The BTD/GTD Blogs

I just realized that my mother cooked with ghee. This was long before I had any knowledge of nutrition or Butyrates (short chain fatty acids which are a source of energy for cells in the intestinal lining. Studies suggest that it is butyrate which gives fiber its anti-cancer effects. Cells incubated in high butyrate environments tend to not mutate as frequently.).

This revelation came last week when I was preparing food for a book club meeting at my house. I had just put up Thanksgiving decorations, and I wanted to do healthy snacks that went along with the decorations. I fixed Cranberry Crunch, which everyone loved, sweet potato fries, and shrimp. Ok, shrimp aren’t exactly Thanksgiving fare, but they were high protein and they were on sale.

I had sliced the sweet potatoes into thin rounds in my food processor, when I realized I was out of light olive oil and out of ghee. Butter will just have to do, I told myself, and I put a Tablespoon on each of my cookie sheets and put them in the oven. A few minutes later I pulled out the pre-heated sheets and realized that I had quickly made just enough ghee for the fries. It had the same look and smell as ghee does when I make a whole pot of it.

Suddenly I remembered how my Mom scrambled eggs. She put a teaspoon or two of butter in a skillet, and heated it until it was bubbly and starting to turn brown. Then she poured in the beaten eggs and chunks of cheese. My Dad always said she made the best scrambled eggs in the world. It had to be the ghee.

I still need to go to the store for more olive oil. The best place to buy is in the opposite direction from my mother’s rehab facility, and I just haven’t had time to make the extra drive. I still need to make a batch of ghee for the refrigerator. But over the weekend, when I needed oil for cooking, I made Quick Ghee.

A Tablespoon in a sauce pan turns quickly into ghee. One warning. It is easy enough to burn ghee when I am making ¾ cup. It is really, really easy to burn Quick Ghee. If you try this, stay by your stove. Don’t turn your back. You can have a smoky mess faster than you think. Fortunately I did not smoke up the kitchen, but once I came close enough to remind myself and you to be cautions.

Growing up in Brooklyn I remember many exciting and fun filled trips to Manhattan --or as anyone from Brooklyn calls it, “The City.” One of the features I always looked forward to seeing was a huge advertisement for a paint company that featured a can of paint pouring itself over a globe of the world, its byline proclaiming “We Cover the Earth with Our Paints.”

Excepting the obvious question as to why anyone would ever want to cover the world in it, paint is not a bad metaphor for how most scientists viewed inheritance before Mendel, it being a sort of “blended essence” --a mix of the features of both mom and dad, much like how we might combine white and black paints to make gray. In the late 1800s Charles Darwin proposed a mechanism of inheritance by means of gemmules, imaginary granules or atoms which are continually being thrown off from every cell or unit, and circulate freely throughout the system. Yet Mendel’s research showed that it was nothing of the sort; being in fact much more digital, like how a computer makes all sorts of interesting stuff out of what are essentially zeros and ones. Mendel’s theory nixed that notion completely, although after a while things started to be observed that appeared to indicate that genetics wasn’t all that black and white, on and off after all, but I’ll save that for a later story.

I’ve married a blue eyed woman, and have two daughters. The first daughter has brown eyes just like me. Simple enough: My brown-eyed alleles squash my wife's blue-eyed ones. However, my second daughter has greenish-hazel eyes, much lighter than mine or her sister, but certainly not bright blue like those of my wife, so it would seem like a little blending is going on over there after all. Eye color is not a simple dominant-recessive trait, although knuckle hair and tongue rolling are. The eye color trait is what geneticists call polygenic, which simply means that it is not decided by one single gene. In order to account for my younger child’s green-hazel eyes, we have to add other factors to the mix.

My wife is pure Irish on her mother’s side and a mix of Slovakian and Hungarian on her father’s. Hungarians have the highest percentage of green eyes of any population, close to 20%, so something in my wife’s blue-eyed world (the blue-eyed allele of her Hungarian father) produced a variant that refused to role over and die, but instead made alliances with other genes --including a recently discovered one that may go back to the Neanderthals--- that slips green eyes and red hair in between things, ultimately producing my younger daughter’s wonderful green eyes. Given that, you'd think I'd get the tongue rolling gene and she the knuckle hair, but alas, the results are quite opposite.

