My father will not be a centenarian. May he rest in peace...
***
I spent some time last autumn in the Neurology section, with him. All those elderly people trying to still function, battling it out, and the nurses and doctors assisting them in Purgatory, matter-of-factly... My respect for the medical establishment, imperfect as it may be, has increased even more. They have not saved my father, but they did extend his life by a few months...
***
A neurologist thought I may suffer from a subclinical case of vasculitis. She had me try "Lyrica", which I could not endure. My pain, at its worst, is not worth the side effects and the zoning out. I tried "Gabaran" as well -- much easier on me: I composed many songs on the one and only pill I tried. I am glad to know there are such powerful painkillers out there, but I hope I will never have to use them consistently.
The neurologist also suspected an incipient diabetic neuropathy. Given my high genetic risk of diabetes, over 40%, I figured my following Dr. Peat's recommendations for almost a year must have been quite unfortunate. Luckily for me, her suggestion to help with this one worked wonders: "Milgamma" (B1 as a benfotiamine and B12). It was literally like growing back a bunch of nervous endings... I had come to accept that my right big toe had left the system for some idiosyncratic reason and I was not too worried (I should have been!) Well, I was overwhelmed to feel it return to me! Regeneration after degeneration, so there is hope!
So... I dropped my sugar consumption to almost zero. Peat was definitely wrong for me on this front!
No more weird numbness for me. That is a winner! And no, I don't miss OJ. I see it now, for myself, as the orange specter of diabetes.
Another huge improvement was the disappearance of the CA-125 marker. I cannot be sure what brought that about. Except giving up sugar, I did not do any other spectacular diet changes.
One small thing I can think of is that I increased garlic consumption. My body was craving it. If it turns out this new garlic habit got rid of some incipient tumor, hey... The stench is a small price to pay. I also brought a bunch of PUFA back into my life in the form of potato chips -- I have to have them at least once or twice a week, dipped in my garlic salsa...
Thyroid function -- I am still at 25 mcg T4, but with my free T4 bumped up into a mid-range of normalcy (it used to hover to the lowest normal and even under that), with a rather high TSH by US standards (2.6). I think this is a pretty reasonable spot, I am sleeping well, I no longer experience those "hit by a truck" moments... Some days are better than others, energy-wise. My weight is pretty much the same and nobody guesses my age, so I am alright. Actually, I look much better than I feel and people look confused and rather skeptical when they hear about my troubles.
I stopped measuring all the other hormones, I will let my body deal with them. I experimented with supplementation of most and I didn't like it one bit. Maybe I am oversensitive, or maybe I have a low tolerance -- my 23andme results show me as a slow metabolizer for many substances (including coffee, yet another reason for me to not follow Peat), so perhaps I should stay away from any "bio-hacking" that involves hormones. Nobody knows for sure how they work, anyway, so why be a guinea pig, life is too short even without self-experimentation.
In my search for the perfect seaside, I visited Cyprus and loved the taste of their produce... I hated the pollution, though...
I hope you are all doing well and staying healthy and gorgeous.
Showing posts with label 23andme. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 23andme. Show all posts
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
A Dacian Diet for My Ancient Mitochondria, Please!
In my stubborn search for a cure to Hashimoto's and autoimmunity, fueled by the knowledge that my mitochondrial DNA is quite ancient, I decided to tailor myself a Nutrigenetic diet.
As a first experiment, I will attempt a diet that approximates that of the Dacians.
The Dacians, according to Herodotus, were "the bravest and the justest of all Thracians". Remember, though, it is all relative. Historians mention they were not fond of hard work, so no farming, thank you... Which is good in my book. But they would also pillage, plunder, etc...
They lived in the area where my mother was born, along the luscious lower valley of the Danube, which was inhabited since Paleolithic times. There are tons of archaeological sites where I grew up and entire villages built with Roman bricks from ancient castra. Anyway, two thousand years and the glutenous Roman conquest separate me from my Dacian ancient great mothers.
They lived in the area where my mother was born, along the luscious lower valley of the Danube, which was inhabited since Paleolithic times. There are tons of archaeological sites where I grew up and entire villages built with Roman bricks from ancient castra. Anyway, two thousand years and the glutenous Roman conquest separate me from my Dacian ancient great mothers.
Since their N1a mitochondria made it so far (I assume they had them, it makes sense), and they will still battle through modern civilization for generations to come, hopefully (as my sister in California has a daughter), I figured it might be a good idea to experiment with the ancient recipes and explore the clues of the Dacians' lifestyle that still linger in Southern Romania. Forget the last two thousand years and Roman civilization, with its bread and pasta, let's pretend they never happened and go back to the lower Danube's history, as far as we can...
