Dr. BG Comments in Comments on Resistant Starch vs. FODMAPS
One of the issues that’s been in the background but more common recently is the issue of why resistant starch? What’s so special? We have other prebiotics and can’t we just use them?
Grace (“Dr. BG” Animal Pharm) answers that question in comments, edited below.
~~~
I’m not a physicist but RESISTANT STARCH are DNA shaped carbs. Does that make quantum sense? The energetics and molecular shapes are extraordinary. I don’t get it completely, but I know it’s inherently what sets it apart from ordinary non starch polysaccharides and obviously glucose, fructose, fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols (FODMAPS)…and our own endogenously produced fuctose which we make on the tips of our microvilli for the microcritters to graze on when food is lacking (between meals? when our genotypes fail to dictate like I’m FUT2(-/-) non-secretor).
The oligosacs prebiotics are NOTHING IN COMPARISON to double helices of amylose + amylopectin. And our co-evolved dirt based creatures that live in our gut know that. They ride these dirt-covered tubers and whole grains as spores or live bacteria; they traverse—protected like nomads on their camels or horses across the harsh desert terrain (pH2, gastric acid, pepsin, trypsin, enzyme breakdown, harsh bile acids, detergents threaten)—then finally arrive to the large intestines which, lacking in oxygen like the moon, is teaming with their desert tribes, synbionts, many lifeforms and co-feeders, grazing grounds, water and lush food everywhere…. After feasting, they go back to the soil, to their home, returning to their dirt tribes and land of roots, shoots, and moist dirt until the next generation’s journey. It’s a circle, no?
Resistant Starch—A Review
M.G. Sajilata, Rekha S. Singhal, and Pushpa R. Kulkarni
It’s a food science article with great visual diagrams. Richard put up an electron micrograph earlier of the bugs which ‘ride’ the starch granules, much like exotic Arabian knights…LOL. OK Lawrence of Arabia movie over.
~~~
Ok, go chew on that review and try to get over the notion that resistant starch can be replaced by just eating butter, or onions and garlic. They are very special.
Also, please check out Dr. BG’s 7-Step Protocol for curing Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO): How To Cure SIBO, Small Intestinal Bowel Overgrowth: Dr. BG’s 7-Steps Paleo* Gastro IQ SIBO Protocol. That’s the first post (Nov 9, 2013) and just keep moving forward. Step 7 was just posted on Dec 5, 2013).
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Hey!
I’ve had trouble wrapping my had around this resistant starch thing for a while now… I mean, I did not doubt that it works, I just had a little trouble with questioning it why it would make sense from a evolutionary stand point… i mean… sometimes tubers were not so easy to find and were not around all the time and everywhere – also, some populations, like some of the Inuit tribes, get no fiber whatsoever and seem to be faring very well…
well, I’m not the smartest dude around, so I just stopped questioning and settled with the theory “that are microbiomes in modern times are just so out of wack because of the chems, antibiotics and other nasty stuff and RS is the fastest way to fix them”…
this means I’ll try with 1TBS first week, then 2TBS second and so one till 4TBS or maybe more… I kind of have history of experimenting with food and my body so I guess this will be fun… Will report my findings here! ;D
Oh… I also have one question now… I’m from Slovenia and d*mn – I just can not find “potato starch” anywhere… I found some thai-imported tapioca flour, but i guess this is not OK, as it probably went through same processing as potato flour? I don’t know… Also I am not very fond of paying 20 bucks for shipping of Bob’s Red Mill stuff to my godforsaken country… So any help here would be appreciated. Haha.
OK, that’s it. Thanks for the awesome blog! Keep it up!
Nenad Kojić
Dave~
Have you heard of the gut-skin axis? Our skin/fingerprints totally reflects what’s going on in the gut. They’re like mirror reflections of external barriers. Our gut is open to the world (with 2 trap doors — mouth and butt).
Did you know if you fix sibo (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), then rosacea can disappear? The bacteria overgrowths from the gut can cross the one-cell layer thick membrane, breach into the bloodstream and translocate to the skin to set up shop. The toxins that bacterial overgrowths including H. pylori release damage and screw the skin integrity, just as they do to the small intestinal membranes. Look at the facial pictures of rosacea clearing up after SIBO is addressed
[by the way I don’t endorse that drug — there are frequent relapses reported (44% and higher in publications) and post-antibiotic fungal overgrowths and infections]
Symptoms of SIBO get worse with inulin, fiber, fodmaps, food, prebiotics… I think it may something to consider looking into!
@nenad – Get in touch with these guys, they supply all over EU: http://www.organicpotatostarch.eu/kartoffelstarke/
As to your questons, it’s actually all about feeding gut bugs. Ancient man was a vacuum cleaner sucking up any food he could find–it was full of fiber and RS and his gut bugs evolved to require lots of food. Modern man is starving their gut bugs. Potato Starch will help supplement their requirements.
Inuit got tons of gut bug food from seaweed, stomach contents of animals, berries, and seeds. Don’t think for a minute they ate nothing but steak.
make your own potato starch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75BbSlXxF9M
Last link may not be good, try: http://www.organicpotatostarch.com
I’ve been taking 8tbs a day of Bob’s PS for about a week to try and resolve some skin issues and it’s making me break out. Does anyone with some microbial knowledge have a guess as to why this could be? The same thing happened when I tried taking prescript assist, I can’t figure out what is going on, or if there is some underlying pathology that would cause this.
Hey, Tim, a bit off topic, but I saw a reference to the fact that tapioca starch caused a spike in your BG levels but can’t for the life of me find it. Can you point me to the post? Thanks.
Nenad Kojić
Thanks for your thoughts~!
Certainly our ancient hominids consumed all types of tubers, roots, bulbs, rhizomes, corms and sedge/grass underground storage organs (USOs)! As Tim says I don’t also doubt any stone (or root) was left unturned.
Dental evidence for consistent consumption goes back to ~300,000 years if not earlier to Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus 2-3 MYA.
“Several studies have suggested that exploitation of energy-rich geophytes or underground storage organs (USOs) (bulbs, corms, tubers, and rhizomes) represented an important adaptive shift in hominin evolution, especially as related to the transition to early Homo (e.g., 39–41). ”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3528505/
http://www.pnas.org/content/110/26/10495.full.pdf
Have y’ll seen the work of Dominy et al “Together these findings provide the first mechanical basis for discussing the adaptive advantages of roasting tubers and the plausibility of USOs in the diet of
early hominins.” Yien should love all the Hadza data!
http://mds.marshall.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1030&context=bio_sciences_faculty
Neanderthal data exists too. Starch granules found in dental evidence.
http://www.nature.com/news/neanderthals-ate-their-greens-1.11030
If you need a then more than you ever want to know the latest 2013 PNAS ‘Early Hominin Diet Special Feature’
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/collection/early_hominin
@DuckDodgers
Your report on Irish potato eating habits, this may be interest to you:
Potatoes fight bacterial infections
Tried raw today, peeled potato plus unpeeled Jerusalem artichoke, simply grated;
Tastes interesting even without any dressing or salt.
Peace.
Hey, maybe I should ask this while we have the two braintrust here together. Is it okay to consume RS from mung bean and other legumes? I notice that some people here are also eating BRM garbanzo bean flour, black bean flour, golden masa harina corn flour, etc. BRM makes all of these. Let’s say these are legit RS, i.e., you test your BG and it doesn’t move.
But these are legumes and RS is made by grinding legumes, just like you ground raw potatoes. But if you don’t soak legumes like black beans, wouldn’t you be getting some antinutrients? Isn’t the whole point of soaking to enliven lactobacillus, and neutralize antinutrients and raffinose? Also, supposedly the soak converts insoluble fiber to RS (RS2, I imagine).
Then, how is that possible by consuming raw legume flour? I know for a fact that mung bean starch is effective. I’ve tried it and I think it’s stronger than BRM PS. But how do you explain the RS effect since no conversion from insoluble fiber took place and raw legumes should have antinutrients galore? That could explain the allergic reaction I had with mung bean (but then I’m allergic to umpteen things, not just legumes).
I also think many of you are overlooking gluten-free oatmeal as a legit Rs food source. I’ve been putting about a cup of BRM gluten-free whole grain rolled oats into a glass of Almond Breeze, put some cinnamon, unsweetened cocoa powder, and 2-4 tablespoons of Barry Farm’s plantain flour, and some blueberries.
It’s a perfectly palatable breakfast. But your RS intake is considerable, too! Check it out:
Rolled Oats: = 1 cup = 90 grams = 10.2 grams of RS
Plantain Flour = 4 tbsp = 15.5 grams
Total = 25.7 grams in one sitting.
Chew on some fan-dried green plantains and green bananas the rest of the day, eat some retrograded beans, rice, and potatoes. And you’ll be going above 30 grams, half of that with food.
I know some of you guys are scared about oats. But BRM’s rolled oats are gluten-free and incredibly appetizing. I wouldn’t eat oatmeal after trying raw oats in almond milk. I think it’s the best food source of RS along with dried plantains. But much easier to prepare. Just open the bag.
http://www.bobsredmill.com/gluten-free-rolled-oats.html
Dave, Eric
WEED and no not talking Richard’s favorite perennial. LOL.
The fertilizer for microbes is inulin, FOS/GOS, fodmaps, NSP and resistant starch, no? RS is the bionic fertilizer!
I suspect and believe that you guys are feeding the good and nasties but they’re in the wrong place, the small intestines instead of the large intestines (caecum, appy, colon).
Consider WEEDING out the small intestines a little. Personally I used clay, charcoal, a few rounds of botanicals whilst continuing prudent meals, fermented foods, RS enriched meals (whole tubers, whole ancient grains etc) and SBO probiotics.
http://drbganimalpharm.blogspot.jp/2013/09/feeding-microbiota-non-starch.html
The small intestines are very long 20 to 30 FEET LONG and only one single layer of cells compose the barrier between blood and its contents…… Beautiful models with glowing, vibrant skin are evolutionarily desirable because their overall hormones and health can be reflected on their skin as the skin can be often the ultimate mirror for the GINORMOUS GUT. Screw late night acne informercials and PROACTIV; the gut requires attention.
Look at ‘microbiome colonizations’ below slide 4.
The SI is practically 10X the length of the LI. Therefore, IMHO it is quite vulnerable to assault, gut disruption, gliadin damage, toxins (mercury), parasites, protozoa, fungal and other overgrowths. The gut truly is the most best reflection of an ecosystem like a garden. If weeds establish and becom pervasive, then what do gardeners do? Start with the foundation, safely remove the weeds without killing your crops and flowers, then rebuild and maintain the soil and symbionts, right? (actually I’ve never had a garden — LOL let’s consult Timmy boy).
Hi Spanish Caravan,
Thanks for your kind words — I think i’m more of a brain dump but Tim is the f*kcin Fort Knox of RS GOLD. ha aha lol. I’m a poop princess LOL.
Did you have a reaction to mung bean?
Yes I admit, I worry and get concerned with the use of raw legume, corn, grain and root flours/starches. We developed certain food technologies like fermentation, soaking and sprouting for many reasons! I know for a fact per Quaker oat studies that eating unsoaked olled oats may eventually lead to iron deficiency anemia for some (those without hemochromatosis?). Phytates can bind critical minerals like mag, zinc and iron making them non-bioavailable. Call me a WAPFer-freak~! Even Udo’s GF bread and products totally creep me out because of all the unsoaked brown rice and other flours they use, though they taste absolutely divino……..
Hey let’s say people add guar gum or other resin… OH BOY. Some people like guar gum as a prebiotic (UGH). These amplify the lectin damaging effects on the gut. This may not affect everyone and likely depends on the integrity and permeability of the gut. Some lectins like gliadin are completely heat-resistant meaning they stay intact despite cooking. For those with cross-reactivity between nuts, grains, dairy and other proteins, this may be more problematic for the digestion.
Acta Cient Venez. 1992;43(5):312-4.
Vegetable gums modify lectin hemagglutinability.
Melito C, Levy-Benshimol A.
Arabic gum enhances lectin hemagglutinability. The more glycosylated the lectin, the greater the stimulatory effect of the gum. Evidence presented suggests that the interaction between gum and lectin is of a carbohydrate-carbohydrate nature.
Nenad have you tried this? http://www.peki.si/trgovina/ostale-jedilne-surovine-in-dodatki/krompirjev-skrob
Not sure it is excatly the same thing, but should be.
@Spanish Caravan
Add some xylitol to your oat breakfast => more butyrate in your colon 🙂
I’ve had an experience with RS that I find extraordinary. Back when I ate a typical American diet the greatest damage (I could see) was to my dental health. Plaque would build up so quickly that I needed four cleanings a year and I would occasionally need novacaine for the cleanings because my teeth were so sensitive. As I improved my diet (thanks Doc Eades for setting me on the right path) my dental health also improved greatly. I lost the sensitivity, and eventually got down to needing a cleaning only every six months, though, the plaque was still prominent. It was particularly thick behind the six front teeth of my bottom jaw. My US dentist said that some people just have a disposition to getting plaque in that location, and there wasn’t much that could be done except to scrape it off. I now live in Thailand and the first time my dentist here saw my teeth she said, “Much stone.” The four front teeth would darken along the gum line, also. About six weeks ago, which was four months out from my last cleaning, I started taking tapioca starch after reading Richard’s posts. I changed nothing else. One day, after about a month of eating it, during my routine morning flossing ALL the plaque came off to my complete surprise. The stuff had always been tough and would fill the gaps between my lower teeth during the six months between cleanings no matter what I did, but on that morning it just slid off in pieces. It’s absolutely incredible. My teeth now look and feel like I just walked out of my dentist’s office. The dark line along my gums is also gone. Obviously, whatever happened down in my colon with the RS had a tremendous and almost immediate impact on what was living in my mouth. I can’t thank Richard, Tatertot and Dr.BG enough. To have a clear sign of ill-health disappear like that is a great thing. I would imagine that there are other unseen improvements going on also. Thanks again. I’m really looking forward to going in for my next cleaning. I want to see the look on my dentist’s face. There will be no ‘stone’ at all. I’m not sure how she’ll react, though, it should be interesting.
