Chapter 9 of Knee Deep in Pain Book by Zafar Hayat KhanPublisher: http://www.nouvellesante.com

CHAPTER-9

From Hunter- Gatherer to Waddler-Hoarder

Figure-1. Hunter-Gatherer Image-Adapted from Scientific American February 1922Cover. Courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Waddler-Hoarder Image- © Willie Lunchmeat Flickr Photostream.

But first; Why is the earth tilting?Not too many people know about this but there is a sinister plot underway put in place by powerful business and political interests in North America. [An investigative report filed by the ‘Christmas in July Desk’ staff at

Faux News Center. In other words this is a strictly fictional account presented here only to underscore the seriousness of a global epidemic]

It is being planned and executed by major energy and agricultural corporations. These mega companies are investing heavily in solar energy and buying up vast tracts of desolate, uninhabited land in remote areas of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon in Canada and also in southern parts of Tasmania, New Zealand, Australia, Chile and Argentina.

Why?

We all know the top soil in major agricultural producing regions is now pretty much depleted. Crop yields are falling and food production is down. It is taking more and more fertilizer, chemicals, and energy to maintain high agricultural output.

But don’t shed any tears for the food industry; thanks to explosive increases in world population and resulting price hikes, they are awash in profits.The tons of monies being made by agriculture companies did not go unnoticed. Where ever fresh money is being born energy companies swarm to that opportunity. They have this innate ability to smell oil and money equally well, much like predators in the wild smell newborns and quickly move in for the kill.

As anyone can tell, it takes sun, soil and water to grow crops. Sunlight, for now, is free, but soil and

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water are getting expensive. The 3% or so, of fresh water that had been frozen at the poles was an invaluable resource, but it is starting to crumble and drop into the oceans. Also land masses near the ice caps are worthlessly cheap. No one lives there and no one has any desire to move there to live. Hence real estate is worthless for all intents and purposes. So while this land may be dirt cheap, that dirt lies under several meters of ice. Nothing can grow in it, given its current state.

Well, with untold wealth and rising profits at their disposal the energy and food conglomerates, seeing common interests, quickly got together. Was Shell Oil there? Was Cargill, the food giant present? No one will confirm it but the name for the syndicate was chosen to be Schmell. It’s anybody’s guess what the name of the syndicate would have been if Kellogg had shown up before Cargill did, but quite likely the group would not have been allowed to operate in Israel.

Wasting no time, sparing no expense, and acting like a true syndicate, Schmell brought together theworld’s most brilliant, evil minds under one roof towork on strategies to further consolidate money and power for themselves.And thus, elite teams of super smart scientists and engineers have worked diligently and relentlessly over the past so many years on this top secret project which they have come to call ‘Tilting to Perpetuate Solar Yields’, code named TIPSY so outsiders don’t have a clue of this top secret, highly classified undertaking.

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The solution, the evil geniuses came up with, was to tilt the earth just enough so the areas closest to the poles get a lot more sun in the summers. Of course that would mean longer winters for the other side of the earth, but by owning land in both hemispheres close to the north and south poles theSchmell syndicate will be able to produce food andenergy all year round. It will always be spring or summer some place in the world. And with its proximity to melting ice caps at the poles there will be plenty of clean, fresh water to catch before it gets polluted by the oceans.This was Phase I of the plan and the acquisition of land in the Yukon, the southern tips of Chile and Argentina, Tasmania, and New Zealand appears to have been essentially completed by now.

This was the easy part. But to their surprise what they thought would be an impossible feat; Phase II seems to be a piece of cake too. May be the entire cake! Tilting the earth in favor of the Yukon and Tasmania would require placing infinitely massive amounts of weight on the land masses in the U.S. Canada, and Mexico. Looking to construction would not solve the problem since colossal office towers and apartment complexes have already been built around the world over the last 100 years in major cities, and it would be financial suicide, in this day and age, to attempt to build up more in the face of non-existent demand.

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One of the members of the syndicate was an ex-politician from a Midwestern state who made his money lobbying congress for his friends in the conglomerate.

A thing about dirty politicians; whenever and wherever there is an opportunity for quick money or kinky sex, a dirty politician can usually be foundlurking in the shadows, somewhere nearby. He came up with a novel idea that was sheer genius. Under his scheme people will actually pay Schmell money and help it in furthering its goal for world domination. How sweet can it get? It was quickly and unanimously accepted. Given the enthusiasm, implementation teams energetically went to work implementing Phase II, code named SCROO. Needless to say success was imminent.

In the hallways of this most secret of organizationsinside highly classified buildings, it was not uncommon to hear agents high fiving each other, exchanging victory information, and claiming suchand such community had been scrood.The state that fell hardest and fastest for this diabolical scheme, was Mississippi, followed soon by Tennessee, West Virginia and South Carolina. Other states succumbed steadily enough. Soon most communities around the country had been scrood. But Colorado 1seemed to still be somewhat of a hold out, being a bit tough for agents to crack.

After much clandestine, undercover work, our

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investigative reporter was finally able to unearth details about SCROO. The code name stood for five S foods; Sugar, Sodium, , Soy oil, Starches, Syrups, Corn Oil (and other corn based products), and other vegetable Oils. Someone on the project with a dark sense of humor added the R.

