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Andrew's Progress Log
@christian I don’t know if citric acid is a problem. I don’t think we are consuming any.
Glutamine is not supposed to turn into glutamate but this is not true. A bit of jelly from boiling a trotter is ok from time to time, but supplementing is dangerous.
BLOOD TEST RESULTS - Auto-immunity Markers - August 2025
Mixed bag here.
Thyroglobulin Antibodies:
Aug 2023: 667 IU/mL
Aug 2024: 339 IU/mL
Aug 2025: 351 IU / mL
Thyroglobulin antibodies have increased since last year ever so slightly - mostly no change.
Thyroid Peroxidase Antibodies:
Aug 2023: > 600 IU / mL (so high that it is off the measurable scale - about 20x the safe upper bound of 34)
Aug 2024: >600 IU / mL
Aug 2025: 430 IU / mL
Thyroid Peroxidase antibodies have come down in a big way, but they're still something like 13 times the the safe upper bound, so not great. Still, they are moving in the right direction which is positive.
I was certain that these would still be elevated though - thyroid related symptoms still persist, and vitiligo has progressed rapidly in a couple of bursts at times over the past 12 months (had vitiligo for 15 years). Not enjoyable.
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BLOOD TEST RESULTS - Serum Retinol Test - August 2025
- August 2023: Serum Retinol: 2.49 umol/L (71 ug/dL) (see post #31)
- August 2024: Serum Retinol: 1.92 umol/L (55 ug/dL)
- August 2025: Serum Retinol: 2.38 umol/L (68 ug/dL)
This is extremely disappointing, but I'm not surprised, based on my current circs.
I have heard the whole analogy of "cash in your wallet vs. cash in your bank account" but I'm not so sure. A serum retinol of 70 is not good.
Still doing beef, rice, beans. Occasional chicken, some banana, some medjool dates, some freshly baked bread.
Folate levels were extremely low, so I'll look into potentially gently supplementing that or trying to find a low-vA high-b9 food source to try.
Let's see where things land next year. I'll catch you then if I'm still alive.
Cheers.
Edit: regarding Grant's most recent blog post, I have not used lactoferrin or nicotinic acid or tried any other flavour-of-the-day supplements outside of occasional zinc and magnesium use.
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Good on you lad.
More interested in reading about your symptoms, health, performance levels, hand eye coordination, endurance, strength, cognitive levels,....... and whatever else you can think of.
First time I read your log in one go. Suggest you try it if you have not recently.
What I noticed overall - a pattern and a trend. You consistently downplay the significance of your mind's symptoms. OCD is for real. You recognized that and worked with it in the beginning. Feels like you worked around it well. Feels also like you underestimated the significance of your improvement. A lot.
Not sure who you have around you to provide a mirror to your life. During my first 5 months I was in a lot of pain. During first month, I saw what my pain was doing to our dogs and my spouse. Their cringes were more painful than what caused my yells. When I worked it down to groans and gnashing, they were still cringing. Broke through the pain a slept for longer spells during 5th month. For sure I noticed my own appearance change. It was much easier to see the change in their demeanor though. Besides the movement and posture, their health visibly improved.
After 6th month I got out of the house to do more than visit chiropractor. Got to see some friends. Even got to do some work. Somewhere along the following 6 months we both started getting comments from people. From people we knew for years, we heard questions about my being so much nicer. New customers were just flat out complimentary. They were so nice and we got so much more business, it spooked me.
Closer in family and friends argued to convince me that it was not the world that changed, it was me. Apparently I am a nicer guy the less symptomatic I am. Since I still get pains, I think there is more to it than pain reduction. I routinely go back and read my own writing. While I hate admitting it too much, I am a much nicer guy. I hate admitting it because 1) I got to acknowledge how much of a jerk I was and 2) I am not that nice a guy now. Using my feedback from everyone around me regardless of my standards then and now, their standards feel like I was much more of a jerk than I am yet willing to admit.
So yeh, it works out like I am trying to see myself using a weird system of mirrors. It really is all we got though. It is nigh impossible to accurately see ourselves as others do.
Long and short of it, your writing has improved radically from when you started this. Guessing you cognate better in all things. Wonder what else you improved in that you more or less take for granted or just never noticed.
Hey Joe @joe2 - great to speak with you again, thanks for your message. I am glad to hear the pain has steadily subsided - I didn't realize it was that bad!
I haven't written much about symptoms since I am not personally noticing any direct improvements in anything. But on the other things you've mentioned:
- Hand eye coordination is pretty good, but has always been. I've always been instinctively good at catching / balance / grabbing things before they fall off the counter and such.
- Strength is fine, though I am focusing on bodyweight things currently - straight: 10-12 strict pullups, 25-30 deficit press-ups, 20 bodyweight squats.
