Your membranes are killing you. Here is how to protect yourself

Our cells are surrounded by a fatty double layer membrane, which is important for every process of the cell. Think of cellular signaling, cell cycle & energy production.

But, what if I told you that the fate of your membranes is what is determining the health of not only the cell, but the whole body.

Even further, in this newsletter I argue that each of your cells membranes are under attack causing a massive destruction of your metabolism.

Not only that, but this hidden process is linked to a variety of diseases:

• Cancer

• Diabetes

• Parkinsons

• Alzheimers

• Lifespan Shortening

• Autoimmune Conditons

So in this one, we will dive into what this enemy is, what it does & how to combat it.

At the end of this edition you have a step by step checklist to improve this important part of health and furthermore, you will know why seed oils are probably the worst dietary invention there ever was.

Let’s get ready to fight back and protect yourself.

The enemy: Lipid Peroxidation

Lipid peroxidation is the process by which lipids are oxidized by radicals produced as a byproduct of metabolism or toxic load.

This process is an important one, as it acts as a signal to the cell, which ultimately adjust its metabolism.

However, modern lifestyle is on the verge of collapse, when it comes to the integrate balance between lipid peroxidation & protection of this mechanism.

To understand the solutions given in this newsletter, we first have to get deeper into this mechanism:

The lipid bi-layer

Our cell membranes are composed of two lipid layers, which are composed of ampiphil (meaning the substrate can dissolve in water & fat) lipids, most of them sphingo & phospholipids.

This specific chemical & physical abilities allow for compartimentation, meaning separation of cell processes and also modifies transportation & signal transduction.

See, the most important function of a membrane is signal transduction. Think about certain signaling molecules like hormones, radicals or vitamins entering the cell through specific mechanisms.

Some mechanisms are mediated by transporters, endocytosis or just passive diffusion.

As I said, the bilayer is mainly composed of three types of molecules: sphingo- & phospholipids and cholesterol.

These are all types of fats with differing chemical characteristics. Tying into that is an important concept called membrane fluidity.

Basically, the ratios between different fatty acids (FAs) will lead to different fluidity levels of a membrane. Think about being stiff or flexible.

This is regulated by the amount of saturation within the FAs.

Saturated fatty acids (SFA) are fats which do not have any double bonds within their structure.

Whereas unsaturated fatty (UFA) acids do have double bonds. The more double bonds the higher the grade of unsaturation. Chemically, there is a distinction between MONO-unsaturated (MUFA) & POLY-unsaturated (PUFA), which is important.

Key differences between these is the higher rate of oxidation by PUFAs compared to MUFAs & SFAs. This is because the higher density of double bonds leads to vulnerability.

Another key component is the aggregate phase:

The lower the amount of double bonds, the more solid these fats are at room temperature.

Think about the difference between butter & seed oils.

Butter = SFA & MUFA dominated

Seed Oils = PUFA dominated

How inflammation is the key process

Inflammation is the bodies response to any threat or damage. This is nothing bad per se, but the ratio between regenerative vs inflammation phase is heavily tilted towards the latter.

Now, membranes play an important role in signaling, as oxidative stress directly attacks the cell membranes, leading to the creation of either inflammatory or anti inflammatory tissue hormones.

These tissue hormones are based off of the lipids in the membrane.

As you can see in this image, the phospholipids in the membrane are enzymatically modified into AA otherwise called Arachidonic Acid.

Here is where many enzymes, depending on the context & environment will create multiple products with distinctive features, most of which are inflammatory.

Key here, is that AA is an end product of so called omega-6 fatty acids. These are extremely pro-inflammatory type of PUFA, if eaten in high amounts (which we do).

Interestingly, the process by which lipids are attacked might be a means to lower inflammation. For the choline hypothesis of lipid peroxidation, read this newsletter edition. It ties in nicely!

The interesting role of PUFA in cell biology

So, you might ask, why would we even favor PUFAs if they are so susceptible to damage in the first place?

This is an interesting question and there are two answers:

Flow of electrons & seasonal variety in temperatures.

For you to understand these, I have to welcome you to the most important fatty acid we as a human species ever came across:

DHA, a omega 3 PUFA so important for us humans that research found out that DHA is conserved since 600 million years in us.

There is great research behind the importance of the marine food web, high in DHA, promoting the development of our brain, giving rise to the super computer we use to develop things as the fire, tools, internet or AI.

The reason DHA is so special is because of its chemical structure, with a lot of double bonds, allowing for electrons to flow efficiently. DHA is making us so efficient, that we have the capabilites to grow our super computer in the first place.

