Showing posts with label truth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label truth. Show all posts
Thursday, July 25, 2013
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...
Monday, June 10, 2013
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?
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?
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
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:
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:
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.
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.
“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.
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 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".
(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.
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Ray Peat's "Autoimmunity As Degeneration" Theory Wins Beauty Contest
Something makes me at the same time suspicious and trusting of Raymond Peat’s theories of what happens at the cellular level: their beauty.
Are they too beautiful to be true or could they be true because life is beautiful and we are programmed to perceive it that way? In other words, is beauty in the eye of the beholder, as in “biologically embedded” and are we "encoded" to recognize truth by its beauty and the other way around? Should we maybe trust beauty as a measure of truth at a biological level? Or should we, on the contrary, regard it as an artifact, an artist’s interpretation of things that can hardly be beautiful in and of themselves?
However, Keats’ “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” seems to chime a background bell throughout Raymond’s Peat elegant articles.
Beauty does appear elsewhere in science as well, and in some of these places Raymond Peat distrusts it. As in the autoimmune disease theory, according to which our own immune system, designed to protect us from external attacks, somehow (mysteriously, because to my knowledge nobody has managed to describe convincingly the process) turns its proverbial “guns” against the self tissues and goes on a rampage, causing the “victim” to suffer sometimes mild, other times life threatening consequences. There is drama in this theory, there is betrayal, there is misfortune, destiny is involved (some of these diseases are genetic, of course!), there are the good guys, the guards protecting the princess, who then, under some yet unknown evil charm, become these abominable monsters who hijack and torture her and there should science come on a white doctoral horse and rescue the poor victim, returning the guardians to their former protective personalities…
Ah, the legendary sound of it! It make a lot of "sense", right? Maybe too much so? "Metaphysical medicine", as Peat might say... A new theory is needed, one more in sync with... truth, of course! So Ray Peat comes up with the following scenario (dramatization is mine, just to make it easier):
Autoimmunity is simply a monster that creeps in the body under the form of malnutrition. It is the owner of the body who, without suspecting a thing, submits his beautiful innards to the havoc of depletion of all kinds. Stupid fool! As this Dorian Gray with a portrait hidden in his mitochondria parties on, his body is subtly failing, by the day, SADly, until it cannot hold it together anymore, and the chain breaks somewhere and symptoms start. Enter doctors, on their white horses, not much more intelligent than the stupid person in question, and even more dangerous, because armed with bad science. In a big hurry to keep track of all the stupid fools that are waiting in line in all those hospitals and doctor’s offices, they rush to prescribe stupid medication that, added to our stupid fool’s stupid diet breaks even more havoc and the inner chain breaks somewhere else and the poor body starts really acting up, throwing tantrums of its own, and it is good bye health, hello “autoimmunity”! Enter other stupid doctors, causing even more havoc, believing in the stupid theory of the body attacking itself, and they prescribe medication that would kill some of the body but at least prevent pain. Ah, this is too painful to describe to the end, I will leave it here.
But... This is beautiful, too!
So much romanticism, so much drama in these scenarios! Who needs TV shows when we have doctors and bad science? Or do we need TV shows precisely to forget about them?
The important question remains: does good science embed good narratives as well?
I don’t remember physics being so full of drama. Chemistry, however… All those electron exchanges and concatenations and reactions… That’s some serious action.
So… Maybe drama is embedded in our biology. And beauty is a sign of truth. Wouldn't it be nice if it could function as a criteria — if a higher degree of beauty would point towards a higher level of truth? All we would need in that perfect world would be theoretical beauty contests to decide where our answers are...
Which theory on autoimmunity do I find more aesthetically pleasing, the commonly held scenario in which the immune system attacks self for unknown reasons or Dr. Peat’s proposed script: we harm ourselves through bad nutrition and then run into degeneration?
I would go for Dr. Peat’s, because I tend to consider people not very smart, on average, and when they get together and create dietary trends, they become totally untrustworthy and likely to go into collective trouble. I believe that the intelligence embedded in our tissues is far superior to the power of our intelligent minds and to our current scientific comprehension. We are more stupid than our bodies, if you will — we have not yet risen to understanding the way they work and we are tragically incapable to sustain and protect their optimal functioning.
