DavidPerlmutterMD · 2024-05-06 · David Perlmutter (host), Jeffrey Bland
A Closer Look At Immune Health & Himalayan Tartary Buckwheat | Dr. Jeffrey Bland
28 research-tied claims examined: 4 contradicted 3 contradicted online 2 overstated 5 context 8 supported 6 unverified
4 Contradicted by research
The cells that make up the human immune system turn over and are replaced with new cells every 90 to 120 days.
"So, when we start thinking about the immune system, it has this dynamic personality because it turns over about every 90 to 120 days. Every 3 to 4 months the cells that make up our immune system get replaced with new cells." (said at 0:05:49)
The claim that the human immune system turns over completely every 90 to 120 days confuses the lifespan of red blood cells (erythrocytes, which are non-immune oxygen-transporting cells that famously survive about 120 days) with immune cells (leukocytes).
In reality, different immune cells have vastly different lifespans and turnover rates rather than a single uniform 90-to-120-day replacement cycle:
- Neutrophils (the most abundant type of white blood cell) turn over very rapidly, living for only hours to a few days.
- Naive T and B lymphocytes are long-lived interphase cells, with naive B cells proliferating at very low rates (about 0.46% per day) and naive/memory T cell populations maintained across decades.
- Memory immune cells, including memory T cells and stem cell-like memory T (TSCM) cells, undergo ongoing proliferation and dynamic flux over years or decades to maintain long-term immunological memory.
Because different immune cell lineages range from a lifespan of hours (neutrophils) to decades (memory T cells), there is no 90-to-120-day turnover cycle for the human immune system.
- contradicts: B-cell kinetics in humans: rapid turnover of peripheral blood memory cells. (Blood 2005) · cited 195x in the literature
"We show that total blood B cells of young adults divide at an average rate of 1.9% (+/-1.0%) per day and at a similar though slightly slower rate, 1.5% (+/-1.3%) per day, in the elderly. Separation of naive and memory B cells according to expression of CD27 indicates that naive peripheral blood B cells divide slowly (0.46% per day), while memory cells proliferate more rapidly (2.66% per day)." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi) - contradicts: Human Stem Cell-like Memory T Cells Are Maintained in a State of Dynamic Flux. (Cell reports 2016) · cited 85x in the literature
"Collectively, these observations show that T SCM cells exist in a state of perpetual flux throughout the human lifespan." (abstract, conclusions, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi) - contradicts: Lifespans of naive, memory and effector lymphocytes. (Current opinion in immunology 1993) · cited 133x in the literature
"The bulk of mature T and B cells are immunologically naive and remain in interphase for prolonged periods. Contact with specific antigen causes these naive cells to proliferate rapidly and differentiate into a mixture of short-lived effector cells and long-lived memory cells." (abstract, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi)
Jeffrey Friedman discovered the hormone leptin in Bruce McEwen's laboratory.
"in his lab, Jeff Friedman discovered leptin." (said at 0:52:36)
Jeffrey Friedman discovered leptin in 1994 as the head of his own laboratory at The Rockefeller University / Howard Hughes Medical Institute, not in Bruce McEwen's laboratory. While both were faculty members at Rockefeller University, the positional cloning and identification of the obese (ob) gene and its hormone product, leptin, was achieved by Friedman's own research group (Zhang et al., 1994).
Ma Huang acts through monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) enzyme functionality.
"How did the Yellow Emperor know that Ma Huang would be useful in Parkinson's that we now understand acts through monoamine oxidase B influencing MAOB enzyme functionality?" (said at 0:54:14)
No published evidence supports the claim that Ma Huang (Ephedra sinica) acts primarily or therapeutically through monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) inhibition in Parkinson's disease. The active alkaloids of Ma Huang (predominantly ephedrine and pseudoephedrine) function as sympathomimetic amines that stimulate adrenergic receptors and promote catecholamine release. While ephedrine-related alkaloids have shown very weak, non-selective monoamine oxidase interactions in vitro at micromolar concentrations, they are not established MAO-B inhibitors for Parkinson's disease.
Bruce McEwen was the first researcher to investigate the relationship between the immune system and insulin resistance.
"If you look at his body of work, he was the first person to start looking at the relationship between the immune system and insulin resistance." (said at 0:51:45)
Bruce McEwen was a prominent neuroendocrinologist renowned for discovering glucocorticoid receptors in the hippocampus and developing the concepts of allostasis and allostatic load, which integrate stress, the neuroendocrine system, and systemic physiology. However, he was not the first researcher to investigate the relationship between the immune system and insulin resistance. The seminal experimental work linking immune mediators to insulin resistance was pioneered in the early 1990s by Gökhan Hotamisligil, Bruce Spiegelman, and colleagues (e.g., demonstrating that tumor necrosis factor-alpha [TNF-α] directly induces insulin resistance in obesity, published in Science in 1993), which founded the field of immunometabolism. Earlier clinical and physiological investigations into infection- and endotoxin-induced insulin resistance also predated McEwen's later conceptual syntheses.
Unverified means no publication matching the claim was located; it does not prove the claim false. Spotted an error? See the corrections policy - disputes from the people quoted are prioritized.