National Geographic Memory Game
Try out the National Geographic’s Memory Game on their website. It tests your short-term memory by having you memory the location of 9 images in a grid.
PermalinkToxic Level of Vitamin A in Polar Bear Liver
Do not eat polar bear liver. At least not the whole thing in one meal. This is because it contains so much vitamin A that it becomes toxic. It contains a form of vitamin A called retinol. Vitamin A is one of those vitamins that one can overdose on.
But can a person die from it? Article on HowStuffWorks asks the question “Will I die if I eat polar bear liver?” It depends on how much is eaten. But it does report that early Western explorers suffered from “acute hypervitaminosis A” from eating polar bear liver. They became drowsy, sluggish, and irritable. They have pains in their heads and bone. They vomit and their vision blurred, and their skins flaked. The severe cases had hemorrhaging and entire skins peeled off. Some went into coma and died.[2]
Paper by Rodahl and Moore writes of vitamin A toxicity of bear and seal liver as experienced by Arctic explorers. It also tells of rodent experiments demonstrating some vitamin A toxicity effects in rats.[3]
HuffingtonPost says that …
“In fact, the way the Inuit used to kill explorers in the Arctic was to feed them polar bear liver, which gave them toxic doses of vitamin A”[4]
So yes, if one eats enough of it, one can die from it. Dr. Chopra says so on page 140 of his book “Dr. Chopra Says” …
“If eaten in one meal, polar bear liver can be deadly.”
How Much Vitamin A is toxic?
According to WebMd …
“Vitamin A is LIKELY SAFE for most people when taken by mouth in amounts less than 10,000 units per day”[5]
That is for adult that is. For children, it should be less. And it is also dependent on your age, gender, size, and physical condition.
But most likely and speaking generally, it would not become toxic until 25,000 to 33,000 IU per day is reached. [6] A polar bear liver contains 24000 to 35000 IU per gram.[7] So one gram of it is enough to be toxic.
Why Polar Bears Have So Much Vitamin A?
Vitamin A is a fat soluble vitamin. So it does not eliminate in urine. Instead it bio-accumulates in the fat of the liver. Many animals have vitamin A in their livers. Polar bears eats a lot of these animals (such as seals) and accumulate their vitamin A into their own liver.
References
[1] Vitamin A Toxicity
[2] Will I die if I eat polar bear liver? – HowStuffWorks.com
[3] The Vitamin A Content and Toxicity of Bear and Seal Liver
[4] Mark Hyman, MD: Vitamin D: Why You Are Probably NOT Getting Enough and How That Makes You Sick
[5] VITAMIN A: Uses, Side Effects, Interactions and Warnings – WebMD
[6] Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University
[7] Vitamin A in Polar Bear Liver
So Many Types of Diet Books
Upon looking on Amazon, there are so many types of diet book out there. There are three categories of macro-nutrients that the body consume: fat, protein, and carbohydrates. And there are good and bad types of each of these. So different types of diets try to tweak different portions of these macro-nutrients.
Here are just some of the types of diet books found on amazon in no particular order. They are not recommendations and some may even be harmful. But you may find some good info in some. And not all diet is right for everyone.
Low-Fat Living
Living Low Carb
The 30-Day Low-Carb Diet Solution
The Mediterranean Diet
The South Beach Diet
The New Atkins for a New You
The Spectrum
The UltraSimple Diet
The Insulin-Resistance Diet
The Diabetes Diet
The Glycemic Load Diet
The Paleo Solution
The Dash Diet
The New High Protein Diet
The Metabolic Effect Diet
The Real Food Diet Cookbook
The Oil-Protein Diet Cookbook
The High Intensity Diet
The Flexitarian Diet
The Vegan Diet
The Vegetarian Low-Carb Diet Cookbook
Flat Belly Diet
The 10/60 Diet
The Dukan Diet
Easy HCG Diet
The G.I. Diet
The New Detox Diet
The Carb Lovers Diet
The Raw Food Diet Plan
The Fat Resistance Diet
The Fat Burning Diet
The False Fat Diet
The New Glucose Revolution Low GI Vegetarian Diet
The Mayo Clinic Diet
The PCOS Diet Plan
The Full Plate Diet
The 17 Day Diet
Crazy Sexy Diet
The Hormone Diet
The No S Diet
The Thyroid Diet
The Beck Diet Solution
The Kind Diet
Dr. Gott’s No Flour, No Sugar Diet
Presidents age twice as fast when in office
According to Cleveland.com, Dr. Michael Roizen speculates that “presidents get two years older for every year they’re in office” [reference]
This is probably due to stress of the job rather than living at the white house. It is well known that stress shortens the cell’s telomeres which is an indication of cellular aging.
PermalinkWhat is the Ebbinghaus Illusion?
An example of the Ebbinghaus illusion is where the perception of the orange circles below appears to be smaller in the left diagram than in the right diagram, when in fact the two orange circles are exactly the same size.