So my vote goes to Dr. Peat, whose beautiful theory on degeneration embeds that particular truth.
Are they too beautiful to be true or could they be true because life is beautiful and we are programmed to perceive it that way? In other words, is beauty in the eye of the beholder, as in “biologically embedded” and are we "encoded" to recognize truth by its beauty and the other way around? Should we maybe trust beauty as a measure of truth at a biological level? Or should we, on the contrary, regard it as an artifact, an artist’s interpretation of things that can hardly be beautiful in and of themselves?
However, Keats’ “Beauty is truth, truth beauty” seems to chime a background bell throughout Raymond’s Peat elegant articles.
Beauty does appear elsewhere in science as well, and in some of these places Raymond Peat distrusts it. As in the autoimmune disease theory, according to which our own immune system, designed to protect us from external attacks, somehow (mysteriously, because to my knowledge nobody has managed to describe convincingly the process) turns its proverbial “guns” against the self tissues and goes on a rampage, causing the “victim” to suffer sometimes mild, other times life threatening consequences. There is drama in this theory, there is betrayal, there is misfortune, destiny is involved (some of these diseases are genetic, of course!), there are the good guys, the guards protecting the princess, who then, under some yet unknown evil charm, become these abominable monsters who hijack and torture her and there should science come on a white doctoral horse and rescue the poor victim, returning the guardians to their former protective personalities…
Ah, the legendary sound of it! It make a lot of "sense", right? Maybe too much so? "Metaphysical medicine", as Peat might say... A new theory is needed, one more in sync with... truth, of course! So Ray Peat comes up with the following scenario (dramatization is mine, just to make it easier):
Autoimmunity is simply a monster that creeps in the body under the form of malnutrition. It is the owner of the body who, without suspecting a thing, submits his beautiful innards to the havoc of depletion of all kinds. Stupid fool! As this Dorian Gray with a portrait hidden in his mitochondria parties on, his body is subtly failing, by the day, SADly, until it cannot hold it together anymore, and the chain breaks somewhere and symptoms start. Enter doctors, on their white horses, not much more intelligent than the stupid person in question, and even more dangerous, because armed with bad science. In a big hurry to keep track of all the stupid fools that are waiting in line in all those hospitals and doctor’s offices, they rush to prescribe stupid medication that, added to our stupid fool’s stupid diet breaks even more havoc and the inner chain breaks somewhere else and the poor body starts really acting up, throwing tantrums of its own, and it is good bye health, hello “autoimmunity”! Enter other stupid doctors, causing even more havoc, believing in the stupid theory of the body attacking itself, and they prescribe medication that would kill some of the body but at least prevent pain. Ah, this is too painful to describe to the end, I will leave it here.
But... This is beautiful, too!
So much romanticism, so much drama in these scenarios! Who needs TV shows when we have doctors and bad science? Or do we need TV shows precisely to forget about them?
The important question remains: does good science embed good narratives as well?
I don’t remember physics being so full of drama. Chemistry, however… All those electron exchanges and concatenations and reactions… That’s some serious action.
So… Maybe drama is embedded in our biology. And beauty is a sign of truth. Wouldn't it be nice if it could function as a criteria — if a higher degree of beauty would point towards a higher level of truth? All we would need in that perfect world would be theoretical beauty contests to decide where our answers are...
Which theory on autoimmunity do I find more aesthetically pleasing, the commonly held scenario in which the immune system attacks self for unknown reasons or Dr. Peat’s proposed script: we harm ourselves through bad nutrition and then run into degeneration?
I would go for Dr. Peat’s, because I tend to consider people not very smart, on average, and when they get together and create dietary trends, they become totally untrustworthy and likely to go into collective trouble. I believe that the intelligence embedded in our tissues is far superior to the power of our intelligent minds and to our current scientific comprehension. We are more stupid than our bodies, if you will — we have not yet risen to understanding the way they work and we are tragically incapable to sustain and protect their optimal functioning.
So my vote goes to Dr. Peat, whose beautiful theory on degeneration embeds that particular truth.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)