Arctic Inuit, Native American adaptations to cold and body fat distribution
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_Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life_ [1] by Nick Lane discussed how mitochondria can be "geared" to lean one way or another when dealing with additional energy inputs.
Which is to say, different mitochondrial DNA either leans toward generating additional heat or generating additional ATP (and, eventually, fat) when presented with surplus energy inputs.
It appears the difference is subtle but you would expect it to manifest itself across very broad population surveys.
On the other hand, if everyone is getting tremendous energy input surpluses it probably doesn't matter.
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39001.Power_Sex_Suicide
> A 2014 assessment compared Wim Hof and his identical twin brother. The scientists had them practice Wim's breathing exercises, then exposed them to the lowest temperature that would not induce shivering. They concluded that, "No significant differences were found between the two subjects, indicating that a lifestyle with frequent exposures to extreme cold does not seem to affect BAT activity and CIT (cold-induced thermogenesis)."[28] Both had rises of 40% of their metabolic rates over the resting rate, compared to a maximum of 30% observed in young adults. However, their brown fat percentage—while high for their age—was not enough to account for all of the increase. The rest was due to their vigorous breathing, which increased the metabolic activity in their respiratory muscles.
> One 2018 study of Wim Hof published in the journal NeuroImage used a combination of fMRI and PET/CT imaging, and found: forceful respiration results in increased sympathetic innervation and glucose consumption in intercostal muscle, generating heat that dissipates to lung tissue and warms circulating blood in the pulmonary capillaries. Our results provide compelling evidence for the primacy of the brain (CNS) rather than the body (peripheral mechanisms) in mediating the Iceman's [Wim Hof's] responses to cold exposure.
Edit: found the source https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33882700/
From the cardiovascular section: "Several studies have described a positive effect on the cardiovascular system and cardiovascular risk factors. Cold water swimming appears to have a positive impact on cardiovascular risk factors such as lipid profile [23,24,56] or blood pressure [53]."
(This study focuses on the athlete level long duration cold water swimming, but also considers short term exercise, something to keep in mind if you just skip to the conclusions)
And it's a recreation activity with a long history in some parts: https://www.theguardian.com/global/2018/dec/23/the-big-chill...
It's mostly good for you, but like many kinds of exercise and physical exertion you can also have adverse effects if you have poor health and/or get foolhardy before learning to do it.
Finding this in my genome changed my diet and changed my life.
I would be interested in hearing more on that if you are willing to share. (You can email me if you don't want to say it here.)
Before this, at around 45 years old I was a vegan (a good vegan) and my cholesterol was VERY high and HDL too low, hypertensive, IBS-D, and mood instability and they did a brain scan at one point because it looked like I was getting MS.
Note I have a family history of hyperlipidemia.
My cholesterol totally corrected and reversed, IBS is gone, BP is much better, still some mood issues but no need for meds anymore.
Basically the gene polymorphisms I saw that were relevant to my diet were FADS1, FADS2, FUT2 (non-secretor) CPT1A, BTD, PNP, and GCH1 among some others.
But yes, the CPT1A polymorphisms protects me from ketosis.
Sounds like you went from hypogonadism ( which is associated with all of your listed issues) to something healthier.
Quite impressive if diet solved it, although it might be the calories, not the content.
If anything I am eating less calories now. I was heavier then as well. It was causing a multitude of deficiencies. B6, Zinc I know for sure because my doctor tested them.
But it is interesting you bring up hypogonadism, not that I had it, but I was born with a cryptorchidism and had to have the testicle removed when I was three. This is a known effect of zinc deficiency which is one reason they tested me.
http://www.ivsajournals.com/article_3146_21dc13f2fb1df514b89...
If you were a "good" vegan, as you mentioned, I cannot imagine what kind of foods you ate to have more calories compared to fat (calorie) rich foods like fish, mussels or meat.
500 grams of raw beans is 2000kcal (very little for an avg 45 year old man), contains about 120g of protein, but is around 1.5kg of beanwater sludge when cooked. Impossible to eat in a day for most people. Adding rice, pasta, or other sources of calories still does not help a lot. It takes a lot of food to get to 2500-3000kcal.
Many vegans lack calories in their diet. Older and sedentary vegans that are starting to develop protein resistance (due to age or sedentary lifestyle) also consume way too little protein. A perfect recipe for various metabolic issues and aging related diseases.
Stop assuming you know anything about my life to fit your paradigm. I was always starving when I was vegan so I ate more. I know how many calories I eat it is is way less.
It is NOT just about food, it is also about genetics.
Is the cellular mechanism for this known? I seem to have trouble processing long chain triglycerides and I do better with animal fats, like butter and bacon.
Any resources you could link to or thoughts you might share on this detail would be potentially of value to me for better understanding my genetic disorder and practical approaches to managing it with diet.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S16738...
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal...
We know the genome changes so much of us, from our eye color to height to susceptibility to ideas. Why would it not also determine what foods we should eat?
But yes, very will known. There are thee enzymes, FADS1, FADS2, and EVOL5 that turn the short chain fatty acids like ALA in flax seed into the DHA you find in fish. The FADS genes are the most studied and polymorphisms in the genes have been linked to different cultures and therefor the reliance on certain fatty acids.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Dietary-sources-and-meta...
