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.  

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. 

My favorite part of Trajan's Column is where a bunch of Dacian women, potentially N1a too, possibly my direct ancestors, are torturing two poor naked Roman soldiers. They knew those relentless gluten promoters were up to no good! Get them, Grannies!

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. 

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:

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...

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:

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, 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!

T4 Trials & Tribulations

Ten days ago I treated myself to yet another round of blood tests.

TSH shot up to 2.88 from 0.11, so definitely 25 mcg is too little daily T4 supplementation for me. If 50 mcg was too much, then I guess I need 37.5? I’ll be cutting up pills every night then. Fine.

Magnesium was at the bottom of the acceptable range and calcium was at the top! That’s got to be bad news, right? Maybe that plays a role in the return of my pain and tiredness?

Estrogen doubled yet again. Progesterone increased as well, four times the amount I had when I wrote the “Perfect Ten Progesterone” posting,  however, it is now only twice as much as my estrogen, from ten times the amount. So that’s another piece of bad news.

Anti-TPO’s are falling again, 611 from over 700 (so, still a heck of a lot, they should be below 6!), so moderately good news there, although… I’m not even sure I should bother checking them anymore.

The CA-125 (an ovarian cancer marker) is higher than last year, 45 instead of <35.  I don’t like seeing it progress, needless to say, the more so as my estrogen is rising as well, steadily, if you catch my drift…

Total cholesterol at an all time high: 225, with an LDL of 67. So, still good ratio, but it was 190 five weeks ago… Vacationing in Eastern Europe increases cholesterol, who knew…

For the first time, I did Free T4, Free T3, Total T4, Total T3 and TSH, like so:

The real downer was Total T4, which was under the lower limit! Not by a whole lot, but still! What was that supposed to mean? Lab proof of hypothyroidism?  Or was my body adjusting to the lower dose of supplementation? I can't wait to check it again and to talk to someone about this.

Well, on the other hand, I just read today "Levothyroxine And Lung Cancer In Females: The Importance Of Oxidative Stress", by Umberto Cornelli, Gianni Belcaro, Martino Recchia and Annarosa Finco a very credible study suggesting that too much T4 can cause serious issues as well and that one cannot monitor its amounts carefully enough. I see lots of people living with undetectable TSH levels and that cannot be right either. Inducing hyperthyroidism iatrogenically apparently can cause lung cancer in women.

"During the therapy with LT4 even at the steady state condition a peak of the hormone is evident a couple of hours after the administration and may cause a temporary condition of hyperthyroidism and a further increase of oxidative stress.

Oxidative stress is well documented in hypothyroidism [22-24] and is even worsened through treatment with LT4 [1,2]. The difference between the two conditions is that, in case of hypothyroidisms, oxidative stress is due to the reduction of AO [4], whereas, after the LT4 treatment it stems from overproduction of ROS from mitochondria [5,6].

A very simple method that can be used to measure oxidative stress is related to hydroperoxides content in plasma which is considered a very reliable test compared to other common methods since it shows very limited coefficient of variation [25].

An inverse association with fruit and vegetables consumption and lung cancer recently has been documented recently in the EPIC study for 50 to 59 age group, without an effect on specific histological subtypes [26]."

 So I should start measuring the hydroperoxide levels as well while I fiddle with this dangerous stuff. Also, increase antioxidants intake. I am not so sure about vegetables, finding clean veggies is an ordeal in itself.  I will look into supplements.

How to decrease calcium and estrogen and increase progesterone, magnesium and T4, make CA-125 and Anti-TPOs go away and be happy?

That’s all I’d like to know.

P.S. on August 17, 2013: Actually, the above sounds outdated. Just an old Peatian "reflex".  I no longer believe progesterone is good and estrogen is bad, so I take that back.  I will stop caring about the progesterone/estrogen ratio and worry instead about the level of hydroperoxide in my blood. It sounds like a fair trade-off..:)

Plus, the study I mention gave me a nightmare last night. So maybe I should withdraw a bit from worrying about these things altogether, like the doctor said. Just find the time and organize another seaside session...