The syndicate’s plan was to place as much scroo ingredients as possible, in processed foods for consumers. As expected, and clairvoyantly foretold by the cornbelt politician, the junkification of natural foods was warmly received, not just by grocers but even consumers. Large grocery stores rushed to dedicate up to 70% or more of their floor and shelf space to endlessly stack processed and packaged foods, sky high. And for their VIP customers they made the aisles wider to allow for a freer, unrestricted waddling gait. For the supreme, most exalted customers they brought in battery powered, riding shopping carts. Some Schmell agents wanted to introduce turbo charged gas powered engines, so patrons could charge certain aisles at great speed before all the ‘goodness loaded’ boxes were raided by someone else. That idea was quickly squashed for fear of carbon monoxide fumes and other exhaust gases. Besides, next thing you know people will be clamoring for traffic lights at major aisle intersections inside massive food stores. Then there will be cops needed for directing traffic to the pasta, candy, or soda lanes in the event of an instore special being announced on the overhead PA

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system; and soon enough you will have DUI violations inside grocery stores. Who needs all that?

Cereal companies were the first ones to step up to the plate, or bowl, if you will. Thus, it is rare to find a cereal box on grocery shelves which does nothave at least three, if not all five, of the ingredients.

One company used slick midriff images of slim, female models on their cereal boxes, somehow trying to convey subliminal messages ‘the more you eat of it, the more weight you will lose’. Obese people with ‘Shallow Hal’ 2 syndrome bought it, and still continue to buy it by the ton load.

Also quickly jumping on board was the fast food industry with ‘fried everything’ and if that was not enough, using high fat, corn fed, meats to make burgers. Sugar loaded sodas would round off the calorie bombs one would buy at a restaurant. Staff were so nice, just in case you felt a 1000 calories were not enough to make you happy, they would supersize both the fries and soda for a mere 50 cents or so. Better get melted cheese on your fries too.

To make life easier fast food establishments put in drive in service, to make ordering and pickup easier for consumers who would like to conserve the 0.5 calories that would be terribly wasted on that useless trip to the inside of the restaurant.

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Team leaders on the scroo project were admirably focused. When they discovered Mexican agents walking in the august halls of the TIPSY buildings high fiving each other, with loud greetings of Arriba! Arriba! they asked that agents shout Uribe! Uribe!, instead. (To get the really big picture, readers are encouraged to Google Manuel Uribe fordetails as public domain images are not available at time of writing).

Figure-2. Toronto, Canada street scene. Flickr Photostream. © 2012 Sandra Cohen-Rose and Colin Rose 4

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The beauty of the plan was, well, it was devilishly simple. Imagine millions of people scarfing down cereal in the morning before leaving for work or school. If you were to believe in advertising some people are shown getting up in the middle of the night to get an early start. Encouraged by this earlyadoption, it was little wonder that project leaders would frequently argue; ”Look! if people voluntarily scroo themselves first thing in the morning, then there are another sixteen or so hours during the rest of the day for them to repeat the experience.” If consumers are hooked, then so be it.

The thing with junk food, and cereals are a cleverlydisguised form of junk food, is that you cannot justeat a little bit. Once you take a bite there is no turning back, you want a lot more of it. There is nomiddle ground.

Scientists not affiliated with the syndicate were to later find out there was a connection between eating soy oil (possibly including other vegetable oil) based products and then having uncontrollable urges to eat more. (Please see below for Gus). You could practically gorge yourself to death with the vicious circle created by scroo consumption. The more you ate, the more you wanted.

This is exactly what the syndicate had hoped for. Schmell could not be happier or prouder. With 2/3rds of the population in North America being voluntarily overweight, many of them obese,

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success was near. Even if each person is overweightby just 20 pounds then 2/3rd of the NAFTA population of 444 million 3 would mean an incredible impact of an extra 3 million ton load on the ground in the northern hemisphere.

Only scientists on the project would know what would be the tipping point before the world would finally tilt by enough of an angle to meet the nefarious ambitions of the syndicate. Looking at obesity trends it would appear the TIPSY project is closer to realizing its goal than we would like to admit.

There are reports some energy companies jumped the gun in their haste by breaking ranks with the syndicate and started ‘fracking’ (Definition: Forcing water at very high pressure in underground rock formations to release trapped gas deposits). The syndicate had advised them if they waited a little longer millions of obese people pounding the earth every day, (please see Table-3 below for BMI 40) would create enough vibration to have the same effect in releasing trapped subterranean energy.

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It is not clear if the desired tilt will get underway because of excessive obesity in North America but NASA scientists say the earth does change its tilt, from 21 degrees to 25 degrees, albeit gradually. Currently at 23.5 degrees it is just past the halfway mark in the tilt cycle which happens to be a mere 41,000 years. 5

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Meanwhile cereal producers insist the sugar, per serving, in their products is really not that much. They compare their offerings to higher sugar content foods and point out it is much better to consume their ‘healthy’ alternatives. Besidesdownplaying sugar content,some cereal manufacturersalso make outlandish healthclaims that can land them introuble with regulators andoversight agencies.

There are times it feels really good to see our tax dollars being put to good use. Thankfully and admirably, the FTC and the FDA, do have our backs. Case in point; the Federal Trade Commission got a little miffed by Kellogg’s advertising claims over Rice Krispies’ “contribution to immunity” and Frosted Mini-Wheats “increased attentiveness” in children and in 2010, using some choice words, the regulatory agency openly reprimanded the company:

“We expect more from a great

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SummaryWhat are the risks of being overweight for our health, and for arthritis? Why do weprefer fried foods and how are they addictive? What is the role of vegetable oils in disease and obesity?

Figure-3. Flickr Photostream of Ben + Sam © Ben+Sam. Rice Krispies are a trademark of Kelloggs Inc. 6

American company than making dubious claims – not once, but twice – that its cereals improve children’s health,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz. “Next time, Kellogg needs to stop and think twice about the claims it’s making before rolling out a new adcampaign, so parents can make the best choices for their children.”

