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REAWAKEN YOUR SECOND IMMUNE SYSTEM Find out how to access your Second Immune System — without drugs, hospitals or insurance — to fight off nearly every chronic disease.
Al Sears, MD, CNS
America’s #1 Anti-Aging Doctor
© 2018 by Wellness Research & Consulting Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Published by: Al Sears, MD 11905 Southern Blvd., Royal Palm Beach, FL 33411 561-784-7852 www.AlSearsMD.com Dr. Al Sears wrote this report to provide information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is offered with the understanding that the publisher and the author are not liable for any misconception or misuse of the information provided. Every effort has been made to make this report as complete and accurate as possible. The purpose of this report is to educate. The author and the publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss, damage, or injury caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this report. The information presented herein is in no way intended as a substitute for medical counseling or medical attention.
Al Sears, MD America’s #1 Anti-Aging Doctor He’s made it his life’s work to challenge conventional medical beliefs and bring his patients the latest breakthroughs in natural cures and remedies to diseases once thought to be “incurable.” Dr. Sears takes a fresh, novel approach to patient health and wellness. Our environment has changed for the worse — and it’s affecting your health. He helps patients escape accelerated aging caused by modern toxins, chemicals and other hormonal threats you unknowingly face every day. Every year, he travels over 20,000 miles to the most remote regions of the world searching for natural healing secrets unknown or ignored by mainstream medicine. Since 1999, Dr. Sears has published 35 books and reports on health and wellness. He has millions of loyal readers spread over 163 countries. Today he writes and publishes two monthly e-Newsletters, Confidential Cures and Anti-Aging Confidential for Women, and a daily email broadcast, Doctor’s House Call, with more than 500,000 subscribers. He has also appeared on more than 50 national radio programs, ABC News, CNN and ESPN.
Dr. Sears was one of the first to be board-certified by the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M). More than 25,000 patients travel from all around the world to visit him at the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine in beautiful Royal Palm Beach, Florida. Recently, Dr. Sears proved you can affect the way you age by controlling the length of your telomeres. He made history as the first MD to introduce the Nobel prize-winning, anti-aging breakthrough of our time, telomere DNA therapy, to the general public. And now he’s working with the leading scientists in the field of telomere biology to further define how this incredible technology will shape the future of anti-aging medicine.
Table of Contents Introduction................................................................................................................ Page 5 Autophagy: How Your Second Immune System Works......................................... Page 6 Chronic Disease is Big Pharma’s Business. And Business is GOOD..................... Page 8 Autophagy Eliminates What TIME Magazine Calls “The Secret Killer”........... Page 9 Big Pharma’s Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Make EVERYTHING Worse............... Page 10 You Could Reduce Inflammation by More Than 86% in Weeks........................... Page 11 Autophagy Trigger #1: Intermittent Caloric Restriction or Fasting..................... Page 13 You Can Reverse Diabetes......................................................................................... Page 14 Why Fasting Sends Your Energy Levels Skyrocketing........................................... Page 15 Reawaken Your Second Immune System with Intermittent Fasting..................... Page 16 Advanced Alzheimer’s Reversed in 10 Weeks... and Steady for Two Years.......... Page 17 Autophagy Trigger #2: Dietary Fat.......................................................................... Page 18 Big Pharma’s Drug CAUSED Alzheimer’s.............................................................. Page 18 ow Can Coconut Oil and Medium-Chain Triglycerides Cure Alzheimer’s? H (Hint: Fat is HEALTHY!)............................................................................................ Page 19 Eating Fat Doesn’t Make You Fat... It Makes You Lean and Full of Energy....... Page 21 Insulin Makes Your Body Make More Fat.............................................................. Page 21 “Alternative Fuel” for Your Brain............................................................................ Page 22 Reawaken Your Second Immune System by Getting More Good Fat in Your Diet.. Page 23 Autophagy Trigger #3: Exercise................................................................................ Page 24 Reawaken Your Second Immune System With High Intensity, Short Duration Exercise....................................................................................................................... Page 25 4
Reawaken Your Second Immune System
Introduction The most important piece of health advice I can give you is contained in the following short story. I grew up on a farm in Kentucky. We grew all the food we ate. And one of the first lessons my brothers, sister, and I learned was how to maximize the amount of fruit a plant could bear. It’s very simple... Just cut off weak or dying branches. Why does that work? It saves resources. You see, every branch on a plant needs water and nutrients. If you cut off the underperforming branches, that means healthy branches get more resources... and therefore... can produce more fruit.
“He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.”
But there’s more. All things being equal, pruned plants grow faster. They grow bigger. And they are stronger against pests and disease (no pesticides needed).
— Book of John 15:2
In a nutshell, because the healthy parts of the plant aren’t being bogged down... removing the “dead weight” makes the entire plant healthier. I learned that lesson almost 50 years ago. Since then I’ve been through med school. I became a doctor. And I’ve treated close to 30,000 patients. So why is that the most important health advice I can give you? Because your body works the exact same way. I’ll explain in more detail later in this report. But the bottom line is that inside your body you have “dead weight.” And every action you take — what you eat, if you exercise (or how much you exercise) — determines how much of this dead weight builds up inside you. Simply put, you look, feel, and perform your best when you have less of this dead weight. You grow tired and fatigued as you collect more. And as more and more dead weight collects inside you — any of a number of chronic diseases start to emerge. Chronic diseases that will — if left untreated — ultimately take your life. I’ve spent years looking for the best ways to rid your body of that dead weight. And thanks to a discovery that won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2016, I now know the best ways to do so.
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And... • You do NOT need drugs • You do NOT need a hospital or doctor’s visit • You do NOT need health insurance In addition to being a medical doctor, I’m also an ACE-certified fitness trainer and a board-certified clinical nutrition specialist. And at the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine, my patients are always prescribed healthy changes to diet, exercise, and supplementation instead of man-made drugs. I write about those subjects every day to more than 500,000 people around the world. So what I’m about to say may surprise you... You don’t need to change your diet to access this cure. You don’t need to exercise, at all, to access this cure. And you don’t need to take supplements to access this cure. Of course, healthy habits like these will accelerate your results. And if you choose to include those as well, I’ll show you the best way to do so. But rest assured, this isn’t like ANYTHING you’ve ever heard before. By tapping into your Second Immune System, you’ll be able to stop, treat, and even reverse nearly every chronic disease. In this report, you’ll discover how to awaken your Second Immune System. I’ll show you the science of how it works... the clinical studies proving it defeats any chronic disease you likely worry about... and — most importantly — how you can access this cure in the comfort of your own home, for free. Let’s get started...
