LONG DISTANCE FLYING DURING THE TIME OF COVID: NOTHING SPECIAL ABOUT THIS IBERIA FLIGHT FROM MADRID TO MIAMI

Madrid airport takes the Covid Precautions VERY seriously. I was asked about my covid documents three times and my vaccination certificate checked just before boarding. There are sanitizers galore, spread across every where in the airport. and reminders to use them.

At the Satellite terminal, there is a spacious Iberia lounge and i truly enjoyed being there. The offerings were slim, toned down for Covid. 

This is after all Spain, land of Cava rather than Champagne.. airlines serve Cava when you ask for Champagne these days. I enjoyed rice and curry with some vegies thrown in. 

Getting to the airport from the hotel, Vincci Soho was an interesting observational experience. People were polite and helpful, I certainly noticed that I was much more extroverted with the usage of the language of Cervantes..

The boarding was quick and gone are the times of drinks before departure. A huge spanish lady was assigned to my side that made me long for Qatar Airways. The service was in the American Airlines mode.. serve quickly, clear quickly and disappear for the rest of the flight. This flight crew was distinctly unfriendly. even by comparison with other Iberia crews that I have flown with.

A tired looking AirBus 330 was sitting there like an old spanish grandmother. 

The decor was non descript but clean . I had procured seat 1 J which had a very private feeling to it. But I had to wait for a very long time before the flight attendant came by with the drinks, the choices were limited. I understood that during these days it is better not to have frequent contacts but unfriendliness can show through other bodily gestures.  That set the tone, to enjoy the hard product, the seat the privacy and forget about the soft products such as service, quality of food etc. In fact the food at the Iberia Lounge was far superior to the one served on board.

The flight was timed at 8hours and 47 minutes, and I must say I did not feel very bored. There was wifi on board and that certainly was the saver, as I did not watch the movies or documentaries.

For my antipodean palate with delicate stomach prone to gastritis, this albarino was very welcome. I wish i could say the same for the food. The fight attendant said it was lamb, must have made a long trek to the plate? the dessert cake was tasty, though. 

Oh Qatar Airways, where are you ? 

As you can see, we were barely out of the continent when the slew of the flight attendants, there were lots of them, packed it in, disappeared out of sight, viola.. we were left to our own means. 

For Service , this Iberia crew get Zero out of 10, joining their one world partner,American Airlines.

As we were approaching Miami, a slight repast was provided which I did enjoy. Soon we were descending into Miami, at the promised time.

The flight was smooth, thank you Capitan! but I was in a hurry to take leave of your unfriendly crew. Not wanting to be unkind or rude, I refrained from giving the buxom lady some medical advice about Metabolism. 

Last month, I flew Iberia from New York to Miami, it was equally forgettable. The return flight was on Swiss from Zurich to Miami which was certainly delightful . this time over to Brussels from New York on United Airlines, nothing sticks in memory, no service, no good quality food or drinks, as the motto of the USA based airlines.. and ended up with this Iberia flight. So far one out of four.. that is what you can expect flying during the time of Covid.

DO YOU WISH TO BE HEALTHY? LEAVE THE USA PART 2

 I have spent a considerable amount of time in the USA attending to the various Tribes of Indians over the course of the years. I am excited to arrive in the country and equally excited to exit the country.. primary reason is FOOD.. Americans are welcoming, friendly and innovative and fun to be with. But the food situation is something that worries your guts, specifically. Have you been to Eagle Pass, Texas? Eagle Butte, South Dakota? Walthill, Nebraska? Nutritional deserts.. and also the towns that surround them.. Sioux City, Iowa? Rapid City, South Dakota? At least in Eagle Pass, you can escape to Mexico.

I have paid attention to the food and nutrition as I have to counsel Americans about these matters. However hard you try, if you want to score a few points on the Activity levels, you truly have to try, make time and special effort.. join Gyms and Jog or trek or what not.

But as you can see in the following representation, 

what all I had to do was to leave the country and my activity level doubled.. and i easily reached the 10 000 steps recommended without joining LA Gym or jogging around the park.

I was just living like every one else..

DO YOU WISH TO BE HEALTHY? LEAVE THE USA .. PART 1

 It is not often that I put here, articles published in the media, without reading the original articles but today I am away in another country and I cannot access, even on the Net, the original article . so with all due respect and thanks here is the article ..

Every hotdog eaten shortens life by 36 minutes

Joe Pinkstone

Thu, August 19, 2021, 4:23 PM

Hotdog

Every hotdog a person eats shortens their life by 36 minutes, according to a new study.