The Romans were obsessed with the Dacians. When they finally conquered these lands, they filled Rome with Dacian warrior statues. That is how we know that their physique was quite muscular. Blue eyes, red or yellow hair... Crazy beliefs and war habits, but that is a different discussion.
Well... It turns out that the master basic ingredients of the Dacian diet were... milk and honey!
So, if you care to see it that way, a Dacian diet is not unlike a Peat diet. No wonder my first reaction discovering Peat was to remark on how much it resembled my father's diet! A Peat diet is simply a very traditional diet that does not despise milk and sugar, in one form or another, and stays away from starches and vegetables.
But, unlike my father's diet, the Dacian diet is much less gluten-laden, simply because their cereal of choice was millet. Historians say they considered it far easier to grow -- but maybe their reasons went deeper than that? Maybe they were able to recognize the health damaging effects of gluten, somehow? I wish I could believe that.
They were simply unsophisticated and averse to farming (hard work, always, as I said). Good for them. Truly, they had a reputation for taking less than civilized shortcuts. For instance, they never bothered to create their own coins, although they were quite excellent metal workers. They forged the Roman coins instead. No wonder the Romans were upset and couldn't wait to finally get their hands on their territories. And afterwards, Trajan, their emperor, built a column in Rome, depicting their epic fights - it is like a sculpted spiral comic book.
I have never eaten millet. I don't even know what it looks like. I did drink some German millet beer.
I believe the Dacians did not skimp on protein and they did not insist on millet to provide it, either... Too labor intensive and how tasty can it be?.. If they had it around it must have been for emergencies, when hunting and fishing were not plentiful.
No vegetable oils, obviously. No nightshades, because they did not grow in these parts at that time. No oranges or other tropical fruits. No corn. Carrots were not selected yet, I don't think... No potatoes. No rice, I doubt they grew it in these parts. No coffee, no chocolate, no tea. Apples, pears, plums, root vegetables, cabbage, parsley, dill, onions and garlic.
They had plenty of salt, no iodine added, from salt mines.
They had plenty of salt, no iodine added, from salt mines.
Cooking must have been done the easiest way, as it is still done nowadays in the countryside in those parts, by boiling... So... a lot of big broths in my future.
Indeed, from what I read and contrary to what I intuitively believed, the Dacians were not that big on grilling. And because, according to 23andme, I have "TT genotype at rs2294008, which means 4.18 times the odds of diffuse-type stomach cancer", I will stay away from grilled meat and pickles. No processed meat, either, since the Dacians didn't have nitrites.
So I am starting this ancestral diet at my usual 61 kg, with Anti-Gliadins of around 20, Anti-TPO of over 700, on a 37.5 mcg of Levothyrox and daily magnesium supplementation. Here is a summary of my Peaty (but calorie conscious) diet so far:
And, no, I don't think I suddenly replaced three pounds of fat with three pounds of muscle come June -- I simply used a different scale - a Tanita instead of my usual Withings, which I didn't bother to take with me on vacation. I only brought the blood pressure monitor:
As a final remark, please rest assured that I did not go completely mad here. I am fully aware that I am weaving together historical facts, scientific data and personal stories. I learned this from Ray Peat and other scientists. Unlike them, I do stretch this mix into plain fiction, to signal it is not to be taken at face value -- see the part about my direct ancestors torturing Roman centurions, etc.
I do not mean to entice folks to eat milk, honey, broth and millet, just because I think this might be an improvement over a Peat diet, or the PHD, or LC, or Primal/Paleo.
But since none of the aforementioned diets helped reduce her antibodies, this gluten-sensitive Hashimoto sufferer is willing to experiment with "the Dacian Diet".
I will let you know how it goes...
P.S. I did some intense socializing recently with my Romanian fellows. I love a good protest -- this was against the Rosia Montana project. A Canadian corporation is planning to overtake the ancient Dacian/Roman gold mines from Rosia Montana and use tons of cyanide in order to extract the precious metals. Quite a few people think they should not be doing that, so for over a month we spent some quality time out in the streets... It looks, feels, is fabulous! I cannot recommend this civic exercise highly enough Walking for at least five hours throughout the city every Sunday evening together with a few thousand fellow protesters can do wonders for one's trust in humanity:
Indeed, from what I read and contrary to what I intuitively believed, the Dacians were not that big on grilling. And because, according to 23andme, I have "TT genotype at rs2294008, which means 4.18 times the odds of diffuse-type stomach cancer", I will stay away from grilled meat and pickles. No processed meat, either, since the Dacians didn't have nitrites.
