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“Stalling” in Wheat Belly and LC Weight Loss After Amazing Strides

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Subject near and dear to my heart, and if you’re one who throws in the towel for a year, two, or even more, I’m your “authority.”

There is one aspect that doesn’t get enough attention, in my view. It’s a fuzzy thing, because it’s something that could happen in your 20s, but most likely won’t. Could hapen in your 30s, but easy to catch for most (I came soooooo close—’cause I saw the nefarious progression but punted). In your 40s and beyond, you’re most likely going to face real pain and adversity (give me a star!).

Let’s just cut to the chase, and I’ll follow up on the backside. Comment from a new reader, George.

I have been doing Wheat belly for 3 months. Lost 20 lbs in the first month and then nothing for 2 months, actually gaining a little bit. Not much, but a little bit. Dr Davis has a link to your site so that’s how I found out about the importance about resistant starches. I had a blood panel, have had high cholesterol for some time, and my values got better, a lot better. My question to you is, what is your take on the wheat belly “diet” with low carbs and high fat? I started on PS, green banana, green Mazango (name??) bananas, psyllium husk, probiotics in a milk shake with kefir in the morning and one in the evening. GREAT FARTS :) and getting really regular which hasn’t happened in years. I will have a new blood panel done to see the results. Hopefully a lot better. Thank for all the work you have done!

My reply:

George:

First, thanks for not just doing 4 TBS in a glass of water, but incorporating it into what you eat and using other stuff to target gut.

Smart move.

I like Bill Davis. He’s been good to me over the years.

Yes, the weight loss/stall story with low carb is legend. What happens is that when you cut out the grains and processed food in general, you aren’t feeding opiate receptors, so your natural hunger impulses moderate. It’s not perfect, because you still have weight to carry around. But anyway, you naturally take on an average caloric deficit without hunger, and thus drop weight. However, in very many people, especially those not in their 20s anymore, the caloric deficit you adopt doesn’t correspond to your resting metabolic high school weight, but more often your more couch potatoish self at 35 or something. So, you “stall” 10, 20, 30 pounds from where you’d like to be.

You’ve reached homeostasis.

That’s why those last pounds can be tough. Think of it this way. You raised your set point by just getting older: hormones don’t crank as well, cells have hearing loss. Add processed food specifically engineered to make you hungry and want more, you add another layer. Fortunately, that layer seems relatively easy to eliminate. But the elevation in set point, not so much.

Anyway, the end point here is that it was not about the low carb, it was eliminating the grains and the processed foods they came with.

I’d advise you become carb agnostic; but, eat your carbs from whole sources: rice, potatoes, beans. Also, be mindful of fat, especially added fat.

Think of it this way: engineering processed foods with grains, sugar, salt and fat to make you crave and smoke…sorry…eat more, is really just a technological advancement from the same thing in even ancestral diets, making food way more palatable and desirable by rendering or extracting fat from some foods, and adding them to others.

