• At USF, his '55 team was 5-0 in the tourney on the way to the title.
  
• At USF, his '56 team was 4-0 in the tourney on the way to the title.
  
• In the '56 Olympics, the US squad was 2-0 when it came to the winner-take-all Final 4 for gold after the group stage.
  
• In the NBA, the Celtics were famously 10-0 in Games 7's throughout his career.
  
• In the '66 playoffs, the Celtics won Game 5 in the best-of-5 series with Cincinnati (link).
  

• In 1958, the Hawks topped Boston 4-2 in the Finals (winning by 2, 3, 2, & 1 points), during which Russell missed 2 games and played at far less than 100% with a horribly sprained ankle when he was available in the series. It’s safe to say Boston would have won that title with a healthy Russell.
  
• In 1967, the aging Celtics, fresh off of 8 straight championships, lost to the loaded and younger Sixers in the ECF. This was the first year Russell was Boston’s player-coach, which is significant since he faced horrendously stressful & over-the-top racism as the first black coach in major US pro sports history. He played so much and so intensely (43.3 min/gm in the playoffs) that he often forgot to sub players which hurt his team. The next season, the Celtics were older & considered “done”, but he added a bench coach to handle subs, and they beat the favored defending champion Sixers in the playoffs, and then won the title. Then the “seriously, they’re done now” 1968-69 Celtics clawed their way into the Finals & beat the loaded West-Wilt-Baylor Lakers 4-3 in Russell’s final season. Oh yeah, Russell was the only player-coach in NBA history to win a championship, and he won two.
  

"You couldn't begin to count the ways we missed [him]. People think about him in terms of defense and rebounding, but he had been the key to our offense. He made the best pass more than anyone I have ever played with. That mattered to people like Nelson, Howell, Siegfried, Sanders, and myself. None of us were one on one players ... Russell made us better offensive players. His ability as a passer, pick-setter, and general surmiser of offense has always been over-looked.”

• Youtube: Update (YT Channel)
• Facebook: Update (FB Page)

• 378,793 Cases (+1,003), 4,091 Deaths (+40)
• New cases by county: 205x Jefferson, 69x Fayette, 38x Warren, 30x Campbell, 26x Bullitt, 25x Kenton, 25x Madison, 24x Boone, 24x Daviess, 24x Shelby, 20x Graves, 20x McCracken, 18x Allen, 18x Hardin, 17x Franklin, 17x Oldham, 15x Marion, 15x Marshall, 14x Calloway, 13x Barren, 13x Boyd, 13x Greenup, 13x Livingston, 13x Pike, 12x Floyd, 12x Nelson, 12x Whitley, 10x Bourbon, 10x Jessamine, 10x Trigg, 9x Logan, 8x Carter, 7x Grayson, 7x Harlan, 7x Simpson, 7x Woodford, 6x Bell, 6x Butler, 6x Henderson, 6x Jackson, 6x Letcher, 6x Scott, 6x Spencer, 5x Clay, 5x Hart, 5x Hopkins, 5x Johnson, 5x Muhlenberg, 4x Breathitt, 4x Crittenden, 4x Grant, 4x Hancock, 4x Lewis, 4x Lincoln, 4x Mercer, 4x Metcalfe, 4x Ohio, 4x Russell, 3x Ballard, 3x Boyle, 3x Carroll, 3x Garrard, 3x Laurel, 3x McCreary, 3x Mason, 3x Meade, 3x Nicholas, 3x Pendleton, 3x Pulaski, 3x Taylor, 3x Washington, 2x Anderson, 2x Caldwell, 2x Christian, 2x Edmonson, 2x Fleming, 2x Harrison, 2x Hickman, 2x Knott, 2x Larue, 2x Lyon, 2x McLean, 2x Trimble, 2x Webster, 1x Breckinridge, 1x Clark, 1x Clinton, 1x Estill, 1x Henry, 1x Monroe, 1x Montgomery, 1x Owsley, 1x Rockcastle, 1x Todd, 1x Wolfe
• New deaths by county: 68 F Barren, 70 F Barren, 71 F Barren, 82 F Barren, 82 F Barren, 55 M Barren, 73 M Barren, 76 F Boyd, 70 M Butler, 78 M Butler, 83 M Butler, 68 F Edmonson, 75 M Fulton, 94 F Graves, 44 F Hardin, 59 M Hardin, 63 M Harrison, 69 F Hart, 94 F Hart, 82 M Hart, 63 F Hopkins, 80 F Larue, 61 F Laurel, 73 F Logan, 69 F Marshall, 75 F Meade, 67 M Meade, 63 M Metcalfe, 69 M Metcalfe, 71 M Metcalfe, 78 M Metcalfe, 77 M Russell, 49 M Scott, 68 F Simpson, 58 M Simpson, 70 M Simpson, 68 F Warren, 69 M Warren, 85 M Warren, 66 M Washington
• Good News.
  • 1. Today I'm happy to announce a new development that will bring a headquarter operation to Kentucky while creating high-quality, sustainable career opportunities for Kentuckians and their family. Wieland North America, a maker of copper and copper-alloy products, plans to establish a new North American headquarters in Louisville.
  • 2.The second piece of good news is some good news related to the upcoming closing of our Team Kentucky Fund. <...> Thanks to the incredible generosity of Kentuckians today I get to announce the Team Kentucky Fund is donating $380,000 to 19 local nonprofits , fighting homelessness and the opioid epidemic across Kentucky.
• Let's start with our stair stepper chart which shows our weekly update. As you can see, this last week had fewer cases than the week before. <...>This marks the first time that we have had four straight weeks of declining cases, since the very beginning of the pandemic. The very first time.<...> We see the exact same thing in our test positivity, which shows you that this is real. Four straight weeks of declining test positivity, which, in looking on here, <...> Let's put up our inpatient census. Look at that, as you can see we had that significant escalation that was you know in November before we took the steps that we needed to take and now look at the downward line, as we are seeing fewer people hospitalized for COVID. <...> Look at the ICU graph. That too, after reaching that height, is really starting to decrease as well as the ventilator numbers, if we can show that.> So, let's show the hospital capacity as well. Normally, we've got about four areas of the state that are in the red zone; we're down to two and both just barely qualify. You’ve got to be at 80% or more in one of those three categories. Area 10 is at 80% flat on ICU beds. Area 7 is at 81%. This is the best looking map we've had in hospital capacity in months.
• Alright, now we're gonna spend a considerable amount of time on updating you on vaccinations. Let's start with the weekly chart that we show each and every week that shows our seven day utilization, in other words: how fast are we getting shots into people's arms? And what you can see is, for the fifth straight week, we have vaccinated more people than we've gotten first doses from the federal government,<...> even though we got 12,000 more of this last week than the week before, we were still able to do that. <...> Overall, of the first doses we've received, because that's what we're trying to do, vaccinate individuals, how many unique people have been vaccinated, we have put 91% of all those doses we've received in someone's arm. So what you'll see is, we now have 444,930 people vaccinated just through the state program, and the long term care program. So let's look at the breakdown of that. So what you'll see in our state program is that we've actually hit 92% utilization which means 92% of all first doses to the state program are in somebody's arm.
• I want to remind everybody about our vaccine website http://vaccine.ky.gov/, and the hotline that helps Kentuckians to determine if they're eligible right now to receive a vaccine, and then helps you find one in your region. The hotline is 855-598-2246, or, for hard of hearing Kentuckians and only for them, because we can't clog up this line, is 855-326-4654. You'll answer a series of questions that will tell you about your eligibility.
• Is there any consideration being given, since we have lower numbers of cases, and the other numbers you’ve referred to, when you balance that against the potential increase in the variants, is there going to be any lowering of some of the restrictions that restaurants and different locations have been dealing with for the last several months? -- If we continue on this trend, that's something that we hope to be able to do. And as the vaccine numbers, think about two different levels: the vaccine numbers going up, and the cases going down, and if that continues to happen, then yes we hope to do that. Now where we still are, , is we're still pretty elevated, right? But we're moving in the right direction. And if we can see that continue, then we'll see what we can loosen
• You touched on it earlier in the briefing with delivering vaccines to African American communities but you've also mentioned earlier, a couple of weeks ago, when talking about getting local pharmacies involved. [...] Can you again describe how important those local pharmacies are going to be in their strategy to make people feel comfortable and to make it easy for them to get the vaccine? [...] -- Local health departments, and local independent pharmacies are absolutely critical to getting vaccine to individuals, especially in counties that may not have a hospital, may not have a Walgreens, and so what you'll see on Thursday is the the federal pharmacy program was originally just going to be with some of the major brands, and we fought hard to include independent pharmacies specifically for Eastern Kentucky, parts of eastern Kentucky, and parts of western Kentucky.
• Slides from Update