Caravan, methinks you are working too hard at this. That cup of oatmeal’s RS is about that of one tablespoon of PS. So, why inflict your body with grain lectin’s? And similarly, why legume flours? Just eat some properly prepared beans………which I’ll be doing in the next few minutes.
And while I’m on an “I just don’t get it,” rant, I’m almost daily perplexed with this Waring Blender Paleo culture, the love of “smoothies.” Did I miss the archaeological discovery of Grok’s blender? If one believes in replicating paleolithic eating, “predigested” pulverized food stuffs is not part of the program. Like juice vs. whole fruits, it’s not how we designed ourselves to eat. As Stephansson (??) reported, even the meat the Inuits ate was minimally chewed.
[…] Free the Animal has about a million resistant starch posts, including posts on specific conditions (like SIBO, FODMAPS, high blood sugars, etc.) This is really the place to go to read about resistant starch, although they have quite an enthusiastic stance. I’m pretty excited, too, but I try to temper my excitement. Nothing is a cure-all. I haven’t had success coming off of butyrate with an increase in resistant starch using green bananas and Bob’s Red Mill Potato Starch (yet). […]
Hey, braniiacs, what do you all think of Resistant Maltodextrin? This seems to be synthetic Type 3 Retrograded Resistant Starch (RS3), just like Hi-Maize Corn Starch is synthetic RS2.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17253707
The benefits are very similar to what’s claimed for RS: lower blood sugar, lower triglycerides after a meal, regularity, help release satiety hormones like PYY and GLP-1, increased SCFA and butyrate.
Here’s Fibersol-2, which is a commercial Resistant Maltodextrin (RM) brand. It seems to be widely used in Japan. Available from Amazon as well.
There is also a body of work on RM which echoes similar claims made on behalf of RS:
Aids the absorption of calcium and magnesium:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19937042
Similar delays in glucose absorption and lower post-prandial triglycerides:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17385061
So RM is synthetic, not natural. But it’s nonetheless RS3, which is hard to get from food. The only way you can get it is if you freeze, unfreeze, and repeat. You can do this to legumes but it’s cumbersome. So is RM (i.e., RS3) worth consuming?
Is RS3 superior to RS2? How on earth could any human consume RS3 before the industrial age, before a mini freezer was invented? Well, they could have by living in cold climates. But still a bit difficult and you have to go out of your way. Interesting that no one mentioned RM as an RS3 with similar properties.
Not sure what hemeagglutination has to do with toxic effects of lectins. I very much doubt any lectin from food is gonna make it into the blood stream, at least in appreciable amounts
Thank you for the response,
To make sure I’m reading this right, an initial worsening of symptoms could be expected/temporary if I adhere to the protocol you set up at animal pharm and thus treat the underlying problem?
Grace —
Any insight into RS/gut health as they relate to psoriasis? I went through one bag of potato starch and noticed a dramatic worsening of my psoriasis almost immediately.
Pzo , I’m allergic to PS because of my RA. So my choice is limited to plantain flour. Plus I react to all legumes, properly prepared or not, except lentils. So rolled oats are an option for me as I don’t react to them and widen my RS food choice. But even if you properly prepared legumes, you really can’t consume that much RS. 100 grams of cooked black beans, e.g., equal to 10g of RS. 100 g of rolled oats which is less dense and much easier to consume = 12grams. There’s almost nothing in cooked oatmeal. Hence I’m on the raw oats bandwagon. Will watch for phytates and absorption problems, however.
Here’s my input on the skin/cuticle issue. My skin is definitely smoother. Since I have dry skin, I usually have to put on skin lotion but my skin managed to be smooth without it.
I used to have fungal toes and they improved dramatically when I started consuming RS. However, they seemed to worsen somewhat when I started taking some strong probiotics (SBOs and Prescript Assist). I just checked now, however, and it’s been 3 weeks. It seems to be clearing out again. In other words, I can see the white fungal spot as a clear demarcation line so when I clip my toenails I’ll be fungus-free. Perhaps too early to tell.
Have heard lots of skin but not about fungal toes. Who else got their toe fungus cleaned up?
@LA Frite
Xylitol and Butyrate
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17995737?report=abstract
Today’s moment in raw tuber-eating history comes to us from the Maories of New Zealand where the prized Kumara, a tuber that is very close to a sweet potato, was apparently grown with great care and consumed raw:
It seems that researchers took great care to adapt tubers to modern societies and then researchers and chefs mostly discarded the traditional preparation in favor of tastier, fully cooked and more digestible preparations. Silly natives.
SC, you might want to soak your oats over night before consuming them (I understand soaking overcomes the phytate and absorption problems you refer to).
I typically soak mine in a water, kefir mix and throw in some raw honey before consuming uncooked.
Caravan, I forgot that fact, sorry.
Also to Caravan, my toenail fungus cleared up 90-95% when I cut grains out of my diet four years ago. I don’t know if your toe fungus is this or athlete’s foot type.
Spanish Caravan,
How awesome — I’ve noticed better cuticle and nails too!
When there is a shifting in all the gut-skin-HPA ecosystems as microbial/fungal populations get replaced or crowded out, I think there are shifts in many niches and crannies. The toenails however takes months to turnover (onychomycosis — nail fungus — antifungal drugs like Lamisil embed in the toenail and still work bioactively until the nail is shed — 9-12 months, slower in diabetics and slow circulatory issues). The gut about 3 wks so can often see faster results depending.
DuckDodgers
SOOO CUUUUUUUUL 😉 Love heirloom tubers and USOs
@Bernhard, Great find! Now my idea for a potato-based mouthwash and anti-dandruff wash isn’t so far fetched! 🙂
@Grace, more to come (hopefully!)
Grace, it is possible is it not that there are people without SIBO. I don’t seem to have gut issues so I’m assuming I don’t have SIBO. I haven’t taken antibiotics in several years. Been eating Kefir, yoghurt, kimchee, natto and sauerkraut.
If a person does not have discomfort, bloating, or any of the IBD things, would just RPS be enough?
Only low T3 which I will find out about on Monday. I’m not too optimistic because I don’t know for how long someone else was taking it and had better thyroid function. But even though it hasn’t been perfect sticking to protocol except for the past few weeks, even any improvement will be lovely.
Gab,
Honestly I’m such a skeptic now. I don’t know. The HPAT axis is pretty tightly linked to the gut however OTOH it independently irrespective of the gut can be have dysfunction just as our ovaries decline somewhat with age and menopause. As you’re probably aware the gut can be broken without zilcho discomfort, bloating, or any IBD things. It can be skin only, or mind only, or whatever organ only.
Here I have a sort of ‘spectrum’ of gut severity problems. Would love your thoughts.
The spectrum of gut permeability and sensitivity ranges:
(a) Mildly intolerant (gas, bloating, heartburn, ulcers, mental fog, cavities, enamel defects, nutritional deficiencies, anemia, vitamin B12 deficiency, hair loss, low thyroid)
(b) Moderate (constipation, diarrhea, depression, anxious, allergies, ADHD, autism/spectrum, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, osteoporosis, bone fractures, PCOS, fibroids, miscarriages, nerve pain, seizures, thyroid or hormone replacements)
(c) Severe (failure to thrive, weight loss, weight gain, rashes, mood swings, infertility, migraines, bloody stools, bipolar, psychiatric disorders, cancer, autoimmune diseases, celiac).
Hi Grace,
What is the best way to get tested for SIBO? Is the hydrogen breath test the only way and is it accurate?
If I am planning to get my GI Fx test soon, is a breath test necessary to dx SIBO? Or can I figure it out based on the GI Fx results? Is breath test really accurate?
Like GabKad, I don’t have any symptoms except a slightly elevated FBG (97 last time I checked) and mild dandruff (SIFO?).
Also, I sent you an email a week or so ago about the GI Fx test? Would you please please get back to me?
Thanks
T-Nat
Grace, I don’t know. My assistant is Hindu, not quite vegetarian but definitely, according to protein requirement is low. Cognitive, interactive, attention span is at her own rate. She is a very kind person and gentle with the patients. 40 years old and post menopause (chronic borderline malnutrition based on recommended protein requirements, marshmallow belly, thinning hair on top, stretch marks that are horrifying from having 2 kids, anemic with microcytic hypochromic RBCs with high count, facial skin looks fantastic, nails are hard, fibroids, cystic breasts. Has digestive issues (of course)…… but her damn T3 is 5.3! I’d kill for that. Mine is only 3.1. How the hell is that?
She’s all set to become type 2 diabetic but her damn thyroid is working better than mine. Everyone else in her family has type 2 at a certain age. She is modifying her diet to include more animal protein, fish and eggs but for these people, 1 chicken liver is IT. Roti, rice, chana dahl, green vegetables as garnish, yoghurt are the staples. I’d DIE eating that. I feel sick if I go vegetarian for a week. She’s not particularly peppy but her damn thyroid is doing way better than mine.
I even did the fingerprint test on the staff today. They were all wondering what their crazy boss was up to yet again………… they all passed. None had the horizontal creases.
It reminds me really, this fingerprint test of palm readers. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Dervla Murphy. She’s now in her 80s but she’s an incredible Irish traveller and writer. Her mother was living in England at the time and had a Romany woman read her palm. Told her that she would have a daughter who would become famous, but that afterwards she (the mother) would become very ill and that would be her life. The mother developed RA a couple of years after Dervla was born and after age 14 Dervla dropped out of school to care for her mother until the mother died when Dervla was 30 years old. Makes me wonder if these palm readers see more than just life line, fate line etc.
You’re skeptic? I’m flummoxed.
Gab
Autoantibodies precede disease by 4-5 years. Did you see these?
http://www.jci.org/articles/view/14452/version/1/files/pdf
Here are the links to making Chunos. Apparently there are 2 different ways of making Chunos. The longer 50-day method is described above and is outined here.
http://enperublog.com/2008/09/01/the-chuno-dehydrated-potato-of-the-andes/
But you can also make them over 5 days. Freeze, unfreeze and dry. Repeat.
http://www.limaeasy.com/peruvian-food-guide/typical-potatoes/chuno
http://aztecfoods.weebly.com/
I’m gonna try that and see if I react to them or not. I have a feeling when potatoes are frozen/unfrozen repeatedly like this they might lose their alkaloids which cause nightshade reaction.
@Spanish Caravan
…” Well, they could have by living in cold climates.”…
Well they have, f.i. Chuño :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu%C3%B1o
Peace.
Martin,
WOW that’s tremendous~ and congratulations! I see all kinds of recovery with improved gut health and your story is in my top 20 now. It sounds to me like you’ve shifted the oral cavity microbes to a better profile which may reflect improved enteroprofiles and poop. The butyrate is probably outta this world now — flooding your butt and your whole body. WHAT A SPECTACULAR JOB.
Gabriella,
Have you heard of auto-antibodies? many of these inactivate enzymes in the whole thyroid-receptor-hormone assembly. Does your assistant have high auto-antibodies? What is the Free T3, free t4, reverse T3 and TSH? The T3 to me is irrelevant given her MetSyn symptoms. T2DM is becoming more and more evident to be an intestinal permeability condition…. !!
Yes — I don’t think the fingerprint analysis is quite a science yet. That is the first I’ve heard of Dervla Murphy. What I do know is that we are all ENERGY. Some people have more 6th or 7th senses that attune them to energy differently. Did you know that dogs and bears smell for miles? My kids can hear frequencies that I can’t…. these change with inflammation I suspect, not aging! Energy is captured in bonds and chemicals… Definitely I believe those who are spectrum (Aspie, ADHD, autistic, etc) have better intuition compared to non. Birth order and the hormonal mileau in utero affects the brain receptors and their maturation and development… Someday we will understand all this more but for now they are interesting card, palm and tea leaves reading tricks, no?
Spanish,
BLOW ME away. UR SO BRILLIANT!
T-Nat,
Did you write? I’m so sorry. Have to unbury. Give me a minute.
I hate the SIBO test. It’s kinda f*kctarded if ‘negative’ which it will be half the time.
These researchers say it more politely “The hydrogen breath test depends on the presence of hydrogen producing bacteria. However, a considerable proportion of non‐hydrogen producing bacteria, which can yield false negative results, has been observed in some but not all studies…”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1856094/
Also the H2 breath tests fail to account for fungi, parasites or protozoa. Someday we will be hopefully able to test for other lifeforms — viruses, bacteriophages, spirochetes, etc. Now it’s only bacteria and archae. With the GDX testing however — GI fx stool 2200 panel and the urine ONE organic acids — it’s possible to test fungi, bacteria and archae. Much more sophisticated and well rounded. I’m so glad you’re considering it soon. Results take 4 wks approx.
Bernhand, thanks, that’s intriguing! So these Andean Indians have been eating Chuno by freeze-drying potatoes for over 7,000 years. I think their habitat at that high an altitude has something to do with it. But check this out: it takes 50 days to make Chunos. You alternately freeze dry and melt for 5 days. Then for 30 days you submerge them in a river. Then freeze again. Then you stomp on them like you stomp on cranberries. Then dry them again for 10 days. Prepared thus, Chunos remain edible for 3 years. Wow, somene should do an analysis and see how much RS3 is in there. It’s probably good to consume both Rs2 and Rs3.
I wonder if they taste like dried green plantains. When Tatertot first said they taste like Ritz crackers I thought, what has he been smoking? Well, you need a fan to dry them properly! Get a fan and you’ll end up with a carton of Ritz crackers. Actually, I think dried green plantains taste more like tea biscuits.
Gabriella, those numbers seem to be FT3, not T3. You’re right at midpoint whereas your colleague is above most reference ranges. What I’ve realized over the years is that the low FT3 syndrome (euthyroid if TSH <3) does not affect many SAD dieters as we think. That low FT3 seems to be triggered often in low-carb cases. I know people will argue but look at it this way.
Hardly anybody ever become hyperthyroid on a low-carb diet. I know this for a fact. I worked with a naturopath who prescribes a VLC almost ketogenic diet; his practice is full of low FT3/T3 and subclinically thyroid patients. But he's never had a single hyperthyroid patient who followed his diet. Kind of odd, huh, when both are primarily autoimmune diseases? I know 2 other low-carb endos who say exactly the same thing. None of their patients ever show symptoms of hyperthyroidism or high FT3/T3.
