Paleo

I was talking with one of my roommates about women last year (as we do), and he pointed out that nice skin is an often over-looked, but incredibly attractive quality.  I completely agree -- skin quality is an under-appreciated indicator of good health.

Women know it, which is why they use make-up and eye-liner to trick men into thinking that they're younger and healthier than they actually are.  Men, you need to learn how to see past these deceptions and assess her true youth and health.

The larger problem is that as a culture, we've grown accustomed to people with somewhat splotchy, broken-out, heavily made up skin.  And if a girl does have nice skin, it's assumed to be genetic.  Maybe she's born with it.  Maybe it's Maybelline.  But are those the only two paths to healthy skin?  Genetics or make-up?

Of course not.

So I've been sleeping on the floor for the last nine nights.

I started doing it because I had a couple days of inexplicable lower back pain, and I had been reading about more natural forms of sleeping.  And of course, humans haven't been sleeping on big fluffy mattresses for very long, and many cultures, like the Japanese, still don't.

My lower back pain could have been due to a variety of factors: a few days of inactivity, sitting more than I usually do in bad posture, stress, and an over-stuffed twin mattress that has been my bed at home since I was in college, or maybe other things.  (Thank you to everyone who gave me suggestions on Twitter.)

This was not a chronic condition, just something that developed over a few days, but it was intense enough that I appreciated how chronic back pain could upturn someone's entire life.  Chronic pain creeps into your conscious more than any other illness or condition I've experienced: colds, flu, strep, even headaches (though I've never had a migraine).  I couldn't easily sleep, do work, or even watch a movie.  I guess that's why people take painkillers!

I figured it was time for an experiment.

Below is my setup.  It's my roommate's thin yoga mat under a thin-ish cotton blanket folded in half and my sleeping bag on top.  The first two nights (in Michigan) I used a pillow, but have gone pillowless since.

It was hard to get to sleep the first two nights, when I already had lower back pain.  I had to resort to a few Tylenol, which did the trick real fast both nights, and I fell asleep as soon as they kicked in.  I woke up refreshed both mornings, and by the third night, the back pain had receded to where I didn't need any Tylenol to get to sleep.  By the fourth night it was gone entirely.  The lower back pain may have gone away on its own, even had I not started sleeping on the floor.

But I've continued the experiment, and here are my observations.

Cons

• Dust - Floors get dirty.
• Critters - Haven't encountered any, but I can imagine that one run-in with a critter would cause people to flee to the tree tops.
• Getting to Sleep - It's was a bit harder to get to sleep, even after the back pain went away, but that effect has been fading as I adjust. I fall asleep fast now.
• No Pillow - When I lie down, I realize that my head instinctively reaches down for a pillow...but it's not there.  Not a big deal, just a weird feeling.
• Sinuses - With no pillow, my head leans back slightly and sometimes I wake up with my sinuses all filled up.  (I had a lot of sinus problems in middle school and high school.)  Hasn't happened the last few nights though.
• Naps - Somehow the floor is less appealing for naps.
• Women - Something tells me the ladies aren't going to take to my current setup.  Hey baby, come try out this is king-sized floor.  On the other hand, suddenly the person sleeping next to you seems a whole lot softer relative to the floor.

Pros

• No Back Pain - My back pain went away, though it very well could have been for other reasons, particularly since I didn't have long-term chronic back pain.
• No Stiffness - I'm not waking up with any stiffness.  (Though I didn't wake up stiff on my normal bed either.)  Occasionally, I get into a position sleeping on my side where there is a bit too much pressure on my hip.  Last night I dreamed I was 8 miles into a marathon and my hip was hurting me, and I was wondering whether I could finish.  But I realized my dream was based on the actual pressure on my hip.
• Little Tossing and Turning - I'm not tossing and turning much in the middle of the night, and sometimes it's just about the sleeping bag constricting me.  I guess I change positions, but those changes don't seem to be disruptive.
• Deeper Sleep - It feels like a deeper sleep.  The first few nights I got fewer hours of sleep (~5 hours) than I normally do (7-8), but I actually felt pretty good most of the day.
• Ground Sensation - This is one of the best parts.  Gravity seems stronger when you're sleeping on the ground.  You feel the ground pushing back up at you, and you know exactly where your supports are.  It's a very different sensation than a normal mattress, where each part of your body gets a little bit of support.  I like it.  It's calming.  I think of it like Temple Grandin's squeeze box.  It's almost like being hugged.

I could get a more accurate read on my sleep quality with various devices, but I'm just not one of those people that measures every little thing.  

I'm going to continue sleeping this way for now, and will probably build myself a Japenese-style platform bed that allows me to sleep up off the ground, I'll be able to make it a bit less ascetic, but still maintain a pretty firm sleeping surface.

I should note that in the wild, the surfaces we slept on wouldn't have been perfectly flat or hard, but almost any natural surface would have been much firmer than what most people sleep on today.

Here are two links on natural sleeping that have been passed around in the paleosphere: The Ergonomics of Sleep and Slumber's Unexplored Landscape.  I'm also reading At Day's Close: Night in Time's Past, research into what people used to do at night (before electricity) and how they used to sleep.

As for the scientific research, let's take bets right now:

• How many serious scientific papers have been performed on mattresses vs. hard surface and sleep quality?
• And are there any that actually suggest that soft mattresses are net beneficial?

