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Libraries and Laboratories

I am a fan boy of D.T. Sheffler.

I am a fan boy for three reasons . . .

First, because he is a fantastic writer.

Second, he is a superb philosopher in medieval, religious, ethical and political competencies.

And, third, he is a former Navy Seal.

The dude is smart, witty . . . and deadly.

I was reminded while reading one of his recent essays that society, to our detriment, has separated our libraries from our laboratories.

My education occurred in the modern STEM group of subjects.  STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.  I appreciate my education, and I am very grateful for it.

However, in the process of homeschooling my children . . .

(The Beautiful One actually did all the schooling, I just watched, listened and cheered her on . . . )

I realized that I missed out greatly on a Classical education.

Classically educated students and educators (the Beautiful One is essential a Classical Educator) tend to be a bookish lot.

They love Cicero and Shakespeare and George MacDonald.

The get all giddy when they see a musty bookstore, gothic arches and castles . . .

And, they love imagining the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland.

In fact, a few of them have saved it as their desktop background.

They speak in code to one another frequently using metaphors from The Lord of the Rings and Narnia, and they may even use Elven script when writing.

This is very different and antithetical to the creatures like me that emerge from the math and science schools of the modern era.

We love aviation, science museums and biology.

We wear Star Wars and NASA t-shirts, and many of us may be caught wearing white knee-high tube socks with Birkenstocks.

We loved marine biology in the eighth-grade, dissecting frogs in 10th grade and won science fairs and physics contests in high school. I actually built a bridge out of balsa wood that held 1300 lbs., winning a cash prize from a nearby college.

Many of us will have telescopic images of constellations on all four of our computers monitors and get all giddy hearing the sound of the clicking of our Model-M keyboards.

And, yes, my lot actually enjoyed doing their calculus homework.

This dramatic difference between the STEM educated and the Classical educated would look very strange to any pre-modern world scholar.

Before the hyper-specialization of today’s modern research universities in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mathematics and poetry, physics and philosophy, were all required together to be an educated person. They came together as a unified package.

A scholarly gentleman often housed his laboratory equipment and his fencing gear in the same room as his library.

In fact, Sheffler states that “Plato inscribed above the entrance to his Academy the words: ‘Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here.’ More certainly, in Plato’s Republic, Socrates insists that an extensive education in geometrical reasoning is necessary before a student can embark on the study of philosophy.’”

Aristotle combined his extensive writing and philosophy with works on meteorology, rhetoric and physics. He actually made a number of discoveries in marine biology through dissection and he knew a great deal about astronomy from close observation of the sky.

Most people are aware that Leonardo da Vinci was profoundly competent in multiple fields.

Yet, few know that Isaac Newton, the man who formulated the laws of motion, the theory of universal gravity, and built the first reflecting telescope, spent the last years of his career obsessed with the textual analysis of scripture.

Most are aware that Benjamin Franklin was a very wise statesman and diplomat, but few know his involvement in the discovery of electricity.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is known as one of the most influential German writers of all time. Yet, he was also a polymath and had profoundly insightful scientific contributions in botany and color theory.

Education throughout your entire life should consist of the education of a single mind, yours, both knowledgeable and flexible, capable of handling deductive thinking and interpretation of nuance.

I have come to learn that scientific education stocks your mind with facts about the concrete world. It teaches you how to reason carefully about probabilistic causal inferences.

Poetic education teaches the mind to see the analogy between things and create metaphor.

Mathematical education trains the mind to carefully work through a difficult chain of deductive, quantitative reasoning.

Philosophical education incites the mind to ask fundamental questions and then, to reason toward sound answers to those questions.

Literary education civilizes your mind with a very cultivated imagination. It teaches you to make both judgement about and emotional response to what you have imagined.

Educating comprehensively in this way educates the single mind, yours, not a bunch of separate little independent minds.

Extensive scientific knowledge of the physical world with its very complex system of natural causes makes you a better novelist or writer.

The ability to see the analogy within the subtlety of a good joke makes a person a better scientist. (I know a bunch of really boring scientists who have no sense of humor and it affects their research).

A deficiency in one area will lead to incompetence in others, this includes physical exercise and athleticism.

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve hear people say, “I’m no good at math.” You’ve likely heard people say, “I’m more of a creative, artsy type,” or they excuse their horrible spelling by saying, “I’m a math and science guy.”

People and students will have different interests that lead to different specializations.  That is understandable and expected.  However, I’ve seen it in my education and I’ve had multiple professors tell me that a student who is unable to discipline his or her mind to work carefully through a math problem is likely to have difficulty in carefully reading a story.