Many traits are polygenic, and when when added to the tremendously under-appreciated epigenetic effects on gene expression, explain why we have never found a single gene for diabetes, or cancer or Alzheimer’s disease. If it were that simple, we’d have had the answers to these questions already.

Another type of inheritance is very close to my heart. The allele (the set of alternate genes for any trait) for type O blood is recessive to the alleles for type B and type A. Again using my family as an example, biologically I am type A blood and my wife is type O. My daughters are both type A blood, so we know that they must have received a type O allele from mom and a type A allele from me. Their genotype for ABO blood type is A/o (recessive alleles are usually depicted in lower case, dominant in capitals, and genetic things are usually rendered in italics).

If I was instead type B blood and had provided a type B allele, the children would have type B, as type B is dominant to type O as well.

But here is where things get interesting. What happens if you were to receive one type A allele and one type B allele? Why, you would be blood type AB! The reason behind this is that although both B and A clobber O, they strike a tentative truce between themselves and split the kingdom and declare a dual monarchy. This is called co-dominance. There are not many instances of co-dominance in genetics, and ABO inheritance is almost always given as the example.

You may well ask why, if type O is recessive to types A and B, why hasn’t it disappeared, leaving only A and B to slug it out, and eventually producing a world of only type AB people? The reasons and proofs for this are mathematical, so I won’t bore you with them, but suffice it to say that if a population is large enough, and the individuals in that population tend to mate randomly, and there are no other major influences (such as one type being more resistant to an infectious disease), after one generation the gene pool will stabilize and reach a sort of equilibrium.

Since there is such a huge amount of o allele in the human population (so much so, in fact, that even though it is the recessive allele, individuals with type O blood constitute the majority of most populations around the world) it will keep propagating itself, whereas the type you’d have though would be replacing everyone else by now, AB, comprises at best about 2% of the population.

Most people probably have a negative concept of mutation, spawned by a slew of admittedly great science fiction. However, it might surprise you to learn that that vast majority of mutations, at least the ones that get incorporated into our genetic heritage, are not lethal and often don’t do very much at all. For example, let’s again turn to our trusty blood types. As we will explore in more later on in this book, genes are chunks of DNA that do things, like code for specific proteins. Although DNA is an incredibly long molecule (if all the DNA in all your cells was unwound and placed end to end it would produce a string capable of reaching to the sun and back several times) it is composed of a simple string of four repeating nucleotides abbreviated A,T,C and G. The sequence of these four repeating nucleotides is what contains the instructions for the protein.

The difference between having the gene for type A blood or type B blood is a variation of a mere seven letters out of the total of 1,062 that make up the entire gene. We even know exactly where they differ: letters number 523, 700, 793 and 800. If you are type A blood, you have C,G,C,G in these locations, whereas if you are type B blood you have G,A,A,C there instead. Yet however slight this difference is, it is enough to cause a major problem if you were to receive the wrong blood in a transfusion. These are called point mutations because they are a simple one-letter misspelling in a gene, unless as in the case of blood type it is a consistent variation that is inheritable, in which case it is called a polymorphism.

The type O gene mutation is even more interesting. It derives from a frame shift mutation. If you are type O you may be surprised to discover that rather than having a difference of letters, like A and B, you're just missing one letter, number 258, entirely.

So hopefully by now you are comfortable with the notion that mutations are just part of life, unless of course you are unfortunate enough to have gotten a lethal one (and there are many) which probably would never have allowed you to get so far in life as to be able to read this blog. Many, if not most, of these mutations are spontaneously terminated while the sufferer is still an embryo in utero. Virtually all of the well-known genetic disorders are semi-lethal.

There are may causes of mutations, including viruses and radiation, but the most common cause is the simple fact that when our cells reproduce, they must make a complete copy of there DNA, and sometimes the copies don’t turn out so great. Think about the photocopy of that great joke that circulated around the office cubicle the other day. If it was barely legible, with bloated letters that ran one into the other, it was probably because someone made a photocopy of the original, which was quite likely a photocopy of the previous copy. Each time a copy was made of a copy, the writing was degraded a bit more.

