Brad Marshall

Dietary Linoleic Acid Does Not Reduce Diabetes Risk

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 …

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

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 …

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

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 …

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

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 …

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CD38 links obesity, bacterial-induced inflammation, and reductive stress

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 …

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

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 …

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Reductive Stress Causes Oxidative Stress: Antioxidants, Oxidative Stress and Reductive Stress

Introduction This is the second article in my series about reductive stress. Check out the intro. The terms oxidative stress and antioxidant have been thrown around a lot in recent decades, often without a clear understanding of their true nature.  Oxidative stress is caused by an overproduction of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide or by a …

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PUFA Induced Reductive Stress as a Unifying Mechanism in Obesity

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 – …

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Metabolic Rates in the American South in the 1930s: Did Researchers Measure the Origins of the Obesity Epidemic?

There are great tales in the medical literature if you look for them.  In the 1930’s – the early days of metabolic research – a sort of North-South challenge presented itself.  An SEC-Big 10 challenge of metabolic rates (For those who are not American college football fans, the SEC is a Southern Conference and the …

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The French Obesity Paradox

I’ve recently had several run-ins with people who believe strictly in the calories-in, calories-out hypothesis of obesity.  I just read Herman Pontzer’s book Burn, so I’ll continue to pick on him for the moment.   In Pontzer’s estimation, humans are just calorie-burning machines.  Slightly complicated machines, but machines nonetheless.  We have a more or less fixed …

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Pontzer’s Burn and Metabolic Rate Mechanisms

I just finished reading Herman Pontzer’s book Burn.  It’s good, I recommend it! I don’t agree with everything, though. Pontzer is the metabolic researcher who went to Africa to study the metabolic rates of Hadza hunter gatherers.  To his surprise he discovered that hunter gatherers burn the same number of calories per day as  sedentary …

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David Rosenberg increased his metabolic rate by 1100 calories per day with alpha-lipoic acid, succinade, sterculia oil and stearic acid.

I was excited when David reached out to me because he is very regimented. He has literally weighed and recorded the macros of every piece of food he has eaten going back to July of 2021. He exercises the same amount each week, the same number of reps of the same exercises. When he jogs …

David Rosenberg increased his metabolic rate by 1100 calories per day with alpha-lipoic acid, succinade, sterculia oil and stearic acid. Read More »