Drop Acid with Me podcast

 

Drop Acid is the clever title of a new book by David Perlmutter, neurologist.  This is a ground-breaking book, with new knowledge of the importance of uric acid in your life.  And believe me: even if you’ve never heard of uric acid, or more commonly only see its importance in the relationship it has to gout- after reading this science heavy book, you will realize that uric acid is of utmost importance in relation to your overall health!

If  you keep track of your uric acid levels, which is a waste product of your own body, and also a breakdown of purines in various foods, such as liver, and especially beer.  Uric acid does cause the painful disease of gout, and until recently that is the only causative damaging effect it was thought to have.  If you ask your doctor your uric acid level, and do not have gout, he will ask you why you want to know.  That is the only pertinent fact he knows about uric acid.

Unfortunately, uric acid predicts overall mortality hugely!  If  your uric acid level is above a certain level, it can predict that you will get high blood pressure, heart disease, and alzheimer’s and dementia.  Metabolic syndrome is directly caused by high uric acid, and this leads to most of the modern diseases such as obesity, and eventually diabetes.  Uric acid is a crucial measurement; an insidious poison if you will. 

Liver is, of course, a crucial source of important nutrients!  But, in excess it can be problematic, and it breaks down into uric acid.  I would say to keep liver to once a week or so, and it should be no problem, and actually a plus.  Beer is a different story, a story that here I will tell:

I have always been a beer drinker, as it is something that I really enjoy, and felt was largely harmless in moderation.  My blood pressure has always been somewhat high, which also never concerned me much; my father had high blood pressure, and lived to 97 without problem.  I thought that it was a largely bogus measurement introduced by the medical conglomerates to sell blood pressure pills.  For instance, did you know that although blood pressure medications do lower blood pressure artificially- they do not extend longevity at all??  And so, what is the point of them?

Perlmutter is a convincing writer and speaker who I have followed for years.  I decided to follow his prescriptions.  I stopped drinking beer at all!  The rest of his prescriptions I have followed for decades: ensuring good sleep, exercise daily, spend time in nature, a good paleo sort of diet with good fats (no vegetable oils) and low carbs and very low sugar…

And each week, I would check my blood pressure.  It just dropped steadily, week by week.  The only real change I made was to substitute wine for beer.  Nothing else.

It continues to drop.  I had a few beers for my 70^th birthday celebration, and decidedd to stop checking for a few days.  (I’m sure it went up a bit).

I will let you know my end result.  But, I will say this: drinking wine (I use the boxed wines that are readily available and cheap)- I just feel better, overall!  It’s as if I can literally feel I am in a more relaxed state, as my overall blood pressure lowers itself.  Oh, I also drink hard apple cider, which is made with wine yeast, and is in actuality more of a fruit wine than a beer.

Other things that help to drop uric acid are to drink tart cherry juice (I use it as one of the bases of my daily smoothie now, along with kefir, cruciferous veggies, berries and citrus.  Vitamin C, Quercitin, Luteolin, and Magnesium are also said to be helpful in cutting the uric acid.

I will keep checking my blood pressure, and will keep you apprised as to my ultimate result.  But, as in most things to do with health and fitness- how you look, feel, and perform is the ultimate test.  And, by eliminating beer (along with most sugar, vegetable oils, fast and processed foods, and lowering carbs and going animal foods centered in diet)- I am really doing very well indeed!

I still include small amounts of potatoes, both white and sweet, and also real sour dough bread.  All of these, in small amounts, may not be necessary, but they are also harmless adjuncts that I believe are important in keeping the gut microbiome healthy.  Perhaps, if I was a 70 year old physique competitor, I would eliminate them- but then, if I was a 70 year old bodybuilder and physique competitor, I would qualify as certifiably insane.

Maybe I could try out as an NFL quarterback?

It is hard to give up beer, especially identifying as a blue collared, hands-on real worker as opposed to any sort of a liberal fake job holder- but you know what?

Wine actually tastes better!  Sweet…

High blood pressure: HI-Biscus TEA!

We’ve long known that almost all benefit from treating severe hypertension comes with lowering BP [blood pressure] just a little. On the other hand, efforts to lower BP to ‘normal,’ typically requiring multiple drugs, are not only usually unsuccessful but produce more harm than good, since adverse effects of intensive treatment outweigh the minimal marginal benefit of a little more BP ‘control.’ Drug treatment of mild hypertension….may be of great value to drug makers, but it was almost predictable that it would provide little or no benefit for patients.

-Professor Jerome Hoffman of UCLA and an expert in critical appraisal of medical literature. 

Hey- do we have a problem here?  It appears that standard approaches to high blood pressure are misguided.

Suprise, suprise, suprise!!

The bottom line here is this:

MILD hypertension is best treated by natural means.  

As my friend Chris Kresser says:

"Treating mild high blood pressure with drugs is ineffective. Try potassium-rich foods, hibiscus tea, acupuncture and exercise instead."

How simple is that??

It doesn't generate a lot of revenue for the medical establishment, or the pharmaceutical companies...  

but it sure as HECK does work!

I would suggest, in light of the double blind research studies about Hibiscus Tea, that you ADD IT to you daily Paleo Smoothie if you have any high blood pressure issues!

What could be easier?

You substitute green or white tea (both excellent choices in and of themselves, by the way!), with Hibiscus Tea- available almost anywhere, readily!  (And delicious, as well!)

Of course, if you are already drinking the Paleo Smoothie!, you are already becoming super healthy just on the merits of this superdrink/food!

But, if you have a particular issue with high blood pressure-

It would behoove you to drink 

Hibiscus tea- either just replace the green/white tea in your smoothie, or add it into your beverage rotation!

It sure beats taking a DRUG!  

J