dorothy, the book i read recently by dr d'adamo is called "change your genetic destiny". it's better than the blood type books because it incorporates other aspects of the body (other genes) as well. you can probably make an educated guess just from the measurements you take of your body and your previous experience with certain foods, without knowing your blood type. there's certainly a lot of stuff in there i don't agree with but you don't have to take his food recommendations to heart in order to gain other useful knowledge from the book.

a brief update re the acne problem. i had a flare up again a few days ago and decided yesterday to make a liver cleanse (last one was almost a year ago i believe) in order to see if it's caused by obstructed bile ducts but that doesn't seem to be the case. all that came out so far was plenty of bright green bile, not a single stone or any kind of grit. guess my gut flora hasn't healed yet and once the undigested protein fragments, immune complexes and whatnot have all been removed the acne will vanish, too. the lower back pain is pretty much gone already.

re vitamin k - the one for blood coagulation is vitamin k1 (found in green veggies etc.), the one weston a. price called "activator x" is vitamin k2, found exclusively in animal products (such as raw butter from grass fed animals, or liver) and fermented foods such as natto (best source for it afaik). so you don't get vitamin k2 from plants unless bacteria have produced it during fermentation. it's said to be very important to deliver calcium from the blood into the bones and works in concert with vitamins d and a.

Still no noticeable detox reactions from taking such large daily doses of iodine.  Makes me wonder why.  Most people seem to experience some sort of reaction - especially when they move to 100mg/day, but so far nothing of note in my case.  Maybe it is because I haven't eaten any bromated flour products for many years now and I've avoided fluoride in my water and toothpaste etc.  Flourides and bromides are the suspected culprits for most reported detox reactions.  Are these truly the cause?  I have no idea and no way to test the theory.  Just glad I'm not having any problems.

halides displace each other so the most likely causes for detox reactions are bromide and fluoride. halides are also very reactive so additional detox reactions could be if the iodine forms salts with any toxic elements and moves them into the blood.

It has been a bit over a month since I started this adventure.  I have noticed some positive changes to skin tone and texture as well as some lightening of brown age spots.  It is interesting that not all age spots are affected.  Some are definitely getting lighter in color while others have remained unchanged.  Could it be that there are several different types or causes for age spots where some are positively affected by iodine intake (or caused by a lack of iodine?) while others have a different root cause?  Unfortunately no way to tell.

it may depend on the kind of tissue and the location if the accumulations are removed more quickly or more slowly. after all, the accumulation doesn't always take the same amount of time either. if you want to experiement a bit you can try mixing iodine 50:50 with dmso and apply it topically to certain age spots. dmso carries everything deep into the tissue and the cells so if the iodine helps with removal that's the fastest way. i don't know if it's gonna work with iodine, though. people have used dmso+mms successully for stuff like moles or certain growths but if used with mms it has to be removed after 2-3 minutes or the skin gets severely damaged. mms is much more aggressive than iodine but it's a sure, if somewhat painful, way to get rid of unsightly skin growths. they'll get pretty much burned out and then the skin can heal. otherwise the body would just leave the damaged/overgrown cells in place and continue to ignore them or add more crap, same as with age spots.

ok, here's an update.

i stopped eating raw meat three days ago but continued with everything else (kefir, yogurt, raw butter etc.) as usual. yesterday morning my throat was clogged with mucus and hurt somewhat, which has continued through today. i'd say it's a developing cold but usually colds get worse after a day or two and include a clogged nose and perhaps a cough. i have none of these things and it doesn't seem to get worse either. my theory would be that it's a detox reaction. i believe it's not uncommon to detox in this fashion.

the acne is also getting better, no new outbreaks of any kind, skin is clearing up nicely. lower back pain has gotten better, too. i used to notice it after sitting a long time on the pc and then getting up and by now it's become much less noticable. guess it will be gone completely in another few days.