• Good afternoon everybody. Good afternoon, Virginia. It is four o'clock, that time we come together, get an update on this battle of our lifetimes, and remember that we'll get through this, and we'll get through it together. Today, we're going to share some good news, and then we're going to talk about COVID trends. We're going to give the COVID report, and we're going to talk about where we are on vaccinations, go over the four programs that will be operating by the end of this week. We're going to go through the first set of demographic data that we have received on who's getting the vaccine, and we're going to talk about some of the reasons that it looks the way that it does but also how we're going to do better.
• So let's start with good news. As our state continues making progress in our fight against COVID-19, we are simultaneously rebuilding our economy, making it stronger than ever. Today I'm happy to announce a new development that will bring a headquarter operation to Kentucky while creating high-quality, sustainable career opportunities for Kentuckians and their family. Wieland North America, a maker of copper and copper-alloy products, plans to establish a new North American headquarters in Louisville. With the company's announcement we anticipate the creation of 75 well paying Kentucky resident jobs, along with an $8.8M capital investment. Wieland’s new headquarters, which company leaders hope to open by the end of Q1, will locate on Olympia Park Plaza near the intersection of I-71, and the Gene Snyder Freeway. The company will lease nearly 30,000 square feet to house personnel, including Wieland’s leadership, financial, legal, human resources, supply chain, sales, and marketing teams. The new headquarters will share a building with Wieland rolled products North American LLC, which is formerly Olin Brass, which was acquired in July of 2019. Both are subsidiaries of Wlm Germany-based Wieland-Werke AG. As a manufacturer of copper and copper-alloy products, including sheet, strip, foil, tube, and other fabricated components, the company serves customers throughout North America, in industries. This customer base spans a variety of those industries including building and construction, munitions, automotive, coinage, and electronic components. With this development our state continues to establish itself as a prime destination for both metals-related companies, and corporate headquarters. More than 1,000 corporate headquarters call Kentucky home, and we are thrilled to add Wieland to that list. As we work to build a better Kentucky for generations to come, gaining a new headquarters with a company like Wieland, it’s pretty special and it's something we ought to celebrate, and we've done it all in the midst of a pandemic. So let this announcement just be an example of what's possible in the years to come. Given some of the economic development announcements, groundbreakings, openings, headquarter relocations, we have so much potential in front of us. We've got to have the courage to go get it. We can't cower. We have to move ahead. When we have opportunities to invest, just like the private sector, we have to do it. We got to act with urgency, we've got to realize that the post-COVID economy is being created right now and I, for one, I'm going to push as hard as we can to create as many opportunities for your kids and mine in the years to come.
• The second piece of good news is some good news related to the upcoming closing of our Team Kentucky Fund. Our Team Kentucky Fund has helped so many families and we are reaching the end where the last set of applications are being reviewed. That leaves us with some leftover dollars that are going to go to some places and some organizations that need them and do incredible work. Thanks to the incredible generosity of Kentuckians today I get to announce the Team Kentucky Fund is donating $380,000 to 19 local nonprofits , fighting homelessness and the opioid epidemic across Kentucky. Unfortunately, both of these crises have worsened during COVID-19, and we must turn the tide. So many of our friends and neighbors are depending on it. All these organizations have a mission that is closely aligned with the mission of Team Kentucky and the Team Kentucky Fund, helping Kentucky families that suffered a significant financial setback due to COVID-19. These are organizations that are helping those that have lost their homes, or don't have a home, and need to be healthy at home during COVID-19. They're helping folks that maybe the isolation has worsened an addiction, maybe haven't been able to climb out because of the circumstances that we find ourselves in. Each organization will receive an equal share of $20,000, the same qualified nonprofit organizations will also receive, in equal shares, any remaining funds from the Team Kentucky Fund after all pending applications have been processed. So, the 19 organizations, many of which I've had the opportunity to work with in the past that help so many people, I think do God's work, are:
  • Children's Home of Northern Kentucky
  • Chrysalis House
  • Coalition for the Homeless, that's in Louisville
  • The Daniel Pitino Shelter
  • Hope in the mountains. I remember working with Hope in the Mountains in Prestonsburg when they were about to close and now Medicaid-eligible and incredible work they do.
  • Hotel Inc.
  • KVC Kentucky.
  • Maryhurst,
  • Mountain Comprehensive Care Center
  • Pathways Inc
  • Ramy-Estep. Again, a group that I got to tour their facility and just see the great work they were doing for kids that need people that care about them.
  • Salvation Army of Hopkinsville
  • Volunteers of America MidState (Freedom House), they have both a facility in Louisville and a facility in Manchester,
  • Welcome House of Northern Kentucky
  • WestCare
  • Independence House, in Corbin
  • Kentucky River Community Care
  • Transition
  • And Clark County's Homeless Coalition.
• This gift wouldn't be possible, helping these organizations that have additional costs but are doing such critical work, without so many of you out there helping out. Since the Team Kentucky Fund was established, on March 23rd of last year, the fund has raised $3,768,222 from 11,411 donors. It's assisted 3,662 Kentucky families to date. I encourage everyone that while this fund is closing, keep the spirit of the Team Kentucky Fund alive. It's all about helping other people, it's all about banding together. It was launched at a time when we remember some of the kindness, and sometimes we remember the joy in helping each other at that point. Just because we're worn and tired and maybe even torn, doesn't mean that we can't reach deep in, find that joy, show it for the world to see, because helping people now, especially 11 months into the pandemic, is more important than it's ever been.
• Alright, let's talk about our COVID trends, as we eventually get to our report what you'll see is deaths remain too high, we hope that starts to level off soon, but all the rest of the trends are going in a more positive direction from the trend itself, than we have seen in the course of this pandemic
• Let's start with our stair stepper chart which shows our weekly update. As you can see, this last week had fewer cases than the week before. This marks the first time that we have had four straight weeks of declining cases, since the very beginning of the pandemic. The very first time. In fighting each of the three major waves that we have seen, in virtually each instance, we have been able to plateau that escalation. This is the first time we have seen a decrease and from the top, even a significant decrease. Now we had three straight weeks before we had our holiday bump, but this is the exact type of trend that we want to see, we are moving in the right direction. As you can tell from the graph those cases are still too high. I mean we were worried in the summer, about where we were and we are two to three times higher than where we were in the summer but going in the right direction, so keep it up. This is based on your hard work.
• We see the exact same thing in our test positivity, which shows you that this is real. Four straight weeks of declining test positivity, which, in looking on here, I do not believe that, again, we've ever had in the course of this pandemic. Being below 8% is a good thing. Again, we want to continue to push this down, so trends are moving in the right direction. I’ll tell you where that becomes even more important: in our healthcare system.
• Let's put up our inpatient census. Look at that, as you can see we had that significant escalation that was you know in November before we took the steps that we needed to take and now look at the downward line, as we are seeing fewer people hospitalized for COVID. That feels really good to say. Remember it's fragile, we let our guard down, everything changes. There are variants out there that appear to spread more aggressively. We're moving in the right direction, we just gotta keep it up.
• Look at the ICU graph. That too, after reaching that height, is really starting to decrease as well as the ventilator numbers, if we can show that.>
• So, let's show the hospital capacity as well. Normally, we've got about four areas of the state that are in the red zone; we're down to two and both just barely qualify. You’ve got to be at 80% or more in one of those three categories. Area 10 is at 80% flat on ICU beds. Area 7 is at 81%. This is the best looking map we've had in hospital capacity in months. So by all that, what we ought to take from this, is the trends are all moving in the right direction. But that only happens from your hard work. We have more people wearing masks, we have more people social distancing, we're having fewer large gatherings in homes or out in public. We must keep this up because we do not want to lose this progress and we're moving in a direction, where, especially with the vaccination efforts going on, we're gonna be able to stop these escalated numbers of deaths, which is critically important, but more than that, we're gonna get in a position to where we can do more in our everyday lives. But we got to keep it going. Just because things are moving in the right direction, doesn't mean they're not too high, they are too high, but you were making, and you're making, substantial progress. I'm proud of you, keep it up.
• That leads into today's report which, just like just about every day, good news on everything, but the death numbers.
• Positive cases today: 1,003 - That's the lowest since December 26th and before that October 26th. That tells you how low the number is, in that it makes it the third lowest since October 26th.
• Probable cases: 267
• Total confirmed cases: 378,793
• Children Under 18: 175
• And today, we only have 95 red counties. That means we have 25 counties that aren't red. That's the most we've had again in a while. Now, let’s not celebrate that we have 95 red counties, but let's just keep it up. If we keep it up, we're going to be at a place where we, again, will find ourselves in a much better position than we have recently seen.
• New cases by county, there's only one in triple digits and that's Jefferson with 205, everybody else is below 100 cases, which is good to see.
• New cases by county: 205x Jefferson, 69x Fayette, 38x Warren, 30x Campbell, 26x Bullitt, 25x Kenton, 25x Madison, 24x Boone, 24x Daviess, 24x Shelby, 20x Graves, 20x McCracken, 18x Allen, 18x Hardin, 17x Franklin, 17x Oldham, 15x Marion, 15x Marshall, 14x Calloway, 13x Barren, 13x Boyd, 13x Greenup, 13x Livingston, 13x Pike, 12x Floyd, 12x Nelson, 12x Whitley, 10x Bourbon, 10x Jessamine, 10x Trigg, 9x Logan, 8x Carter, 7x Grayson, 7x Harlan, 7x Simpson, 7x Woodford, 6x Bell, 6x Butler, 6x Henderson, 6x Jackson, 6x Letcher, 6x Scott, 6x Spencer, 5x Clay, 5x Hart, 5x Hopkins, 5x Johnson, 5x Muhlenberg, 4x Breathitt, 4x Crittenden, 4x Grant, 4x Hancock, 4x Lewis, 4x Lincoln, 4x Mercer, 4x Metcalfe, 4x Ohio, 4x Russell, 3x Ballard, 3x Boyle, 3x Carroll, 3x Garrard, 3x Laurel, 3x McCreary, 3x Mason, 3x Meade, 3x Nicholas, 3x Pendleton, 3x Pulaski, 3x Taylor, 3x Washington, 2x Anderson, 2x Caldwell, 2x Christian, 2x Edmonson, 2x Fleming, 2x Harrison, 2x Hickman, 2x Knott, 2x Larue, 2x Lyon, 2x McLean, 2x Trimble, 2x Webster, 1x Breckinridge, 1x Clark, 1x Clinton, 1x Estill, 1x Henry, 1x Monroe, 1x Montgomery, 1x Owsley, 1x Rockcastle, 1x Todd, 1x Wolfe
