2023 is upon us. We have had a week to recover from the holiday season. Clearly, winter is in full swing. We have not had this much winter weather in quite a while. It feels like Mother Nature is washing away the last several years of accumulated grime from our streets and psyches. Winter is the time for deep introspection, discernment, and letting go of what does not work, so we can move forward in the spring.  But spring is still months away. Now is for cleaning up our past.

I was just outside a few minutes ago using the electric leaf blower to try to clear away some of the piles of leaves that have built up on the back porch and front drive. The wind laughs at my efforts as it blows the leaves right back at me. I adapt and use the direction of the wind to guide my efforts only to have it switch direction faster than I can keep up. Nature seems to have its own plans for all the fallen soldiers that filled the trees with life just a few short months ago. It is time to clear away the old life. It has had its time in the sun, but now it is time for rest and repair.

Throughout 98% of human existence, this same pattern has held true. Winter is the time for rest and repair. The feasting and the glories of the end of autumn are now over. Now it is time for fasting and healing, and for quiet and reflection. Traditionally the human body switches its metabolism over to the much quieter energy burn of stored fats. This promotes feelings of deeper clarity. Burning fats changes the balance of neurotransmitters in the brain and changes how we think. In winter there is no fresh food to eat other than wild game. Even fish are hard to catch in the winter. What little food you may have stored is either quickly consumed before pests and rot gets to it or doled out in very limited amounts. The general lack of calories available in the winter pushes the body to start using what energy it was able to store during the feasts of autumn — all in the form of fat-burning.

The modern epidemic of chronic disease is the result of disrupting the natural cycles and rhythms built into the body by millions of years of evolution. Metabolic disease, the underlying cause of most of what kills us these days, is caused by excess food. Excess is the underlying cause of many of society's ills. Part of the lesson of winter is to teach us not to be afraid of lack; not to be afraid of limitation. Winter teaches us to become wise by forcing us to make harsh decisions. When survival needs are scarce, we are forced to really look at what is truly important to us. We are forced to let go of fanciful pursuits and idle interests and apply our energies toward what builds our mutual strength to aid our mutual survival. Humans rose to the top of the food chain by working together, not by fighting each other. Disharmony is one of those leisure time activities that only has the opportunity to flourish when people don't have tribal survival concerns. We see a bit of this when this country has gone to war in a war that almost everyone supported. Everyone pulled together. Everyone willingly sacrificed for the support of the war effort. Ethnic and religious differences were largely forgotten as there were bigger concerns to contend with. Petty differences need petty times to support their emergence. Traditionally winter served as that common hardship for a tribe that helped them all pull together for survival as a group.

That is all interesting sociologically and anthropologically, but my interest is in how these same factors are built into our physiology. Our body is like a tribe of cells that have to all work together to survive. Ease and comfort are like petty times that promote disharmony. When all the cells are well-fed, fat, and happy, that is when we see the emergence of dysfunctional cells, zombie cells, cancers, chronic inflammation, and degenerative diseases. We have the systems in place to eliminate these problems, but these systems turn on in times of brief extreme stress and systemic lack. They won't turn on while everybody is fat and happy.

Ellen and I have been watching a National Geographic special series called Limitless with Chris Hemsworth. It is about what you can do to switch on greater longevity and disease resistance as you age. It is a good introduction to a lot of the practical applications of longevity research that have been going on for the last 20 years. Chris, who is best known for playing Thor in many Marvel movies, has the desire to keep his health strong so he will be able to play with his grandkids when they come along. Each episode has him tackling some big challenge in order to strengthen his immune system and make his body more resilient and disease resistant. While he is preparing for these challenges, he also narrates what is going on in his body physiologically and they show other people who face similar challenges in traditional settings to improve their health.

The basic message of this series echoes what I am writing about today — health comes from overcoming challenges, and disease comes from slipping into the habit of seeking comfort. It is during times of extreme challenge that the body attacks and destroys pernicious and toxic cells that are sapping the health away from the body. The challenges are mimicking the seasonal stress the body is designed to experience during winter. High-risk activities, extreme temperatures, and lack of food, all mimic having to hunt for game in the snow when all your food has run out. Your body uses these situations to seek out and consume diseased cells and tissues as food. The stored fat in your body will provide you with all the energy you need when there is nothing available to eat, but fat does not provide the necessary protein for repairing and rebuilding tissues as required. To get that necessary protein, your body has to go into survival mode and depend on the wisdom of the body to decide which tissues can be self-consumed safely, so the more important tissues can survive. This process is called autophagy. The word literally means self-eating. Autophagy is the miracle healer of the body.

A word of caution here. Autophagy works really well when your body is in the fat and happy place. It is perfect for the modern diseases that have resulted from excess food and comfort. But pushing the body into autophagy when your body is already deficient in nutrients and has no excess stored in place, does more harm than good. Telling someone who is down to 110 pounds fighting cancer to go on a fast to induce autophagy is a dumb idea. Besides, most cancers don't register to the body as unhealthy. The problem is they have poor boundaries and eat way too much. They are consuming resources needed by the body without providing any necessary services to support the body. A healthy body eliminates the freeloaders.

Winter is the time nature designed for us to reset our health. It is designed to be a time of less — less food, less activity. It is a time for deciding what to keep and what to eliminate, both physically and emotionally. Old baggage, whether it be toxic cells or toxic beliefs, is designed to be exposed for what they are and tossed out if they are found not to support your health. Quite times allow for deep introspection. This is usually not comfortable. Somehow the discomfort of winter makes stepping into this deep cleaning easier, or maybe just more present. This is a perfect time for a sauna to clean out poisons from the body. It sounds crazy, but ice plunges also work especially well this time of the year. I would strongly recommend being on a keto diet all during winter as this more closely mimics the natural physiology of the human body in winter. A keto diet also makes short fasts more powerful and useful. For 30 years I would observe a Friday fast — no food from Thursday night to Saturday morning. If you are already in ketosis by being on a keto diet, this is actually not very difficult. Drink lots of water and herbal tea.

Winter is the natural time to reset the health of your body. Once spring arrives you are too busy with all your activities to focus much on your health. So, why not get that body house cleaning taken care of while the weather is gloomy and you want to stay indoors anyway?

Take care,

David    

  
Ellen 

This was from a week ago, a last hurrah for 2022!  Yes, that is just what it looks like, Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, albeit their gluten free version.  What does that tell us about the times when an industrial giant like Kraft produces a gluten free version of a classic foodstuff?  Maybe it was the $5 a box price tag that motivated them.  I remember buying the classic version for 5 boxes for a dollar back when I was at UC Davis.  Of course that was 50 years ago...