Genes are like that. Often as we get older, we tend to get more and more of this “photocopy effect”. Perhaps what was once a word string of CAG became CAA. Even if it is copied correctly, it will be CAA from there on. Perhaps not unexpectedly these mutations are called “copying errors” and given the enormous amount of cell division that goes on over the course of a lifetime it is the real surprise is just how good of a job we do at it.

Fascinating presidential election; certainly a very unique and historic outcome. It will be interesting to see --given the perilous state of affairs we find ourselves in-- whether 2008 is also the first presidential election in which (come January) it is the winner rather than the loser who demands a recount.

No, Ladies and Gentlemen, Gelotology is not the study of gelatin. By a show of hands, how many had that as their first thought? Yeah, I thought so. For those of you that did, here's your quick study for the day. Gelatin is an avoid for A's, B's, and AB's. For us O's, it's a neutral. Now, who remembers the Jell-O jingle, "Watch it wiggle, see it jiggle"? All right, everyone out of Mr. Peabody's WABAC Machine, and back to the present.

Gelotology is the study of laughter, and humor. and their effect on the human body. Laughter has also been studied from both a psychological, and physiological perspective. What I'd like to know is who first presented the idea of doing research on laughter, and who first gave money for the study? That must have made for an interesting study proposal!

With all that has taken place in recent weeks, folks could definitely use a healthy dose of laughter. Political campaigns, the Wall Street meltdown, the mortgage meltdown, hijackings off the African coast, rising food prices, and a whole slew of other happenings.

How we react to the events that go on in, and around our lives, are critical to our physical, and emotional well-being. When we allow the people, objects, or situations around us to dictate our thoughts, emotions, and physical behaviors, we are giving them our energy, our power. Why would we want to waste our energy on someone, or something, that we don't like, or that is out of our control? As Florence Scovel-Shinn noted many years ago, "All stress is self-imposed". We are only affected by that which we allow to affect us. If we are going to allow ourselves to be affected, let it be by laughter, and happiness, not anger, jealousy, or hostility.

As more studies about laughter come to light, the physical and emotional benefits of laughter become evident. With laughter, stress hormones such as cortisol, epinephrine, and adrenaline are reduced. At the same time, healthy hormones such as endorphins, and neurotransmitters are increased. Laughter also provides a physical workout for the abs, diaphragm, and even the heart. So which is more beneficial, having a good laugh, or flipping the guy off that just cut you off in traffic? It's far easier, and better, to laugh at him, than to risk a road-rage incident.

Back in February, I had pretty much given up on the radio, and televised news. Most televised news is doom and gloom. Every once in awhile, they offer an uplifting story, but not nearly often enough. My 700+ album collection just wasn't cutting it on my hour long commute to work anymore, either.

So instead, I started listening to comedy music. Years ago, I used to listen to the Dr. Demento show every Sunday night. It was on past my bedtime, but I would put my head right up against my clock radio, and listen to it at a very low volume. The hard part was stifling my laughter when one of the more funny songs would come on. Imagine my surprise, when I found out that the Dr. Demento show was still on the air. Unfortunately, no one in my area carries the show anymore. However, I did find a radio station in California, KEGR, http://www.kegr.org/ that still plays older shows, and streams them online. So once again, every Sunday night from 10 p.m. to midnight, I'm tuned in to the Dr. Demento show. I'm just not cuddling with the clock radio anymore

I had also found an internet radio station that plays comedy music, called DementiaRadio; http://www.dementiaradio.org This has become my go to station when I'm working twelve hour shifts on the weekends. There are D.J.'s with their own shows, but there are also large blocks of time where songs in their playlist are played randomly. You can even access the playlist, and request songs through their automated d.j.!

Another place that I've begun to hang around is The Mad Music Archive; http://www.themadmusicarchive.com/ One needs to register to listen to their shows, but it is free. After spending some time listening, I've found a whole bunch of new songs to laugh to, and a lot of old songs to laugh to again.

So here's a few YouTube links to some comedy songs, to start you on your way to laughter. Some of the videos are of the artists themselves, and others are videos that people have put together to go with a particular song. Laugh, be happy, and smile. The smile that you share may go a long way in helping to brighten someone elses day.

