Not feeding the microbiome creates a snowball effect of health trouble
Dr. Chris Thompson describes a snowball effect: if you are not feeding the microbiome and keeping it healthy, you are going to run into all sorts of trouble.
Results
WHY · 797 of 37261 results · Fuel
The gut adapts to overfeeding: longer villi and upregulated absorption
In overfeeding studies in mice, the overfed mice's bowels were longer and heavier with longer villi compared to control mice — the gut adapted and upregulated its ability to absorb calories. These findings were repeated in humans by comparing small bowel resected during gastric bypass against small bowel resected during cancer surgery as a control.
Progestins are synthetic progesterone linked to danger in the Women's Health Initiative
Dr. Sara Gottfried states that progestins are a synthetic form of progesterone and the same class of drug shown to be dangerous and provocative in the Women's Health Initiative.
Bananas contain polyphenol oxidase, an enzyme that degrades polyphenols
Jeff Cavalier explains that bananas contain an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, which degrades polyphenols. This mechanism underpins his argument that adding bananas to berry smoothies undercuts the polyphenol benefits of blueberries.
None stated.
It is easier to impair cognition than to improve an already healthy baseline
Dr. Kanoski notes that it is easier to make something go wrong than to take an already healthy baseline and improve upon it. This asymmetry frames why much research shows harm from poor diets while improvements in healthy people are harder to demonstrate.
Speaker's interpretive generalization.
The orchestration of metabolism is expensive in fuel and in damage side effects
Jared Rutter explains that the orchestration of metabolism throughout the body is expensive, both in terms of the food needed to fuel it and in the damage that can come as a side effect.
none stated
Body size, IGF-1, and lifespan in animals
Within a given species, larger animals tend to live much shorter lives than smaller varieties — there seems to be a rule that you can either be big and live a short life or small and live a longer life, with some exceptions. Larger breeds of dogs live much shorter lives than smaller ones, which is known to be due to dosing of IGF-1, a growth pathway factor. There is also a theory that you only get so many heartbeats in your life.
The heartbeats claim is presented as a theory
The heart is a metabolic omnivore
The heart will make ATP out of fats, glucose, lactate, ketones, and amino acids — just about anything ATP can be made from. This fuel flexibility exists to enable survival whether or not one has just eaten.
Cells burn fatty acids first, likely due to toxicity
Most cells, when fatty acids are present, will burn the fatty acids first — likely as a protective response to their acute toxicity.
medium
Knowing all proteins but not their functions is the next biochemistry frontier
Twenty years ago, scientists could not say with confidence what all the proteins in a heart cell are; now they essentially can, because proteins are encoded by the sequenced human genome — though subtle nuances of modified versions remain. Knowing what all the proteins are but not knowing what they do is the biochemistry frontier for the next generation of scientists.
Cancer and viral propagation follow the same evolutionary principles
A cell that acquires a mutation enabling faster division can get out from underneath limits placed on it by the immune system and other systems that control cell propagation, then divide and divide again. The evolutionary principles underlying cancer and viral propagation are the same, even though the motivations differ because cancer rarely spreads between organisms.
Virtually every cell type has mitochondria suited to that cell's specific demands
Jared Rutter explains that virtually every cell in the body has slightly different mitochondria particularly suited to the demands of that cell type, and that every cell has a particular purpose with mitochondrial demands differing accordingly. He notes this diversification of mitochondria is a frontier field scientists are still learning about, and that questions about whether mitochondria differ between cell types and how much identity mitochondria have are at the edge of current knowledge.
explicitly framed as frontier/open questions
MPC deletion effects differ by cell type
The effects of organ-specific MPC deletion differ depending on the cell type, given the unique demands and functions of different cells.
The same poaching method makes excellent shrimp cocktail — the recipe's origin
The exact cooking liquid, shrimp size and type, and cook time would make really good shrimp cocktail. The creator originally developed this recipe for shrimp cocktail, and it just happens to work really well for shrimp rolls.
Use GK rats (diabetic without obesity) to study gut hormones and diabetes without weight-loss confounding
Dr. Chris Thompson describes using GK rats — diabetic without obesity — in animal studies on gut hormones and diabetes so that weight loss doesn't confound the results.
History of bariatric surgery: 1950s origins and the jejuno-ileal bypass
Dr. Thompson recounts that weight-loss surgery started in the 1950s at the University of Minnesota, with the first procedures focusing on malabsorption. The first bariatric procedure, the jejuno-ileal bypass, connected the jejunum to the very bottom of the small bowel so calories wouldn't be absorbed — but it was awful.
Speaker hedges on the exact institution and date ('I think').
Compassionate use protocols allow expedited access to unapproved treatments
Dr. Thompson describes that compassionate use protocols exist that allow expedited approval for unapproved treatments when a patient has no other options.
Hippocampus-lesioned rodents show interoceptive agnosia
Hippocampus-lesioned rodents exhibit interoceptive agnosia: they detect interoceptive signals at the sensory level but cannot use them to guide appropriate behavior.
stance confidence was recorded as zero in the source atom
Heating food produces advanced glycation end products (AGEs)
Heating food produces chemical byproducts called advanced glycation end products (AGEs), which are introduced into the food itself depending on its chemical composition and the temperature.
Great taste plus nutrients drives food-location memory, illustrated by a Portland croissant
Dr. Kanoski recounts forming a strong spatial memory of a Portland bakery after eating the best croissant he had ever had, illustrating how great taste combined with nutrients drives food-location memory. Relatedly, he shares that after eating healthy foods he likes the taste of, he craves those foods and does not crave other foods, presumably because he is sated; and the host believes that if he kept drinking a vanilla milkshake he would start to enjoy it again, which the guest agrees with.
Anecdotal and speculative personal observations.
Protocols you can run
WHY · 2 of 61 published protocols · Fuel
Morning Hydration Protocol
Upon waking, before anything else, drink 16 to 20 ounces of water. This single, timed action is directly instructed by the creator with no missing details.
Take Daily Targeted Supplements
Take a methylated B vitamin complex daily if you have the MTHFR mutation.
Source analyses
WHY · 11 of 696 current source analyses · Fuel
People worth following for this
The creators behind most of what cleared in Fuel.
WHY · 3 creators you don't follow account for 797 cleared insights · Fuel
- Andrew Huberman
698 cleared insights match
- ATHLEAN-X™
77 cleared insights match
- Brian Lagerstrom
22 cleared insights match
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