Thread by @AlpacaAurelius

WHAT IS HEALTH & HOW TO BE HEALTHY

Nobody knows what it means to be healthy and because of that NOBODY is...

Increasingly health is defined by some arbitrary things: low cholesterol, eating vegetables, avoiding steak, or having abs.

But health is SO much more.

I believe health is what the ancients called chi:

- high libido
- great skin
- good mood
- energy
- muscle mass
- deep sleep

You dont get this just by avoiding a few foods..

It's from completely changing our understanding of health and the human organism.

Healthcare is failing today because it is really sickcare.

We are spending trillions of dollars treating the symptoms of disease, but have no idea what causes them in the first place or how to cure them.

This all stems from an incorrect theory of what it means to be healthy.

Modern healthcare looks at the human being like a car with independent parts that wear down over time.

If you have an issue with your stomach, for instance, like a car we should open up the hood, look at it with some cameras and look for structural damage.

If there's no structural damage, then at best we can manage some of the symptoms.

But there's no way to completely cure the issue.

According to modern healthcare we get diseases like cancer, alzheimers, etc because of some combination of genetics and luck.

But if that was true, why would all these chronic diseases have skyrocketed over the last 30 years?

Is some new gene sweeping through the world?

Obviously not. It's because humans are so much more adaptable than modern medicine gives us credit for.

We are self regenerating, intelligent organisms, dynamically changing based on ALL environmental inputs.

Imagine if the wrong type of gas in a car could cause a flat tire...and if every single part of a car degenerated or regenerated based on the fuel you put in the car and how you used it

If a toyota could turn into a mercedes...and vice versa...that would be a human.

What determines how HEALTHY you are is your energy...and i'm not talking about your vibes

I'm talking about biological energy, ATP, the one thing that unifies everything.

How much energy you generate fuels the function of every cell in your body AND the structure of everything.

Everything requires ATP to function. Think of your health like a company with many departments and energy is the currency to pay them.

When your energy levels are great your skin is glossy, your digestion is functioning, you have a great mood.

Not only that, with enough energy you can prevent chronic disease and literally regenerate your body.

Children, can regrow fingertips, eat just about anything, rarely get cancer and degenerative diseases...and all that separates them from adults is their energy production.

Without energy, on the other hand, your body has to shut down functions that aren't critical for survival.

This is what STRESS is. A hormonal signal that you don't have enough energy, so you need to both slow down and break down stored fuel for energy.

Who cares about sex drive when you're running from a tiger?

At all times you are navigating the balance between STRESS AND ENERGY.

How healthy or how sick you are is completely determined by if your body is tilting to the left or the right below.

Stress is fine over the short term, but without enough energy, your body can never tilt back into the health producing, life giving state.

Instead, energy declines, cortisol shuts off your immune response, sheds your thymus, protein, skin, structure breaks down and you get sick

Everybody has a weakest link, and that is where your disease will manifest first: whether that's hair loss, or gut issues, ED, autoimmunity, etc.

One of the most important conductors of this is the thyroid and is where cortisol first exerts its impact, inhibiting active thyroid and slowing down metabolism.

Without active thyroid, everything slows down....and this is why it's associated with so many issues

Energy and thyroid also control endogenous hormone production.

Hormone are magical messengers that hold the key to life & health.

They can turn a little monkey into a 1000 lb gorilla...and even change the gender of a human.

All of the hormones on the left both slow your body down and cause your body to de-differentiate...

It reverts your structured body to a yeast like conglomeration of homogenous cells.

This is all obesity is...this is all a dad bod is...this is what cancer is.

Hormones on the right differentiate your cells & protect against the ones on the left.

Progesterone and testosterone against estrogen
Pregnenolone against cortisol
Thyroid against serotonin
Co2 against lactic acid

But without thyroid and ATP you cannot produce these hormones.

Low energy creates a vicious cycle where stress increases, protective hormones decline, causing even faster degeneration.

This is why things can go wrong very fast.

Society at large is completely tipping into the yeast like state.

You can look at sickness and health like a field of things that all occur together because they're caused by the same thing.

All sickness is from low energy and high stress.

All health is from high energy, high protective hormones to stress hormones.

This is already getting far too long, but everything from the most minor health issues you face, to serious problems like alzheimers and cancer are caused by this sickness cascade

Sickness is reverting to yeast metabolism. Health is becoming a differentiated, high energy human.

