Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

Newcomer introductions, personal anecdotes, caregiver issues, lab results, and n=1 experimentation.
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fivediets
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Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

Post by fivediets »

Hey y'all -- Well, even though I've been discussed in another thread in the heart disease section, I realized I never formally introduced myself here.

If anyone has been to my site and gone through the section about my ongoing n=1 experiment, they know that I got my 23andMe results about two years ago, where I found out I was 3/4. Because of 23andMe's concentration on ApoE and Alzheimer's (and because I missed all the threads that were the precursor to this site) I didn't give much thought to the heart disease side until several things all came together last fall. At that point I had been paleo for a while, and I got some really bad lipid test results AND found out I already had some arterial plaque in my heart (I'm 41) around the same time. I was prescribed statins, and since I had learned how integral diet is to controlling lipids in ApoEs (and how the high-fat diet I was on may be rather contraindicated) I decided to do my experiment before I considered any medication: five diets, with widely differing macronutrient ratios, with NMR testing after each, to see what the effects would be.

I decided to post this intro now for two reasons:

1) I found out today from my Mom that my aunt (her sister) was just diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer's. I feel really bad for my mom and my aunt's family. What's interesting is that I assumed that my ApoE status was inherited from my Dad's side of the family. But with this diagnosis, coupled with the fact that my aunt is the only other person in my living family to have heart disease, with hers being rather extensive at a much younger age than my dad (early 50s), makes me wonder if it comes down from my mom's side.

2) Both my my parents genetic data has finally been processed by 23andMe. I will be getting the raw data from them tomorrow, so maybe some more questions will be answered.

Also, today is the last day of the potato phase of my experiment (thank God). 43 pounds of them. Looking forward to the NMR results next week.

Chris
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Re: Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

Post by giftsplash »

Awesome work. I have been tracking your progress.
I was wondering if you can also include your average daily cholesterol intake for each diet.

Looking forward to your results.
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Re: Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

Post by fivediets »

Giftsplash -- that is a good idea. I'll go back and add it for the Paleo diet and will incorporate is going forward.

I can tell you for the potato diet it's a solid 0.0 lol
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Re: Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

Post by Julie G »

Hey Chris, YOU are amazing! I almost felt guilty enjoying my howl of homemade free range chicken soup...knowing you are still eating potatoes :? I've said it before, but will reiterate, THANK you for sticking with it. My guess is that you will be teaching us all in the process.

Forgive me for not doing this sooner, but we will soon have a link directly to Chris's blog outlining his experiment on the BLOG section of this site.

It will be interesting to see how your parent's genetic info plays out. If you're like me, ApoE4 (or Alzheimer's) wasn't even on my radar prior to learning my 23 and Me results. Now, I'm carefully reassessing what I thought I knew about various relatives' health. YOU will be in a unique position to pass along dietary advice to family members who also carry the allele :D

Thank you again for your commitment to science. It's deeply appreciated. Also, great to have you here.
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Re: Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

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So the Potato NMR results are up: http://www.fivediets.com/test-results/

Read 'em and weep. I know I kinda am. I don't understand how the LDL-P count is still so high after consuming no fat/cholesterol for the better part of a month. Maybe I'm less of a hyper-absorber than I thought and something is screwy with production in my liver. Don't know. Any input from y'all is appreciated. The experiment may be making a major pivot.
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Re: Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

Post by James »

Perhaps because of your E3/E4 status you would do better on something more moderate. The results could also have to do with other individual differences of lipid metabolism. ApoE is a strong predictor of lipid profile, but it is certainly not the only one. You also have to keep in mind that it's only three weeks (which probably isn't a major issue), and you were severely hypocaloric, which may have had some short-term impact on competing metabolic pathways (e.g., DNL, gluconeogenesis, protein turnover). You were also essentially zero-fat, which is metabolically quite different from very low-fat. Did you have set meals, or did you just graze on potatoes all day? It'd be interesting to see how you'd do on a weight-stable diet, and perhaps with some beans/veggies for protein andfiber, and adequate essential fatty acids.

Summary: I'd put my money on one of these.
1) Other individual differences beyond ApoE.
2) Severely hypocaloric, likely with EFA deficiency.
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Re: Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

Post by Julie G »

Chris, I'm pretty surprised too. I've looked back at a few other members, most recently James, who've also cut dietary fats and had a subsequent rise in LDL-P. So, you're not alone if that helps :roll: Your experiment is even more dramatic because you cut dietary fats out entirely.

I've read that malnutrition and gut dysbiosis can cause a hike in LDL-P; both possibilities because of your extreme recent diet trial. Low levels of copper can do the same; less likely as potatoes are a fairly decent source. Although you may want to serum test. I was shocked mine was very low. Another possible culprit with a no fat diet could be low "T" or thyroid issues.

We are all so different, governed by our entire genomes (not just ApoE,) lifestyles, diets; BUT if I had to draw a conclusion, I'd guess a certain amount of dietary fat IS heart healthy and cardio-protective. That amount and make-up may differ for each of us, but by running n=1 experiments like you're doing...you may be able to fine tune that for YOU...and teach us all in the process.

Apologies on not having your blog linked yet. Our amazing IT guy/site developer is swamped with life. We'll get it done ASAP. Enjoy wild variety in your diet, my friend :D you have more than earned it.
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Re: Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

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James and Julie -- Thanks for your input. Bunch of stuff there for me to think about. Makes me think about Nassim Talib and how "we don't know what we don't know." Almost tempted to do a modified potato phase, with things like a set amount of a mono fat, and some limited protein, and get the calorie level to something reasonable, and see that happens. And Julie, yes, I have been enjoying some variety... too much actually. I realized that I'm not really doing a Med diet... I'm not really doing anything quantifiable at this point. Chalk it up to not giving enough thought to the parameters of this next diet, and being so excited to eat something besides potatoes that I kinda went off the rails from the minute after I had the blood drawn on Monday. So I think I may give myself a few days to kick it and have some regular meals with the girlfriend, and then take all of your input into consideration and devise a new third phase that will best shed some light on the situation.

Glad you guys are here and that I'm not doing this crazy stuff in a vacuum...

Chris
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Re: Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

Post by Gilgamesh »

fivediets wrote:Makes me think about Nassim Talib and how "we don't know what we don't know."
I was thinking of Donald Rumsfeld!

Serious face: Part of what's great about what you're doing is that we're getting information that can help us in designing our own "self-experiments". You are a pioneer in the design of such studies, not simply in the concrete data that results. Maybe each phase has to be longer, maybe the down time between diets has to be longer, maybe critical essential nutrients (as well as energy-intake) need to be held constant, with supplementation if necessary, in order better to isolate variables, and so on. These are important questions you're helping to answer, in addition to the questions about the diets themselves.

In any event, thanks again!
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Re: Chris' (Five Diets) Intro

Post by giftsplash »

Chris,

Did your sex drive take a hit going no fat and no cholesterol? I had that issue when I lowered my ldl-p through supplements a few months ago (see old post).
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