Autophagy: How Your Second Immune System Works In 1963, Christian de Duve coined the term “autophagy” to describe a process in the human body that ruthlessly attacks chronic disease. All chronic disease. He won the Nobel Prize 11 years later. Autophagy occurs when damaged or redundant cellular components are recycled into energy. In other words, the “dead weight” inside you that served no useful purpose is turned into fuel for healthy cells. I call the system that governs the process of autophagy your Second Immune System because it works almost exactly like your regular immune system. With one tiny difference...
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Your regular immune system attacks FOREIGN invaders. The “outside” threats that get in, like germs, bacteria, viruses, and other parasites. But autophagy attacks threats that originate from INSIDE you... those unnecessary cellular components that science is now proving lead to ALL chronic disease. There was just one problem. Up until very recently, nobody knew how to control it. You see, scientists knew autophagy existed. And they could watch it in action. But they had absolutely no clue how to turn it on. Think of it like a light bulb in a darkened room. You can know about electricity. You can know the light bulb exists. And you can know the switch for the light bulb exists. But if you don’t know WHERE the switch is... you’ll spend a lot of time fumbling around in the dark. And because of reasons that will become clear in a moment, most of the time your Second Immune System lies dormant. What that means is — for almost 60 years now — every single person who has died from a chronic disease had the ability to CURE that chronic disease. The power was inside them. They just didn’t know how to “turn it on.” Now, that’s all changed... Because in 2016, Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi won the Nobel Prize “for his discoveries of mechanisms of autophagy.” He conducted a study proving just how important it is. In it, pregnant mice were genetically engineered to give birth to babies that had no autophagy activity whatsoever. The mice were born with major organs functioning almost 100% normal. And it was all downhill from there... All of the mice died within just one day of birth!1 Leading the Nobel Prize assembly to conclude... A Healthy, Functioning Second Immune System “Is Recognized As A Fundamental Process In Cell Physiology With Major Implications For Human Health And Disease.” — The Nobel Prize Assembly2
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Well, that is quickly turning out to be the understatement of the century. Calling it a “major implication” doesn’t even scratch the surface of what autophagy is capable of. In fact, in clinical trials, various autophagy triggering treatments have defeated:
Diseases Always Lose Against Your Second Immune System Heart disease
Alzheimer’s
Cancer
Autophagy Defeats
Asthma
Inflammation
Obesity
Diabetes
Chronic pain
And the list goes on... The result is always the same. Against your Second Immune System, these diseases always lose. And here’s the best part... There are treatments that trigger autophagy that will cost you nothing. Which means you can awaken your Second Immune System for free. And that has the drug companies very worried.
Chronic Disease is Big Pharma’s Business. And Business is GOOD... I shouldn’t have to say this. But the field of medicine should be about healing people. However, Big Pharma is making over a TRILLION dollars from just treating symptoms — instead of healing disease. Worse, man-made pharmaceuticals treat just one mechanism of one condition. They’re “monotargeted.” But clinical trials have shown that autophagy stops, treats, and even reverses nearly every chronic disease it’s been tested against. Without side effects. A one-size-fits-all free cure for all disease. So why haven’t you heard of the seemingly endless health benefits of autophagy? Even though extensive scientific evidence — from Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Johns Hopkins, UC Davis and more — prove it works without spending a penny.
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P “Protects against diabetes, cancers, heart disease and neurodegeneration.” — Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine3
P “It helps reduce obesity, hypertension, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.” —UC Davis P “Induces the death of metastasizing (cancer) cells.”
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— Harvard Medical School5
P “Can ameliorate age-related impairments in learning and memory tasks.” — Neurobiology of Disease6
P “Profoundly reduce pain sensitivity.” — Molecular Pain
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P “Associated with lower diabetes prevalence.” — American Journal of Cardiology
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P “A promising target for disease therapies [in] patients with cancer, neurodegeneration, or immune disorders.” — Oxford Medical School9
P “Could reduce age-related chronic diseases such as coronary artery disease.” — American Journal of Cardiology10
P “An important modulator in human pulmonary (lung) diseases.” — Yale University School of Medicine11
P “Striking reduction in markers of oxidative stress (inflammation).” — Stanford University
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How many drugs do you think there are for diabetes, cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, chronic pain, and so on? Thousands. This could make all those drugs obsolete. How could one treatment accomplish so much?
Autophagy Eliminates What TIME Magazine Calls “The Secret Killer”13 A cover story on Time magazine linked chronic inflammation to heart attacks, cancer, Alzheimer’s, joint pain, and more. They even said it “may be the engine that drives many of the most feared illnesses of middle and old age.”14 Inflammation is the body’s effort to heal itself. It attacks disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and any other foreign invaders infecting your body. But too much produces disease.
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You see, in a perfect world your body would flush out the excess inflammation. But our world is not perfect. In today’s modern world our immune systems are usually overstimulated — called upon to tackle the effects of chronic stress, the toxic food we eat, the water we drink and even the air we breathe. All that inflammation becomes trapped inside of you and turns into dead weight. But it isn’t just dead weight. It’s deadly... In a nutshell, this chronic inflammation then runs rampant... eating away at your heart, brain, joints, and other organs... and you fall victim to heart attacks, cancer, Alzheimer’s and other chronic disease. Big Pharma wants you to believe their antiinflammatory drugs are the answer... But, in fact, they make everything worse. Let me explain.
Big Pharma’s Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Make EVERYTHING Worse
N.B. suffered from asthma all her life. Then a fungus infected her lungs stealing what little breathe she had.
You see, synthetic anti-inflammatory drugs do NOTHING to flush excess inflammation from your body.