You said it yourself that you were always starving as a vegan. Given that you were a "good" vegan, living on low calorie foods, I cannot see how you think you ate more calories, but were starving.
If you told me you had a 150kg squat, 200kg deadlift and did 6+ hours of hiking every week, but still had issues with weight and always felt hungry, I would be quite surprised, because there's no way you could maintain maximal force production with low calories. All of that muscle would also not be there with low calories.
Vegan food is rich in carbs, so saying you cannot metabolize short chain fatty acids is irrelevant when most of your calories came from carbs. Your body can turn these carbs to fatty acids that your genes can deal with (to create hormones, if you had enough protein too). If we think about essential fatty acids, then your hypothesis is testable, either by taking a long essential fatty acid supplement (EPA + DHA), or by measuring your EPA/DHA plasma levels after consuming ALA rich plant oils like flexseed (not olive oil, and most definitely not sunflower oil). Still, no way deficiency of ALA metabolites is going to put you in a weird starvation mode. It's the starvation that is causing your metabolism to shutdown. Of course you will have trouble metabolising ALA if you are starving.
Yes, it's not about food, it's about calories. Individuals that want to function well need to eat enough. If your issue was short fatty acids, then it's quite impressive that your diet fixed it. Long fatty acids are not essential, and to function you need to be able to create metabolites from short fatty acids, because not all long fatty acids required for human hormones and metabolism are present in your food.
I meant I was starving in that I always felt hungry, not that I was starving my self. I was never satiated so I over ate.
Capice?
If you ate 500 grams of raw beans (cooked), having 1.5kg of excrement going through your bowels will leave you quite satiated.
On my plant-only days, whenever I eat that much volume of food to get to 3500kcal (I weigh 220lbs and eat 4000kcal+ on regular days), I am basically satiated after first 2000kcal for the whole day and have to force myself to eat more. This is whole plants, no oils.
Of course, the massive poop next morning makes it worth the trouble :D
https://www.foodwatch.org/fileadmin/Themen/Quecksilber/Queck...
This says the tolerable weekly intake for methylmercury is 1.6 μg per kg body weight per week. For a 200 lb man that is 80 milligrams of shark meat (p95 1835 mg/kg) or 11 lbs of sprat (p95 0.029 mg/kg) or 2.9 lbs of sardines (p95 0.112 mg/kg).
If you can afford it then go with brands which have thorough testing (e.g. Wild Planet, Safe Catch, etc.). Granted best to go further down the food chain, but this is an easy first step to take.
But secondly, they found that the nutrients, mainly selenium, in the fish actually help the body remove mercury through the thioredoxin system, so the worry might be exaggerated. I do not eat fish everyday as well, I eat shellfish on the off days and I fast. Oysters are really high in selenium.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/014765...
Ketosis is a metabolic state that provides the brain with an extra energy source -- ketones -- when glucose is levels are low. As such being unable to go into ketosis seems like a bad thing.
You will notice in kids with full CPT1A deficiency that they have an almost total inability to make ketones and suffer hypoglycemia when fasting.
The problem is that you are thinking like a Caucasian when it comes to ketosis and you all think ketosis is always good. It is not always good, it should be balanced.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32088118/
The role that Omega 3 plays in all of this, for people like me who need it, is so underestimated it is depressing. I had to lower my Omega 6 fats so drastically before I saw any change sin my lipids. It was amazing honestly.
You see, only the Inuit and people with these genetics should be eating a very low carbohydrate diet. All you "Farmers", stick to your oily grains, nuts and seeds.
I'm not following - ketosis happens after glucose levels are low. How would making the switch to a ketogenic metabolic state a slower process save any glucose? Ketosis doesn't consume sugar, as far as I know.
Also, what are the detrimental effects of ketosis?
This question is doing more for me than you know. I hope I can explain everything right now since it is all a just a picture in my head. So if this does not make sense I can go on.
I want to take a step waaaay back. Most people think it is ketones, glucose, protein, or fats that the body wants for energy. Well, they are all wrong. The body wants Actyl-CoA for energy. Acetyl-CoA drives the TCA cycle and that is what keeps us alive. All of those things are sources of Acetyl-CoA.
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Origin-and-fate-of-acety...
Next, the body does not prefer ketones as a source of Acetyl-CoA, in MOST PEOPLES (depending on genetics) it prefers glucose above all else.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK493179/ "Most organs and tissues can use ketone bodies as an alternative source of energy. The brain uses them as a major source of energy during periods where glucose is not readily available. This is because, unlike other organs in the body, the brain has an absolute minimum glucose requirement."
So being in ketosis is a rescue situation when there is not enough Acetyl CoA being made from glucose. You want proof of this? Fasting increases ketones levels more than any diet.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/324599#_noHeaderPr...
If a person genetically prefers glucose over fats for making Acetyl CoA, my guess is that they will go into ketosis much more slowly.