- Bit too tired for cardio but I walk the fields a lot - minimum 1 hour walks round the local farm areas most days. I am trying to get back into some running though, if my certain surgical injury will allow (Bill Wallace). Not far - just 1 km to 1 mile or so.
- I still haven't gotten into judo like I'd planned, but I'd still like to. Outside of that, I am working on flexibility for higher kicks, though am struggling in this area.
- Cognitive levels are okay. I am often fatigued / feeling sluggish in my concentration, but when I find something that actually piques my interest, I will go and go, and have no difficulty focusing. So maybe it's just that most of my daily work is boring hahaha...
Interesting what you mention about the OCD. Perhaps you are right. I am certainly conscious of not celebrating too early when things start to improve. Also, it's easy to focus on the negatives and miss the improvements, I am definitely aware.
I don't have many people around me. I live alone, and often work from home (as it's all project work / consulting), so it's a quiet time usually.
I think we are all like this in varying degrees. There are a bunch of us admitting / acknowledging it. I hope to avoid normalizing or enshrining these cognitive idiosyncratic issues. I hope they stay idiosyncratic and not problematic too. Reading Tao Lin right now. He has gone through some similar stuff. Met him on Garrett's blog. I think he is trying to get on this one but not here yet. He went a bit more into drugs than I like. Probably more than he likes now as he is sorting out a lot. Interesting take on what we all work through.
Alright. Remind me about Bill Wallace reference. Did we discuss him before? EDIT: Ok nevermind. Now I remember. Crazy thing is a former student of ours now trains with Wallace. Sent me a video of him in class getting direct instruction. That is why it took me a minute to remember.
Walking is our best friend. Running is good when we get there and bad when it is too much. When walking seems too boring, even with dogs, I play with ideas from Patrick McKeown - breath holds and breathing patterns. Did you see Kipchoge break the 2 hour marathon - NOSE BREATHING. Smiled the whole way.
My questions were not so much about current performance as to comparative performance. Compared to what it used to be. Before, during and after the azimuth of vA toxicity.
As I work out my toxins and get mineral balances back I am able to train more too. Ben Patrick's Mom, Celia is a favorite mentor. She is Momma Knees Over Toes. Delightful inspiring genius lady. Kneeovertoesguy.com is invaluable. He has a different student covering lowbackability.com too. Brendan Backstrom. That kid got me rocking better with a nordic bench we picked up a month ago. Rebuilding can be painful. A few days later, the increased integrity feels so awesome. Another guy I have on my horizon sounds and looks like another Ben Patrick student. Runningability.com . Looks like excellent sound application of Patrick's ideas for runners.
Deficit press ups? Dang so Brit. That is deep pushups right? Pushups on blocks? Is this you?
#motivation #workout #muscle #muscleup #foryou #shorts #subscribe #power #boxing
BLOOD TEST RESULTS - Iron Panel - August 2025
A follow-up to post #32 and #86 of this thread. My most recent iron panel is looking much better:
Ferritin - 44 ug/L (down from 93 ug/L the previous year, and 383 ug/L the year before that) - a good result, though surpisingly it's probably getting a bit too low... which was not expected.
Iron Serum - 23.2 umol/L (down from 26.0 umol/L the previous year and up from 19 umol/L the year before that) - Okay
TSAT - 31% (down from 53% the year prior, and 42% the year before that) - really pleased with this, finally seem to have gotten excess iron issues under control.
TIBC - 74 umol/L (up from 49 umol/L the previous year and 44.1 umol/L the year before that) - pretty good iron binding capacity - again, might be indicative of slightly lower iron than ideal! Very surprising, and I'm glad compared to where it was.
This past year:
- I have kept meat intake steady - c. 3-4 oz daily, which was drastically less than before (I've come from an history of quite a high meat consumption for the past decade or so prior).
- I have donated blood 3 times this year (the last donation was about 10 weeks before the blood test). Plus 6 times the year prior, making it about 9 pints - that's basically a gallon, and basically an entire body's worth of blood donated.
I don't know that these improved figures have anything to do with vA reduction specifically - probably much more to do with the blood donation and reduction in meat intake - but I am just sharing for completeness, as it was a suspected contributor of some of my symptoms.
Conclusion: pretty good result, which I will continue to monitor annually.
I might have to wait a bit longer before I donate blood again due to the relatively lower ferritin, which is a bit of a shame. I am actually getting quite keen on donating, since it's going to a good cause (they inform us which hospital our blood goes to and for what purpose here).
Cheers.
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Hi @joe2
Thanks - I'll keep an eye out for their posts. And yes, I enjoy walking too.
Tbh my strength / endurance and all that has stayed about the same. I've drastically reduced all training volume in recent years though, because I think my body is just a bit worn out. I try to just keep myself ready, and at a good base.
Haha yes, 'deep push ups' is what I was referring to. 'Deficit pressups' = just English refinement 😉 ... I jest.
And no, that's not quite me, but I do enjoy bar work:
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