The student who interprets everything literally and cannot craft a metaphor is also likely to have difficulty with designing an experiment.

The student or professor that is an arm-chair rationalist failing to go out and apply his skill in the real concrete world will never fully comprehend natural phenomena.

Just because you specialized in one area of learning, do not let other areas drop.

This is why I took up sword fighting and fencing at the age of 50 years old.

I now comprehend what it means when one says that “you must be alive to philosophize.”

Without an educational balance in science and humanity, you will never truly understand the need for opposites in the world. You cannot understand life until you experience opposites in all things, happiness and sadness, joy and misery, pleasure and pain, life and death.

This requires strength, courage, mastery and honor as the true virtues of men and women all around the world.

Without a comprehensive education in all areas, the virtues that make civilization possible will disappear.

To Your Health & Longevity,

Adam Nally, DO

Fork In The Road

I woke today seeing a large fork in the road of life.  It was more prominent that other forks I’ve seen in my 50 years of navigating life’s highways.

Everyone eventually comes upon this fork. Yet, this morning, because of the crisis created in life, it loomed bigger and beckoned prompt decision.

The road separated to the left and to the right.

The road to the left was paved in the color of dole.  People followed neatly in line.  They donned their masks.  They carried their subsidy checks in freshly hand sanitized hands.  Neatly packaged rations of toilet paper, and chicken under their arms.  The path was smooth, well-trodden, the evidence of thousands passing down this fork.  The road sign pointing to the left said “Victim.”

The road to the right was not nearly as smooth.  It was rocky, and in some areas, not well marked.  A small sign, barely visible, hidden in the shadows of overgrowth pointed to the right and said “Victor.”

When you look back on your life, and you remember today and the decision before you at the fork in the road, will you have merely survived?  Or will you have thrived?

Has the experience of the first few months of 2020 softened you or hardened you?  Have you even noticed?  Did you even see the signs at the fork in the road?

The road you chose is up to you and you alone.

When you feel stuck, when your life is stagnating, it takes courage to turn down a different path.  It takes effort and resolve to break free and walk a different path.   Traveling a different road gives you a new perspective, an interlude to the mundane, and forces you to be alert and to learn.

Stop waiting for the instructions.  You already know what to do.

I know you want to hear it.  I know you need to hear it.  But, no one is going to tell you it’s finally “safe.”  It will never be completely safe. That’s the whole point of life.  Growth does not occur in restraints.  When you’re not feeling safe, remember, you’re growing.

Many voices can be heard beckoning you down the well beaten path of ease.  Sure, you could live out your life on the couch.  It’s softer and safer there, quarantined upon your familiar couch.

Stop waiting for someone to re-train you, re-hire you or even reassure you.  Reassurance is only momentary.  Stop waiting for the next “expert” to change your life with an enlightened YouTube video.  The herd will never be immunized.   That’s why you were given you own immune system.  Stop waiting for a vaccine, a magic pill, or the sound of “all clear.”  It will never be all clear.  Lean into the challenge.

Stop waiting for someone to re-open your life.  No one is coming to save you.  The sad but honest truth is no one really cares.  So, stand up, step out, work a bit harder.

It’s up to you to protect, provide and steer your carriage down the road.  Do not give up that greatest of all your gifts, your ability to chose.  Yes, you must chose.  If your ability to chose is taken, you’ll never see it again in your lifetime.

The road will never be the same, it never is.  The road you chose today determines the level to which you just survive or thrive.  Chose to thrive.

Let me help you thrive.  My membership program and concierge program is designed just for that purpose.

 

Thinking Outside of the Box

Nine dots

The image above has nine dots within a square.  Your task, using only four lines is to connect ALL nine dots WITHOUT ever raising your pen, pencil or finger (Please don’t use a sharpie on your computer screen . . . it doesn’t come off).

You may have seen this puzzle previously . . . it’s made its rounds in corporate training circles. But the underlying principle remains true.  The solution requires you to expand your thinking or to “think outside the box.”out-of-the-box

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. (Mark Twain)

Why should we limit ourselves to thinking outside the box.  Can’t we just get rid of the box?

True discovery consists in seeing what everyone has seen . . . then, thinking what no one has thought.

The answer can be found when those four lines are used beyond the box our mind creates:

Nine dots solution

What good has the box done us?  People were burned at the stake because they refused to believe the Earth was not the center of the universe. People were beheaded because they had a sneaking suspicion that the world was not flat.

