Whether Alzheimer's is a reflection of bad choices plus genetic susceptibility, or a disease independent of all that, is an open question. Whether raised in a health-focused area like West Los Angeles, an area where nutrition isn't prioritized, or a typical mixed-diet environment, people across all backgrounds develop Alzheimer's.
explicitly uncertain; host's joking stereotype acknowledged
There are three camps of opinion on low-calorie artificial sweeteners: those who believe they are terrible (altering blood glucose, disrupting the microbiome, possibly causing brain cancer), those who consider them inert in reasonable quantities, and those who wonder whether human-made sweeteners might not be good. Saccharin, uncommon in human beverages today but preferred by rodents, is the basis for much of the rodent artificial-sweetener literature.
characterization of public opinion, not research findings
Yeast are useful for research because of their very quick turnover, and fruit flies are useful because of their short generation time, which allows many experiments; fruit flies also share many of the same structures humans have.
the yeast point is attributed to the speaker's graduate advisor
Lactate can be toxic if it gets too high in the body; lactic acidosis — too much lactate in circulation — can be lethal. The body's prioritization of fuel burning likely comes from evolutionary pressure: ancestors who dealt with fatty acids better survived and passed on the trait.
evolutionary explanation is the guest's reasoning
Achieving spatial resolution fine enough to make out individual cells (or smaller) inside a human body is a very difficult problem, and a second challenge is having a surrogate of metabolism that can actually be visualized, since there is nothing visual in metabolism that can be seen with the naked eye.
described
Andrew Huberman describes that herpes viruses such as HSV-1 live on neurons without killing the neuron — convenient for the virus, since killing the neuron would kill the virus too. He notes viruses display an impressive level of quote-unquote adaptive behavior and intelligence, such as staying alive while keeping the host alive to enable transmission, and that rabies impacts areas of the brain that trigger aggression that trigger biting — the easiest example of viral manipulation of host behavior. He cautions that viruses probably do not know they are manipulating host behavior, since they are not brains.
hedged
Andrew Huberman recounts there was an idea that Tasmanian devils transmit cancers to one another through fighting, with wound-induced propagation of cancers at wound sites. Dr. Jared Rutter responds that the mechanism of cancer transmission in Tasmanian devils might be viral or bacterial, but that is outside his expertise.
hedged
There are dogs and occasionally people who can detect the scent of cancer beyond chance, though no one really knows the basis of this. A woman has been validated as able to smell Parkinson's as a musky scent, and spouses (particularly wives) of Parkinson's patients recall recognizing it retrospectively — though Huberman notes spousal reports carry a high risk of placebo correlation and just-so stories, and scent-based detection should not be the one and only frontline detection system.
described
Hormone signals follow rise-and-fall dynamics: cortisol goes up with stress and comes back down, melatonin rises when you're sleepy — and the magnitude of each signal carries meaning beyond mere presence.
described
In neuroscience, much early brain-mapping relied on blood flow — oxygenated versus deoxygenated blood reflects light differently, producing beautiful maps but only showing blood flow. Two-deoxyglucose allowed looking at glucose uptake but was spatially very crude or had poor time resolution. Imaging has since advanced so researchers can look at voltage and calcium dynamics. Biology improved dramatically once chemists, bioengineers, physicists, and computers entered the field, because researchers could see what's really happening.
described
Andrew Huberman offers the lumber analogy: arriving food (pyruvate) is like lumber you can either use to build more house (biomass) or burn for heat energy (ATP). He adds a condition where you may need to burn some lumber for heat energy to keep the construction project going.
Gymnasts and sprinters live three to six years longer on average than other athletes, endurance runners fall in the middle, and very large athletes like powerlifters have worse longevity.
described as an observed pattern among athletes, not a causal claim
Andy Galpin, described as one of the preeminent public educators in exercise physiology, has said that people talk about lactic acid but we do not actually make lactic acid; we make lactate.
attributed position, quoted by the host
Dr. Thompson endorses that innovation is never the result of one person's work; it's a whole group, and everything is a team effort.
Dr. Thompson notes that if you've delayed gastric emptying, your CCK is not spiking as much as it was.
Jeff Cavalier describes a recent study on inorganic supermarket strawberries in which researchers found such high pesticide levels that juice pressed from the fruit could reportedly be re-sprayed on crops as effective pesticide protection. He is not sure the study was ever reproduced to confirm its claims.
Jeff Cavalier is not sure the study was ever reproduced to confirm its claims.
Dr. Kanoski's lab has not tested enhanced omega-3 levels in animals; his lab focuses on what is bad or not optimal for brain development. The only interventions Kanoski's lab has performed are replacing a bacterial population in the gut or simply switching to a healthy diet.
statement about the lab's own work
Disease may be associated with loss of cell identity, though cell identity is a squishy parameter that is difficult to measure.
explicitly hypothetical; posed as an open question
Andrew Huberman observes that most people hear the word metabolism and think of calories in, calories out, and of mitochondria as the powerhouse of the cell — a framing the episode goes on to complicate.
none stated
Most of us have fat in our fat cells, and an argument can be made that the key destination of that fat is the heart, to keep it alive.
framed as an argument that can be made
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 a methylated B vitamin complex daily if you have the MTHFR mutation.
The creators behind most of what cleared in Fuel.
698 cleared insights match
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22 cleared insights match
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