New member-: 3/4

[mcpemberton2000]

Hey Everyone,

This board is awesome! I found out recently that I'm a 3/4. I'm a 39 year old male. My mom got dimentia early at 62. Neither of her parents had it. My dad is 70 and still in pretty good health. Getting the news was not a complete shock given my mom but it's still has caused anxiety. Here's an overview of what I've been doing. Would love input on anything to improve upon.

Fasting-usually fast 12+ hours 5/7 days per week between dinner and breakfast. Typically once a month I fast for 20-24 hours.

Sleep-Not a good sleeper unfortunately. I've battled insomnia for a number of years. I'm a person who doesn't need a ton of sleep. A good six hour night I feel really good. I'm averaging around 5.5 hours per night now.

Diet-Since finding out the news I've cut back on the carbs and pretty much eliminated processed food and desserts. I'm trying to eat a lot of veggies. I eat blueberries each day and do use coconut oil. I'm fairly thin at 6'1 150. Always have had a high metabolism.

Exercise-usually 4 times per week. Play basketball for over an hour 1-2 days per week, lift weights 2-3 times per week and do some additional cardio.

Supplements-only take Vitamin D3 5000 IU but have recently started using turmeric in my food with black pepper to get circumin.

I haven't had any tests lately. My last HBA1c reading was over a year ago and it was 5.4. Last Vitamin D was over a year ago at 44.

What are 2-3 things I can do to improve here? Would you get some tests run to see current status? I'm thinking HBA1c, B12, Lipids, and Vitamin D could be good ones but not sure. Grateful for any insight. Very thankful this board exists!

[floramaria]

Hello, mcpemberton2000. Welcome to the ApoE4.Info website !

While finding that you carry an ApoE4 allele can cause some anxiety, as you noted, it is great that you are learning about this early in your life so you can incorporate lifestyle factors now that will support your longterm cognitive health. You are already off to a good start. Exercise is one very important component, and you have a strong exercise program in place. Cutting carbs and doing intermittent fasting are steps that many on the site have taken with good results, though, as you will find as you read through various threads, there is still a wide diversity of opinion which makes for lively discussion on the site!
You'll find a wealth of information here and a supportive community of people who share your concerns. A good place for you to start would be to read the PRIMER. It provides an overview of preventative measures. You can find it by clicking this link viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1418
Like you, I am a 3/4 with insomnia, and since you asked for suggestions of what you can improve, I'd suggest that as an good area to consider working on. There is a lot of research supporting the idea that while we may feel like we are doing well on fewer hours of sleep, getting 8 hours of restorative sleep each night has real benefits for our brains. You'll find a section on improving sleep quality in the Primer and a list of suggested tests as well .

[Stavia]

hi Mcpemberton and welcome.
Just a quick comment - B12, D3, TSH, ferritin and Hba1c are a good place to start and if you've never had a lipid profile it would be good to exclude any of the genetic familial hyperlipidaemias.

I agree about sleep - it is important.

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[mcpemberton2000]

Just getting back to the board here. Thank you for your responses. I did have a number of tests run recently. Finding a doctor to support the protocol is a little challenging. My wife and I had mold in our crawl space that's now been remediated. Below are some of the test results. We would like to get tested for mold sensitivity. Would that only be the HLA test? or would you do the C4a, TGF, and MSH too? Thanks for the encouraging board! Still struggling with sleep. I go through periods of sleeping good then bad periods.

Recent labs:

HBA1C: 5
Vitamin D: 72
B12: 424
B1: 11
Albumin/Globulin ratio: 2.84
Total Cholesterol: 159
LDL: 73
Triglycerides: 47
Glucose: 78

I'm trying to boost the B12 and B1 numbers and work on sleep but wonder if the mold is contributing to any sleep problems?

[slacker]

Just getting back to the board here. Thank you for your responses. I did have a number of tests run recently. Finding a doctor to support the protocol is a little challenging. My wife and I had mold in our crawl space that's now been remediated. Below are some of the test results. We would like to get tested for mold sensitivity. Would that only be the HLA test? or would you do the C4a, TGF, and MSH too? Thanks for the encouraging board! Still struggling with sleep. I go through periods of sleeping good then bad periods.

