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Labs/Tests
@andrew-b I did a very short (~2 week) carnivore diet experiment in August 2021 before my October 2021 serum vA measurement. While I did not eat many eggs, i.e., not even one daily on average, I did eat more meat, as well as some organ meats such as heart (high in choline, I believe) and pancreas, around that time. Unfortunately, despite that I have food logs/data, it would take quite some time to try to find a correlation between choline intake and my serum vA readings, especially since my diet fluctuates quite a bit. Also, the choline measured in foods is not always listed in cronometer, which is what I use to log my food intake, so that would skew the analysis.
@jean That is a question with a very complex answer, so I do not mean to oversimplify it with my statement nor do I mean to imply that I know what the answer is. From what I understand, any unfavorable overgrowth of yeast or bacteria in the gut is likely caused by other issues within the digestive chain. For example, low stomach acid may facilitate survival of "bad" bacteria in the stomach. I have heard that yeast overgrowth can be a result of having a damaged/inflamed tissue in the stomach or colon, as yeast/fungus feed on dead things. If that is true, trying to continuously kill off pathogens without addressing the root cause of the pathogens is wasting time, energy, and possibly money, all while stressing your body. Most things that kill off pathogens are also damaging to the host organism. The underlying cause of the dysbiosis needs to be discovered, but again, that is not necessarily straightforward.
Without claiming that I know "how to address gut dysbiosis", I imagine that, as a starting point, removing foods that trigger symptoms is a good start. The next thing to do would likely be to support digestion with things that have minimally toxic side effects, so experimenting with things that increase stomach acid may be helpful, for example, or certain digestive enzymes, depending on what the symptoms are. Probiotics can be very helpful if you take the right one, but they tend to be expensive and the wrong probiotic can be a disaster. If you are really struggling with digestion, have some extra money, and are open to experimenting, you can try a custom probiotic "prescription" based on a stool sample. It would probably be about $100/month depending on what company you work with.
Those are at least some ideas, but again, I do not claim to have the answer.
Quote from Jean on February 1, 2023, 10:14 pm@inger, any health improvements since you started eating a lot of beans?
@jean, hard to say as I am doing it for maybe 2 weeks only... and not following protocol strictly. I just added quite a bit of beans ;).
But I do think my sleep have gotten better. Lots of dreaming again. And some acne I got on my chin is clearing up..... But then, I usually get acne when I have had something like HWC with carragen or sugar... or very high stress..... I did have very high stress (and too much coffee with HWC at work) at work around Christmas and New Year and well into this year so the stress is also easing up now slowly, and IDK if that is why or if it is the beans.
Time will tell! I do have a feeling that these beans are a great thing tho 🙂 🙂
well... I have gotten a little headache since doing so much beans. Its not really headache, or very mild one.. but I normally dont have headaches ever. I wonder why this is. And I have crazy vivid dreams. What does this mean? Are the beans doing something to my brain, is this a good or a bad thing, should i cut back on the beans? I feel a little spacey too at times at work, and have little trouble to recall words..... since the high bean
For me personally a mild headache is a warning that I am pushing things too much and I need to back off. If I don't the headache will get worse. I think it's a sign that toxicity is building up / being released faster than I can process it so I need to take a break or reduce what I'm doing and allow my body to catch up.
Thanks Rachel, that makes sense! I will reduce the beans for sure. And I also had quite a bit of eggyolks the last days.. I am taking a little break from that too. I need to dicipline myself and not go hog wild on things i find sooo tasty..lol I love the eggyolkfoam.. but you easily do 4 eggyolk at once in those... and I looove the black beans.. I could eat and eat and eat them uhh. 🙂
Quote from Inger on February 3, 2023, 2:13 amwell... I have gotten a little headache since doing so much beans. Its not really headache, or very mild one.. but I normally dont have headaches ever. I wonder why this is. And I have crazy vivid dreams. What does this mean? Are the beans doing something to my brain, is this a good or a bad thing, should i cut back on the beans? I feel a little spacey too at times at work, and have little trouble to recall words..... since the high bean
@inger maybe it's the B6 in beans? I've always understood that B6 promotes vivid dreaming... this has been my experience with B6.
@inger one thing that sprung to mind is glutamate. Beans give me a headache and I never knew why. My recent researching of glutamate has provided a possible answer. Beans are high glutamate. I get the same symptoms from beans (headache and stiff neck) as I do from other high glutamate sources. I don’t 100% know this is what causes my bean headache but I’m now very suspicious. I tried doing Karen Hurd approach three times and each time I got worsening headaches. Feeling spacey is another high glutamate symptom.
heh my labs are a mess.
Low leukocytes 3.62 (4.00 - 10.00)
high basophils 1.7 (0.0 - 1.0)
low neutrophils 1.71 (2.00-7.00)
low total copper 11.5 (12.4-20.6)
high toxic free copper 2.1 (0.0-2.0)
low ceruloplasmin 0.20 (0.20-0.30)
urea, creatinine, ALT, AST all in range but too high. Same for total cholesterol and LDL. Days before this test I was riding my bike in cold winter somewhat hard. So hopefully that higher urea/creatinine is just from the exercise..
now iron metabolism
ferritin 147,8
low TIBC 44.8 (49.0 - 72.0)
transferrin 2.11 (2.0 - 3.60)
saturation TRF 35% (20.0 - 50.0)
iron saturation 41.7% (20.0 - 60.0)
and good old TSH is really high again 13.093 (range is BS ideal number is 0 something...)
free T4 11.1 (9.0 - 19.0)
free T3 4.o (2.4 - 6.0)
Can someone tell me what that low TIBC means? edit - I am watching on lab test from 2016 and my TIBC was low as well and also ferritin was higher than ideal 184.. What that means? Anyway I was taking synthetic T4(from like 22yo to like 30yo now I am 36 and I stopped going to endo..). My TSH was in range around 2, but I was feeling much worse than now. I was also trying T3 and I didn't felt good/better suddenly. So just taking hormones did nothing for me. It's a mystery for my why is my TSH still so elevated and if that TSH is a cause of copper disregulation and from that some bacterial,virus/immune issues or I simply have copper toxicity that is causing thyroid and all the other issues.. Unfortunately I can't test my vit A level here..
@jiri This might help explain it. 44.8 is just in the normal range here. https://labs.selfdecode.com/blog/tibc-test/