Why is it so very hard to accept that our weight gain and diabetes are driven by a hormonal signal, and not by gluttony or caloric intake of fat?  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing repetitively and expecting a different outcome.  How long have you been restricting calories and fat with only minimal or no improvement in your weight, blood sugar, cholesterol or general feeling of health?diabetes global warming

The main problem with the current thought model, or dogma, on the obesity’s cause is that it does not account for metabolic syndrome.  Metabolic syndrome is insulin resistance.  It is an over production of insulin in the presence of ANY form of carbohydrate (sugar or starch).

In the practice of medicine over the last 15 years, I noticed that a very interesting pattern emerged.  There was always a spike in fasting and postprandial insulin levels 5-10 years prior to the first abnormal fasting and postprandial blood sugars.  These patients were exercising regularly and eating a diet low in fat.  But they saw continued weight gain and progressed down the path of metabolic syndrome.  10-15 years later, they fall into the classification of type II diabetes.  What I now lovingly refer to as stage IV insulin resistance.

The only thing that seems to halt this progressive process with any degree of success is carbohydrate restriction.  Fasting insulin levels return to normal, weight falls off, and the diseases of civilizations seem to disappear as insidiously as they arose.

So you tell me, is the world flat?  Is the Earth the center of the universe?

Low-carb is bad

What is a low carbohydrate or ketogenic diet?  15 years of practical in the trenches experience have helped me develop a very simple program to help you lose and maintain your weight.  Access to this program, video help and access to blog articles at your fingertips are offered through my online membership site.

You can also hear me each week a I discuss low carbohydrate, paleolithic and ketogenic diets with the Legendary Jimmy Moore on KetoTalk.com

The 5 Myths of Weight Loss

This evening we covered the 5 myths of weight loss identified through the National Weight Control Registry’s research findings. What causes “wrinkle face” for Dr. Nally?  We also talked about & answered 20 minutes of rapid fire questions ranging from the amount of protein you need daily to the likelihood a human could be a bomb calorimeter . . . exciting stuff!!

You can watch the video stream below.  Or you can Katch the replay with the rapid stream of exciting comments here at Katch.me/docmuscles.

Red & Processed Meats . . . The Hidden Agenda

I’ve been hearing it all day.  Almost every patient asked me the question: Is red meat really as bad as the World Health Organization is claiming?  Multiple articles can be found today in the New York Times, and the Washington Post, and even in Money Magazine today.  (Money Magazine . . .  really?!)

The World Health Organization (WHO) is claiming that processed meats are cancer causing or carcinogenic on the same level as alcohol and asbestos.  They also are claiming that red meat is “probably” carcinogenic.   “Probably.” That’s a pretty big hedge for a claim of cancer after years of research was reviewed in meta-analysis.  Probably is defined by Merriam-Webster to mean: “as far as one can tell.”  Well, I can tell you, as far as I can tell, this is bad science being reported as fact to sway the lay mind in following an agenda.

The real story here is NOT that red meat is bad.  The real story, that absolutely no one has mentioned, is the veiled agenda cloaked as blame placed on a source of food.  This is the WHO’s first step in advancing the Global Warming Agenda.

“Oh, no, Dr. Nally.  Here you go talking all that crazy conspiracy stuff!”

No, let me spell it out in the actual words of the World Health Organization.

First, the WHO Director General has published a Six Point Agenda, this year, specifically outlining her vision for high priority issues.  The first point on this list of six is to “drive the global agenda . . . in the context of accelerating progress to the Millennium Development Goals.” (1)   What in the world are Millennium Development Goals you may ask?

The Millennium Development Goals were first identified in 2000 at the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Conference and reconfirmed this year.  These goals specifically outline a transformational vision of the world.  The World Health Organization has taken these 16 goals as their “call to arms.”  Goals #12 and #13 specifically discuss “ensuring sustainable food consumption patterns throughout the world” by “doubling agricultural growth” and restricting food production that worsens the “carbon footprint.” (2)

Over the last ten years, multiple progressive groups and sites have made the claim that the greatest threat to Climate Change is the cattle industry.  They link cattle, livestock and our consumption of red meats to global warming and have been preaching the politics of nutrition.  They claim that the only real way to stop climate change and global warming is to “eat less red meat and dairy products.” (3)

The claim is that if we each reduce the red meat in our diet, it will reduce the number of livestock around the world and decrease methane production . . . that causes global warming.  I can personally attest to you, that if you eat a more vegetarian diet including cauliflower, broccoli, eggplant and legumes, you alone will increase the methane production in the atmosphere!