i'm currently reading one of dr. d'adamo's latest books which deals with 6 geno-types and the diets he has developed for them. for those who don't know it - there are certain genes which are expressed together, such as the yellow coat and obesity in agouti mice. it's the same with humans. for instance, the blood type, or the length of certain fingers, or other body parts, or finger prints, express together with certain aspects of metabolism. an example would be high stomach acid and blood type O or low stomach acid and blood type A. this can be expanded to the immune system, endocrine system etc. it's very interesting.

now, dr. d'adamo has identified 6 different types who all have differences in metabolism and so on which correlate to differences in appearance. i've made the test, which says i'm the "teacher" type, and what he describes as main issues for the teacher type and what these types should eat is uncannily similar to what i experienced myself.

anyway, he writes that "teacher" genotypes should avoid all kinds of red meat. my guess would be that because of the low stomach acid it's very hard to digest and the undigested protein causes problems - exactly what i experienced when i ate raw beef daily. it was much less pronounced when i ate it cooked, most likely because of what i wrote previously - the protein got denatured, formed AGEs and thus wasn't able to wreak as much havoc in my guts as in its raw form.

now, what he recommends for "teacher" types is certain kinds of fish, veggies, fruits, nuts and seeds, certain grains (except wheat), fermented dairy products and soy. i'm probably not going to try soy or grains and i know for a fact that fruits don't do me good because of bacterial overgrowth. interestingly enough, he mentioned just this as the major problem of "teacher" types, bacterial overgrowth. maybe he's not aware that bacteria or yeasts thrive on sugar, especially fructose.

well, i guess what i want to say is that if you have any kind of problem and can't figure out the reason don't dismiss the blood type or geno-type diet without trying it. i'm going to follow it for a while, with some alterations, and will post some updates in the journals occasionally.

imo, the main reason why people have so many problems when they try to eat healthy is because they think that raw foods are better. that may well be the case if you can digest them properly and you don't have any intolerances to them, but if you do, they'll do much more harm if raw compared to cooked, and the reason is lectins and similar compounds. i'd not have believed it before but even such things as dark circles under the eyes seem to be, in my case and probably that of others, a telltale sign of incompatibility to certain raw foods. they disappear if i limit raw food intake and get the bulk of my calories from cooked food. one major exception to this may be fat, simply because it doesn't contain protein which can cause trouble, but in general i'd say that "teacher" types such as myself will always have problems if too much food is eaten raw because of the low stomach acid and possibly other "disorders" that go along with it.

one possibility could be that the AGEs that are formed during cooking are actually these lectins binding to glucose receptors in cells, thus getting inactivated. however, if eaten raw and there's some incompatibility with the blood type, the meat lectins would all still be there to attach to glucose receptors in the gut lining (which exist in a form that allows binding only with certain blood types such as A), destroying it, making it leaky, creating inflammation and so on, which then creates further problems elsewhere, not unlike gluten. any ideas on this?

i've thought a bit more about the above. maybe someone can comment on this and lmk if i'm right or wrong:

- when sugar molecules bind to protein molecules in cell walls in an unwanted fashion (without the help of enzymes - called glycation) this creates AGEs
- lectins are proteins that bind to sugar molecules in cell walls (let's call it "lectination" for sake of argument), creating a similar end result - AGEs
- AGEs are formed when food is heated
- lectins are (partially or mostly) inactivated when food is heated
- so the reason for the creation of AGEs by heating food, meat in this case, is that lectins bind to sugar molecules in cell walls, since there's no actual sugar in meat (except as glycogen in muscle meat or liver but as mentioned before the end result is the same anyway)
- most, if not all, people don't experience acute reactions to heated foods, even if incompatible to their blood type
- most, if not all, people experience chronic symptoms / degeneration / inflammation after long-term exposure to foods that are incompatible to their blood type (a good example would be gluten which is more or less harmful for every human)
- many people experience more or less acute reactions if food that's incompatible to their blood type is eaten raw (some might call it allergic reactions)
- conclusion: the reason why wrong foods that are heated only create problems after long-term exposure is because most lectins are inactivated outside the body, during the heating process. that forms AGEs which are certainly harmful in excess and in the long run but prevents "lectination" in the gut

bottom line is that, unless one eats only raw foods that are compatible with one's blood type, it's better to eat incompatible foods heated, where most of the lectins are already deactivated before ingestion, instead of eating these foods raw where all the lectins are still active and create havoc with the intestinal lining. in my case (blood type A) this would explain why i react with acne and possibly kidney problems to raw meat but not to cooked meat.