It was like an elephant sitting on her chest. Just standing up would make her dizzy. She couldn’t exercise. Her weight skyrocketed.
Instead, they stop the healing process altogether. Take the popular anti-inflammatory drug, COX-2 inhibitors. As their name suggests, they “inhibit” the COX-2 enzyme. This enzyme tells your body to release inflammation. That’s why they stop pain. But, remember, you need inflammation. It’s what starts the healing process. So by inhibiting the COX-2 enzyme — these anti-inflammatory drugs shut off your body’s ability to heal itself.
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Case Study #1: Deadly Infection Defeated (And a Lifetime of Asthma Gone in 2 Months)15
This went on for two years... Antibiotics and steroids didn’t help. She said, “by the end of the long treatment plan I just wanted to curl up.” At just 38 years old, she thought she was going to die. That is, until she began a Second Immune System treatment at the end of October 2016. Just two months later, her doctors were shocked. Not only did the lung infection clear up...
That’s why awakening your Second Immune System through autophagy is so much better.
But she reports her asthma “symptoms are more manageable than they have ever been since I was a teenager. And friends I haven’t seen since the summer have noticed the difference in my breathing.”
It doesn’t stop your body from creating the inflammation you need for your natural healing process.
She has “a lot” more energy now. And urges everyone to “try to see if it helps with weight, allergies and even other health conditions.”
Reawaken Your Second Immune System
Instead, it gobbles up the excess inflammation that causes damage and leads to disease. This makes it the world’s most powerful and safest inflammation destroying therapy ever developed.
You Could Reduce Inflammation by More Than 86% in Weeks How much inflammation can autophagy get rid of? Stanford University16 asked the same question. So they rounded up people suffering from one of the worst chronic inflammation diseases — asthma. You might not think asthma has anything to do with chronic disease. But asthma is a perfect test for the Second Immune System for a simple reason. People get asthma because inflammation is what swells airways... making it so hard to breathe. In this study, they triggered the autophagy process every other day. The trial lasted 8 weeks. But after just one month the researchers were stunned, calling the results a “striking reduction in markers of oxidative stress.” The decrease in inflammation and oxidative stress were incredible. They recorded a:
P 71% decrease of inflammatory marker TNFα P 60% decrease of inflammatory marker BDNF P 57.1% decrease of inflammatory marker ceramides P 73.3% decrease of oxidative stress protein carbonyl P 61.9% decrease of oxidative stress 8-isoprostanes P 33.9% decrease of oxidative stress adducts of 4-hydroxynonenal P 86.2% decrease of oxidative stress nitrotyrosine Those are HUGE reductions in inflammation. And reducing those inflammatory markers stops Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease. And participants reported breathing easier. In fact, lab tests showed they could take in 16.6% more oxygen. This extra oxygen gave them more energy... with their mood/energy scores jumping an impressive 21.1%. In fact, according to surveys taken before and after the study, activating the Second Immune System improved their quality of life better than the leading asthma drug. Leading the Stanford researchers to conclude...
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“These Findings Demonstrate Rapid And Sustained Beneficial Effects Of [The Second Immune System] On The Underlying Disease Process.” — Stanford University This has HUGE implications for almost every disease. Harvard researchers called the inflammatory marker TNF- α “a potent inducer of neuronal death,” that is “linked to Alzheimer’s disease pathogenesis.”17 But the Stanford asthma study showed triggering the autophagy process reduced TNF-α by 71%. How about cancer? The National Cancer Institute found increased levels of plasma protein carbonyl in patients with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, bladder cancer, and in children with various malignancies... and... reports women with the highest protein carbonyl have “a 60% increased risk of developing breast cancer.”19
Case Study #2: Wife’s 28-Day Breast Cancer Cure Heals Husband’s Mystery Woes18 In 1991, R.W.s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. She turned to a Second Immune System therapy. And 28 days later her lumps were gone. She was cancer free. Fast forward to 2009 and R.W., age 59, is diagnosed with a constellation of health problems... Lupus
High blood pressure
Sleep apnea
Headaches
Skin problems
Prostate enlargement
Hypothyroidism Doctors can’t pinpoint what’s wrong. They prescribe drugs — but the side effects just make his problems worse. So he turns to the exact Second Immune System treatment that rid his wife of breast cancer. Almost immediately his blood pressure drops down to normal. His sleep apnea vanishes. He stops needing a C-PAP device at night. Then his lupus clears up. Doctors still don’t know what made him sick in the first place. But now, just one single Second Immune System therapy per YEAR is enough to keep everything in check. According to R.W. it is “by far the most effective in the shortest possible time.”
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But the Stanford asthma study showed triggering the autophagy process reduced protein carbonyl by 73.3%. What about heart disease or cholesterol? The American College of Cardiology20 reports: “Individuals with the highest levels of blood ceramides were found to have a threefold to fourfold greater risk of suffering a cardiovascular event compared with those with the lowest ceramide score, regardless of their LDL cholesterol level or the presence of a blockage in the heart’s arteries.” Co-director of the Cardiovascular Laboratory Medicine at Mayo Clinic says: “...measuring ceramides in the blood appears to be a new, potentially better marker than LDL (cholesterol) in predicting first and repeat cardiac events in both patients with and without established coronary blockages.” But the Stanford asthma study showed triggering the autophagy process reduced the inflammatory marker ceramides by 57.1%. What was the treatment regimen? It couldn’t be simpler. I’ll tell you exactly how you can trigger autophagy and awaken your Second Immune System right from the comfort of your own home.
Autophagy Trigger #1: Intermittent Caloric Restriction or Fasting The group in the Stanford study was told to reduce their calorie intake by 20% every other day. That’s it. Remember when I said you could trigger the autophagy process without drugs... without doctor’s visits... without insurance... without changing your diet... or exercise... or supplements Well, this is what I meant. In other words, you can significantly reduce your risk for nearly every chronic disease by simply eating LESS. But it doesn’t have to be drastic. As you’ve just seen, the people in the Stanford study only ate 20% less calories every other day. To put this into perspective let’s take a look at an average 2,000 calorie a day diet. Quick note: I’m going to use United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recommendations as outlined on choosemyplate.gov. However, you should NOT follow these recommendations. Following this diet WILL lead to a whole host of chronic diseases. You’ll see why later in this report. I am merely using this to represent an AVERAGE 2,000 calorie a day diet.
