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".

Between "Scleroderma" and "Essential Tremor" there were a bunch of other conditions. Source: 23andme.com

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:

And the list goes on and on and on, unfortunately.. Source: 23andme, I hope they don't mind...:)

At some point on the same scary list, Hypothyroidism is mentioned, with 3 out of 5 markers indicative of higher risk...:(

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...

My Blood Glucose Makes Me Find Out About Ray Peat's Cancer Survival

Never a dull moment.

I had acquired a glucose meter in preparation for the documentation of my Peat style diet. I used it a few times when I received it, just to get the hang of it. I was a little surprised by the results -- 98 fasting, 102 post prandial... I figured it must be the sugar in the Peat diet that made the difference -- I had always been under 90 before.

The day before yesterday, I checked again my fasting glucose level. 111!!! What?!?

I freaked out. Later that day, I had 102 before lunch, 103 after lunch. Yesterday, 102 fasting, 109 post-prandial. Today, 109 fasting...

Which sent me into a googling frenzy, of course, and this came up:

Typically, blood glucose levels are unaffected by hypothyroidism because insulin sensitivity is not altered. In fact, in patients utilizing exogenous insulin, there may be a decrease in insulin requirements from reduced insulin degradation. Therefore, typically, glucose remains stable or improves while a person is hypothyroid. Once thyroid treatment is initiated, patient education and close observation is vital because normalization of the thyroid may potentially lead to higher blood glucose levels and loss of diabetes control.

(From "Diabetes and Thyroid Disease: A Likely Combination" by Jennal L. Johnson, MS, RNC, FNP, CDE, and Daniel S. Duick, MD, FACP, FACE, published in Diabetes Spectrum Volume 15, Number 3, 2002)

Basically, I might have become insulin resistant, or pre-diabetic, a tendency that thrived on my lovely Peat diet. My low thyroid levels were masking that development! Could this be actually the reason behind the down regulation of my hormones? They may have kept it all in check for me. Some argue -- and intuitively I believe them -- that the body is truly smart and should not be second guessed... Sometimes, a slowered metabolism and impaired functionality are the body's way to deal with severe issues, from Lyme disease to... diabetes, why not? I sure have the genes for it, unfortunately.

Now I have to watch this development. No fun at all. I think I need to let go of sugar. I know, I know, what an unPeatian thing to do, right? Besides, those results are not so bad and they may represent a temporary spike, caused by T4 supplementation. I should be so lucky!

I kept googling and found out that someone with full blown diabetes went on a certain forum and obtained some thoughtful advice from a certain "female German" user. The latter, true to her habit, and with best intentions, no doubt, spared no effort and wrote lengthy, persuasive messages, pushing progesterone by the spoonful, sugar, salt and such... But in the heat of the argumentation and the throes of admiration from her newly found patient, she let go off a piece of information that sent my head spinning. You be the judge:

“Once I asked Ray Peat about PAP testing and what could be done if the PAP test came back with a bad result. He told me this was a way to threaten women into unnecessary procedures. If you used vitamin A, vitamin E and progesterone and thyroid, both orally and topically - you would be fine within a month. He'd given this advice to many women over the last 50 years and it always worked. He'd thought about it when he had pre-cancerous and cancerous lesions in his mouth and used vitamin A and E and pregnenolone and thyroid to heal them (which they did). He realized that the mucous of the mouth was similar to that of the vagina. I have given this advice to many women during the last couple of years. It always worked.”

I had never read before that the man himself had dealt with oral cancer... Let alone that he cured it with vitamin A, vitamin E, thyroid and pregnenolone...

No progesterone? I wonder why…

And, most of all, I wonder how I feel about just finding out that my new diet hero had 1. "cancerous lesions" 2. in his mouth 3. where he used to administer himself experimental doses of progesterone 4. which is considered by some carcinogenic and angiogenic 5. on the background of a diet with lots of sugar, coffee, and with tons of components considered by others, well, unhealthy and cancer-promoting.