P.P.S. I just came across a study that supports my decision to stop considering progesterone such a good guy, a study linking it to the emission of hydrogen peroxide: "Progesterone increases skeletal muscle mitochondrial H2O2 emission in nonmenopausal women". Yep. :( And guess what, estrogen is counteracting it, according to the authors. That makes progesterone less than a hypothyroid woman's best friend, because it promotes oxidative stress. Taking this one step further: maybe it was an excess of my natural progesterone which launched the H2O2 destructive festival which may have brought about my Hashimoto's.


 

Reality Check Feat. Dr. Coculescu

In a posh part of Bucharest, at a luxury clinic where everyone on staff had sheer reverence towards "The Professor", I had this consultation with Dr. Mihail Coculescu, the President of the Romanian Society of Endocrinology. To my surprise, we had a rather extensive chat, by my standards, and by the looks of the still waiting patients. 

As expected, Dr. Coculescu had never heard of Dr. Peat, whose books I had brought along, in the hope that they might capture his interest. Granted, I was not given the opportunity to pitch them properly as Dr. Coculescu had interventions and pointers for me at every step. However, something tells me that he would eventually check out Dr. Peat's work and theories. 

To summarize, he recommended that I simplified my life and quit the path of excessive intellectualization I had embarked upon. Decrypting PubMed articles and becoming fluent in the theories behind Hashimoto's would accomplish nothing. I should be thankful for the easy form of the disease I experience and for its simple (perhaps not even necessary, judging from my last set of blood tests) treatment. 

I could see that Dr. Coculescu was barely registering my suffering and I cannot blame him for one second. I myself felt kind of guilty for insisting on seeing him, when other people, with far more serious problems, were waiting in line by his door. But the harm is done. Refreshingly, he didn't mind this aspect, he even indicated that he would accept my "case", if I decided to switch endocrinologists, so no discrimination there on his side. 

He laughed when I mentioned that I didn't believe Anti-TPOs and Anti-TGOs were killing thyroid tissue and mentioned the "firemen at the place of the fire" analogy. He freely admitted that the science doesn't have all the answers, but refused to admit that I should complicate my life and allow myself to be affected by THAT, i.e. the proverbial things I could not change. 

He insisted that the thyroid, no matter in what shape, whether shredded or inflamed, can still accomplish its function, and that I seemed to have been in that situation.  It is OK if I feel better under T4 treatment, it is just that I should determine the optimal amount of supplementation, because it looks like even 50 mcg is too much for me. 

As to the concept of improper nutrition undoing thyroids, he mentioned the endemic lack of iodine in some places, and how entire populations develop huge goiters -- however, all those thyroid glands do keep working... They huff and they puff but... they do their jobs. So?.. At this point in the conversation, I felt kind of ashamed -- I didn't even have a goiter to complain about... 

I felt like coming out of a tunnel.  Minor twists of perspective performed by "authoritarian figures", to use a Peatism, can work wonders. In that sense, Dr. Coculescu was a tremendous doctor -- and I am convinced that he performed knowingly his "tricks".

They were what I needed and he was too experienced a practitioner not to know it the minute I took out of my purse Dr. Peat's books and my stacks of blood test results...

Whose Hormones Are These?!?

        I just came back from my doctor’s office. 

        The news is intriguing. 

        Luckily, I will see Dr. Coculescu (”the Great”) soon enough. I hope he can explain these developments and advise me accordingly.

        Three weeks have passed since my previous lab tests. My TSH was a nice 1.9, down from 5.21, under 50 mcg of T4 for a few weeks. I was entertaining hopes of going up to 75 mcg of T4 (Levothyrox), an amount not exaggerated for a Hashimoto’s patient of my size. My doctor had opposed the idea (see previous post), although she had wondered about the accuracy of the tests, thinking that they showed too little TSH for such a small amount of supplementation. 

