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.

Perfect 10 Progesterone & Other Curious Findings

I finished reading Dr. Raymond Peat’s book “From PMS to Menopause. Female Hormones In Context” and I am now (re)reading the articles collected in "Nutrition For Women". I will soon write review those. For now, I will just comment on my test results.

In his book, Ray Peat recommends a ratio from five to ten times more progesterone than estrogen in serum levels. He does, on several occasions, mention the possibility of progesterone’s turning into “other hormones”, but he never takes this idea to its full consequence, namely, natural progesterone's possible final transformation into Public Enemy No. 1, estrogen. I think that, sooner or later, he should address this, because it is an important part of the hormonal equation, one that has not received the necessary focus up to now.

Drum rolls, please, as my progesterone levels were exactly TEN TIMES the amount of my estrogen, many weeks after my short Progest-E experiment, when I felt things had returned back to normal. Not five, not six, not seven... Perfect 10 me! 

(So, well, I was right all along, and those who tried to tell me my symptoms stemmed from a potential “liver issue” better learn that their imaginary knowledge of how hormones can affect one would be best not shared out there. Also, if a woman describes previously non-existent symptoms of estrogen and cortisol spikes after taking natural progesterone, you can believe her, although Dr. Peat and other proponents of natural progesterone never explicitly discuss the possibility.)

I also had good levels of DHEAs. I am sorry I didn't check my pregnenolone, I forgot, but I soon will.

Now, for the thyroid part of my labs: despite supplementation of 50 mcg of T4 for almost a month, my levels of T3 and T4 are only slightly changed. That is, T3 decreased a tiny bit, but it was already in mid-range, from 2.55 to 2.43, in a range of 1.71-3.71 pg/ml. T4 went from 13.4 to 13.52 in a range of 12-22 pmol/l, so it’s still lagging towards the lower part of the admissible spectrum, Levothyroxine or no Levothyroxine. TSH was the only one that took a spectacular dive, from 5.21 to 1.90, on range of 0.21 to 4.60 mui/l. This made my GP happy, albeit a bit mistrusting of the Romanian labs, so I will repeat them here in two weeks or so. I wanted to move up to 75 mcg of T4, but she said that would not be warranted and that raising my metabolism was not what she had in mind, to begin with — just getting rid of the TSH, while settling in the thyroid range my body chooses, as long as that is within what is considered normal.

I can understand her wish to tamper with key metabolic things as little as possible. However, if I ever receive my T3 supplements (I ordered them online at mymexicandrugstore.mx), I will try to supplement a little bit of that and see how I feel.

For the bad news of the day, after one year of constant and considerable decline, my TPO antibodies rose again, from 535 to 731 (normal: below 5.61!) The TGO antibodies have decreased (could this be due to the Anatabloc supplementation?) and are now within acceptable limits — but they were never that high to begin with (from 4.25 to 3.52, they should be below 4.11.)

Anyway, I do feel better with this (loosely) Peatian diet and the little T4 I am taking. I have more zest for life, more energy and my circadian rhythms are excellent — at night, there is this magnificent tired feeling, like when I was a child and I would drop in the evening, brain foggy, muscles tired, to only wake up in the morning, refreshed and ready to take on a new day. This is in itself a superb achievement and might bring with it a lot of good.

Let me not forget my “pre-diabetic” story. It turns out one should never buy cheap blood sugar monitors. After so much worrying about it, the serum glucose lab test revealed a nice 84 in a range of 60 to 105 mg/dl. My home measurement that morning: over 110. So I stopped DIY-ing in this department. 

Heart: curiously high diastolic pressure, more often than not, and a puny pulse pressure.

You can see from the upper part of the graph above that I am trying my hardest to push my calories intake and my body reacts, by packing on pounds. I fight back by reducing calories, only to start again pushing my luck. I am curious if I changed anything after all this effort, if I went past 1600 calories a day while maintaining my weight -- I shall soon check on Cronometer. 

And finally, in the ears department: another infection, this time in the right ear. I took cyprofloxacine. The otolaryngologist said I should maybe consider a CT scan or an X-ray. I said no way. She insisted, maybe at least an ultrasound? I already did that and they found nothing, just some inflamed lymph nodes. She still seemed worried. I told her about my progesterone and pregnenolone supplementation and the ear pains and now the repetitive infections — she said she would not be surprised if those played a role, because the ears are lined with mucous tissue and they react to hormones.

