Obesogens are environmental toxins that make you fat. A commonality among them is that they activate receptors such as hormone receptors, androgen receptors, and perhaps most importantly, receptors in the nuclear receptor superfamily. Of course, if certain chemicals can make you fat, you have to really question the calories-in-calories-out theory of obesity. Certain chemicals can …

PUFA as an obesogen; How Seed Oils Cause Reductive Stress, Part VI Read More »

In this series, I have argued that consuming seed oils causes reductive stress in the mitochondria as defined by high levels of acetyl-CoA and NADH. You could also call this “too much fuel” in the mitochondira, AKA a flooded engine. If I am correct, it should be easy to demonstrate in the short term that …

Seed oils make lean people behave like fat people, metabolically speaking; How seed oils cause reductive stress, part V Read More »

In this series I’ve been using the analogy of a flooded engine to help to understand some pretty complicated dynamics that happen in the mitochondria when we burn fat.  The details can be overwhelming but the high-level perspective is pretty straightforward.  If you fill the mitochondria with too much fuel and not enough oxygen, the …

Carbon Recycling: What Happens to Seed Oils When You Eat Them? ; How Seed Oils Cause Reductive Stress, Part IV Read More »

Introduction In a recent Twitter thread, Simon Hill, MSc. BSc. tweeted this about a recent podcast episode of The Proof featuring Bill Harris, PhD. Did you listen to the debate on my show? Omega 6 being a driver of CHD is a very hard position to take. — Simon Hill MSc, BSc (Hons) (@theproof) June …

Dietary Linoleic Acid Does Not Reduce Diabetes Risk Read More »

I argued in part II of this series that consumption of unsaturated fats fails to create a properly oxygenated fuel mix, which leads to a rise in mitochondrial acetyl-CoA and NADH levels along with a drop in NAD+ levels. This is reductive stress. The system that replenishes NAD+ while burning fat is the production and …

Acetylation Turns on Lipogenic Enzymes; How Seed Oils Cause Reductive Stress, Part III Read More »

In part I of this series I introduced the analogy of reductive stress as a flooded engine.  If there is too much fuel and not enough air, an engine will flood.  Elevated circulating acylcarnitines in obesity are analogous to black smoke out of the tailpipe of a flooded engine – unburnt fuel spewing back out …

The Mitochondrial Bottleneck as the carburetor screw; How seed oils cause reductive stress, part II Read More »

I’ve been writing a lot about reductive stress and its role at the heart of both oxidative stress and obesity.  I’m aware that the term reductive stress isn’t terribly intuitive.  It’s a wonky, scientific term and calling it “the opposite of oxidative stress” really does little to aid in understanding for non-redox scientists.    I’ve been …

The Flooded Engine, An Analogy; How Seed Oils Cause Reductive Stress, Part I Read More »

The idea of this series is that the underlying condition that drives obesity forward is reductive stress, as defined by the NAD+/NADH ratio being too low (not enough NAD+).  CD38 is a membrane bound enzyme, expressed in most tissues, that increases throughout life, steadily reducing NAD+ levels​1​.  It is the body’s “primary NADase”, the main …

CD38 links obesity, bacterial-induced inflammation, and reductive stress Read More »

The WebMD entry on alpha lipoic acid (ALA) begins with, “Alpha-lipoic acid is an antioxidant”.  ALA can in certain situations act as an antioxidant, but in general it does not act as an antioxidant.  If you read my article about antioxidants you’ll know that in a redox reaction, when one thing in a reaction is …

The Pro-oxidant Alpha Lipoic Acid makes you lean, Antioxidants make you fat (sometimes) Read More »

I recently had an informal debate with someone who believes that obesity is caused simply by consuming more calories than you burn.  In his mind, the obesity epidemic started because our modern processed food is too palatable, it overwhelms our hypothalamus and causes us to overeat.  When I asked how that fact that dioxins – …

PUFA Induced Reductive Stress as a Unifying Mechanism in Obesity Read More »