However, a person can also add minutes to their healthy life expectancy by eating better foods. A portion of nuts, for example, adds almost 26 minutes, while a peanut butter and jam sandwich gives a person more than half an hour extra life.

The findings come from experts at the University of Michigan who created a standardised way of assessing the carbon footprint and nutritional impact of almost 6,000 foods.

Their Health Nutritional Index was centred around finding a way to calculate the direct influence of various meals, snacks and drinks. It works by calculating the health burden of one gram of any food, and then scaling this up to a standard serving size.

“For example, we found that, on average, 0.45 minutes are lost per gram of any processed meat that a person eats in the US,” the study authors wrote.

“The 61 grams of processed meat in a hotdog sandwich results in 27 minutes of healthy life lost due to this amount of processed meat alone.

“Then, when considering the other risk factors, like the sodium and trans fatty acids inside the hotdog – counterbalanced by the benefit of its polyunsaturated fat and fibers – we arrived at the final value of 36 minutes of healthy life lost per hotdog.”

But each item of food contributes to a unique equation and a person does not need to make wholesale dietary changes to reap the rewards, researchers said.

For example, if a meat-eater decides to replace 10 per cent of their daily calories – 250 for men and 200 for women – with nuts, fruits and vegetables instead of processed meat or beef, they will gain 48 minutes of healthy life every day they stick to this change.

This simple adjustment, the researchers said, also has clear environmental benefits and slashes a person’s daily dietary carbon footprint by a third.

The study, published in the journal Nature Food, is based around healthy life expectancy, which is the length of time a person has a good quality of life and is disease free.

“The urgency of dietary changes to improve human health and the environment is clear,” said Prof Olivier Jolliet, study author from the University of Michigan.

“Our findings demonstrate that small targeted substitutions offer a feasible and powerful strategy to achieve significant health and environmental benefits without requiring dramatic dietary shifts.”

The Health Nutritional Index takes into account all aspects of a product’s life cycle, including how it is produced, harvested, processed, consumed and disposed of, as well as how calorific and nutritionally beneficial or detrimental a food was.

Researchers gave each food a traffic light rating based on the results of their analysis which indicated whether people should eat more, less, or about the same.

Salmon scored well for nutritional impact, achieving a green label and adding 16 minutes to a person’s healthy life. However, it got a red for environmental impact, and therefore a red overall, with people encouraged to decrease their consumption of the oily fish.

Chilli con carne with beans is another example of a food being bad for the environment, but good for health.

Cola, on the other hand, got a red for nutrition – thieving 12.5 minutes of life per drink – but a green for environmental impact, but this still led to a recommendation to decrease how much a person consumes.

Foods are only recommended if they scored a green for both nutrition and environment. All of the green dishes are meat-free, with plenty of fish, bean and nut-based items.

“Previous studies have often reduced their findings to a plant versus animal-based foods discussion,” said Katerina Stylianou, the lead author of the study.

"Although we find that plant-based foods generally perform better, there are considerable variations within both plant-based and animal-based foods."

WHY DO HUMANS (AND SOME PET ANIMALS) GET FAT? NEW STUDIES ON TREATMENT OF OBESITY BEGINING TO SHINE LIGHT ON HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

 I just received this information by email

Effects of liraglutide on visceral and ectopic fat in adults with overweight and obesity at high cardiovascular risk: a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial.

Summary

Background

Visceral and ectopic fat are key drivers of adverse cardiometabolic outcomes in obesity. We aimed to evaluate the effects of injectable liraglutide 3·0 mg daily on body fat distribution in adults with overweight or obesity without type 2 diabetes at high cardiovascular disease risk.

Methods

In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 4, single centre trial, we enrolled community-dwelling adults, recruited from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, with BMI of at least 30 kg/m2 or BMI of at least 27 kg/m2 with metabolic syndrome but without diabetes and randomly assigned them, in a 1:1 ratio, to 40 weeks of treatment with once-daily subcutaneous liraglutide 3·0 mg or placebo, in addition to a 500 kcal deficient diet and guideline-recommended physical activity counselling. The primary endpoint was percentage reduction in visceral adipose tissue (VAT) measured with MRI. All randomly assigned participants with a follow-up imaging assessment were included in efficacy analyses and all participants who received at least one dose of study drug were included in the safety analyses. The trial is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03038620.