Heard of the potato diet that works like 100% of the time and everyone has to eventually stop or they’ll end up looking like a concentration camp survivor? …Yes, the absolutely most sure way to loose weight by stuffing yourself is a very high carbohydrate diet of potatoes with no (or minuscule) added fat, but instead: herbs & spices, or non-fat sauces (like veggie purees). Now, do the potato diet, but heap on butter, sour cream, and bacon bits (our proto-processed foods) and see how that diet works out. You’ll pour on pounds.

~~~

I’ll just say that everything began to change pretty quickly and well for me when I recognized that fat gluttony is just gluttony, Paleo/LC, or whatever. Nobody should be phobic about fat. But, eat it primarily in real food the way it came (e.g., like whole milk instead of cream or butter) and if you add, then do so as you’d do herbs & spices, and just see what happens.

My final take is that I don’t believe Bill Davis is truly a fan of gluttonous fat diets as celebrated by low carbers. I think it was a pragmatic decision on his part to come in under the LC umbrella, proposing they eliminate grains. You see, because of the LC requirement, mainstream LC has become processed enough to be in the Kellogg’s Hall of Fame. It’s a messy disaster. But one way to look at it is Bill Davis as a subversive influence. I think he wears a white hat in this. 

Keith Norris on the Anarchy of Paleo

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It goes without saying that one aspect of the Paleolithic was that not only were there no central governments, but likely no “traditional” hierarchical structures amongst hunter-gatherer tribes. The first meat, fat, plant eating anarchists.

I skim or read a lot of stuff out there every day. Sadly however, so much of it is merely regurgitating the same old paleo dogmas. Moreover, they have attained dogmatic status because they’ve been repeated over and over, and they get repeated over and over because there’s some authority behind them, and who doesn’t like to speak with authority?

Fortunately, every now and then, I see something that has to be shared. In this case, Keth Norris’ post: Paleo: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly… and the Misinformed. Keith has always liked to begin his posts with a quote that prefigures what he’s writing about in some way, and this is no exception.

“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Aristotle

So I knew I had to read on. It reminded me of my heavy Internet debating back in the mid-90s. One guy in one of the USENET forums I frequented was David Friedman (yea, son of Milton). He was a ferociously skilled debater (yea, he’s an anarchist, too) and used to say, paraphrasing: “when you write out your argument, always have in mind the very best argument against it you can think of.” I’d add that doing so is a good way to make your argument the least wrong you can make it.

So consider that the anarchy of ideas is and ought to be a very core feature of evolving (getting less wrong all the time) paleo thought. It’s this ethic in play, underlying all of the great debates like safe starches, carbohydrate agnosticism, potatoes, ketogenic diets, and so on. Perhaps legumes will be next. This isn’t to say that slippery-slope fearing pushback isn’t understandable (“what’s next, paleo Hot Pockets?”). But, so long as people are making clear and critical distinctions there’s no compelling reason to have undue fear of so-called slippery slopes, in my view.

Here’s the paragraph that compelled me to share my thoughts with you.

I’ll be so blunt as to put it this way: I don’t think the full scope of paleo is for everyone, because I don’t believe that everyone is capable of operating with knowledge and reason as their sole platform. Shifting sands make some folks uncomfortable; some have to operate under conditions of rules and rigid order. In other words, some will never move beyond the dog paddle to the more complex strokes. Fall in the drink and they’ll be able to save themselves alright, but they’ll never be a swimmer in the true sense of the term. And that’s fine; I get that—and paleo can accommodate. I can package a version of this diet to anyone, making their lives much better in the process.

Yep, even a ketogenic one, I suppose.

…If you’ve not seen it before, about 18-minutes, my AHS12 talk: Paleo Epistemology and Sociology. The theme is Quality of Knowledge, i.e., upon what is it based? Juxtaposed, for Paleoman, it was based on what was observed in his environment, by means of his sense organs and their integration in his rational mind. But in the Neolithic, “knowledge” is often based on various tyrannies promoted by various authorities, regurgitated out as memes for general consumption.

Don’t be that guy.

Moving Forward: My Approach to Evaluating the Science and Knowledge of the Gut Biome and Resistant Starch