I don't know the answers to those questions just yet, but if the past is any guide, ZERO would not be an unreasonable guess.

If you give this a shot, particularly if you have chronic back pain, definitely drop me a line and let me know how it goes.

When I run into paleo skeptics, here is one of the techniques I use.

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Paleo Skeptic: But really, who's to say there's an ideal type of human diet?  And haven't we adapted to a more modern diet?

JLD: Let me ask you a question.  What is the healthiest thing to feed infants?

Paleo Skeptic: Uh, breast milk.

JLD: Why?

Paleo Skeptic: Well, because that's what's natural.

JLD:  What do you mean by natural?

Paleo Skeptic: I mean, it's what mammals do.  It's what infants are adapted to.  It's what we've done for millions of years.

JLD: Fine, but we've evolved since then -- and we've developed a sophisticated technology called infant formula.

Paleo Skeptic: Yes, but it hasn't been long enough.  And infant formula isn't as good as the real stuff.  Maybe one day we'll develop a formula that is, but we're not there yet.  And there's a lot of research that suggests that breastfeeding infants is good for the long-term health of the baby.

JLD: It sounds like you already believe in the general paleo approach, just for a limited window of life.

Paleo Skeptic: ...

JLD: Right?

Paleo Skeptic: Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy.  But here's my number.  So call me maybe.

This example, as described, isn't a scientific argument by any means.  It's just a talking point.

Keeping that in mind, my point is that there are a number of ways in which many people already believe in this general approach, they just don't call it paleo.  Or they use the same lines of reasoning to justify an organic farmer diet.  So just find a way to re-frame their existing beliefs in a new light.  That way, they don't have to change their belief system -- something which few people ever do.

This was my costume for our CrossFit NYC Halloween Party.  I searched for halloween costumes for guys with beards: Paul Bunyon, Jesus, the guy from the Hangover whose name I'm not going to try to spell.  At the costume store I realized I had some Luna Sandals I could incorporate, so I went with the Roman Centurion.

Der Spiegel reports on the first paleo restaurant in Europe.  

Sauvage, which is also the French word for "savage" or "wild," is part of the Paleolithic diet movement, whereby adherents eat only foodstuffs that would have been available to Stone Age humans.

I like it.

The truly obsessed build an entire lifestyle around the concept, mimicking caveman-era exercise -- lifting boulders and running barefoot, with some even emulating the blood loss they believe Stone Age hunters might have experienced in pursuit of their dinner by donating blood every few months.

They link to a Der Spiegel article that I was in, along with Art De Vany, Loren Cordain, Erwan Le Corre, and Richard Nikoley.  I love how this donating blood meme continues to spread far beyond its actual prevalence or importance.

Says the proprietor:

"Many people think the Paleolithic diet is just some hipster trend but it's a worldwide phenomenon, with an online community that spans the globe," Sauvage's Boris Leite-Poço told SPIEGEL ONLINE of the growing interest in caveman cooking. "Right now the trend is probably strongest in the United States, where people who have had enough of the fast food way of life and generations of illness have taken it up."

On the menu:

The menu includes salads with olives, capers and pine nuts; gluten-free bread with nut-based butter or olive tapenades; smoked salmon with herb dressing; and other various meat and fish dishes. Gluten- and sugar-free cakes, like a spicy pumpkin pie, are available for those Stone Age diners who refuse to forego desert. A focus on transparency is also important to the owners: Sauvage's guests know exactly what ingredients they are eating in every dish.

But they must make comprises with civilization -- gasp! -- in order to survive: 

Asked about menu items -- such as wine -- that would have been unlikely in a Paleolithic person's diet, Leite-Poço acknowledges that Sauvage makes some exceptions. "The restaurant has to survive and we have to find an audience among the majority of people, who are not Paleo. So we do make some concessions," he explains. The stricter strain of Paleo emphasizing the consumption of raw meat, for instance, is tough to implement at a restaurant that wants to keep its license.

While the ingredients on the menu at Sauvage might point to the restaurant's Stone Age roots, the Paleolithic restaurateurs do allow themselves to make use of certain modern conveniences when preparing the food. "Of course we don't cook over an open fire," admits Leite-Poço. "And we try to avoid using it -- but we do have a microwave in the kitchen."

Full article here.  The pointer comes from Brandon McRill, director of food and beverage at the new Pillar & Plough in the Hotel Williamsburg in Brooklyn.

Thanks to Mark for the link.

Below is my talk from the Ancestral Health Symposium.  It's called "Wild Animals, Zoos, and You: The Influence of Habitat on Health".  I talk about what we can learn about human health from animals in zoos, including some of these fun topics:

• the origins of jumbo jets, jumbo shrimp, and Dumbo
• a brief history of zoos 
• the most dangerous animal in zoos
• the most famous (and worst) piece of modern architecture in zoos
• biological organisms as information processors
• the "Un-Zoo" 
• cheetah sex
• why gorillas should be vegans
• gorge and fast feeding in captive lions
• why gerbils dig
• a neutral approach to health (the Veil of Ignorance)
• how do you make anything healthy?
• our last connection to the wild 

And here are the slides -- you'll definitely want to follow along, I used a lot of pictures.  Enjoy, and let me know what you think in the comments.