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Here’s what the USDA recommendations for an adult are followed by what a daily dose might look like:
USDA’s Misguided Recommended Dietary Advice 2 cups of fruit Daily dose • 1 medium apple • 1 cup berries
2 ½ cups of vegetables Daily dose • 12 baby carrots • 1 cup cooked vegetables
6 ounces of grains Daily dose • 1 English muffin • A 5-inch tortilla • 1 slice bread • 1 cup rice
3 cups of low-fat dairy Daily dose • 1 cup milk or soymilk • 1 cup yogurt • 1/3 cup shredded cheese
5 ½ ounces of Protein Daily dose • 3 ounces cooked salmon, chicken or beef • 12 almonds • 1/4 cup cooked beans
258 calories of solid fats and added sugars Daily dose • 2-ounce candy bar or a glazed donut
27 grams oils
2,300 milligrams of salt
Again, I do NOT recommend you follow this diet. This is just for illustrative purposes only. So how could you cut 20% of your calories out of this 2,000 calories diet? You could... • Drop the cup of rice and the 2-ounce candy bar. • Or skip the 1/3 cup cheese, ¼ cooked beans, and 12 carrots. • Lose the beef and 5-inch tortilla. By giving up the equivalent of ONE taco... every OTHER day... you could reduce inflammation by more than 86%... And — as I showed you above — drastically reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s, cancer, and heart disease. That’s what intermittent calorie restriction — or fasting — can do. And it only scratches the surface.
You Can Reverse Diabetes I successfully treat hundreds of diabetics every year at the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine. One treatment I turn to is fasting. That’s because fasting triggers autophagy and solves the diabetes problem directly at the source: the pancreas. You see, your pancreas makes insulin that keeps blood sugar in check. But in diabetics, the pancreas gets bogged down and either stops working... or doesn’t work as well.
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Researchers at UC Davis wanted to know if intermittent fasting could breathe new life into a tired pancreas.22 So in a recent study, they took mice bred to get diabetes, and made them fast. After just four days their pancreas grew new cells that were capable of producing insulin again. But that’s not all... After several cycles of eating and fasting the mice pancreas was nearly as good as new! And remember these were mice genetically engineered to get diabetes! Which means awakening your Second Immune System through fasting can save you even if you have a “family history” of disease.
Case Study #3: Diabetes Disappears in 6 Weeks21 A long-time diabetic, O.P.’s fasting blood sugar level registered 9.0 mmol/L. That’s two full points ABOVE the threshold for diagnosing diabetes. He took metformin. But that didn’t help. That’s when he tried intermittent calorie restriction. And 6 weeks later he was a new man. He’d lost 35 pounds. His fasting blood sugar level dropped to 5.5 mmol/L (considered normal). And his emphysema symptoms disappeared. Per O.P.... “I can easily manage a daily 3 to 6 mile walk. I cannot believe what a wonderful difference this has made to my life.”
And the benefits don’t stop at lab rats. Early reports from a follow-up UC Davis trial are promising. After only a few months people who started the trial with high blood sugar seeing big improvements. And best of all, with no harmful side effects whatsoever.
Why Fasting Sends Your Energy Levels Skyrocketing You see, you were NOT designed to eat three meals a day... and certainly not the six small meals some doctors and dieticians have been recommending. For hundreds of thousands of years, humans had no regular or reliable food sources. Our primal ancestors feasted when hunting was good. Then they had to survive periods of famine. Over hundreds of thousands of years, these cycles of feast and famine became ingrained in the genetic code that’s coiled inside every one of your cells. You might think starvation would drain their energy. But in fact, your power is increased. Short bouts of fasting kicked up the energy production in their cells. You see, your body evolved so that fasting became part of your body’s hidden power to survive and thrive. Fasting works at the cellular level to boost efficiency in your mitochondria. These little organelles in each of your cells extract energy from the nutrients you eat and produce more than 95% of your body’s energy. Each of your cells has hundreds and even thousands of these little power generators.
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But there’s a problem... over time, your cellular power plants wear out. They break down. And like old power plants they start to burn dirty. They produce lots of free radicals that lead to aging. Studies show that misfiring mitochondria can quickly lead to insulin resistance, especially in skeletal and heart muscle cells — bringing on chronic fatigue, muscle weakness, as well as cardiovascular disease. 23,24 But the good news is the same studies also show that by powering up your mitochondria, you dramatically reduce insulin resistance at the same time. That’s why I recommend “intermittent fasting.” You see, with short periods of fasting, your body thinks it’s being starved. It goes into survival mode. It triggers autophagy which removes unhealthy mitochondria (a form of dead weight) and replaces them with new ones. You start to produce fewer free radicals. And these young mitochondria send your energy production into overdrive. In other words, your body needs periods of “starvation” to perform key biochemical maintenance. In one study from the University of Florida, 24 people alternated a day of “fasting” with a day of “feasting.” The on-and-off fasting improved weight, blood pressure, heart rate, glucose levels, cholesterol and inflammation — and it reduced insulin levels. Animal studies also show fasting extends your lifespan by activating the SIRT3 longevity gene. In a number of studies, greater SIRT3 activity extended the lifespan of mice.25 It can also prevent or lessen the severity of cancer, stroke, heart disease, autoimmune disorders and allergies.26 And brief periods of fasting can also help you lose weight. It works by putting your body into a fat-burning zone. Your body takes 8 to 12 hours to burn off a meal. Only then does it start burning off your fat stores. If you eat every 6 or 7 hours, you’re always burning your last meal. You never get to burning off your fat stores. Now when I talk about “intermittent fasting, I’m not talking about starving yourself. Simply cycling between periods of eating and fasting on a daily or weekly schedule gives you the same benefits our primal ancestors had with their feast and famine cycles.