Apparently Kellogg Co had been feeding its corporate staff plenty of Frosted Mini Wheats. They were attentive enough to listen to the commission 7 and pulled the claims from their products after a short period following FTC action.

Figure-4. Source: FTC, Exhibit C. FTC File No. 082 3145. Frosted Mini Wheats are a trademark of Kelloggs Inc.

Not to be outdone, General Mills, the maker of Cheerios and other leading cereals, almost became a pharmaceutical company without even trying. At least that is what the Food and Drug Administration’s complaint implies. Essentially the FDA complaint made the point “look here guys, if you want to sellCheerios as a food, we don’t have a problem with that. But when you start making it sound like some kind of a drug, what with lowering cholesterol and all, you need to apply for registering itas a medicine”. Calling it an ‘Unapproved New Drug’ the

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operative phrase used in the FDA notice was “prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease”.

Figure-5 Cheerios is a trademark of General Mills.

Here is the actual wording on the FDA action 8:

Figure-6. Source FDA

Imagine the possibilities if General Mills actually got away with its cholesterol labeling. Next thing you know we could haveCheerios in gel caps available without prescription, and sold in a

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bottle instead of a cereal box. Even healthier and more compact would be ‘Oil of Cheerios’. Pour it on your salad and lower your cholesterol even further.

Clearly the folks at General Mills may have also been eating plenty of Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats as they were quite attentive. They too, changed the wording on Cheerios cereal boxes rather promptly.

As they say in Canada; “Pretty clever, Eh!”

But if the 3 million tons of extra fat this side of the Atlantic seems to be large it pales in comparison to the massive CO2 footprint of our heavy relatives based on actual scientific evidence in the following section.

Using disconcerting language for the title, The Sun (U.K.) carried this story in June 2009. While the reporter could have used more appropriate words, the spirit of the story was sincere. Not only overweight people drive larger cars and drive more than walking, they consume more food, and the extra food production over that consumed by a thin person, dumps about a ton of CO2 in the environment. Scientists 9, 10 estimate a billion extra tons of CO2 annually are created by obese people, exacerbating global warming resulting in a faster meltdown of polar icecap, rising water levels, destroying rain forests and wreaking havoc on the lives of 375 million people globally who will become victims of climate related disasters in the next few years.

Being overweight comes with a host of social and health problems. Not only does it cause 11 Heart Disease, Stroke, Metabolic Syndrome, Sleep Apnea, Osteoarthritis, Gallbladder

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Disease, and Fatty Liver Disease, it can make getting pregnant more difficult and complicate birth. It is also complicit in causing Cancer. There is hardly any known disease which cannotbe further exacerbated or made more difficult to treat in the presence of excess body fat. One such disease, aggravated by excessive weight, and the one affecting our knees, is arthritis.

If humans are piling on the pounds, domesticated animals like cats and dogs, are now considered to be facing obesity risk, through no fault of their own. A 2009 study conducted in the Netherlands 12 concluded dogs of obese owners tend to be obese as well. There might be some explanation for that as overweight owners are less likely to go running or exercising with their dogs.However the study did not find the same relationship between owner obesity and cats. It would be a worthwhile pursuit to find out if any animals in thewild, other than bears that have to build fat reserves for winter hibernation, gain excessive weight. Survival theories require

fitness for all species, well may beall, except one. Bears thin down dramatically by mid spring as they must be agile and swift to chase and kill their prey. Humans, interestingly, eat like bears in the fall and winter but continue to pig out for the rest of the

year.

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Figure-7. Copyright 2009 The Sun, U.K.

As long as there are mega food grocers and the motorized ‘buggy’ is available to facilitate the ‘consumption experience’, humans can chase any different varieties of food in massive quantities without expending even a minimum amount of calories. The hunter-gatherer has given way to the waddler- hoarder.

In its service to obesity, vegetable oil production and availability, a phenomenon made possible by powerful business interests in the 20th century, have had profound and pervasive influences on our health.

What if animals, naturally programmed to stop eating when satiety centers in their brains signal them to stop, were fed like humans? What if we could identify and use changes in nutrition in the human diet in the 20th century, and apply them to animals? Well, this is the question, CAPT Joseph Hibbeln, M.D, a psychiatrist and lipid biochemist by training and acting chief ofthe Section on Nutritional Neuroscience, Laboratory of Membrane Biochemistry and Biophysics, NIAAA, wanted to find answers to. He has done extensive research on alcoholism, violence, depression, and anxiety and has attributed much of learning deficiencies and behavioral disorders to inadequacies ofessential fatty acids, such as DHA and EPA in the human diet. Working with scientists from Norway, Denmark and Japan the team modeled human consumption and applied it to lab mice: 13

“During the 20th century, elevations in Arachinoid Acid-PL have been estimated from the dramatic increase in dietary LA (linoleic acid) resulting from a more than1,000-fold increase in the estimated per capita consumption of soybean oil from 0.006 to 7.38% of energy. Here, we modeled these ecological dietary changes in mice to determine if

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increasing LA as a controlled dietary variable could elevate AA-PL composition, increase endocannabinoid levels, and induce metabolic and phenotypic changes consistent with obesity.”

For this study, researchers took rodents that were given specific diets for 14 weeks, consisting of 1% energy provided by linoleic acid (LA) typical at the turn of the century (1900s) and comparedthem to other rodents that were fed a diet of 8% LA energy reflecting end of century (1999) consumptions of soy and other vegetable oils.

