other commenters on Dr Gorski's blog, for the same reason. Everyone is free to leave comments here, that meet my fairly lax moderation criteria. In Vitamin D, cancer, cliques and flouncing. , a commenter from Dr Gorski's blog called flip was initially whitelisted, to allow his comments to appear without me having to moderate them. I eventually blacklisted flip after I detected intellectual dishonesty. That's how I roll. If you don't like my rules, don't let the door hit you on the way out! By the way, calling me a liar on here is a sure-fire way to get yourself blacklisted.

I've just turned Blogger word verification back on, as although Disqus automatically deletes anonymous comments containing links, I still get email notification of them. I've been getting a lot of email notifications. This may or may not have an effect on commenters.

Firstly, please read http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/index.php/a-closer-look-at-vitamin-injections/#comment-127850 , as it's my "letter of resignation" from that blog. With that in mind, read on.

# David Gorski on 27 May 2013 at 9:49 am
Regarding Lappe et al, one notes that that study is not the be-all and end-all of vitamin D research. It’s an old study, for one thing. Also, cancer was not its primary endpoint. Finally, there was no vitamin D alone group, as I recall, only a vitamin D + calcium group, a calcium group, and a placebo group.
There is a recent review of the literature from the Endocrine Society, which includes Lappe et al and puts it into context:
*quoted text redacted*

# Nigel Kinbrum on 27 May 2013 at 11:16 am
David Gorski said…

Regarding Lappe et al, one notes that that study is not the be-all and end-all of vitamin D research. It’s an old study, for one thing.

Irrelevant.

Also, cancer was not its primary endpoint.

Irrelevant.

Finally, there was no vitamin D alone group, as I recall, only a vitamin D + calcium group, a calcium group, and a placebo group.

Irrelevant.

# David Gorski on 27 May 2013 at 12:28 pm

Finally, there was no vitamin D alone group, as I recall, only a vitamin D + calcium group, a calcium group, and a placebo group.

Irrelevant.

How so? It’s actually very, very relevant, as is the issue of cancer not being a primary outcome measure of the study. That you don’t understand why these issues are so relevant indicates to me that you don’t understand clinical research very well.

#Nigel Kinbrumon 27 May 2013 at 1:42 pm
David Gorski said…

Finally, there was no vitamin D alone group, as I recall, only a vitamin D + calcium group, a calcium group, and a placebo group.

Irrelevant.

How so? It’s actually very, very relevant, as is the issue of cancer not being a primary outcome measure of the study. That you don’t understand why these issues are so relevant indicates to me that you don’t understand clinical research very well.

1) The RCT used Ca + D. Therefore, the conclusions apply to Ca + D. If they’d wanted to test D alone, they would have. They didn’t. Why don’t you write a letter of complaint to Joan M Lappe about it?

2) Whether the outcome was primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary or n’ary is irrelevant because the parameter in question (all-cancer diagnoses) was still accurately recorded. That you can’t understand such a simple concept boggles my imagination.

#David Gorski on 27 May 2013 at 2:34 pm

As I’m leaving permanently, what’s the point?

Ah, flouncing off again. It’s probably long overdue. I’ve been getting a few complaints about you here as well. Perhaps you should ask yourself why complaints seem to follow you wherever you go.

“Whether the outcome was primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary or n’ary is irrelevant because the parameter in question (all-cancer diagnoses) was still accurately recorded. That you can’t understand such a simple concept boggles my imagination.”

I rest my case that you do not understand clinical trial methodology and interpretation. I couldn’t have demonstrated it better myself to anyone who actually does understand clinical trial methodology and interpretation. Thanks!

You sir, are an asshole. I spelled it the American way, just for you!

I rest my case that you're either trolling, or stupid, or both. Whether the outcome is primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary or n’ary is completely and utterly irrelevant. It always has been and it always will be. You're effectively saying that only the first item in a shopping list should be bought because all of the other items in the shopping list are irrelevant. Bullshit!

Denice Walter May 27, 2013
@ Marc Stevens Is Insane:
I believe that Nigel is like two bright guys I know: they are well educated and professional in fields outside of SBM/ life sciences (business). Thus they read alt med ‘research’ (also see today’s post by Orac) and don’t get how it DOESN’T work in reality. It sounds like nutrients can do all of these wonderful things – that they can’t- at least not in RL. But the woo-meisters don’t tell you that part. We do.

So of course they think that these products are very useful- and they need celtic salt or ground organic flaxseed- as I know all too well.