Being hyperthyroid is characterized by excessive FT3. Your colleague has FT3 that's too high (but probably not enough to be hyperthyroid) and it's probably due to her diet that's carb heavy AND excess in calories. And a typical Bengali diet is very carb-heavy. High T3/Ft3 increases glucose transport into cells, resulting in glycolysis, which increases chances for infection and cancer. But it's also raises FFA, which seems to be the real driver behind diabetes. So it's no surprise that she's diabetic and has high FT3.
In terms of FT3, between 3.2 (midpoint) to 4.4 (high) seems ideal but not too above the upper bound. By some count, up to 90% of people on low-carb diets have low FT3 (between midpoint and 2.0), many of them with sub-3.0 TSH; they also tend to be seronegative for TPO &TG. But they show hypothyroid symptoms nonetheless. RS should raise FT3 and rid of some of these hypothyroid symptoms; I'm eagerly awaiting my next blood test.
“‘CAN THEY MASTICATE’? There are so many people with deformed dental arches and malpositioned teeth, they gravitate to foods that are easy to get down the gullet.”
Sorry Gabriella had to read that TWICE lol
Again it is all Weston A Price’s observations of villages and sociology groups pre-industrial and post-industrial diet. The crowding of the skull, narrowing of the facial structures and switching from wide dental arches to nasty, tight arches also narrows changes in skeletal and organ physiology body-wide.
Totally I think bruxism has to do with all of it — sinuses, oral cavities all the way down to the rectum.
That is such an interesting finding for the man with Rosacea on doxy. Can I tell you the worse GERD/I-thought-I-would die story? So in college I had a little acne (that would along with the Hashi’s) and got prescribed doxycycline. I was pre-pharm — before I had any pharmacology knowledge. Of course I got no patient consulatation and failed to read any of the fine print stickers that were on the Rx bottle. I would take the drug willy nilly and often forget, then take at bedtime lying down within minutes of taking. A few weeks into the Doxy I had the most horrific pain at night in my chest. I seriously thought I was dying or having a heart attack. Somehow either I finished the bottle or just forgot taking it (brain fog from many things incl hypothyroidism) and I noticed one day the pain was all gone. Wasn’t sure if I imagined or what.
In pharm school I learned that the tetracycline class including doxycycline are stupendous sclerosing agents and ‘burn and chemically cauterize’. Nice, eh? There are countless cases (like mine) of heartburn/GERD, erosive esophagitis, internal bleeding and etc with these medications (besides other fun adverse effects like darkening baby teeth and retardation of the growth of long-bones in children and teens).
Yes — your rosacea guy probably has SIBO and intestinal mucositis, and add to that antibiotic-inspired fungal overgrowth.
I’m like you — I’ve had long standing f*kcred Free-T4 and low Free T3. You know what has helped besides SBO+ RS-enriched tubers + PS? Nature-throid which contains both T3 and T4 and it’s gluten-free, soy/corn-free. Barriers to conversion of T4 to T3 is a poor gut. The microbiota apparently play a ginormous role in thyroid hormone conversion. Also vitamin A. We need vitamin A for many hormone and steroid hormone synthesis. A healthy gut biota conjugates dietary A to bioavailable forms for gut uptake. It doesn’t matter how much fermented CLO or liver you eat, a decent microbiota is mandatory for A conjugation and eventual uptake. Previously also I needed to upteen million minerals and sea salt supplementation otherwse I’d fall over from hypotension and low BP (and reactive hypoglycemia). After the SBO probiotics, nada. I’m totally fine. Again a good gut microbiota tightens TJs, enables the flora to assist in mineral absorption and triggers the renewal of microvilli and all the active mineral transporters located at the tips. We need transport and maintenance of critical minerals to name a few zinc, iodine and mag to make T3 and to conversion to active, free T3.
You can see there are many reasons why poor guts make us malnourished and low T3, no?
Grace and Spanish, correction: it is fT3. The lab range here is 4.0 to 7.1 pmol/L (just checked the photocopy of the last set of test results.)
Mine has been consistently 4.1. Hers is 5.3.
I haven’t had time to read in detail the comments above but will later today.
I strongly suspect that I was given a bad batch of Synthroid last year. I developed myxedema, serious cardiac palps and general deadness with unrelenting back pain. When I increased the dose by adding a 25mcg tablet to what was supposed to be 112 mcg one month on I began to have some energy. Then when I changed up to 137 mcg assuming that 112 plus 25 was actually 137, I ended up with anxiety, diarrhoea, and rapid heart rate. So came to the conclusion that the 112 mcg tablets were from a bad batch. But even after 1 month of 137, both the fT4 and fT3 were low. So was TSH.
The endo put me on 125mcg in Jan. By July the fT3 had not budged. So I started to take 4.5 mg Naltrexone and then the raw PS. Got blood drawn on Monday this week. We’ll see. But I think 125mcg is too low. If so, I’ll be lobbying for a higher dose and if she won’t do it, I’ll find someone else. I feel better but not ‘stellar’ by any means. Back 25 years ago I was on 150mcg and motoring around like a normal person. For whatever reason, the new GP lowered the dose to 125mcg back in 1994. An endo lowered it again in 1999 to 112 mcg. Have not felt all the great since but last year was really horrible. I hate going to doctors but I’m getting tenacious about this now. Being labeled as CFIDS when the problem was low thyroid levels pisses me right off.
@ Spanish Caravan
Let us know your production procedure.
How will you go about the trampling part,
will you do this with bare feet?
Peace.
Grace, just for shits and giggles because some of my patients are game, we did the fingerprint test on a patient who has Rosacea. He’s taking low dose doxycycline. And guess what? He’s got lots of these horizontal lines on his fingerprints. We really didn’t even need to do fingerprinting. They are visible.
He’s game. Since he’s already on doxy, SIBO is ‘under control’ because the Rosacea is not flaring up now. I suggested he try the RPS. He was not all that forthcoming about his bowels (although he is from Berlin) and he does have nasal congestion (somewhat chronic).
I won’t be able to follow up on this for a while though. Just thought I’d chime in here after you posted that link.
Hey Gab,
There is even a link between the white lines, # whorls, and # loops on fingerprints in people with cavities (eg SIBO/SIFO) and those without cavities. Check these out. This is why I have a love affair with Weston A Price. What a brilliant gentleman. Where are you again? Do you have access to any of the soil based probiotics or iherb.com?
I was just in Boden See and Munich. Had the best 4 carrot and beet (fermented) root vegetable salad by the lakeside hotel. I don’t know if it was organic but I bet there were a few soil organisms. The carrots were all different colors including red!
A cross sectional study of dermatoglyphics and dental caries in Bengalee children.
Sengupta AB, Bazmi BA, Sarkar S, Kar S, Ghosh C, Mubtasum H.
J Indian Soc Pedod Prev Dent. 2013 Oct-Dec;31(4):245-8.
Dermatoglyphics in patients with dental caries: a study on 1250 individuals.
Abhilash PR, Divyashree R, Patil SG, Gupta M, Chandrasekar T, Karthikeyan R.
J Contemp Dent Pract. 2012 May 1;13(3):266-74.
The relation of bruxism and dermatoglyphics.
Polat MH, Azak A, Evlioglu G, Malkondu OK, Atasu M.
J Clin Pediatr Dent. 2000 Spring;24(3):191-4.
OMG Grace. Bruxism and breathing problems: can be anatomical but oftentimes also congestion related…..acid reflux, blah and blah.
I’m just talking to a friend of mine. Told her I’ll just look at patients’ fingers and tell them they have dental caries. Don’t know how the licensing body like this.
But really, one of the things that affects what people eat is ‘can they masticate’? There are so many people with deformed dental arches and malpositioned teeth, they gravitate to foods that are easy to get down the gullet. Most of these foods are either super overcooked or foods that do not require chewing. It’s a really bad cycle of disaster. One thing I’ve noticed is the incidence of obesity among those with an anterior open bite. They’ve got a traumatic occlusion so avoid anything that accentuates function.
Spanish,
Ancient freeze dried Chunos sound delicious! Talk about labor intensive.
What was the purpose of the VLC diets for the naturopath and low carb endos? I recall that Broda Barnes used a low gluten/starch diet with orange juice for hypothyroidism with good success. Richard Bernstein uses a similar diet then has individuals titters up carbs to tolerance and insulin sensitivity.
Most VLC diets used for anti-candida regimens do a disservice to the individual over the long haul because of the absence of fiber and RS that feed the sentinels and immunoguards of the gut, the commensals and soil based strains. It’s true carb and refined starch/sugar heavy diets are very adverse to the gut flora, selecting for fungi, proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and enteric pathogens like Salmonella and E Coli which are species that know how to exploit simple sugars for survival — glucose fructose and sucrose.
Did you know that fungi like low body temps and simple sugars to thrive? They secrete chemicals that propagate their ultimate survival — blockers to thyroid receptors, deiodase inhibitors and byproducts that glue shut insulin receptors. What I abhor about standard lab testing is that they don’t account for what’s going on at the biochem/cellular and receptor levels but are obvious at the macro/animal level.
Gab if you did an ONE and GI FX stool on your assistant, I would not be shocked at all if you find rampant SIFO (small intestinal fungal overgrowth) and some sibo. Have you read GAPS? mcBride-Campbell finds prolific yeast in all her spectrum and mental/mind cases. why? I think we a too disconnected from the soil and the soil based commensals that we’d normally consume abundantly if we were sustained on local, small farms where chickens and ducks run freely, chemical-free vegetables are safely eaten straight from the ground and dairy flowed from antibiotic-free cows and goats.
The soil based commensals control and limit fungi and entero pathogens — seriously they’re like the f*kcing NAVY SEALS amphibious and silently lethal. They produce biofilm busters, antimicrobials and antifungals that only touch the pathogens, leaving the bystander commensals unharmed.
When there are bountiful butyrate from both RS and a decent microbiota, did you know that butyrate has selective antimicrobial activity against fast-growing pathogens?? Butyrate is a bad-ass in so many many many wicked ways.
Spanish and Gab,
I love u guys and I love ur poopy adrenals. Gab were you ever VLC/ketotic like Spanish and I? Are you a dentist or what field in medicine? Was your post grad training rigorous with brutal mental stress and crazy long sleepless hours? If yes to any, like 99% of physicians that I know, you probably have a speckle of adrenal dysregulation.
The low T3 syndrome is tightly associated with compromised adrenal function. The adrenals provide the cortisol and EPI/NE to elevate and maintain adequate BG and liver gluconeogenesis. Low T3 is the compensation as Spanish noticed for the LC endos and naturopath practices. I wish I had known this before I got so spastic about paleo IF’ing, Stephen Phinney, and PaNu long time ago. It took a few months but I fried my adrenals pretty well done doing those, then it took literally years to get out of the metabolic hole. Fucked up adrenals also made me into a chronically fatigued and cold eunuch.
I put out adrenal health as Step#7 because when there is parasites and SIFO/SIBO going on breaking down the digestion and the gut integrity without impunity, the release of cortisol and EPI/NE to sustain gut function (all 20-32 feet of the small intestines for each meal and snack) strains and further damages those poor, sad little adrenals. The gut will never heal unless adrenals are addressed concurrently. I’ve found that simultaneous attention to both organs is in order for quick and fast recoveries.
As my endo says “your cortisol is not stellar”.
I changed my diet over the past 6 months. Increased my salt intake (Apparently according to people who eat my cooking I don’t add enough salt. I’d never noticed. I have no salt cravings.) Plus I make sure I’m getting ready to sleep by 9:30 p.m. I am great when I wake up in the morning. No problem with that. These days when I drive home from work I am not feeling so exhausted as if I were a drunk driver. I used to be so exhausted I was crying in the car.
I’m not surprised that the adrenals are crapped out. Won’t ever go into the life story in public. It’s horrifying. But my thyroid went goiter while in dental school. I have pictures and in retrospect am in a quandary as to why, considering I was in the medical faculty and the dental faculty all the time NO ONE ever said anything except my med school boyfriend. And of course we never listen to the boyfriend. He’s a really excellent physician. Not mine though and that’s a shame. My father was a prof in the medical school and HE didn’t notice either!!! As a faculty brat, I was around doctors all the time and no one except the boyfriend ever said a damn thing.
Interesting fact though: I moved to the Caribbean after I finished school. Passport photo in April 28, 1981 showed big goitre. International driving license photo end of June: no goitre, totally different face. I carry these pictures around in my wallet because it’s such a huge change over a very short period of time. Doctors aren’t interested. But to me it means that things can be hugely better given changed circumstances. Living in the West Indies and working my butt off wasn’t less stressful. It was very hard work. But whatever difference between Toronto and Trinidad, it was beneficial for me. Toronto is just slowly killing me. This place is unhealthy.
I contracted malaria (because I lived in the countryside) and ended up fine. (The U.S. military are the best for real info on places. Forget WHO. There is malaria in Trinidad and the Trinis know it. For some reason WHO doesn’t. Duh.)
I think the dose of Synthroid is too low. I’ll find out on Monday. It’s problematic these days because I can’t just ‘serve myself’ at the pharmacy. Otherwise I’d just slowly increase the dose until I know it’s doing what it’s supposed to do. The old doctor who worked with me to get to 150mcg based things not only on blood tests but on goitre and how I felt. Doctors are diagnosing based on blood tests only and TSH isn’t valid for everyone. Toronto is shit. That’s all. It’s in the goitre belt.
Gab
Toronto is in the goiter belt??? FUCK ME I DIDNT KNOW?
OK we are like mirror twins. This is sooo cuuul. Both my dad and stepmom are physicians and like u hawwt grrl TOTALLY FAILED to diagnose both my younger sister’s Grave’s and my Hashi’s. I gained 40 lbs overnight — looking at water, eating not much. Brilliant, right?
If I saw you, I would definitely be able to pick up goiter now. It is apparent everywhere I look on the streets here in Shanghai, subway or in the States at the malls… Pathetic and sad… TSH is ridiculous. Even the TSH trends in USA are upward trending mirroring the toxin, cancer and obesity/MetSyn epidemics.