Knowing that soy bean oil is about 50% Linoleic Acid the scientists postulated that if it induced excessive cravings for foodhyperactivity 14 in mice andhumans alike, then increasingsoy oil consumption wouldcorrelate with increasingobesity during this timeperiod. In the study oil contentwas were moved around foreach of the three mice to makesure Jaq received 1% energyfrom LA, while the other twohad 8%.

Just to make sure their research emulated and preserved generational consistency, mothers of all mice in the study were fed the same diets while they were pregnant with these pups. Since each pup came from a different mother, one can only imagine what Gus’ mother looked like. Below, Gus is the mouse in the middle in Chart-1.

Based on results of the study the authors concluded that

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Linoleic acid is an omega-6 essential fatty acid that is a precursor for arachidonic acid-PL, the backbone of endocannabinoids. 13

In the movie Cinderella, a Walt Disney animated classic, Jaq was the thin mouse. Gus, his friend, was appreciably overweight and slow to move.

dietary linoleic acid elevated cravings, resulting in the development of diet-induced obesity. It is revealing, to say the least that, Jaq, had the highest content of saturated fats in his diet; those from hydrogenated coconut oil at 280 g/kg. Of the total 350 grams/ kilogram of feed for Jaq, 11 grams came from flaxseed oil. Gus, chilling over there in the middle, on the other hand had no taste for flaxseed or fish oil. His coconut fat consumption was reduced to allow for supplementation with 123 grams of vegetable oils, including 74 from soy oil. Ringo, the one at the far end, had a similar diet as Gus, except his coconut content was reduced to allow for 12 grams of fish oils.

Chart-1 Food Cravings and Weight Gain Percent Energy content Linoleic Acid

Jaq Gus RingoOils

1% LA 8% LA8% LA + 1% Omega-

3HO-Safflower 0 42 18Hyd-Coconut 280 228 219HO–Sunflower 60 7 25Soybean 0 74 77Flaxseed 11 0 0Fish Oil 0 0 12Total(g/kg) 350 350 350

n-6/n-3 1 8 4Courtesy of National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland,USA

Strangely, Jaq, with the highest saturated fat content appearsto have been the most slim, followed by Ringo. Both mice had higher omega-3 in their diets as is evident by the presence of

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flaxseed and fish oils. Compared to Jaq, in Gus’ liver, increasing LA from 1 % to 8 %

energy almost tripled omega-6 and AEA endocannabinoid (EC), and quadrupled the 2-AG EC. For the same linoleic acid increase,Ringo saw his liver omega-6 and AEA go up only half of Gus, but his 2-AG EC was a tad higher. For Jaq, the omega-6 to omega-3 ratio (n-6/n-3 in table above) was as good as it could get; a solitary number one. Presumably his diet reflected a common fatcomposition in diets at the turn of the 20th century.

What do the results tell us? Well, visibly, we can tell, Gus died happy. Jaq, who appears to have died healthy, was old fashioned and stuck to a traditional pre 1900 diet. And Ringo, well… in a way the real star is Ringo. We would expect Ringo to have died wealthy, which he did, at least in the knowledge he imparted to us in that, now we know; even with poor dietary habits, a dash of fish oils (omega-3s) can save us from obesity.

During this same time, while Gus and the rest of us, were speeding downhill powered by our little EC engines, devouring soy oil fried or other oil prepared foods, what was the soy production complex doing? For a crop that hardly existed beforethe turn of the century when it was brought into the U.S. from China or India and in 1924 had a paltry 1.8 million acres 15 to its name, production has virtually exploded. In 2011, 75 million acresin the country were growing a crop worth over $42 billion, 45% of which would be exported, with the largest buyer being; guess who? China, of course! It bought a whopping 895 million bushels. 16

So what does china do with all this soya. Well they used to make milk and cheese, and tons of other soy based nutritious food products. But now things are different. The only thing that is expanding faster than their economy is their waistline. Gus has arrived as an unrepentant hero and his lifestyle is being

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emulated with a vengeance. Disturbingly, while obesity correlates with poverty in the western world it is the reverse for China and other Asian countries. Over there, fast food and American style eating habits symbolize the cool factor; and cool comes at a price which only the well to do can afford, and of course the nouveau riche don’t mind showing off one bit. Peopledress up to go to McDonalds and Pizza restaurants even for regular meals. It is another matter McDonalds happens to be a favorite for wedding receptions as well. With 20,000 fast food outlets planned to open in the next few years, obesity is here to stay. The Chinese dragon has tasted fast, highly processed, deep fried, oily food, and it is hooked.17

Not to be missed by the food industry, the average personnow consumes over 11 kilograms of soy oil per year in the U.S. Around the beginning of the century that number was less than half a kilogram. Please see Appendix-B. 18

So what do we understand from this research? As Paul Simon said in his top selling song; “Hop on the

bus, Gus, don't need to discuss much…” (Paul Simon. Fifty Ways To

Leave Your Lover. 1975. Wikipedia). Anyone related to Gus would advise him to get on board and avoid cooking in some popular vegetable oils as it appears, especially those that are high in linoleic acid.

Not to belabor the point---- ok fine let’s dwell on it just a bit more, because this one is worth the wait. Probably no one can talk about the use of vegetable oils in foods with the fervor, conviction, and dedication of Dr. Mary G. Enig and her colleagues at The Weston A. Price Foundation. And she will backit up with fact. 19

In The Oiling of America (an article co-written with Sally Fallon), she notes:

“…Because polyunsaturates are highly

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subject to rancidity, they increase the body's need for vitamin E and other antioxidants. Excess consumption of vegetable oils is especially damaging to the reproductive organs and the lungs—both ofwhich are sites for huge increases in cancer in the US.