Findings

Between July 20, 2017 and Feb 21, 2020 from 235 participants assessed for eligibility, 185 participants were randomly assigned (n=92 liraglutide, n=93 placebo) and 128 (n=73 liraglutide, n=55 placebo) were included in the final analysis (92% female participants, 37% Black participants, 24% Hispanic participants, mean age 50·2 years (SD 9·4), mean BMI 37·7 kg/m2). Mean change in VAT over median 36·2 weeks was −12·49% (SD 9·3%) with liraglutide compared with −1·63% (SD 12·3%) with placebo, estimated treatment difference −10·86% (95% CI −6·97 to −14·75, p<0·0001). Effects seemed consistent across subgroups of age, sex, race–ethnicity, BMI, and baseline prediabetes. The most frequently reported adverse events were gastrointestinal-related (43 [47%] of 92 with liraglutide and 12 [13%] of 93 with placebo) and upper respiratory tract infections (10 [11%] of 92 with liraglutide and 14 [15%] of 93 with placebo).

Interpretation

In adults with overweight or obesity at high cardiovascular disease risk, once-daily liraglutide 3·0 mg plus lifestyle intervention significantly lowered visceral adipose tissue over 40 weeks of treatment. Visceral fat reduction may be one mechanism to explain the benefits seen on cardiovascular outcomes in previous trials with liraglutide among patients with type 2 diabetes.

Funding

NovoNordisk.

As an Anthropologist I first look at who funded the study, like most of these studies, they are funded by the makers of the drug in question. But I am not a fan of Liraglutide so it doe snot matter and I will give free publicity to Semaglutide which is once a week injection.

Regardless of the above prejudice I can tell you that all these new studies coming out are exciting.

Our understanding of Obesity has gained much scientific ground in the last fifteen years.

While there is a connection between body weight and some of the metabolic consequences associated with it: Mainly Diabetes and its complications, I felt that there was something in the metabolism that alters quickly with increasing body weight which to us at that time was neither measurable or treatable.

Fifteen years ago, a colleague of mine, a Native American Indian, had gastric bypass surgery (which may not be necessary in the future at the rate of scientific advances in obesity metabolism research), had her diabetes dysfunction disappear even before she left the hospital, even before an ounce of weight loss was registered. I thought: this surgery has disrupted a pathway in our guts that gave rise to the metabolic dysfunction.

My own thinking at the moment to prevent Consequences of Obesity is as follows

Obesity is obviously an end result of a conglomeration of human activities in which mind and spirit are involved (to which no attention is paid in the western medical concept)

As this paper shows, visceral and ectopic fat plays an important part in the metabolic dysfunction that we see: Sugar, Cholesterol, Heart and Thyroid dysfunction and many other abnormalities.

This was achieved by a medication with the manipulation of a secreted protein in the gut GLP-1RA

Metabolic consequences of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs) are the result of enhanced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion, inhibition of glucagon release, delayed gastric emptying and increased satiety.

Obviously this paper is about people who did not have diabetes, so there are other actions which these medications are capable of.

Enteroendocrine L Cells Sense LPS after Gut Barrier Injury to Enhance GLP-1 Secretion. 

Volume 21, Issue 5, 31 October 2017, Pages 1160-1168

Highlights

•

LPS induce GLP-1 secretion from L cells through a TLR4-dependent mechanism

•

Gut ischemic injury is coupled to immediate GLP-1 secretion in mice and humans

•

L cells are mucosal sensors of LPS after gut injury

•

GLP-1 secretion is closely related to gut inflammation

Thus an increase in GLP 1 activity acts to repair the Gut and work against the Inflammation.

Now thinking like an anthropologist, where do most of our inflammation come from ? Environment which includes NUTRITION..

There is so much to learn. When I began talking about inflammation to my medical colleagues (an advantage of being an anthropologist is that you are able to interpret ways of thinking of people and if using Derrida's deconstruction, we can even say why a doctor says what he says), they truly made fun of me, because to them Diabetes and Obesity being Inflammatory diseases was unthinkable, this is not Rheumatoid Arthritis they told me.. well every thing comes around..

Diabetes and Obesity are Social Diseases 

Underlying Metabolic dysfunction may be Inflammation

and just Medicine alone alleviate a social problem, you need social, cultural and spiritual elements to Nutrition as well as what people call Lifestyle  which I would define as Quality of Life.

When the study of weight loss with Semaglutide was published, saying that 40 per cent of the participants lost 18% of their body weight and that they could guarantee at least 5% of the body weight loss, and they were elated, the anthropologist would ask: what made the other 60 per cent not loose 18% of their body weight.

Here I think, a cultural and nutritional approach to their eating habits, a genetic and microbiome way of thinking of what is good for individuals rather than a blanket nutritional prescription of calories and components (so so old fashioned) for a diverse population that is our western world.