We traded the potential damage of lipid peroxidation for much higher energy efficiency. So what is the key difference:

Our ancestors ate all the important micronutrients which are protective of lipid peroxidation, so they harness the power of DHA.

Also, it is proposed that they ate a 3-1:1 ratio of n6 to n3 fatty acids, which is much lower than the 60-20:1 ratio western diets are typically composed of.

Second, remember the difference in membrane fluidity? We can sea seasonal variety of cell membrane fatty acids in wild, hibernating animals.

In summers, hibernating animals stuff up on carbohydrates, which leads to an accumulation of n6 PUFAs in the membranes. When the winter is rolling around, these PUFAs are important for signal transduction.

Think of PUFAs as an antifreeze. BUT the key difference is:

Hibernating animals burn of these PUFAs through cold thermogenesis (shivering). They burn through them for heat & energy and leave the winter with a membrane composed of otherwise saturated fatty acids and omega-3s.

You can see the physiological role these play.

The problem is that us humans are not in touch with nature anymore. We have an evergreen access to every food, we have a warm environment all year round, stopped shivering & furthermore, stopped eating how we are supposed to.

This leads to all the hallmarks lipid peroxidation needs to thrive:

• Inflammation

• Omega 6:3 ratio tilted towards the n6’s

• Low membrane protective factors

• No cold thermogenesis to burn through the n6s

We have to combat all of them, step by step to ensure this phenomenon will be balanced. This is how we do it:

The sentinels & inflammation

In the middle of inflammation lies the mitochondria.

Mitochondria (on the cellular level) the main sentinels lying between our body and our environment. Through adjusting the flow of electrons & protons responsible for generating energy, they respond to the environment.

Hence why they are a key pillary in my approach with clients I work together to combat their disease.

To give you an example:

In winters, where temperatures are low, the mitochondria have developed a strategy to maximize heat production through a process called “uncoupling”. Here is where electrons are not used up for ATP production, but rather heat.

There are countless other examples, but you get the case. So if we want to control inflammation, to protect our cell membranes from oxidation, we have to start with the mitochondria first.

From a micronutrient first perspective, there are countless micronutrients involved as you can see in this picture. All of them are important, but some are more scarce then others in a western diet.

The general guideline is to derive your energy from high quality food sources. Nothing processed, ditch grains, legumes & low quality dairy unless you prepare them ancestrally.

Bulk up on foods like:

• Game Meat

• Fish & Seafood

• Organic Pork & Beef

• Fatty Cuts of Chicken

• A2 (Raw) Dairy Produce

• Local Fruits & Berries

• Well Tolerated Veg (especially green)

• Rice, Potatoes & Tubers

• Butter, Ghee, Coconut Oil, EVOO

• Oysters & Organs

This is a rough blueprint, which is fairly simple. Still, for some it might be of interest to boost specific nutrients:

• Copper

• Selenium

• Molybdenum

• B1/B2/B3

• B7

• B9

• CoQ10

• Vitamin K & E

These are micronutrients which I would emphasize through organotherapy & supplementation.

Now, diet is an important pillar, but to control inflammation without controlling your circadian rhythm & light environment is like building a pyramid, without a crane.

Every regenerative process is accelerated under the right light environment.

Grounding is a practice of putting your bare feet on a natural conductive surface (e.g. wet grass). With that you absorb the electrons provided by earth, which powerfully combats inflammation.

Having as much sun exposure in the day, while lowering blue light after sunset is another powerful mechanism to lower inflammation.

Melatonin, the hormone of darkness, is the most powerful antioxidant our body has. One molecule can bind multiple radicals, while downstream products can also bind them!

This makes melatonin unique in controlling inflammation.

Last but not least, getting in as much infrared light through sun & panel is a good way of boosting your mitochondrial energy production, leading to more ATP production, lowered inflammation & hence less lipid peroxidation.

Shifting the 6:3 Ratio

This is by far one of the most important shifts you can make in your day to day life, as this ratio is heavily associated with disease patterns like Alzheimers, Parkinsons or Cancer.

Remember:

PUFAs are extremely sensitive to inflammation, which is a good and bad thing. We need them to control healing responses & without them wouldn’t heal anything.

The problem in todays world there is a huge shift towards the more pro-infammatory omega 6s without the balance of the anti inflammatory omega 3s, in particular DHA.

The 21st century diet contains a huge load of so called seed oils (sunflower, safflower, rape, canola,…) which have historically been used as gasoline for cars.

Yeah, this is what we put in our bodies. The problem is not inherently that seed oils are bad, but the quantity, quality, contimination & loss of function (as we do not live in an environment where we need them) lead to disease, big time.