In test animals, diets high in polyunsaturates from vegetable oils inhibit the ability to learn, especially under conditions of stress; they are toxic to the liver; they compromise the integrity of the immune system; they depress the mental and physical growth of infants; they increase levels of uric acid in the blood; they cause abnormal fatty acid profiles in the adipose tissues; they have been linked to mental decline and chromosomal damage; they accelerate aging.

Excess consumption of polyunsaturates is associated with increasing rates of cancer, heart disease and weight gain…..”

So regarding the rodents, are vegetable oils addictive?

That was the premise for the13 study with the mice. The authors postulated if popular vegetable oils were substituted for either flaxseed, or fish oil, would it interfere with the cravings of subjects, in this case, mice? It appears it did. Most notably for Jaq and Ringo above.

How does that happen?

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Endocannabinoids (ECs) are lipids that are made by the body in metabolizing arachidonic acid. They are capable of mimicking the pharmacological actions of hashish and marijuana and

bind to two types of cannabinoidreceptors. These receptors areexpressed in the brain, mostlyCB1, and CB2 mostly in theviscera, and gastrointestinaltract, adrenal glands, liver, andadipose tissue, and the heart.13, 24

The endocannabinoid system participates in the rewarding and addiction of substances such as cocaine and amphetamines, opioids, nicotine, alcohol, 25 and food. This is pretty much the same pathway employed by endorphins 22 which are released aftersustained vigorous exercise and rewards those poor souls with unparalleled happiness. The abundance of instantly released dopamine neurons is what gives us the high.But how does the brain make the connection between a stimulus

and creation of feelings of euphoria?

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Endocannabinoids (endogenous cannabis-like substances) are small molecules derived from arachidonic acid. The endogenous cannabinoid system controls the motivation for appetite stimuli, including food and drugs. 14

Lipids 20 are a family of fats that include oils, waxes, phospholipids, steroids (like cholesterol), and others such as monoglycerides, diglycerides, triglycerides, phospholipids. They do not mix with water.

Receptors are proteins that reside on membranes of neurons. Neurons are nerve cells. Neurotransmitters bind to receptors to propagate or attenuate neural signals. 21

Endorphins are neurotransmitters found in the pituitary gland, and other parts of the brain, as well as in the nervous system. Working with opiate receptors they mitigate perceptions of pain with actions similar to pain killers. 22

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's rewardand pleasure centers. It is involved with feelings of euphoria and with seeking more pleasurable sensations. 23

To answer that let us talk about bliss.

When Whitney Stalker, a pretty university educated Chicagogirl, visited India in 2009 she may have been looking for Anand but found Harish Kumar instead, the rickshaw driver who showed her around the historic sites of the beautiful city of Jaipur and won her heart in the process. They married four days later and she ultimately found Anand. 26

This (Anand male, female Ananda) is a common name in the country and in Sanskrit, means blissful happiness. Givenits reference to this emotion, anand-amide became the name given by the scientific community to a messenger molecule arachidonyl ethanolamide (AEA), isolated by an Israeli scientist Raphael Mechoulam in 1992 27.

AEA Anandamide 28 happens to be the body’s natural molecular key 29 that locks into nerve receptor sites that have a role in pain, depression and appetite, as well as memory and fertility. Where keys open locks in our traditional world, molecular keys do the opposite. They close the receptor mechanisms by locking them, in the casein point, preventing the nerve cell from carrying on its normal function; that of firing rapidly and alerting the body of noxious stimuli. With time natural system enzymes eat away at the key, eventually unlocking the cell, and allowingit to start firing again. And once again; Hello pain!

The difference between the natural molecules and substances like THC, a forged key, is that THC is harder to pry loose while anandamide and 2-AG are relatively easily unglued by enzymes, hence the longer lasting and higher highs associated with marijuana.

In a way we can thank marijuana for efforts that led to Anandamide’s discovery. The cannabis plant’s principal psychoactive compound, THC (tetrahydrocannibol), latches onto the receptors of the nerve cells and dulls pain and creates feelings of happiness as well disallowing the nerve cell to fire.

When scientists found the lock that is keyed with marijuana

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they obviously had to go looking for a natural key, since thelock receptor could not have existed without a key. The search for that natural key led to the discovery of anandamides. Soon enough another natural sister key was discovered, 2 arachidonylglycerol (2-AG) by Dr Mechoulam and his colleagues. It is not clear why 2-AG was not given an Indian name as well; perhaps shanti-jee, meaning respected peaceful lady. This cannabinoid is believed to be200 times greater in concentration in the brain than anandamide.

Both endogenous AEA and 2-AG, and exogenous THC have a similar role; that of addiction. Elevated levels of endogenous cannabinoids indicate the presence of addictive, habit forming agents.14 In this context; more EC activity means more cravings. 30

Dopamine resulting from excess, sudden happiness, releaseECs. These endocannabinoids seek out CB1 receptors and quickly lock them up. At this point of no pain, all gain, the affected person has a few simple wishes:

“Get me more dope, or get me more food, I don’t care!”

More cravings mean eating more bad food. More bad food leads to more cravings. One would be tempted to characterize this as a vicious cycle.

It is not that these cannabinoids are bad for us; it is when exogenous factors trigger too many of them, creating conditions that the body is not equipped to handle.

Both AEA and 2-AG are synthesized from arachidonic acid, ( please see Veni, Vidi, Vici) itself a metabolite of linoleic acid which, downstream, leads to production of endocannabinoids. And what fatty acid are most vegetable oils rich in….?