Once we understand the Inflammation caused by Nutrition,  the social and cultural nature of postprandial blood sugar, a little help from medications at least for a while (I have patients who have reversed their Type 2 Diabetes with weekly injections of GLP 1 RA medications and gone off them when they achieved flat post prandial glucose responses).. the future of metabolic medicine which includes Obesity looks very exciting indeed ..

AN ENJOYABLE DAY AT THE COUNTRYSIDE.. A MEGALITH VISIT THROWN IN, A NICE DINNER AND SOME NEW FRIENDS..

Brittany much like Wales with which it shares some pre historic connections is a motoring country. Quiberon is a popular spot for French visitors and at this time of the year Aug 13/14 it is heavily visited, as you can see cars coming in the other direction as we were leaving Quiberon one early afternoon.

The Gulf of Morbihan is strewn with hundreds of islands and our destination was the port of Larmor Baden.

this area is also famous for strong tides and powerful currents.

The Ile Berder is an island at low tide and of course during high tide, you would need help to get back to the mainland if you were a little late in coming back from your trek.

There is a 6 hour range when you can walk over to the island which has an old church and also a lovely path to walk. A walk around the island takes about one hour.

Tidal range is the height difference between high tide and low tide. Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by gravitational forces exerted by the Moon and Sun and the rotation of Earth. Tidal range is not constant but changes depending on the locations of the Moon and Sun.

The most extreme tidal range occurs during spring tides, when the gravitational forces of both the Moon and Sun are aligned (syzygy), reinforcing each other in the same direction (new moon) or in opposite directions (full moon). During neap tides, when the Moon and Sun's gravitational force vectors act in quadrature (making a right angle to the Earth's orbit), the difference between high and low tides is smaller. Neap tides occur during the first and last quarters of the Moon's phases. The largest annual tidal range can be expected around the time of the equinox if it coincides with a spring tide.

I had been lucky to travel a fair bit around Australia and on a visit to Derby in Northwestern Australia, I was taken to an area which had the largest tide in Australia and one of the largest tidal range in the world. Stories are told of the naive adventures who walk out towards the sea without realizing that within minutes they would be engulfed by the raging sea, if you chose the wrong time of the day.

the above picture of King Sound near Derby, North West of Western Australia.

Humans have lived here for millenia, and we have at least some evidence (actually lots of archeological evidence under the water) of their habitat. Our destination today was a megalith which is estimated to be 6000 years old, contemporary of the largest collection of dolmen and menhirs at Carnac, also in this region.

The Gulf of Morbihan is an interesting geological phenomenon of the forces of the ocean.

The geological origin of the Morbihan Gulf goes back to the Quaternary period, as a result of glaciation cycles, when the rivers dug excessively deep estuary to reach the ocean had retreated further. During the thaw, the Gulf consisted of marshes whose bottom sagged and ocean eventually invade the basin.

The men who built these megaliths and thousands of other stone monuments much of which is under water now

This area which was by a river flowing into the ocean were surrounded by many other monuments. They cut the stones from an island nearby, must have brought those heavy stones by a raft to this site to install this grave of what appears to be those of powerful people.

The dinner was at a resto, very pleasant, called the White Sail. The young waitress had an uncanny resemblance to an UmonHon indian friend of mine..

I spent time talking to a man of the world, Scottish-Italian-SouthAfrican-Zambian-New Zealander-Belgian ? any more ? we had our fading colonial past in common as well as London and the Antipodes and the European capital. The table was lively and the meal pleasant.

It was truly a delightful day and the person who organized it did a superb job.

I was escaping the narrow mindedness that is choking USA and I will once again say this: 100 percent of the people living in that country is psychologically affected and it can be seen and felt in their behaviour towards fellow humans

Are we witnessing yet another empire setting into the horizon?

I had very negative feelings about Paris and France when I began traveling here in 2006, but I have noticed that my post-covid trips to France are welcoming, friendly and enjoyable.

Instead of children of Malian immigrants arrogantly saying, Pas de Anglais, now they say, I speek a lithle eenglish, and are actually helpful!

Driving back on this Sunday night, the streets were quiet and the journey back was quiet and pleasant.

Even though we could not enter the corridors of the megalith , many of the carvings were reminiscent of other aboriginal people, of the Peruvian Andes and also of the Australian North .

Was shown a picture of a whale from inside the cave which seemed astonishingly similar to what one would see in an aboriginal painting from Australia.

These prove the antiquity of the various indigenous civilizations. The builders of these monuments are gone, major proportion of their monuments swallowed up the ocean, the other people to arrive in what is now known as Bretagne was at least 4500 years later...would be nice to read the genetic make up of the local people.

Thank you for a nice day.