For all of us 80's children, Buckner & Garcia's Pac-Man Fever; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIhrrk-dmQE

A definite food related video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmK0bZl4ILM

Redneck love; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiNoUbe7aHo

Another by Kacey Jones; the video is a little off the wall, but the lyrics make up for it. This one's for the women http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tW1BDiWMvrc

The Husband Song; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcPMKD8GFkI&feature=related

And, to save the best for last, The Colorectal Surgeon, by Bowser & Blue; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N0w2rORwSc

Los anuncios publicitarios de productos y programas para bajar de peso y obtener salud necesitan tonificar sus mensajes, haciendo afirmaciones, prometiendo más de lo que probablemente los productos y programas pueden cumplir. Proclaman resultados "milagrosos" - una rápida y fácil pérdida de peso - mientras que ignoran y contradicen los dogmas básicos de la pérdida y el mantenimiento de peso exitosos - reducción en la ingesta de calorías y ejercicio físico. No cuentan con la evidencia científica que respalda las afirmaciones sobre su rendimiento, en cambio utilizan testimonios equívocos de consumidores, endosos de 'expertos' y también otras técnicas engañosas para avalar la credibilidad de sus productos.

El uso de afirmaciones exageradas sobre los productos y programas para adelgazar está incrementando. Se requiere leer estos anuncios con una gran dosis de escepticismo con afirmaciones tales como:
¡Usted puede perder 18 libras en una semana! Usted solamente tiene que hacerlo durante 2 DÍAS PARA VER LOS RESULTADOS

Alusión a estos engaños aparecen en los nombres propios de los productos, tales como:
"Redu-Quick"
"Slim Down Fast"

En realidad la pérdida de peso sustancial en un corto período de tiempo es altamente improbable y potencialmente dañina. Los expertos en el tema generalmente recomiendan una pérdida de peso máxima de entre 1 y 2 libras por semana.

Afirmaciones de tipo:
"Pierda entre 8 y 10 libras por semana... sin dieta, ni ejercicios extenuantes"
"Coma todo lo que desee - cuanto más coma, más peso perderá"

Aunque sin duda resultan tentadoras, estas afirmaciones contradicen la evidencia científica que enfatiza la actividad física y una moderada ingesta de calorías para una pérdida de peso a largo plazo, si no es que definitiva.

Afirmaciones del tipo:
"Descubra el secreto del adelgazamiento permanente"
"Baje de peso y permanezca delgado"

El adelgazamiento a largo plazo es difícil de alcanzar, pero adaptando un cambio en el estilo de vida , con convicción y determinación, se puede sin duda lograr.

Muchos intentan atraer a aquellas personas que se la viven a dieta y frustradas con declaraciones tales como:
"¿Está cansado de las dietas de moda que parecen no dar nunca resultado?"
"Usted desea bajar de peso, y lo logró anteriormente; pero después de un tiempo volvió al punto de partida."

En muchas ocasiones los "profesionales" que avalan supuestamente dichas campañas, también pueden ser ficticios. No se digan los famosos reintegros garantizados de dinero:
"Usted perderá 35 libras en tres semanas. ¡Sí! ¡Garantizado!"
"Usted baja de peso o no le cuesta ni un centavo."

Otro de los mitos, el de la seguridad del producto:
"Probado 100% seguro"
"Segura e inmediata pérdida de peso"
"El sistema más seguro del mundo para controlar el peso."

El término "natural" con afirmaciones del tipo:
"no es una droga de prescripción médica para adelgazar"
"nada de píldoras o pastillas peligrosas para tomar"

En realidad existe muy poca evidencia sobre la seguridad de los productos, poniendo en desventaja a los consumidores sin siquiera revelar los ingredientes activos que incluyen dichos productos o formulas.

Testimonios "Antes y Después", afirmaciones sin respaldo:
"¡Hace 7 semanas pesaba 268 libras, ahora bajé a 148 libras! ... y no cambié mis hábitos de alimentación..."

Que hacer en realidad?
Si usted desea bajar los kilos que le sobran, no se deje confundir por toda la charlatanería. Ya sea en la radio, la televisión o las revistas, nos asaltan constantemente los mensajes como los que aquí enumere. Es casi imposible saber quién, si es que existe alguien, está diciendo la verdad.

