The hCG diet protocol entails a specific reduced-calorie diet in the presence of low dose amounts of hCG. These are the two well-known components of the protocol. A third component that drives the protocol has recently come to light: cold adaptation. Altogether these are the ‘Big Three’ for getting optimal results. Cold adaptation can be viewed as the ‘missing ingredient’ of the Holy Trinity for weight loss. Indeed, it is the Holy Trinity for much, much more.

Indeed, this is clearly the best new discovery for the hCG diet protocol in the 21st century.

Linking the third leg, i.e., cold adaptation, to the other two legs of the Holy Trinity is the brainchild of Dr. Jack Kruse at jackkruse.com. All the parts of this puzzle have been available for decades. He is the first person that I know of who has put it all together. Indeed, his voluminous and detailed explanations of ‘cold thermogenesis’ (CT) are legendary. All of his articles on the topic are listed and linked at the end of this post.

I posted a briefer explanation of cold adaptation in an article on my HerbScientist.com blog: Get Healthy, Live Longer With Cold Thermogenesis. In short, CT makes everything in your body work better; without it, you are unlikely to ever achieve optimal health and longevity.

The overlap of all three legs forms the golden center, the goal for optimal health and longevity, as depicted in this diagram:

Let’s take a look at each component to establish the basis of understanding that will help you grasp its importance from its role in the Holy Trinity.

Overview of the hCG Diet Protocol

So much has been written about this protocol, starting in 1954 with its creator, Dr. A.T.W. Simeons, that detailing it again would be gross overkill. Many posts on this blog alone provide extensive explanations about various aspects of the diet. The briefest and simplest overview, for review and for newbies, is here: HCG Diet Basics.

Detailed explanations about research on the protocol and problems and solutions while on it are provided in my book, HCG DIET – THE NEW DEFINITIVE GUIDE.

Role of hCG in the Holy Trinity

A hormone signaling system consists of a hormone and its receptors. A hormone is any of various internally secreted compounds, as insulin or thyroxine, that affect the functions of specifically receptive organs or tissues when transported to them by the body fluids.

In the case of hCG, the receptors of interest for weight loss are in a part of the brain called the hypothalamus. This is a key factoid to keep in mind for understanding how hCG works in the Holy Trinity.

Another factoid is this: as with many hormone signaling systems, the hCG-hypothalamus axis can be saturated to the point that the receptors become resistant. Receptor resistance to hCG stops the hormone from working.

This is why Dr. Simeons limited the use of hCG to a maximum time period of 45 days. It is also why he used injections 6 days a week, with the seventh day off throughout the protocol. Overuse, either through using it beyond 45 days or by taking injections every day of the week, led to resistance. (The sublingual forms, however, can be taken every day of the full protocol without developing resistance.)

This is also why repeated use of the protocol requires a non-hCG break of at least 6 weeks between series.

That sets the stage for the hCG diet. Now how about CRON, ‘calorie restriction with optimal nutrition’?

CRON

Of course, calorie restriction on the hCG diet limits consumption to 500 calories per day. It also limits both carbohydrate and fat intake, especially fat intake. This is not CRON per se, since that acronym was not created to apply the hCG protocol. Instead it refers to daily calorie restriction, more or less for life, by about 20-30 percent of normal consumption.

A very brief description of CRON, with a few references, is provided on Wikipedia here: CRON-diet.

Most of the research on CRON has been done on non-human animals, including other primates. The most common key result is increased longevity and improvements in certain measures of health. Fruit flies and nematodes respond the best, primates not so much.

It turns out that CRON research shows inconsistent results in primates, including humans. Furthermore, results from non-mammalian animals is so far away from human metabolism that such studies have no practical use for people (except for those researchers who continue to get grant funding for this kind of work).

Inconsistent results in CRON studies, as with most scientific research, rest on failure to account for key variables. This includes a cascade of hormone imbalances, from thyroid hormones to steroids, insulin, and everything in between. The key hormone for consideration in all such research, however, is the master hormone of all time: LEPTIN.

Like hCG, leptin is a hormone whose receptors are in the hypothalamus. Also like leptin, those receptors can become resistant. Since leptin is such a crucial hormone, the development of leptin resistance undermines health in myriad ways. Leptin resistance is a monumental health disaster for everyone who develops it.

Role of CRON in the Holy Trinity

This is not a story of the old (incorrect) adage of, Eat less, exercise more. That advice is so obsolete as to be ridiculous. Unfortunately, this kind of thinking continues to be dogma of mythical proportions.

In addition, the concept of ‘calories’ is irrelevant. Rather than explaining why, at the moment, let me just send you off to download my book (no charge, or you can buy the Kindle version for 99 cents on Amazon – woo-hoo!), Calorie Counting Madness. It is a short and enjoyable piece, in my opinion.

Calorie reduction really means energy shifting, or metabolic rewiring, or food redirection, or something besides ‘calories’. Since a lot of our metabolism is ‘gunked up’ by eating too often or too much, less consumption would seem to be in order.