It’s too bad you live in Canada. You should cross the border and get some good stuff 😉 No that is not medical advice, just save-yourself thoughts. Boy Canada is really messed up. Is it truly illegal to get supplements unless by Rx by a (non-trained) doc?
You now who also had malaria? Cheryl Cole. It’s not as rare as people think…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1292341/Cheryl-Coles-malaria-scare-Holiday-illness-puts-singer-hospital.html
T-Nat,
I think you asked about bruxism? Please see the above.
g
Yup Grace, looks like we had twinned upbringings.
My mother is a pharmacist (hospital,, retired) and father is pharmacologist/toxicologist. Too busy with their own stuff to notice what happens to the children. There was no reward for bringing to their attention anything adverse in regards to health.
Cheryl Cole was in Tanzania so probably got falciparum. I got vivax. No treatment because I was told ‘there is no malaria in Trinidad’ at the Toronto travel clinic. Ha ha ha! Tell that to the Trinis who sleep with mosquito nets. I only took Bufferin. It took 3 weeks to run its course. Got debilitating only near the end. It makes me wonder for how long the hypnozoites camped out in my liver. Or if they are still there. Because the information available is entirely inaccurate. I think by now they are gone but if the little tenants are still in residence, I’ve grown affectionate to them like one has for pets.
I make sure I get goodly dietary doses of zinc (oysters), take iodine because iodized salt is hit and miss. I was reading about how it degasses and what’s in the salt shaker is anyone’s guess. Selenium is no problem (shrimp, onion etc.) but probably magnesium is not as good as it should be. I take it as a supplement but not all the time.
Right now I have no goitre. Good luck even finding the thyroid gland. It’s gone vestigial. The facial characteristics of low thyroid are somewhat better. What really got to me was I had lost the strength of my voice. People couldn’t hear me. I just thought I was getting older. LOL! In a way, having such a quiet voice was appealing. I felt like was gradually disappearing.
I have seen some people in Toronto with huge goitres recently. Public health did a great job during the 20th century to promote health but it’s generally dropped the ball about simple things like iodine and vitamin C. Saw two patients recently with mild scurvy. I did a quick dietary analysis with them. One returned yesterday and has been taking vitamin C ( probably a multivitamin) and her gums looked normal.
People here don’t realize that it’s the goitre belt and without some source of dietary iodine, their thyroids get puffy. The doctors are blind. I catch the goitres and send the patient to the physician. Physicians are too busy looking at their computer screens and not at the patient.
The endos around here are naturthroid averse. I have some patients whose family doctors prescribe the dessicated pork thyroid. They feel good. I’ve asked one of them to email her most recent blood test results. But all her figures were excellent on Synthroid as well.
Synthroid is the most filled prescription drug in Canada by number of prescriptions per year. What’s going on here?
I read through a 1955 world survey of goitre and interesting data came from Hungary. In the plains area the water naturally contains iodine at different concentrations. But there are areas where it also contains naturally occurring fluoride. The two compete for the thyroid. The incidence of goitre was high in places where fluoride managed to outcompete the iodine.
So why are people being told to drink green tea when the Camellia sinensis plant preferentially absorbs fluoride into its leaves? Drink enough of it and develop hypothyroidism.
Fluoride is also used in anti-fungals sprayed on strawberries and other soft fruits, especially the ones we get from California. People buy them fresh or frozen and put them into smoothies.
Thank you both Dr. BG and Gabriella for mentioning parts of your health journey. It is helping me to put together some pieces of a puzzle. My brain fog was so bad that I was having problems remembering words. My blood pressure was so low that I almost passed out getting up to go to my babies at night when they cried. I drank a lot of tea to keep pushing through the exhaustion. I think I am one of those people whose livers don’t do well with caffeine. I ended up with endometrial cancer (caught very early). I suspect I couldn’t detox the estrogen because my liver was so busy with all the caffeine I was sending it. I now have a great doctor who understands the integrative health side of things (near you Gabriella!).
In a previous post Dr. BG posted a link to a review paper on RS. I noticed that in one of the tables that biscuits made of 50% potato flour had a reasonable level of RS3. I plan to figure out a recipe and make some to mix up the RS a bit. Bulk Barn (in Canada) sells both potato starch and potato flour in bulk so they are both quite easy to find.
Kira, that is really interesting especially about the doctor. Caffeine can have a paradoxical effect for some people. It can make a person feel less mentally alert for some reason.
I found this letter although there is no consensus about this subject. There are all sorts of genetic reasons for why people respond to drugs differently. Pharmacogenetics is the study of this. People metabolize drugs at different rates.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3163785/
In dental school, one of my patients had a totally paradoxical reaction to a sedative. He became wildly agitated.
I tend to prefer to not use drugs with my patients because all sorts of potentially adverse situations can arise. One patient took a small dose of Ativan before the appointment and went into apneas during the appointment. Back in time when I used nitrous oxide, a large lady stopped breathing even though the concentration of the gas was not excessive. I just turned up to 100% oxygen and prepared for a sternal rub. What appears to be relatively innocuous may not be. We keep the office quiet, speak calmly, move smoothly and aim for Zen like conditions.
Something else I noticed in the review of RS, was that RS3 is more resistant to breakdown than RS2. So for those who are hoping to extend the breakdown of the potato starch (RS2) by adding psyllium, another approach might be adding a source of RS3. I have added well-soaked lentils and beans and hope to try some baking with potato flour.
Gabriella – I tried half a tranquillizer once. I was wide awake all night with an active, alert mind and a relaxed body.
My TSH levels are in the “normal” range, but my doctor says that the endo she speaks with says the normal range is way too large and should be 2 or less. As a support, I am taking a supplement that includes Guggul, Ashwagandha, Rosemary, vitamins A, E, D3, iodine, selenium and zinc. I am also taking an adrenal support.
Apologies Grace! I should have looked it up first. It isn’t fluoride, but bromide that they use! I was drawing from a recollection of a conversation years ago with a woman who had thyroid problems. She had discovered that the levels of bromine in the strawberries caused problems for her. Gabriella is right – any of the halides are a problem.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/organic-gardening/methyl-bromide-toxicity-what-is-on-your-strawberries.aspx#axzz2nSYFI6GU
I realize that cooking changes the RS nature of PS. It was potato flour that I was curious about. It was this review paper that intrigued me:
Table 2 lists a 35% RS2 content for 50% potato flour biscuits; I mistakenly thought that it was the RS3 column that I was looking at. Perhaps it would be even better if the potato flour was first stored in the freezer. I was surprised by the high RS3 content of kidney beans. I am not keen on kidney beans, but perhaps well-soaked pintos would also have a high RS3 when cooked. I am looking for at least a partial food solution to the RS puzzle.
Grace – thank you for the information! I will dig into it. I am eager to address underlying causes. I didn’t know about the gut and estrogen-processing functions. My family doctor also does functional medicine – so I am addressing many of the things in the paper you linked. Anything I can do to improve gut function will ultimately be a big part of the solution going forwards.
Unfortunately when I had surgery they took the ovaries as well as the uterus so that changes the hormone picture. I have had a full assessment of my hormone picture (with my family doctor). It is amazing how slowly it takes for hormone levels to shift if you aren’t excreting estrogen at normal levels. Six months after menopause I was still in the normal range for estrogen, although the profile between the various types was unusual because I had been taking DIM. I am also taking some progesterone. After reading Ray Peat’s blog posts on estrogen and progesterone I am relieved at the approach I am taking. I wish that I had had my current doctor years ago.
Gabriella – I suspect my doctor is aiming for TSH=1 and she does do the full suite of tests. I have also done some tests outside of the provincial health plan. I wonder if your experience with an acute sense of smell after fasting had a hormonal component (in part). Do men also experience this? The reason I ask, is that during pregnancy women often experience something similar. I recall being assaulted by bun odors, when someone broke a bun in half. Smells were so intense! That tells me that we are all wired for sensing smells acutely but that there must be something biochemical that keeps things at a more subdued level. I have always been curious about that.
Kira,
Actually when potato starch is cooked it becomes digestible carbs, no longer RS/bionic-fiber! In many studies, they use franken-ized starches which are synthetically manipulated to evade the amylase enzyme degradation process… That’s how they jack up the RS content of muffins, cookies and goodies.
I think you are fantastistical for addressing adrenals and your health.
Yes the gut is definitely responsible for poor estrogen-carcinogen processing. This is my favorite integrative oncology protocol. Please read how they manipulate inflammation. Optimal 2/16 estrogen ratios (GDX Estronex test) should be 2 or higher. For me, after detox, and getting a healthy gut this summer (kraut, charcoal, clay, exercise, etc) my ratio was 10. Please don’t hesitate to contact to me if you’d like to learn more. I know of people personally with female cancers and their ratios are f*Kcing crap and conventional oncologists don’t know how functional medicine can reverse disease. The document doesn’t address gut health but it’s a great start.
http://jdc.jefferson.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1003&context=jmbcim
had no idea about the fluoride! WTF? thanks!!!
Gab,
LOL!!! e are seriously CRAZY twins. My real mom was actually a pharmacist. She passed in a car accident (when I was ten) and my father remarried. (My half bro is a dentist, opened minded, but rather conventional right now).
What are your body temps? Hopefully you shall find that they correlate with your lab testing (otherwise I’d just ignore the labs, go only by symptoms).
UR A GODDESS. Love all of your astute observations!
Grace, you are a wild child!
It’s not just fluoride. It’s all the halides. Lithium, bromine….. I was reading some information that iodine was used for ‘proofing agent’ in bakery breads until the 1970s when it was replaced by bromine. This coincided with the development of ‘yuppie flu’, ‘fibromyalgia’ and ‘cfids’.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1584230/
What I don’t understand is here doctors will do aspiration biopsies on thyroid nodules but nobody asks the patient about use of iodized salt or anything. Urinary iodine excretion measurements are not done as a routine test in cases of goitre. These analyses are only done for research purposes or after radioactive iodine administration.
Last year on Medscape I read the American Endocrinologists society/association/whatever recommendation that hypothyroid post-menopausal women should not be given thyroid hormone replacement because they live longer in the hypothyroid state! Wahhh? How, now really, how do they know that? In other words it’s better for these women to be dragging their butts around, have problems with everything and do it for longer than feel as vibrant and alive as possible. The world is truly going craycray. It’s misogynistic!
My body temps are totally supernormal. I’ve checked that. If I do a few hours of exertion like when I stripped up the kitchen floor for hours and re-tiled, in the evening it goes up to 37.6+/- 0.2 for a few hours. Probably just because I don’t work physically for hours every day.
Grace, if you eat no food for 3 or 4 days, you’ll be able to smell for miles too. And it will stay that way for months. I verified this with a real yogini because I told her that after I’d had an inner ear infection and couldn’t eat for several days, when I finally was able to get out of bed without puking, walking through my home was like passing through ‘smellscapes’. About every three feet or so the smellscape changed. My sense of smell became so acute for about 1 year that as I’d walk past other people’s doors in the hallway, I could tell if they were home or not. When I got off the elevator at work, I could smell in the hallway if my staff had arrived and I could tell who else was already at work in the other offices. It was quite something. Then it all went away.
My yogini said that when she did multiday fasts this happened to her. I didn’t ask her how long it lasted because it was too early in the game for me. My only guess is that the acute starvation state heightens the sense of smell so we can find food.
Kira, I’m not an M.D. but I would want patients to have TSH about 1. Of course the fT4 and fT3 needs to be checked as well but unless there is a concern or a diagnosed problem, general practitioners are not supposed to test for these. It’s pretty dumb considering HPA problems can indicate a low TSH, low fT4 and low fT3……. high prolactin and low cortisol……….. oh and they don’t routinely test for either of those either. We are rationing healthcare.
I find tranqs funny too. The first Ativan works. After that it may as well be a sugar pill. Does nothing. Diazepam tends to be better except it’s got a long serum half life and can build up in the blood since it’s metabolites are something like 98% protein bound. It’s a problem with the elderly because they end up losing their balance and breaking hips and other bones. But diazepam is great for muscle spasm issues. People are way too paranoid about taking drugs these days, except for the addicts and they can’t get enough.
Grace, getting more testing done for my assistant is a no go. I entirely dislike finding myself in a Sisyphusian situation. This is one of those. She’s got enough information to make informed choices. I can’t get overly invested in her health and what she does or doesn’t do because, believe it or not, depending on how she interprets our interactions (which on my part are from concern and good intent) she can feel that I am violating her human rights. Yes, Grace, that is what it is here. Employers (supposedly the ones with power) have to tiptoe tentatively around their employees delicate sensibilities OR ELSE.
“It’s misogynistic!”
Well, at least you’ve come to the right place. 🙂
Gabriella/Grace, I also take LDN (3.5mg) but for my RA not my hypothyroidism. LDN will not help hypothyroidism unless it’s clearly Hashimoto’s driven. That is, LDN only helps overtly antibody-driven hypothyroid conditions. If yours is just a subclinical/euthyroid low T3, which is what mine is, it won’t help much. However, if you do really have CFS, LDN is phenomenal. My guess is your chronic fatigue is probably due to low T3, not really fibromyalgia or CFS.
Interesting that your endo would actually prescribe Synthroid when you’re euthyroid. They can be persuaded if T4 and T3 are both low. But in your case, it may not be converting to T3/Ft3. So synthorid here will just up T4. What’s stopping it from being converted? Most naturopaths say you have tissue inflammation, metabolic syndrome, etc. However, I believe a low-carb diet itself is the culprit. And if you’ve done it long-term, you can’t raise it by simply adding carbs. I suspect it’s related to the gut flora we may have denuded. Those hypo symptoms really overlap with Raynaud’s. And Raynaud’s is regarded as a dry-run autoimmune attack that could spread to more serious autoimmuen diseases like RA or lupus.
So I don’t see you being helped by LDN. My RA is being helped enormously by it; my joint pains are gone, as is my inflammation. But my hypothyroid symptoms remained and I suspected the only way to alleviate them is through RS. I’ve solved my low body-temp and constipation with it. My cold fingers seem to be going away but I have to give it more time.
Spanish, where the heck are you?
This stuff about LDN is right on. Potato starch trial did not have any effect on fT3. On Cytomel. That works. LDN was for neuropathic pain.