Con el fin de colocarlo a usted en el camino hacia un peso saludable, le presentare algunos hechos acerca de las preocupaciones comunes por bajar de peso. Pero antes de modificar su dieta o programa de ejercicio, consulte a su médico para ver si se trata de una alternativa más saludable para usted.

¿Cómo puedo alcanzar mi peso ideal?
En vez de buscar un peso "ideal", trate de lograr un peso más saludable. Es posible que lo que se considera un peso ideal para alguien de su misma estatura no tome en cuenta algunos aspectos muy importantes, como su complexión (el hecho de sí sus huesos son de tamaño pequeño o grande), el tipo de su cuerpo o si usted padece una enfermedad relacionada con la obesidad. Pero antes que nada,
el saber acerca de nuestra individualidad fisiológica y genética podremos decir que nos encontramos bien encarrilados para iniciar nuestro viaje hacia una vida mas plena y sana.

El llamado peso ideal no tiene en cuenta en dónde está distribuido el exceso de peso. Las personas con "cuerpo de manzana" (con el exceso de grasa localizado alrededor del abdomen) corren un riesgo más alto de padecer enfermedades del corazón , trombosis o embolias, hipertensión arterial (presión alta) y diabetes (azúcar en la sangre) que las personas con cuerpo de "pera", en las cuales la grasa se localiza alrededor de los gluteos y muslos.

El hecho de si usted padece una enfermedad relacionada con la obesidad determina también cuánto debe usted pesar. Si padece hipertensión arterial, hipercolesterolemia (colesterol alto), diabetes tipo II, artritis y si ronca con interrupciones en la respiración o si alguien en su familia a muerto a una edad temprana por causa de enfermedades del corazón, usted deberá esforzarse más para controlar su peso que alguien sin una o más de estas afecciones.

Después de considerar todos estos factores, establezca expectativas más realistas para su reducción de peso. Buenas noticias: Incluso las reducciones moderadas (5 — 10% de su peso actual) proporcionan ventajas reales para su salud con respecto a la presión arterial, las concentraciones de colesterol y otros factores de riesgo para padecer enfermedades.

A la larga, las dietas rigurosas no funcionan. Las dietas demasiado estrictas son como un castigo diario para la mayoría de las personas. Simplemente, usted no puede apegarse a una dieta que le hace sentir hambre durante todo el día. Además, bajar de peso demasiado rápido puede ocasionar que se pierda músculo además de grasa.
La obesidad es una enfermedad de larga evolución que obliga a cuidar de por vida los hábitos de alimentación, de ejercicio y otras costumbres. Después de hacerlo, es natural que usted bajará de peso o, por lo menos, lo mantendrá estable. Cualquier cambio duradero debe ocurrir a pasos pequeños. Los métodos para bajar rápido de peso suelen ir seguidos de una recuperación rápida del peso debido a que no se modifican los hábitos de alimentación ni de ejercicio.

Un hábito saludable es el de desayunar, comer y cenar todos los días. Trate de comer por lo menos 25% del total de calorías diarias en cada comida. Esto le ayudará a tener buen apetito antes de cada comida, lo que no suele ocurrir cuando usted omite alguna comida y come demasiado en otra.

Los alimentos bajos en grasas no necesariamente contienen menos calorías que otros alimentos. De hecho, estos productos a menudo contienen más calorías que los similares a ellos que son ricos en grasas debido a que contienen más azúcar y otros saborizantes. Cerciórese de revisar la lista de calorías que se encuentra en la etiqueta de los alimentos bajos en grasas. Un método mejor para reducir tanto el consumo de grasas como el de calorías es sustituir los alimentos ricos en grasas por carbohidratos complejos. Los carbohidratos complejos, como frutas, verduras, panes de granos integrales (no de trigo ya que este contiene el gluten que suele inflamar al intestino creando estragos) y cereales contienen poca grasa o nada. Además, estos alimentos contienen otros nutrimentos saludables (fibra, por ejemplo) que nuestro organismo necesita cuando tratamos de bajar de peso ya que ayuda a controlar las subidas súbitas de glucosa en la sangre.