Dr. C.I. Parhon: A True Pioneer of Endocrinology

I decided to take a short trip to Romania and visit my father. He is doing great, no health issues whatsoever -- I am so proud of him!

I wanted to take advantage of being in Bucharest to check in with the endocrinologist who diagnosed my Hashimoto's last year, maybe discuss my current treatment options with her, but she was on a maternal leave.

As I was trying to find a good alternative, I made a fabulous discovery: there is an entire hospital attached to an institute devoted to endocrinology in Bucharest! The National Institute of Endocrinology was founded in 1946 by Dr. Constantin I. Parhon, who wrote, with Moise Goldstein, the very first treaty of endocrinology, over 800 pages, published in French, in 1909!

There are 42 medical doctors specializing in endocrinology working at the hospital which can host 400 patients. There is a research facility as well, which just got 10 million euros in funding, so things look quite promising... Maybe Dr. Ray Peat should be invited to test some of his theories?

The incredible Dr. Parhon also became the first president of Romania, when the King was forced to abdicate! How about THAT?

Dr. Parhon's fabulous accomplishments include founding yet another hospital, dedicated to old people this time, the first Geriatrics Hospital in the world -- as Parhon considered old age more of a disease than a natural state.

Parhon appointed a woman as director of this Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics, presumably a former student and follower of his, Dr. Ana Aslan.   She went on to develop a line of youth promoting products that attracted quite a following (A. Onassis, J. Kennedy were among her clients). I think I will try to get a hold of these patented products, "the first medicine designed to delay human aging processes".  And I am in the process of locating a copy of Dr. Parhon's book "Old Age and Its Treatment".

I almost feel grateful to my Hashimoto's for enlarging my horizon... Um... Not really.

I figured there must be some pretty impressive endocrinologists in Bucharest, with such an outstanding school behind them, so I pursued my research.

I scheduled an appointment with none other than the Head of the Romanian Society of Endocrinology, Dr. Mihai Coculescu, whose impressive list of publications on PubMed and whose views on thyroid and estrogen went straight to my heart.  I'm thinking I should bring him Dr. Peat's books, maybe something develops... It would be worthwhile to see Dr. Peat invited to one of these mainstream congresses of endocrinologists. Anyway, the RSE publishes Acta Endocrinologica since...1938. It also publishes "The Romanian Journal of Diabetes, Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases".

I bought for five dollars, from the selection of a street vendor in Bucharest, "Clinical Endocrinology", published in 1976, authored by two of Parhon's collaborators, Stefan Milcu and Marcela Pitis, to which Dr. Coculescu, back then a young research assistant, is listed as a top contributor.

Here is Dr. Coculescu, delivering a speech at the Romanian Academy (in Romanian):

He talks about another illustrious Romanian endocrinologist I knew nothing about, Dr. Paulescu, who first discovered insulin, in 1921.  Dr. Paulescu is a controversial figure because of his antisemitic views.  Many claim that he was robbed of his Nobel prize.

Dr. Parhon is not much talked about in Romania nowadays because he was a communist. I guess Dr. Parhon was either inspired, or a student of Dr. Paulescu's. As Dr. Parhon was openly opposing antisemitism, his relationship with Paulescu must have been at least strained. Fascinating...

Back to 2013: confident that Romania boasts a mighty tradition of endocrinology, I crowned my stay in sunny Bucharest with another doctor's visit and a panel of brand new blood tests, of which I might soon write.

Dr. Peat vs. Dr. Servan-Schreiber, SOS Medecins, Dr. Gershon and Oysters

So what if Dr. Peat had cancer... I read Dr. David Servan-Schreiber's book "Anticancer" precisely because he was a cancer survivor. He had brain cancer at 31, survived for 20 years with a diet rich in vegetables, fish, vegetable oils, curcuma, green tea. I guess one might say that his views are quite the opposite of Dr. Peat's.

It would be interesting to know when did Dr. Peat have his terrible encounter with cancer, but if he did not make that public, it is his choice, I guess.

I know that one cannot compare these diseases, least of all someone without a medical education like myself, but still, if Dr. Peat didn't have any more issues after a diet such as his, his very state of health might be interpreted as a sign that Dr. Servan-Schreiber's diet may not be the answer and it would be really too bad that it has become the norm in the fight against cancer?