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Time to look forward. There’s no question that since my very first post on resistant starch in April, 2013, things have changed in a number of ways. I like to think that the more than 130 posts related to resistant starch or the microbiome in some way—many including contributions by others, like Tim Steele and Grace Liu—have contributed to the general impact of recognizing the importance of gut health and the role of resistant starch in the whole picture. Since there’s now a number of voices out there on the topic and some dispute about some things, I thought I might put some rules or guidelines out there I’m going to use to evaluate things moving forward.

The MetaRulz

  1. The vast majority of what’s to be known and understood about the complex workings of the human microbiome and its interactions with the host remains to be discovered.
  2. The things we think we know and understand are mostly wrong or incomplete in some way.
  3. The struggle is in the process of becoming less wrong over time, not in searching for ways of being right.

The ThumbRulz

  1. We don’t know what the “ideal” gut microbiome looks like. It’s more likely there’s no such thing.
  2. Gut bug composition changes meal to meal and season to season. RNA sequencing, then, is perhaps best done in a fasted state of at least 24 hours to get a better idea of an individual’s “metagut.”
  3. RNA sequencing is flawed, where even the same sample taken in the exact same spot yields some vastly different results.
  4. Hunter gatherer guts are probably of limited value to non huntger-gatherers. Perhaps better would be the sequences of people in your neck of the woods, same age and gender, who are lean and have a clean medical history (esp. no signs of autoimmune disorders).
  5. Just because a particular species of gut bacteria is generally associated with good things doesn’t automatically mean that more of it is better. 1% of 100 trillion is a very big number.
  6. Excluding testing error (#3), a decrease in a species associated with good stuff could have a number of explanations: all good, all bad, or a mix. For example, if Akkermansia drops in population, could it be because something else good increased and the previous levels of Akk are no longer necessary, or needed?
  7. Is a different mix and relative proportion of bugs called for in a diseased person than a healthy person; and moreover, is it possible that the mix in the diseased person is actually helping them from getting worse, rather than a direct cause of their state of disease?
  8. Horizontal gene transfer is a factor in all of this, and I don’t think sequencing is yet sophisticated enough to detect that. In other words, it’s the genes and their expression in the gut that’s fundamentally important, not species classification (just a way for us to…um…classify).
  9. Some humans, owing to their specific human genetic makeup, i.e., what needs expressing and what needs repressing, and control of specific pathogens, will require different sets of genes in their gut.
  10. Some species associated with good (or bad) stuff may have significant members of their ranks “hiding out” in mucosal layers, biofilms, whatever, and be relatively undetectable in sequencing tests.
  11. One thing we do seem to have a pretty good handle on is clear pathogens (or overgrowths of even “good” bugs) and this should dominate therapeutic intervention for now. Once that’s out of the way, we’ll have all the time in the world to worry about boutique bugs.

There may be more. Feel free to suggest. I already incorporated some stuff by Gemma in the last few rulz.

Ok, so one issue at hand now, spearheaded by Grace (link removed), is questions over the propriety of using raw potato starch as a supplement, or perhaps more poignantly, in high dose. It’s important to go back to the beginning, the very first post, and look at how this all got started. In the words of Tim Steele.

Most scientists used 20-50 grams RS per day in their human studies. Most recommendations are for the ingestion of 20-40g/day for maximum benefit, and there seems to be an upper limit of about 60g where it stops being effective, and a lower limit of about 20g where it has little effect.

My next step was to target RS in the 20-60g/day range from common foods…this proved difficult.

I learned there was a bit of RS in cooked and cooled rice, like sushi rice, but only a small amount, like 5g per cup.

He goes on to lay out the RS content of a bunch of common foods, then suggests potato starch at the end as supplement, alternative. Check it out. And, later on, Tim painstakingly put together a 5-page PDF listing RS in a whole bunch of foods, by weight.

And yes, in spite of that, a lot of people ignored trying to get much from foods, because they come in grains and starches. You know why? The Very Low Carb Menace, that’s why. In Tim’s case, he was already eating lots of cooked and cooled potatoes, beans, and his own dried green plantains. In my case, I did the 4 TBS daily for a while, then went intermittent (1, 0, 3, 6, 0, 0, 0, 2, etc.). Now, sometimes I go a week or more with zero and a while back went more than a month with zero. Why? Because I eat plenty of beans and potatoes. Rice sometimes. Even bread…very only sometimes (doing my part for hormesis).