Una vez que alcance su peso ideal será más fácil permanecer delgado si sigue un programa de ejercicios. Nunca se es demasiado viejo ni demasiado limitado físicamente para obtener ventajas de algún tipo de ejercicio. Caminar, bailar, nadar, incluso el "quehacer doméstico aeróbico" son buenas maneras de aumentar su nivel de actividad. Y aun cuando baje de peso, estará más sano si practica ejercicio regularmente.

Si usted y su médico están de acuerdo en que lo mejor sería bajar de peso, trate de evitar el "juego de los números": contar todos los kilos y las calorías. En vez de ello, concéntrese en las mejoras en sus hábitos de alimentación y de ejercicio, así como en los factores de riesgo de padecer enfermedades, como colesterol alto y presión arterial alta.

Trate de lograr y de conservar una reducción de peso pequeña (unos 2.5 — 5.0 kg) antes de bajar más. Un objetivo realista a largo plazo sería bajar 10% de su peso corporal actual. Para otras personas, un buen principio sería mantener su peso actual, especialmente para aquéllas que tienen el antecedente de subir gradualmente — pero constantemente — de peso. Este es un buen objetivo, especialmente para las personas que padecen diabetes, artritis u otros padecimientos que empeorarían con el aumento de peso.

La dieta y el ejercicio adecuados de acuerdo ya sea a su tipo de sangre o bien de acuerdo a su genotipo siguen siendo muy importantes para cualquier programa eficaz y sostenido de reducción de peso, brindándole una mejor calidad de vida al hacer el cambio necesario de llevar un estilo de vida personalizado. Aprenda que alimentos debe enfatizar y cuales debe evitar para lograr su objetivo!

I feel as if the clock has turned back to the 1970s when HH and I were first married and I was learning for the first time about health and nutrition. We were both working full time in a megalopolis, never getting home before 6:30 at night. I was reading fabulous new, healthy recipes, but had no time to cook. I laughingly described my cooking style as broiled meat, steamed vegetables, and salad.

Actually that is not a bad cooking style. It’s basic, healthy, and open to variety. I find myself back in that cooking style now. It’s not that life is so terribly hectic. My to do list is busy, but not overwhelming. I think it’s that my days are choppy. I’m at the rehab center for one meal a day with my Mom. By the time I drive in, visit with her, feed her, and run a couple of errands, I’ve spent four hours in town. My Practical Photography business (www.PracticalPhoto-Publishing.com) is beginning to generate a stream of satisfying work. I’ve got my paperwork, Mom’s paperwork, and housework to keep up with. Overall, I do not feel frantically busy, but I suddenly find that it’s time to eat, and I haven’t begun to prepare a meal.

Broiled meat, steamed vegetables and salad is a great fall back position. There is always fish in the freezer. I always have ground turkey, ground beef, and ground bison. I always have frozen vegetables ready to pull out of the freezer, and fresh vegetables washed in the fridge. I can whip up an impressive meal in a short time.

Where the BTD has changed things from the 1970s is my use of herbs and spices. Broiled meat and steamed vegetables take on a whole new life when sprinkled with beneficial seasonings. While Type A and Type O foods often clash, the spices that are beneficial for one of us are usually beneficial or neutral for the other.

I am using turmeric and curry on fish and ground turkey. I have always liked rosemary on lamb, but I have found that it is also nice on turkey cutlets. In fact rosemary, mixed with oregano and sage is a tasty combination. Cilantro is delicious on canned tuna and salmon, and it has the added benefit of neutralizing the mercury so often present in tuna. Cinnamon, cloves, and ginger all add zest to butternut squash, parsnips, and pumpkin. Parsley, fresh or dried, goes well with any kind of meat and vegetable combination. Italian spice mixes are good on zucchini & tomatoes as well as okra & tomatoes. Even when I leave off the tomatoes for the sake of my Type A husband, Italian spices and olive oil alone are really nice with zucchini.

So, though my cooking style is simple right now, my husband and I are not eating boring meals. They are full of flavor and variety. I have not come close to the end of the list of potential BTD spices. Dill, mustard powder, tarragon, and horseradish are beneficial for us both. I need to think of ways to incorporate those into my current cooking style.