I will be seeing my doctor again, after two episodes of ... I don't know what that was. Generalized numbness. My blood glucose was 135 during the first episode. I ended up calling SOS Medecins (an association of doctors doing house calls for emergencies, very cool).  I did not impress the doctor who came, he bet on a magnesium deficiency and panic attack and said the blood glucose had gone up because I got scared. Of course I got scared. Here I was, reading peacefully, when I realize something is funny. The tips of my hands cannot feel the page, the soles of my feet cannot feel the ground... I scratch my head and cannot feel the roots of my hair, touch my face, cannot feel the fingers on it... Good Lord!

The next day it happened again, at the same time, around 5 p.m. and it lasted even longer, almost until I fell asleep.

Yesterday I tried a "trick". In the morning, I didn't take my 37.5 mcg of T4, nor any other supplements except  magnesium and 5 o'clock came and went without funny feelings. I took the T4 at night, as Dr. Peat advises, to improve sleep and counteract the TSH on the rise. As I type this, the back of my hands feel sort of numb. The face too, a bit. This is stupid. One and a half hour to go till I see my doctor. I can drive and walk, just that everything is bizarre. For instance, if I clench my fists together real hard, I can only feel some pain in the muscles, next to the bones, but no sensation on the skin.

I started reading Dr. Michael Gershon's book "The Second Brain -Your Gut Has A Mind of His Own". Excellent!

But it took away all desire to eat oysters, just as I had made up my mind to not let another week go by without eating at least a dozen.

(Do all these wonderful experts have to contradict each other with equal persuasion? How come Ray Peat, who is so careful about toxins, recommends oysters, despite their being these natural filters of filth next to our shores?)

Reading Gershon's story about that one sailor taking a dump in the sea during oyster harvesting and then getting so many people sick with the same bug he was carrying, all traceable back to him, cured all desire of fresh oysters I might have had. And his comments about the globalized food market and the handlers of food and the differences in microbial flora and the way things work at the colon's level made me contemplate with remorse the reckless food habits I had during my trips to SE Asia or even the forays to the local Asian markets. Just because the local people could eat all that wonderful food without any health issues did not mean I was supposed to, as well.

Who knows what is going on with me...

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. 

Withings Led to Levothyroxine

I love the new Withings toys.

They allowed me to move on.

Seeing my diastolic pressure so high and hearing about those awesome post-fever days helped my doctor make up her mind and put me on T4 supplementation -- despite new results indicating a decrease in TSH, from 7.12 to 5.21!  I didn't even have to bring it up, she decided quite firmly that it was time for me to go on that route.

So I started on the 13th of April with 25 mcg of Levothyroxine. I will double it to 50 mcg in a few days and then go check my free T4 and TSH again.

The first three days were quite amazing, but not in the "after-fever" way I described previously. My body accelerated pace. However, harmony is still not here and I am left to actively search for that elusive balance I have been experiencing for a while.

There are things I don't like about myself in this way of eating, something is clearly off and I can't quite pinpoint it. I feel better and more energized than on the Paleo diet, but some nights are not that great and I sometimes feel this strain. It's hard to describe. I can feel my rib cage, if it makes any sense -- hence, my compulsive measurements on the Withings BP monitor. Who knows... I was probably developing something and this diet causes it to stand out more? Or is it from the diet itself?

I am not sure what I should give up in order to feel better. I am reluctant to give up sugar, my newly rediscovered friend. If I give up dairy there is nothing much left to eat... Coffee? It would be such a pity!

I already don't feel like eating starches anymore, they have quickly moved into "irrelevant" territory for me. It's funny, really, from one of my favorite (forbidden) foods when low carbing, potatoes have become again a massive bore. Like when I was a child and they were this personal enemy on my plate -- just massive "foodstuff", lacking all taste, a lot like pasta and bread... Yucky fillers people had to eat for unfathomable reasons...

Rice (with milk, sugar and vanilla flavor) is the only starch I still eat, in small quantities. So, I guess I am doing a cross between a Peat diet and a PHD diet. Which brings me on a rather balanced dietary route, really -- the more so as I have never really started the Peat-crowd-favored supplements -- no pregnenolone, progesterone, K2, aspirin, niacinamide, cascara sagrada, etc.  I even gave up on the baking soda baths after noticing they brought about episodes of high diastolic BP, after an initial relaxation.

I will start experimenting again with some of those maybe -- just never again with pregnenolone and progesterone. Reading a bunch of articles and books really calmed down all desire to believe that "bioidentical" progesterone is in any way better than progestins (no studies to show it) and when I looked into the Nurses' study results I was stunned -- progestins looked way worse than even evil estrogen, so... I  don't get Ray Peat's position on this one.