Reawaken Your Second Immune System with Intermittent Fasting Here’s the fasting strategy that I recommend to my patients. 1. Ease into it. Start by closing the kitchen after dinner. If you eat nothing between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. you’re already fasting 12 hours a day. 2. Then take it further. Try eating only during a six- to eight-hour window. You eat either breakfast and lunch, or lunch and dinner. For example, eat one meal at 11 a.m. and a second before 7 p.m. Or eat breakfast at 8 a.m. and your second meal before 4 p.m.
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3. Enter your fat-burning mode. When you “fast” for 14 to 16 hours a day, you give your body time to completely burn off your last meal and shift into fat-burning mode. Once your body shifts to burning fat you avoid the hunger pangs, cravings, and sugar “highs” and “lows” that come with other diets. After you finish your fast keep the toxins out of your system. Don’t forget food quality counts. Avoid sugar and processed foods. Reduce the amount of carbs you eat and make sure you get plenty of healthy proteins. And eat plenty of good fats like avocados, grass-fed butter, coconut oil, eggs and nuts. But as beneficial as fasting is some patients have a hard time doing it. After all, eating less is hard (as anyone who has ever tried a diet surely knows). If you agree, this next autophagy trigger is for you. Because not only does it do wonders against chronic disease, but it also practically eliminates hunger pangs, makes restricting calories a breeze, and also helps you effortlessly lose weight. And that’s not even its biggest benefit... First, let me tell you a story about a patient who reawakened his Second Immune System with autophagy trigger #2.
Advanced Alzheimer’s Reversed in 10 Weeks... and Steady for Two Years27 T.P. suffered younger-onset advanced Alzheimer’s for 12 years. A doctor’s report when he was 56 noted “severe memory loss, poor concentration and organization, misplacing important items, inability to carry out activities of daily living, and inability to spell and read.” An accountant, he couldn’t do his job anymore. He quit driving too. Two years later an MRI confirmed “severe right-sided atrophy of amygdala and hippocampus, consistent with Alzheimer’s disease.” Then he enrolled in a clinical trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Before starting treatment, he took a test of cognitive function called the Mini-Mental State Examination. He scored abysmally low. Just 12 out of a maximum 30... indicating severe dementia. Then he started a treatment regimen that triggers autophagy. Ten weeks later he took the test again. The results were astounding... He scored 8 points HIGHER, for a score of 20. That still put him in the “mild dementia” category. But to put this into perspective...
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A person with Alzheimer’s score typically DECLINES about two to four points each year. But T.P.’s score JUMPED 8 POINTS in just 10 weeks! With the researchers noting, “Rapid improvement in T.P.’s personality, mood and tremor.” T.P. kept with the program and continued stunning his doctors with “additional gradual improvement occurred in gait, social participation, word finding and recall of recent events.” Bottom line: his Alzheimer’s decline didn’t just stop... it reversed. What was the treatment regimen? Autophagy trigger #2...
Autophagy Trigger #2: Dietary Fat T.P. started taking 35 ml of coconut oil once per day. Over the next several months, researchers increased his dose until he was taking 70 ml of coconut oil per day. They also added in 95 ml per day of medium chain triglycerides (MCT). That adds up to about 165 ml per day total. And was taken over 3-4 servings per day. [NOTE: 35 ml is roughly 2 ½ U.S. tablespoons. 70 ml is roughly 5 tablespoons. And 95 ml is roughly 6 ½ tablespoons.] And T.P. stayed practically cured of Alzheimer’s for two full years! But this is where the story takes a dark turn... A follow-up study put T.P. on an Alzheimer’s drug. And just one month later his Alzheimer’s symptoms immediately came back. Researchers reported T.P.... “Became increasingly depressed and [confused] he began wandering, lost interest in yard and house work, and required step-by-step instruction and considerable assistance to dress and complete hygiene-related tasks.”
Big Pharma’s Drug CAUSED Alzheimer’s Fortunately, under medical supervision, T.P. went back on coconut oil/MCT mixture and added a second treatment that triggers autophagy — ketone monoester (KME). I’ll explain the significance of coconut oil, MCT and KME in a moment. But first, you should know T.P.’s Alzheimer’s symptoms disappeared almost immediately. And that’s not hype... the changes really did happen in the blink of an eye.
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Reawaken Your Second Immune System
Researchers recorded video footage, and reported... “Thirty minutes of video taken between 2 to 3 hours following the first dose of KME demonstrate a marked improvement in mood and the ability to recite and write out the complete alphabet, which he had been unable to do for many months.” In other words... Autophagy cured his Alzheimer’s a SECOND time! And he kept getting better with continued treatment. Here are observations taken directly from the study report: “The next morning he spontaneously chose clothes and dressed himself — also a new development.” On third day he began to initiate and complete many other activities without prompting or assistance... included showering, shaving, brushing teeth, finding his way around the house, choosing and ordering food from a menu, and distributing utensils from the dishwasher. These activities had not been observed for months.” The researchers wondered if T.P. could keep up this pace. And he kept on getting better with continued treatment...
Why MCT’s are Superior to Coconut Oil for Revving up our Second Immune System. Triglycerides are fats. There are short-chain triglycerides. Medium-chain triglycerides. And long-chain triglycerides. MCTs are medium-chain triglycerides. The difference is how many carbon atoms each has. As you can probably guess, medium-chain triglycerides have more carbon atoms than shortchain. And long-chain has more carbon atoms than medium-chain. The LONGER the triglyceride chain… the LONGER it takes for your body to process it. This is not a good or bad thing. It all depends on what your body needs. Coconut oil is 50% or more lauric acid. Lauric acid is on the longer end of the medium-chain triglycerides. And as such, it is processed in your liver before your body can use it. The shorter chain length of medium-chain triglycerides can skip this step. And as such, get quickly converted into energy to fuel your brain and body. But — depending on processing — coconut oil only contains roughly 15% of these shorter MCTs. That means, you’ll need 633 ml (128 teaspoons) of coconut oil to get that 95 ml of MCT. That’s a lot. So, where can you get straight MCT? We are currently trying to find a quality source. But other smaller sources of MCT oil can be found in grass-fed butter, whole milk, aged cheese, palm kern oil and yogurt.