So once the body runs out of it's preferred source of energy, glucose, it resorts to its second best source; fat. Now how are fats used for energy?
https://els-jbs-prod-cdn.jbs.elsevierhealth.com/cms/asset/e1...
They are turned into Acetyl CoA BEFORE it enters the cell and needs CPT1A to enter the cell. Both glucose and protein enter the cell and THEN are turned into Acetyl CoA.
But all this is NOT TRUE of the Inuit. Their preferred source is from fat, not glucose. Why? Because of the genetic changes resulting from a diet high in fat. So for the Inuit, a high glucose diet causes problems like a high fat diet does for most European caucasians.
Let's look at the problem for people with CPT1A deficiency. They enter a state of "hypoketotic hypoglycaemia". Low glucose AND low ketones. So we know that we need CPT1A to function to make ketones to power the TCA cycle.
I am still trying to reason why CPT1A transport slows down so much for the Inuit. But I know it is because of generational dependance on a high fat diet. It seems that Omega 3 might change the expression of CPT1A making it more effective. Omega 9 fats increase CPT1A activity.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41431-020-0674-0
This is probably the best Paper on this confusing topic.
https://escholarship.org/content/qt8wz5h9kp/qt8wz5h9kp.pdf?t...
"Given that the PUFA content of traditional Arctic diets may compensate for the genetic reduction of CPT1A activity, and that the absence of urinary ketones found in early studies in North America may reflect fat adaptation and limitations in testing technology, current speculation about the lack of a ketogenic state in traditionally living Arctic peoples cannot be considered settled."
I mean, if you think about it, having high ketones means your body is not USING the ketones for energy. Wow, that just blew my mind! Time to look at my ketone genetics!
Thank you!
I know that the 'standard' western diet has been catastrophic for the Inuit, but to me it's just been kind of obvious that it's because it diverges so much from what they've traditionally eaten for so long. Good to see that there's actually some research to back it up.
> I mean, if you think about it, having high ketones means your body is not USING the ketones for energy.
That said, I was curious about your comments about ketosis on a personal level. I have no Inuit blood that I'm aware of, but I never get 'keto flu', and any overabundance of free ketones (which also cause 'acetone breath', I think) disappear within a few days of strict low carb carb eating. Fasting also seems much easier for me than it is for my peers.
Would you still say it's harmful for a person like me to eat very few carbs and no sugar?
That you re aware of is the key point. You can get your full genome and find out if you carry these CPT1A polymorphisms. You do not need to be Inuit. As pointed out, my genetics come from the Sami people, but any cold adapted population should have these changes in these genes.
I do not recommend any diet until you know your genetics.
It may be that there are two keto diets. One that needs high omega 3 and another that needs high omega 6.
Omega 3 changes the function of the CPT1A enzyme.
Börje Salming is in the NHL Hall Of Fame: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%B6rje_Salming
Which doesn't sound like a lot, and maybe it isn't, but two useful comparisons are the 300,000 Icelanders and the 50,000 Faroese. If they're dying out that isn't clear from the numbers.
I don't care about this conversation anymore because I was downvoted by the latest and greatest Europeans with sticks up their asses. Why? We'll never know.
Participating in this site is not worth it sometimes.
>a region in the genome containing two genes has now been scrutinized by scientists: TBX15 and WARS2. This region is thought to be central to cold adaptation by generating heat from a specific type of body fat, and was earlier found to be a candidate for adaptation in the Inuits.
Sad that governments are doing their best to stop people from using medicine to solve their problems... you know, the reason why they were invented in the first place.
But really, the best method is to eat less... not as simple as it sounds, but it's by far the best method to lose fat.
There must be as many combination as there are people, I had friends who switched to snacks that were harder to eat and took them more time to digest. I personally changed job for something less soul crushing, and it takes way less efforts, gimmicks and snacks to stay focused or keep a decent work rythme.
I wouldn't recommend it though. Turns out modifying your mitochondria into pumping out more energy has some negative side effects.
The related idebenone is a safe medicine for a mitochondrial disease I happen to carry (LHON), but as it's never actually struck I can't tell you if it helps.
EDIT: I see from the document gwern posted that "Inuits" does not appear in it, only in the HN title.
The title makes it seem like only the inuit who live in the arctic have these genes. But I doubt that's the case.
In Alaska, besides the Native American tribes ("Indians") that also live in some of the same areas, there are Inupiat, Yupik, and Aleut. The Inupiat are fairly closely related in culture and language to the Canadian Inuit, but the Yupik and Aleut are considerably further apart in terms of language. Calling a Yupik an "Inuit" is sort of like calling an Italian "French" just because they both speak a Romance language. They tend to not like that very much. :-)
A twist on this is that even though Native American sounds more correct (doesn't imply being from India, is longer and bureaucratic), they'd actually rather be called Indians. It helps to claim it's short for Indigenous.
[0] Inuit Languages and Dialects by Louis-Jacques Dorais, Nunavut Arctic College, 2003
A strange thing I've found is that while ICU has all kinds of support for proper localization of plurals if you have a number in your UI, if there's no number then you still have to write `if (n == 1) singular else plural;`. Is that really serving people who want a dual/few/many distinction?