Why he would maintain that progesterone and pregnenolone do not metabolize into estrogen is another mystery. All science points in that direction. If those things are in any way "bioidentical" they should act like the original hormones, so?..

When a well meaning scientist patents and then advocates a certain product for decades there are many defense systems at play preventing that person to recognize the fact that the said substance can prove truly dangerous to many people out there...

I honestly wish the future might prove Ray Peat right and all the others wrong but, until that moment, I will definitely stay away from both pregnenolone and progesterone.

"Dreams Come From Us" -- Roger Ebert

Goodbye, Roger Ebert!

 ***

He was not only my favorite film critic, but indeed, one of my favorite people on the planet, EVER. I would like to honor his memory today, but I am too upset and words fail me. What can I say that has yet to be said?

Because this is a health blog and because Roger’s problems debuted with thyroid issues, I shall compile a brief history of his ordeal.

His generous openness regarding his health issues offer other thyroid sufferers a unique insight...

A story in the USA Today, “Roger Ebert Reviews His Thyroid Cancer, by Mike Falcon, with medical adviser Stephen A. Shoop, M.D., from back in april, 2002, has a few Ebert quotes that echo Ray Peat’s views on radiation being a major risk factor for health.

"I had radiation for an ear infection in the fifties, says Ebert. “At that time it was still common to treat acne, earaches, and other head and neck problems with high levels of radiation we now know are dangerous. As a result there's a little epidemic of people in my age group who are developing this type of problem."

There was Chernobyl, there are still dental x-rays, many of them unnecessary… The American Thyroid Association just issued a recommendation to the effect that special collars should be used when dental work requires x-rays: Policy Statement on Thyroid Shielding During Diagnostic Medical and Dental Radiology 

"Sometime before Christmas I felt a lump underneath my chin while showering," says Ebert. "We had a biopsy done and the diagnosis surprised me. I had a tumor near the salivary gland removed in 1987 and I thought it might be a recurrence."

So, in the beginning there was a salivary gland issue, and then thyroid cancer. Roger got hospitalized and had this new tumor removed, then he underwent the radioactive iodine treatment. He downplayed its importance, at this point, and seemed quite reassured about the future outcome of his illness. 
In a profile story published by Esquire in 2010, “Roger Ebert: The Essential Man”, Chris Jones summarizes the terrible events that followed:

“A year later, in 2003, he returned to work after his salivary glands were partially removed, too, although that and a series of aggressive radiation treatments opened the first cracks in his voice. In 2006, the cancer surfaced yet again, this time in his jaw. A section of his lower jaw was removed; Ebert listened to Leonard Cohen. Two weeks later, he was in his hospital room packing his bags, the doctors and nurses paying one last visit, listening to a few last songs. That’s when his carotid artery, invisibly damaged by the earlier radiation and the most recent jaw surgery, burst. Blood began pouring out of Ebert’s mouth and formed a great pool on the polished floor. The doctors and nurses leapt up to stop the bleeding and barely saved his life. Had he made it out of his hospital room and been on his way home—had his artery waited just a few more songs to burst—Ebert would have bled to death on Lake Shore Drive. Instead, following more surgery to stop a relentless bloodletting, he was left without much of his mandible, his chin hanging loosely like a drawn curtain, and behind his chin there was a hole the size of a plum. He also underwent a tracheostomy, because there was still a risk that he could drown in his own blood. When Ebert woke up and looked in the mirror in his hospital room, he could see through his open mouth and the hole clear to the bandages that had been wrapped around his neck to protect his exposed windpipe and his new breathing tube. He could no longer eat or drink, and he had lost his voice entirely. That was more than three years ago.”

It is hard to not remark the dooming role radiation played, yet again. Just reading this makes me look for comfort — and where else can I find it, but in Ebert’s own words, from the same "Esquire" article:

“These things come to us, they don’t come from us, he writes about his cancer, about sickness, on another Post-it note.

Dreams come from us.”  

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.

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).

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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! 

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. 

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!

Why This Blog

I discovered Ray Peat's available body of work in the beginning of 2013. I had been doing Paleo for 14 months and my health was on a downward spiral.

Somehow, I clicked with Peat's teachings and I am now on a journey that I hope will lead me to a healthier place. My main concern is my Hashimoto's (TSH over 7, but euthyroidian, at the moment).

The bet is to raise my metabolism through diet.