• Total tests conducted: 4,197,293 (PCR: 3,694,175, Serology: 109,151)
• Positivity Rate: 7.78% - The lowest it's been since November the 10th
• Our hospitalization, ICU, ventilator numbers are all down and/or staying right about stable.
• Total hospitalized: 17,429
• Currently hospitalized: 1,163
• Total in ICU: 3,689
• Currently in ICU: 274
• On a ventilator: 142
• Total recovered: 44,961
• New deaths today: 40 - Here's the hard part, we have 40 new deaths. And these deaths are from all over the state. As I look at this, they are from January and February; remember we have a process to go through to ensure we're not counting someone who passed away in a car wreck. There is one from December on here, and remember they've got to go through the process so may come to us slightly later than they’re announced in a community
• Total Deaths: 2189
• New deaths by county: 68 F Barren, 70 F Barren, 71 F Barren, 82 F Barren, 82 F Barren, 55 M Barren, 73 M Barren, 76 F Boyd, 70 M Butler, 78 M Butler, 83 M Butler, 68 F Edmonson, 75 M Fulton, 94 F Graves, 44 F Hardin, 59 M Hardin, 63 M Harrison, 69 F Hart, 94 F Hart, 82 M Hart, 63 F Hopkins, 80 F Larue, 61 F Laurel, 73 F Logan, 69 F Marshall, 75 F Meade, 67 M Meade, 63 M Metcalfe, 69 M Metcalfe, 71 M Metcalfe, 78 M Metcalfe, 77 M Russell, 49 M Scott, 68 F Simpson, 58 M Simpson, 70 M Simpson, 68 F Warren, 69 M Warren, 85 M Warren, 66 M Washington
• All losses are a loss for Kentucky. Let’s light those houses up green and let’s ring those bells at 10am. This is a reminder that we are thinking of the Kentuckians we’ve lost, their families, and their communities. It’s the color of compassion and renewal as their souls move from their bodies to a better place.
• Racial breakdown of all cases: 85% White, 8.5% Black, 5% Multiracial, 1.2% Asian, 0.3% American Indian, 0.1% Pacific Islander
• Ethnicity breakdown of all cases: 94.4% Non-Hispanic, 5.6% Hispanic
• Racial breakdown of all deaths: 88.1% White, 8.4% Black, 2.7% Multiracial, 0.6% Asian, 0.1% American Indian
• Ethnicity breakdown of all deaths: 98.2% Non-Hispanic, 1.8% Hispanic
• Long Term Care Facilities (PDF): 19 new residents and 20 new staff positive from yesterday, and 10 more deaths. Our long term care update for the day. If there is good news in the number of deaths we're seeing, a smaller and smaller and smaller percentage are long term care residents; which means vaccination is working in terms of preventing the worst of the worst outcomes. It should also be a leading indicator on what we should expect to see, which are deaths to start decreasing. If you look at our number of active cases compared to that total, and what we see are our things in long term care getting better.
  • Total facilities: 335
  • Total deaths: 4,091
  • Active cases: 332 residents, 235 staff
  • Total cases: 16650 residents, 12276 staff
• K-12 Update (PDF): PDF update only
• University Update (PDF): PDF update only
• Now's a good time, we haven't talked in a while about the process that these all go through, so that we can vet each and every one of them. You may remember early on in the pandemic there were questions about who was included. And there were folks who were trying to say numbers were inflated and we talked about going through this meticulous process to make sure it's accurate. I think we got Dr Stack here. Steve, will you walk us through the process again we use to make sure we have the very best information?
• Good afternoon Governor, good afternoon everyone. I'd be happy to do that. So, remember we have over 4000 COVID-related deaths already and COVID has become the third leading cause of death in the United States of America. This is a disease that did not exist until probably about 14 months ago. So that disease, that has now become the third leading cause of death, has resulted in, at times, a strain on this process. The process is well defined and has been done this way for a very long time. First of all, there's the sadness of a person whose life has come to its natural close, then you have to have that reported by a hospital or a physician or someone else to the appropriate authorities. And you have to have a death certificate signed, that can take days, weeks or, in unusual cases, longer. That all has to get reported to the local health department, the local health department then has to review those materials, and make sure things are in order, and once they've made that determination, they may feel that they have concluded the case and say that this is a death and it’s related to COVID. They then report that up to the state, the state then has to take that information and has to independently verify certain additional data points to make sure there was a positive COVID test or that there are, in fact, were test results or other clinical evidence that supports that COVID was related or find that perhaps COVID was not related. Once they review that, most of these things, probably more than 90% of all cases, go through routine processing with vital statistics staff and other epidemiology staff who do this as a matter of routine course in their jobs. There's a subset of cases, however, perhaps less than 10%, for which there's something that requires verification, meaning that the materials didn't include a test result or they didn't say COVID was part of the cause, but the clinical records that are available clearly say that COVID should have been considered as a cause, or a contributory factor, so then they have to request records. Well, depending on the timeliness of this, that requires reaching out to a hospital, or a doctor, or someone else, a funeral home, to get records and information. When they get that information, sometimes it comes quickly within hours or days, sometimes it takes days or weeks, and that information is collected, then the normal processing staff review those, and many of the times that's all that's necessary to very clearly determine “Was it a COVID-related or non-COVID-related death?”.
• Some of them, however, look a little bit less clear cut, and there's a need to apply some additional decision making. So I have a deputy clinical Commissioner, who is a physician, who reviews those cases that are felt to be uncertain and require someone to make an informed determination based on all of the information obtained. My deputy clinical Commissioner also has a team of professionals, who help gather this information, present it to her, and offer their insights, as applicable for their training. And these are people who are Masters of Public Health, PhDs in epidemiology, medical doctors, and other types of pretty highly educated professionals. Then the clinical deputy, after reviewing these things, makes this final determination and then that's that small subset, less than 10% of the total cases, that goes to that level of review.
• So, the bottom line is this process can take anywhere from a few days, if everything comes through quickly and cleanly, all the way up to weeks or even a month or more in the outlier cases. When we just went through the biggest surge the entire United States of America has ever seen in this entire pandemic, and you hear that there are more deaths reported still now, weeks after that a massive surge which is just now beginning to abate, what you're seeing is that states all across the United States of America are having the same task presented to them, which is a sadly enormous number of deaths that has occurred because of this disease. And it's this process working its normal course, it's a process the public would never attend to, but clearly, the public has an interest in this because of the sheer magnitude of the impact COVID has had and the number of people whose lives have been lost to it. So this is all a very methodical process, we work through it in partnership with the local health departments and medical providers as we go through it. And I have found when we've looked into this repeatedly, over the last year, whenever there have been questions asked, and we almost have always found a very clear answer for the question. So, I'm confident in the integrity of the process. And when we do report someone, when the governor reads each day and shares the number of people who have died, those are the days that those individuals' deaths, everything has been verified, and so we can report them on the official logs. We don't want to give bad information. But when we report those dates we put them back into our record keeping for the actual date of death. So the historical record is always accurate as far as the actual day the individual died, as opposed to the day we're able to release it, which is often delayed by days or weeks after the person's actual passing. So I hope that helps, again, to bring some kind of additional clarity to this. It's a very thoughtful process, a very methodical process, it's a lot of very capable professionals who are doing their regular daily jobs to operationalize this. And I think we should really focus most on the tragedy that this represents, that we've already lost over 4000, actually coming close to 4100, Kentuckians as a result of this pandemic. But, be grateful, even in the face of that loss, that because Team Kentucky pulled together, and followed our guidance in so many ways, that our numbers are much lower overall than many, many other states, including some of those that neighbor us. And so, amidst this sorrow there is at least the saving grace that we haven't had more people lost. So thank you very much and back to you Governor.
• Today we have another Memorial, which reminds us that these aren't numbers or just individuals in a process. And this is another personal one for me, this is a friend's dad. Today we're honoring Roy Holladay known by many as “Doc”. He was 73 when he passed away Friday at Baptist Health in Paducah after battling COVID-19. Doc moved to Paducah from Tennessee in 1967, beginning a long career with Union Carbide. He was a master electrician and served in Germany with the Air Force as a maintenance trainer for aircraft during Vietnam. Doc loved the outdoors, Lake Barkley was his heaven on earth. He shared his passion for fishing, camping and hunting to anybody who’d listen. He was an amateur crappie tournament winner several times over, but his real triumph was teaching his daughter, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and friends to fish. His grandkids were by far the light of his life, Ali is 14 and Colin is 13, and he relished his time supporting them or showing them love. Doc served his church, Twelve Oaks Baptist, as both a leader and a humble servant. He was a deacon, bus driver, maintenance man, greeter, and self-proclaimed “master popcorn maker” for basketball games and events. You name it, Doc did it. Doc is survived by his wife of 52 years, Martha Holladay. His daughter Heather and her husband Jim, who were friends of Britainy and mine, and his two grandchildren. We planted a flag in honor of Doc amongst the over 4,000 in the back of the Capitol. And we're thinking about this entire family, their loss, the loss in the community, and realizing that their grief is felt by more than 4,000 families out there. But we all grieve with you and care about you and will continue to do the best we can to make sure we don't lose any other “Doc”s, because everybody is special, and everybody is irreplaceable.