In fact, the Lancet, a well recognized medical journal, has published a series of articles yearly, starting in 2008, calling for the reduction in red meat, pork and livestock to control climate change. (Wait a minute?  I thought the Lancet was a journal dedicated to diabetes?)  All of their climate change/red meat research is based in meta-analysis consisting of “reported” meals by subjects from memory over a 5 year period.  Who can remember what they ate last week?  These authors then make claims of conjecture, stating that sources of meat “could be,” “may be,” or “probably are” harmful and “have the potential to” reduce climate change (4).lightening_storm

Second, links to cancer using processed meats are very, very small, . . . like a 0.04% chance of colon cancer if you eat processed meats.  You have the same chance of getting hit by lightening in your lifetime – 0.04% chance (5).  To liken this  level of risk in the main stream media to that of smoking or asbestos exposure is immoral and unethical.

Urea Cycle
Urea Cycle

The concern for many regarding processed meats is the nitrate contents from nitrogen byproducts.  About 5% of nitrates are converted into nitrites in the gut, and these can affect the oxidation within the colon an the blood stream.  However, most of us handle these nitrites and nitrates through the urea cycle without any problem.  Third, spinach, lettuce, cabbage, bok choy and carrots have two to five times higher nitrate concentrations than bacon and hot dogs (6).  (Hmmm . . . wonder why the WHO didn’t classify spinach and lettuce as carcinogenic?)  Fish produce nitrites in their waste and plants absorb the nitrites in the ponds and lakes and bodies of water they live in. (Look up aquaponics). Most of us have the ability to block the conversion and clear any nitrites out of our systems. The problem arises when we ingest foods that are high in nitrates in conjunction with high fructose corn syrup or “sugar,” to be simplistic.  The hepatic (liver) metabolism of fructose in the presence of glucose (that’s what happens when we ingest sugar) inhibits endothelial nitric oxide synthase, increases insulin and suppresses the uric acid cycle allowing for build up of nitrites in the system.  Metabolism of FructoseIt’s the decreased nitric oxide and the high insulin response most of us get from eating the bread or juice with the bacon or the sausage that inhibits our ability to block the conversion leading to carcinogenic levels. (It ain’t the meat . . . its the sugar and the insuiln!!)

As for me, “pass the pastrami, I’m going to sit on the porch and watch a really amazing lightening storm.”

Pastrami low carb sandwich

References:

  1. WHO Director General Six Point Agenda, Publications. http://www.who.int/nmh/publications/6point_agenda_en.pdf, October 27, 2015.
  2. United Nations – Sustainable Development Knowledge Platform. Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.  https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/post2015/transformingourworld, October 27, 2015
  3. Time For Change. Are cows to blame for global warming? Are cattle the true cause for climate change? http://timeforchange.org/are-cows-cause-of-global-warming-meat-methane-CO2. October 27, 2015.
  4. Demaio, Alessandro R et al. The Lancet. Human and planetary health: towards a common language.  http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)61044-3/fulltext#back-bib10. October 27, 2015.
  5. National Geographic. Flash Facts about Lightening.  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0623_040623_lightningfacts.html
  6. NG Hord et. al.  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.  Food sources of nitrates and nitrites: the physiologic context for potential health benefits.  July 2009, Vol 90, 1-10.  http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/90/1/1.full#cited-by.  October 27, 2015.

The Simple Effects of Ponderizing . . . The First Step in a Principle Based Ketogenic Lifestyle

I have found, over time, that happiness in life seems to be the greatest when I strive for balance in the three basic aspects of life: Mind, Body & Spirit.  Yes, I am a physician, and I spend the majority of my day applying advise and treatment plans that have been demonstrated to be effective through the tried and true scientific method.  However, I know from personal experience, and from working closely with patients for over 15 years, that science alone, does not bring fullness and happiness to life.  Truth and learning can be found through study and also by faith. Finding balance and peace physically is important, but finding that balance emotionally and spiritually are often essential.  Being able to follow a Ketogenic Lifestyle effectively over the long term (longer than 6 months) actually requires understanding of some basic principles.  This is the first in a series of articles regarding The Principle Based Ketogenic Lifestyle.

Ponder LifeI treat patients with obesity, one of the most difficult diseases to address in the medical office.  I find that just applying diet alone doesn’t always solve the problem.  If the patient’s life is out of balance emotionally or spiritually, the stress this causes often halts effective weight loss and metabolic healing.  You may disagree with me on political or religious issues, but healing is not about politics nor is it about religious doctrine – it is about understanding where we are, the path forward, and our potential to get there.  The mind, body and spirit are deeply interconnected.  Often, until we recognize and treat those connections, true healing cannot occur.

