WIL Weekly 5-Point Review #29
Being fat lowers testosterone, rare compound in bone broth and more...
This is my free weekly newsletter covering 5 interesting points from the week. Subscribe (if you haven’t already) if you’d like to get it in your inbox each week!
1. Lower body fat, higher testosterone
Per Percent body fat was negatively correlated with Testosterone levels in male, NHANES data suggests a negative association between body fat and testosterone in men.
2. Riboflavin protects the brain
Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) supplementation* was found to more than halve the number of days to recovery after a sport-related concussion. Riboflavin is found in milk, yogurt, cheese, eggs, beef, pork, chicken and liver and has previously been shown to lessen migraines.
*Note: They were given 400mg capsules of riboflavin. The RDA is 1.3mg
3. Easiest way to get heart disease
Per a 2009 paper titled Relationship of Insulin Resistance and Related Metabolic Variables to Coronary Artery Diseases: a Mathematical Analysis, “insulin resistance is likely the most important single cause of CAD” and “preventing insulin resistance would prevent 42% of myocardial infarctions” in young adults.
Insulin resistance is of course the key step on the path to diabetes. This throws a wrench in the old idea that saturated fat and red meat causes heart disease because low carbohydrate, higher fat diets have been found to be far superior to usual diabetes care.
A high fat diet isn’t the only way to ameliorate diabetes, but it is dramatically effective. Virta health, which guides patients through a low carb diet for management of diabetes, found that 94% of patients on insulin reduced or eliminated their dosage.
A 2021 study titled Behavioral Characteristics and Self-Reported Health Status among 2029 Adults Consuming a "Carnivore Diet" on people doing a carnivore diet (animal foods only diet) investigated their “motivation, dietary intake patterns, symptoms suggestive of nutritional deficiencies or other adverse effects, satisfaction, prior and current health conditions, anthropometrics, and laboratory data.”
They found that in those that did a carnivore diet for 6+ months:
・100% of diabetics came off injectable medications
・92% of diabetics came off insulin completely
・84% of diabetics came off all oral medications
4. Component of cartilage lowers risk of death from heart disease?
Chrondroitin sulfate is an important structural component of cartilage that provides much of its resistance to compression. A 1973 randomized controlled trial, Coronary heart disease: Reduction of death rate by Chondroitin Sulfate A, found that chondroitin sulfate reduced death rates in people with existing heart disease, as well as reduced rates of further heart attacks.
“Group A received 10g CSA orally for three months divided into three doses daily at meals, in powder form, dissolved in fruit juices or water or added dry to foods such as crereals or soups. After three months, a maintenance dose of 1.5g daily was ingested, divided int three doses daily of 0.5g each in tablet form, although nine patients with severe angina ingested 3g CSA daily. This maintenance dose was maintained for four and one half years, whereupon the dosage was then reduced from 1.5g daily to half or 0.75g daily and from 3g daily to 1.5g up to to the present time of reporting which is six years.”
Per Table I B, there were only 4 fatal heart attacks in the chondroitin sulfate group, but 14 in the control group. There were 0 non-fatal heart attacks in the chondroitin sulfate group, but 10 in the control group. As for other coronary events, there were 6 in the chondroitin sulfate group but 42 in the control group. This suggests:
・72% mortality reduction
・86% coronary incident reduction
Sounds like time for more bone broth.
5. Eggs lower heart disease risk: A study that won’t make headlines
A 2021 meta-analysis of 23 studies titled Association between egg consumption and risk of cardiovascular outcomes: A sytematic review and meta-analysis found that:
Our analysis suggests that higher consumption of eggs (more than 1 egg/day) was not associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, but was associated with a significant reduction in risk of coronary artery disease.
I’ve criticized observational studies before and the fact that they often make headlines. Though, you can bet that this pro-egg study won’t get coverage like the ridiculous ‘meat causes diabetes’ observational Harvard study did.
Disappointed at how short section one is. It makes sense because the more fat you have, the more aromatase there is to convert testosterone to estrogen. Also disappointed at lack of updates regarding testosterone workshop. Don't feel like we're getting our money's worth.
I'm no statistician, but that T vs Body Fat plot looks like just noise to me.
Any idea how much CSA there is in an average cup of bone broth? Are those supplemented levels reasonably achievable from diet alone?