Gemhide, the White Bulette

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The Tale of Ismal Baan

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Podcast Interview: Tucker Goodrich on Vegetable Oils Being at the Heart of Modern Disease with Brian Sanders at Peak Human

File this under better late than never, it's from 2018. The show notes are pretty extensive, so I won't go over it here, please follow the link and show Brian some love.
What makes this interview special is that afterward, Joe Kalb decided to do a fact check of what I said (horrors!).

Vegetable Oils are Bad: Tucker Goodrich, Peak Human podcast review (Part 1)

The Peak Human podcast with host Brian Sanders and guest Tucker Goodrich is my favorite health podcast episode of 2018. In the podcast, Goodrich makes a persuasive case as to what he believes is the primary cause of the diseases of civilization (diabetes, coronary heart disease, autoimmune disease, cancer, etc). In this 94 minute podcast, he strongly posits that one type of food is at the root of the health problems of our times.
What is the primary cause of these health issues? Vegetable oils. Or seed oils, as they are more accurately but less commonly known.
These seed oils are industrially-processed oils containing high levels of Omega-6 fatty acids, which break down into toxic products in our bodies. These vegetable oils (corn oil, sunflower oil, canola oil, soybean oil, safflower oil, etc.) are cheap and therefore ubiquitous in our modern food supply. Tucker Goodrich postulates that these oils, even more than refined carbohydrates, are driving the diseases that plague most of the civilized world.
Goodrich makes the case by looking at the effects of consuming vegetable oils from several valid perspectives. In my view, he approaches the modern disease problem from all the correct angles. Some of the perspectives from which he approaches the problem are:

• Evolutionary perspective
  
  • Why are we now getting these diseases of civilization at greatly increased rates?
• The Weston A. Price perspective
  
  • Did the healthy populations visited by Price eat these vegetable oils?
  • Were the unhealthy populations visited by Price eating these vegetable oils?
• Epidemiological perspective
  
  • What happens to disease rates when a population begins eating these oils?
• Engineering/"IT guy" perspective
  
  • Populations have not always had high rates of these diseases. What changed?
• Mechanistic perspective
  
  • Do we have a legitimate mechanism for why these oils would cause these problems?
  • Have we seen this mechanism show up in animal models?
  • Have we seen this mechanism show up in human interventions?
• Personal perspective
  
  • What happens when an individual increases these oils in their diet?
  • What happens when an individual cuts these oils out of their diet?

This podcast episode is intriguing to me because the idea that these oils are harmful unites many diverse dietary strategies. Paleo, Well-Formulated Keto, Whole Foods Plant Based, Carnivore, Ray Peat, Potato Hack, Weston A. Price Foundation: all of these ways of eating shun the consumption of vegetable oils. I think that commonality is a large part of why people can find success with such wildly different approaches.
This podcast (along with following Goodrich’s and dozens of others’ writings, podcasts, and research) helps convince me that seed oils are the worst part of the modern American diet. While I also think there are benefits to limiting carbohydrate intake, cutting down on consumption of linoleic acid (an Omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid that is highly concentrated in vegetable oil) is potentially even more critical for health. Wheat products also seem to cause a lot of health issues, so limiting or completely removing them would be wise. This podcast with Goodrich touches on all of these points. It is a valuable listen for anyone who would like to improve their health or gain a better context as to why vegetable oils should be avoided.
In Part 2, I will post my takeaways from the podcast. And in Part 3, I will include a podcast listening companion post in which I provide notes and many of the citations referenced by Tucker in the episode.
Do yourself a favor and check out this podcast. And if you're feeling really generous, do yourself another favor and cut vegetable (seed) oils out of your diet.
Here is an incomplete list of oils you would be wise to avoid: soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, cottonseed oil, rice brain oil, peanut oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil. (Avoiding motor oil consumption is also a good choice.)

Vegetable Oils are Bad: Tucker Goodrich, Peak Human podcast takeaways (Part 2)

Part 1 of this post (overview) Part 3 of this post (podcast listening companion, notes)
The Peak Human podcast with host Brian Sanders and guest Tucker Goodrich is my favorite health podcast episode of 2018.
This episode spurred a million thoughts, but here are my takeaways from this podcast:

• You are much more likely to heal chronic conditions by self-research than by relying on mainstream medicine
• You can overcome ridiculous conditions (stroke-like event at age 38, decades of IBS, and diverticulitis, in Tucker’s example) and make yourself healthy again via dietary change
  
  • You will probably have to learn how on your own
  • For non-acute harms, mainstream medicine generally doesn’t touch root cause
• Diseases of civilization are not genetic
  
• Weston A. Price’s work shows diseases becoming prevalent in a single generation
  
• Dramatic lifespan, healthspan decrease in a single generation in Okinawa upon adopting Western foods
  
• Diseases of civilization are not environmental
  
  • People living in tropical (pristine) environments, eating Western foods, are unhealthy
• Diseases of civilization are not due to lack of exercise
  
  • We expend about as much energy today as many hunter-gatherers
• We know of lots of healthy populations that have eaten high-carbohydrate diets
  
  • Can even reverse NAFLD with high-carb diet
  • It does not work in combination with vegetable (seed) oils
• We don’t know of any healthy populations with high seed oil consumption
  
• Low-carb probably ideal, especially if one already has less than ideal metabolic health
  
  • Carbohydrates are bad for dental health
  • With seed oils, carbohydrates are a co-factor and an accelerant for causing diseases of civilization
  • Cutting carbs and vegetable oils is the quickest way to improve metabolic health
• Increased consumption of seed oils corresponds with marked increase in heart disease and other diseases of civilization
  
• Seed oils being healthy does not make sense from an evolutionary perspective
  
• Saturated fat being unhealthy does not make sense from an evolutionary perspective
  
• Eating healthy can be liberating
  
  • It's a "cheat code"
  • Now Tucker can athletically outperform people much younger than him
• Epidemiology can be useful, but only within context
  
• There are very plausible mechanisms for how seed oils are harmful
  
• There are interventional trials showing seed oils to be harmful
  
• There are lots of animal models showing seed oils to be harmful
  
• You can increase your sun tolerance remarkably by cutting seed oils from your diet
  

Vegetable Oils are Bad: Tucker Goodrich, Peak Human listening companion (Part 3)

