My APOE journey

[ArcticWolf]

her dad has diagnosed tourette's syndrome and he had/has major learning disabilities (which often goes with tourette's). i don't find him slow, and don't think the disability affected his iq. he graduated from middle school in taiwan and i graduated from yale. i think she has a lot of her dad in her, except her dad has so much drive and energy, he hurt himself from doing too much physical work- he gets manic and compulsive. she is compulsive too, with certain things, like picking her head. but she is either happy or gets angry very quickly, like her dad. doesn't seem like depression to me. she can lay on the sofa all day not wanting to do anything, but she is happy!! since preschool she has not been able to sit still and just listen to the teacher. she always had to talk. she called out often in elementary/middle school. and in high school the teachers would keep changing her seat, but she got along with every one and everyone liked to talk to her. it finally ended up that the science teacher put the two talkers together so they could talk together quietly and not distract the other kids. she reads something and cannot remember what she just read. ADD/ADHD is diagnosed based on questionnaires given to teachers and parents. she's had these behaviors for a long time.

Sorry for the late reply. I'm glad she was diagnosed so that now she can be aware of potential medication options and coping strategies. I know it's not an easy road to just navigate the in's and out's of everyday life with ADD/ADHD, so my best wishes for her.

[ArcticWolf]

FYI, when we were at dinner with Terry Wahls last week, she talked about successfully treating vets with TBI, PTSD, depression & other brain issues at her VA clinic with Phase 1 of her protocol in her book. There is now a 6 month waiting list to get in. It was noisy, so hard to hear, but she mentioned she is now making a business case for treating some illness that they are referring out at a cost of $200,000/year to take to her clinic first. The audio of our Q&A with her is here. Can provide more info if interested.

Thanks for the info George...I may have to get Terry's ebook and give it a read.

[ArcticWolf]

I've finally set up an appointment with a primary care doctor locally who is accepting new patients, but unfortunately the first available opening is on October 13. In the meantime, they are willing to let me come in for some lab work in advance of my first visit. In addition to a lipid and metabolic panel, I'd like to get some input on the best tests to gauge my current level of systematic inflammation and evaluate other important biomarkers (realizing they probably aren't going to me ask for every test available ).

Thanks for any suggestions!

[Stavia]

Good planning Wolfie (if you don't like RU's nickname for you I'll stop using it, let me know)
I would recommend Hba1c, lipids, B12, TSH, CRP, D3, homocysteine, fasting insulin and liver functions as a basic start. If you can get extras like Zinc:Copper ratio, red cell magnesium, oxidised LDL, and advanced inflammatory markers then that would be good.

[ArcticWolf]

Thanks Stavia...Wolfie is all good

Finally went in for blood draw yesterday and as expected they were unwilling to do much more than the basic tests until I have my first appointment. However, I think I convinced the tech to get the doctor to order the homocysteine test. Good news is that I should have some results shortly.

[ArcticWolf]

Current lab results came in...very similar lipids compared to early 2015 even with several dietary changes:

Cholesterol – 189 mg/dL
Triglycerides – 168 mg/dL
HDL – 30 mg/dL
LDL (calculated) – 125 mg/dL
Non-HDL – 159 mg/dL
Chol/HDL ratio – 6.3

Everything looks to be normal with the blood and metabolic panels except once again my bilirubin was high at 1.7 mg/dL and an anion gap value of 2 mmol/L (ref is 3-12). Fasting glucose was 87 mg/dL.

My homocysteine is at 8.7 umol/L.

[Stavia]

Thanks for sharing.
The bilirubin is obviously the Gilberts which is clinically not significant. I wouldn't worry about the anion gap. I have no idea why it is in a basic panel. You're not in renal failure.

Your trigs still too high. You are obviously carb sensitive. If you replace some of your carbs with higher safe fats ( some of us feel MUFAs and omegas3s, some of us feel saturated fats are also safe) it should reduce your trigs and raise your LDL.
I hear you that you love your carbs but they aren't loving you back. My advice is to lower them further.

Do you have some belly fat?

Homocysteine isn't too bad, optimally Bredesen wants it 7ish or lower.