HERE'S HOW TO BE HEALTHY.

Now for some practical recommendations.

When it comes to energy, the mitochondria is the focus

Things that are healthy INCREASE energy generation and things that are unhealthy BLOCK it.

This is the new lens under which to view all recommendations.

Calories matter. But they still need to be turned into usable energy by your body.

This is why you can't just drink gasoline all day, which technically has lots of calories.

Here are the recommendations:

#1. MACRONUTRIENTS

If we're talking about generating energy, the most important first factor is the FUEL substrate...and this is where the most heated debates are too, between carbs & fats.

If you care about maximizing energy I now believe carbs are critical.

First and foremost, carbohydrates are way more than just a fuel, they are a signal that you have adequate nutrition available

Ingesting carbs turns off the stress response as it signals to your body you no longer need to turn stored energy into fuel.

Keto on the other hand, has been shown to increase cortisol and reduce the enzymes that degrade it. Your body is adjusting like a thermostat to more and more stress.

It also decreases t3, the active thyroid hormone.

If stress = sickness and energy = health then despite having some benefits, carb restriction will make you sicker over time.

Despite losing weight, we're now seeing lots of people on low carb develop libido issues, hair loss, ED, etc.

Here are some other reasons why carbs are so beneficial:

- they produce more co2 which encourages oxygen utilization
- fuel thyroid and liver health
- they improve redox balance
- they're required for metabolic luxuries like androgen production & hair growth

The reason many people have issues with carbs is because they eat ones that irritate their gut.

The gut is central to health and if you are constantly irritating your gut, you cannot be healthy.

Carbs are not unilaterally bad for you...but many carb containing foods are.

My favorite carbs in terms of nutrient density and digestible are the following:

1. juices
2. fruit
3. honey
4. very well cooked & peeled potatoes
5. white rice

Next fat: fat is still extremely important. Saturated fat is critical for lowering inflammation, immune function, mitochondrial structure, and hormonal production.

PUFAs on the other hand, do the exact opposite.

I still like to eat around 100g of good fat a day.

Protein: Protein is critical for muscle growth, bone strength, liver, etc. I eat 0.8g - 1g/lb of bodyweight of protein in a day from animal products.

Eating protein on its own will spike insulin, lower blood sugar and cause a stress response. I eat 2x carbs to protein.

#2 Micronutrients

Your mitochondria require nutrients to turn food into energy and activate enzymatic reactions.

Additionally, some of the fat soluble nutrients help to lower excess estrogen & produce youth hormones.

Some examples are below

To ensure adequate micronutrient intake I make sure to eat these foods:

- steak
- liver
- oysters
- eggs
- testes
- fruit
- raw milk
- low fat fish
- collagen

#3 Energy promoting behaviors

This is one of the most under-appreciated aspects of health.

Your mitochondria are responding not just to the food you eat, but all of your behaviors and activities too.

Here are some behaviors that increase mitochondria health and energy generation:

- Eating every 2-3 hours
- Creative work & novelty
- Playing
- Red light
- Grounding barefoot
- Time in nature
- Meditating & relaxing
- Sunning genitals
- Love
- Sleep

#4 Removing energy blockers

Cutting out excess energy demands and mitochondrial toxins is also a key component of health.

- gut irritants
- toxic shampoos, washes, cleaning products, fragrances
- seed oils
- nuts
- porn
- news
- sh*tty job
- fasting
- over exercising

- meaninglessness / purposelessness
- masturbating constantly
- excess blue light

If youre eating healthy but doing all these things, you're not going to be healthy.

#5 Supplements

Some targeted supplements can help with energy generation too

- Magnesium (aids with over 4000 enzymes, binds to ATP)
- k2 (quinone, aids in energy generation)
- Vit E (detoxifies seed oils, lowers estrogen)
- collagen
- calcium (balances phosphate)

When someone says something is healthy, ask yourself: does this increase energy production or detract from it? That is the new lens under which to view health. Doing so will change your life.

For more info on this bioenergetic view of health, check out the work of:

Ray Peat
Kate Deering
Matt Blackburn
Danny Roddy
Georgi Dinkov
Jay Feldman
Hans Amato

I owe them all a debt of gratitude for this.