It is all about context, right?

And yes, I do realize that Ray Peat was subjected to recreational radiation in his youth. I would have hoped that his diet beat cancer by a safe margin, though...

I also did notice that Ray Peat uses most vitamins and supplements topically now. "As a precaution"...

However, I remember the same zealous Peatarian (aka Rayser?) was strongly advocating the use of progesterone on another thread, together with Vitamin K and other such treats, for someone else who was battling lung cancer. 

Both "patients" advised by Peatarian abruptly stopped writing on that board.

I hope they are OK...

I will abruptly stop reading "testimonials" and abruptly wonder more than ever. Maybe this blog should not even exist, it draws attention to a current that has a few rabid proponents who can cause quite a bit of harm in their healing attempts. That is why I am not even linking to those threads, google for yourselves, maybe they are still up there... Things do become invisible on that forum!

The mind boggles.


I don't even want to comment on the "mucous of the mouth was similar to that of the vagina" part and the fact that both Peat and Peatarian reportedly have been healing cervical cancer with progesterone used "topically". 

I learned a whole lot from Ray Peat and from many of his followers. Generally, they are open minded -- which makes them permeable to Peat's contrarian ideas to begin with.

Too bad a few of his followers out there are truly scary.

(On another thread, people were discussing Ray Peat’s “scratchy” voice. Not one brought up the cancer in his past as a possible explanation. What a sinister “community”! Under the appearance of freedom of expression and genuine care, a bunch of zealots censor everybody to the point that that entire board perversely turns into a persuasive advertisement for Ray Peat and Ray Peat practitioners' methods!) 

May my shield of common sense stay up. I need it. I don't think that most doctors are stupid and evil, nor that most studies are flawed. And while I still like Ray Peat a whole lot and I am grateful for all the new understanding he brought into my life, after time consuming research and pondering, I have reached the conclusion that he cherry-picks with the best of them and nobody should stop his or her search for health on his site.

Time to say good bye to much of the sugar I enjoyed so far. It is simply not worth it. I am at higher risk for diabetes, 25% more than the norm, according to my genetic imprint, why push it?

Besides, since the diet and supplements he advocates did not prevent Peat from having to deal with cancer (and I wonder if I shouldn't add, "on the contrary"?) it makes all the more sense to me that there may be some truth in the findings of those who say that sugar favors tumors and that progesterone favors angiogenesis and growth of new tissue. 

Biohackers or Simply Hacks?

“You should know that there’s a different way to live: you can feel delicious, vital, and genuinely content. I’m here to show you that you can live an extraordinary life and that you can feel great—regardless of your age, even if it sounds unlikely or unimaginable.”

(Dr. Sara Gottfried, “The Hormone Cure”, Scribner, 2013)

I would have read such statements with more than a bit of skepticism until a few days ago, when precisely this feeling of vitality and happiness took me by surprise and proved to me more than any book that what I have been experiencing for the past few years were hormonal imbalances.

I will get to the bottom of this and will “biohack” my way into making this glorious feeling permanent, whatever it takes.

I am now sure that my body has not been damaged consistently in any way by any autoimmune disease, that my connective tissues are healthy and that I would be contemplating a second part of my life in perfect health and feeling wonderfully vibrant if only I could find the right paths for my diet and, if need be, dietary supplementation.

I might have caught this at the turning point, where everything goes wrong starting from the most fragile tissues in one’s body: the thyroid gland, perhaps the thymus (more research necessary on this one). And I feel guilty for maybe having brought this upon myself by listening to a bunch of health gurus of the blogosphere: Catherine Shanahan, Mark Sisson, Dr. Jack Kruse, Chris Kresser, etc.

Having been burned once, I will keep a very watchful eye on all the “Ray Peat Practitioners” who write about health and give advice out there. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I am examining their output, their relationships and the complex online marketing system which they are actively building as we speak.

And I am reading as many scientific studies as I can as I go through Dr. Peat’s main theories and advice.