Spanish, this isn’t euthyroid syndrome. Everything was tested in 1985. Dr. Bernie Zinman thought it might be a pituitary microadenoma (back in 1982). No tumour. Antibody tests were negative. Triple bolus test was abnormal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combined_rapid_anterior_pituitary_evaluation_panel
I don’t have a copy of the results and I don’t remember exactly what the numbers were, but it was abnormal.
A horrible procedure to endure and I won’t do it again. No one will ever convince me.
Was scheduled for one of those radioactive iodine imaging studies to see uptake. Can’t remember what came of that. I actually don’t remember if it was done or not. I did attend the appointment. Possibly it was canceled at the last second while I was there because otherwise I think I’d remember about the results. Who the hell knows anymore. I’m getting old and decades have passed. Probably someone looked at the triple bolus test result and realized that imaging the iodine uptake in the thyroid was a waste of time.
So the problem is not the thyroid. It’s HPA. The signals from the hypothalamus are not getting through to the pituitary which is why TSH is always low regardless of what the fT4 and fT3 are. My father actually figured that one out before the testing was done once he began paying a bit of attention to what was going on.
Taking thyroid replacement brought the prolactin levels to normal. Periods became regular. Energy levels became normal. The goitre went away.
Whatever happened between the hypothalamus and the pituitary started when I was about 14 years old and got gradually worse until it was at times exhausting by age 18. I think it had to do with chronic, unbearable stress because when I left the country, the goitre disappeared in a matter of weeks. Canada is not a healthy place for me.
Spanish, I think the olfactory acuity is different during pregnancy than in the acute starvation state. In pregnancy, smells elicit nausea and appear to be a warning by the body for the woman to avoid certain foods and situations. The other form of olfactory acuity appears to be an enhancement to find nutrition. I may be entirely wrong but I’ve lived through both.
Gab,
I think I met my wild child sistah~!!
“Whatever happened between the hypothalamus and the pituitary started when I was about 14 years old and got gradually worse until it was at times exhausting by age 18. I think it had to do with chronic, unbearable stress because when I left the country, the goitre disappeared in a matter of weeks. Canada is not a healthy place for me.” I think we harbor many emotions in the gut so I truly believe in the gut-emo-HPA axis. For Richard’s pain syndrome, it is a similar analogy gut-emo-pain/brain axis. It’s funny because yoga and tantra open the root chakra which is essentially the central center for gut neurons, in case you’re into this topic. Stress relays to the gut and I believe there are instant changes to not only flora but creation of micro-perforations. The HPA and cortisol can delve quickly into vicious cesspools unless there are ways to reset these (hiking in nature, shutting the brain off, community, laughing, etc). Drugs, alcohol, and pharmaceuticals are big fails. Hey I love when you talk drug-scapes. LOL
UR A HILARIOUS GRRRRL! ” In other words it’s better for these women to be dragging their butts around, have problems with everything and do it for longer than feel as vibrant and alive as possible. The world is truly going craycray. It’s misogynistic!” This is exactly what I argued vehemently with Richard who runs the body core temp of a stone. Great comment Gab. To live ‘long’ by low basal metabolic rates is not thriving or what I’d considered living. Been there. Won’t go back sorry. I like the hair in my eyebrows and prefer the metabolism, strength and power of a panther. Also in low thyroid/adrenal syndromes, the gut slows down and becomes sluggish even if no outward signs. Obviously this creates putrification, recirculation of toxins and a myriad of other problems in subtle by-product plumbing. wtf
The adrenals are connected to temperature regulation. Anyone with cold extremities clearly has problems with both and HPA regulation. The thyroid will never ‘fix’ until the adrenals are addressed. What I find these days is that this can be super challenging but healing the gut thoroughly (eg addressing parasites, overgrowths, digestion, etc) makes it almost 90% easier.
You and your docs are not the only ones shooting for TSH 1.0. (printed goal is 0.4-3.0 for Cleveland Clinic) When medications (both synthetic or glandular) drive the TSH ‘too low’ and lead to suprathyroid signs, this occurs because the individual is suffering from adrenal insufficiency. The adrenals rebel because they cannot keep up with cortisol/EPI demand from the exogenous thyroid dosing, even T4 (synthroid). The adrenals always need to be addressed either concurrently or first because they are the foundation for optimality.
http://ccjm.org/content/70/4/329.full.pdf
Yes MISOGYNISTIC. Completely asssssinine and criminal. All cause mortality and heart disease raised when TSH > 1.4 from the HUNT study — several derivative studies with the data. Also likely the worsening of the gut function with post-modern industrialization, not just singular thyroid effects. The gut-thyroid axis again. Of course the TSH is a shitty test but when it’s ‘off’ it really signals SOMETHING.
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=414170
Kira — Thanks for the bromide correction. Yes all halides put in water and food are nasties. Bad for the gut and HPA for certain. I agree I love all the animal instinct and animal awareness we all seem to have but don’t exhibit unless prompted, harnessed and honed.
I’ve discovered that nearly all hormone cancers and inflammatory disorders are estrogen dominance cases. (same with men too as the adrenals fail, then relative estrogen becomes higher as T and progesterone drop — sex and reproduction are not as important as ‘survival’ when cortisol is raised both acutely and chronically).
Your estrogens (E1 E2 E3) probably didn’t have steady-state adaption post surgery (oophorectomy) because your fat tissues were/are insulin resistant and thus cranking out estrogens. The E dom state is perpetuated by diet (sugar, gluten, dairy, food allergens, high refined carbs, insufficient protein, inadequate fiber and low GI foods). Yes now we also have the gut microbiota piece which shows how carcinogenic estrogens get maintained and even recycled back in. The key (which is imperfect) is to look at the 2/16 OH-estrone ratio and try to optimize. Progesterone does help but if the body is still inflamed, the ratio will still suck. Does that make sense? This is how endocrine disrupting toxins are fucking us and our unborn grandchildren, raising our cancer epidemic which is currently hitting in lifetime risk: men, 1:2 and women 1:3. F*KC. Not nice, right?
http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/content/12/1/20.full
Plant antioxidants have been shown in trials to not only prevent cancer but also manipulate the 2/16 ratio very effectively. I have no studies but adrenal optimization and addressing the gut-HPA-thyroid I believe truly maximizes our hormone and estrogen processing.
Richard did mention in the past that he’d been on thyroid replacement. Now that he’s been changing things up a bit, might be a good time to get the blood tests done. We’ll need to take a closer look at his eyebrows and leghair…………
Spanish,
UR A RAY OF BRILLIANT MEDICAL SUNSHINE 😉 Love your thoughts.
Hey I didn’t know you were on LDN. Only recently I found it had oncology indications besides autoimmune. All of these are conditions that have root causes in immunological function and the gut/microbiota IS the immune system. I was having a quiet argument with Mat and Robb about this. Robb thinks and I agree that “LDN seems to modulate the opioid scene and this “primes” the immune system.”
However,we have new data from Pimental’s lab. Did y’ll see this?
http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ACG/42282
“Animal models showed that a specific toxin produced by gastroenteritis-causing bacteria such as Campylobacter jejuni known as cytolethal distending toxin B (CdtB) can precipitate IBS.
So Pimentel’s group developed an antibody to the CdtB toxin and applied it to full thickness biopsies of rat intestine, and found that the antibody bound strongly to all the neuromuscular elements, but in both exposed and control animals.
“So the antibodies to CdtB were reacting to something that was part of the host, not to the presence of the toxin,” he explained.
Then, through a series of experiments, they considered if this was molecular mimicry, but eventually with immunoprecipitation testing determined that the antibody was targeting the human protein vinculin, which is important for nerve cell migration.
They also considered the possibility that exposure to the toxin led to the development of antibodies that could react to CdtB epitopes, and whether through homology perhaps one epitope produced an autoantibody to the protein.
“Our hypothesis was that in humans, some people never had gastroenteritis, never developed antibodies to CdtB or vinculin, and never developed IBS. Or they did have gastroenteritis, produced the antibodies, and then developed IBS,” he said.”
My thoughts: LDN blocks anti-candidal and anti-gluten auto-antibodies and other auto-antibodies against the below that partially or completely fill and block/actiate the opioid receptors. Opioids do have large roles in regulating immunity and modulating secretion of B-lymphocytes.
–enteric bacterial and archae overgrowths
–yeast overgrowths
–parasite, protozoa overgrowths
–undigested food (lectiny-peptides: nuts, casein, gluten, chocolate/coffee, cross-lectins from corn, soy, grains, legumes)
Gluten peptides do fit into opioid recepters, as we are aware. Zero probs and no big deal unless they breach the gut…. “Most of these food-derived opioid receptor ligands are fragments of the milk proteins alpha-, beta- or kappa-casein, alpha-lactalbumin, beta-lactoglobulin or lactotransferrin; however, also wheat gluten, rice albumin, bovine serum albumin or hemoglobin, i.e. possible constituents of meat, and even a protein from spinach could be demonstrated to contain fragments behaving like opioid receptor ligands. Practically all of these compounds display opioid agonist activity; only very few of them behave like opioid antagonists. ”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12769741
It’s a vicious negative toilet bowl flush if anti-vinculin antibodies are produced — the MMC dies (migrating myenteric complex which are neuro-muscular junctions that sweep clean the small intestines like a heartbeat between meals and whilst sleeping). Compromised gut motility then retrogrades digestion, bile acids and undigested food across permeable intestines straight into the blood stream.
Truly to overcome this is healing, sealing the gut and dealing with all the immune-complexes and antibody production in both cancer and autoimmune disorders. It all intersects with crossroads of the gut.
AAAAAAAAAAaaaaahhhhh…. You said the cash phrase: “However, I believe a low-carb diet itself is the culprit. And if you’ve done it long-term, you can’t raise it by simply adding carbs. I suspect it’s related to the gut flora we may have denuded. Those hypo symptoms really overlap with Raynaud’s. And Raynaud’s is regarded as a dry-run autoimmune attack that could spread to more serious autoimmuen diseases like RA or lupus.”
Cold peripheral extremities is exactly adrenally related semi-Raynaud’s. The microperforated gut and “DENUDED GUT FLORA” causes so much drain on thyroid/T3, cortisol and EPI and completely dysregulations normal vasodilation (cholinergic innervations) that what I observe improves with fixing both adrenals + gut together.
One of the gold standard replacements (until root causes are fixed) for adrenal/thyroid dysregulation is DHEA. Personally I’m a fan when indicated. There are hypotheses why it maybe super effective in Reynaud’s.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1003429/
Just like free T3, free NEPI and dopamine are the key signals in Raynaud’s. “The reduced plasma levels of free dopamine and epinephrine might be due to impaired adrenal release in response to some kinds of sympathetic stimulation or to rapid tissue uptake and peripheral metabolism.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3425974
Adequate ‘rest/respose/relaxation’ (PSNS, cholinergic response) is impaired in Raynaud’s and adrenal-HPA… “maximal relaxation to ACh was depressed in vessels from RD patients compared with controls at 37 degrees C”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3425974
Like many inflammatory disorders, broken microbiota processing and hormone synthesis (CYP 1B1, CYP1A1 and insulin resistance) occurs. Any “DRY-RUN AUTOIMMUNE ATTACK” and Raynaud’s is clearly estrogen dominant and driven.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2546646
It’s not every study but cortisol is elevated in Raynaud’s (pre ANA), then depleted (post ANA appearance).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6600810
With low adrenal function, depressed thyroid free T3 is the natural consequence. Blasting with pharmaceutical T3 does aleve Raynaud’s. Technically from the lab point of view, it is very difficult to get an accurate on free T3 — even with gold nanotechnology and protein diagnostics, from my understanding. All the things that cause high reverse T3 and compromised conversion T4–> T3 are also factors that shut the adrenals off (stress stress stress toxins). We really cannot tell what’s happen at the T3-TR (thyroid receptor) level or even what auto-antibodies are fucking the TRs with current primitive technology.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1003429/
We also cannot discount the role of fungi overgrowths (again, thank you very much antibiotics) and low thyroid syndromes. Vodjani has studied how candida peptides are not dissimiliar to many organs including thyroid tissues.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10332630
Grace, that’s some deep stuff. We’re all plumbing the depth of our gut microbiota but the implications are just mind-boggling. Interestingly, those who don’t respond to LDN are thought to have candida. That’s the talk among LDN advocates when they see failures. That is, it’s the absorption problem.
My thought here is that LDN works in about 70%. It didn’t work for Dr. Wahls; she wasn’t impressed and ran back to her rainbow-colored, ketogenic, inflammation-reducing Wahls protocol! Good grief, what will make her abandon that idea? Those who do not respond to LDN just might not have the right genes. Remember, LDN is a small dose (0.5-4.5mg) of Naltrexone. which is 50 mg. Naltrexone was used to treat HIV and AIDS patients and to wean alcoholics, heroin and crack addicts off their choice stimulants. They’ve done gene analyses and those with certain alleles do not respond well and the nonresponse rate was like 30%. That’s pretty much the failure rate of LDN, though many claim that it’s much lower.
There are those who take LDN for anti-aging and hormonal benefits. I am skeptical but Dr. McCandless of UCLA claims that LDN spiced up her sex life so much she’s recommending everyone above 65 should be on it! I’m not kidding. Imagine if she only tried PS. It’s fascinating because LDN will do the opposite of PS when it comes to dreaming. It will give you nightmares instead of sweet dreams. Now, you do know that serotonin deficiency could trigger IBS. And IBS really is a mental disorder of the gut, our second brain. But low serotonin also triggers a host of issues like autism, depression, schizophrenia, OCD, panic disorder, paranoia. That’s why we have SSRIs. But what does SSRI do: cause insomnia by upping serotonin too much. What does PS do? Solve insomnia by regulating serotonin.
That tells me that PS distributes optimal levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, GABA, etc. by going to the source (bacteria), not artificially increasing them like SSRIs do. And facilitates REM sleep and lucid dreaming in the process. LDN seems to be doing that too. But why would dreams always be nightmares and from the murky depths of Id rather anything involving SI supermodels? There are never sweet or erotic dreams with LDN. I once woke up and could not tell whether the disturbing nightmare was real or not. That’s the vividness we’re talking about. It’s amost like the dreams when taking smoking cessation drug, Chantix, which works in a similar way. Guess what, there are never sweet dreams with Chantix, always weird and convoluted. And some people can go into a wake-dream state with Chantix.