Part 1 of this post (overview)
Part 2 of this post (my takeaways from the podcast)
The Peak Human podcast with host Brian Sanders and guest Tucker Goodrich is my favorite health podcast episode of 2018. This podcast is about the idea that vegetable (seed) oils are at the root of the diseases of civilization (diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disease, cancer).
Here are some notes and citations you may find helpful as you listen to the podcast.
[1:55] Tucker’s technical background as a problem solver
[2:45] Tucker had a stroke-like event at 38 (went partially blind, couldn’t talk for hours)
[3:15] Tucker had acute diverticulitis
[3:45] Despite trying to eat healthy, exercise, Tucker was progressively getting a little less healthy. Despite trying to eat healthy and even giving himself the nickname “Mr. Whole Wheat”. (This tells me that the current guidelines do matter, are harmful.) Exercise didn’t help him lose weight. Despite lots of exercise, he was still putting on about a pound a year (common thing that happens to many Americans)
[4:25] Tucker found Stephan Guyenet’s blog
[4:50] Despite being sick with it for 16 years, he cured his own chronic diarrhea in two days via diet. He had had surgery for diverticulitis. At the time of surgery, doctors didn’t even know if the surgery would help with his diarrhea. Now he feels that surgery was unnecessary.
[6:30] Tucker made connections through his own research (and in large part thanks to Guyenet’s work) that wheat intolerance is tied to chronic diarrhea.
[7:30] Diseases of civilization can’t be genetic because they set in within a single generation, and because they traveled all around the world.
[8:15] Tucker helped with book Story of the Human Body to help author Daniel Lieberman get feedback from the “ancestral health”/”paleo” community. Lieberman and other anthropologists’ research gets used to form basis of Paleo diets, but many of them do not want it to be used in that way. Goodrich unsure why. Sanders mentions that Lieberman buys into needing lots of fiber, whole grains, etc. Anyway, ancient genes don’t match current environment
[11:00] Humans evolve based on food shortages
[12:05] Diseases of civilization - started with agriculture
[12:45] Agriculture led to cavities, malocclusions, lower health, stunted height, worse bone structure, but higher population (reminds me of idea from Sapiens: agriculture great for growth/spreading of our species, horrible for individual members of our species. Harari may even have gotten the idea from reading Jared Diamond’s work.)
Dutch, just in 20th century, the tallest population on the planet, finally got back to height of Paleolithic ancestors.
Paleolithic people were probably more physically fit than our elite athletes, bigger brains, stronger bones, longer femurs.
References for bone strength, height, comparisons between Paleolithic ancestors and modern humans: http://time.com/3869712/bone-strength-modern-man/ https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/11/prehistoric-women-manual-labor-stronger-athletes-science/ https://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-connection-between-height-and-health/
Jared Diamond article on agriculture: The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race
[14:45] Agricultural people also began to get diseases of civilization (but very rarely)
[15:00] Cancer, heart disease, diabetes used to be very rare until the 19th and 20th centuries. These are all new diseases as new eating pattern has traveled around the world. Goodrich mentions the Joslin Diabetes Center. At the start of Joslin’s career, diabetes was rare, and it was a certain death sentence. Dr. Elliott P. Joslin started to treat it in late 1800s but it was very rare. He treated it with prescriptions of strict calorie-restricted diet (borderline starvation) and exercise. Then after discovery of insulin, he incorporated that too. See more here
Side note: from the CDC’s numbers, diabetes went from being diagnosed in less than 1% of the U.S. population in 1958, to 7.4% in 2015).
Joslin found 172 cases of diabetes over 60 years in the Massachusetts Hospital (as found in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Volume 139, page 179, it is actually 172 over an even longer timeframe: 74 years). That shows that diabetes was very rare.
[16:00] Tucker references Otto Warburg’s work on cancer (I’ve briefly written about this in a review of the book Tripping Over the Truth). Warburg found that cancer is primarily a metabolic disease. Hitler let Otto Warburg, a Jewish person, stay in Germany because he was so concerned about cancer.
[16:45] From 1920 to 1955, heart disease in England went up by 70-fold. Tucker has discussed this on Twitter here and here. The validity of the increase being “seventy-fold” is debated, but it is clear that, regardless, there is a major increase in heart disease during this timeframe.
[17:00] Tucker applies his RTFM (Read the Flipping Manual) problem solving approach to the cause of the diseases of civilization:

• Diseases of civilization are not genetic because they set in within a single generation, and because they traveled all around the world.
• Diseases of civilization are not primarily caused by pollution because even people on islands get very obese, and they get these diseases.
• Diseases of civilization are not caused by lack of exercise because many industrialized people exercise just as much as hunter gatherers (There is conflicting data on this. But there is some data to indicate that industrial peoples expend the same amount of energy per day as hunter gatherers. Found here and here. For counter-balance, here is an article indicating that hunter gatherers expended 800-1200 more calories per day than modern sedentary folks. Regardless of whether hunter-gatherers exercised more or not, whether their bodies adapt and expend the same amount of energy or not, I agree with Goodrich’s point that it is not exercise. I think Weston A. Price’s work (which I’ve discussed here and here) showing the changes within a single generation show this. Goodrich and Sanders go on to discuss Price’s work at the 18:55 mark.)