However, if they’re smart- we can talk to them:
explaining how that *in vitro/ in vivo* thing works.
Or- as I often do- illustrating how much of the so-called science they read ( woo) is actually more accurately called “advertising copy”.

Businessmen seem to grok that.

Denice, seriously? I'm disappointed. I thought that you were one of the few reasonable posters on Gorski's blog and then you go and write that crap?

I do not read "alt med ‘research’", unless you're calling what's on PubMed "alt med ‘research’"? I've been reading studies on PubMed for years, so I know about the use of shoddy methodology to fudge results. The Lappe study doesn't use shoddy methodology. It's a Randomised Controlled Trial using double-blinded placebos and randomly-selected subjects who were post-menopausal women. Try to pick holes in it.

flip May 29, 2013
Hmmm… it occurs to me I probably haven’t been that overt about one other thing:

Lilady, I am sorry that you were called those things, and I certainly don’t think you should have been called names. I do think Nigel was wrong and do think he should be called out for it.

And I’m sorry for not making that clearer before.

flip, I'm not going to question your intelligence. However, why you're apologising to lilady boggles the imagination. lilady is a despicable human being. She pushed me to the point where I called her rude names, names that were not misogynist and for which I apologised. I explained about "twat" on SBM. I even posted a link to Wiktionary! You don't read things thoroughly before commenting.

Marc Stephens Is Insane May 31, 2013
Oooooh, Nigeepoo is ANGRY! He’s pulled a DJT, posting a “rebuttal” to all the comments here and on SBM. I’m suprised it’s taken him this long.

He’s calling Orac an a**hole and stupid, among other things. He’s invited us all to comment on his blog because he has an “open moderation policy” and “allows all comments.”

http://nigeepoo.blogspot.com.au/

I see that you idiots on RI are still reading my blog. I'm not the slightest bit angry, so you can give the projection crap a rest. For the record, most of you come across as assholes. You can't even quote me correctly. I said that I have fairly lax moderation criteria. Do try to get something right, for once in your miserable lives.

Anyway, you lot are now boring me with your never-ending inability to discuss things either accurately or rationally, so I'm not going to bother polluting my blog with any more of your crap.

P.S. I still occasionally read the comments on Gorski's blogs, so for the benefit of you peeps who read mine:-
1) "Black-list" means exactly what it says. It means that you're banned from posting comments.
2) The Lappe et al 2007 study was a good study. Just because some Messiah-like person says that it's a bad study and applies false reasoning to back himself up, doesn't make him right and me wrong. As I've previously pointed out, surgery's not exactly rocket science is it? I designed complicated electronic communications systems for 29 years. Just saying! ;-) Denice, I've got nothing against you. You've just been drinking Gorski's Kool-Aid for way too long. That's not a euphemism, by the way! :-D

Look what I just found. Exposing Dr. David H. Gorski, M.D., Ph.D. who believes he can use a cloak of anonymity and character assaults to discredit opposing views. Sorry Doc, but your game is up.

He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy! :-D

\ curves and U curves: Vitamins D3 and K2 again.

Here are some curves relating to Vitamin D. Ref: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23601272

Hazard Ratios (HRs) vs serum Vitamin D level

The solid lines are the 95% confidence intervals (CI) & mean for all-cause mortality. 95% CI's are the values within which 95% of the subjects tested fall. 2.5% fall below the lower CI and 2.5% fall above the upper CI. The dashed lines are the 95% CIs & mean for coronary heart disease (CHD) mortality. Most of the curves follow a \ curve, indicating that more Vitamin D is better, up to 66ng/mL (150nmol/L, the level that I'm at). The interesting curve is the upper dashed line, which follows a U curve.

The U curve indicates that a Vitamin D level of greater than 30ng/mL (75nmol/L) increases the Hazard Ratio (HR) for CHD in the top 2.5% of subjects only, relative to 30ng/mL, even though the mean HRs for CHD & all-cause mortality (the more important parameter) are decreasing, up to 66ng/mL. What's occurring?

See Vitamin K. The increase in HR for CHD mortality above 30ng/mL in the top 2.5% of subjects only is almost certainly due to calcification within artery walls, due to under-carboxylation of osteocalcin in bone Matrix Gla Proteins, caused by insufficient Vitamin K2 rather than excessive Vitamin D. This is why I supplement with Vitamin K2. See also Vitamin D toxicity redefined: vitamin K and the molecular mechanism.