As for Raynaud’s, yes, that T3 replenishment is exactly what Kent Holtorf and others advocate. But for hypothyroidism. Bernstein also treats his hypo and Raynaud’s patients that way. (He claims that Raynaud’s and hypo are “co-morbidities” of diabetese! Actually, he does know that it has to do with the carbs. He’s leading the charade.) That does seem to suggest that the hormones and adrenals are interntwined. The only thing holding me back would have been worries about cancer with the BIH: you know the oncogenic effect of externally-induced high T3. So I woulda probably chickened out and gone the Cytomel route, which is really water-soluble T3.
That makes it fairly clear. It’s the gut dysbiosis that induced hormone dysregulation, including T3. T3 lowering induced hypo and Raynaud’s. Both hypo and Raynaud’s are resolved immediately via T3 replenishment. But a natural solution would be to restore your gut flora and tighten your leaky gut with RS, probiotics, and staying gluten/dairy-free. If you relied on Armor, your leaky gut and dysbiosis will remain, a patch solution. And what’s the commonality in all this? Unfortunately, it was lack of fermentable carbs courtesy of a VLC diet. That was the first mover. And there is way too much smokescreen for most low-carbers to connect the dots to see what’s behind it all. The veil is thinning, however, despite attempts at diversion by those in the know.
Fascinating discussion RE: Chunos. My Peruvian partner tells me that mothers in Peru use a powder made from grinding Chunos as way of preventing diaper rash in babies. Wonders never cease.
Spanish – in your post directly above, are you using term PS interchangeably with RS?
tks
Spanish and Grace, before I decided to give LDN a try, I read through a lot of papers and personal reports. From what I concluded some people reported adverse night responses but the majority did not. Most people reported more dreaming, some reported nothing. Same as with the RPS.
For sure though, it doesn’t work for everyone. I was reading an MS forum and although I didn’t calculate the rate of failure, your 30%plus seems pretty well in range. It does appear to help with Crohn’s to varying degrees, either total healing or major improvement. I know there’s a GI specialist here at Sunnybrook Health Sciences who prescribes it. That’s only based on a report from one compounding pharmacy. So there may be others because there are several of these pharmacies in Toronto.
Back onto a previously mentioned topic: urine. Some people report change. I’ve been peeing into a clear glass bottle for the past few days. The urine is always clear. It has colour but no flocculents. In the past, there would be at least some turbidity for the first ‘sample’ of the day since I don’t get up during the night so that urine is produced over at least an 8 hour period. This morning’s was from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. Yellow but totally clear. I’ll have to keep checking in case this is an artifact.
They are working on an oxycodone/naltrexone combo pill: get pain relief but not get high.
@MsMcGillicuddy , yes I am for now. But we know that RS is more than PS or plantain flour or Hi Maize corn starch, which are all RS2. Chonos are fascinating. I’m gonna get a start on them next week. My toes are no longer smelly nor fungal, thanx to RS, so I can stomp them with my bare feet.
@Grace, wow, I’m learning more from the references you cite than my last 5 years of self-study and discussions with clueless rheumies. That dopamine deficiency and Raynaud’s make eminent sense. And the research was done eons ago back in 1987, when leptin wasn’t even discovered. Gut dysbiosis ==> low Serotonin + low Dopamine + possibly low Noradrenaline, GABA, Melatonin, etc.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23384445
http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnint.2013.00070/abstract
That’s why the vagus nerve stimulation for the severely depressed is often effecitve, if only temporarily. That probably stimulates serotonin and dopamine production. Remember electric shock therapy? We’ve come a long way baby! So IBS really is the “mental disorder” of the “2nd brain.” The neuromuscular damage is caused by what? By deficiency of certain neurotransmitters. Again, we realize here how psychiatrists, those who’re MDs, latched on SSRIs as a quick fix. The side effect though, is enormous: it’s not just IBS but homicidal tendencies! Jacking up serotonin is friggin dangerous; we’ve ended up with two dozens Columbynes courtesy of SSRI-popping mass murderers. Giv’em BRM PS! It will regulate, not jack up serotonin. Go to the source. That’s why it’s preferable to take steps to fix the gut by taking RS and probiotics, repopulate your gut. And in the process, restore harmony to your neurotransmitters. Than simply taking BIH or even Cytomel. Heck, I even said not yet to my naturo who was willing to prescribe me testosterone. I wanna see where this RS/probiotics regimen takes me. Do a gut rehab before doing anything else.
The Raynaud’s study also showed that the ANA positive ones may be estradiol high whereas the negatives ones might be cortisol-high. Interesting, my estradiol is low but that’s obvious since my T is low. My Raynaud’s hit me about the same time I became ANA positive. I have a feeling, if you’re genetically vulnerable, you could become ANA+ simulateneous with the onset of Raynaud’s symptoms. Certain antibodies for lupus turn positive before ANA becomes positive (> 1:80); autoimmune attacks may have started when you have Raynaud’s, if you have family history. For those with more robust constitution, it’s likely they may only have Primary Rayaud’s, which most rheumies and endoes regard as an annoyance. Angelo Coppola of Latest in Paleo ended up with it and became pissed off enough to blast VLCing big time. But he’s a lucky one. If you have the wrong genes, I foresee full-blown autoimmune diseases hitting you one after another. And no one warned you so.
Spanish, the only time I’ve ever seen a full blown Reynaud’s was a diabetic patient. She went from requiring metformin to insulin. Then she died of pancreatic cancer. I’ve had three patients going from oral meds to uncontrolled diabetes and they all had pancreatic cancer. These days I contact the endos to do an ultrasound.
The thing about SSRIs that I wonder about is homeostasis. The drugs supposedly interfere with uptakes of neurotransmitters but the body pushes for homeostasis whatever it is in any given person. So the doses go up and up, like Cymbalta or Wellbutrin for example. The body appears to be fighting the effect of the drugs. At least on the gut level.
Gabriella, there is a possible link between pancreatitis (or necrotic pancreatitis or pancreatic cancer) and what appears to be Raynaud’s but polyarteritis nodosa. These are both serious and severe conditions. Actually Raynaud’s might precede PN as it is a prelude to many autoimmune and ideopathic diseases like autoimmune hemolytic anemia. That’s why we shouldn’t take Raynaud’s lightly and get ANA-tested. But then it makes sense. Dopamine deficiency could be linked to Raynaud’s, that is, neurotransmitter dysregulation. And what’s behind it? Gut dysbiosis. Raynaud’s kickstarts autoimmune cascades in many.
Spanish,
THIS IS SUPER MEGA INTENSE. I love this conversation and thank you for all of your DEEPO thoughts.
Personally I never met many who were on LDN so I don’t have a clinical feel who improves and how doesn’t or who dreams/nightmares… Are those people who take LDN gluten- and dairy-free? I believe this can make a vast difference in clinical outcomes. (the top 5 allergens are gluten, dairy, nuts, egg whites, soy and corn; Bt GMO corn is really nasty). Better to get the junk out of the receptor sites with diet first.
UR SO FUNNY about Wahls… LOL ” Good grief, what will make her abandon that idea?” She (like Wheat Belly) are doing the functional medicine rounds and yes I concur. They miss THE BIG DARN PICTURE RE: GUT ECOSYSTEMS.
Love your phrase: “IBS really is a mental disorder of the gut, our second brain… That tells me that PS distributes optimal levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, GABA, etc. by going to the source (bacteria), not artificially increasing them like SSRIs do.” Yes we can pharm out MANY MANY MANY things to the critters not just neurotransmitters. Vagal stimulation? YES. Adrenal normalization? YES (for me, super effective). I hate Chantix — always wondering who would commit suicide on it. Anything that inhibits dopamine downstream is fucked up.
What I’m finding is that everything, not just hormones, is intertwined with the gut… We ignore the gut-adrenal axis with blatant arrogance LOL. There is no PHARMACEUTICAL (except cheap hydrocortisone) so medical schools have no pretty drug reps to ‘teach them’ or dinner ‘education’ programs.
You also said and I totally vehemently agree ‘the commonality in all this? Unfortunately, it was lack of fermentable carbs courtesy of a VLC diet.’ The brutal thing about VLC is that it massacres the adrenal glands, then the gut and genitalia-thyroid axis. When the Free T3 goes south, so does sex and genitalia function.
What I see when the gut gets all perky with RS (potato starch) and core temps start to rise are the thyroid function improving significantly. Hypothyroidism kills sex function (though for the rare person, hypo makes them nympho as the hypothalamus/pituitary go on overdrive to lift low peripheral T3 and inadverdently stimulate the gonads with GnRH feedback loops).
I didn’t know Angelo C had Raynauds. MMhh… “I have a feeling, if you’re genetically vulnerable, you could become ANA+ simulateneous with the onset of Raynaud’s symptoms.” Naturally… ANA+ is just a proxy for all the other shitty auto-antibody immune complexes clogging up the body and lymph. As you highly noted: “Raynaud’s kickstarts autimmune cascades in many”. It’s kinda the ‘gateway’ AI, no? And people don’t even know it just whining on and on about cold peripheral digits and hands.
VLC kickstarts all this, no? It’s so criminal for the our microbiota (starving, endangering, driving them to extinction) which keep us impervious against diseases, including autoimmune ones. My story is just like yours except I think I was lucky to be taking a boatload of antioxidants that somehow protected. I’ve already had Hashi’s when I was 18… don’t want to go there again!
Personally I suspect for Raynaud’s, 3 things need to ‘break’ simultaneously: gut + adrenals + 2nd brain. You are correct I think — the neurotransmitters have to be patterned a certain way. I enjoy your thoughts about the Vagal innervations! Have you heard of Neuroscience labs and Avipaxin that supports Vagal and cholinergic activity?
I haven’t studied it yet but only recently heard about it. I’m deep into YIN YOGA (and some kundalini) to maintain the HPA. Wish I was more ZEN-y LOL but slowly getting there…
There are very cool supplements that help in studies as well — pregnenolone, pycnogenol, Gaia adrenal botanicals, eleutheros, biocurcumin, royal maca, progesterone (if you’re low), DHEA, adrenal glandular, all chill-axing herbals (wink wink)
Have you seen this for HPA detection and rehab?? (Gabriella — you’ll like as well! lol who won’t??)
For hormone health, it is the RELATIVE concentrations that trigger things in the body. Estrogen dominance is about progesterone and testosterone (anabolic steroids) deficiencies which jack the relative influence of E to crazy levels. Also the docs don’t check E1 often. E1 is toxic, inflammatory and carcinogenic. It goes up under certain circumstances in greater proportions compared to more benign E2 or E3 (estriol, cancer protective).
Hey what are you doing in Jan, I’m going to Thailand? Want to write a post on this for me (like tater did)???! How may I kidnap U and subject you to my blogger tyranny? I love what you say here “That’s why it’s preferable to take steps to fix the gut by taking RS and probiotics, repopulate your gut. And in the process, restore harmony to your neurotransmitters.” I’m still working out the whole GABA, dopamine and serotonin aspects of the gut-brain but it’s very confusing for me.
Hey which probiotics are you on?
Here is a snippet on C. butyricum that is in the below product I use for peeps.
http://www.iherb.com/Advanced-Orthomolecular-Research-AOR-Advanced-Series-Probiotic-3-Natural-Probiotic-Formula-90-Veggie-Caps/43463
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2291386/pdf/bcp0065-0453.pdf
Clostridium butyricum, an enterobacterium, produces high
levels of short chain fatty acids that have been reported to
be important in intestinal physiology. Two studies have
been reported in rodents, to examine the effect of this
microorganism. In the first, a C. butyricum derivative was
tested in a DSS-colitis model successfully [121], while
Okamoto et al.studied the M588 strain and demonstrated
that it attenuated intestinal inflammation and suggested
that oral administration of C. butyricum may be useful
instead of butyrate enema in the treatment of UC [122].
Hey Gorgeous/Gab,
You wrote this on another thread: “Grace: Got to the endo today. ‘sfunny. fT3 is still at the lower limit. Testing done in January, July and December. Didn’t budge. She says to me that the test for fT3 is not very accurate. I guess it’s extremely accurate in its inaccuracy. 😉
So she’s added Cytomel.
First of all, either I don’t change T4 into T3 or the 125mcg dose is too low. Neither LDN nor RPS has made any difference unfortunately. TSH was 0.6. But the pituitary gland can use T4 and if that’s normal range, then it doesn’t send signals. Also there may be an HPA lack of communication.
I feel more alert with the RPS. But so far it has not helped with the muscle pains. I had a physiotherapist check me out earlier this summer. She said I have a very strong back. But the muscles run out of juice and then they cramp and hurt. Onwards.
Cortisol will not be tested again until June 2014. ”
My thoughts are:
–dysregulated HPA (broken communication, thus no feedback TSH increases despite fucky T3)
–helluv broken adrenals
–low T3 syndrome (?cramps? autoimmunity, inflammation, etc)
–hormone imbalances
What are your progesterone, E2, free T/total T and DHEA? Measure these fasting on Day 19 (are you menstruating)
Are you on adrenal protocols?
Have you had extensive occupation exposure to dental mercury? Drilling, filling, replacing, etc?
Have you seen this landmark book for women?
Unfortunately Dr. Marchese doesn’t talk that much on adrenal health because it is really the foundation for all optimal hormones and thyroid function. I suspect that you measured your body temp incorrectly. It has to be first thing AM, prior to moving/sex/kissing/drinking/talking/eating……. there’s no way it’s normal 😉 RU faking me out GODDESS?!
OK let’s fix you up…
This whole resistant starch thing is awsome!
I started to experiment with it last week, so I’ll see where it will take me…
the commenter Martin said something about dental plaque – his story confirms my own experience and thinking.