Quick! Where did you see LA? Of course you had your Frosted Mini Wheats this morning

and your attentiveness is already boosted by 20% so you know it was part of the diet for the mice; more for Gus and Ringo, less for Jaq.

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For people like Gus on an 8 to 1 diet ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, there is plenty of linoleic acid. For those who have more in common with Jaq, or even Ringo, the amount available to enzymes that break down the fatty acids, is limited in presence of less linoleic acid and more alpha-linolenic acid, the substrate that helps produce long chain omega-3 fatty acids, like EPA and DHA.

Why do we find fresh hot french fries irresistibly enticing; much more so than boiled, or baked potatoes? Neither, potatoes nor chicken, if baked or boiled, can be considered to drive people to eat more, and more. You probably never hear anyone say: “I just can’t resist it. If I have one baked potato, I want to have three more”.But cut that one potato into thinstrip slices so it can soak up thegoodness of oil, and deep fry it, andsome people will eat twice theirbody weight in potatoes.

Well, not exactly, but close.Why is that?

Hello! It is not the potato thatis addictive.

It is the oil it is fried in.

How about sugary foods, ormeats? Apparently at least rats do not crave either one. Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, sham fed rats on different diets and found ECs spiked in the small intestines ofrodents that received corn oil rations, or a nutritionally completediet, but not those who were given sugar or protein solutions. 30 The mouth being the first point of contact sends impulses to the brain which sends signals to the intestines to stimulate EC

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Sham feeding is when an animal is fed a predesigned diet but, depending on the nature of the experiment, the food is either removed before it reaches the stomach or flushed out of the stomach when it gets there. This is done by implanting a tube in the stomach and pumping out the contents. This method is used for studying physiological and psychological mechanisms offeeding behavior.

production, making the rat crave for more. 31

But we were talking about mice and rats here. How about Mice and Men? Are humans just as discriminating? Here is an experiment you can conduct on your own.

Buy a quarter pound of your favorite chocolate. Then go to your favorite fast food place and order a half pound of french fries and make sure they are prepared fresh on demand.Sit down and put both the chocolate and the fries in front of you,and remove the wrapper from the chocolate. Here is the particularly trying part of this test. Eat a small bite of the chocolate, the size of a french fry. Then eat one single french fry. Now you have to decide which one you will want to eat more of. You can only continue to eat one of the two. Not both. What willyou pick?

Tormented yet?

Here is where we are probably different from rats. If we wereto accept the findings of the UIC study it would be a no brainer for the rat. At this point it would give up the chocolate in favor of the fries. We can try the same experiment with donuts and chocolate. Let’s face it. We just don’t crave only the fried food. We want it all.

The endocannabinoid system has been intriguing scientists for the last several decades. One European company took a stab at it to curb people’s appetites. They figured if they can whack the CB1 receptor hard enough it would close to any incoming impulses. Sanofi-Aventis introduced its drug called Rimonabant with great fanfare and met with early success. 32 Who wouldn’t want to eat endlessly and not put an ounce of fat on?

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However, within a few months, the company started getting complaints about nausea, depression and suicidal thoughts. Not only did they lose their appetite, many patients taking the drug also stopped smiling at the sight of beautiful bouncing babies. Playful puppies jumping up and down could not get them to respond. Laughter, smelling of roses, romance, desires, happy thoughts, all went out the window. 33

Making CB1 receptors invisible was like letting dopamine cause a lot of little endocannabinoids released and run loose, and all dressed up, but nowhere to go. This in turn may be signaling to dopamine neurons to take it down a notch, or two, or maybe a lot. Their only answer to “if you could do one thing today what would it be?” was “I would like to kill myself.” In December 2008, the company withdrew Rimonabant from the European market. It never made it to the U.S. At least not legally.

Meanwhile research continues on brother receptor CB2 more heavily expressed in the gut, which if whacked could presumably ratchet down dopamine release without affecting the brain. So they say!

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Obesity in the U.S.

If all the ailments that are either caused by, or exacerbated by obesity, it would be considered the number one killer. In 2009–2010, 35.7% of U.S. adults were obese. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control Vital Signs report, 34 “Obesity is common, serious, and costly. Between 2007 and 2009, 2.4

million more adults ate themselves into obesity. This epidemic has affected every part of the United States. In every state, more than 15% of adults are obese, and in nine states, over 30% of adults are obese. The medical care costs of obesity in the United States are staggering.” The study points out that people who are obese incurred $1,429 per person extra in medical costs compared to people of normal weight, and that the nation's total

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Figure-8 The Cornucopia of Obesity. Courtesy of CDC.

medical costs of obesity were $147 billion in 2008.

Men and women are afflicted, generally equally, with obesityin men surpassing women in the age range of 2o to 59 years but women taking over men above the age of sixty (Figure-9). 35

Figure-9. Source CDC Data Briefs

With the aging of the U.S. population, the prevalence of doctor-diagnosed arthritis is expected to increase in the coming decades. By the year 2030, an estimated 67 million (25% of the projected total adult population) adults aged 18 years and older will have doctor-diagnosed arthritis, compared with the 50 million adults in 2007–2009. Figure-11 shows that two-thirds of those with arthritis will be women. Also by 2030 an estimated 25 million adults (37% of adults with arthritis or 9.3% of all U.S.

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adults) will report arthritis-attributable activity limitations. These estimates may be conservative as they do not account for the current trends in obesity, which may contribute to future cases of osteoarthritis.