The first step in treating any illness, including weight, is recognition of the problem. The Medical Community has recognized Obesity as a disease, but obesity is also a symptom of underlying physical metabolic dysfunction that may be tied to the mind and spirit.  Daily journaling is the tool that lets one see if the dysfunction is tied to mind or spirit.  I ask my patients to keep a daily food journal.  This is very important in looking at the patterns of macro-nutrient intake.   But the more powerful effect of journaling allows one to see how food is tied to emotion – mentally and spiritually.

Simply writing down what you eat each day, when you eat it, and how you felt after you at it is actually quite profound.  The patterns that emerge are usually seen and identified by the patient long before I ever see them.  In fact, patient’s often bring those patterns up before ever showing me their food journals.

I’ve found, in keeping a food journal myself, that combining my journaling with other other daily goals, uplifting thoughts and reminders was even more helpful and powerful.  This can be done on paper, a notebook, a planner or even on the computer.  (I have a few patients who are accountants or engineers – they bring in complex spread sheets).  What is important is daily consistency.  It takes about 3-4 weeks of journaling to begin to see patterns.

I have taken the advise of one of the leaders of my church to “ponderize” a scripture, meaningful poetic verse or truth filled quote each week as part of the journaling process.  He defined “ponderizing” as the act of pondering and memorizing a scripture or a favorite uplifting poem or verse each week.  This is done by writing the verse on a written card or note in a place that you will see it frequently each day during the week.  When you see it, read it and ponder it.  Just the process of frequently reading it will lead to memorization each week.  I have found that reading and pondering a verse 3-4 times a day for a week, lends itself to easy memorization.  Each time you read the verse, think about it and ponder it for a moment, then go on with your day.  This will give you a brief opportunity to elevate your thoughts each day, and will give you a place your mind can go and think when you don’t have to think. It gives your subconscious mind the ability to solve complex patterns at a higher level.

Said David O. McKay, “Tell me what you think about when you don’t have to think, and I’ll tell you what you are.”  “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he . . . ” (Proverbs 23:7).

PonderingFor some reason, with all the cares of the day, work, family and the challenges of life, I have fallen out of this habit for some time.  When this leader mentioned this process in his comments, I was reminded of the peace and balance I used to feel each week when doing this simple activity.  I have recommitted myself to restart this activity and I invite you to do the same.  This time to ponder opens your mind and allows you access the deeper worries and fears holding you from what you what to accomplish.  It takes great courage to make permanent lifestyle and dietary changes.  When someone can’t clearly see what lies ahead, it fills them with fear, doubt or both.  But journaling, even in its simplest form, gives a person the ability to resist and then master the patterns that have kept them from change.  As Mark Twain said, “Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”

Courage is tested when we purse difficult goals, fight against disease with unknown outcomes, or work to regain health.  The testing can be painful.  Journaling, and ponderizing in the process, gives courage to take small steps, one day at a time.   Admitting to, journaling when we fail or make mistakes, fear of failure or feeling unsure actually increases our courage.  Being given a week to ponderize an uplifting scripture or verse enhances that courage .  Journaling successes and failures empowers us individually.  The psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote:

“There appears to be a conscience in mankind which severely punishes the man who does not somehow and at some time, at whatever cost to his pride, cease to defend and assert himself, and instead confess himself fallible and human.  Until he can do this, an impenetrable wall shuts him out from the living experience of felling himself a man among men.  Here we find a key to the great significance of true unstereotyped confession – a significance known in all the initiation and mystery cults of the ancient world, as is shown by a saying from the Greek mysteries: ‘Give up what thou hast, and thou will receive.'”

Journaling and ponderizing allows one a form of confession and renewal. It gives one courage that you have survived today’s challenges and seen the pattern of fallibility in them.  It is actually energizing.  And, the path to healing begins to become clear.

Journaling also is a great way to outline side effects from carbohydrate withdrawl that will last for 2-4 weeks (That’s for another blog post, however).

Feel free to ask me about the verse that I am ponderizing each week. I will happily tell you which verse I am pondering and memorizing; but, I will in tern, ask you which verse you are ponderizing.

This week, the verse I am ponderizing comes from the Bible – Genesis 35:2-3:

“Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments: And let us arise, and go up to Beth-el; and I will make there an altar unto God, who answered me in the day of my distress, and was with me in the way which I went.”

Did you begin your food journal?  And, what verse are you going to ponderize this week?

Does Sharpening the Pencil Sharpen the Mind . . . ?

Einstien Schooling

As our children return to school this year and the pencils are sharpened, our questions should focus on whether the minds of our youth being sharpened.  If not, then do something about it.

For over 50 years we accepted the indoctrination of rote fact about the calorie-in/calorie-out dogma of weight gain.  The consequence of learning rather than thinking is of the diseases of civilization now prevalent in over 2/3rds of the population.