New & Three Questions

[mala]

Thank you so much for your support & intelligence. btw I am in the "developing" world & very remote, a beautifull natural place. There's an organic farm but its a tough gig & variety is limited. To get eg quality supplements takes many weeks. For tests, I go overseas every year or two.

Gut. Yes. Lots of bacteria & parasites over here. I did a stool test last year when away, then a gut cleanse; I just started another, Eagle Pathoclear & saccharomyces boalardii, ran out of pathoclear after 5 days so triphala for a day & then found some Allicidin (garlic) so switched to this. Will end with probiotics & the triphala.

Fats. "More nuts & avocadoes". Its a challenge. For most of the year avocadoes are not available. And I was taking it easy on nuts as Mercola was wary of their protein (except macadamias) preventing ketosis. Stavia's Primer suggests max 7% saturated fat. Im double that so Ive stopped the coconut oil & increased EVOO & almonds. I need to cronometer what Im taking.

Vit A. Interesting, Im gonna do this. rs7501331(C;C) is normal, & the less important rs12934922 is (T;T) "reduced conversion of beta-carotene to retinol". Im more sun-sensitive, & also seem to be more dry-eyed, than I was, eg when I was eating more tropical fruit. Started having some papaya again, it has lots of A. Half a big one, cant get myself to eat an entire one. Have Algotene coming, a marine micro-algae with lots of beta-carotene, partly because its a whole food & I can get it here reasonably quickly & feel good on it. Still have to source some actual vitamin A.

Professional help. Suggestions very welcome for someone in NZ to call? Chris Masterjohn is expensive for me, my currency doesn't go so far in US$. btw early next year I'll travel and get lots of tests and see someone.

Thyroid. I think Im OK. Jan 2017 Free T4: 13.0 pmol/L (ref range 10.0 - 20.0). TSH: 2.3 mIU/L (0.30 - 4.00). T3 & thyroid antibodies not measured. I get lots of iodine from seaweeds. (fwiw I often do the tapping-the-upper-chest thing. Ive seen recommended doing this "10~15secs, 2~3 times/day").

B12. I usually test OK, have daily B-Complex & a shot every few months, its cyanocobalamin. Jan 2017 B12: 603 pmol/L (ref range 170 - 600). Flagged for being above the reference range, but Japan has much higher standard levels.

Also did DUTCH adrenals test last year. Of 19 results, the only one outside range was DHEAS at 48.0ng/mg (60 ~ 2000) and they concluded to look elsewhere (perhaps anemia) for the fatigue cause.

My iron studies last year seemed OK.
Serum Iron: 15 umol/L ( 10 - 30 )
Transferrin: 2.2 g/L ( 1.7 - 3.4 )
Transferrin Saturation: 0.27 ( 0.15 - 0.50 )
Ferritin: 55 ug/L ( 20 - 450 )

"the cause of your low bone mass?" I used to eat lots of oats, wheat & cheese & indulged a sweet tooth; too acidic, too much sugar. Maybe stress. A light build, I was always wiry & active, but only did gym weights for a couple of years in my late thirties. A wide range of essential trace minerals were lacking in my diet through that long period.

"What's your concern about not staying alkaline?" Bones. Vivian Goldschmidt is big on staying alkaline, so an acidic body isn't pulling minerals esp calcium from bones to buffer itself. I just need to face the concern, & look up the pH of whatever Im eating thats new. I could do urine tests, but I never really trusted my strips accuracy.

Protein. Ive been getting roughly 63g/day. Mercola recommends "0.5g per lb of lean body mass", to not activate the mTOR cancer pathway; thats 62g; but also says, I just saw, "vigorous exercise esp strength training & competitive sports, about 25% more. Other people rarely need more than 40~70g/day...If you’re over the age of 50, you may also need to increase your protein intake to maintain optimal muscle protein synthesis. Recent research3 suggests older people may need about 1.5g of protein per kg of body weight" thats 86g. Cronometer suggests 81g. Plus the study you kindly quoted: "the sweet spot...about 1.6g of protein per kg of body weight" is 92g. So Ive increased the hemp protein powder (note to self: a tbspn is 5g) and almonds (a dozen are 6g).

Sunday some exercise, Monday (ahem I didnt "put the scale away") first thing 125lbs, & had quite a physical day. Tuesday after 8hours sleep Im 123.5, and Im physically & mentally tired, slow & brain-tired & readily stressed all day, and even most of Wednesday, a stark example of how quickly I get out of whack. Friday 124lbs. So Ive put on a pound or two. Wanting to put on a couple more before going ketogenic again. Stamina is still trending down, but brain is better than it was a few years ago. And Im very grateful for your input.

[Stavia]

Hi Mala and welcome.
There are a few functional medicine practitioners in New Zealand. Dr Helen Smith is very good, http://www.aucklandholisticcentre.co.nz/

Dr Dave Jenkins is a Bredesen trainer practitioner. He doesn't live in NZ but works remotely with patients in NZ and Oz.
https://endalzheimers.com.au/about-us/

There is nobody else trained in the Bredesen protocol here. My practice is a mainstream medical practice, I do not practise functional/integrative medicine.

[rianlees]

Welcome to the group and thanks for posting. Clearly you've been gathering lots of information and putting in lots of effort.
I agree with other posts about checkiing out your thyroid, gut health and absorption and maintaining body weight.

My comments are in relation to your osteopenia and fatigue. It might be worth talking to your physician about hormone levels, especially free testosterone- a high fibre, high vegetable diet can increase levels of sex hormone binding globulin, which as the name suggests, binds with testosterone, potentially leaving scant amounts of biologically active free testosterone.
If you are worried about acidity drawing calcium out of the bones have you thought about or looked into alkalising miineral supplements- many will contain mag which I notice you are taking now.

I too like the idea of avocado& nuts for healthy fats.
Also, I agree with NF52-credit where credit is due.

[rianlees]

Hi again,
JUst read your post above...you may know this already ...DHEA is a precursor hormone to testosterone amongst others.

[mala]

Quick bit of data from last year, Testosterone was 17.9 nmol/L (range 6.7 - 26.0 ).

I'm really appreciating all your thoughts & comments ..