So if it’s not genes, exercise, pollution, environment. . . what’s new? Diet. Something new in food in last 150 years. Diseases of civilization become prevalent when Western food spreads to new groups (including in other species: dogs, cats, monkeys, rats, racoons we feed, etc. If humans feed them, they start getting diabetes, obesity, heart disease. Ahem. There is a website named https://usa.petdiabetesmonth.com/)
[18:55] Brian and Tucker bring up Weston A Price’s work. All over the world, when Western foods were adopted, diseases of civilization came with them. It happened in a single generation. Parents had perfect teeth, children had cavities and malocclusions, bad teeth (among many other new health problems). This even happened sometimes between older and younger siblings. (Seriously, Weston A Price’s work is the most impactful reading I’ve ever done; I can’t recommend anyone’s work more. Read his work online here and/or buy his book here.)
[19:45] The Western foods Price identified are highly processed wheat flour, refined sugar, and refined vegetable fats (AKA vegetable oils or seed oils). Price also mentions canned vegetables and preserved meats.
[20:30] Guyenet, checking to see if Price’s work had scientific backing (largely, it does), wrote a lot about cancer incidence and seed oils. Upon reading about this, Tucker finally cut seed oils out of his diet and cured his 16-year irritable bowel disease in two days. It had not been cured previously by a low-carb diet.
[22:00] Tucker mentions that cutting seed oils eliminated his carb cravings. Also, he found out he had a wheat problem. Seed oils caused his irritable bowel disease; wheat caused his diverticulitis. Removing them led to quick cures.
[23:30] Vegetable oils are in basically every processed food.
[24:00] Exercise didn’t help him lose weight; diet did.
[25:00] Amazed at Guyenet’s work and the dramatic effects in his own life, Tucker began researching health and nutrition very seriously. On top of Guyenet, he read a lot from Mark Sisson
[25:45] What’s the mechanism behind seed oils being bad?
[26:15] SL Malhotra giant epidemiological study: Northern (lots of dairy fat, meat) vs. Southern India (seed oils, low saturated fat, essentially following our modern food pyramid) 7-15x heart disease for the Southern Indians. This is at about the same time as the aforementioned huge coronary heart disease increase in England. What’s the biggest change during this time? Goodrich says it’s seed oils, and references that intake of soybean oil went up 1000-fold. Still, there are always confounders. Epidemiology is still not trustworthy without mechanism.
[28:15] Okinawans are the poster child for Blue Zones Longest-lived society in the world in latter half of 20th century American people popularized “Blue zone” stuff (and said Okinawans were plant-based), but when you read Japanese sources, you get a very different perspective on what happened in Okinawa. After WW2, Okinawa had highest meat intake of anywhere in Japan (one of only places in Japan that did not become Buddhist, vegetarian. They believed pork to be longevity food.) Still, they ate a lot of carbs. Tucker says 74% carbs. Diet mainly rice and yams, some pork. (This source concurs that 1949 Okinawans ate high carb. It says 85% carb.)
First American fast food in Japan was in Okinawa, 9 years before any opened in Tokyo
Lifespan in Okinawa went from longest-in-Japan to shortest-in-Japan in one generation (their environment did not change, their genes didn’t change, pollution didn’t change-- they were already industrialized, it wasn’t carbs-- they already ate high carb) after American junk food introduced.
So Harumi Okuyama studied this and published the paper titled Excess Linoleic Acid. This paper strongly calls out excess linoleic acid from vegetable oils as a driver of cancer, allergies, autoimmune disease, ADHD, behavioral issues, and heart disease.
America was recommending people eat vegetable oils. Saturated fat was demonized. This spread to Okinawa.
In Okinawa, parents were burying children. Diabetes, cancer, heart disease went way up in their population.
So. . . now that linoleic acid has been postulated by Okuyama as the problem, is it plausible? Is there a mechanism?
[32:15] Harvard recommends seed oils, saying industrialized countries eating seed oils have slightly lower rates of heart disease (but are they only looking at industrialized countries that are already eating too many seed oils, where seed oil consumption has already gone above the threshold needed to do damage?). And if seed oils lower heart disease, why do we see rising rates of heart disease in England, in India, in Japan, and in U.S. throughout the 20th century alongside increased seed oils?
[34:15] Weston Price was able to go around and look at people’s mouths and determine what was wrong. Westernized foods.
[34:30] “As an engineer, if you have a complicated system, and it stops working, your first question is ‘What changed?’ It worked yesterday, it’s not working today. What changed?”
In Computer Science, either the code changed, or there’s bad data that got put into the system. In this case, we know the code didn’t change. It’s not genetic, it happened too fast. It has to be a change in the input. It happened across species so it’s not a bacteria or virus. (And no one has ever found such a virus)
[35:45] High-carb societies: Japan, Okinawa, United States. . . all ate high-carb. And were healthy. Before seed oils.
[36:30] Japan still skinny, probably the skinniest industrialized population. Approximately 3.5% obesity rate. (3.5% in 2009 OECD data, 3.7% in 2015 OECD data)
[37:00] India’s diabetes and obesity rates are skyrocketing. Indian diet is low fat, high carb, their main fat source is seed oils.
Japan and China have decreasing carb consumption but increasing disease rate. (For this, the best references I found were discussions Tucker has had on Twitter in relation to this:
https://twitter.com/TuckerGoodrich/status/922551707908935686 https://twitter.com/TuckerGoodrich/status/940561701149331456 https://twitter.com/TuckerGoodrich/status/922887877482205187 https://twitter.com/TuckerGoodrich/status/817021632032178177 https://twitter.com/TuckerGoodrich/status/1023644536927662080 )
Tsimane and Kitavans ate high-carb, healthy, no diabetes. Tsimane and Kitavans and other high-carb societies avoided diabetes, so carbs must not be the cause. So what is the cause?
[38:00] Carbohydrates still “Plan B” diet. Feed Japanese/Chinese cultures more meat, they get taller
[39:30] “Eat like a human should. . . “ That doesn’t mean you need to be a carnivore, although that works. . . ”
[40:00] Indians switched from ghee to seed oils -> diabetes explodes
[40:15] Warburg -> metabolic disease. No interventional studies in humans on diet and cancer interaction. But there is interventional study for heart disease: the 1994 Diet Heart Trial (Lyon).
In this trial, one diet reduced secondary heart attacks (study conducted on people who had heart attacks previously) by 70%. The diet that achieved this lowered omega-6 fats to 3.6% (Americans eat 7-8% of their calories from omega-6 fats) and raised omega-3 fats.
[42:00] Epidemiology very flawed. Harvard School of Public Health relies on it a lot, despite epidemiology’s flaws. For a look at how foolish epidemiology can be, see this article from Dr. Georgia Ede
William Lands, a researcher who studied fatty acid metabolism for 50 years, found no mechanism by which saturated fats can kill somebody
Lands: “Fifty years later, I still cannot cite a definite mechanism or mediator by which saturated fat is shown to kill people.”
[42:30] Goodrich: “Theory’s got to work with all the facts. . . we’ve been eating saturated animal fats for millions of years; it’s been a primary food of ours. They didn’t overnight start causing heart disease. It’s just not plausible.”
[43:00] The lower-omega-6 diet had a relative risk reduction of 70% in that trial.
[43:15] “They sell billions of dollars worth of statins based off of a 20-30% relative risk reduction.” (and for a look at why that “20-30%” sounds way more impressive than it is, check out this terrific presentation from Dr. David Diamond)
[43:40] The American Heart Association had to change their recommendation from the prudent diet, which had just been demonstrated to be outright harmful. But no one seems to recognize the mechanism by which the Mediterranean diet (the one that lowered omega-6 and increased omega-3 fats) worked in Lyon
[44:00] Brown and Goldstein got a Nobel Prize for discovering the LDL receptor. Here is their paper