The CDC combined data from the National Health Interview Survey years 2007–2009 Sample Adult Core components to estimate average annual arthritis prevalence in the civilian, non-institutionalized U.S. population age 18 years orolder. Overall, 22.2% (49.9 million) of adults reported arthritis, with significantly higher age-adjusted prevalence in women thanin men, 24.3%, vs. 18.3%. Arthritis prevalence increased with ageand was higher among women than men in every age group.

Obesity And Arthritis.

Arthritis prevalence increases with body weight

Figure-10. Source: CDC

When it comes to knee and ankle joints, just being overweight by 10 percent can have significant negative impact onyour musculoskeletal structure and overall health. 36

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As Figure-10 indicates, obesity rates are 54% higher among adults with arthritis compared to those without the condition. Talk about a vicious circle. Painful arthritis discourages people to exercise, in turn causing obesity. Obesity then makes their arthritis worse.

It would be an understatement if we were to conclude that our Number One Enemy against fighting knee pain is excess bodyweight.

Obesity* prevalence among adults with and without arthritis

* Body mass index (weight [kg] / height [m2]) ≥30.0.On average for the 4 years, unadjusted state median obesity prevalence among adults with arthritis was 54% higher (range: 49.2%-60.5%) than among adults without arthritis.Figure 11. Source: CDC 37

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) say that overweight

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adults are up to five times more likely to develop knee osteoarthritis than normal-weight adults! And the FDA has determined for normal height women dropping even 11 pounds can cut the risk of osteoarthritis by 50%.

So why does weight matter and what does it do to the joints?

When you are looking at buying any equipment you will notice how the manufacturer labels certain Capacities and Constraints on the rating labels. Automobile engines are rated with Liters and CCs and horse power, Torque Top speeds and zero to 60 accelerations and other measurements. Light bulbs are listed with MTBFs (Mean Time Between Failures) for a given voltage and Amperage that provides an estimate of the life of a light bulb. We know what happens when we exceed these rated estimates. Put a 5 ton weight on an automobile and see how thataffects the 0-60 reading, not to mention the lasting damage to the suspension, if it survives without blowing any gaskets,. Feed a little bit too much voltage to the light bulb and see how long it lasts. The point being; all equipment has an operating range. Exceed that range and you stand a good chance of damaging the equipment, in most cases, irreversibly.

Similarly the human body, and all it encompasses, is rated for average and maximum operating criteria. We don’t come pre-labeled but we intuitively know our capacities and limitations.

One of those critical limitations is our weight. Exceeding the body’s natural rating, as per chart below, will contribute significantly, amongst other problems, to joint malfunction, pain, and irreversible damage.

Case in point; Overweight and obese people put far more stress on the knee, in addition to severe abuse of organs, than it

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is designed to bear. Thus, according to generally accepted Body Mass Index methodology, a 5 foot six inch person should weigh around 148 lbs (Please consult chart below). If, for simplicity’s sake we ignore the weight of the leg below the knee, we would expect to support a standing weight of 148 lbs. But during normal walking, ground reaction forces (GRF) cause the knee to be subjected to 3 to 6 times body weight on the it. 38

Thus, when walking our 148 lb person would be subjected

to between 444 lbs to 888 lbs (3 to 6 times) and if the 148 lb person were to gain an extra 20 lbs, the knees would then be subjected to a knee impact range between 504 lbs and 1,008 lbs. This is shocking. But wait. What happens when our overweight, 148 lb friend, goes out jogging?

The jarring force when the entire body’s weight comes crashing down is estimated to be 7 times body weight. 39 This will put 1,176 lbs of force on the knees. Without a doubt this would indicate there has to be a destructive correlation between excessive body weight and knee problems. But if this extra weight induced stress remains on the knee for most of the day the joint would be expected to show excessive wear

and tear quite early. No one has to tell us when that point is reached. The knees will.

BMI is an inexact and misleading measure but it is one understood by most people. Until a better metric comes along we have at least something to refer to.

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Readers must understand, examples given above do not mean the 150 lb person is carrying half a ton of weight. What above observations mean is we arehitting the ground with greatforce in normal walking, even harder when jogging. The knee and lower joints then experience a reaction force equal and opposite to the force we exert on the ground thus multiplying the effect. This is according to Newton’s Third Law of Motion.

Table-2. Impact on knee joints due to Ground Reaction Force. For BMI of 24 which is considered normal.Height in Inches

Weight in lbs

Walking Impact force on Knees-lbs 3 times 6 times

66 148 444 88868 158 474 94870 167 501 1,00272 177 531 1,06274 186 558 1,116

© 2012 Nouvelle Sante. Knee Deep in Pain BMI values Courtesy of NHLBI. 40

With that kind of force (Table-2 and Table-3) hammering away at the knees and ankles, excessive stress on tendons and ligaments, and tears in the meniscii and cartilages would only benaturally expected outcomes. This might explain why, amongst many other reasons, overweight people have trouble not just running but even standing or walking.

Table-3. Impact on knee joints due to Ground Reaction Force. For BMI of 40. Note: BMI greater than 30 is considered obeseHeight in Inches

Weight in lbs

Walking Impact force on Knees-lbs 3 times 6 times

66 247 741 1,48268 262 786 1,57270 278 834 1,66872 294 882 1,76474 311 933 1,866

© 2012 Nouvelle Sante. Knee Deep in Pain

While even a little bit of excess weight can be bad for the skeletal system, obesity is extremely dangerous. It can only accelerate your descent into painful conditions with joints. Onceknee problems set in, further weight gain is almost unavoidable thus throwing a patient into a vicious cycle.

