Stay tuned for a major announcement concerning IfHI 2007:

We have just received confirmation that one of our featured speakers will be Professor of Medicine Gerhard Uhlenbruck from the University of Cologne. Dr. Uhlenbruck will be joining an international faculty of experts including Dr. William Mitchell (Washington, USA), Dr. Thomas Greenfield (Kent, UK), Dr. Walter Crinnion (Arizona, USA), Dr. Emily Kane (Alaska, USA), Dina Khader (New York, USA), Dr. Erika Klus (Minnesota, US), Dr. David Bove (Oregon, USA) and myself.

Dr. Uhlenbruck is a legendary figure in lectin and blood group research. His seminal work has led to the discovery of new and novel lectins (such as peanut agglutinin) and the characterisation of lectin activities and antigen specificities (the chemical structure of T antigen was established in 1969 by Prof. Uhlenbruck and his colleagues). You can not read any modern textbook on lectinology or immunology without encountering Dr. Uhlenbruck's research legacy.

  Gerhard Uhlenbruck
(photo from 'Lectins", Second Edition, by Sharon and Lis.  Dr. Uhlenbruck is a witty and charming speaker and a fountain of insightful aphorisms about the human condition. He has had an interest in complementary medicine long before it became fashionable and acceptable by the orthodox medical community, with special attention to such diverse topics as the health effects of green tea and exercise on the immune system.Dr. Uhlenbruck's lecture is entitled:

"From Fast Food to Fast Feet and from General Feeding to Individual Food."

You will not want to miss this once in a lifetime opportunity to meet such an important figure. Thanks to IfHI fellows Cocky van Hesteren and Isa-Manuela Albrecht for initiating the the European contact and to Martha D'Adamo and Carol Agostino for the follow-up.

We now have the full IfHI 2007 conference website up and functional. However, we are probably close to half-booked to capacity, so if you didn't add your name to the preregistration list and you are planning to attend, you probably should think about registering ASAP.

I've long thought of using the measurement of breath hydrogen levels as a way of gauging digestive and detoxification improvements in those individuals following the BTD. Last week, I bit the bullet and went ahead and purchased a unit.

Carbohydrate in the intestines can be fermented by bacteria in the small intestine, forming hydrogen as one of the by-products. Some of this hydrogen is absorbed into the blood stream and there is a direct relationship between the hydrogen concentration in expired breath and the amount of unabsorbed carbohydrate in the intestine.

The Hindenberg was full of hydrogen gas.

Each test takes about two hours, since you need several readings. The readings are then sent over to a computer program, which inventories the results.

When I get all the kinks worked out, I'll set up some sort of research study (should be easy to double blind and control it: Randomized assignments. A's who get the Standard American Diet (SAD); A's who get the A diet, etc.

‘Unabsorbed carbohydrates from the small intestine are rapidly broken down in the large intestine by colonic bacteria. This degradation liberates hydrogen, which passes into the circulation by diffusion and is then exhaled. The main source of endogenous carbohydrate secreted into the colon is mucus, an intestinal glycoprotein that is 80% carbohydrate.' –Pizzorno and Murray Textbook of Natural Medicine

Probably looking at doing the study sometime in the late fall. If you are in the Metro NYC Tri-state area and want to participate, there will be an announcement posted on the website.

Brutally cold in the NE USA. Always seems to happen at about this time, when you've just about had enough of indoor heating, early darkness, greys and browns. However, spring is going to have to arrive eventually. I'm hoping to get out on the Sound more this spring and sail. Anything to get away from the computer.

A morning spent trolling through the medical literature. In subsequent blogs, I'll add a few about each type. Some interesting findings, predominantly about type O:

People who are Type O appear less likely to kill themselves, but more likely to want to kill you:

Pub Med Link

Probably because they get a bit more depressed:

Pub Med Link

Considering the lack of any results from supplementing post menopausal women with calcium, which in the Women's Health Initiative Studies was shown to be of no benefit, perhaps those researchers should have looked at ABO blood type, since there appear to be almost three-fold differences in the rate of osteoporosis:

Pub Med Link

If you are type O, you'll want to take those headphones off:

Pub Med Link

If you are type O, your predilection for inflammation may play a role in obesity:

Pub Med Link

Decided to take a break from working on the final third of The Genotype Diet and post a little blog. I've been almost addicted to getting this manuscript as informational as possible, but also trying to skirt a thin line between being too technical as to off-put people who want to try it but are easily frustrated by complexity. To that effect I've be so indebted to many of the wonderful mathematical tools which have been so helpful in allowing these true genetic archetypes to emerge from the hue and cry of all the conflicting information that we hear of when we read about the risk factors or diseases linked to single genes.

Unlike most other diet books, including those that I have written in the past, this system is quite flexible. Over time, and with proper catalysts, it is actually possible to transition from one series of food recommendations into another, hopefully passing the improvements onto subsequent generations as well. I think this is probably the greatest breakthrough with the GTD concept: that genetics and environmental influences can point the way to a ever improving and evolving diet rather that just function as a simple deterministic tool with no beginning, middle and end.

It will be nice to get this book monkey off my back and get back to life as other people know it. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It has been a wonderful process of discovery and I'll look back on this last year as one of the more fruitful and rewarding in recent memory. But deadlines are deadlines. I'm dreaming about putting a new ceiling in the laundry room and doing a bit of sheet rocking there as well. Anything other than something having to do with computers!

The Holidays were quiet and homespun –just the way I like them. Did a lot of group cooking and menu planning.

Tomorrow and Friday I do what are called "Satellite Radio Tours� to mark the tenth anniversary of the publication of Eat Right for Your Type. What happens is they connect you by phone to various AM radio stations, one right after the other, during the morning drive time and you go on for about 5-10 minutes, after which they move you one to the next station. You do it for about four hours, starting first on the East Coast and working, as with the sun, westward. It grueling, but infinitely better than the dreaded "Author Tours� of years gone by. Some people like that kind of stuff. Not me.

Martha gave me a fascinating book called "The Demon Under the Microscope" by Thomas Hager. It is the story of the discovery of the antibiotic properties of the Sulfa class drugs by the chemists a Bayer in the period between the wars. Great book if you like history with a bit of good science writing thrown in as well.

Was saddened to hear of the death the great Joseph Barbera who with William Hanna produced all those great Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 1960's, friends to all kids of that age home from school with with measles, chicken pox and head colds. My favorite was "The Flintstones", a very droll paleo-suburban take on "The Honeymooners" which featured my favorite cartoon bit character, "Joe Rockhead."

Rockhead's entire role usually consisted of dancing an exhausted Wilma around the room as his feet created this almost electron cloud of activity ---all the time repeating "I'm telling you Wilma, Fred won't be back for at least an hour."

Perhaps the reason Joe Rockhead is not better known is that Hanna-Barbera drew him differently in every episode he appeared in. This is the only know picture of him on the internet:

Well, that's it for now. Stay warm and safe.