case in point, doesn't aajonus eat raw honey together with raw butter or eggs or milk or something? maybe there are sugar molecules in honey to which most of the lectins in these protein foods can bind, thus getting inactivated. this would reduce the damage to the gut lining considerably.

here are two links to peter d'adamo's site. according to this i should be able to keep the kefir but have to elimiante the meat.

http://www.dadamo.com/typebase4/depictor5.pl?212 (kefir - NEUTRAL)

http://www.dadamo.com/typebase4/depictor5.pl?469 (beef - AVOID: Secretory insufficiency. Induces dysbiosis. Increases polyamine or indican levels. Inhibits proper gastric function or blocks assimilation.)

tyler, i don't know your blood type but based on d'adamo's research and your problems with dairy i'd say you're type O. is that right?

well, i don't believe it. according to studies sperm counts have decreased by 50% during the last few decades and infertility has skyrocketed but humans have been drinking milk since thousands of years. i don't even believe that pasteurization or homogenization might be the problem.

if they could have taken out all other possible culprits like xeno-estrogens in plastic, phyto-estrogens in soy and whatnot, or EMFs, microwaves and cell phone radiation then i'd say ok, dairy is the problem, but there are so many things in today's environment and diet that can cause infertility that blaming it on dairy products seems like an excuse.

Hmm, no information about atherosclerosis.

I would like to find out if raw saturated animals fats can cause atherosclerosis or not. The Masai had lots of atherosclerosis, according to some reports. Have they eaten raw fats or cooked fats? Who knows..

Löwenherz

i can't cite studies but since saturated fats raise hdl and lower triglycerides i'd say it's pretty sure that saturated fats do not cause atherosclerosis. afaik the main causes for atherosclerosis are sugar, especially fructose because it raises triglyceride levels (and by extension raises vldl and ldl), and omega 6 fatty acids (coming mostly from plants or grain fed animals) which promote prostaglandin 2 synthesis which triggers inflammation.

according to the studies i've read about the masai they have some of the lowest cholesterol levels of any tribes on the planet, somewhere in the region of 125mg/dl. i'm no doctor but since they consume mostly animal foods that would indicate to me a very low inflammation level and low to no atherosclerosis risk, at least in terms of fat consumption. they do seem to consume inordinate amounts of calcium from milk, however, so that might be the actual problem that causes the hardening of the arteries.

Has anyone ever found a scientific article or reference that verifies that enzymes present in the food help to digest food in the upper stomach without being denatured by hydrochloric acid? Tbh, until reading the above article, I had never before encountered any reference to different parts of the human stomach as having different functions and conditions.

i have three books about enzymes and all are recommended:

http://www.amazon.com/Enzyme-Nutrition-Dr-Edward-Howell/dp/0895292211/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1350997872&sr=8-1&keywords=enzyme+nutrition

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0981604552/ref=oh_details_o06_s01_i00

http://www.amazon.com/Enzymes-Fountain-Life-K-Miehlke/dp/1884303005/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1350998157&sr=8-3&keywords=enzymes+for+life

the 1st one has details on the digestion and is probably where the idea originates that food is predigested by enzymes in the upper stomach. the author is a scientist who researched enzymes for decades so he probably knows what he's talking about.

the 2nd book deals with probiotics but we know that it's these little critters that produce the enzymes which help to digest our food. it cites tons of research where probiotics helped to cure diseases and improve health.

the 3rd book talks specifically about enzyme therapy and explains that not only do enzymes work in the upper stomach but in the whole body, meaning they don't get destroyed by stomach acid (or not all of them, anyway). that has been proven because oral enzyme therapy works.

enzymes are the secret of life - anything that delivers enzymes into our body or helps to produce enzymes in the digestive system helps the body to spare its own enzymes and prolongs life. the more enzymes the body itself has to produce, the ealier you get sick and die.