“Abstract thinking, insight, and a subtle sense of humor returned to his conversation. He stated that he felt “good”, had “more energy” and was “happier.” He also found it “easier to do things” — which coincided with the caregiver’s observations.” But T.P. still wasn’t done.
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A few weeks of continued treatment had him back to his old self... “After six to eight weeks he began to exhibit improvement in memory retrieval, spontaneously discussing events that occurred up to a week earlier. He was again able to perform more complex tasks, such as vacuuming, washing dishes by hand, and yard work.” Leading the researchers to conclude the treatment, “is robust, convenient, and safe, and can be taken regularly as a food supplement without need to change the habitual diet.”
How Can Coconut Oil and Medium-Chain Triglycerides Cure Alzheimer’s? (Hint: Fat is HEALTHY!) I’ve been talking about the benefits of coconut oil for years. Coconut oil is rich in medium-chain fatty acids, medium-chain triglycerides (MCTs). Unlike longer-chain fatty acids, the medium-chain fatty acids in coconut oil are tiny enough to enter your cells’ mitochondria directly. This means your cells use the fat from coconut oil for energy instantly, instead of storing it for later use. In one study, a 63-year-old man with advanced Alzheimer’s took MCT fats. After just two and a half months, his score on a standard test for cognitive function jumped from a very low 12 to 20 (out of 30). After two years, his thinking skills and his ability to perform activities of daily living both improved. An MRI showed no more brain atrophy.28 So what about T.P.’s Alzheimer’s? I’ll answer that question with a question... Did you know your brain is up to 60% fat? It’s true. And since your brain is mostly fat, it requires a LOT of dietary good fatty acids to build the specialized cells that let you think and feel. That may surprise you. Especially if you believe the popular diet advice of the last 40 years. Since the mid 1970’s, diet experts have been telling all Americans to eat a “low-fat” diet. The idea was eating dietary fat made you fat and unhealthy. In fact, to this day the USDA’s food pyramid advises Americans that they should “Limit Fat to 30% of Calories.” But let me ask you a simple question. If your brain is 60% fat... how can it get the fat it needs if only 30% of your diet is fat?
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This misguided USDA dietary advice has been feeding disease for years.
Reawaken Your Second Immune System
The short answer: it can’t. No wonder deaths from Alzheimer’s disease have increased by a whopping 89% since 2000.29 Americans simply aren’t getting enough fat in their diet to fuel their brain. To make matters worse, the little bit of fat Americans do get is not the good kind. One hundred years ago, people didn’t have all the processed foods we have today. But today, it’s everywhere. And it is full of man-made trans-fatty acids. Foods with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils — trans fats — disrupt communication in your brain. To make it, manufacturers heat assorted vegetable oils to extremely high temperatures to change their molecular structure. Then, they add brain-busting metals like nickel or aluminum, plus hydrogen atoms, to make it a solid mass. And by replacing good fats with these bad fats, we have altered the basic building blocks of the human brain — weakening the brain’s architecture. And like an unstable building in the wind, eating trans-fats will leave your brain unable to operate. Your brain needs energy — in the form of good fats — to keep it going all day every day. If you feed it properly, you can deliver a steady stream of nutrients and energy that will give you better recall, better concentration, and — just like T.P. — REVERSE declining brain function. Now, if T.P. ate like most Americans, his brain was likely starved of good fats. And that is why just two and a half teaspoons of coconut oil... and five teaspoons of MCT... had such a big impact on T.P.’s mental function. MCT’s are some of the best fats you can eat. They are ONLY found in human breast milk, cow and goat’s milk, and coconut and palm kernel oils. And just giving his brain the fat it craved was enough to help it start working again.
Eating Fat Doesn’t Make You Fat... It Makes You Lean and Full of Energy Your body creates fat by a process called “lipogenesis.” Lipo- means fat. Genesis means creation. Here’s how it works... Insulin is a hormone with many roles in your body’s metabolism. Any time you eat carbohydrates, your pancreas secretes it. One of the main purposes of insulin is to transport carbohydrates (which break down into glucose) from the food you eat into your cells to make energy. But it has other critical functions. Insulin is also a storage hormone and a key catalyst in the storage of fat inside fat cells. You see, your body wasn’t built for our modern Western diet.
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Corn, grains and insane amounts of sugar have overwhelmed our modern culture — and your body. Industrialized farms even feed grains to cattle, upsetting the nutrient balance of the meat you eat. Today, our nutrition-less, starch-loaded, packaged food supply has wrecked our metabolism and made our bodies act in ways nature never intended. With all of these carbs and starches, your pancreas has gone into overdrive, pumping out more and more insulin to keep up with this unnatural food intake. But here’s a problem: Too much insulin production overwhelms the insulin receptors in your cells and makes them insulin-resistant. So instead of ferrying glucose to your cells for energy, the glucose stays in your blood — causing high blood sugar levels, prediabetes and ultimately diabetes and other multiple chronic disorders. But something else happens... Because insulin is also a storage hormone, these chronic insulin spikes make your body act as though it were starving. So it starts to convert the glucose into triglycerides.
Insulin Makes Your Body Make More Fat And insulin doesn’t only affect fat-storage, it also inhibits lipolysis — the breakdown of fats — essentially blocking fat from leaving your body. This then leads to even more fat storage and weight gain, causing oxidation, inflammation, and eventually obesity, nonalcoholic liver disease, heart disease and others. Studies also show that high insulin levels increase the hunger sensation, and causes the heightened pleasantness of sweet tastes, and increased food intake — resulting in an actual physical addiction.30 At the same time, excessive insulin production blocks the formation of glucose from other sources, like fatty acids and protein, and deprives your body of cellular energy. Not only does this make you feel tired, it makes you more vulnerable to virtually every disease — because your cells need energy to fight disease. In a nutshell, carbohydrates, not fat, make you gain weight (and worse). So don’t fear good fats. Eat more of them. Every part of your body — especially your brain — will thank you. Now what about ketone esters? And what do they have to do with autophagy?