Couple of years ago I was put on an “medication” called Edronax (google it), more or less overnight I had brown dental plaque behind my lower front teeth. During the first week on this medication, my stomach kind of “collapsed” and along with it I got heart palpitations… all of these things have stayed with me long after I stopped to take it. To say the least, this medication did not make me healthier, it rather took away from me health and stability. I realized then that gut health is VERY close connected to oral plaque, and very much so to general body strength and stability too.
I have tried very much to gain back my health, but it’s very hard! This resistant starch thing give me hope…. It might be an important missing piece, relevant to many processes…..
well, we’ll see.
/EM
Grace and Spanish: Cytomel is not a cheap drug.
Basal Body temp. 36.55 C
Check again tomorrow.
[…] …does all that good, it's probably not much different than any other saturated fat to your stomach and small intestine and human metabolism in general. And there's nothing that produces SFCAs right there onsite in the colon like resistant starch. […]
Wow! I’m fascinated by your comments. I’m facing some health challenges and I need a plan of attack. I would really value your input.
The last 15 months or so have been confusing ones for me. I suddenly developed rosacea in November 2012. I’m a natural redhead with very fair skin but I had never before had problems with flushing. Suddenly my cheeks, eyes and upper lip were flushed and broken vessels appeared. A couple of weeks after the rosacea appeared I developed an eye infection which left me with dry eyes and chronic blepharitis. I saw three dermatologists and an ophthalmologist but all they offered were steroids and antibiotics and I declined. It has been 12 years since I last took antibiotics (other than using antibiotic eye drops for a few days for the eye infection I mentioned). I was treated for H.Pylori in 2001. I have never been rechecked for that. I had problems with IBS when I was younger but haven’t really had trouble with that in 10+ years (looking back, it seemed to improve some after the h.pylori treatment). I do have some trouble with constipation. I have noticed over the last year that eggs, avocados, and bananas seem to upset my stomach. This is the first time in my life I have ever had food sensitivities. I think I react to tomatoes and citrus as well (my skin and eyes, not my stomach). The margin of my upper lip stays red and inflamed. A dermatologist said it is allergic cheilitis. She wanted to do some allergy testing but I haven’t done any yet. Some days it is more noticeable than others but it is always there. Sunlight really aggravates it.
Over the last year my body temp has been consistently over 99 degrees F. However, over the last two months I have developed Raynaud’s. I have always been hot-natured but suddenly my hands are freezing all the time.
It’s been almost two years since I last had any labs drawn. I have a high deductible health plan and I need to be strategic about which doctors I visit, tests I have done, etc.
I have drastically changed my diet over the last year in an attempt to calm down whatever this is that is going on with my body. I’ve been following the Paleo AIP diet recently. Since white potatoes are nightshades, should I be afraid they will further irritate my immune system or should I just dive in and try the potato starch? Since bananas seem to irritate my stomach, I’m wary of plantains.
None of my immediate family members has rosacea. My dad and maternal grandmother both died of CLL but otherwise to my knowledge no other autoimmune issues run in my family. I did have chronic ear infections as an infant and it seems like we took antibiotics for every little cold when I was young.
I crave sugar and was eating tons of it (especially ice cream!) when all of this started.
I’m wondering about SIBO, adrenal fatigue, candida, effects of mercury/amalgam fillings…
Where to start? It’s overwhelming and I feel overly stressed already.
Any advice you guys could offer would be GREATLY appreciated.
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you cut out refined grains and went low carb at some point and your health got worse?
I only say that because many people here have tried the low carb Paleo approach and got sick. Turns out when you cut out refined carbs, you need to eat a lot of complex carbs to just maintain a moderate carb intake, which is necessary if you want to keep your gut healthy.
Someone should create a typical “Paleo” flowchart like this….
The Paleo Diet® —> Too low carb —> Adrenal Fatigue —> Candida/Yeast —> Wrecked Gut —> Perfect Health Diet/Safe Starches —> Full Recovery —> RS —> Feeling Amazing.
So… if you aren’t eating enough carbs right now, run to the Perfect Health Diet and start eating enough of complex carbs to get to 30% calories (measure and you’ll see it’s a big volume of carby food). That should kill the sugar cravings (which is your body telling you to eat carbs). The Perfect Health Diet fixes practically everything.
http://perfecthealthdiet.com/reader-results
Duck, Grace had a blog entry about Rosacea, SIBO and horizontal crack type lines on the finger tips.
It was intriguing enough that I have been checking the fingertips of my rosacea patients. All positive. I’ve been checking fingertips of non Rosacea patients, no horizontal lines.
I used to get Rosacea back in the early 2000s to about 2008. Sunburn mustache. Yup. Very annoying. Was using Metrocream for years but switched to Aubrey Sea Buckthorn and Cucumber moisturizing cream. I also use a very little bit of mineral based foundation which I think protects the sensitive skin from the elements. Did also change my diet which wasn’t bad but did eliminate a few things. Don’t have horizontal lines on my fingertips. Don’t know if I had them at the time. That was BG (before Grace). My skin does not look like I’m a person who has/had Rosacea.
The eyes were dry at the time as well. That seems to have cleared up. Probably diet/gut bug related. I wasn’t eating yoghurt, kefir, kimchi or sauerkraut during those Rosacea days.
Hmm… I had Rosacea for a few years, but I haven’t had a flare up in weeks. I’ve been looking at my finger lines. I do have them on a few fingers, but I think they are getting lighter. Still there though. I’ll be focussing on the recommended probiotics and fermented foods and hope to nip it in the bud.
Thank you. I ordered The Perfect Health Diet book this afternoon. I definitely have reduced my carb intake over the last year since I cut out grains (other than gluten-free oats which I eat cooked and unsoaked) and legumes. I do not regularly eat fruit other than apples and I avoid white potatoes. The Raynaud’s just appeared a couple of months ago so I would say that yes, whatever is going on is still progressing. I’ll read the book.
Sunburn mustache? Exactly! I’ve never heard of this before but it is right on the money. I would say my first symptom of rosacea was upper lip stinging when I got hot. The mustache area is red and the upper lip margin has a red line – like I penciled it with a dark pink lip liner. It’s also somewhat itchy. The derm scraped it and said it was negative for fungus or other infections. I spent a good deal of money doing consults via Skype with a clinic in Australia (Dr. Michael Tirant) and taking his supplements. Not particularly helpful. He said my mouth/lips didn’t look like rosacea and mentioned perioral dermatitis. When I compare it to online photos, it doesn’t look at all like perioral dermatitis to me.
I’ve seen lots of photos of people with rosacea but no matter how bad their faces look their lips seem to look normal so all of this has confused me further.
Who is Grace and could you explain further about finger lines? I’m not familiar with this.
THANK YOU THANK YOU for your responses. It’s wonderful to know there are people out there who have experienced these same issues and have healed. Hope is priceless.
Peri oral dermatitis! HA!!! All that means is they do not know what is wrong with you and the skin around your mouth is irritated. It is just Latin for “rash around the mouth”. If any doctor thinks that is a diagnosis he is worthless. And should be defenestrated forthwith!
Perfect Health Diet I’m not alone here when I tell you that. Just about all of us here got better from Paleo by doing some form of safe starches.
The key to getting the PHD right is to make sure you eat enough of these “safe starches”. It’s a lot and it’s easy to overlook if you aren’t used to carb quantities in foods. For instance, if an adult consuming around 2000 calories per day would need to eat roughly 150 grams of carbohydrates per day on the PHD (preferably from safe starches).
So, one would need to consume:
1.5 cups of mashed potatoes = 55g of carbs
1 cup of cooked rice = 55g of carbs
1 medium beet = 8g of carbs
1 large banana = 31g of carbs
=============================
TOTAL CARBS = 149g carbs
See, it’s a lot.
Anyway, when you consume that level of carbs, along with nutrient-dense foods, your body will heal itself. You may need some other interventions (probiotics, RS, etc) but the important thing is to feed your body the carbs it needs.
Just to prove that this isn’t total bullshit, listen to Chris Kresser explain, in this podcast, how many people accidentally go too low carb when they try to eat a Paleo whole foods diet:
Richard = Batman
Tatertot = Robin
Grace = Batwoman. Her blog is here:
(url removed)
As a team, they will save your life. 🙂
The finger lines were discusses above. Basically if you have horizontal lines going across your finger prints, you have Rosacea. My Rosacea is pretty much gone, but I still have some horizontal lines.
Oh, and, btw. Try to hit the “Reply” button under someone’s comment to keep the comments in order.
Will do. Sorry about that and thank you so much!
Duckie, not quite. Grace’s blog information was that people with Rosacea have SIBO and they have horizontal lines on their fingertips. Seemed to me more that SIBO causes the lines and Rosacea is a manifestation of SIBO.
Grace can clarify. Grace?
Emom, some people have ‘unconscious habits’. They touch their faces habitually and develop various red patches and whatnot. I suppose it can start with something but continually touching it prevents healing.
But if it’s Rosacea, then that’s different. Sunburn mustaches suck. I used to wonder if I smear zinc oxide cream over it when out hiking like those surf boarders in Australia put on their noses, if it would help. But then I’d look like a bigger idiot than I am.
Last year I got chapped lips that were resistant to healing. Probably the chlorine in the swimming pool and then going outdoors afterwards. I made up a combo of coconut oil, lanolin and cocoa butter. That healed it. But I haven’t gone swimming for a while either. So, don’t know for sure. But cocoa butter is a really good substance. It’s such a saturated fat it doesn’t go rancid.
Darn. And to think that I feel so amazing now other than still getting some dandruff.
After reading the info about fingerprints I raced straight to my son’s room to nab his Melissa & Doug washable ink pad from his dinosaur stamp set. 🙂 I checked my fingerprints – no lines. I guess this is good news?
I’ve stopped putting anything on my lips other than petroleum jelly. I just walk around looking like I forgot to wipe off the remains of my very pink lipstick. Before going outdoors I also coat my face with zinc oxide then after a little sweat even the invisible kind turns into a scary white mess. To be honest, I rarely go outside these days. Even with a large hat it’s hard to keep the sun off my lips. Heat aggravates the lips and rosacea and cold activates the Raynaud’s. I’m only 37 and I have two young boys so I would love to get back to the healthy, active person I used to be.
I’ve been afraid of eating lots of fermented foods since I have read they can aggravate candida and that it’s possible to have histamine intolerance and these foods are high in histamine. I’ve been wandering around the internet and it seems like I’ve found some reason or another to fear just about every food imaginable. Like I said, having a definite plan would help me so much. The doctors and naturopaths I have seen haven’t been much help.
Could you tell me more about what specific steps you took to rid yourself of the rosacea? After dealing with it for eight years, it must be heavenly to be free from it.
Duckie, you are. It’s real. Don’t stress. 🙂
Emom, High insulin levels cause skin tags and the permanent dilation of blood vessels in the skin on the sides of the abdomen below the breasts. So it’s not a big stretch to consider it will cause this to happen in other sensitive skin areas like the upper lip and cheeks etc.
I don’t eat stuff like pretzels, potato chips, Doritos, etc. etc. Much less sugary snackfoods.
But in my Rosacea days I did consume, Costco apple pies, Quaker Harvest Crunch, Raisin Bran, delicious cakes, Rolled Gold Pretzels…. etc.
Not anymore. Not for years. I don’t want to expand to the size of serious real estate. Insulin levels are not shooting up anymore.
The rosacea flare ups gradually just disappeared.
When I went to Grenada for two weeks in 2009, no rosacea. And it was hot, hot, hot. I walked all over the place, went swimming, was out and about in the sun. No rosacea.
For the past few years I’ve been eating sauerkraut, yoghurt, kefir, and sour cream. Fermented pickles, kimchi, natto. I wasn’t doing that back in rosacea times. Wasn’t even eating butter. (but not eating margarine either.) Was using corn oil. Not anymore. Just olive oil, lard and butter. Eat pork belly cooked with sauerkraut. Stuff like that. Lamb, goat. Not much chicken. Fish, shellfish. Plenty of vegetables. Not much fruit. Oysters are good for the skin because of all the zinc.
So lots of differences. Went from very SAD to much better.
Very interesting. I do have broken vessels on my upper rib cage just under the bra line. I’ve noticed them but never knew they might be significant. You said “permanent dilation” – so my face might not improve?
I’ve had some mild symptoms of hypoglycemia in the past but have never had any signs of diabetes to my knowledge. I have always been a person who eats a lot and can’t go long periods of time without eating. I didn’t have diabetes during my fairly recent (within last 5 years) pregnancies although I had to eat often or I would experience symptoms of hypoglycemia. To my knowledge I’ve never had insulin levels checked. I am not currently overweight. My blood pressure runs low and I always get dizzy if I change positions too quickly.
So glad to hear you are doing so well. It gives me hope. Adding RS wasn’t a significant part of your recovery?
EMom, sounds like you are producing a lot of insulin in response to high glycemic index food items.
If you start the day with high glycemic index foods, you screw up your whole day. The blood sugar bounces make a person continually eat more high glycemic index foods in order to feel better.
A person does not need to be overweight or obese to experience high insulin levels and blood sugar dives.
Start the day with a breakfast that contains fat, protein and 12 – 15 grams of carbs. Go for carbs that are not easy to digest. No fruit. No fruit juice. No sugar. No jam. Sourdough bread is better than regular bread. 1 slice. More than 1 slice (or equivalent) and you’ll get lowering of blood glucose rapidly.
Look at calories. 2 eggs scrambled with butter, 1 slice of sourdough bread toast with butter = 300 – 400 calories. If you want more calories, eat 3 eggs. Or add bacon. But keep the carbs down, but not out. Cheese, cottage cheese (fullfat), sardines, ham. Etc. etc. Figure it out. Sometimes I make sautéed plantain with two eggs. Even home fries are better than toast. Heck, I’ve eaten lamb chops for breakfast. I want food that will keep me from getting hungry for 5 hours. Minimum.
You want to keep blood sugar steady all day long. I’ve tested recently while at work. Blood sugar is dead steady from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. when it starts to slowly go down. By 7 p.m. it’s low enough that I feel hungry. I don’t eat breakfast at home. I take food to work, eat around 9:30 a.m. and then don’t eat until I get home from work. Sometimes I make an effort to have a snack in the early afternoon so I don’t get too hungry when I get home. That keeps meal sizes under control and reduces temptation to eat seconds in the evening. But makes it so I’m not hungry until really late.