I'm trying to boost the B12 and B1 numbers and work on sleep but wonder if the mold is contributing to any sleep problems?

Hi mcpemberton2000;

Mold testing is complicated IMHO, and often lies outside of traditional insurance coverage. The HLA DR/DQ test tells if you have a propensity for mold related problems, among other things. It does not tell you if mold is causing you a problem at this time. The C4a, TGF beta, and MSH can point you in the direction of CIRS, Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome, which is a condition that is not embraced by traditional western medicine. CIRS can be triggered by mold biotoxins, as well as other types of exposures as well. Again, these 3 tests suggest that CIRS is present, but they don't tell you what is causing it. More testing is needed to narrow it down. You can read a very long thead and conversation about CIRS here. Dr Bredesen's book, "The End of Alzheimer's" has a 3 page description of CIRS.

If you are mainly concerned about sleep at this point, I'd follow other paths before going down the mold or CIRS hole. (Although, having a parent at a young age develop AD makes CIRS something to think about at some point. But I digress...) Stavia's primer has info on sleep that you may find helpful. You can also use our search function to look for other discussions on sleep, which is under the 3 vertical dots in the upper right hand corner of our website.

I am interested in learning more about your mold remediation. What was done to confirm that the problem was gone? Was just the crawl space fixed, or was the rest of the house and belongings cleaned of mold spores, fragments, and biotoxins? I keep coming back to this subject!

[mcpemberton2000]

Hi Slacker,

Thanks for your response! I think that's good counsel on following other paths before going down the CIRS hole. CIRS does seem complicated and most likely expensive to test for.

I'll check out the posts on sleep as that's a main focus for me.

Regarding the remediation, we had a company clean the mold out with a fungicide/disinfectant cleaner (35% FG Hydrogen Peroxide. Then they applied mold inhibitor to all exposed and cleansed framing services in order to prevent residual growth. They ran a HEPA air scrubber in the crawl space and living space for a number of days. Took up the existing vapor barrier and installed a new one. Installed a new dehumidifier and got our sump pump working better. They cleaned the HVAC system.

[slacker]

here's a more intense (and possibly more effective) approach to mold remediation, as it cleans up spores, mold fragments, and biotoxins that have spread to the rest of the house. It also recommends retesting to make sure residual mold is below the threshold that can cause illness:

http://www.toxic-mould-support-australi ... materials/

[Jan]

So glad you are posting again, mcpemberton, and so glad you were able to detect (and remediate) the mold situation. That can be very scary. You mentioned that you take 5000 IU Vitamin D (is that daily?), and that your level has gone from 44 in 2015-16 to 72 in 2017.
Is your provider monitoring that for you? (I ask because Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, and it's possible to reach a toxic level with too much.)

[Cactusseashell1]

Haven’t introduced myself yet. Been lurking for a few months, but saw this and wanted to comment on it. I was diagnosed wth premenopausal osteoporosis in the mid 1990’s when there wasn’t really any medication available as yet to treat it. I was put on 50,000 IU...10X your dose...of Vitamin D daily for nearly a year. I was afraid it would be toxic to me too and asked a pharmacist what signs I should watch out for. As I recall, he looked it up and said: thinning hair and loss of weight. Since I was overweight and had lots of hair I figured I was fine! Anyway, I never had any adverse side effects, but, I agree that maybe you should ask your doctor if it’s time to cut back on that dose a little bit.

[Jan]

Hi, Cactusseashell1, I'm so glad you decided to post. Welcome! I notice Vitamin D entries because I have the genetic mutation that makes it difficult for me to upload Vitamin D. (I've been on the high dose regimens more than once.) I'm not an herbalist, but my understanding is that the symptoms of too much Vitamin D can seem like symptoms of other conditions, and that the only sure way is to test. While the range of optimal Vitamin D level is a matter of some debate, I personally feel much better as it is finally going up, and the evidence is clear that Vitamin D levels affect many, many conditions.

As it happens, I'm now participating in the Grassroots Health Breast Cancer Prevention project.

https://grassrootshealth.net/

https://grassrootshealth.net/document/b ... -brochure/

(We'd love to hear more about you. Post an entry in the Our Stories Forum, if you'd like! viewforum.php?f=2 )