They initially thought that if you feed LDL to a macrophage, it becomes a foam cell, and atherosclerosis would follow. But it turned out LDL on its own doesn’t do it, it takes a modification (“...native LDL is not taken up by macrophages in vitro but has to be modified to promote foam cell formation. Oxidative modification converts LDL into atherogenic particles that initiate inflammatory responses. Uptake and accumulation of oxidatively modified LDL (oxLDL) by macrophages initiates a wide range of bioactivities that may drive development of atherosclerotic lesions.” Of course, this same paper immediately goes on to say that statins reduce risk for cardiovascular events, which would likely be a point of contention for Goodrich (and me))
Tucker references the work of Steinberg and Witztum, who did the rabbit study referenced below. Also, more recently, they published this about the role of LDL in atherogenesis.
[46:00] Polyunsaturated fats (PUFAs) are easily oxidized. If you oxidize LDL, the omega-6 fats are altered, and if you put that in vat with macrophages, they will get hoovered up and turned to foam cells. (But the non-oxidized LDL do not get hoovered up and turned to foam cells.)
[46:30] Rabbit study finding from Steinberg and Witztum that olive oil (a monounsaturated fat (MUFA), not a PUFA) did not oxidize LDL but PUFAs did oxidize it:
And another similar rabbit study here
A Witztum and Steinberg paper saying: “These data strongly support the conclusion that at least a portion of the LDL found in atherosclerotic lesions has undergone oxidative modification. That conclusion is further supported by the previously reported occurrence, both in rabbits and in man, of autoantibodies that bind to MDA-LDL and 4-HNE-LDL (18). Finally, that antioxidant therapy inhibits lesion formation in the WHHL rabbit (15, 16) strongly attests to the importance of oxidized LDL to the atherogenic process.”
Witztum and Steinberg, human LDL study: “The extent of LDL oxidation, regardless of whether the LDL was isolated from normo- or hypercholesterolemic subjects, was strongly influenced by the percent of 18:2 (linoleic acid, an omega-6 PUFA) in LDL.”
[48:30] To give rats cancer, they must be given a carcinogen and an omega-6 fat
In this study, control diet (including safflower oil) = no cancer. High heme + safflower oil = cancer. High heme + olive oil instead of safflower oil = no cancer. Mark Sisson comments here: “feeding heme iron to rats promoted colon cancer only when fed alongside high-PUFA safflower oil.”)
Another study: replacement of linoleic acid safflower acid with oleic acid safflower oil reduced promotion of colon carcinogenesis
[49:00] 4.4% omega-6 fat as amount of energy intake for rats = threshold to give them cancer. Above that, it doesn’t seem to make any difference
[49:30] Common mutation = p53 gene mutation. p53 = cancer suppression gene (“The p53 gene... is a tumor suppressor gene, i.e., its activity stops the formation of tumors.”). This is common in colon cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer
Asian women. Moved to United States, their rate of breast cancer increased sevenfold So this isn’t genetic; something about the input from the American environment must cause this.
[50:30] Random genetic damage (8-OHdG) present in all diseases of civilization
Goodrich: “Why is DNA damage happening in atherosclerosis? Why is it happening in obesity? . . . Mitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of every disease in the diseases of civilization. . . so what causes that? ”
[52:15] In 2004 rat study, it is shown that avoiding cooked seed oils isn’t enough. Just eating a high-PUFA diet made rats diabetic, and it made them susceptible to cardiolipin oxidation (in the mitochondria). Tucker breaks this study down here
Tucker says this means avoiding cooked seed oils is not good enough. The same thing happens inside the cardiolipin in your cells.
Another study related to cardiolipin and fatty acids, and Tucker’s selected quotes from the study
[53:15] Tucker references Thomas Seyfried’s work finding that there are no brain cancer cells without damaged cardiolipin and damaged mitochondria
[54:00] We know how to damage cardiolipin and therefore we know how to induce diseases of civilization: high-omega-6 diet plus high-carbohydrate diet.
[54:15] Tucker’s hypothesis is that seed oils are the main culprit behind the diseases of civilization.
[54:30] “...you can practically cure diabetes by going on a low-carbohydrate diet.”
Primary symptom of diabetes: insulin resistance
But places like India cannot switch to low-carb diet: not enough food. So we need to know if carbs are true cause. This study shows that moving people along the spectrum from high-omega-6 to low-omega-6 led to improvements in insulin resistance, even while eating a high-carb diet.
[56:00] Tucker explains that omega-6 PUFAs (omega-6 PUFAs are highly concentrated in seed oils) break down into toxins. p53 = aforementioned cancer suppression gene. The damage to p53 is caused by HNE, an omega-6 breakdown product.
[56:45] Non-Alcholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) being cleared in high-carb diet (with lowered omega-6 PUFAs) in 100% (12 patients)
Of course, insulin resistance improved in these patients as well, and their measured eicosanoids (PUFA breakdown products) decreased (referenced by Tucker on Twitter here)
Despite the possibility of fixing NAFLD while high-carb, Goodrich states that a ketogenic diet is the fastest way to get rid of NAFLD.
Cannot induce alchoholic fatty liver disease without omega-6 (might seem far-fetched until you click the link and see the paper’s title is Dietary linoleic acid is required for development of experimentally induced alcoholic liver injury.)
More on the different effects between saturated fat (protective) and unsaturated fat (harmful) for alcoholic liver disease found in this review
[58:00] Some populations have thrived on high-carb. Even high refined carbs (white rice, Japan). They got malnutrition and stunting, but largely avoided the diseases of civilization (heart disease, cancer, etc).
[1:00:15] Asian flush / Asian glow = common genetic mutation that causes faces to turn red upon drinking alcohol. Most common genetic mutation in the world (ALDH2*2). Controls the production of enzyme ALDH2. ALDH2 detoxifies alcohol and it detoxifies seed oils. Knockout model = people with ALDH2 mutation are more likely to get diseases of civilization.
Stated in this paper: “a higher susceptibility to various diseases such as Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, and acute coronary syndrome has been associated with ALDH2*2 carriers.”
So, basically, when the seed oil detoxifier (ALDH) is impaired, chronic disease rates go up.
[1:01:45] Glutathione is a very important antioxidant. Primary antioxidant for seed oils.
Diseases often signified by lower levels of glutathione because body cannot produce it fast enough to deal with the omega-6-derived toxins.
Selenium is a precursor to glutathione. Where there is no selenium in soil, like in China, the body cannot produce glutathione. So places with low selenium have low antioxidant capability and increased disease.
Two sources discussing China having increased disease from low selenium
[1:03:30] If you put glucose and linoleic acid into a beaker, it causes the linoleic acid to oxidize. Same thing happens in your body when you have linoleic acid (the omega-6 PUFA) intake and you have hyperglycemia (which, essentially, is the modern American diet). The toxins produced by the oxidation of these omega-6 PUFAs cause health problems.
[1:04:15] Omega-6 fats are the driver of disease, but to fix it, go low carb and low omega-6 to hit both sides of the hyperglycemia/high-omega-6 coin. Sanders points out that America does the opposite by eating high carb and high omega-6.
[1:04:45] Oxidized omega-6 fats are problematic. Saturated fat is not. William Lands studied fatty acid metabolism for 50 years. He found no mechanism by which saturated fats can kill somebody.
(William Lands: “Fifty years later, I still cannot cite a definite mechanism or mediator by which saturated fat is shown to kill people.”)
[1:05:00] Scary Wikipedia pages for omega-6 PUFA breakdown products (oxidized metabolites):
Acrolein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrolein HNE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4-Hydroxynonenal MDA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malondialdehyde
[1:05:30] The same toxins in cigarette smoke are the ones that omega-6 fats turn into inside your body
[1:05:45] Cooking oils leading cause of lung cancer among Chinese non-smoking women
[1:06:15] Not a conspiracy! Although cottonseed oil was originally a toxic waste product, the producers initially thought it was healthy-- thought it had been detoxified.
The mitochondrial damage mechanism was not discovered until 2012 (upon Twitter clarification here it was actually a 2010/2011 paper)
[1:06:45] Crisco introduced in 1911. Cottonseed oil was being mixed with lard for 50 years before that. The problem is that it is not acutely toxic, so no one knows right away. Think about it... it took hundreds of years to determine cigarettes were toxic!
...