So I am starting this ancestral diet at my usual 61 kg, with Anti-Gliadins of around 20, Anti-TPO of over 700, on a 37.5 mcg of Levothyrox and daily magnesium supplementation. Here is a summary of my Peaty (but calorie conscious) diet so far:
 |
| As you can see, whenever I push 63 I back off. I could never do otherwise, I find it too depressing and outright dangerous for me... |
And, no, I don't think I suddenly replaced three pounds of fat with three pounds of muscle come June -- I simply used a different scale - a Tanita instead of my usual Withings, which I didn't bother to take with me on vacation. I only brought the blood pressure monitor:
 |
| I only measured my BP when I was not feeling too great... |
I do not mean to entice folks to eat milk, honey, broth and millet, just because I think this might be an improvement over a Peat diet, or the PHD, or LC, or Primal/Paleo.
But since none of the aforementioned diets helped reduce her antibodies, this gluten-sensitive Hashimoto sufferer is willing to experiment with "the Dacian Diet".
I will let you know how it goes...
P.S. I did some intense socializing recently with my Romanian fellows. I love a good protest -- this was against the Rosia Montana project. A Canadian corporation is planning to overtake the ancient Dacian/Roman gold mines from Rosia Montana and use tons of cyanide in order to extract the precious metals. Quite a few people think they should not be doing that, so for over a month we spent some quality time out in the streets... It looks, feels, is fabulous! I cannot recommend this civic exercise highly enough Walking for at least five hours throughout the city every Sunday evening together with a few thousand fellow protesters can do wonders for one's trust in humanity:
Monday, September 30, 2013
Positive Anti-Gliadins After Two Years of a Gluten Free Diet & Early Central European *Farmers* mtDNA?
I don't think so! :)
My maternal haplogroup is N1a, very rare for Europe (0.2%). My ancestry is 99.8 European on a standard 23andme estimate, 100 % on a speculative estimate. One might say I have 50,000 years old mitochondria which were transmitted to me, from mother to daughter from the proverbial European Eve.
Nice! I like to combine that with my O/O Rh- blood type and marvel at my outlandish origins! :)
But scientists also say that, since this is such a rare haplogroup, it helps them determine early migrations. They found it in the ancient LBK pottery culture, among other places, so I keep seeing it associated with the Neolithic farmers who presumably came into Europe and replaced the old Paleolithic hunter-gatherers.
A not uncharacteristic huge leap of my imagination led me to ask:
How come I am gluten sensitive then? Not only mildly sensitive, but after two years of being obsessively gluten-free, my tests still show positive for Anti-Gliadin IgG! So I must be picking up minute quantities of this stuff from cross-contamination and I keep making antibodies!
This makes me think their whole story is wrong, and Dieneke is right when proposing that
So here I am, being bumped out of the genetic picture by hypothyroidism and autoimmunity, possibly brought about by gluten intolerance. So farmers still kick hunter-gatherer butt and I am an example thereof. Nice job, you morons! :)
Okay, fine, you cereal fed killers! We, noble Scythians who loved our grassfed meat and whatever Mother Earth graciously offered us, shall leave this planet to you! Do your disgusting intensive agriculture and pollute it all you want, we won't be on it anymore to witness the damage!
My maternal haplogroup is N1a, very rare for Europe (0.2%). My ancestry is 99.8 European on a standard 23andme estimate, 100 % on a speculative estimate. One might say I have 50,000 years old mitochondria which were transmitted to me, from mother to daughter from the proverbial European Eve.
Nice! I like to combine that with my O/O Rh- blood type and marvel at my outlandish origins! :)
But scientists also say that, since this is such a rare haplogroup, it helps them determine early migrations. They found it in the ancient LBK pottery culture, among other places, so I keep seeing it associated with the Neolithic farmers who presumably came into Europe and replaced the old Paleolithic hunter-gatherers.
A not uncharacteristic huge leap of my imagination led me to ask:
How come I am gluten sensitive then? Not only mildly sensitive, but after two years of being obsessively gluten-free, my tests still show positive for Anti-Gliadin IgG! So I must be picking up minute quantities of this stuff from cross-contamination and I keep making antibodies!
This makes me think their whole story is wrong, and Dieneke is right when proposing that
"So, it is just as likely that N1a may be indigenous to central Europe and the Neolithic was associated with some of the other 18 sequences that were found in the Linear Pottery sample. Indeed, if N1a turns out to be Paleolithic, then the conclusions of their study will be completely reversed, and the great decrease in frequency of N1a would indicate an almost complete replacement of Paleolithic people by Neolithic farmers."I think am a true hunter gatherer at heart and cereal eating was never a forte in my lineage -- we merely survived it somehow.
So here I am, being bumped out of the genetic picture by hypothyroidism and autoimmunity, possibly brought about by gluten intolerance. So farmers still kick hunter-gatherer butt and I am an example thereof. Nice job, you morons! :)
Okay, fine, you cereal fed killers! We, noble Scythians who loved our grassfed meat and whatever Mother Earth graciously offered us, shall leave this planet to you! Do your disgusting intensive agriculture and pollute it all you want, we won't be on it anymore to witness the damage!