Bad luck...! It's probably better to be, or to have become, intolerant to dairy. Of course, milk neither kill us immediately nor necessarily induce problems straight away: if our body is in a state of tolerance, it doesn't react and thus accumulates bit by bit some foreign proteins and other abnormal molecules instead of eliminating them. Severe health troubles may appear years and/or decades later.

But if you have nothing else to eat, it's certainly wiser to eat dairy rather than starve to death.   

milk sure is controversial, but what i find interesting is how certain tribes who consume lots of raw milk, kefir and stuff are said to have an above average life span and few if any diseases. if (nonhuman) milk is so unhealthy and foreign proteins accumulate in the body, eventually causing all kinds of problems, why don't these people get sick and die earlier rather than later?

imo it has to do with the problems our own diet as newborns/babies and possibly that of our parents created, meaning the building of antibodies to certain antigenes in the milk. people whose bodies built these antibodies will react to milk antigenes during their whole live and these autoimmune reactions are what causes problems.

notwithstanding the above, i think we all agree that real milk is raw, and any heated "milk" from the supermarket is a toxin which will indeed always create problems eventually.

and if somebody doesn't have serious problems with raw milk, just some digestive issues (bloating, gas etc.), it's because the gut flora is not prepared for the lactose. if such a person would start with low doses of kefir for example, and increase them every day he/she would eventually notice that the digestive problems are completely gone because the gut is colonized with just the right bacteria to digest the lactose before it can reach the colon and there be fermented by other bacteria or yeasts which produce plenty of gas.

i'm training in this fashion since earlier this year but i'm a noob so for me it's better to do a workout every 2-4 days instead of just once a week. if you've done weight training for years and can actually damage your muscles enough in one workout that they require a week of recovery then i'm sure once a week is fine but for me the results are currently better with about two workouts per week. i usually have one 20-30min hit resistance workout, then 3-4 days later a sprint 8 training (20min) for legs and cardio, and 2-3 days later resistance training again, followed by sprint 8. during resistance training i do the 5 compound exercises and a few smaller ones until i'm really wasted. so legs are trained every 2-4 days (once with weights and once with sprints). it's the largest muscles and give the highest growth hormone increase. imo it's better to have this hgh stimulation every few days as opposed to just once a week. if i reach a plateau at some point and can't increase weight or time under load anymore i'm going to expand the recovery phase but for now it works very well as described above.

i have some questions for the experts. hope you can help me.

assuming you store meat in a clean fridge that's turned off (or broken) in a cellar at, say, 12-15°C (54-59°F), which you open at regular intervals to get in fresh oxygen, how long does it keep? or perhaps i should ask, how long before it turns from regular meat into high meat or before it starts to smell?

and then, same setting but in a garage which may have up to about 25°C (77°F) during summer - the smell won't be much of an issue here but how long can it be stored and eaten as regular/aged meat in normal amounts of a pound or so (i understand high meat is usually eaten in smaller amounts. i haven't tried it myself yet so i don't know if the reason is its taste).

Cheese is typically very fatty (40-45% fat), unless you've been eating some really low fat cheese..

yes certainly but it was my only fatty food and only animal protein food at the time. my whole metabolism was adjusted to a high-carb plant-based diet with focus on fruits and consequently my liver didn't have to produce a lot of bile or get rid of excess cholesterol...until i introduced the cheese. then...bam...the excess cholesterol from the cheese may well have clogged the bile ducts (or the triglycerides from the excess fructose, who knows?). it may not have happened on a high fat diet like i'm eating now. i'll know that for sure after the next few liver flushes. if there are stones again i'll drop the raw cheese. raw milk, kefir and yogurt will be the last to go because that would leave only meat and veggies (i seem to be allergic to eggs and hardly ever eat fish because of toxins, heavy metals and/or radiation). i don't think i can limit my foraging to these two food groups so i really hope my liver will stay reasonably clean, especially now that i'm off the fruit-centered (fatty-liver creating) diet.