“Alternative Fuel” for Your Brain I mentioned glucose briefly a moment ago. It’s the simplest carbohydrate. When you eat a carbohydrate — any carbohydrate — your body breaks it down into glucose. This glucose then enters your bloodstream, providing fuel for cells in your body.
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Reawaken Your Second Immune System
But — as you’ve just seen — TOO MUCH glucose causes a laundry list of problems. One of those is Alzheimer’s. Specifically, an early feature of Alzheimer’s disease is the loss of your brain’s ability to use glucose as fuel.31 This is a HUGE problem if you are on a high carbohydrate diet. Your brain is dependent on all that glucose. But your brain can use an “alternative fuel.” Let me explain. Do you remember how T.P.’s Alzheimer’s was cured almost immediately when given ketone monoesters? That’s because ketone monoesters break down into a fuel called ketones... a fuel your brain can use for energy even if it can’t use glucose. It’s a rapid fix for a disease mainstream medicine says is “uncurable.” You can buy ketone monoesters online. But I don’t recommend that. Instead, I recommend you train your body to make its own ketones. It’s easy, all you have to do is starve your body of carbohydrates. You see, your body prefers glucose. And any glucose in your diet will shut off the production of ketones. However, when you lower the intake of carbs, your body stops using glucose and returns to a state of ketosis. Ketosis is when your body breaks down existing fat stores... and... burns that energy instead of storing it. In other words, it takes the “dead weight” of excess fat and turns it into energy for healthy cells! Here’s how to do it...
Reawaken Your Second Immune System by Getting More Good Fat in Your Diet A good short-term goal is to double the amount of good fats you get in your diet... with a long-term goal of getting at least 70% of your calories from good fats. You read that correctly. Ditch the low-fat advice. Get 70% of your calories from fats from the following list of foods: • Coconut oil • Grass-fed cow’s milk (for an even higher fat content, consume grass-fed half and half. Or better yet, grass-fed heavy cream). • Butter from grass-fed cows
Reawaken Your Second Immune System
Adding more healthy fats to your diet is probably the easiest way to jump-start your Second Immune System.
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• Avocados • Oysters • Cold Water Fish (wild Salmon is a good option) • Eggs • Bacon • Organ meats like liver • Olives and Olive oil • Cheese • High fat nuts like walnuts, pecans, and macadamia nuts. • Nut butters (like almond butter). My rule is, when in doubt add butter! This is probably the easiest of all advice to follow in this report. After all, fat is delicious. But if you are used to eating lots of carbs, it does take time to adjust to a higher-fat diet. And during that transition, you might not awaken your Second Immune System until you eat more fat consistently. The good news is you can trigger the autophagy process within the next five minutes. And all it takes is breaking a sweat...
Autophagy Trigger #3: Exercise We’ve covered a lot of ground about autophagy except for why it occurs. In simplest terms it is a survival mechanism. That’s why it recycles damaged or redundant cellular components in the first place. It is using that “dead weight” as fuel to keep healthy cells functioning. For example, in the case of fasting your body thinks it is starving. So it activates autophagy to provide fuel for vital life processes. Think of it this way, autophagy is turned on to help protect you. It is a “stress response.” And when you think about our caveman ancestors, that makes complete sense. Our ancestors didn’t have fast food restaurants on every corner. They couldn’t run down to the grocery store when they were hungry. Sometimes they went days... possibly weeks... without eating. But they still needed energy to survive. Autophagy ensured their bodies didn’t destroy healthy cells to create that energy. 24
Reawaken Your Second Immune System
And other than lack of food, what is one of the biggest “stresses” you could imagine our ancestors having? Being hunted! You and I don’t face life or death situations every day. But when it our ancestors were walking through a forest and encountered a grizzly bear, you better believe they encountered stress and high-tailed it out of there. So it should come to no surprise to you that exercise triggers autophagy. Think about the last time your pushed yourself and you had to struggle to catch your breath... and your heart felt like it was almost beating out of your chest... and your muscles were on fire. Stressful, right? Well, new research shows this stress of exercise turns on the autophagy process with very beneficial effects. In one study, researchers from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center studied found exercise induced autophagy in “multiple organs involved in metabolic regulation, such as muscle, liver, pancreas and adipose tissue.”32 In other words, exercise cleaned out the “dead weight” in organs that keep your metabolism working properly. But that’s not all. They also found exercise triggered autophagy in the cerebral cortex (the brain) of adult mice. Leading the researchers to speculate exercise — through the mechanism of autophagy — could have beneficial effects on “neurodegeneration, adult neurogenesis and improved cognitive function.” But not just any type of exercise works. The best way to exert yourself is not with low-intensity, long-duration, cardiovascular endurance exercises like jogging. Doing these will shrink your heart and reduce its capacity to get lots of blood to your brain. You get the most benefit by exercising like our ancestors... with short-duration, but high intensity workouts. Think of running into a bear in the woods. Are you going to leisurely jog away? Or sprint like an Olympic runner? Our ancestors couldn’t afford to be out of shape. They pushed themselves to exertion, rested then pushed again. And when you exercise like they did, not only do you trigger autophagy and awaken your Second Immune System, you set in motion a series of changes: • Your native afterburner kicks into gear, melting away fat for hours after you finish. • Your muscles refine their capacity for quick, powerful responses. Reawaken Your Second Immune System
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• Your pituitary gland triggers the release of youth-enhancing growth hormone. • Your heart’s output grows and becomes stronger, gradually adapting to develop greater reserve capacity and maximize the amount of blood it can pump with each beat. • Your lung capacity expands to meet the new demand for more oxygen. I’ve been an advocate for this type of exercising since before I was a doctor. And that’s where my P.A.C.E. program comes in. P.A.C.E. helps you by incrementally increasing the intensity of your exertion over time. This builds capacity in your heart and lungs, allowing more blood and oxygen to get to the organs than need them most. During my research I came across a study showing that an incrementally intensive workout program like P.A.C.E. increased blood flow levels by more than 400%.33 The best part is, you control the progression and alter the type of workouts you do to keep it fun and interesting. For more on P.A.C.E., including workouts, videos, and advice, please visit www.pacerevolution.com.