         Lucky me that she didn’t increase my T4 dose, because even continuing with the 50 mcg for these extra three weeks, my TSH is now at a bewildering 0.11!  My T4 is higher than it has ever been, bordering the upper acceptable limit.  Again, lucky me that “mymexicandrugstore” didn’t deliver my T3 on time — I would have headed for a thyroid storm, without a doubt, with T3 supplementation on top of what my body is already producing!

        I didn’t check T3 this time around, but I’d be curious about the TPO antibodies, because, unless they are really high, marking another episode of thyroid destruction and subsequent hormonal flooding, I am not sure what to make of this! 

         Is my thyroid increasing its function of its own accord? Is the Peat diet working wonders on me, with some delays? Am I possessed by a higher metabolic self? 

        The latter option would be in sync with another surprise: a high estrogen level, ten times higher than three weeks ago. I didn’t check progesterone, but I doubt it went 10 times higher as well, so as to keep the Peat favored ratio… But who knows, after all, who would have guessed the thyroid development? 

        Cholesterol is down, but it was never bothersome. Vitamin D3 is hovering on the lower admissible range, so my doctor offered 100.000 units of supplementation — that is how they like to do it in France, with vials of potent liquid stuff, called “Uvedose”. When I was in Cannes last year, I bought them without a prescription from a pharmacy. In Alsace, no such luck.

        She also directed me to decrease my T4 supplements to 25 mcg… 

        I am wondering if my recent hair loss was connected to the exaggeratedly low TSH, rather than the Synthroid type medication or some previous hypothyroid moments that were never captured on lab results.
 
       I could have sworn I would never again see that level of estrogen, let alone that TSH or the T4, but here we go… Maybe with the increased amount of calories, came increased titers of hormones, across the board. Could it be that my body is waking up? Restarting? With all the good and the bad hormonal developments? So...
 
       IS PEAT RIGHT?

What Kills A Thyroid Gland?

Today is International Thyroid Awareness Day.

I am celebrating by posting a few thoughts on the current views of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis.

Many people out there will tell you that autoimmune thyroiditis comes from the thyroid gland being attacked by antibodies. People measure those and try to evaluate their degree of thyroid health by them.

My endocrinologist advised me to stop measuring those things. "Once you have them, they're there for life. Genetics plays a big role. At some point, a stress related event may have triggered them and they would exist in your body, once in a while getting to your thyroid, until they destroy it and render it incapable of doing its job". So, according to her, there is no way to go but down and measuring antibodies levels is not constructive or conducive to any worthwhile conclusions. I have to admit, despite my continuing efforts and gluten free diet, the results of my own lab tests indicate she might have a point... Unfortunately...

Dr. Datis Kharazzian, who has a best selling book on Hashimoto's, thinks one can balance the immune system and thus stop the killing of the thyroid. He says Th1 and Th2 cells are out of balance in Hashimoto's and that all the patient has to do is bring them back into the desired equilibrium. He offers combinations of nutrients that would boost either Th1 or Th2.

Dimitry Chistiacov's study, "Immunogenetics of Hashimoto's thyroiditis", published in the "Journal of Autoimmune Diseases" in March, 2005, seems to indicate that it is only the Th1 cells that are to blame for the said destruction. So, if you believe in Dr. Kharazzian's balancing of the immune system you may combine it with the results of this study and go for increasing Th2 right off the bat.

Dr. Alexander Haskell (link to the right) thinks that autoantibodies (Anti-TPO and Anti-TGO) are not the culprits in this scenario. He says they are simply there to clean the thyroid cell debris and that lack of specific nutrients is the culprit for the destruction that does occur at the thyroid gland level. He isolates iodine among those and this has caused some serious rebuttals of his vision (as iodine deficiency is hardly a problem in the US.) If he hadn't emphasize iodine, his theory would have actually sounded a lot more credible - and it is my favorite, still...