I'd like to see a psychiatry book by Dr. D'Adamo. There's certainly enough data on the bloodtype link to fill one; his Encyclopedia contains much of this, and his other books mention it as well.

Psychiatric symptoms are all too common in our world today, and the field could use all the help it can get in the diagnosis, classification and treatment of these. Happily, I've met two San Francisco psychiatrists who are familiar with, and praise, Dr. D'Adamo's work. Another one, specializing in the postpartum, uses nutritional therapy. And all three are USSR-born.

The most common and well-documented connections I've seen between bloodtype and psychiatric symptomatology are bloodtype O/bipolar/aggression and A/anxiety/depression. Those of bloodtype O or A (together constituting the vast majority of Americans -- about 86%) would do well to follow D'Adamo's Live Right 4 Your Type diet/fitness/lifestyle/supplement guidelines to see if symptoms do not abate or disappear. The B and AB bloodtype/psychiatric classification connection is not quite as clear.

I hold the opinion that the understanding of the psyche really requires an anthropologic knowledge of the individual's bloodtype's roots. Thus the energy expenditure patterns, overall life rhythm and orientation to the world can be respected, so that an A does not try to drug himself to function as a healthy O, for example. As long as psychiatry holds out only one model for a healthy American psyche, the majority of Americans will be seen to lack it; the healthy O and healthy A should NOT appear identical. A bloodtype-educated psychiatrist can assist patients in adjusting to life's challenges in ways commensurate with their genetic inheritance, so as to evoke behaviors and responses reflecting their individuality. Clinically, options for pharmacology and style/program of psychotherapy can be explored far less randomly and differential diagnoses refined according to bloodtype-geared parameters.

Finally, psychiatrists are rather more likely to acquaint themselves with alternative models than are other MDs. I've had a few of them as clients; they tend to be (of bloodtype B and) open to the paradigm. A focussed compilation of bloodtype data and case histories, showing nutritional/fitness/lifestyle/supplementation AND pharmacology recommendations would be, as I see it, well received by many of them. If there's any way to bring them on board, including via research published in their journals, society may actually grow saner!

I got my seasonal flu shot about a week ago. I didn’t blog about it immediately because I wanted to see if there were any ill effects. There were not. My arm was not particularly sore. I didn’t run any fever, no aches or pains. I felt perfectly normal. I did have a headache three days later, but I think it would be a stretch to blame that on the shot.

I got the shot because of my Mom. The rehab facility has signs posted everywhere warning visitors to stay away if they or anyone in their household has any flu-like symptoms. I do not want to risk exposing my Mom or any of the residents with flu.

On the day I got the shot I actually had an appointment for an annual physical. The day before there had been one news report after another about flu cases in our area. Doctors were interviewed on the radio who were seeing hundreds of flu patients a week. I woke up thinking, “Why am I going to sit in a waiting room with a bunch of flu germ carriers? Why put myself at that kind of risk?” I cancelled the doctor appointment and called a local pharmacy that gives flu shots. They said that they were almost out of seasonal vaccine and if I wanted a shot, I should come that very morning. So I switched my schedule and got the shot.

I am more wary about the H1N1 vaccine. The nasal spray is a live virus. I know I don’t want that. The shot is a dead (inactivated they call it) virus. Right now all H1N1 shots are reserved for high risk groups, so I couldn’t get one if I wanted it. I’ll wait and see what, if any, side effects turn up from the shot.

I heard one doctor interviewed on the news, who said that next year’s seasonal vaccine will include H1N1, but it will be a dead variety, and will be more thoroughly tested.

Whether you decide to get vaccinated for the flu or not, I strongly urge you to stay at home if you have any flu symptoms. There is nothing you have to do that is so important that it gives you the right to expose someone else. If people exercised common courtesy by keeping their germy hands off of shopping carts, and door knobs, it would go a long way toward slowing the progress of the disease. Stay home instead of going to a concert, movie, or even a church service. Get a friend to pick up children from school.

Sorry if I sound irritable, but I am tired of standing in line with people who are hacking and wheezing! I have hand sanitizer in my car, and my hands will probably be chapped all winter from the alcohol.