Nonetheless, if we are to look at studies showing that high dose raw potato starch is a questionable practice, which I’m willing to do, we have to look at anecdotes or, more accurately, the relative lack thereof. But, one thing out of the way: I agree, a regime that’s like 4 TBS every morning at 6:38 am, with the exact same smoothie or food, is not the best approach. Intermittency and variation in all things, please.

This morning, I scanned through all sales via my Amazon shopping link (13,200 orders) from April, 2013 to today, looking for products associated with gut health. Here’s the list with order totals:

Tons of other things gut related, but I excluded anything with less than 10 orders. There’s also the case of commenter Wilbur, who takes all manner of various powdered fibers and claims impressive results.

Take home points:

  1. There is one hell of a lot of people worldwide experimenting with potato starch and to lesser extent, other fibers. And probiotics (the soil-based ones as Grace harped on almost from the beginning) are pretty huge. Add to that their mention now on hundreds of other blogs and websites, using their own associates links. Add to that, the the folks who just grab it at the supermarket, as I sometimes do. Very lots.
  2. If the argument that ritual supplementing of 4 TBS or thereabouts daily is not the best approach, zero argument from me. More on that below.
  3. If the argument, however, is that this stuff is really going to harm you (and some have been using it for 20 months), then I need to see some really compelling anecdotal evidence of that. Instead, what we have is thousands of positive anecdotes in comments (and I get many emails), compared to a relatively small percentage where some level of discomfort was experienced, like bloating, joint pain, rash, etc.
  4. I don’t think that a changed gut RNA sequence cuts it, for reasons outlined in the thumbrulz, above, and especially if not accompanied by some sort of clear physical downstream effect that shows up significantly in a lot of people. We are still bound to the scientific method, here.

But again, this may not even be worth arguing because I am all on board with expanding the mix. First of all, eat the damn food! Second, if you do supplement, then keep it real, use a mix of the prebiotics, and incorporate the probiotics, especially the dirt.

So, right now, I’m experimenting with mixes of a variety of stuff. Usually, it’s about a third to half PS, then a bunch of other stuff from above, and Wilbur’s list too. And yes, I hope to develop a product once I nail down proportions I like and do some beta testing. Yes, you’ll know the ingredients, but the proportions will be my trade secret. The idea is that by using economies of scale to purchase bulk, I can get you a single product with a mix of about a dozen things that costs less than buying all of them, saves space, saves the trouble of spooning out individually or mixing yourself, and ads convenience to your life. Of course, anyone can develop such a product, BUT ONLY ONE WILL BE CALLED…”ANIMAL FARTS!” :)

Now, when I have a smoothie, which is maybe 3-4 times per week: it’s 1 raw egg, two heaping TBS of my mix (roughly 40% PS), 3-4 oz orange juice, the rest of the 14 total oz topped off with whole milk. I don’t bother with blenders anymore and I’ll just eat fruit. I put all that in one of those 14 oz shakers with an agitator ball in it. Comes out perfectly smooth, tasting creamy like an Orange Julius. It’s the only smoothie recipe I need; might use other fruit juices sometimes.

A final note, about my Hashimoto’s announced here, and expounded upon here, with input by Chris Kresser. Some points:

  1. Since I’ve had elevated TSH since about 1998-2000 when it first showed up on a blood test, it’s likely that it was the same autoimmune condition.
  2. I can’t recall what those numbers were back then, but in 2008 my TSH was 16 in a 1-5 reference range.
  3. One would expect the condition to get worse over time. TSH was in normal range in the 2009-2011 timeframe because I was on Armour Thyroid, which of course does not address the underlying issue of the elevated TPO antibody.
  4. While I don’t have a TPO AB reference point, since my TSH went from 16 to just under 10 from 2008 to now, and I haven’t been on any meds in 2-3 years, it’s more likely that I have LESS TPO antibody now, not more.
  5. …Meaning that the WORST one can say about my supplementation with raw potato starch over the last 20 months is that it almost certainly did not make this autoimmune condition worse (and if there’s any effect at all, it’s far more likely to have been a positive one).

But, now I’m interested in fixing it. First, I have to get rid of things I don’t need that may be adversely impacting my gut: all alcohol, gluten, processed and fast foods. It’s not like I do a lot of the latter, but I can get pretty sloppy. Thankfully, I’ve been pretty weight stable at around 185 for months now.

So, gonna eliminate all that stuff, drop 20 pounds, get off my ass and exercise more, and really target the gut with foods and my powder mixes and probiotics and a few other supplements, do it for 90 days and retest in mid-March.

With me ruck.

Update: Well, the truce didn’t last long. I have permanently severed all ties with Ms. Liu:

