Greetings!

Newcomer introductions, personal anecdotes, caregiver issues, lab results, and n=1 experimentation.
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Charlie65
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Greetings!

Post by Charlie65 »

I have been off work for a month, and have been looking at thousands of YouTube videos. I am a lawyer (estate planning and elder law), have a BS in Physics, and worked in medical research for several years. I have always been interested in nutrition and supplements since reading Pearson and Shaw's Life Extension as well as a book by Linus Pauling.

In my mid 30s I developed an extreme sensitivity to MSG (glutamate). For about a year I thought I had a neurological problem such as MS. I went through a lot of testing, but nothing was found. Eventually, I realized that Ramen Noodles, etc. were really messing me up as well as most restaurant food. I went to the ER once after a Chinese dinner and I have had stroke like loss of vision and numbness several times after eating restaurant food. I am not as sensitive lately, but still cannot, for example, eat mushrooms which contain high amounts of glutamate - that is why they make food taste so good. What helped me at the time was avoiding as much processed food as possible. I also adopted the zone diet, which at the time was considered very high fat and high protein. The idea was that evening out sugar levels would be protective for the neurons as they can pump out the excess glutamate if not hypoglycemic. I also have been doing quite a bit of fish oil most of the time as well as quite a few vitamins. The main antidote that has helped me with glutamate is taking taurine. I will sometimes take that before a meal if I am concerned about it. I am not sure how being in ketosis would affect my sensitivity.

One other sensitivity that I noticed is that for a while I took a low dose of resveratrol without any problem, but when I went to a higher dose I got arthritis-like pain in my finger joints. It went away relatively quickly after stopping.

Last year I got divorced, moved to Atlanta from Michigan, and have had a pretty stressful year. I am moving back to Michigan next week. Back to the videos. I got interested in fasting by watching Dr. Fung's videos. I got interested in the ketogenic diet by first watching Thomas DeLauer. After a recent doctor's visit and talking about Alzheimer's, I searched and found the videos of Dr. Bredeson as well as Amy Berger and then Dr. Gundry, Ivor Cummins, Nadir Ali, etc. All have been extremely helpful. I remember how Dr. Gundry said that E4s love cheese, and I certainly love cheese.

Recently, I decided to do the 23 and me test and found out that I am homozygous ApoE4. I am glad that I have been following the ketogenic diet the last couple months and am very glad that I have been doing a zone type diet for 15 years or so as I am sure that was far superior to the standard American diet.

I am grateful for this website. I hope to make more people aware of Dr. Bredeson's work, especially other elder law attorneys and their clients. I feel that it may take a while for the medical community as a whole to accept his treatment regimen.
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Tincup
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Re: Greetings!

Post by Tincup »

Charlie65 wrote:am very glad that I have been doing a zone type diet for 15 years or so as I am sure that was far superior to the standard American diet.
Welcome Charlie! I was listening to a Dave Asprey podcast with Paul Saladino MD, a doc who advocates carnivore. Near the end of the interview, Dave asked Paul something like, "people listening have heard Dr. Gundry, they've heard me talk about my Bulletproof diet and now you are advocating nose to tail carnivore - what should they do?" Paul replied, I think they'd do fine on any of those.

I know lots of folks on many different ways of eating (or not - fasting). Most of them do pretty well. What is the common denominator? Non-SAD!
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Charlie65
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Re: Greetings!

Post by Charlie65 »

That is so encouraging. Thank you.
NF52
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Re: Greetings!

Post by NF52 »

Charlie65 wrote:That is so encouraging. Thank you.
Welcome, Charlie65!

You have lots of "protective factors" going for you that have been verified in large population-based studies and in targeted studies looking at risk and resilience in people with ApoE 4. Among yours are:

* A high level of education
* Life-long cognitive challenge that requires mental flexibility and problem-solving
* An optimistic attitude that looks at problems as specific, external and (hopefully) temporary
* A healthy diet, with limits on highly processed foods
* Being 65 (a guess on my part) with intact verbal skills (watching and understanding multiple videos and being able to synthesize information from them into your own needs)

ApoE 4/4 is not a "deterministic" gene combination; rather it seems from recent research that it may require a second trigger, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, systemic inflammation, cardiac or vascular disease. Age, of course, is itself an influence on cells, which is why even people with ApoE 3/3 can be at risk of AD.
Here's some encouraging results from a large meta-analysis of four cohorts of people followed for years. It's not "personalized" medicine for your specific genes and lifestyle factors, but it has the benefit of looking at large numbers of people, using sophisticated statistical methods:
The Generation Study elected to disclose the following “lifetime” risks of MCI or dementia to its potential participants [ages 60-75]: 30%–55% for individuals with APOE-e4/e4; 20%–25% for individuals with APOE-e3/e4 and -e2/e4 (with a note that risk might be lower for those with APOE-e2/e4); and 10%–15% for individuals with APOE-e3/e3, -e3/e2, and -e2/e2 (with a note that risk might be lower for those with APOE-e2/e3 and -e2/e2). These values are consistent with our findings, but use round numbers for intelligibility, and broader ranges to reflect statistical and other sources of uncertainty.
APOE-related risk of mild cognitive impairment and dementia for prevention trials: An analysis of four cohorts

Sounds like you have more than enough videos to watch, but for a wide-ranging and wise perspective from a doctor who is herself ApoE 4/4, and has been part of this forum for years, check out our Primer.

For tips on how to navigate the forum, such as using the quotation mark in the upper right of any post to create a notification of your reply to a forum post, check out the How-To Guide

From a healthy, happy 67 year old who has great respect for estate and elder law attorneys and thinks we both have brains with many years more of resilience and reserve, here's hoping you continue to share your story and your wisdom, with all of us.
4/4 and still an optimist!
mike
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Re: Greetings!

Post by mike »

Tincup wrote:Welcome Charlie! I was listening to a Dave Asprey podcast with Paul Saladino MD, a doc who advocates carnivore. Near the end of the interview, Dave asked Paul something like, "people listening have heard Dr. Gundry, they've heard me talk about my Bulletproof diet and now you are advocating nose to tail carnivore - what should they do?" Paul replied, I think they'd do fine on any of those.

I know lots of folks on many different ways of eating (or not - fasting). Most of them do pretty well. What is the common denominator? Non-SAD!
I would go beyond that, and say the common denominator is low carb...
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Charlie65
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Re: Greetings!

Post by Charlie65 »

NF52 wrote:
Charlie65 wrote:That is so encouraging. Thank you.


You have lots of "protective factors" going for you that have been verified in large population-based studies and in targeted studies looking at risk and resilience in people with ApoE 4. Among yours are:

* A high level of education
* Life-long cognitive challenge that requires mental flexibility and problem-solving
* An optimistic attitude that looks at problems as specific, external and (hopefully) temporary
* A healthy diet, with limits on highly processed foods
* Being 65 (a guess on my part) with intact verbal skills (watching and understanding multiple videos and being able to synthesize information from them into your own needs)
I was born in 1965. I really liked your summary of most of life's problems as "specific, external and temporary." That is a great way to summarize some of the stoic teachings I have read about recently and try to adhere to.
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