You know how much you have to eat of the whole food, to get in 2-3 tablespoons of the oil? Never ever would you it so much in a single sitting. So problem #1, the quantities of omega-6s are absurdly high.

Then, the manufacturing process uses toxic substances like hexane and goes through bleaching & deodorization, as otherwise these seed oils would smell so bad you wouldn’t eat them.

If thats not enough, high levels of lead & cadmium can be found in them, leading to neurodegenerative diseases or cancer.

Last but not least, there has been a huge shift away from the marine food web, which was rich in fish and other seafood, which was extremely high in omega-3s.

Instead of consuming 3 parts omega 6s to 1 part omega 3s, we now often consume 20x more than this perfect ratio in a subpar, toxic quality!

The key takeaway:

Ditch all of the following fats & oils:

• Canola

• Soybean

• Sunflower

• Corn

• Cottonseed

• Safflower

• Grapeseed

• Peanut

• Sesame

Generally stick to animal fats like butter, ghee & tallow, which are richer in SFAs & are richer in protective factors. Exclusively cook with them.

Reintroduce the marine food web through ample consumption of fish, seafood & seagrass. Avoid anything in plastic or aluminum cans. Try to get organic if possible. Wild is best.

Now a huge caution: we need omega 6s in our diet. Don’t let Dr. Ray Peat disciples tell you otherwise.

The biggest issue is quantity & quality. Get them from the whole seeds. Think of soaked chia seeds, nuts, psyllium, hemp & linseed as a good addition. Just do not overdo it.

Whenever you do have to eat PUFAs (restaurants, social gatherings) eat plenty of SFAs in the form of butter or tallow. This will aid to prevent uptake, processing & hence buffer some effects. Also increase protective factors beforehand (see below).

Protect your membranes

This will be a straight up one. Because our intake of PUFAs in general is so high, we are depleted by all the important protective factors our membranes need.

Though I mentioned diet, we now focus on the most important micronutrients to protect your membrane.

These are:

• Iodine

• Taurine

• Vitamin E

• Vitamin C

Iodine is the most important of them all. Iodolipids are lipids with iodine, which are extremly stable and are correlated with health. If you look into nature, the marine food web rich in highly unstable DHA used iodine to protect from damage. Eat algae, seagrass or fish daily. Kelp supplementation is the only valid option, as pure iodine lacks co-factors.

Taurine, an amino acid also found in fish, stabilizes the membranes & aids in energy production. Supplement on days without fish consumption. 2,5-7,5gr per day.

Vitamin E is BY FAR the biggest bottleneck in micronutrient status. It is highly depleted by inflammation & high PUFA. Go onto Pubmed and you only need 2 minutes to find 10 studies about the protective power Vitamin E has. After all, it is the primary fat soluble antioxidant of our body. Consume high quality EVOO & Red Palm Oil daily.

Vitamin C is protective as it aids in regeneration of Vitamin E. 800-1200mg of natural sourced Vitamin C combined with a diet rich in berries & citrus fruits.

Cold thermogenesis

If you distill cold thermogenesis (CT) down it is the act of shivering. But CT involves so many processes that the words shivering & cold won’t give it justice.

We have to understand that while our species originated in the African Rift Zone, where the climate was very mild, we started migrating towards more northern latitude.

With that came massive changes in climate & energy availability. Think about the vegetation in the summer compared to winters. Food is scarce then.

But mother nature never ever makes mistakes and soon developed all of the CT pathways which allow for one thing:

It makes energy transfer, creation & storage effective.

We can make the most out of the energy we ingest to survive.

One process which you will use to combat the lipid peroxidation problem is the usage of primarly omega 6 PUFAs as a means of generating heat when shivering.

Our body, when entering deep CT, will burn of through the omega 6s in membranes, over the SFAs and omega 3s, hence we lower the total amount of them.

Aka we also lower the inflammatory potential, if a trigger is present.

So how are we doing it?

Simply apply all the principles from above and start shivering.

If winter is rolling around, start going for shiver walks, fill the bath tub with cold water or do the simple cold plunge. Additionally adopt a more ketogenic diet, which otherwise should be the case in winters, which enhances deep ketogenesis while doing CT.

In summers rely on ocean swims, cold tubs or plunges. But, always start slow. It should be cold, but just tolerable cold.

Start with 2-3x a week and remember that consistency trumps intensity. A good hack to improve your own thermal regulation:

Do not use a towel directly after CT, but let your body generate the heat by itself. This will turbo boost your turn over of nasty PUFAs.

This was it. I hope you enjoyed reading this weeks newsletter edition. For more weekly news, subscribe for free here.

If you want to work on your chronic health problems in a precise, personalized fashion, you can book a call here.