Fear of Raw Potato Starch Ingestion is Probably Irrational

Beautiful Anarchy: I Had A Public Dispute. She Asked Nicely. Resolved

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Way way back, among the many other ways I’ve tried to drill into heads in my Internet activities, I had an idea one day.

…When you engage in political and social discourse, and you do it enough, you’ll find an odd thing. People argue about the most effective or practical way to force somebody else to behave in accordance with their own values and senses of propriety. I’m not talking about self defense, here. I’m talking about humans going about their days of life.

As a result, America is the “land of the free” with more laws, statutes, regulations, cops, and people in jail than any country on earth, including the “unfree” ones. America is more accurately a pay-to-play country, but that’s a subject for a different day.

Lots of you saw this, and lots commented: For Better or Worse: Honesty Log Time; Grace Liu and the History with “Paleo King.”

Grace called me on the phone today out of the blue. Conversation got immediately off on a wrong foot and I hung up. She called back. We started again.

It took an hour. We both still disagree about tons of stuff and completely disagree on our own takes, in terms of personal justification over various ways things played out. Reconciliation on everything isn’t worth it for either of us, probably impossible in any case. But, a curious thing happens when each party lets the other go off in rant, shuts up and listens for a while. It’s tantamount to agreement, per se:

  1. I care.
  2. You care.
  3. I care what you think.
  4. You care what I think.
  5. I care that you’ll be OK.
  6. You care that I’ll be OK.
  7. I wish you the best.
  8. You wish me the best.

If the foregoing were not true, conversations like that would not even happen. …Just to make something clear: the “sexy” talk Grace and I engaged in, that I included in my post, has been off the table for a couple of years at least, completely.

To round out my point of this post, Grace asked nicely. She didn’t threaten legal action. She didn’t threaten a tit-tat (in fact, explicitly said she’d not go there no matter what). She asked that I take down the post. I rarely agree to anything without some consideration. My demand was that she read the comments, particularly the one by Gemma, and take some heart in that. She did that to my satisfaction.

I further asked that we all focus on clarification and getting more understanding out there on gut bug stuff (can’t recall how I phrased that, you get the idea). There’s no way I can hold her to any of this, but I said my piece. I’m glad she called, I’m glad we hashed out a bit. I’m glad she asked nicely. I’m glad it’s not hanging out there forever.

Anyway, there you go. Always remember that when you have disputes with other human beings, both people can ask nicely. Both people can be gracious. Both people can get a little over themselves and let the other vent a little. Let anarchy begin at home.

The human condition is one where we’re really all  just opposable thumbs, all the while regarding ourselves as pianists. — Richard Nikoley

Update: Well, the truce didn’t last long. I have permanently severed all ties with Ms. Liu:

Fear of Raw Potato Starch Ingestion is Probably Irrational

Delicious: American State of Torture

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Just stated getting wind of the news and I love it. Bring it on. I say let the other countries have their just reward: China, Russia…resurrect Stalin and Pol Pot, maybe. They tortured too, but they did so according to practical calculations.

Here’s the rub: America always professed a principled stand against torture, ruling out arguments of scale. Big Fucking Lie, and all you voters are Big Fucking Fools. And, you no longer have the Big Fucking Home you thought you did, in the way you thought, because this is for sure: when you abandon a longstanding principle like that, and then so very obviously lie, and so very obviously waffle, doing so so very obviously pathetically—as is going on now—as though you actually know that The Usual Fucktards will believe it—you’re a fucking pathetic joke.

I welcome a world where America is as fucked up as every other country, and worse than a few.

End the faux hubris; laf at doG & country Refucklicans. Fuck patriotism and nationalism.

One last thought. This will go away, because the US is too important economically (they all laf at our faux professed principles, knowing we’ll be practical too). America will be praised for its “openness” in “getting to the bottom of it” by all other interested State parties, rather that taken to task for commanding it from the Oval Office, as was most certainly the case, and with every Pres as far back as you can remember.

It’s not just TV and Movies, anymore. You do live in a police and torture state you refer to as “The Land of the Free.”

North Korean theocracy has nothing on Americans, anymore. Principally, of course. If that’s any comfort.

Chris Kresser Gives Me Deep Insight and Confirms My Hashimoto’s Amelioration Approach