Fruit should only be eaten between lunch and supper.
Cut out sugar and easily digested carbs.
I am no longer raising children, so it’s easier for me to cook on the week-end, containerize, freeze, etc. That way I’ve got food portioned out and am not tempted to over-eat or buy something during the day that I know isn’t a good idea. It’s routine, maybe boring, disciplined but that’s what works for me. At suppertime, I’ll add a bit of yoghurt, kimchi, etc. to my meal.
Like tonight it was reheated rice, with stir fry longbeans and pork (ginger, garlic, soysauce etc.) and some yoghurt with a bit of kimchi on the side The cooked stuff I made on Sunday. For lunch I ate 2 corn tortillas, cod liver pate and spinach sauteed with garlic & olive oil. It wouldn’t make it on the Olive Garden menu but it tastes good. My cat licked out the cod liver pate tin. She approved. 😉 Breakfast was tea with milk and about 11 a.m. I had kefir (8 ounces) with raw potato starch mixed in. THAT lowered my blood glucose so I’m not doing it anymore like that. But I didn’t have anything else to eat. And my attitude is too bad, poor organizational skill results in hunger. Suck it up.
If I drink alcohol, it’s diluted with water and if it’s vodka, I add lime juice as well. No sugar added. A little relaxed is nice. Drunk, not. Alcohol calories add up.
I’ve stopped eating gluten so I never have bread. My breakfast almost always is 1/2 cup gluten-free oatmeal with coconut oil and salt. I know grains aren’t Paleo but I’ve had trouble figuring out what the heck else I can eat for breakfast. I drink a couple of cups of regular black coffee every morning as well. I don’t eat a lot of eggs because over the last year I’ve noticed they make my stomach hurt and make me feel a bit nauseated. For some reason boiled eggs bother me less than those cooked in other ways. Weird.
I think I’ll read the book, try the potato starch (although I’m a bit concerned about the nightshade issue), increase fermented foods. I’ve never made kefir but I guess it’s time to learn. BTW, do you have thoughts on whether my money would be better spent on allergy/food intolerance testing or on the Genova/Metamatrix Comprehensive Stool Profile?
Many thanks to you for taking the time to share your wisdom.
Well, PHD recommends egg yolks, not egg whites. The yolks are all you want anyway — that’s where the nutrients are — it’s the proteins in the egg whites that tend to give people trouble.
Get Green Banana flour if you are worried about potato starch.
White rice is one of the easiest foods on the planet to digest. The Chinese used to make “congee” for those with the most damaged guts:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congee
Be sure to use white rice. If you have trouble with white rice (very rare) try short grain white rice. If that doesn’t work, try long grain white rice. Richard and Tim recommend parboiled for extra RS.
EMom, if there are enough types of foods that you can eat without problem, just go for those. There’s lots of stuff containing protein and fat that a person can eat for breakfast besides eggs. Eat what gives you happy stomach. That what we called it here. ‘happy stomach’.
Oatmeal with coconut oil doesn’t ‘stick’ as well as oatmeal with a lamb chop. 🙂 It might be more calories but it’ll stay with you longer. (okay, I’m going to gross some people out but ‘Newfie steak’… fried bologna….we did that sometimes when the kids were younger. It’s cheap and filling. Probably not A1 quality but Heck, my daughters went through the Kirkland Hot Dog in the Microwave phase at one point.)
If you do the stool test, then you’ll really have lots of homework to figure out ‘what next’?
Duckie, congee plain is too high Glycemic index for someone with sugar/insulin issues unless stuff is added to it. Congee is great with chicken broth in a slow cooker overnight. Then add tasty things to it. Shrimp, salted eggs, any weird stuff you want. Drizzle a bit of chili oil on it. Warms the soul. They even add steamed veggies to it sometimes. Fried liver strips, weird guts and offal bits.
Scroll down on the takeout menu of the place near me. Congee Queen: Congee choices
“I’ve found some reason or another to fear just about every food imaginable.”
Double-edged sword update. Don’t know what to say except that obviously, you have to eat food and nobosy can figure that out but you.
“Like I said, having a definite plan would help me so much. The doctors and naturopaths I have seen haven’t been much help.”
Hand-in-hand update. I think probably a lot of naturopaths are good. But everyone wants a plan. EVERYONE wants a plan.
It’s really impossible but fortunately for many, a PLAN works for enough that that those for whom it doesn’t work are on their own.
You’re probably on your own and the sooner you take 100% to personal task, the better and sooner you’re going to get some clues to help you decide which rabbit hole to dive into.
I wish you the best.
Gab,
Are the Raynaud’s and broken blood vessels reminiscent of Scleroderma (with Secondary Raynaud’s) and perhaps the heat/redness of Erythromelalgia (also with Secondary Raynaud’s)?
Didn’t Spanish Caravan say that going too low carb triggers Raynaud’s, which can bring on the Scleroderma and Erythromelalgia?
I’ll defer to you, but this sounds a bit coincidental.
Duckie, I’ve seen Raynaud’s disease in it’s full glory. A sight to never forget. Waxy yellow fingers because the blood vessels entirely close up. Like the fingers of a cadaver. Skin is thickened on the fingertips. That patient died 2 months later from pancreatic cancer. She didn’t understand why the endo switched her from Metformin to insulin. But she reported to me that she was having trouble swallowing. I called the endo. The endo didn’t know that the patient had Raynaud’s and had instructed her to take blood samples from the fingertips. That is contra-indicated. She had Raynaud’s for many years before the type 2 diabetes which turned into much worse.
Don’t know about exactly what Spanish was on about, but Raynaud’s is an expression of many diseases. Sympathetic nervous system over response.
If going ultra low carb damages the adrenals and the thyroid function, then there’s consequences in tissues. Therefore, sure, sympathetic nervous system overdrive due to stress can cause vasoconstriction in the fingers and other places.
Interesting you mention Scleroderma: there’s some people who take low dose naltrexone for this. A microglial glutamate modulator.
But no. I don’t think hyperinsulinemia due to ‘dietary stupid’ qualifies as an auto-immune. It can be reversed quite easily.
I’ve seen riproaring Rosacea in someone I think has Cushing’s. Globe gut, tons of neck fat, hypoglycemic episodes relieved by constant consumption of sugar. Actually, this person was compulsively consuming licorice candies. Thinning hair, no sex drive, greasy skin. Sleep apnea. (Don’t have to be a genius to figure THAT out with this – clenching teeth during sleep alternating with snoring. The latter was spouse reported. But there’s a point where ‘rational’ flies out the window.)
Hyperinsulinemia shows as skin tags in areas that are rubbed by clothing or under pendulous breast tissue. The dilated blood vessels are present on the sides. Rosacea can happen but it depends on skin type. Light skinned people have this more evidently. The people I’ve seen it in are of European very light skinned background.
I have really cleaned up my diet over the last year. I wonder what could be causing ongoing blood sugar/high insulin issues? I almost never eat sugary foods or junk carbs other a couple of glasses of half & half tea with lunch. Could this be related to adrenal fatigue? I have read a bit about it in my ongoing online quest and I seem to have many of the symptoms.
EMom, check Paul Jaminet’s blog “Perfect Health Diet Blog”. Read his book because he’s got a very well thought out treatise. It will provide you with a great foundation as to what is best for the human animal and why. Without this basis, all the rest of the fine tuning won’t work.
I’ve ordered the book and am awaiting its arrival. I will check out his blog. Thank you!
”Duck, Didn’t Spanish Caravan say that going too low carb triggers Raynaud’s, which can bring on the Scleroderma and Erythromelalgia?”
Hi Duck, Spanish Caravan or Dr Grace,
I see this post is quite old…but came across this thread researching the implications of a vlc diet.
Here’s some background on me. Female, early 40’s. 5’3, 105 lbs. SAD up until the past few years and then I switched to VLC Paleo. Let’s say practically no carb. Healthy before switching to vlc Paleo. Last year I started getting very cold toes, sore finger joints and difficulty swallowing . Went to several Rheumy’s and after testing, 2 different Scleroderma markers came back positive, at that time I was slightly ana pos. Retested ana after 6 months and I was then ana negative.
I did notice where DR Grace posted links to articles that said positive antibodies may predict disease onset later on.
With that said, I am trying to make sure I don’t progress further. I have added carbs back in via PHD diet but an wondering if adding probiotics and RS would be good additions?
Does the following mean that one with leaky gut should avoid inulin while supplementing with RS?
“In the absence of inulin, butyrate caused a 78– 119% increase in cell proliferation in the ileum, distal colon, jejunum, and cecum (P ≤ 0.002). Thus, at an entry rate into the colon within the physiological range, butyrate caused increased intestinal cell proliferation, but inulin tended to block this effect. ”
Source:
Charles,
Thx for your comment. Don’t know what to make of that study; the researchers are perplexed it seems as well. They are using baby pigs that haven’t been weaned, so therefore they don’t have the microbiome to ferment fiber, inulin or RS yet. Inulin like RS is rapidly fermentable. I suspect that the researchers are rapidly fermenting inulin in the SI, small intestines, and thus have none left for cecum and colon cell proliferation (LI, large intestines). They purposefully ‘broke the gut’ of the weanling pigs but inducing diarrhea/sibo with lactulose. Also time frame is addressed, sometimes results occur after gut adaptation over 2-4 wks, not short term.
Most results for inulin, fiber or RS are over 2-4 wks or even longer. Partly I believe it is an ecosystem overhaul and requires time for proliferation of the beneficial symbionts (if they are even there). Introduction via probiotics/dirt/dirt covered tubers/licking butts is all amenable to faster adaptation.
Grace, thanks for your insight. I’ve just started taking RS and I wonder if that will help remove those strange red lines I have on my abdomen: http://nutritiongang.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/MyRedSpotsOnTummy.jpg
I believe that these are caused by my leaky gut and the various particles that have been leaking into my bloodstream.
Fasting has helped me to fade them out a little but it seems I just can’t get rid of them…
http://nutritiongang.com/therapeutic-fasting-my-results/
So those dirrrrty tubers/yams on your website aren’t helping?
Do you think those are striae? What parts of the 7 steps have you tried besides RS?
It’s the first time I hear about striae. I googled it, looked at several pictures and read the entry on wikipedia and I don’t think it’s this. From what they say striae are soft to the touch, meaning it is affecting the outer skin layer. The red lines I have seem to be under the skin and definitely not as large as the ones I saw on different pictures. I’m not sure…
Before telling you what parts of the 7 steps I have been following, I have to tell you that I have been on the SCD diet for almost 10 years (since I was diagnosed with crohn’s disease).
About 6 or 7 years after starting SCD, I started to have fibromyalgia-like episodes whenever I ate homemade yogurt.
After reading quite a lot of articles here on FTA and on your blog I now understand that SCD was not meant to be followed for life, as I have starved my good and bad gut bacteria.
Here are the steps I have tried so far
1. Fermented foods: only kraut so far.
2. I have not been eating potatoes for a long time because they were not allowed on SCD. But I’m regularly eating carrots and properly soaked lentils and beans.
3. I’m taking probiotics for about 2 years. Mainly L. plantarum 299v ) and Bacillus Coagulans ). I also purchased Prescript Assist and Garden of Life lately and took my first dose yesterday.
4. Only Raw PS for now + I have started eating green bananas for the first time since I started SCD.
5. I have started climbing the stairs instead of taking the lift (6 floors) + several breaks during the day for walking. This in addition to my weekly bodybuilding workouts.
6. I’m avoiding GMO products as well as corn, soy, gluten/wheat but I eat nuts and eggs regularly (eggs every morning actually).
7. I’m taking chlorella, is it a good fit for this step?
I’m taking PS for about a week now. I started at 1 tsp per day and I’m now at 1 tbsp. Yesterday I felt an intense burning in my intestines and was quite worried but today everything looks fine… I think I’m going to take a 2nd tbsp tonight.
Charles~
Crohn’s is practically caused by antibiotics and the amputation of the gut by these synthetic and powerful drugs. In Japan Crohn’s is on the rise from both abx and junk/fast food (fat emulsifiers cause bacterial/fungi translocation).
I posted this at MDA and it applies to you imho — http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-definitive-guide-to-resistant-starch/comment-page-2/#comments
“In my patients with autoimmune arthritis [and poor health, acne, IBS, autoimmunity, anything, etc], 100% invariably have parasites and/or
microbial pathogens (bacterial, fungi, etc). Have you ever considered having this assessed? Parasites are often hard to diagnose requiring 3-5 day sampling. These do not remediate easily on the ‘food prescription’ and need some care. Ancestral societies all engaged in proper botanical care, no? Clay, charcoal, antiparasitic and antimicrobial botanicals that are far less likely to harm the commensal symbionts.
These 16S rRNA stool and urinary fungi and bacterial dysbiosis marker tests are cutting edge yet shamelessly underutilized
http://www.gdx.net/product/10150
http://www.gdx.net/product/10003
If a part of one’s gut were missing (like a commensal benficial Clostridium, Bacteroidetes, Bifido or Lacto strain) or ‘amputated’, previously we would not know or be aware, no?
Now tools exist where we can tell an ‘arm’ or ‘heart’ are missing or maimed. These strains keep nightshades and other common food ‘allergens’ from breaching and triggering hypersensitivity from the immune system fyi. They keep Candida and Klebsiella from translocating and triggering arithritis reactions in joint tissues because candida and Kleb resemble the same strings of amino acids found in joints and other mammalian tissues.
I think you’ll find these cool. Crohn’s and autism are autoimmune as well. The autism one is where they add a commensal bacteria that is frequently wiped out by antibiotics in babies, moms and everyone, and VOILA, neuroatypical autism signs and symptoms nearly ALL REVERSE.”
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/38576/title/Gut-Microbes-and-Autism/
Read more: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/the-definitive-guide-to-resistant-starch/#ixzz2xaQOD4d1
Thanks a lot, this was a very interesting read.
I’d like to try a probiotic with the b. fragilis strain in addition to RS supplementation, but I couldn’t find any. Do you know where to find this?
Concerning the gdx tests, I’m a french expatriate living in the UAE and I don’t think I could send stool samples from here…