Like Dr. Haskell, Ray Peat does not believe in "autoimmune diseases" and the body's feasting on itself via antibodies, like those described above. He thinks that the thyroid does get destroyed (like many other organs) and that this is a process of degeneration, a result of insufficient supply of energy at the cell level. A nutrition blunder, if you will.

His view is consistent with the symptoms I have had after my Paleo time -- and, apparently, more and more people come out of their low carb experiments with damaged thyroid glands.

But let us go back to D. Chistiacov's study mentioned above, from which I have stolen the graphic above (I am giving it back if there are any complaints). His description of how things go wrong in Hashimoto's is representative for the scientific community's viewpoint. Indeed, my own doctor told me about the "strong genetic component" to Hashimoto's, to which environmental triggers are added.

Incorrect nutrition is not considered a factor in this study. However, infection and pregnancy are...

A key phrase in D. Chistiacov's paper remains:

 "The mechanisms, whereby autoreactive T cells escape deletion and anergy, and become activated, remain uncertain. "

This leaves the field still open to many interpretations, in my mind, including that of Dr. Peat and Dr. Haskell -- that the said breakdowns of cells are primarily caused by issues other than our own cells gone crazy and that we can stop or even reverse that destruction through a combination of nutrition, lifestyle and supplementation. I will attempt in full Dr. Haskell's protocol (described in his video series) once I have the necessary ingredients and let you know how it goes.

Thyroid Gland Physiology, Musings, Gadgets...

...by Dr. Adeleke Adesina. More videos like this on http://www.ftplectures.com/:

-- a subscription is required, free for the first three days. Another free video on "Thyroid Storm" can be found on YouTube.

Can a thyroid gland ever come back from Hashimoto's? My ultrasound shows that destruction of the gland has happened. It is not clear to me whether it is still going on. I do have some moments when I feel BETTER, as in almost hyperthyroid... So that would be consistent either with continued destruction and cleaning of debris by antibodies (which have considerably diminished in the past year) or with slow regaining of function and improvement. It will be interesting to have the same doctor perform an ultrasound in the near future and compare the results with the previous ones.

A few studies out there let me believe that the thyroid can indeed be destroyed by incorrect nutrition and rebuilt in the presence of high TSH and low T4.  I have both, as well as normal T3.  My doctor said I should not supplement with thyroid hormones unless I reach a TSH of 10 (I am currently at 7) or I run into serious symptoms.

Since I started eating Peat style, I can say that my energy has increased a whole lot.

I have also had a series of bacterial infections, in my left ear, the last of which has been extremely virulent, to the point that surgery was considered an option. I had very high fever and then...

And then, I don't know if this is temporary or not, but I have been pretty much walking on air! I am still trying to understand how this happened and what is it that makes me feel not good, but GREAT! Again, I hope it was not an episode of thyroid destruction that released lots of T3 and T4 into the bloodstream.

If my next thyroid numbers are awesome, I will attribute this to the Peat lifestyle, without a doubt.

If the antibodies have increased, I will not be too happy -- that means that further destruction has occurred.

But I want to get to the bottom of this diet experience by following Dr. Georgia Ede's example, namely doing readings of blood glucose and frequent blood tests and pulse and tension and recording properly everything that happens to me. I should also keep a serious diary with all this, but I am reluctant to do it here, it might make this blog too messy with a mix of personal experience and science and thoughts about diets and what not. Maybe I should start a separate blog for the daily diet experience, connected here in the upper tabs...

I need to round up some equipment in order to do this. I had set my eyes on the Withings smart body analyzer and their blood pressure monitor. I could do some mean graphs without even trying using those... Besides, I needed a good excuse to get them.

So, lots of work ahead, but that's alright, 'cuz now I've got the energy!