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I titled it that way because in an email I got from Chris this morning, he wrote/confirmed much of what I was seeing in comments over my last post about my clinical diagnosis of my subclinical Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, on top of my own Googling. I shot him an email yesterday. Recently, we’ve been loosely sharing info (not collaborating) in terms of gut biome stuff, resistant starch, and people being more sane about carbohydrate intake…more skeptical of Keto “Clarity.”

Not meaning to take up lots of time. First, the good news. A lipid panel after some months on moderate carb instead of LC. I’m pretty tickled by it. Looks pretty gold standard to me and the graphs pretty dramatic. I’ll bet that with a more relaxed carb intake, mindful eating and less fat gluttony, others are no longer going to have need of finding out why their C is so high, and have to buy a copy of Cholesterol Clarity. :)

OK, I got the thyroid tests you recommended. Thank you very much. Pretty clear Hashi’s, right? I have a history of elevated TSH. Back in 2008/9, it was 16. Now just under 10.

Chris’ take:

Yes, that’s Hashimoto’s. Unfortunately treating it is a little more complex than I can get into in an email, but here are a few considerations:

1) Remove any immune triggers. You’re on the right track with what you suggested, but you might also consider autoimmune paleo for a 30-day period to see if it has any impact on your thyroid numbers and symptoms (if you have any).

2) The goal with Hashi’s or any autoimmune disease is promoting t-reg cell function. Butyrate, as I’m sure you know, is a major t-reg cell promoter/differentiator. So keep it up with the prebiotics/RS. But you also want to focus on optimizing glutathione and 25D levels, since they play an important role in t-reg fx as well.

3) Watch your intake of goitrogens. I doubt you’re having a raw kale smoothie everyday, but that would be a bad idea. Eating a moderate amount of raw or steamed cruciferous veggies is fine; just don’t overdo it.

4) Make sure you’re getting enough zinc, selenium, and iodine. That said, too much iodine can trigger or flare Hashi’s in a small minority of cases so I’d limit to about 1 mg/d. Sea vegetables like kelp, wakame, hijiki, arame, etc. are generally the best option, along with fish head soup.

5) If you’re symptomatic, you might want to consider low-dose naltrexone. Check out my interview with Amy Myers which was part of her autoimmune summit; we went into a lot of detail on LDN.

6) Keep this in mind: right now you have what’s called “subclinical hypothyroidism” (high TSH and normal thyroid hormones). There’s a debate about whether that should even be treated at all. Not all people with subclinical hypothyroidism progress to clinical hypothyroidism, and studies generally don’t show much measurable benefit from treating, especially when there aren’t symptoms to begin with. Something to consider.

Other key things to do are to figure out if there’s anything more fundamental that is triggering immune dysfunction, i.e. SIBO, leaky gut, parasite, heavy metal toxicity, etc. But for that stuff you may need to work with someone.

So, does this look like a lot of sound advice to me, to you—kinda like in the vein of your doctor being a partner, not an authority that just prescribes you pharm from the schedule? And do note: I’ve met Chris in person and he’s very familiar with my medical history. We live in the same state. And it’s perfectly fine to put his guidelines to me, out to you for chewing. His advice to me is not advice to you.

…But did you take very particular note of #6, my lovable HYPOCHONDRIACS?

“Keep this in mind: right now you have what’s called “subclinical hypothyroidism” (high TSH and normal thyroid hormones). There’s a debate about whether that should even be treated at all. Not all people with subclinical hypothyroidism progress to clinical hypothyroidism, and studies generally don’t show much measurable benefit from treating, especially when there aren’t symptoms to begin with. Something to consider.”

This goes to something I’ve told myself for decades, in any situation where some action seems called for:

One Option is to Do Nothing!

This is in stark contrast to the typical human knee-jerk, whenever a problem presents: DO SOMETHING!

So here’s Chris’ NTY Bestselling book. Perhaps you said before, “”I have lots of paleo books already.” Me too. Being on all the publisher’s lists, I recently went to a used bookstore in Campbell and got $300 for two hand carts stacked to the top. My bookshelf is pretty sparse now.

But given the contrast I see here, this one will stay there along with just a few others, and a few amazing cookbooks in hardcover.

Also, take note that Chris’ book will be coming out in paperback soon, with a new title, The paleo Cure. Fortunately, it’s already subsumed that the cure is personal, not one for all. You might want to snag a hardcopy, before they’re all gone. Or, just get the kindle. :)

Thanks, Chris. …I still recall when you approached me way back about a GERD series you were doing. I’m so glad you did, and I could not be happier for your marvelous success. You’re one of the very good guys for sure.