Reawaken Your Second Immune System With High Intensity, Short Duration Exercise Here’s an autophagy triggering exercise you can do right now. They’re called Alternating Split Squat Jumps. This is a great exercise that requires plenty of intensity. Plus, they’re excellent for building strength and power in your legs and lower body. And you don’t need more than three or four feet of space to do them. Here’s how: 1. With your feet shoulder-with apart, step backward about two feet with your right leg (Your left foot will be flat on the ground in front of you, while your right will be on the ball of your foot behind you.) 2. Lower your body by bending your hips and knees until the front thigh is parallel to the floor. 3. Jump straight up using the power from your front leg and quickly switch legs while in the air. 4. As you jump, bring your arms forward and throw them above your head. 5. Land so that your right foot lands in the forward position and vice versa.
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This is a great exercise to add to your routine to build strength and trigger autophagy.
Reawaken Your Second Immune System
Do another squat, bringing your arms back down. 6. Repeat, alternating your legs, until you have reached your target intensity. Rest, recover. Do two more sets. If you find these difficult, you can reduce the amount of strength required by using a narrower stance when jumping and landing. And if that’s still too tough, start off with a standard jump squat and work your way up to these. You control your progression and can even alter the type of workouts you do to keep it fun and interesting. You now have the tools to Reawaken Your Second Immune System. You can learn more and stay upto-date on autophagy and the latest Second Immune System therapies on my websites: www.alsearsmd.com www.searsinstitute.com But please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns. You can call the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine at 561-784-7852 or email my staff at [email protected]
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD, CNS References: 1. Komatsu M., et al. “Impairment of starvation-induced and constitutive autophagy in Atg7-deficient mice.” The Journal of Cell Biology. May 9, 2005. 2. “The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet.” Nobelförsamlingen. 3. Longo V., et al. “Fasting: Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Applications.” Cell Metab. 2014 February 4. 4. Ibid. 5. Su Z., et al. “Apoptosis, autophagy, necroptosis, and cancer metastasis.” Molecular Cancer. 2015. 6. Guo Z., et al. “Intermittent fasting and caloric restriction ameliorate age-related behavioral deficits in the triple-transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.” Neurobiology of Disease. 2007. 7. Berliocchi L., et al. “Autophagy impairment in a mouse model of neuropathic pain.” Molecular Pain. 2011. 8. Horne B., et al. “Usefulness of Routine Periodic Fasting to Lower Risk of Coronary Artery Disease among Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography.” Am J Cardiol. 2008 October 1. 9. Lindqvist LM., et al. “Current questions and possible controversies in autophagy.” Cell Death Discovery. 2015. 10. Horne B., et al. “Usefulness of Routine Periodic Fasting to Lower Risk of Coronary Artery Disease among Patients Undergoing Coronary Angiography.” Am J Cardiol. 2008 October 1. 11. Aggarwal S., et al. “Differential regulation of autophagy and mitophagy in pulmonary diseases.” Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol. July 8, 2016. 12. Johnson J., et al. “Alternate Day Calorie Restriction Improves Clinical Findings and Reduces Markers of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Overweight Adults with Moderate Asthma.” Free Radic Biol Med. 2007 Mar 1. 13. Gorman C., et al. “Cellular Inflammation: The Secret Killer (Article). Health: The Fires Within.” Inflammation Research Foundation. 2018.
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14. Ibid. 15. “Would You Like To Share Your Success Story?” The Blood Sugar Diet. 16. Johnson J., et al. “Alternate Day Calorie Restriction Improves Clinical Findings and Reduces Markers of Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Overweight Adults with Moderate Asthma.” Free Radic Biol Med. 2007 Mar 1. 17. Wood L., et al. “Identification of neurotoxic cytokines by profiling Alzheimer’s disease tissues and neuron culture viability screening.” Scientific Reports. 13 November 2015. 18. Huberman M. “NHA president gets up close and personal at TrueNorth Health Center.” TrueNorth Health Center. January 14, 2017. 19. Rossner P., et al. “Plasma protein carbonyl levels and breast cancer risk.” J Cell. Mol. Med. 2007. 20. Napoli N. “Levels of Ceramides in the Blood Help Predict Cardiovascular Events.” American College of Cardiology. Press Release. Mar 09, 2017. 22. “Would You Like To Share Your Success Story?” The Blood Sugar Diet. 22. Lesica N. “Intermittent fasting could help tackle diabetes — here’s the science.” The Conversation. August 21, 2017. 23. Szendroedi J, Phielix E, Roden M. “The role of mitochondria in insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus.”Nature Reviews Endocrinology 8, 92-103. Feb 2012. 24. Kim J, Wei Y, Sowers JR. “Role of Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Insulin Resistance.” Circ Res. 2008 Feb 29; 102(4): 401–414. 25. Wegman M., et al. “Practicality of Intermittent Fasting in Humans and its Effect on Oxidative Stress and Genes Related to Aging and Metabolism.” Rejuvenation Research. 2014. 26. Katsuyasu Kouda, Masayuki Iki. “Beneficial effects of mild stress (hormetic effects): dietary restriction and health.” J Physiol Anthropol. 2010. 27. Newport M., et al. “A new way to produce hyperketonemia: use of ketone ester in a case of Alzheimer’s.” Alzheimers Dement. 2015 January. 28. Newport MT, VanItallie et al. “A new way to produce hyperketonemia: use of ketone ester in a case of Alzheimer’s.” Alzheimer’s & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer’s Association. 2015. 29. “2017 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures.” Alzheimer’s Association. 30. Freake HC, Govoni KE, et al. “Actions and interactions of thyroid hormone and zinc status in growing rats.” J Nutr. 2001 Apr. 31. Cunnane S, Nugent S, et al. “Brain fuel metabolism, aging, and Alzheimer’s disease.” J Nutr. 2011 Jan. 32. He C, Sumpter R JR., et al. “Exercise induces autophagy in peripheral tissues and in the brain.” Autophagy. 2012 Oct. 33. Adapted from: von Ardenne M. “Oxygen Multistep Therapy,” Thieme, 1990, p144.
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Reawaken Your Second Immune System