Arthritis and Disability

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A CDC study shows that 47.5 million US adults (21.8%) reported adisability 41 in 2005, an increase of 3.4 million from 1999. Arthritis or rheumatism continues to be the most common cause of disability, while back or spine problems and heart trouble round out the top three causes. Among adults reporting a disability, the most commonly identified limitations were difficulty climbing a flight of stairs (21.7 million, 10.0%) and walking 3 city blocks (22.5 million, 10.3%). That means that 1 in 10adults have trouble walking a distance equal to walking from the parking lot to the back of a large store or through a mall.

Arthritis and Weight Loss

A British population-based case-control study published in the ‘International Journal of Obesity’ 42 compared 525 people aged 45 and over waiting for knee surgery against a control population matched by sex and age. Researchers found that the risk of knee OA rose from 0.1 for slim people to 13.6 for obese (BMI of 36 kg/m2 or higher) individuals. They concluded that even a 5 kg reduction in weight would have resulted in 24% of respondents not requiring knee surgery.

A later study 43 conducted in the U.S. on weight and knee problems found that there was a higher risk of severe knee pain inobese individuals compared to normal weight adults. Among responders with no initial knee pain 19% of new cases of severe knee pain could be avoided by losing a small amount of weight. The conclusion was that obesity was responsible for a substantial proportion of severe disabling knee pain.

Weight loss and pain reliefSo if excess weight contributes to severe disabling pain,

does drastic weight reduction lessen knee pain? While ideally

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patients would be better off losing weight with proper diet and regular exercise, in some cases waiting can be dangerous, if not life threatening. A paper presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting ofthe American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) 44 looked at obesity’s impact on knee arthritis and reported that ten morbidly obese patients with knee osteoarthritis evaluated a year after bariatric surgery lost an average of 51 pounds and theirknee pain and function improved significantly.

The relationship between weight loss and pain relief had also been analyzed in a 1990 article 45 in the British Editorial Society of Bone and Joint Surgery by the University of Toronto Orthopaedic Center. In an uncontrolled study of 105 patients who underwent banded gastroplasty, all patients joints were radiographed prior to the operation. In follow up reviews after an average of 22.5 months, the average pre-operative weight of 125 kg (277 lb) dropped by an average of 44 kg (97 lb). After the weight loss, 89% of patients had complete relief of pain in one ormore joints.

By now it should be aforegone conclusion; if wecannot lose weight, we mustthen be prepared for a host ofproblems. Remember; everyailment, affliction, and diseaseloves a slow moving target.

For citations please see pages 285 through 294 in Bibliography.

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Banded Gastroplasty is a surgical technique that limitsthe quantity and the rate of food consumption and is usually suited for people with BMI over 40

Appendix-A.Source: CDChttp://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html

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Obesity in the U.S. Darker shaded States have higher prevalence

2010 State Obesity RatesState % State % State % State %

Alabama 32.2 Illinois 28.2 Montana 23.0 Rhode Island 25.5Alaska 24.5 Indiana 29.6 Nebraska 26.9 S. Carolina 31.5Arizona 24.3 Iowa 28.4 Nevada 22.4 South Dakota 27.3Arkansas 30.1 Kansas 29.4 N. Hampshire 25.0 Tennessee 30.8California 24.0 Kentucky 31.3 New Jersey 23.8 Texas 31.0Colorado 21.0 Louisiana 31.0 New Mexico 25.1 Utah 22.5

Connecticut 22.5 Maine 26.8 New York 23.9 Vermont 23.2Delaware 28.0 Maryland 27.1 N. Carolina 27.8 Virginia 26.0

D.C 22.2 Massachusetts 23.0 North Dakota 27.2 Washington 25.5Florida 26.6 Michigan 30.9 Ohio 29.2 West Virginia 32.5Georgia 29.6 Minnesota 24.8 Oklahoma 30.4 Wisconsin 26.3Hawaii 22.7 Mississippi 34.0 Oregon 26.8 Wyoming 25.1Idaho 26.5 Missouri 30.5 Pennsylvania 28.6

Appendix-B.Source: Changes in consumption of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the United States during the 20th century. Tanya L Blasbalg, Joseph R Hibbeln, Christopher E Ramsden, Sharon F Majchrzak, and Robert R RawlingsThe majority of the increase in soybean oil consumption occurred in the latter half ofthe 20th century. No single cause can be identified for this staggering rise. Rather,the increase was likely attributable to a combination of factors, including thefollowing: 1) the desirable characteristics of soybeans as a crop, such as high yieldsand the nitrogen-fixing capability; 2) the expanded processing techniques for seedoils, such as solvent extraction and partial hydrogenation; 3) the increased demandfor soybean meal (but not oil) as a preferred protein for the industrial-scaleproduction of livestock and poultry, with excess oil as a byproduct; 4) the decreasedcompetition from cottonseed oil as synthetic alternatives (eg, polyester) reduced thedemand for cotton fiber; 5) price-support policies, such as Public Law 480, whichdecreased the economic risk for US soybean farmers and processors; 6) aggressiveand successful marketing campaigns by trade groups; and 7) recommendations toconsume more polyunsaturated oils at the expense of animal fats.

The historical event immediately preceding the largest increase in apparent consumption of soy oil in the United States was the 1961 American Heart Association (AHA) Central Committee Advisory Statement that advised Americans to replace their saturated fat intake with polyunsaturated fats. Vegetable oils and, to a lesser extent, shortening and margarine were recommended as replacements for animal fats such as butter, cream, and cheese. kg/p/y, kilograms per person per year; WWI, World War I; WWII, World War II; USDA/HHS, US Department of Agriculture/US Department of Health and Human Services

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