And The Winner Is…Hashimoto!

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 So, looks like I have Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, an auto-immune disease.

Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or chronic lymphocytic thyroiditis is an autoimmune disease in which the thyroid gland is attacked by a variety of cell- and antibody-mediated immune processes. It was the first disease to be recognized as an autoimmune disease.[1] It was first described by the Japanese specialist Hakaru Hashimoto in a paper published in Germany in 1912.

Wish I’d have bothered with the full tests years ago when an elevated TSH showed up. Oh, well, water under the bridge and I like a challenge. Here’s the panel:

  • TSH: 9.86 (0.10 – 5.50 uIU/mL)
  • T3, Total: 112 (50 – 170 ng/dL)
  • Free T4: 1.0 (0.8 – 1.7 ng/dL)
  • TPO Antibody: 216 (<=35 IU/mL)
  • Thyroglobulin: 7.6 (0.0 – 55.0 ng/mL)
  • Thyroglobulin Antibody: <20.0 (<=20.0 IU/mL)

So, the smoking gun is the TPO (thyroid peroxidase) antibody. It’s an enzyme in the thyroid gland important in the production of thyroid hormones. So, I’ve got an auto-immune condition where that enzyme gets attacked by my own immune system, causing my TSH (thyrotropin) to be elevated to overcome the effect of the antibody.

The one thing that has me intrigued is with everything else so stellar in my blood work (best ever in my blood-test life), I’m interested to see what I might do about this without meds, shits & giggles like. Here’s the other reason, my previous TSH tests.

Screen Shot 2014 12 07 at 3 15 40 PM
 

The 2009 – 20011 tests were when I was taking 90mg Armour most days. Then I just stopped. I had no apparent symptoms (cold hands/feet, primarily), plus I wanted to see where it would be. Problem is, I wish I had a reference point for when I began with adding starches, supplementing resistant starch, and also adding the soil-based probiotics. That it’s 10 now, instead of 16 back in 2008, indicates something has improved. Was it 16 (or worse) before I started feeding my gut bugs in 2013?

I think I want to take a few more steps for 90 days, retest, and see where I am before going back on meds.

All suggestions welcome and appreciated.

UPDATE: Chris Kresser Gives Me Deep Insight and Confirms My Hashimoto’s Amelioration Approach

My Blood Panel Update: Starch and Resistant Starch Version

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[Do check out the two posts I put up this weekend, if you didn’t see them. I especially like the post on gun fear and ignorance. A post every gun control lefty ought be forced to recite from rote memory. And as a sort of prelude to this post, I’ve been clandestinely cycling high protein/high fat, with high carb/lowfat. Check out this lipid panel in that context.]

Been a long time since I had any blood tests. I was having a 6:40am MRI Saturday for my probable lumbar herniation…BUTT BUTT BUTT BUTT…UPPR UPPR UPPR UPPR…BRK BRK BRK BRK… (Ha! well that’s how I entertained myself for the last half of 25 minutes in “the tube,” after getting bored spending the first half thinking of all the film and TV “buried alive” scenarios I could remember.) So, since I was there and fasted, I had the doc order up standard blood work and I hit the lab right after the torture chamber.

Cholesterol is pretty non-dramatic. Hard to really say “better” or “worse” than before. Total = 179; Trigs = 84; HDL = 89; LDL (Friedewald) CALC = 73.

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Yes, my doc Bradley is an avocado farmer on the side.
 

Here’s how it graphs with past results.

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Basically, everything went down except Trigs. I suppose it’s generally taken as “good” that total went from 220-230 down to 179. It’s probably taken as generally “just fine” that HDL “good cholesterol” went from highs of 110-140, down to a still pretty high 90. Some people struggle like hell to get to that > 60 sweet spot. LDL from 110 down to 73 probably assures that my doc is boxing up some confetti for me as we speak, and won’t be recommending a statin drug. (I did have an LDL direct measure in 2011 and it came in at 82.)

I think my favorite number is the Trigs, though. In the 80s, it signifies—to me at least—that my starch, carb, resistant starch, modest sugar and fruit juice intake is just about right. Not crazy (after all, the reference range for Trigs is < 500 mg/dL). I’d probably be fine with anything up to 150. Doesn’t that strike you as a more healthful and balanced approach than where I was, in the 40s, suffering lethargy, cold hands, cold feet?

So, let that put to rest the idea that I’ve gone high carb vegan on you. In terms of other results, no surprises, with liver enzymes and all other mundane stuff in normal ranges. Vit D is 56.

