Ancestral Health Symposium 2016

The Ancestral Health Symposium 2016 was in Boulder this year, at the CU campus in Boulder. I live close by, so it was a wonderful opportunity for me.

I met so many wonderful people there, including one of my heroes, Sarah Ballantyne. She is the author of The Paleo Approach: Reverse Autoimmune Disease and Heal Your Body. She also writes a blog called ThePaleoMom.com. She did a presentation on the importance of sleep and ancestral sleep patterns on disease risk.

I saw so many wonderful presentations on the health impact of the Standard American Diet, known as SAD. One impressive one was on the prevalence of age-related macular degeneration in societies with a large portion of the diet consisting of processed food, versus the incidence in populations that eat mostly a whole-foods diet. The presenter believes that age-related macular degeneration is a lifestyle disease, just like Type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer's disease.

The evidence is mounting that Alzheimer's disease is mostly preventable by eating a whole-foods lower carbohydrate diet with a strong emphasis on lots of vegetables and animals raised eating a biologically appropriate diet for their species. That, combined with healthy, balanced exercise may prevent most people from developing dementia and Alzheimer's in old age. The evidence is really mounting that Alzheimer's disease in most people is a result of eating a SAD diet and being mostly sedentary for 20, 30, or 50 years.

I also met some wonderful vendors from the local area that I was very impressed with. One was a restaurant in downtown Boulder on 13th Street, next to the walking mall on Pearl Street. It was called Shine, and they have a completely gluten-free kitchen. I ate there and had absolutely no problem. That is only one of two restaurants that I have eaten at and had absolutely no reaction, because of my celiac disease. The other one is Blooming Beets Kitchen. Both restaurants are in Boulder.

I also met the people from Fatworks, which is a local company that makes very high quality lard and grass-fed tallow for cooking at high temperature. Lard and tallow are the safest fats to use for high temperature cooking, because they do not degrade at high temperatures. They are also in the Boulder area.

I also met Darryl Edwards, from London. He has designed a whole exercise and fitness program based on play, and I had an absolute blast playing with their group and taking his class! His blog is www.TheFitnessExplorer.com and his exercise method is detailed on PrimalPlay.com

I also met a very interesting vendor that sells camel milk. They are called Desert Farms Camel Milk, and their company may be an option for some people who have a problem with cow's milk. They are based in California, but they will ship and do online orders for people.

I met many wonderful people at the AHS conference, and I learned so much about the newest research into the causes of many chronic diseases and how to prevent, treat, and manage them using diet and lifestyle factors. I hope that anyone who is interested in the classes that were available subscribe to the AHS 2016 YouTube channel and watch the classes.

Did anyone else go to AHS 2016? If you did, please contact me and let me know how you liked it!

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