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Paleo --> Peat --> Nutrigenetic Diet
That's right, I'm moving on... After trying Paleo and losing on it, besides a few kilos, lots of energy and precious thyroid tissue , I embarked on the Peat style diet and kept that up for eight months. I gained a lot of energy back, I increased my metabolic rate as reflected in my daily calories intake, I stuck to my pre-Paleo weight and I acquired a superior understanding of how my body works. ("Superior", as compared to the blissfully ignorant lifestyle I used to have before my health failed me, but I am sure many of you are way more in tune with their bodies than I can ever hope to be.)
I have been fascinated by deciphering the results of my genetic testing for a few weeks now and I am mesmerized by the potential answers that lie within the field of Nutrigenetics.
I know, this is still in its infancy and there are no "gurus" around to make "following" a nutrigenetic diet an easier journey. Not that I paid attention to the "Peat practitioners" previously as I had been too burned with the Paleo "practitioners" to ever trust any of these folks again, but there is not even a Ray Peat in this emerging field.
So much the better, no noise. These "practitioners" are all self-experimenters who gathered a bit of knowledge, largely from extensive internet browsing, and who have superior online marketing skills. In Peatdom that is so obvious: Peat is making way less money than the astute "practitioners" who "translate" his work for their patients, whom I guess must be people too busy to bother reading all the Peat articles for themselves. The fact that these highly questionable "practitioners" do not only dispense nutritional information without qualification, but they also dabble in hormone supplementation, using a few intuitions of Peat's as "the science behind them" makes me shudder.
But enough of that. I never linked directly to them and if you used them, good luck to you, I hope no harm will ever come your way and I am the one who exaggerates here.
NUTRIGENETICS!
Just like I did not throw away many of the Paleo recommendations when I moved to Peat dieting (as a matter of fact, the valid parts of these diets tend to overlap, see the broth and/or gelatin example, which is carried forward from Paleo to PHD to Peat, in the order in which I discovered them or, rather, from Peat to Paleo to PHD, in their chronological order), I will preserve from the Peat lifestyle whatever worked for me in this self-tailored Nutrigenetic diet.
So, my Nutrigenetic diet will consist of cross-referencing my genetic risks and predispositions with the Peat style diet and adjusting everything so that I may not, well, succumb too early to the diseases that my genes "destined" me to encounter, should I not pay attention to my lifestyle and awaken any of the monsters laying dormant for now.
You see, I have already managed to disturb the Hashimoto monster during my Paleo/ketogenic experiment, and that was a second-rate one, hidden in the background, on the innocuous list of "typical risk factors".
Thus, believe me, I don't want to step on the Type 2 Diabetes or Coronary Heart Disease dragons, which reign supreme on top of my list of high risk, unlucky genetic combinations:
At some point on the same scary list, Hypothyroidism is mentioned, with 3 out of 5 markers indicative of higher risk...:(
It will be a bit awkward to blog about this because that would mean revealing a lot of my genetic make-up. On the other had, so what if I reveal too much information, who is tracking this down and what can they do about it?
The risks associated with that are amply overshadowed by the chance that someone else might benefit, one way or another, from the story of my journey...
But enough of that. I never linked directly to them and if you used them, good luck to you, I hope no harm will ever come your way and I am the one who exaggerates here.
NUTRIGENETICS!
Just like I did not throw away many of the Paleo recommendations when I moved to Peat dieting (as a matter of fact, the valid parts of these diets tend to overlap, see the broth and/or gelatin example, which is carried forward from Paleo to PHD to Peat, in the order in which I discovered them or, rather, from Peat to Paleo to PHD, in their chronological order), I will preserve from the Peat lifestyle whatever worked for me in this self-tailored Nutrigenetic diet.
So, my Nutrigenetic diet will consist of cross-referencing my genetic risks and predispositions with the Peat style diet and adjusting everything so that I may not, well, succumb too early to the diseases that my genes "destined" me to encounter, should I not pay attention to my lifestyle and awaken any of the monsters laying dormant for now.
You see, I have already managed to disturb the Hashimoto monster during my Paleo/ketogenic experiment, and that was a second-rate one, hidden in the background, on the innocuous list of "typical risk factors".
 |
| Between "Scleroderma" and "Essential Tremor" there were a bunch of other conditions. Source: 23andme.com |
 |
| And the list goes on and on and on, unfortunately.. Source: 23andme, I hope they don't mind...:) |
 |
| Alas, it was in the (three) stars... Source: 23andme.com. |
It will be a bit awkward to blog about this because that would mean revealing a lot of my genetic make-up. On the other had, so what if I reveal too much information, who is tracking this down and what can they do about it?
The risks associated with that are amply overshadowed by the chance that someone else might benefit, one way or another, from the story of my journey...
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