The only adverse result is TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), and doc didn’t want to do the full Thy panel unless TSH was still elevated (I stopped my Armor T meds long ago), so I have drilling down to do. Why? Because back in 2008/2009, TSH was 16 (normal is about zilch to 5). Got on Armor and three tests—2009-2011—had it in normal range (free T3/4 normal range as well). Now, it’s 9, almost halved from the high of 16, and with no meds in a few years. Thing is, I have no data point for where it was between 2011 and 2013, before I began my gut bug therapy (was it back near 16?). So, open Q on this, still, but I’m intrigued enough to be interested, so I’ll pursue. Incidentally, I have zero of any hypoT symptoms, anymore.

…One other topic I thought I’d address is the matter of 16S rRNA sequencing of your shit. I’m not sure why, and to each his own, but the idea hasn’t really been compelling to me (I have not had it done by either American Gut or uBiome). I kinda go with how I feel and unless I end up with chronic runny or tough shits—rather than the odd, random event of either as everyone does accutely—I’m not sure what it’s going to tell me.

Or, perhaps the standard blood tests, as above, gives you more valuable downstream information? Of what value is a “good” gut sequence if your blood work is all jacked? Of what value is is a “bad” one if your blood work is all within normal ranges? Do we really know what constitutes a good or bad gut bug sequencing?

Now, here’s another dot to connect, from Tim Steele’s Vegetable Pharm blog: American Gut and uBiome Compared.

I did things a bit differently. I did my “#2” in a new, food grade, plastic bag. Kneaded it thoroughly. Then I touched the exact same spot lightly with the swabs provided by the two companies. […]

Strange. Some really big discrepancies and also some eerie similarities. I’d say overall they did a pretty good job, but when they were off…they were WAY off.

Tim does maintain a good perspective, though, saying, “And anyway, this is all just for fun.”

Exactly, so that perspective perhaps ought to be kept in mind when you decide how many bucks you want to spend on this form of entertainment. …Also, keep that in mind as increasing numbers of opportunists come on line to tell you how jacked your gut is, and begin diagnosing all sorts of health issues over the Internet, based on this evidently fuzzy data.

Just one more thing. Does a runny nose, sneezes and congestion signal anything more to you than that you caught a virus and your body is employing its mechanisms in response? Not unless you have a runny nose, sneezes and congestion chronically. Otherwise, we call it a “cold,” as a very awful, harmful misnomer with adverse behavioral consequences.

In the same vein, having the shits could be a sign of health, so long as acute. So, when you begin getting the other 70% of your immune system up to snuff by targeted feeding and spend a night on the can, perhaps that information is positive, not negative.

Food for thought and for a gut feeling.

Potato Soup Recipe; Cycling High Protein and High Carb

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I have a post I’m drafting that’s about blood work I just had done that I find interesting. Still waiting for some of the results, so I’ll put this up in the meantime.

You saw what I was eating in Mexico recently (here and here). Reasonably carbby. Then we went to Vegas for a couple of days, and it was more LC, high protein.

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Enormous Prime Rib

I had this two nights in a row at Primarily Prime Rib, perfect medium rare pink. In this case, I opted for their demi-glace, which was quite good, though different. Second time, the standard “au jus.”

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Big Ribeye

This was at CV Steak in the Carson Valley Casino, Gardnerville, NV. Since I was in high protein mode, I ate only half of that dressed half of the tater. Bea didn’t eat any of her giant potato, so the 1 3/4 potatoes went home with us where, the next evening I used them and two other taters to make soup in under 30 minutes, entering my low protein, high-carb mode.

Quick Potato Soup

  • As many potatoes as you want, peeled and cut into thirds
  • 1 slice of bacon per potato
  • 1/4 medium yellow onion per potato, chopped (substitute or mix leeks or shallots, as desired)
  • 1/2 clove fresh garlic per potato, crushed
  • 1/2 tsp dried parsley per potato
  • 1/4 cup whole milk per potato
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  1. Chop your bacon and fry it to a “medium sweat.” You’re not looking for bacon bits. Remove with a slotted spoon to your pot.
  2. Add your potatoes, onions, and garlic.
  3. Cover (just barely) and bring to a boil.
  4. When soft, mash the whole thing up.
  5. Add milk, dried parsley, reduce to desired soupy consistency, salt and pepper to taste.
IMG 2806
 

You can, of course, use cream or H&H, but I’m preferring whole foods these days and plus, I like to keep the fat lower during my high carb excursions.

Here’s a typical breakfast, no meat. Sometimes it’s potatoes, sometimes beans.

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Eggs scrambled in a little butter, boiled and cooled potatoes, then lightly fried. Slice of rye toast with a single pat of butter (not WAPF tooth mark levels), small glass of orange juice.

I’ll show you my new lipid panel from a few months of cycling things like this, later tonight or tomorrow.