A few days of rest and self imposed isolation would not only protect others, but it would give the flu patient’s own body a chance to rest and recover more quickly.

My quest to genotype 50 people has been more challenging then I care to admit. I tried to put a few flyers around some of my local haunts but I did not get one call. So my new strategy has been to find people with large social networks (or big mouths) who need to lose weight or have expressed that they just don't feel good. My hope has been that one person would tell the next and they would come streaming in all wanting to know the secrets of their personal diet. It has not been that simple because many of my friends have given up on losing weight due to so many failed diets and being menopausal. Still I continue to bother them and have no shame in telling them that they need to shed a few pounds; that their future health and well-being is important enough to invest in.

My consultations with people go something like this...

First, I let them know it will take about 2 hours for the initial consultation. In the beginning I didn't tell people this and soon learned that they were, more often than not, stopping by between picking up kids and getting home to dinner. These distracted people are really hard to work with. I also realized some people need to know all the details while others just want the diet without the research behind it.
For those who want to know the whys and why nots, I have found Eric Morrison's blood type movie to be quite helpful. I can sit people down to watch the movie and know that in the end they have some basic understanding for the food choices. I have had a very good response to the video; two people actually watched it twice. Eric's “Explaining the Blood Type Diet” runs about 45 minutes so during that time I make a cup of tea for my guests to enjoy while watching, and then I get everything ready to measure and fingerprint them.

Once the film is finished I answer any questions and then take their health history. It’s interesting to see that many people don't really understand what diseases they have. I find many who are on blood pressure medication will deny they have high blood pressure because in some quirky way they consider it irrelevant if they take medication. They don’t realize that meds often only mask the disease. This is also common for those with high cholesterol who keep their condition under control with a prescription. Inquiring about their medications or the results of any tests they may have had is a good way to know their underlying health conditions.

Once I have their medical history I begin the body measurements; my husband Jeff helps me with this. I have a chair already measured that I know is 17 inches high so I always have them sit in that chair, it is my genochair. Standing and sitting height, weight (I let them write it down rather then say it), finger lengths, head measurements, waist, hips etc… Having witnessed Dr. D'Adamo and his team of interns measure people at the University of Bridgeport helped me understand the proper way to measure people, particularly leg bone length. I take all the information I need for an accurate Genotype and record it on a 5”x8” index card my husband created that contains data on one side and fingerprints on the other.

While I measure them I have a short discussion on what the measurements mean, this is often a bit abstract for most people. Getting them to understand how body measurements will somehow relate to the foods they can and can't eat is the most difficult part. They often look a little blankly at me, trusting that I know what I am doing. (I will mention Manning just incase they want to go look him up for more information.)
Once finished, our first visit is over.
In the beginning I used to figure out the genotypes of people and give them their diets all at the same time. But I have found that most people need some time to think through what we have discussed. The time between measuring and the receiving of their food lists helps them to prepare psychologically. It also gives me time to speculate what foods they might have questions about.

During the second meeting I go over the diet page by page. In this way I can address any initial concerns they have regarding its content. I like to show people the food on their lists that may not be familiar to them, so I make sure I have a few of those items around the house. I’ve even reached into my freezer to show them grass-fed beef or homemade flax meal bread. Samples sometimes become part of this second visit. O's always want to know where the bread is and A's want to see the fruit and vegetable list. Many A's have never eaten tofu or if they have it has only been served in some unappealing way. O's begin to freak out when they see the list of carbohydrates and wheat is in the red avoid section. This is when I begin to pull out bags of quinoa or millet to show them what they can have. Initially I was unprepared for the response of O's, thinking everyone would embrace the idea of not eating wheat, but the media has ingrained in us the idea that we can't live without wheat in our diets.

This sharing of information is the part of genotyping I enjoy most because I am able to impart years of food knowledge, both my own and from Dr. D’s work, with people. I send them on their way, knowing that in a few days they will be calling me as they wonder what ghee is, or how to buy fresh fish. And gladly I will be ready to share what I know.

When I told someone I was contemplating the start of a support group and possibly cooking classes so we can share our knowledge collectively,
I could see excitement in her eyes. At moments like those I know I am in the right place and doing what I love.