One Year Later

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.

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. 

Aspirin Will Cost Us In the Long Run. Low Estrogen/High Progesterone Exists!

The Peatian news of the day has to be Noah Buhayar's article on Bloomberg.com about aspirin becoming such a burden to the cost of healthcare... because it protects so many from cancer!

I have not started supplementing with aspirin. The idea that then I would have to add K2 to my regimen and balance these guys out is truly not something I look forward to (especially that both can do some damage, in the wrong dose, they are not harmless little substances).

***
Yesterday I started reading Dr. Sara Gottfried's "The Hormone Cure", because I had read the reviews and many raved about how well she explains their interplay.

I took her hormone quizz online and the results hit pretty much where I expected.  So, to all the women out there who think there is no such thing as progesterone dominance or women who are not in need of progesterone, because they would instantly turn it into the evil estrogen, check out my results:

High Cortisol.  It sounds like you are unlikely to have high cortisol at this point, which is great (...)

Low Thyroid.  There’s a good chance you are low in thyroid hormone (...)

Low Estrogen.  There’s a good chance you are low in estrogen (...)

Low Cortisol.  There’s a good chance you are low in cortisol. (...)

Low Progesterone.  You are unlikely to have low progesterone. Congratulations! (...)

High Estrogen.  You are unlikely to have estrogen dominance. (...)

High Androgens.  You are unlikely to have high androgens. (...)

For whatever this is worth, my recommendation for any woman out there considering hormone therapy is to take Dr. Gottfried's test or, better yet, to check your hormone levels before you decide you are "estrogen dominant" and start the "bioidentical hormone" supplementation, be it with pregnenolone or progesterone. Reading Ray Peat's and others' fabulous experiences is one thing, taking the decision to go that route on one's own is another.

Balance the time you spend on forums with time you spend with doctors or reading their books and using their free online resources. Just because you run on a discussion group into a woman who seems smart and knowledgeable and who did some things that worked for her and then she went out of her way to recommend them using Ray Peat's work and quoting his instructions to her as endorsements doesn't mean you have found YOUR answer! Nobody is evil in this equation, everyone is being super nice and tries to be helpful -- but hormone supplementation can have serious consequences and you need all the qualified, personalized help you can get when you do it.

I learned this the hard way, unfortunately!