Ebbinghaus Illusion (public domain image)
Even after you measured the size of the circles and have confirm and know cognitively that they are indeed the same size, your mind’s automatic perception system still cannot help but see the left circle as being smaller. The best that you can do is to be aware that in certain situations your perceptions can be fooled. This way, the next time you and encounter such a similar situation, your conscious mind can alert you to not trust your perception due to the fact that what you are seeing may be flawed.
There are many other visual and cognitive illusions in which our minds can be fooled. By being aware of the types of illusions will help us be aware of situations in which our minds can be fooled. The book
The Ebbinghaus illusion was named after the German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus who discovered it. The illusion is also called the Titchener circles.
PermalinkPupils dilate under complex mental computation
Did you know that your pupils will dilate when you are doing complex mental computation? Yes, this is according to Daniel Kahneman in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow. Examples of mental computation would be if you had to increment each of the digits of a 4-digit number by 1. Or if one is trying to hold number in one’s head.
Some psychology experiments would measure a subjects pupil dilation as an indication of the amount of thinking the subject is undergoing.
PermalinkHow to Breathe during Push-Ups
You are supposed to breathe in while descending and breathe out while raising. This is according to 7 Weeks to 100 Push-Ups: Strengthen and Sculpt Your Arms, Abs, Chest, Back and Glutes by Training to do 100 Consecutive Push-Ups. Do not hold your breath.
If doing pushups is stressing your wrist, you can hold your hands into fists with knuckles to the floor. But make sure you are on a soft mat or have the hands over soft towels.
On page 39 of the book, the book gives you a table of how many push ups a male or female is supposed to be able to do on average for a given age group. As an example, an average middle-aged male between 40-49 years should be able to do 13 to 21 pushups on average. For females, it would be 7 to 14.
A male over the age of 60 who is able to do more than 28 pushups is considered excellent. 16 or more pushup for females over the age of 60 would be most excellent as well.
PermalinkGary Taubes debate with Dr. Dean Ornish
Here is a YouTube video where you can watch a debate between science journalist Gary Taubes and Dr. Dean Ornish and also American Heart Association’s Dr. Barbara Howard. It is moderated by Dr. Oz.
Taubes is saying that perhaps fat is not making us fat and the the real problem may be carbohydrates. And he is okay with fats and proteins. Dr. Ornish is a proponent of low-fat and low-protein diet and is against the Atkins diet. And Dr. Howard tells everyone to eat in moderation.
But there are things they all agree on. That is (1) trans fats are bad for us, and (2) omega-3 fats are good for us, and (3) simple carbohydrates are not good.
If you want to see Gary Taubes and Dr. Dean Ornish present their independent presentation on their views, see Dr. Dean Ornish on Transform 2010 and Taubes on AtGoogleTalks. Dr. Mark Hyman has good things to say out Dr. Dean Ornish here.
Or read each of their books …
PermalinkSteven Fowkes video presentation on Alzheimer Reversal
Steven Fowkes has a PowerPoint/YouTube presentation broken into 9 parts that explains the initiating cause of Alzheimer Disease. This is a very detailed an in-depth presentation. Some details are targeted for doctors. However, anyone can benefit from watching to learn the general concepts.
The presentation says that mercury toxicity is a risk factor. Gluthathione is the cell’s main antioxidant and detoxifier of mercury. When gluthathione is abundant enough to be dominate over mercury, then we are in good shape. But when mercury overwhelms gluthathione’s ability to do its job, then that is when Alzheimer’s disease may initiate. Fowkes says that “Alzheimer’s is caused by loss of glutathione cycling.” Glutathione’s antioxidative ability can be recycled, but that requires cellular energy such as ATP.
This energy comes from foods we eat. The presentation talks about how the body can burn glucose as well as fats for fuel. It talks about the glucose pathway and insulin resistance. You may have heard that insulin resistance is a risk factor of Alzheimer’s. It also talks about ketosis and how the body can burn fat as fuel.
The presentation goes into talk about mitochondria, antioxidant system, inflammation as a risk factor, cortisol as neuro-toxin.
The term “Alzheimer Reversal” may be debatable. Certainly, the initiating processes of Alzheimer such as inflammation and mercury toxicity can reduced or reversed. But this is typically at the stage prior to clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. Once late-stage Alzheimer where neurons death has set in, then it is much more difficult.
You can find the rest of the nine parts at his YouTube page.
If you like his presentation, you may also want to see his talk at GoogleTechTalks about “Nutrients for Better Mental Performance“.
PermalinkHow Dr. Richard Bernstein Reversed the effects of Diabetes
On YouTube is a series of videos of Dr. Richard Bernstein who had Type I diabetes and what he did to control his blood sugar and reversed the harmful effects of diabetes. This was a talk that he gave tat the Nutrition and Metabolism Society in May 8, 2010 in New York City. Dr. Richard Bernstein had diabetes for over 60 years. He was an engineer and so he got a device to measure his blood sugar through the day and performed experiments to see what affected his blood sugar. At age 45, he went to medical school and became a doctor in this field.
He found that he was able to control his blood sugar by primarily using low-carb diet, weight training, and aerobic exercise.
YouTube Videos: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6.
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