• Continue to read less YA. I have found I don't enjoy the books currently being published and I have stats that show significant differences in the ratings between age groups. I'm not banning them from my TBR pile but I won't actively seek them out anymore.
• Read fewer books. This year was a record for number of pages (10,000 more than 2019), number of books (5 more than 2019), and plenty more. I'm exhausted though. I don't actively force myself to read but I have found myself to be reading too much by default. I want to give myself a break. Every year my Goodreads goal is 52 books and I want to make it a goal to not read four times as much. I'd be happy with 100 books next year.
• Use audiobooks less. If you can't tell, I use audiobooks a lot. It has become a habit to just pop in an audiobook whenever I am doing something. This is often because I do not have time to sit down and read so I listen while doing other things. I also tend to listen to books I'm less excited about so I have a higher chance of not liking what I'm listening to compared to physically reading. It's become a crutch to just listen all of the time. I think this has contributed to my burn out over books.
• Physically read more. This doesn't have to be a physical book, I just have to read with my eyes. There is a big list of books I really want to read that do not have available audiobooks or I want to sit and absorb that I want to get through next year.

• Founders Series by Robert Jackson Bennett (Fantasy)
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (Science Fiction)
• The Body by Bill Bryson (Nonfiction)
• The Band Series by Nicholas Eames (Fantasy)
• Skyward Series by Brandon Sanderson (Science Fiction)
• The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin (Science Fiction)
• The One & Passengers by John Marrs (Thriller)
• 11/22/63 by Stephan King (Science Fiction)
• Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Science Fiction)
• He Started It by Samantha Downing (Thriller)
• Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst (Fantasy)
• We Are Legion by Dennis E Taylor (Science Fiction)

• The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
• An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears
• The Sword of Kaigen by ML Wang
• The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
• The Minders by John Marrs
• The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Bone Maker by Sarah Beth Durst
• Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• Twelve Kings in Sharakhai by Bradley P Beaulieu
• The Martian by Andy Weir
• The Devil & the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

Salutations, Adventurers!