The cause and effect of this relationship, however, is going the wrong direction. It should be: You do not get fat because you overeat. You overeat because you are getting fat.

Of all the possible reasons and mechanisms for this, I would place the blame on what I call ‘metabolic misdirection’. Excess food energy goes into storage (fat), forming a ‘new’ you (fat body) inside the old you, which has to be fed more. The new ‘fat body’ is first in line for food energy, so even if you go on a starvation diet, the fat body gets fed first. This explains why truly healthy weight loss does not happen with a drastic reduction in food intake. Obese people do not lose quality weight long-term by near starvation. This concept came from Gary Taubes in his book, Good Calories, Bad Calories.

By itself, CRON superficially offers the potential for weight management, overall health, and longevity. On closer inspection, however, it does not provide ideal metabolic redirection in the absence of the third leg of the Holy Trinity, cold thermogenesis.

Furthermore, eating less for a lifetime is not a strategy for a high level of compliance. People just do not want to feel hungry all the time. Go figure.

Cold Thermogenesis

CRON points us to the right target for harnessing the power of metabolic redirection, although it does not quite hit the bullseye.

In contrast, CT hits the center of the bullseye by reinvigorating resistant hormone receptors. This is phenomenal, especially for those receptors that we find in the hypothalamus.

These include hCG receptors, of course. However, most importantly, they also include leptin receptors.

Cold Thermogenesis in the Holy Trinity

As Dr. Kruse explains (Cold Thermogenesis 4: The Holy Trinity), Leptin controls all of our hormone levels when we are warm adapted. In cold there is no leptin around and hormones are controlled by quantum effects on receptor affinity binding. This means that in cold environments we have supra human abilities because hormone levels are not the key factor any longer.

What supra human capabilities is Dr. Kruse talking about? How about these: CT redirects metabolism on a quantum level so that cold gives the effect of exercise without exercising, reduces appetite, and turns your mitochondria (especially in brown fat tissue) into super-hot furnaces (massive heat release). The latter effect is why it is called ‘cold thermogenesis’ – i.e., adapting to cold for generating heat.

These effects come from supercharging leptin receptors by cold.

Note that part about reducing appetite. In other words, CT leads to CRON automatically. This discovery alone is fantastic: get cold and eat less. Oh, and fire up metabolism in your mitochondria.

If you skipped the link to my CT article above, be sure to take it in when you get a chance: Get Healthy, Live Longer With Cold Thermogenesis. It will help you understand the phenomenal adaptations that we see in astronauts, Sherpas and lamas, and world class athletes. For an even more extreme example, take a look at The Iceman, Wim Hoff.

The leptin receptor has evolved the ability to rewire and change its affinity for binding in cold environments. This allows leptin to begin to control something called the leptin-melanocorticin pathway in order to have these amazing capabilities. This is a crucial pathway for metabolic redirection for optimal health.

CT is so powerful that some folks don’t even concern themselves with diet. Take a look at Can you eat huge amounts of junk food and still lose weight? to see what I mean. This is not a long-term strategy that I would recommend, though, since weight loss is not the end-all and be-all of the Holy Trinity. That would be health and longevity, with weight loss as a beneficial by-product.

One More Thing

Actually, there is a LOT more stuff to bring to bear here. At this time, though, the ‘one more thing’ that you should know about entails what we actually do to get fat and unhealthy in the first place. Since diet and exercise are not as significant as most people think, what is?

Deteriorating health starts with mismatched circadian rhythms. A perfect Paleolithic diet is insignificant when you undermine it with a non-Paleolithic lifestyle that violates the daily rhythms that humans are adapted to. This is why an increasing number of people get very little benefit from a Paleo diet.

Okay, just one more thing – I promise. It is this: our biological rhythms are adapted to an electromagnetic environment that no longer exists on Earth. What I mean by that is that non-native (artificial) sources of electromagnetic fields (nnEMFs) in the atmosphere are swamping out Earth’s weaker EMFs that we are adapted to. Levels of nnEMFs are more than 500 times higher than they were just a century ago. The impact of these nnEMFs is destroying our health at increasing rates.

Books on this topic are already out there. Since leaving the planet is not an option, you must learn how to diminish the effects of nnEMFs in your daily life ASAP.

Take action now.

Of the many, many websites that provide insight into solutions for this issue, one of my favorites is by Lloyd Burrell at ElectricSense – Living a Naturally Healthy Life in Our Electromagnetic World. That is just a start. Dig in.

Bottom Line

CT is absolutely required for achieving optimal health. It is perhaps the most important leg of the Holy Trinity and why I refer to it as the missing ingredient for the hCG diet protocol.

Actually, it is the missing ingredient for a healthy life in general.

CT Series by Dr. Jack Kruse

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED READING
(Be patient. It took me a couple of months to read and grasp this information.)

My apologies if I have overwhelmed you. Just get started and keep plugging away on all this information. It is important.

All the best in natural health,

Dr. D